Dark and Light: The story of Itachi and Hikari
Chapter One
Tears streamed fast and hot from Haruno Hikari's emerald eyes as she sat scrunched under a bush, praying to be free from the ones who had been chasing her for most of the day. She had a dark blue bruise over her left eye and her pale white pigtails were dirty and hanging lip around her tear stained cheeks. A hiccup left her lips and she slapped her hands to her mouth in horror; afraid that the sound had been heard by him.
"Hey, ghost girl." A taunting voice floated to Hikari's ears from somewhere above. "Now where'd you go? Don't you want to play some more?"
Involuntarily, Hikari shook her head furiously to show that, no; she didn't want to 'play' anymore. 'Please,' she thought. 'Just leave me alone!'
The branches behind Hikari rustled and she stiffened. "Boo."
Hikari screamed and jumped to her feet; stumbling away a few steps before she crashed heavily to her knees.
"Now I've found you."
Hikari whimpered and flipped around, her wide, fearful, green eyes staring up at the figure in front of her in terror.
"Hey Shishini-kun," He called. "I've got her."
"P-please Y-Yamataro-san," Hikari whimpered. "Please, l-let m-me go ho-me now."
"Now why would I do that?" Yamataro Makoto asked with a sneer. "Now that we're having so much fun together?"
"Yeah," Umikawa Shishini said as he scampered up to stand next to Makoto.
"I don't want to play anymore!" Hikari said as she shakily stood. "I wanna go HOME!"
The fierceness in Hikari's voice almost caused the two bullies to step back in fear. In the whole year that they had been picking on the 'ghost girl' she had never spoken back in more then a shaky whimper and yet here she was yelling at them with more force and conviction then a lot of grown ups that they had ever seen. Not even Kairi-sensei yelled that loud!
Finally getting over his surprise Makoto smirked and stepped closer to the younger girl. Placing his right fist into his left palm he slowly cracked his knuckles. "Now I think that our little ghost girl needs to be taught a lesson in manors don't you Shishini-kun?"
Shishini grinned as he too began to crack his knuckles. "Yeah, Makoto-kun, she does."
Hikari's lower lip began to quiver but instead of backing away she dropped into a general fighting stance. Her right leg was forward and bent at the knee while her left was stretched out strait behind and both of her fists where up near her face.
"Now she's gonna try and fight back!" Makoto laughed. "Let's show her, her place, ne Shishini-kun?"
"Yeah."
Makoto's fist was faster then Hikari could track and she felt it connect hard with her already bruised left cheek. She yelled as she hit the ground and rolled quickly to her stomach, hoping to stand before either bully could make it to her. No such luck. Shishini, who had been waiting for her to hit the ground, pulled back his left leg and kicked her hard in the stomach causing saliva and small droplets of blood to darken the ground beneath the gasping Haruno girl. Makoto laughed as he moved around to stand in front of her. Reaching down he grabbed a handful of Hikari's now loose white hair and drug her up to face him.
"Now are you having fun yet?"
Hikari said nothing, instead she kept her eyes tightly closed and refused to grace Makoto with even a flinch as his breath fanned her face.
"Do you always get your superiority fix by beating on defenseless girls?"
Makoto started at the unexpected voice so badly that he dropped the bleeding Hikari to the ground once more. Hikari cried out in surprise and pain but otherwise remained completely silent.
"Now who are you?" Makoto demanded.
"No one insignificant enough to be remembered by a moron like you."
"Now what was that!"
"Yeah!"
The new comer said nothing as he moved to where Hikari lay curled up on the ground. Carelessly he dropped into a crouch next to her and nudged her gently with the back of his fist. "You alive?"
Hikari whimpered and slowly rose onto her arms so that she could look up at her savior. "W-who…?"
"Now you leave her alone!" Makoto shouted. "Go find your own ghost girl."
"I don't believe that she belongs to you."
"Now, what would you know!"
"Yeah!"
"I know enough that you can't have her."
"Now why is that?" Makoto said.
"Yeah?"
"…."
"You wanna fight!" Makoto said as he dropped into a stance. "I'll take you on!"
"Yeah!" Shishini cheered from behind Makoto.
The boy stood and brushed off his pants before he stepped over Hikari's body and stood with his feet apart and his hands behind his back.
"N-no!" Hikari said as she grabbed his pants at the boy's ankle. "D-don't fight him! H-he's to strong! You'll get h-hurt too!"
"….Hn."
Makoto ignored Hikari and launched himself at his younger enemy. "Now you're gonna regret messing with me!"
"No!"
No one was really sure what had happened. One minute Makoto was flying at his opponent at top speed and the next he was skidding on his back four feet away from where he had originally begun. Hikari stared wide eyed as she tried to comprehend what she had just seen. Somehow, without moving any other part of his body, the boy in front of her had managed to knock Makoto eight feet away with only the back of his fist.
"H-how did you-." Hikari began only to be cut off by Shishini's cry of shock.
"What the hell did you do to Makoto-kun!"
The other boy raised an eye brow. "So your vocabulary isn't limited to a one word response to everything."
"…..Huh?"
The boy didn't respond as he turned and bent down to help Hikari to her feet. The white haired girl flinched as he grasped her bruised forearms just a bit too tightly.
"Gomen." He said before he turned around and pulled her carefully onto his back. "…Where do you live?"
"A-ano…" Hikari stuttered as she began to point to the left.
"N-now you had better put her down!" Makoto shouted as he climbed to his feet. "Only I'm aloud to touch her!"
The boy shot a paralyzing glare at Makoto over his shoulder. "You had better never touch her again." He said before he began to walk in the direction Hikari had pointed out.
"Now this isn't over!" Makoto shouted. "You just got lucky! Next time I'll kill you!"
"Yeah!"
XXXXXXXXXX
The walk to Hikari's house was silent and awkward only occasionally broken when Hikari pointed out a new direction. Finally they stopped on Hikari's porch and the boy let her gently down onto the front step. They were both silent for a moment before Hikari spoke up.
"T-thank-you," she said. "For, for helping me…um…?"
"Itachi," He said as he turned away and shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Itachi," Hikari said with a smile. "Well, thank-you Itachi."
"I only did it because my mother always told me to protect the weak and pathetic."
For a moment Hikari blinked until Itachi's meaning had sunk in. "Y-you jerk!" She brought her hand around to smack him sharply in the back of the head. "See if I show you anymore graditude!"
Itachi's eyes were wide in surprise as he rubbed his smarting head and glanced back at Hikari as she roughly pushed open her door and limped inside. He scowled and turned away, once again shoving his hands into his pockets.
"See if I ever help you again," He muttered.
The door was only a fraction away from closing when Hikari's bright green eye appeared in the gap to watch her hero walk away. A bright crimson blush stained her cheeks and she smiled.
"Itachi…" She whispered before the door finally closed all of the way separating the two six-year-olds from each other's view.
End Chapter One
Kaliea: Well here is the first chapter of my ItaHika story. I hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know if you did (coughreveiwcough). Oh, and just to let you know, until I get 'Holding out for a Hero' finished the updates for this will be really, really, really slow. Just a heads up! Till next time, ja ne!