A/N: Here we are. Took me long enough, I guess. Don't hate me?

PS: I credit the Sharingan with the ability to experience premotions (images of a possible short term future) based on observation. I didn't bother looking up if that was an actual thing, but I used it here.

:3


After the attack on Konoha, which had done far less damage than it should have, the leader had decided that now was the best time to find the nine tail's jinchuriki. Itachi and his partner Kisame had been dispatched to collect the boy. Given that he hadn't even made it into the genin corps, it should be and easy task, right? For Itachi, it was also the opportunity to see how his little sister was doing. The fact that Orochimaru was trying to get her was no surprise to him, but apparently she had decided to stay with Konoha for now, even with the mark probably festering on her body. The very idea let his Sharingan swirl madly. If he ever got to see Orochimaru again before he died, he would massacre him for weeks on end before he'd let him die with kunai in his heart.

The gates were sparsely guarded, he and Kisame got inside without anyone even taking note of them. "We will make this quick," he told his partner. "The boy is most likely untrained and-"

"On a date with your sister, more likely."

Itachi seldom lost his composure. Actually, he never did. Not up until then. "What?" he asked lowly, trying to keep his eyes from glowing like torches.

Kisame, as the bigger of the two of them, looked over the crowded market, observing. "Blonde, whiskers, blue eyes. Our target, yes?" Itachi merely nodded. "Right, your sister then. Raven hair, a ridiculously severe face and charcoal eyes. Correct?"

Itachi turned in the direction Kisame had been looking at. "Correct," he said tersely, moving through the crowd, towards the other side of the market. His Sharingan glowed lowly, compulsing the people around him to step out of the way. The crowd thinned and he scanned the few stalls for whatever Kisame had seen and, sure enough, in a food stall was his sister, eating with one Naruto Uzumaki. A deep breath and prayer later, Itachi turned to his partner.

"We need to lead the boy away. Too many people for a large scale genjutsu, the ANBU will notice," he told him.

Kisame straightened the bandaged sword on his back, displaying his sharp teeth in a wide grin. "Could it be that you merely want to break up your sister's date?"

Itachi's black eyes shimmered red for half a second before he caught himself. "The target, Kisame," he said again. "We will wait until he is in a more manageable environment."

"Like when he plows your sister in his home?" the blue skinned man asked nonchalantly, yawning for emphasis.

Itachi didn't respond. This had been an assignment. Just some job he had to do in order to stick close to the Akatsuki. Now, though, it was personal. The Uzumaki would died. No one touched his little sister.


Satsuki frowned as he felt a chill crawl up her spine. Probably from Naruto's eating habits. He all but inhaled his meals... How did he turn these noodles into nutrition for all that power he put out? Was that some kind of secret recipe? Couldn't possibly be the case. There were no tomatoes! She had to admit, though, that it wasn't bad altogether, so it was a small sacrifice to make in order to be trained by him.

"How often do you train?" she asked.

He paused, eyes darting over to her. He swallowed before speaking, which kind of surprised her. "Every day," he said. Returning to his bowl - the seventh, goddammit - he shrugged. "Though a year or two ago, I trained three times a day, like, all day."

Aha! Actual information! "And what did you train? Chakra control? Seals?" Seals would most definitely explain a lot.

He looked at her like she had said something stupid. "Uh... no. I, well, no, none of those things."

Her eyes narrowed. So just physical training? Something more extreme than Lee, perhaps? "Physical then. What'd you focus on?"

Naruto appeared uncomfortable, avoiding her eyes. Was it an ungodly number? Or maybe it wasn't physical at all? Then what? What the hell had made him this strong? She was about to needle him for more details when she felt someone's eyes on her. She whirled around in her seat, and, for a split second, she imagined two crimson eyes staring back at her from the passing crowed but it was gone before she could even blink once. Her heart hammered wildly in her chest. What was that?

She shook her head. Her memories haunting her even during the day was nothing new. She'd stomach it, like everything else.

"You okay?"

The question took her aback. She didn't think she had let anything slip. His eyes were gentle, inquisitive, just like she remembered. Satsuki swallowed. "Of course," she said, more harshly than necessary. She finished her bowl in silence, knowing he was observing her out from the corner of his eye. "What do you care?"

He just shrugged, placing the chopsticks on the bow. "Thanks for the food, old man," he directed at the cook.

The man laughed. "Nothing to thank me for, Naruto. Though... if you promise to take Ayame out like you did with your girlfriend here..."

"DAD!" someone, obviously Ayame, squeaked from the kitchen.

Girlfriend. Saitsuki rolled her eyes. As if she had time for things like that. As if she ever could have someone like that. Not after Itachi-

"Come on," Naruto said, hopping off his chair, "You said you wanted to bother me all day and we still have half of it left."

She threw him a withering glare, but followed him out of the ramen stand after an obligatory bow to the chef. "You'll show me how you got so strong," she demanded, following him into the crowded street.

She heard him sigh. "Well, I don't think I trained any harder than you did."

"How would you know that?"

He smiled sheepishly at her, eyes closed. "Oh, well, I still remember seeing you beat the shit out of a log on training ground... uh, 4 or something back there. I remember watching you and being so damn jealous. Though... I never did anything to get strong myself." He turned away, gaze skywards. "Until after I failed the academy, I couldn't see just how much work you put into the strength I envied so much." He shrugged again. "Guess I was just stupid that way."

His words gave her a pause she couldn't explain, the witty response took just a second longer than necessary as the words wouldn't get past her tongue. "You're still an idiot, idiot." There wasn't quite as much bite in her words as she had wanted. They walked in silence after that.


"Is that isolate enough for you?"

Itachi didn't even glance at Kisame when he answered. "Yes."

"And if he's already balls deep in your sister-"

"Not. Another. Word."


Training Ground 4 hadn't changed at all in the years that had passed. The training log she had abused in her academy time was still there. Naruto had a better memory than she would have ever credited him with.

"So you want me to train you, huh?" he mused aloud, strolling into the middle of the training ground. He turned to face her. "Well then, come at me."

Satsuki frowned. "That sounds very pointless," she observed. "I can barely keep up with my Sharingan. You could kill me before I could even flinch."

"Yes," he agreed casually, his eyes suffused with raw power. It made her knees weak. "But I don't have any techniques I could teach you, no scrolls or jutsu, no exercise you could do. So, the best solution, fight me, again and again, until you can keep up."

It weren't just his eyes. His posture, still casual, scared her. Every move, minuscule as it would be, had the potential power to snap her like a twig and kill her before she could plead for her life. He radiated power like the sun radiated light and all it took was a slight change in demeanor. Was he even human? She grit her teeth. It didn't matter. To kill Itachi, she need ed to be stronger. If she could glimpse even a fragment of Naruto's power and claim it as her own, it would be enough to bring down her brother.

Trying to calm her erratically beating heart, she activated her Sharingan and charged.


They had lost track of them momentarily, but when Itachi spotted them again, his sister was sitting against a tree, clothes askew and breathing heavily. There was a lot he had endured, accepted and done himself for the safety of his sister, but this... this was his limit. Never before had he felt his Sharingan pulse this strongly before. These cursed eyes truly lived off hate and anger.

"I will capture him. See to my sister," he instructed, his voice monotone but there was a growl swaying with his words.

Kisame barked a laugh. "Oh I think he did that already."

Itachi dispersed in a murder of crows before he would kill his partner. He appeared in the center of the clearing his target was in, but was surprised to see him stare right at him the moment he materialized. His cool blue eyes betrayed no surprise. In fact, he appeared almost bored. Itachi's eyes flicked to Satsuki, who was still trying to catch her breath, and his Sharingan turned to the Mangekyou all by itself.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said coolly, fury blazing in his eyes, "You will be coming with me."

"So you're Itachi, huh?" Naruto asked him, face dangerously impassive. "Here to finish the job, no?" He jerked his head at Satsuki, who was so thoroughly exhausted, she hadn't even taken notice of him. "And what would you need from me?"

Itachi tilted his head slightly. "You are a jinchuriki," he said, "The Akatsuki want your power, I will take you to them."

Naruto nodded, still perfectly at ease. "Oh, okay, you are one of those guys. Jiraiya mentioned you a while back." A smile, small and eerie, appeared on Naruto's lips. "Means you are pretty strong."

Involuntarily, Itachi took a step back. His eyes had shown him a premotion. And another, and another, over and over. His eyes predicted nothing but death. His own, swiftly and without even a chance to resist. His eyes narrowed. Was this a genjutsu? What in the world-

"Itachi!" Satsuki's voice called, fury and hate tainting it. She rose shakily to charge at him, but Naruto stopped her. "Let me-"

"Stay," he said simply, eyes still trained on him. "Not yet. You will get your chance."

Itachi caught himself. "A chance? Someone as weak as her has no chance. No hope, No future," he drawled monotonously.

Satsuki snarled at him, kicking off of the ground and jumping at him but the jinchuriki's arm brought her down easily.

"Didn't you admit that you can't beat him yet?" he asked her, finally taking his unsettling gaze off him. "If you fight him now, you will die."

Satsuki growled, still snarling at him, glaring death at him with a fully matured Sharingan. But, much to Itachi's surprise, she backed down.

Naruto turned his gaze back to him. "You won't get your fight today, seems like I can't just kill you either. But... your partner is here as well."

How had he-? "What makes you think you will survive?" he asked. "Kisame will tear you to shreds, just enough to take the nine tails from you." Sastuski's eyes widened considerably and she stared at the jinchuriki. She would despise him like the rest did.

Kisame stepped out of the forest, his sword hefted over his shoulder, grinning widely. "Samehada is hungry," he told them gleefully, "I heard you jinchuriki can take quiet a beating. Let's test that out."

"Don't kill him," Itachi reminded, turning his attention back to his little sister.

Out from the corner of his eye, Itachi observed as Kisame charged.

The boy didn't even move before the sword impacted with him full force. The ground gave way as the force of the blow shattered the stone and earth under the jinchuriki's feet. A great plume of dust was generated as the concussive force of Kisame's attack scattered dirt into the surrounding area. Itachi sighed.

"I told you not to kill him," he said. He observed the crater the attack had left. And was... stunned. Right in the very center of the crater, was Uzumaki, his legs driven into the ground to his knees, but otherwise unharmed. Not even his facial expression had changed. Kisame's sword, Samehada, however, had a dent where it supposedly impacted with the jinchuriki's head.

Kisame gaped at the blonde boy. "What in the-!"

"That's it?" the jinchuriki commented morosely, stepping out of the ground with little effort. "You know, I expected an actual fight. Someone who cold take more than one punch."

As seasoned shinobi, Itachi had developed a keen instinct for judging potential danger, powerful enemies and risky situation. At this very moment, all of those told him that his chances of survival were at a point well below nothing. The premotions returned, his eyes foreshadowing one single punch that came at his head before he could even blink, an elbow that served his head clean from the neck, a fist tearing through his gut, an axe kick that cleaved him clean in two. Death. Death. Death. Over and over all he could see as any possible move from Naruto was his own demise.

He took a step back, a tremor going through his body. Fear. He felt fear. Fear for his life, like he hadn't felt it since his genin days. Kisame didn't seem to have grasped the certainty of their death yet.

"Hard head, huh?" he growled. "You hurt Samehada! You will pay!" He went through a couple of handseals, Itachi recognized them as the Water Dragon Jutsu, but before he could verbally activate the technique, Naruto appeared in front of him. Itachi hadn't seen him move. His hand grabbed Kisame's head, the palm closing off his mouth.

"Yeah, can't have you flatten the place," the jinchuriki said, almost remorsefully as Kisame flailed uselessly against his grip. "Would have been cool to see what you were capable off." He reared back his other hand, fingers curling into a fist. "Shame, really."

For a second, Itachi dared to doubt a punch that sloppy without any kind of chakra backing it would do any damage to Kisame.

He was wrong.

His partners midsection vaporized upon impact. There hadn't been a single moment registered by Itachi's eyes in which the damage had unfolded gradually, but rather it all happened instantly. After the initial impact, the concussive force of the jinchuriki's punch rippled visible outwards through the air, tearing apart the rest of Kisame's body into a bloody mist. By the time the earth was blown apart underneath his feat, all that was left was Kisame's head in Naruto's hand, eyes still wide with surprise.

The head hit the ground with a dull thud, jolting Itachi out of his shock. "What are you?" he dared to ask as the dust settled. The boy didn't even seem affected after having displayed such power. Not even Pain could throw that much raw power around without one of his bodies going down.

"Me?" The jinchuriki shrugged. "Just some civilian in Konoha." And just as he said that, he hit Satsuki in the back of her neck. She slumped down, unconscious. His icy ice narrowed at him. "Let me make this very clear. I could kill you without moving from here. I should, really, considering what you did to your family. But Jiraiya told me what you are doing, your stupid reasons aside."

Itachi tried hard not to grimace. Why in the world would Jiraiya tell the jinchuriki all this? Then again, considering that he was as overpoweringly strong as Pain himself, it would at least seem reasonable. At least it would to someone like Jiraiya. Itachi scowled. He did not need this interference. After all he had done, whatever he had dreamed of in the future, was being ripped viciously from his hands and far out of his control.

"You own sister becomes nothing but some kind of rabid animal just by seeing you!" the jinchuriki spat at him. "You killed hundreds to spare her life but in the end, all you did was make it miserable!"

Better miserable than dead. Better miserable than succumbing to the fate that would have awaited her otherwise. Better miserable than going down the same path as all the others. Itachi tired not to grimace. He needed to leave. He couldn't win here, no now, and probably not ever. So he reverse summoned himself to the crows before anything more could happen.

He vanished in a small poof of smoke, one last glance at his little sister, burning the image into his mind.


Kakashi and Yugao emerged from the trees surrounding the training area the moment Itachi had vanished. Naruto didn't spare them a glance. He was in no mood to. Somewhere deep down, he thought that he might understand Itachi, could sympathize with what he did and why he did it. But, he told himself, there had to have been another way. One to solve that whole Uchiha situation stuff without just slaughtering them all. Naruto never got all the details, but he wouldn't have taken that way, no matter what.

He glanced down at Satsuki, breathing steadily. Well, how was he supposed to tell her that her brother wasn't actually a crazy murder and somehow still was a crazy murderer but with a good heart. He shook his head. This was one mess he hadn't expected to be involved in. Then again, he was a jinchuriki - not that he had ever noticed that before - so Itachi and all those other weirdos were trying to get the nine tails in his gut. Which meant that he would have to fight them. Ad that meant he would really prefer not to kill the only remaining family Satsuki had.

"Whose head is that?" Kakashi asked him evenly.

He was obviously still a bit on edge, given that he wasn't reading in his book. Naruto imagined that it was hard to try and comprehend his power. Heh, well, Kakashi wasn't the first one to have that particular problem. Naruto had a hard time grasping it when it suddenly made itself known, but now it was as easy as breathing.

"Dunno," Naruto answered. "Ki...saru? Kisama? Something like that?"

"Kisame," Yugao corrected, taking off her mask. She stared at him. "He was one of the Seven swords men of the mist."

Was that supposed to impress him? "Okay," he said, not really aring for who that guy was, so he picked up Satsuki instead. Damn, she was so light. And soft. "I'll take her home," he told them.

He vanished with a sonic boom, leaving a crater where he had been standing, before either of them could get a word in.


"You told him of Itachi?" Hiruzen asked his former student incredulously.

Jiraiya had the decency to look sheepish. "Yes, well, I wasn't allowed to tell him I'm his godfather. And I figured someone strong enough to one hit a bijuu could use the information a lot better than me."

The Hokage sighed, falling back into his chair. He massaged his brow with one hand, the other grabbing for his pipe. "We still don't know why he is that powerful," Hiruzen said testily. "If it stems form the Kyuubi-"

"The seal is in perfect condition," Jiraiya cut in sharply. "Minato would never have made a mistake with his own son!"

"That is not the point!" Hiruzen pointed out. "Seal or not, the Kyuubi is contained inside of Naruto's chakra system. Even I know that there is no fool proof way to completely seal a bijuu, not if one tries to harness it's power. And we both know that Minato wanted that to happen."

Jiraiya back down, harshly exhaling air from his nose. "It is a mistake to keep this from him. He needs to know who his parents are, better now than never."

"His parent's-" Hiruzen began, but Jiraiya slammed both palms hard into the desk.

"I know that they had enemies!" Jiraiya all but shouted. "But what does that matter if he's as strong as he is? What would Kumo or Iwa possibly do against someone who killed Orochimaru and a fully unleashed bujuu in the span of half an hour, and then ran circles around every ANBU in the village so he could eat twenty seven bowls of ramen in peace!" He took a deep breath. "Kakashi told me he needed half a day to even track him down, and then it turned out he had never left his home!"

Hiruzen remained silent as Jiraiya calmed down. "What would he do?" the old Hokage asked quietly. "Tell me, what would he do if he found out we kept this form him for such feeble reasons? Enemies of his parents? Pah!" he spat. "If he would have been surrounded my allies, by friends and his parents friends, no one would have been able to touch him. I merely told myself it was better this way."

Jiraiya stared at his old teacher for a moment before sitting back down in his chair. "How should be do this?" he asked. "Because I will tell him when I next see him."

The Hokage was silent, staring at the pipe in his hands. "It was a gift," he said eventually. "From Minato on the day he took over."

The toad sage remained silent.

"I... I will tell him," Hiruzen said, putting the pipe down. "You're right, and he deserves to know anyways."


Satsuki was in the foulest of moods since Orochimaru had trounced her in the exam. Not only had she been unable to fight Itachi, moreover did she have to admit that she couldn't have won either way. It made her angry, being so weak. The training post she was abusing cracked loudly as her heel dug into the wood, but it didn't break. With a furious growl she slammed her elbow into the same spot as hard as she could. Her entire arm burned as the impact rattled her bones, eliciting another wooden groan from the post. It didn't break.

She almost screamed as she drove her knee into it, followed by her entire body weight. With one last snap, the post broke in half, the top sent flying near the tree line.

Satsuki cursed under her breath. Seven hits. It took her seven hits to break a training post. Naruto had vaporized a man with just one. A bit shaky, she stood and moved to the next training post, intent on shattering it with her next blow.

"Not much of a difference from how I trained."

She didn't flinch in surprise. Satsuki had know he was observing her for a while now. Naruto sat down on a stone, near the top half of the broken training post. He unpack something from a bag slung around his shoulder. Her nose twitched. Whatever it was, she could smell it from here. It reminded her of the fact that she hadn't eaten since noon the day before.

"You need to eat something," he said, "Unless, of course, you want to starve before you get strong enough to fight your brother."

Her Sharingan came alive, her gaze spitting venom at him. He wasn't affected. Satsuki wasn't surprised. But when her stomach growled loudly, almost painfully, she decided that maybe she really needed to eat something. Muscle didn't regenerate well on an empty stomach. Disgruntled, Satsuki sat down besides Naruto and took the wrapped food he offered.

It was a sandwich, lots of greens, a bit of meat and - most importantly - huge slices of tomatoes. She stared at it for a second. Why would he...? She decided she didn't care. From the first bite on, it tasted excellent, and it filled her more than she had expected it to. She had been a little lost, eating the delicious sandwich, for when Satsuki looked up again after she finished, she found Naruto staring bemusedly at her.

"What?" she asked defiantly. Was he expecting a thank you?

He shook his head, laughing. "No, nothing. It just seems you really, really like tomatoes. Even more than I thought you did." She noticed that he hadn't even finished half of his own sandwich.

She frowned. He was mocking her. She dropped the wrapping, put her left hand down on the stone and kicked off the ground. Her legs snapped up lighting fast, aimed at his head.

Her attack passed seemingly right through him.

How did he-? Satsuki hadn't even seen him move. She managed to reel her legs back in before she lost balance after the full spin. Her Sharingan flared alive, spinning as fast as she could force it to accelerate her perception even further. She lashed out again, this time with her elbow.

She saw him move this time. He smirked at her, a wide, easy smile. Her elbow came very close to his nose but he just leaned back out of it's way. Even though she could perceive everything faster now, she could not simply stop her recklessly thrown elbow. Even as she tried to reel back, Naruto stood up, casually walked around her and squatted down right in front of her.

"You want to fight? This soon after eating?" she read of his lips. "Well, be my guest."

She had a bad feeling about this. Her other arm was already on it's way to his midsection but he just grabbed it and without any warning threw her all across the Training field, over the trees, and towards Konoha. She barely held back a scream as she tumbled through the air.

Left standing in the field, Naruto scratched his cheek. "Well, I might have over done it with this one."


Kakashi observed how the young Uchiha heiress dragged herself back into her home by the skin of her teeth. He hadn't imagined Naruto to such a ruthless trainer, but whatever he did was utterly exhausting Satsuki to the point where she wouldn't keep her severity in place anymore. Yugao, who was watching Naruto, did not see any exhaustion on him. Instead, he looked rather thoughtful as he returned to his apartment.

She sat outside of his window in a tree, concealed by the leaves and an additional genjutsu just in case. Despite her stealth skills, Naruto, after he sat down on the windowsill, looked directly at her and waved her to come closer. Yugao was started, of course, but decided that it didn't matter anyways.

"Do you think I should fight the Akatsuki?" he asked of her.

She hesitated. "Well, they will come after you," she said carefully, "But in the end it's the Hokage who makes those decisions."

"But I'm not a Shinobi," he argued, "While I have to obey his law, I'm not at his command."

She licked her lips. "That is... not quite right," she told him. "As the jinchuriki, you are a military asset to the village."

He huffed. "Right, right. Of course there was something like that." He pushed off the windowsill and opened the window for her. "Tea?" he offered, smiling sheepishly.

Yugao almost gaped at him. Had she been eight years younger... She accepted anyways, and climbed in trough the window. "Please," she said a little belatedly.

With a nod, he headed into the small kitchen. When Yugao had sat down, he sighed loudly.

"You know," he began, putting a kettle on the stove. "I think I might be in love with Satsuki."

"Oh." Well, it wasn't that unexpected. "And why do you say it like it's a bad thing?"

He paused after opening a cabinet. Yugao spied a lot of cup ramen stashed away right besides a box, probably filled with tea, and cereals. "It isn't?"

Yugao almost laughed. "Naruto," she said, "Satsuki could most definitely use someone like you in her life. She's... well, she needs something else in her life..."

"Aside from revenge?" Naruto supplied. "Hollow and false revenge?" He shook his head, turning to face her, leaning against the stove. "She's... incredibly single minded. It's all about killing her brother. And even though he probably deserves it, it's not for the reason she wants to." He abruptly closed his mouth, eyes wide as he peered nervously at her. Yugao merely returned a curious glance. "Uh... you... you do know about the whole Itachi being a double agent thing, right?"

"That's what made you nervous?" she asked him incredulously. "Not admitting to someone you knew for maybe two weeks that you are in love?"

"Well, yeah!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "As far as I know, there's a death sentence on spilling that! And I don't wanna fight all of you guys, you know?"

The kettle behind him began to shriek softly as the steam escaped it's lid. When Naruto turned back around, Yugao shook her head in amusement. As she watched him pour two cups, she wondered if he could break Satsuki out of her thirst for revenge. Itachi's reasons for doing what he had done... well, maybe if there had been more time. Itachi had been forced into this situation and choose the one way he could go at the time to save his sister. Even if it was a bloody one.

"Thank you," she said when he placed a cup in front of her. On a side note, Yugao acknowledged to herself that Naruto could probably really fight all of them at once and would emerge victorious. It was... unsettling, to say the least. Naruto didn't act like he possessed all the strength in the world, even though it certainly looked like it. His modesty was almost scary.

"So?" he said, tacking a sip from his tea, "What do you propose I do about it?"

She blinked. Why was he asking her that? "Well, fighting the Akatsuki is-"

"Not that," he huffed, waving his hand dismissively. "About Satsuki!"

She sighed. Only he would be able to think about the girl instead of the organization with a supposed god leading them that was coming after him. Yugao took a sip from her tea. It was surprisingly good. Before she could even start lecturing him on how to woo a woman and be as little as possible like Kakashi in that way - because that didn't work on woman (aside from her) - there was a single knock on the door, followed by it's opening.

"Who could that be?" Naruto wondered, rising from his seat.

Yugao was only mildly surprised when the Hokage himself stuck his head into the kitchen. A single key dangled from a leather band he held in his hand. It looked worn, almost rusty. "I see you didn't change the look at all, Naruto," he said by way of greeting, barely even glancing at he, which either meant she was fine and he had known she had been here, or she was in huge trouble for drinking tea with the person she was supposed to observe form the shadows.

Naruto grinned at him. "Why would I? No one tries to break in here." The 'Anymore' was left unspoken. "Sit with us," he offered the Hokage.

"It's been too long since I was last here," Hiruzen admitted ruefully as he took a seat at the small table, thanking Naruto quietly as he poured him a cup.

"So what brings you here, old man?" Naruto asked, "Is this about the Akatsuki stuff? Because I have bigger problems right now."

Yugao snorted into her tea cup. Bigger problems, indeed.


"You return alone."

Itachi merely nodded curtly. The unblinking eyes of Pain, even as a projection, were unsettling. The eyes of a god. "Kisame has been killed," he said. "The Kyuubi's vessel has grown far to strong."

The silhouette of Pain that hovered over the skeletal thumb of the showed no reaction whatsoever, the Rinnegan eyes still staring at him unblinkingly. "Has he gained control over the beast?"

Itachi had no idea. There had been no outward signs of that, in fact, there hadn't even been signs of chakra at all. "No," he said after a minute pause. "And yet he was able to kill Kisame with nothing but a punch to the stomach." Itachi couldn't tell if Pain was unsettled by this, but he knew that he himself still was.

"I see," Pain said simply. "Hidan and Kakazu are already on their way. I imagined your sister would distract you."

Itachi whole body tensed. "My weak little sister has-"

"You may leave," Pain interrupted him, "Prepare with Sasori and Deidara to take Shukaku," and the projection vanished, leaving Itachi alone with the Demonic statue.

Self proclaimed god against godlike powers. Itachi wondered who would win, and if he'd be alive to see it.


"Maaan! I need to fucking kill someone already! My god demands sacrifice!"

"Hidan," a hooded man growled, scowling at the silver haired man that was strutting ahead of him. "Shut the hell up. If I can't get my money because you messed up, I will cash in your bounty!"

"Jashin demands sacrifice!" Hidan hollered back, throwing his arms and his three bladed scythe into the air.

The hooded man, Kakuzu, sighed. "Fine, have it your way. We are close to Konoha anyways. Kill whomever you want. After the job is done."

Hidan grinned maniacally, licking the blade of his scythe. "This is going to be fun!"


A/N: This story won't be especially long. Maybe two more chapters. And the gods only know when I get to sit down and write those...

:3