This was his little sister whom he'd be abandoning to potential perverts like Kakashi to ogle over.
The Tsukuyomi slammed into her mind and left her dazed as she was hit with two days of something that Itachi had only seen once - Aunt Atsuko's anti-pervert training for a young kunoichi about to graduate. Looped around several times for good measure, his brief glimpse into that private training had struck him as being potentially useful.
Then again, realized Itachi, there was no reason that Akitsuki would even need to have the Sharingan - she could avoid a ninja lifestyle altogether and embrace civilian life. She could live a happy little life, marry someone, and raise children of her own without any threat to Madara or anyone else.
"Ugh, wha?" managed Akitsuki, showing remarkable resilience for someone untrained to resist mental assaults.
"Tsukuyomi," said Itachi, slamming another such attack into Akitsuki's fragile mindscape. This one crafted in a moment to discourage her from pursuing the very deadly life of a ninja.
"Ooooo Akitsuki no feel so good."
"Tsukuyomi."
"Gurk."
Itachi watched his sister finally collapse. Well, that certainly hadn't gone as expected.
"Grble."
Though that she could still twitch and make noises at this point was actually kind of impressive.
Madara watched. His view on kunoichi in general was that 90% of them were pretty much useless on the battlefield. Their main purpose was to bring a new generation of ninja into being. The remaining were 9% not even useful for that and the maybe 1 in 100 would actually amount to something until they died in the manner of a true ninja.
That Itachi wanted to protect his little sister was basically a normal thing for a big brother. That the entire clan was supposed to end here was HIS priority.
As soon as Itachi left, Madara used shunshin to appear next to her. He roughly pried one eye open.
"Tsukuyomi."
"Grgle."
There. That should do it. One pawn that would be relegated forever to the background - a vulnerable hostage that could be used to coerce Itachi should he ever prove troublesome.
Madara paused at an unfamiliar thought. Perhaps. Yes. Years ago he'd read of similar situations. Let her fail even in such things and live a life of frustration and loneliness and despair. So much the better.
Itachi paused at the edge of the village, ready to make his getaway.
Why was Madara tarrying when it had been Madara who'd emphasized the need for speed and prudence? That the Uchiha had been isolating themselves for years had helped them by delaying an alarm being given - but now was the time most likely for someone to start alerting the ANBU.
And the laxative he'd put in the ANBU coffee pots would be wearing off soon enough, and frankly they'd be in a pretty nasty mood at that point.
The first alarm bell began ringing at that point. Itachi decided to go ahead anyway. Though maybe someone would get lucky and manage to kill Madara and solve all sorts of problems.
Hinata learned of it because her clan was well-respected and she was known to have befriended the Uchiha girl. Somehow. Despite Hinata Hyuga being known to be exceptionally shy and Akitsuki Uchiha being the "haughty ice princess" of her Academy class.
Hinata, after a few tries and carefully composing a proper speech to Naruto and forgetting it all the moment she caught up with him, told Naruto.
Which led to several scenes of both of them trying to visit their hospitalized friend and ending up shooed away by nurses. Which, naturally instigated and led by Naruto, led to them finding various ways of sneaking into her room. Like they were training to be ninja or something.
"-and so Choji was upset because he'd been saving those chips for an emergency. Though honestly? Mesquite-grilled bacon flavored potato chips? What kind of emergency would require something like that?"
Akitsuki twitched.
"Eh? You moved! What did it? Was it the chips? Do you want me to get you some? Ohmygosh whatta I do?!"
"Quiet," pleaded Akitsuki, looking around with one eye until things started regaining focus. "How long?"
"Two days," said Naruto.
"Ugh," said Akitsuki, closing that eye again.
"How much do you remember?" asked Naruto, who still didn't know WHAT all had happened. He just knew that everyone else in her clan was dead.
"Big brother Itachi attacked me and then the Evil Lollipop attacked me," said Akitsuki.
"You were attacked by an Evil Lollipop?" asked Naruto.
"Itachi was working with an Evil Lollipop," said Akitsuki before drifting off into sleep.
Naruto wasn't sure what to do, but he'd tell Hinata when she came to relieve him that Akitsuki was sleeping instead of in a coma - and that there was apparently an Evil Lollipop running around.
"Ah. Tea. Thank you, Hinata." Akitsuki sat back, taking a long sniff of the cup before sipping at her hot beverage. "How can we trust our health to a hospital where you cannot get a decent cuppa?"
"I'm not sure," said Hinata, putting aside the teaset.
"I need to get out of here," said Akitsuki. "There are many things that need to be arranged or dealt with. Since they have not released me yet, can you take care of some of them?"
"Me?" squeaked Hinata.
"You are training to be head of your clan," said Akitsuki. "This will be good experience. There are financial, funerary, and many other details that must be attended to - and there are few I would trust to take my interests into account."
Naruto had been told, repeatedly by Akitsuki, when he was doing something wrong. Naruto had been told how to correct basic things. Naruto had been somewhat surprised, when he'd done better, that Hinata had given him encouragement. And the times when he'd gotten it RIGHT and he'd gotten that nod and slight indication of recognition from Akitsuki when all he'd wanted to do was wipe that smug superiority off her face.
It was surprising how much he wanted to see that little bit of recognition.
What he hadn't been ready for were the effects of the multiple genjutsu on Akitsuki (though he didn't even know about those - just that she'd been attacked), which was:
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(Posted Tue, 31 Mar 2015 16:39)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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