I understand the improbability of certain events in this fanfiction. Tough cookies. I am the author, I can control whatever I want.

By the way, the only reason I'm posting chapters is because I'm getting comments on deviantART. If you're interested in this story, comment and it'll be up sooner.

Haruka, Masuyo (c) me, Zopponde. I'm pretty sure all other characters appearing in this chapter belong to Masashi Kishimoto.




Confession
Chapter 2

Itachi sighed, irritated. “You said that my name sounded familiar. Do you know a boy, a year or two younger than you?”

Haruka paused, grateful for the change of subject, before thinking about his question. “I’m sure I know several boys a year or two younger than I, but I can’t say I personally know any of them unless you give me their names…”

“Just think about their names,” Itachi told her.

Haruka sighed, thinking that he was probably just trying to get her to shut up, but she did stop and think about it. Let’s see, a year or two younger than me? Probably the rookie year. So there’s probably six people that could be the one he’s talking about…probably…

She mentally listed the current rookies of Leaf Village when she reached the name he was probably talking about. “You mean Uchiha Sasuke?” Why didn’t you think of that sooner? Haruka asked herself.

Itachi nodded. “Did he ever say what happened to his family?”

“He’s two years younger than I am,” Haruka pointed out, “and we were never in the same class, and I was pretty isolated in the first place. The only reason I’m even aware of his name is because his teammate caused a bit of a ruckus in the Chuunin exam. Well,” she added, “Sasuke stole a fair deal of attention too, but his teammate generally stuck out more.”

There was a short silence between the two before Itachi spoke again. “They’re all dead,” he said coldly. “My brother Sasuke and I are the only two Uchihas left.”

Haruka relaxed in pity. “What happened to them?”

Another pause before Itachi responded, “I killed them all.”

Haruka stiffened and froze.

This silence lasted almost a full minute, and was interrupted only by the wind.

Haruka’s bobber ducked under, and she jerked the rod, but she was too late and lost the fish.

She sighed tiredly. “I guess that means you expect me to tell you everything.”

“No,” Itachi responded, “I expect you to realize that Kisame and I are criminals, as is everyone else in our organization, and we won’t do anything against you for having done some ‘wrong’ in your life.”

Haruka breathed out slowly, staring at the fishing bobber. “I don’t think that what I did was wrong. The way I see it, you shouldn’t do something you think is wrong, and if you do it anyway, it’s an accident, or it’s because you thought it was right until you realized something that proved that it was wrong, in which case you should only regret that you were mistaken into thinking it right.

“But,” she went on, “even now, after leaving the warm bed that I had, after being saved by one criminal and starved by another, I still think that it was the right thing to do.”

Haruka took a deep breath and made as if to continue, but didn’t.

The wind blew a bit.

The bobber dunked and Haruka jerked the rod—and caught it this time. She smirked and reeled it in without any real effort.

The fish came out of the water and Haruka left it for a moment on the end of the rod, out of the water, before she sighed and said quietly, “It’s almost as if she wanted to die.”

Itachi took no notice, thinking she was just muttering to herself, but she continued.

“Masuyo. She was a fool and a coward, but she bossed everyone around anyway,” Haruka explained bitterly. “I really don’t like the Niroshi Clan. Those who don’t use their bloodline ability are religious figures, and their children can’t use it, either, or they become sinners, but they can’t even really go anywhere. That’s part of why I hated it so much.”

Haruka sighed again. “My mother was one of these people. She never changed her body by telling it to do things, except for muscle movements and that. The problem is, when I got dragged back here, I had already used mine. So everyone hated me. The only reason anyone took me in was because they liked the thought of having someone dependent on what they say. Masuyo was just begging for it.

“She never gave me any respect, she had me doing all the chores—honestly, I was half a step above a servant. Except servants got paid,” she added bitterly. “And then when Shino-san asked her if he could marry me, she only approved because she wanted me somewhere else and decided that his family would freak me out the best. And she was right,” Haruka added. “I did freak out, at the party celebrating my engagement.

“She took me to her room to talk to me, because,” she added a bitter laugh, “I didn’t know about it yet, and she didn’t want me to freak out in front of everyone. It would make her look worse, getting me married without my knowing.

“And I quote,” Haruka continued, “ ‘Haruka, you’re so worthless to this family that I decided to give you to another family.’ I responded cheerfully, because I didn’t realize exactly what she meant. So she smiled but raised her eyebrow and said, ‘I didn’t know you wanted to get married so badly.’ And…well…I snapped. I heard a bit more of what she had to say, about how worthless I was but this other family has this cute little boy who would love me as his wife, blah blah blah, oh, by the way, he wields your greatest fear.”

Haruka gritted her teeth. “I’d rather not go into the details, but I can tell you that Masuyo left this world by my hand.”

Itachi nodded and stood up. “Thank you for telling me this. Now I have to go.”

Haruka sighed, suddenly tired now that she had confessed. “I should be the one thanking you for listening. I’ll see you when I have a few more fish, Itachi-niisama.”

Itachi paused, seemingly taken by surprise by his new title, but turned and went back into the shack.

Haruka sighed again, relieved to not be keeping a secret anymore. She kicked her feet lightly in the water, wondering vaguely what her real self was doing while her clone just sat there, waiting for a fish to bite the hook and hoping that the one she just caught would be the first of many today as her stomach growled.