an: As usual, thanks to my wonderful beta AlmostElectric. You should totally read her story, Uzumaki.

Chapter Fifteen
An Invitation to Akatsuki

The table at Fugaku and Mikoto's home had been low, and they always sat on the floor, folded carefully into the proper positions. It was usually quiet, unless one of the parents decided to discuss Itachi's shinobi training, or her missions, or later, Sasuke's training.

The whole affair was, frankly, stuffy and sort of quiet. The few times that Shisui had come and had dinner with the rest of them had been very awkward, since he was very generally a loud person and really quite obnoxious, when the mood struck. Needless to say, they really only had him when Fugaku was away, for dinner.

It wasn't that she didn't love her father, but that he was a stiff, formal man and sometimes didn't understand the idea of a casual conversation. And if she'd even mentioned the idea of having dinner in front of the tv, she'd have been stared at, as if she just proposed they all parade down the streets with 'I love the Senju!' shirts on.

Fugaku had hated many things, only a few which eclipsed his distaste of Tsunade.

The civilian family she'd, on a whim, decided to stay the night with, however, ate in front of the tv, in what could charitably be considered organized chaos. And, the husband had cooked, even.

Mikoto had always done that. Itachi had made some assumptions about that, in the past, but she realized that Mikoto was, well, Mikoto, and she wasn't necessarily the kind of woman that would have let a man tell her what to do quite like that, husband or no, and maybe her position was more to the fact that she enjoyed it or wanted to make sure her kids had support, growing up, rather than sexism.

Which, Itachi had realized with all the force of a gut-punch, hadn't really been something Fugaku cared about. Hence his almost immediate acceptance of her gender. An admirable thing, she thought.

But watching, Itachi couldn't help be captivated as Misako leaned over and rapped her brother on the head, sharply. He squawked, wildly, and flailed his arms, in retaliation. Itachi noted absently that her parents would have scolded Sasuke for such a poor display, not for attacking in the first place, for such a poor technique. Even she would have shown him how to jab someone, in return.

But in this odd family of civilians, no one said anything about it. It was odd. Itachi felt odd, among them. Misako was friendly, if a little wary, but it was very clear that she thought being a ninja was The Coolest Thing Ever.

Hence the questions. Itachi could tell, just from the way that Misako turned to her, what she was going to ask.

"What's your brother like?" she asked.

Oh. Well. That wasn't quite it. Itachi fumbled her words, for a moment.

"He's a good boy," she said. "He loves training." Which… was about all she could say about him. She was a terrible sister, wasn't she? What did he like? "He likes tomatoes, too."

But Sasuke didn't really have any hobbies, other than looking up to her. At least, it didn't seem like he did. And, well, that was a while ago. Maybe he had different hobbies now.

She sure did. Although, some of her hobbies remained the same. So hopefully Sasuke's did too.

"That's nice," Misako said, smiling gently.

"He's still learning to be a ninja so he spends most of the day at school," Itachi pointed out, as if she had to defend herself. Which - she really shouldn't.

Something to think on, at least.

It happened suddenly, and then all at once. Itachi was walking alongside the wagon, as it rumbled through the snow, up the path alongside the cliff. The sun was high, and the river was creaky, frozen, below. The wind rustled through the canyon, but Itachi wasn't cold. Maybe she should have been, but the many-layer kimono that she'd taken to wearing was apparently suitable for all weather. Or she was just inhuman enough for little things like temperature not to matter.

On that subject, she definitely should have been burning up in the sun. She would have burned in sunlight like this before, particularly since it was reflected off the snow. The Uchiha had a pale complexion that burned very easily. But now, her bone-white skin didn't have a bit of red in it - it was as white as the snow around it. It was as if someone had dipped her in a bucket of paint.

At one point, she noticed it - a sudden rustling, a skittering in the air. She perked up, coming to attention, and then the woman was there, in front of her.

Itachi's first thought was that no one had quite managed to sneak up on her like this before. Granted, she'd concealed her third eye and turned off her dojutsu, and maybe that was the reason. But even then, her reflexes should have tipped her off.

Her second thought, less helpfully, was pretty. The woman had a sharp face, not soft and delicate, but elegant and savage and hewn from jagged glass. She wasn't glitz, or glam, or flashy distractions, or knives hidden behind smooth silk.

No, this woman was power. Strength and speed without a need for subtlety. A shinobi instead of a kunoichi. Itachi had to admire that. For a long moment, that was all they did - stare at each other.

And then the words slipped from Itachi's traitorous mouth, before she could stop them.

"You have exquisite - um - technique…"

The woman raised one cool, unimpressed eyebrow. "Thank you."

Itachi felt like a river goblin, a grimy little slug that had just crawled its way out of the muck.

Misako popped her head out of the wagon. "Are we under attack?" she asked, blearily.

"No," Itachi said. Misako shrugged, and withdrew, even if she was still watching, over the edge, The comb she'd given Itachi did mesh very well with her hair, and kept the length contained. It was red, with a white flower pattern. A poor fit for the merchant's daughter, but a decent fit for Itachi. It was a bit obvious a ploy, but Itachi was willing enough to sell her friendship for a comb.

"Uchiha Itachi," the woman pronounced, carefully. She was covered head to toe in an Akatsuki cloak, except for her very fashionable shoes. "You are her, yes?"

"I am." Might be news to her clients, but Itachi didn't know how much she paid attention to ninja stuff. Uchiha Itachi was almost certainly famous in many circles.

"Did you kill two members of Akatsuki in the Land of Lightning, five weeks ago?"

"I did."

The woman pursed her lips. "I'm here to offer you a position as their replacement in our organization." Itachi was a little bit relieved that it wasn't going to come to a fight.

"Madara-sama has already given me quite the spiel," Itachi said, baring her teeth. "I accept, of course."

Konan, however, didn't so much as blink at Itachi's dramatics. "Good."

"I do have a prior commitment, however," she explained, rapping a knuckle on the wood. "I said I'd escort these people to Kyuugo."

The woman, however, continued as if she had not spoken. "I am Konan. In our organization, you will answer to me or our leader, who you will refer to as Leader-sama. He will contact you through this." She held out a ring.

Itachi recognized it as the one that she took off of the swordsman with Kubikiribocho. It had a red jewel and a character: vermilion. She took it.

"It is to be worn on the right ring finger." Itachi noticed that Konan wore hers on her middle finger. "Leader-sama will contact you once the current mission is over."

"Won't be more than a week," Itachi promised.

Konan nodded.

And just like that, she melted away into paper. What an incredibly stylish jutsu.

Itachi was just a little bit in love.

The capital of Fire Country, Kyuugo, was large, for the Land of Fire - a few hundred thousand people, built on a hill above a river. The palace was a sprawling complex at the top of the hill, and most of the masses toiled down by the river.

Itachi left the caravan by the gates; she didn't mind Misako - the other girl was friendly, and interested in Itachi, but Itachi was too socially awkward to want to deal with her for longer than a few days. A week was pushing it - Itachi was a genius shinobi, a human experiment, and most importantly, a loner. Not exactly a normal human being. More than one conversation a day was too much.

So she skipped out, departing and promising to return, someday. She probably wouldn't get around to it, but Itachi didn't think it was that much of a problem. She wasn't truly worried about that.

Her ring hadn't twitched, in the last week, or so, so she hopped into the woods, tree-hopping away from Kyuugo. She didn't want to stay for long, so close to the Leaf's seat of power. Maybe it was worth visiting, while she had the chance.

Seeing Misako and her brother had made her think of such things. She wasn't immune to the thought. And she was so very close…

It couldn't hurt. Konoha certainly had no idea what they were doing, when it came to finding her. She turned south, hopping from treetop to treetop. She'd sort of missed travelling like this. It brought back memories of a more pleasant time, when she was still on missions with Katsu-sensei and Kane and Yuugao. Back when, even if her body issues were worse, there wasn't the weight of the massacre, and her status as a missing-nin.

The treeline stretched out before her, and she found herself looking forward to seeing Sasuke.

He would have grown. She didn't want to miss it.

Go to Casino Gintama, in Tanzaku Gai. Your partner will meet you there. Ask for room Four. The challenge phrase is, 'What do the rains bring?' and your response will be, 'God's peace.'

The message came, loud and thick in her ears, as she hopped through Fire Country. Itachi stopped. She was near Konoha, but still outside of the range of patrols, for the moment. Most of the patrols within Fire Country were the long patrols, around the border, and the much more frequent ones around Konoha itself. Those were every few hours, so Itachi had plenty of time to make it to Tanzaku Gai.

Annoying, that she would be saddled with a partner, but Obito had made it clear that there was plenty of time where they had time to themselves. So there would be time to creep back into Konoha, soon. She wasn't worried.

She hopped into a run, from there. Tanzaku Gai was far from the nicest place in Fire Country, so it made sense that the Akatsuki had pull there. Maybe she owed Obito an apology, if the Akatsuki were more closely associated with the yakuza than she thought.

The act of tree-running was more soothing than she'd expected. It was almost nice, to be able to fall into the familiar motions, letting her legs stretch and the gentle swells of chakra.

The miles loped by, and Itachi thought about the prospect of that - a partner. She sort of already had one; Obito. They'd worked pretty well together, the time they spent bounty hunting. It was comfortable, if nothing else. And she'd really rather like to work with him again. That was one of the downsides of speaking to Konan like that, she supposed. It wasn't like she could request him, since he was supposed to be the shadow leader.

Maybe, if she was lucky, she'd get Orochimaru. He had been pleasant, and he'd definitely not want to steal her body, this time, now that he had a superior one of his own. There was a real upside to that, she considered.

And the only other person she'd heard of, Hoshigaki Kisame. He sounded interesting, if nothing else. She expected she'd probably be able to get along with him, at least.

A few hours later, she wrapped herself up in a traveling cloak and concealed her hitai-ate. The slash through the Konoha symbol was enough, to tip off certain people this deep into Fire Country. There was bound to be at least one loyalist, and that alone might be enough to cause her some trouble if she was too obvious about it.

It left her third eye uncovered, but that was acceptable. She drew the floppy hood up, around her horns and her eye, and left her other eyes black.

And then she strode through town, breath puffing out in the chilly air. It was still the morning, so it wasn't very busy, now. Tanzaku Gai was definitely a town that was more active, the longer the day went on. Most of the tight streets were packed with wild neon signs, but they were dark, now, and the streets were empty of everything but refuse, from last night.

She was a little bit surprised that the casino was open. There were only a few older people, plucking away at the slot and pachinko machines, as she walked by. It was a little funny, in a spy sort of way. She was the spooky dark figure walking through a casino at eleven in the morning in a dark cloak, on no-doubt nefarious business.

And this feeling only intensified when she approached a thin-looking man in dark clothes with a tattoo on his neck, in front of Room Four.

He asked for the password, and Itachi gave it. He let her in, and she stepped into a low room, where the floor was tatami - interesting. She wasn't quite expecting that sort of traditional thing in a place like this. She took off her shoes, and divested herself of her cloak, stepping into the room.

There was Obito, lounging on the floor barefoot, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. He glanced up, wearing his orange mask with one hole, the swirly one, at her entrance. There was a kotatsu inside, warm-looking and he had a mug of what looked like tea. Itachi slipped in, under the blanket on the other side of him.

"Yo," he said, tilting his head.

"Hey," she greeted, warmly. "It's you, then."

He shrugged. "Might as well pull some of my own weight. Let Nagato realize that I'm actually sort of serious about this thing."

"Oh?" she asked.

"Well, it came as a bit of a shock to him that I changed my tune," he explained, leaning forward and pouring her tea, into a cup. "Explaining the Kotoamatsukami was probably not going to go over well, though."

"Yeah," she agreed, smirking. "So you're stuck with the peons. I was sort of hoping it'd be you. Or Orochimaru."

"He was Nagato's first choice," Obito commented, sipping tea through his mask. He was cheating with Kamui, because he was a loser. "But I could list about a dozen reasons why that would have ended in disaster."

She huffed. "Rude."

"Forgive me if I'm not about to let two S-rank nin without consciences loose on the world, without supervision."

Itachi folded her arms, feeling a little bit indignant. "And here I was actually thinking I owed you an apology."

"An apology?" he asked. "You know what those are?"

"See, this is why you don't deserve one," she explained patiently, leaning forward, and sipping her tea. Light, and fruity. Not what she'd expected out of him.

"Fine," he grumbled. "What were you going to say?"

"I was just thinking that this meetup was very clandestine. Almost yakuza-like, one might say. And I said that the Akatsuki weren't yakuza-like at all. So, yeah."

He laughed, throwing his head back. "Yeah, almost like someone planned it that way."

"Did you set up this clandestine meet-up… for me?" she asked, picking up her tea again.

Obito laughed harder. "A-yup," he said.

Itachi felt, inexplicably, very flattered. "Thank you," she said, sincerely. "And since I'm now in your little club," she waggled a finger holding her ring, for emphasis, "it's officially, by both our definitions, not a boy-band."

"I'm glad you think so," he said, dryly. "Speaking of which, I did get you something." And he pulled a pile of clothing out of his Kamui. It landed, awkwardly, on the tatami. "That outfit might be a bit… you might want a change of clothes, is all."

"That's very kind of you," she admitted. "As nice as this kimono is, it's still an iro muji. Too fancy to be doing ninja things in by far. And you're right, I was sort of getting sick of it."

"Isn't it a funeral kimono?" he asked, sipping his tea again.

"I was pretty sure it's just black," she said, mildly. "As strange as that sounds." She leaned forward, and picked up the bundle. On top was a very familiar cloak, sized for her. At thirteen she was much smaller than an adult.

Underneath, there was a pair of loose-fitting black pants and a similarly loose, kimono-style top, like a samurai would wear. They were made of warm cotton, and tucked underneath the cloak. A thin silk belt, some expensive-looking athletic underwear designed for shinobi and a fresh roll of bandages, for wrapping.

"Thanks," Itachi repeated. At this point, he'd been supplying her clothes for months, and thus, it wasn't that weird for him to buy her stuff like this. It was how he'd known her sizes. "I'm pretty excited about having a cool cloak like this. Makes me feel…"

She paused, grinning a little, "Dangerous."

Obito tipped his head back and laughed, loud and long and genuine. "You're such a nerd."

Itachi's face burned with shame. "Don't be mean. Now I feel completely uncool."

"That's because you are. I mean, Akatsuki isn't really all that cool. Everyone's a weirdo."

She folded her arms. "I dunno, Konan was pretty cool. Besides!" She pointed at him, remembering. "I have a bone to pick with you!"

"Oh?" he asked, sounding amused.

"You didn't tell me she was a stone-cold fox."

He stopped, cup raised halfway to his mouth, and stared. "What."

"Konan-san. I mean, I didn't know she'd be like that." Itachi grinned. "She was real pretty."

"...Are we talking about the same person?" Obito asked, seriously. "Tall, blue hair, orange eyes, creepy as hell?"

"I mean, that description sounded right until you said she was creepy! She's beautiful!"

"Itachi," Obito said, slowly, like she was very little. "Itachi. Konan is creepy. In fact, I find her about equally as creepy as her partner, Pein, who is a corpse walking around, puppeted by his best friend. Konan's totally alive, and not dead at all, and she's just as creepy as Pein."

"I can't believe you're doing this to me," Itachi said, inexplicably betrayed. "Are you… gay? Or something? I mean, it's totally okay if you are, and I suppose Kakashi is pretty good-looking, but-"

"I'm not gay!" Obito protested. "You little brat!"

Itachi grinned, widely, letting her teeth show. "And Konan-san is pretty."

"Whatever you say, Itachi-chan." He turned his mask away. "Of all the people, it had to be her."

She was feeling a little bit slighted, so she turned away, and gathered up the new clothes. "I'm going to change," she declared, primly. "You can wait outside."

"Oh, is that how it is?" he asked. "What if I want to finish my tea?"

She considered it for a long moment, for deciding that he'd seen her naked before. Hell, he'd helped plan her body. It wasn't something he hadn't seen before.

She stood up and stepped away from the kotatsu, gathering chakra into her elbows, before reaching back and untying her obi. Most people wouldn't be able to untie it, knotted behind her back as it was, but Itachi had once invented a flexibility jutsu, and it came in handy now. It came undone, and she grasped it.

"Oi, brat, what are you doing?"

"You wanted to finish your tea," she pointed out, mildly, "and it's nothing you've not seen before. We are going to be partners, right? Might as well get used to it."

He let out a long sigh, and she could tell he was rolling his eyes. "I'm calling your bluff."

"Go on." And she emptied her pockets, laying scrolls and kunai and other assorted oddments, her stolen tanto, onto the surface of the kotatsu. A few moments later, and she was sealing her worn kimono and dirty clothes into separate scrolls, and Obito was determinedly sipping his tea, staring away, at a painting of a sakura tree, in blossom, the pale sun behind it a contrast in pinks and oranges.

She donned the new clothing quickly - the pants had satisfyingly deep pockets, and the top a few satisfying places to hide things, near her stomach, and the robe was just full of material. It even had inner pockets, and the material was thick and rich. Warm enough for the winter weather, for sure, although she thought that summers in Fire Country and Wind Country might make it too much.

"I'm decent now," she declared. "I was planning on visiting Sasuke, on the way over. How would you feel about that?"

He shrugged, looking back at her. "If I can finish my tea first."

She relaxed back down, her legs folded, and picked up her tea again. "Sure."

They had dodged the outer patrol, easily, hopped quickly over the wall, and were in the forests surrounding the Uchiha Compound when a pair of ANBU showed up.

Itachi glanced up.

Three quick handseals, an uttered, "Watatsumi," and they were drowning, having not had the time to inhale a breath. To them, the entirety of Konoha was underwater, and the sun was gone, obscured by kilometers of water in front of them.

It was, as she thought, a bit of a nasty genjutsu. Itachi had actually spent a bunch of time underwater at the hot springs to develop it. She couldn't exactly simulate the sensation of being underwater that deep, because the pressure was likely to kill a person without protective equipment, but learning the intricacies of being underwater was easy enough. And the sensation of having swallowed some, too.

Although that had required some time with Kuro, who'd been willing to rescue her from the hot springs when she'd inhaled too much water.

She was proud of it. There was a moment of horrified silence, when both ANBU choked, wildly. Itachi could not actually rob them of their breath, but she did have the ability to fool their brains into thinking that there was water, seeping into their lungs. That was sort of the point of the illusion - to make a situation that, upon first witnessing it, someone would panic instead of do the sensible thing.

And every second of panic she could create in even a seasoned ANBU was an eternity to two S-rank opponents. In something close to tandem, they both darted forward, and bashed their heads against the trees behind them, knocking them out cold. Itachi had killed too many Leaf ANBU already, after her disastrous hot springs adventure, and Obito was a pacifist, or as much of a pacifist as a dangerous missing-nin could be.

The ANBU slumped, and they lay them under a tree. Itachi glanced at Obito, his mask was staring down.

"They deviated from the pattern. This is concerning."

"It is," Itachi agreed. "Very concerning. But how could they have noticed us? The Leaf hasn't updated patrol routes in years. They must have known we were coming, somehow."

Obito glanced back at her. "Keep moving."

Itachi agreed.

Thirty seconds later, she was forced to slow down, because of the pitter-patter of footsteps rushing towards her. She whirled, glancing to the side, and had a brief, horrifying vision of a huge, blue-sandaled foot, flying towards her face.

"DYNAMIC! EEEEEEENTRY!"

And then the world went white.