You're My Keeper

“Lady Emi, we are here to escort you to the Snow Country, it is a pleasure to meet you, I am Uchiha Itachi.” Itachi spoke as he bowed at her presence. Imari shift uncomfortably as the young girl swung herself onto Itachi, squealing.

“Ah! You’re so handsome! I want to marry you instead!”

“Lady Emi, we need to start moving so we won’t be late…” Imari muttered annoyed by the giggling girl.

“Who are you?” She asked disgusted. Imari tried her best to control herself, now understanding the small lecture Itachi had given her about knowing one’s own strength as she gritted her teeth shut.

“This is Kaito Imari, will be helping me escort you as well” Itachi explained once the young girl got off him.

“Oh,” She simply said without worry, “Very well then, let’s head out..”

Walking inside her carriage, a group of men carried the small box from underneath, using the pillars that latched out. Itachi took his post in front and had Imari walk next to him.

“Itachi-sama~!” shouted Lady Emi from inside her carriage, “How old are you?”

Itachi shifted his eyes to his side before he answered, “I am thirteen, my lady...”

Imari gave him a surprised look, maybe it was the deep lines that ran through his skin that made him appear older or maybe it was his way of being but either way, he was the same age as her and that was what shocked her the most.

“I thought you were older…” Imari muttered to him as her eyes watched the path ahead.

“Really?” Itachi asked thoughtlessly, “How old did you think I was?”

“A grandpa,” Imari smirked, “It’s because of all your grey hairs…”

“Grey hairs?” Itachi asked surprised before he took his hand and touched his hair, “It must be because of the stress you bring on to me…”

“Itachi-sama~!” spoke Lady Emi again, “What kind of girls do you like?”

Itachi’s eyes remained glued on to the rode ahead of them as the snow gently fell over.
“Lady Emi, you must forgive me but I am not interested in anything of that sort, I am far too focused on my training and working on my ninja skills to look around and take notice…”

“Ahh! How cool!” She shouted excitedly, “Marry me!”

“Lady Emi, I’m sorry but I can’t do so,” Itachi spoke with a soften expression on his face, delighted by her interest in him, “Thank you.”

The rest of the walk was silent. Imari’s eyes would wonder to her Captain who seemed bothered by something she was unsure about. And after hours had gone by, Itachi asked if Lady Emi would like to rest for the night and apologized for not being able to provide her with some sort of hotel.

“I’ll go get some wood to start a camp fire,” Imari stated as she was about to stray, but Itachi grabbed her wrist firmly before he told her to stay and that he would go instead.

“It must be so hard to be able to stand next to him…” comment Lady Emi as she brushed her hair with her thin fingers, “He’s tall, handsome, strong...”

“Annoying, bossy, weird…” Imari replied back. Lady Emi frowned at her remarks.

“Excuse me, but I won’t allow you to speak of him that way!”

“It’s okay that is just Kaito-san’s personality.” Itachi spoke as he held a stack of wood in his arms, “She’s sharp tongued, acts before she thinks, reckless even but doesn’t speak a lot...and that makes up for her faults…”

Imari rolled her eyes as she bent over and began to rub rocks against each other, trying to start the fire.

“Allow me,” Itachi said with a smirk, “Fire style: Fire ball justu!”

The wood set on fire and instantly, the air around them became warmer.

The men who carried Lady Emi ran to huddle with each other and keeping one other warm and after a few minutes they all fell asleep.

“It’s gross when you flirt…” Imari commented to Itachi who was still awake.

“You should go to sleep too, it’s already late...” He said, ignoring her words.

“I won’t go to sleep until you do…” Imari replied as her eyes remained attached to the bond fire. Itachi gave her an annoyed look before his lips parted to speak.

“Go to sleep, we will need to wake up early tomorrow…”

“Uchiha…” Imari muttered and then looked up to face Itachi, “How old were you when ninjas attacked our village in the Ninja War?”

Itachi remained silent, examining Imari’s face, his dark eyes almost seemed hallow if not for the light that the fire gave off, “About five…”

“Did you know this one boy?” Imari asked excited for once, “He was able to use the Sharingan and do a fire style justsu…his name…his name…I don’t think I ever knew his name…”

“What are you talking about?” Itachi asked, rasing an eyebrow at her.

“It was this one boy, who saved me when I was being attacked during the Shinobi War….he brought me to an under ground hide out of the Uchiha compound…” Imari explained and then whispered lowly, “And promised to marry me…”

Itachi stood silent, taking in everything she had told her. His eyes bearing into Imari’s lost expression, as if she was trying to remember the little boy’s face. Itachi shifted, and stared at the fire with a slight smile smudged on his face and he whispered, making sure she wouldn’t hear, “It was snowing…”

“Forget it,” Imari sighed as she leaned back, “You wouldn’t know him, he was too cool to be friends with you…and he probably isn’t in this world anymore…”

With a loud yawn, Imari announced that she was going to sleep, but Itachi knew she was lying, he could still hear her breathing but almost as if she was trembling, his guess was that she was now sadden by the memory. He stood up and threw a huge blanket over her with a warm smile planted on his face.

“Don’t get sick, miss noble-sama....”