[Open] Tell me something I don't know...

[scarsforlife]

Blue skies this morning, cloudless and sharp, the color intense enough to cut. Maybe it was an odd metaphor for the sky, but that was how it felt. He'd slipped out for a breath of air in a quiet moment, enjoying a sudden burst of solitude -- no one was around, this close to the edge of the village, this far from the centers of habitation, and he liked it that way.

He turned away from his contemplation of the sky, watching the edges of the trees that had yet to start budding properly, still winter as far as they were concerned. Good for them. The trees that budded too early suffered for their preciptiousness. Timing was everything. Wait too long and they missed out, move forward too soon and their blossoms died in late frosts. Such was life. Although he did pity the trees a little - they had no intelligence to calculate their timing, and nature could be cruelly deceptive.

Ah, well. The strong survived.

His attention was caught by the rattling sound of a piece of paper blown by the wind, and by reflex he caught it as it twisted by him. Thick paper, obviously of good quality, and simple words in a dark, dry blood-brown.

You are a monster.

The words were... well, unsurprising. Of course he was a monster. It was the method of delivery that concerned him more; he'd not sensed anyone nearby. Still holding the paper, he turned, looking upwind, alert. It couldn't have come from too far away, not with such accuracy...

Comments

[itachi_san]

He noticed the other man's presence, and recognized his chakra. You couldn't have served in the ANBU black ops and not recognized Konohagakure's primary torture and interrogation specialist. The same could be said with being a missing nin.

Itachi took a deep breath and stood up. His body moved slowly. His limbs were stiff. But he turned to face Ibiki, at the distance that he was. He didn't dare approach, but he wasn't going to be caught off guard either.

"...I am... not your enemy... here."

[scarsforlife]

Blandly, his expression revealing nothing, Ibiki studied Itachi -- the way he moved, the way he presented himself. There was a lot to be said for body language -- but a lot to be said against relying on it, as well. Major signals could be easy to manipulate, and so he looked past them, to the subtler ones, to the slide of muscle -- the tremble of it, the evidences of strain, the unnatural movements of a body that had lost much of its strength.

"No," he answered calmly. "I don't imagine you are."

[itachi_san]

Itachi knew his physical condition ensured that he would never be perceived as a threat. Ibiki's answer all but stated it outright. But to many people, he was still the infamous traitor of Konoha, perpetrator of the Uchiha clan massacre and an Akatsuki. And there are two ways with resolving that discrepancy - to live and let live or take advantage of their weakness and kill them.

"I speak the truth..." He added. "This... is a peaceful place..."

[scarsforlife]

"So I've seen," Ibiki agreed, still carefully neutral. In truth, it wasn't the sickness alone that ensured Itachi wasn't a threat -- after all, one didn't need to be physically robust to do quite a bit of damage, as Ibiki well knew.

Besides. He'd seen the reports that quietly came through, via circuitous routes. Technically, they hadn't gone to him, but he had his ways, and people loyal to him. An Akatsuki, yes, but a spy nontheless.

"There doesn't appear to be much to gain here, either," he added thoughtfully; not that that was necessarily true, but for the moment, it was his impression.

[itachi_san]

Itachi offered a small smile to that. It was expression the other man probably wasn't used to on a man like him. But it was strangely genuine. And that was the most unbelievable part.

"You would be wrong there..." He cautioned Ibiki. "There is a lot to gain here... Peace, happiness, family... A second chance... to do things differently..."

[scarsforlife]

Peace, happiness, family? Well, Ibiki could understand how that would be appealing for Itachi. For himself, though?

He gave a low, wry chuckle. "Hm."

[itachi_san]

"Say what you will..." Itachi added. "But you will have to find your place here..."

There was, he explained as he slowly sat back down, no real way back out of this world. But that certainly wasn't something Itachi was loosing sleep over. In fact, it was something that relaxed him even more.

"It took me... quite some time to find my place... And it was... a painful process... But that is the past now."