Authors Notes: Yes, this is the sequel to my original ItachiOC – I'm not 100 sure of where this is going, but you'll just have to bare with me for now, I'm sure I'll know where I'm going sometime soon!!

Touch Of Black: The Withering Rose

Chapter One: 10 Years Into Destiny

Dark, almost black eyes looked out upon Konoha village; they belayed a kind of frustration – as if their owner hadn't slept in days and now found themselves furious with everything. Other than that they didn't reveal much, and so it certainly wasn't a case of 'the eyes are the window to the soul'. This person was young, and yet they felt as though they had lived 200 lives over and were still condemned to serve more. Their life was one of loneliness, one of confusion and of anger. And often it showed. But they had a great duty; they'd made a promise and they intended to stick to it.

This person was Ai. Ai Emiri.

The only known Emiri left after the Akatsuki had attacked the village just ten years earlier.

Well, as far as they knew he was the last. Everyone said that he was, but there was a nagging voice at the back of his head that told him that his sister still lived. After he had been left on Kakashi Hatake's doorstep, several months had passed; and then it was said that she had been spotted on the outskirts of Konoha; delirious and pale. The guards had tried to get her to come back; but she seemed so out of sorts, and in this madness she turned and disappeared at the last minute. Nothing had been heard of her since.

Ai's guess was as good as anybody elses: but he was certain that she was still alive.

He hoped she was still alive.

Maiko Emiri had never returned to Konoha, not for ten years; ten long years of misery and confusion spent in solitude. She hadn't known what to do with herself; she'd moped and kicked her heels about for far too long. She hadn't even realized that it had been so long. Maiko had traveled across a vast ocean; where she made her home on a small island somewhere between the country of Fire and the country of Lightening. The island itself had several small villages; none of which were inhabited by Ninja's – and so she felt quite safe.

She simply didn't want to go back to Konoha; now that she knew of a world outside of that village everything in it would seem so pointless and obscure to her. So, she'd lived out 10 years on the island between fire and lightening; working on a farm and living in a small house set apart from the village itself. She'd told nobody that she was a Ninja. In fact she'd even changed her last name so as not to draw attention to herself. Her name was Sakamoto Maiko now.

Her appearance too had changed. Her black hair was now long and flowing; tied and pinned onto the back of her head so that it didn't get in the way when she worked. Her eyes held 27 years of wisdom, and her face was now gaunt and haunted. She was a bitter woman who did her best to survive; a woman who's greatest years had been taken from her by the cruel hand of fate.

After being left by Itachi, she'd given up. And the tears she might had shed for herself had now turned to tears of hate. Everything she'd ever done seemed to be for nothing. Her life was over to her; even if she still lived.

Perhaps she was being over-dramatic, perhaps she needn't make such a fuss over things...but she was so wounded. She'd thrown her life away; and now it seemed all too late to return to Konoha. She'd be nothing; all honor and respect for her family had disappeared long ago. Ai was probably dead; his illness had made him weak from the beginning. He couldn't possibly have survived.

Maiko was terribly changed, and she didn't now if she could go back. It was as if she'd passed the final threshold and only Itachi could save her.

Itachi.

She loved and hated him.

The sun had hidden itself in a sky of orange and purple, and a new day had only just begun. The Akatsuki began to stir, there was another mission at hand; led by Itachi Uchiha himself. Years had passed and he was unchanged. To everyone he knew only his age had altered, but his eyes too, were different. He was not surprised; the Mangekyou sharigan was useful – but also traitorous as well. It damaged his vision a little more everytime he used it. Eventually he was going to have to find another pair of Mangekyou eyes, otherwise he'd be blind. And no matter how much of a talented Ninja he was; having no vision would render him useless. Useless and weak as she had once made him.

On the island, the sun had been out and the skies had been blue for some time; no clouds were in sight and so the day was hotter than usual. Maiko Sakamoto had been awake all night, unable to sleep or do anything of use. Now she was exhausted and frustrated; which made her job all the more difficult. Maiko was a washer-woman for the largest farm on the island; and walked there everyday in order to earn what she needed to survive. She didn't like the other women that worked there, they all seemed so strange to her.

She wasn't used to people who weren't familiar with Shinobi ways; things were so different in comparison to Konoha...especially the women. Most women in Konoha were lean and agile; most of them were Ninja or Ninja wives or daughters – used to all of the mannerisms and ethics.

Maiko always got laughed at when she bowed to the owner of the farm when he greeted her. But she was just so used to the concept of respecting her 'boss', in Konoha it had been the Hokage, and now it seemed it didn't really matter. As long as the women got their work finished Nobu, the farms owner, didn't care how they acted towards him. Even his farm-workers had to deal with the sharp tongues of the washerwomen because they were told to do so.

No, the women on Maiko's island (She'd taken to referring it as her own as soon as she'd moved in, although obviously it wasn't) were great lardy creatures with muscular arms and shrewd eyes. They mostly seemed interested in gossiping with eachother, about eachother and so therefore Maiko's 'workplace' was a very depressing place to be. She didn't talk to most of them; her vast difference made them resent her and she too felt some sort of frustration with them.

She wasn't happy with anything, and wondered when Itachi would 'come back for her' as he had promised. Maiko told herself that he had probably forgotten; and part of her was glad of this. She didn't want to be an Akatsuki member.

But she didn't want to be without him either...

She wondered how he must have looked now: ten years on – would those lines on his face have deepened with age? Was his hair still that long, black ponytail? And what of his attitude? Was he still as delightfully indifferent as he'd always been? Or had he gotten more aggressive over the years?

Was he still even alive?