Nevermore

The sky was a canvas of grey smears, marked by the heavy rainfall that loomed over the rolling hills miles away from where she stood. Even then, here and there small spots of water would fall around them, marking the ground with small puddles that sank deep into the soil's soft spots. "Tou-san…" It was, as they said, the perfect kind of day for a funeral. Her feet sank in the dirt as she climbed the small hill where the burial service would be held, dressed in black from head to toe she kept her head down. All those eyes that looked at her with pity, she couldn't stand it. They just couldn't understand the pain in her heart. Three Uchiha men had died during the attack, since only that small number fell victim, all three were due to be buried upon the old Tozuki's hill. It was at the far end of the village, outside the edge of a small forest that lingered near the gates of Konoha. It was a disgrace, she thought to herself, each man died with a different story. How was it they felt they could get away with having a joint funeral? It wasn't fair at all.

"Hold my hand Hinamei," her mother said softly, prying under the wall her daughter had built up.

"No, I don't want to." She stole up the hill faster, leaving her mother to stand there with her hand still outstretched. Hinamei refused to look back though. She had always loved the rain. The smell of it, the way it molded the world, everything. But today, she hated the rain. As she advanced to her father's casket, she watched beads of fresh water roll over it's side and she trembled. "How could you…" The soft pattering the rain made as it bounced from the impact of the treated wood, it was just enough to make her bite her lip until blood pearled around her teeth. "You, you promised me…" People looked at her in shock once her fist made contact with the black coffin. Among the rest of the clan that had gathered for the burial, one in particular watched Hinamei with an unreadable expression, eyebrows pushed together and a frown firmly etched into his cheeks.

"Maybe you should talk to her." Mikoto laid a hand on her son's shoulder and urged him gently forward, passing her eyes back up to rest on the shuddering girl that had thrown her arms over the coffin. Poor thing.

"No." Itachi shook his head, "she doesn't want to talk." Hinamei's mother stepped over to the coffin, it was obvious she had spent all morning crying. She apologized to a man behind her before wrapping her hand around her daughter's wrists and to everyone's surprise Hinamei tore her hand away and burst out into a fit of rage.

"This is your fault! You let him go, you just let him face that-that thing! How could you Kaa-san, how could you!" Her mother took a step back, her mouth opened in empty words. As her knees began to shake she slowly descended towards the ground. Tears slipped down her cheeks silently as she knelt on the damp ground, with her eyes thrown towards the sky, she wept. Hinamei glanced around at the faces of everyone there, knowing that each one of them had lived thinking her father was nothing but a laugh. The few that had come and said a prayer at her father's coffin had only come out of pity, she thought. Every one of them lowered their eyes, not wanting to look her in the face. All of them except Itachi. Hinamei locked eyes with him, her glare softening under his lingering gaze. "It wasn't supposed to be like this Itachi-chan, it's not fair." Her fists unfolded and her arms went limp, her anger had finally left her body.

"I know." He replied, turning his face up towards the sprinkling sky. It was as if no one else was there, at this joke for a funeral. Even Hinamei felt embarrassed for her dead father by now. She looked around as more and more people met her eyes. Some of them whispered, some of them weren't shy at all with their voice, she couldn't take it anymore. With her mother to her left still looking at the lingering clouds, Hinamei sucked once more on her lip before sprinting off to the right. Mikoto stuck her hand out as if reaching for the determined girl, but Itachi interrupted. "Don't, she'll be fine Kaa-san." Mikoto's inky black eyes fell to her son, watching as his own eyes never left Hinamei's form. She was lost to the tree's now, far out of sight.

Hinamei stumbled through the trees, tears flowing helplessly from her eyes. "Tou-san, you said you'd come back to me…" She whimpered to herself, between the taste of her tears and the now stale blood, nausea began to swim around her head. But that didn't stop her. Thoughts raced through her head and recklessly, she brushed away at her moist cheeks with the edge of her sleeve as she ran. The forest wasn't big, but it was empty. She was too embarrassed to stay around her clan any longer, too angry. This wasn't the person she normally was, if her father had seen her now…he wouldn't have liked it all. She had never lost anyone close to her, not even a pet. In some part of her mind she expected to go home and see her father drinking a cup of tea before bed. He would say, "Hinamei, tell me about your day." And he would put his cup down and listen with a smile as she rambled on and on about sunflowers and insects. Coming to terms with his death, well, it seemed next to impossible. She continued running through the small forest, trying as hard as she could to stop the flow of tears, not realizing she had veered off the path she was on. One step, two, her foot caught the edge of an uprooted tree and with wide eyes she tumbled downwards, tears still suspended into the air as she fell. "Tou-san…" Her head hit a rock and before she could even scream a veil of black velvet fell over her eyes and she stumbled even farther into the hole of unconsciousness….

"What…is…this?" She sounded far away even to herself. Her fingers gently brushed at her cheeks, feeling something that was sticky and thick clinging close to her face. She pulled her fingers away and tried to clear her vision. "Is that…red?" Her eyes closed and a small groan left her bloodless lips. At first she tried to sit up, using her small palms to push her body up until a gasp pushed her back towards the ground. She shut her eyes until beads of saltwater gathered at the corners. Had nobody come after her, not even her own mother? She rolled over and pushed herself up with her arm, ignoring the screaming pain the beat at the side of her head. As slowly as she could she stood up, her eyes drooping as she began stumbling back towards the edge of the trees. What a stupid, stupid idea this had been. Then she remembered. The funeral, the rain, her mother! Hinamei broke into a sudden run (or as much of a run as someone with a head injury could do), ignoring the splatter of fresh blood that whipped from her hair to her cheeks. Had she really said such horrible things? No wonder no one had come after her! She pushed herself forward, shaking her head as if to desperately rid the dizzy spells that washed over her. "Kaa-san, I'm sorry!" She cried out, using her hands to move the foliage. Ahead of her she saw the light filtering in through the masses of trees, she was almost out. It was a clear path ahead of her and she closed her eyes, willing her legs to move faster. I have to make sure she's okay! She broke through the trees and ran into something much more solid than air.

"Oomph!" Suddenly, she was falling back towards the floor but this time, arms protected her fall. She opened her pained eyes only to be met with the startled black eyes of Itachi. "You're-you're bleeding Hinamei!" Flecks of blood marred his cheeks as he lifted her back up and off of him, his delicate fingers drifted through her hair until she flinched in pain. At this point, she was seeing two of him.

"I fell and hit my head…I think." She said, pulling away with him with a pink tint on her cheeks. "What are you doing out here?" She asked slowly, not able to grasp what was really going on.. He turned away with a scowl on his face, narrowing his eyes at the grass.

"I came to find you, you've been gone for hours. Like I thought, you've gone and hurt yourself." His words hit her, hours? Had she really been gone so long? The blood left her cheeks and she stood up, scrambling from the ground.

"I've got to find my Kaa-san!" Hinamei set off again through the open field, running through the now pouring rain. She hadn't even noticed how wet it was beyond the protection of the trees. Behind her, Itachi opened his mouth in protest until he realized she wasn't stopping anytime soon. He grabbed the fallen umbrella to his right and stood up, a glare on his face. He was much faster than her, especially in her worn state, so it didn't take long for him to catch up the dizzy, bleeding child.

"Why don't you ever listen to me!" He snarled, extending his hand to stop her. She glanced over at him and opened her mouth in surprise. "She's not mad at you anymore, she's worried!" Itachi yelled through the pour of the rain. He let the umbrella fall down to his side, running into it, the umbrella didn't stop much of the drenching. Hinamei slowed down until she came to full stop, looking at Itachi with wide fearful eyes.

"Worried about me? After all I said to her?" He answered her with a glare.

"You're making this more difficult than it has to be. Walk with me, you're just going to exhaust yourself running like that." Hinamei eyed him curiously before turning her eyes down, "don't' worry, she's gotten the whole police force looking for you. None of them thought you would still be in the forest. Just wait till Tou-san see's that I found you before any of them." He said more to himself at the end. He grinned to himself until he realized Hinamei was swaying now and looking rather pale. "Hm?" He turned towards her and then widened his eyes.

"Ita…" She fell towards the ground just as her eyes rolled back to her head. Itachi caught her before she hit the ground, slowly resting her on her back in the wet grass.

"Of course." Itachi muttered to himself, wondering how he was going to carry someone who was almost as tall as him. With a sigh he closed the umbrella, not having enough hands to carry both Hinamei and the umbrella, he would just have to make some sacrifices. The compound was far from where he was now, luckily, the hospital was only a five minutes walk from there. He unbuttoned his jacket and threw it over Hinamei, making sure to cover her placid face. The rain lightened up, but not enough to make a real difference, his hair was matted close to his struggling face. "I should have gone after you." He said to himself, jamming the umbrella under his arm. "I should of come sooner." He wrapped his hands under her small frame and stood up, pushing all the air out of his body as he came up. She was heavy. It didn't help that they were essentially the same height. He might have weighed a little more but he was thin framed to begin with, "dammit Hinamei!" He struggled taking his first step. Going down the hill he was already short of breath and he dreaded the idea of having to carry her the whole way alone. Even worse, she was already injured so dropping her was plainly not an option. He puffed out his cheeks and shut his eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing exhaustion in his upper arms.

"Itachi-chan?" He opened one eye and in the distance spotted his father's friend on the police force, walking towards him in the rain.

"Hu-rry!" Itachi huffed out, the dark haired man advanced closer, halted, then broke into a quick sprint.

"Is that-" Itachi nodded and the Uchiha bent down and took the girl from his arms. Itachi had never felt such relief as when he did the second he dropped his arms. The rain didn't help at all. "Good job Itachi-chan! Wait till your father hears about this!"

"You need to get her to the hospital, now!" Normally, he wouldn't be allowed to order around a superior like that but at the moment, nobody cared. The man nodded and took off into a sprint, leaving Itachi in the pouring rain. He didn't feel like running so he just walked until he reached the cover of a closed weapons shop. At least now he knew she would be in proper care, he would visit her later on to make sure she was feeling better. For now, however, she would probably spend most of her time sleeping. With a sigh, Itachi bristled his bangs back, preparing himself to walk back through the rain towards the compound. He slipped the umbrella out from under his clenched arm and pushed it open, flinching as the rain beat upon the thin plastic. As he walked he let his mind wander, all of this thoughts going right back towards that strange girl he was somewhat friends with. He knew that one day they would marry, maybe start a family and grow old. But right now, he couldn't picture it at all. He didn't want to. She was just Hinamei, nothing else. There were still times he wished she would sometimes go away, stop talking, or even just talk about something else. But it was obvious, he cared about her, maybe too much…not that he liked her in that way though, of course not!

He brought his head up higher and forced back a stubborn smile, reassuring himself, of course not.