~Author's Note

Mother. Of. Hell. I feel like Death. My friend is a freaking task master, but her story is SO CLOSE to being finished. Freedom never felt so far away D: Anyway, I thought I'd just update this once even though I'm supposed to be working with her… SHH! Don't tell!

Thanks to IAmTheUltimateYaoiFanBOO for following, favorite-ing, and reviewing and to Thru Fire and Blood for favorite-ing and following.

Monsters of the Mind

~Village of Ame: Akatsuki Hideout Dungeons

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The room was dank and musky, and it reeked of rotten food and flesh. The four, windowless stone walls were a nasty gray color, and they were coated in dried blood and a strange slime. On one wall was a large steel door, and opposite the door, hanging limp by rusted chains, was a malnourished young woman. Her navy hair was thin and falling out, and the pale skin on her body was peeling obscenely.

Mizu felt…dry. Parched. Dead.

Opening her tired eyes, she lifted her heavy neck to stare blankly at the door ahead of her. Her mouth was agape in her overwhelming exhaustion, and Mizu tried in vain to somehow wet her lips. So…so thirsty. Groaning, her head fell, and her chin smacked painfully against her protruding collarbone.

Shifting around, Mizu felt her raw and boney joints scrape against her restraints. She twisted more and more, not even minding her callow skin anymore. I loathe these chains. Curse that retched fire-breathing brat! Staring down sadly at her legs, Mizu grimaced at her flaking skin and the dead scales that piled on the floor.

Her first day in confinement, she had refused to willingly give information – did they expect any less? – and as punishment a raven-haired young man had set her tail on fire; they had kept her relatively conscious with just her legs in water. After that whole ordeal, Mizu was denied the precious liquid. Only a large bucket was thrown every three moons to keep her body somewhat moist.

Well, of course she was dying.

She squirmed more in irritation, but soon she just gave up and sighed harshly. Mizu gripped the chains in her hand (her wrists were so thin that they had started falling through the cuffs). Anger seemed to throb in her veins, and Mizu exerted her pent-up energy by roughly yanking on the chains. They did not budge.

She felt like screaming her lungs out! Only once before had she ever feel this much helplessness, and it drove her to the brink of insanity. Though, what really got on her nerves was the careless man that would come and give her 'bathes'. In her deprived state, she remembered that he had small, blue scales all over his body and that he bared a striking resemblance to a shark.

How can such a man do something like this? She thought. Are we not similar? Do we not both have scales? Do we not both thrive in water to some degree?

"Were we not...created instead of born?" Mizu whispered uncertainly into the dank emptiness of her cell.

~/~

"Itachi, it is time." Leader-sama spoke to the young man kneeling before him. Kisame was already down in the prison barracks, and that left the raven by himself with their leader.

"I trust that you know what must be done." Itachi responded with a stiff nod of understanding. "Good. I also trust that you have practiced your technique so that you won't mess up." The man's ringed eyes narrowed in irritation. Itachi nodded again.

"Do not fail me."

The Uchiha heard the un-said dismissal, and he calmly rose and glided out of the room. Itachi felt eyes dig into his back as he closed the door silently behind him.

He was as neutral as ever as he walked down the hall, took a sharp left, down some crumbling stone stairs, and through a molding door into a long hallway. Padding towards the last cell on the right, Itachi slowly clenched and un-clenched his fists. Flexing his fingers, he reached forward and pushed on the metal door in front of him.

The hinges squeaked lightly, and the door swung open to reveal Kisame. Itachi stared at the broad back of his partner. Looking over his shoulder, Kisame gave his small companion a toothy grin. In his hand was an utterly disgusting bucket. The woman on the wall – Itachi recalled her name with perfect clarity – was wet and dripping. The raven watched in slight fascination as Mizu's skin quickly became dry as her dehydrated body sucked up the water, and her skin smoothed out slightly.

Itachi's ebony eyes turned towards Kisame when he let out a chuckle. "Are you ready?" He asked. Itachi's answer was to step forward into the room and close the door behind him.

Mizu looked up at him through her tangled mess of hair, and her fading eyes stared determinedly into his own. Walking forward until he was directly in front of her, Itachi came face to face with the prisoner. She faintly reeked of body-odor and the sea. He heard Kisame chuckle once more in the background.

"I will warn you that my method of torture will be different this time around." His voice was level and unperturbed. There was a second of silence as Mizu graciously wet her lips.

"Do your worst you stupid brat." She finally growled and bared her teeth. Her neck craned forward as to enter Itachi's comfort-zone, but the young man gracefully stepped back out of her range. Gently bringing his hands together, Itachi closed his eyes peacefully. There were a few moments of dead air as the raven leveled his breathing.

"If you so wish, then I will."

Itachi's eyes snapped open to reveal a swirling, three-tomo sharingan. Mizu's eyes widened in shock before she feebly tried to shut her eyes with a pained gasp.

"No." Itachi said. Grasping her chin tightly, maybe even in a bruising grip, he raised his other hand to forcibly open Mizu's eyelids. The woman struggled harshly and ripped her head away.

"If you do not stop moving, I will cut your eyelids off." Itachi snatched her chin again, and his eyes rotated faster in annoyance. Pressing his fingertips into her forehead, the Uchiha willingly let go of Mizu's still-closed eyes, giving her a chance to change her mind.

Mizu pursed her lips and chewed her cheek, but she gradually relaxed. Taking a deep breath and smoothing over her features, she snapped her neck to stare the sharingan head-on. "Do – your - worst." She bit out.

The scarlet and ebony pattern spun at a nauseating pace, and Itachi leaned in until he touched heads with the prisoner. Ignoring her bad breath that blew over his face, the raven fixed Mizu with his stare. Her eyes suddenly glazed over, and the woman's neck drooped.

He first dipped into the tenacious woman's conscious with little trouble. However, Mizu's grunt of pain and flickering eyelids proved that her mind was preparing to fight back. Itachi's eyes fell closed as he concentrated.

On the outside all Kisame saw were two people with sweat beading on their faces as they battled it out in a mental palace. But, within the recesses of their intertwined minds, all Itachi saw was a great, white wall towering above him and into oblivion.

He stood in front of the major barrier, cloaked in his Akatsuki garb. This technique is always the most complicated dangerous. To dig into someone's mind and drag forth their memories is no easy feat. I puts me at risk as well because there is always the possibility that she can invade my mind during the break through. Studying the seamless obstruction, Itachi wiggled his strangely-bare toes on the white floor. This must be the woman's defense against penetration of the mind.

Walking up to the wall, Itachi studied the sturdy-looking white rock. Extending his hand, he lightly touched the smooth surface. As his fingers grazed the covering, a shallow crack suddenly blossomed. Redrawing, Itachi silently watched the splice with apprehension. To some the cut would mean that her resolve was weak, but Itachi trusted the tumbling in his stomach. Steeling his nerves, Itachi reached forward again and brushed the crack; a deafening roar followed his bold action.

He jumped back and braced himself. "This is the only way through." He commented. The raven watched the crack travel up the wall. As if responding to him, the gash branched off and suddenly engulfed the once-pure block in black veins. Itachi's eyes widened as the multitude of grooves began to seep a bubbling black tar. He took a short step back.

The tar then thinned out until it was cascading from each and every minuscule cut. It pooled on the ground and rushed against Itachi's feet in small waves. Looking down, he tightened his lips when he saw – and felt – the ink wash over his legs and start to climb up his body.

Glaring at the wall before him, Itachi sprang up into the air. As he did the black water came along. It tickled his bare soles as small droplets brushed him. A twisting tail followed him in his accent, and Itachi finally stared down to look at the unstable black sea beneath him. The inky water frothed and crashed against the wall – which had turned deep ebony. The waves thundered and pounded, and the depths clawed upwards as they tried to gain a firm hold on Itachi.

A sweat had broken out on his forehead, and Itachi landed swiftly on the wall before bouncing off as the black water impacted where he once was. Behind him there was a piercing wail, and the Uchiha turned to witness the water forming together into a wild shape.

Itachi stared in a mix of fear and curiosity as tentacle-like protrusions exploded from the water. A gaping face followed and the tentacles loosened and swirled around a liquid head like wild hair. Itachi landed, hard, on the ground, but the water pulled away from him, leaving the ground a pure white like the ink was never there. The raven looked up, his legs bent and his arms braced in front of him.

The enormous creature before him was withering around in a boneless manner, and two arms split from the mass that was probably its body. The strange beast rose, its two limbs extending to dig black ice-like nails into the white ground as anchors. The tentacle hair suddenly stood straight-up, revealing the rippling visage of a woman. Her mouth was ajar, and there was a row of yard-long knives on the top and bottom. Her watery body churned and a fish tail rose up high before it came crashing down in a ferocious display of power.

Itachi studied the long tail combined with the tangled hair and sharp teeth, and he realized that the creature in front of him was Mizu's real form; this black, crashing barbarian was what she was born as and born to be.

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