by Madhatter T.F.
I do not own the moon nor the sky. I do not own the sun nor the stars. I do not own you nor even I.
-A lonely man by AnonymousOnLooker
AnonymousOnLooker went about the town just as his penname suggested. He was nowhere near as popular as the Uchiha successor was. Nor as infamous--in the general public's eye--as the older brother of said successor.
The truth was he was the nightmare of all the underworld hoodlums beckoning from the slums to the high and mighty two-faced freaks in the urban jungle. Uchiha Itachi was his "bell boy". The older brother always was there to pick up the crime scene pieces as his "Master" told him so. Often acknowledged as the Master's butler, his alias was now Butler. Uchiha Itachi was very protective of his baby brother and his partner--if you call the man behind the plots and plans to thwart the wealthy's spree of money dwindling in the streets and still remain as invisible to the Human Eye as he was infamous in top secret levels, yes he was his partner even though he had been leaked to society at large and forced out of his inheritance. More like, Uchiha Itachi really was the bell boy of his partner; the Uchiha would arrive when he knew that the cops would walk in on the little weirdo and get him out of there while managing to clean up and escape with the said weirdo.
What had Uchiha Itachi running around Japan after the little weirdo in the first place?
The little weirdo under then public name of famous mystery novelist AnonymousOnLooker told him of his little brother's scheme to fish the inheritance from him the moment he gained enough balls to actually pry in their family's business which was holding Tokyo's Underworld in check.
The Uchiha clan has been dominating the underworld from the beginning of it all. Of course, who would not be caught dead in running a multi-billion empire? Each one who ruled with an iron fist--they had guards... lots and lots of ninja training guards.
Itachi never wanted to be in that place from his first breath of life. He had a mentor who was several years younger than him. Itachi was about fifteen when he had his mentor. The little weirdo was only four but the freaky little thing could speak the official six languages of the UN and have the training and capacity of a jounin guard for the Main Haunch-o himself. Itachi was impressed by the little freakaziod so he let him teach him whatever the hell he was talking about for the next ten years. During year eight, he noticed Freaky--yes that was his nickname--doing something with his laptop. He asked Freaky what he was doing with his laptop. Freaky retaliated with a "this is my laptop; get your own if you would like". Damn him.
When year ten popped out of nowhere and his little brother was ten years old, Freaky decided an attempt at the little duck-butt head that Itachi called his brother. That same night, he fled with Itachi--more like dragging Itachi from his bed and slinging the heir for a piggyback ride to escape. Freaky said to Itachi that he was being "kidnapped". Itachi being the idiot to Yakuza affairs that he was laughed. He laughed a very loud obnoxious laugh that Freaky decided to end because it might blow their location.
Being the idiot that he was as explained, Itachi went into a fit about him being brought back "home". Freaky was not having any of that.
Freaky then explained to the rock-headed Itachi what the devious little two-faced prick of a duck-butt headed asshole that he wasted enough years of his life calling his brother was up to. Itachi went limp from escaping Freaky's grasp and just stared at the ground and then at Freaky's endless pool orbs of aquamarine. Shit.
Itachi passed out.
When dawn broke, Itachi woke to a sizzled-out campfire and Freaky staring daggers at him. What did he do?
Itachi went on rambling for the next thirty minutes. Freaky just glaring at him. Each minute passed with that glare intensifying.
"SHUT UP!"
Itachi went into frozen icicle mode. "What?"
"I said, 'Shut up.'"
"Oh."
"I did this to protect you. You are my charge. And, the rightful heir to the Uchiha leadership."
"But I don't wanna~!"
"I am not giving you a choice!"
"Nopey! I won't go back there."
"Yes, you would... but not immediately."
"Huh?"
Thus began the really boring intricate planning days in the forest. Shit. I thought that was the worst period of days I would have had to suffer but no! Freaky had a way with being more of a prick than he was when training him.
"I hope that insignificant piece of shit is following close behind. Or else, he gets no freakin' food for tonight," murmured a hooded figure heading toward an abandoned building just across Masazaki Station which was settled directly at the front and centre of the Mayami Fair and on the other side of the river.
"Damn him if he does not show up. He will be the one who is going to get killed anyway."
The hooded figure was not deranged enough to talk to himself. He did this to make sure the "insignificant piece of shit" followed. Because said piece of excreta always was trying to unknot himself from these events. Leading to the general public's knowledge about the shit's whereabouts.
Yep. Damn him.
The man's cell phone rang in the middle of him getting the lock of the gate to the abandoned building. He cursed his witless accomplice and answered with a "what the fuck do you want" noise. The other figure behind the man was whispering hurriedly into his own mobile while the hooded one fiddled with the gate's lock. The accomplice was whining about how cold it was in the middle of the night and why they had to go there in the middle of the night when they could have just gotten there sooner. The first man was droning him out with calculations to the lock and picking a worthy theory of a number combination to open the confounded object. He said to the accomplice to shut his trap before they--he, the accomplice--blew their cover. Yakuza bell boys do not whine nor act like babies.
Unlike what the accomplice's acting.
"Shut the fuck up before I finally decided to end you rants by pulling out your chords when you sleep..."
This seemed to work because the second man shivered involuntarily at the thought.
They progressed from meeting at the gate and continued to the abandoned building lying alone in the middle of the deserted landscape.
"These folks need a landscaper..."
That was it.
"I hate you..." With that, the first hooded figure pulled something from his cape and wrapped it around the second man's head. It made no noise so it was not duct tape clamping the accomplice's jaw shut. Then, he pulled out another from his sleeve and attached the ends of the thing together to loop the accomplice's throat.
"There. That would be sufficient in shutting you up."
The instruments were nothing for shutting organs down. It was for the captive of the instruments to will their organs into silence. The one around the neck is to see to the vocal cords' movement. The one for the jaw and mouth was to see to their movement. Both would release a shock of energy that would not stop the heart but enough to make the wearer jump. The amount of amperes that would be pumped would increase with the number of times the wearer would move the organs. Shit.
The rest of the trip to and inside the scary two-story was in silence until both outsiders picked up on movement and music from the left of the second floor from the spiral staircase landing.
"Put on your damn hood properly."
Both outsiders stalked toward the melody and the awkward voices. They seemed to be familiar to the one gagged. The corridor was flourished with different sized cobwebs and splintered or just broken wooden or copper chairs. From the looks of them, they could be nearly two centuries old and worth a fortune. How come the building looks like a piece of shit on the outside? The accomplice meandering thoughts ended when his haughty companion stopped abruptly in front of an ornate double door. He would have just to ask later on, after the mission.
"I am going to knock thrice and I would be dead. I am going to knock twice and I would be detected. I am going to knock once," the first's words were uttered to the expanse of moulding wood. And then did the music stop and the awkward voices ceased.
Are we going to die? thought the hooded being gagged by two death instruments.
"Enter," said an ominous sounding voice and then they were standing in the centre of a lavish condo unit with party goers who came to place their stares unto the two unsuspected visitors.
There was a chair in front of them. They faced the north of the room where a stage was set for the chair. The furniture looked more like a throne. Someone asked from the shadow of the throne, "Who passes this event?"
The king-figure was hooded by the shadow from his throne. No lights illuminated the stage and an eerie almost glow could be seen at the back of the furniture if one would squint like the second hooded figure was doing which earned him an elbow to the ribs.
Shit. The amperes hurt.
"Your death."
The throne boomed an unsettling malicious laugh. What the fuck? thought the gagged one.
Soon there were fifty men armed with katanas ready to eliminate them. After a second’s breadth, they were all on the two intruders. The hoods went flying into the air to reveal raven and vermilion colours atop the heads of the duo. The raven barrelled to the left and kicked a man in his ribs while holding his left wrist. The raven then steered the body of the guard to act as a shield for his back while manoeuvring the guard’s left hand to slice four of his comrades’ arms and legs off. This happened while the vermillion decided to take the twenty to their right and get five katanas from the first fools who dared go near him. The katanas went flying into the air to land on five more heads getting two bodies down for each of them. After the ten were solved, he proceeded to do the exact motions from earlier—getting five katanas with kicks and jabs then slicing off the head and someone’s limb off and then finding another victim for the blades—to finish off the rest of the twenty. That left thirty. When he turned, the ten of the thirty were already sprawled on the floor lifeless.
“Very good,” he complimented to his accomplice. He then walked to him and removed the instruments from before then cloaking them.
“Nothing a student of a master can’t do.”
The last twenty had backed off enough to assess the situation. The duo seemed to be capable enough to discard the chuunin guards on the floor. Vermillion and raven thought that the remaining were jounin and were the last to attack to get information on their moves. It was time to change their moves.
The duo dived first and disappeared, the war-experienced were the ones who saw the movement of the fast limbs. Those less experienced had been knocked into comma for life by the gaining team of two. The three men who saw bloodshed far greater than this knew now who the troublesome twosome were and kneeled in time before the blows were given to them for their last dance.
“Lord Itachi. Please forgive us.”
“Who is you leader?” asked the vermillion.
“The enthroned coward over there,” answered the one to the left of the centre jounin kneeling.
“Itachi,” warned the vermillion.
“Oh. Yeah!” said Itachi. “Rise and help me.”
The three rose. “We are ready to die for you,” all three chorused.
“I-I... Uh.”
“Itachi,” hissed the glaring tone of the vermillion companion.
“So—“
“Itachi.”
“Okay.... Um...”
“Attack.”
“Yeah—ATTACK!”
Four jounin ninjas attacked the throne and then a move sent three of them bawling back the fourth stayed there and then flashed of steel on steel sparked through the room. The party-goers were paralysed and even Itachi himself, but not the three jounins. They sprang to their feet readying for another attack when the vermillion’s voice spoke up, “Take Itachi somewhere safe.”
Before any of them could quarrel that the leader should stay they heard a guttural growl signalling the vermillion’s pounce on the king wanna-be. That sound made them move and carry Itachi across the grounds toward the gate. They jumped above it and disappeared in the fair across the river.
The place got a clear-out by the police the next morning. They skimmed the place first and found near one-hundred souls down in the basement of the old building. They discovered that the thing was used for the Yamamichi Yakuza parties for women and drug trafficking.
“Who the hell trashed the joint?” asked a perky voice. It belonged to a blonde detective sporting a bang to cover the right side of his face.
“Deidara, you should be upstairs working on rounding up the women.”
“Come on, Tobi! You and your by-the-book attitude! You must live once and a while!”
“Well I am sorry, Deidara. We can’t all afford to be carefree like you!” bellowed the cloaked detective sporting a spiral mask with a hole. His raspy voice echoing in the room at ground floor.
The room’s atmosphere was stifling and sick with human blood dried overnight. There on the north wall of this particular room was a message in blood just like the other Yakuza places for the past three years. A message which read, “those who do not believe my reign shall perish within the vermillion’s grasp of death.”
Whoever this piece of shit is, he is good. Thought Tobi. “Deidara!”
“Eh?”
“What are the findings upstairs?”
“The women? Why don’t you just call them the CSI? They’re that you know?”
“No. After what that blue-haired freak told me. No,” Tobi said with a sour face.
“Tobi, you should respect your higher-ups,” claimed a low voice that was not Deidara’s.
“Shut the hell up, Hidan!”
“Sorry... Tobi. I thought it’d be funny,” jabbed back Hidan back as he casually made his way into the damp room. “Shit. The lunatic must be a real psycho.”
“Yeah, un.”
Al three of them stared at the message in blood for a couple more seconds before they heard a beeping noise. Shit. Double crap shit.
“Everybody hit the deck!” Hidan cried before the ceiling suddenly burst forth ashes from its measly structure.
“What the fuck? Fucker!” Hidan hissed after the cloud cement applauded with the equally cemented floor. “The fucker rigged a bomb overhead the room!!!”
“Nope. Look at that, hm,” commented Deidara while examining the spectacular piece of nothingness before the three detectives.
“Shit! That piece of cow-humping asshole! He destroyed the fucking message! Again!” screeched the masked detective. “Now we have to picture it AFTER we rebuild the damn thing and see the damage done this time!”
“Last time, he drowned the slab,” stated Hidan expressionlessly.
“Then the time before that, he put on canvass and set that aflame, yeah.”
“Shit... Mother—“
“I hope their happy with their present.”
“Good job, Itachi. That’s excellent foresight.”
“Thanks. I owe it all to you,” Itachi beamed back at his companion in a wheel wagon bearing food supply of the unsuspecting travellers who picked up some uninvited company.
“Hn,” grunted the vermillion headed figure beside him and turned to his left to have a view of some of the canyon that they were passing through. “Itachi, where are these stupid idiots going?”
The canyon was not really dry; it was humid and had gray walls on either side. “They said they were going to the Kyoto port to dock aboard a boat there. It seems that they are trying to migrate to the Western unknown.”
“Why?”
“Financial trouble, I think.”
“Hm...”
“What?”
“Remember what we have talked about when this whole affair began?” reminded vermillion.
“Yes. You said that we were going there ourselves but not this time. It is too early,” countered Itachi. He was slightly unnerved at the idea and was not yet willing to go anywhere near the Western world.
“I thought so,” breathed out the vermillion’s grim reply.
“You thought what?” asked a perplexed Itachi. His red-headed friend was known to think too much on sparse subjects.
“You are frightened of travelling to the Other World. Do not worry we are still masters of our art even in other lands. With this knowledge, we are warriors free to conquer any land,” explained the red head straight to the point. Just like always.
“But—“
“Do not disgrace the Uchiha name,” snapped his companion.
“Haven’t I done exactly that when I got caught by the local media or ran away from my responsibilities since I was a child or the time when I ultimately left my clan to venture with you aimlessly—“
“We are not venturing aimlessly!” retorted his Master with a great outcry. We are leaving this wagon. To the next one, Itachi.”
“O—okay.”
They headed to the next wagon to avoid the suspicions of the travellers and hopped in that. They continued their conversation.
“You know what the plan is,” said the vermillion. “You are my priority. Even though you call me Master, I am not it.”
With that, the journey was left to silence and thoughts in Itachi’s part about how could this man beside him be so protective of someone so measly. What was he talking about not worthy of being a Master?
Soon they reached a cavern with the lights being a vibrant orange colour tinged with red when you squint with lazy eyes. It was sunset and Itachi was tired by his thoughts and the physical extraneous activities he and the red head had gone doing the night before. Miles of running to collapse by the travellers wagons. Pure dumb luck. Yep... dumb luck.
“Rest, Itachi. You will be awakened come morning’s first light.”
Itachi spared his companion a glance. He looked extremely old. Older than Itachi himself and the kid was at least half his age or something. That brought in mind when the red head’s birthday was. Hm... when could that be?
With that last thought in mind, Uchiha Itachi dozed off and slumbered into a dream about a brunette who looked a lot like an animal of some sort.
Gaara glanced at his charge with thoughtful and sorrow-ridden eyes. He looked at the boy who believed him to be some sort of character who would—was better than the sole heir of the Uchiha clan. The clan who accepted him even though for just being their weapon. They taught him something valuable. Madara taught him how to fight and how to live for you alone. With these teachings, he also drilled into him to be loyal to the Uchiha clan. The havoc that would happen when things go awry in the clan was devastating. Not only would the underworld crumble faster than a month, the economic turmoil to be unleashed would be worldwide. The Yakuza had already spread throughout the globe.
Stupid raven. Gaara’s last thought about the other before emerging from the wagons to wagering with the travellers for them to be sent to the West.
Insanely me ;) Read more!
