Inside a cozy wooden cabin deep inside Fire Country's thick forests Itachi closed his eyes and sighed. It had been raining all day and was starting to drive him nuts – not that he'd ever admit that aloud mind you. He took off his forehead protector, removed his ponytail and ran his fingers through his hair. The door to his little cabin left to his futon opened and Kisame, his blue fish-man partner, walked in. Itachi didn't comment on the cuts and bruises on Kisame's face, figuring Kisame was able enough of a ninja to take care of himself and instead, he removed his shirt and laid down.

Eyes closed he could hear Kisame tidying up, probably after him. He had after all left his cloak on the floor near the fireplace, his shoes in the kitchen and his shirt on the coffee table in front of him. Suddenly all his clothes were atop him.

"Learn to friggen clean up after yourself damnit!" Itachi blinked, Kisame hadn't minded before. "Jesus Itachi, you're like a child." Kisame walked towards the small door leading to the kitchen, stopped and was about to say something but closed his mouth as he thought better of it. Itachi of course, just pushed his clothes to the floor beside him, he could clean up later. Closing his eyes again, he slowly drifted to sleep.

A smash from the kitchen however woke him up shortly afterwards. Kisame screamed in fury and started swearing at whatever Itachi assumed he had dropped. Grunting, Itachi rolled over, but Kisame's colourful language wouldn't allow him to sleep, and more smashing came from the kitchen. Annoyed, Itachi got up to investigate. Upon opening the door he meekly dodged a kunai aimed for his head. Turns out Kisame hadn't dropped anything, but a Konoha ANBU had come through the kitchen window.

Quickly grabbing that kunai, Itachi launched it back at the intruder. Realizing how much of a disadvantage Kisame was at without his sword, Itachi threw himself into battle exchanging punches and kicks with his opponent meanwhile dodging the island in the middle of a kitchen. Whoever thought an island in a kitchen was a great idea was clearly never a ninja. This ANBU is good, Itachi thought, probably the head of a department. Pushing away unwanted memories Itachi continued fighting. This had given Kisame enough time to grab his sword, come back and try to help. However this ANBU, noticeably a female, was capable of dodging all of their attacks, including the enormous obstacle known as an island, and especially Kisame's overly large shaver. Samehada was rather large and though quite usefull it slowed Kisame down to a point where the ANBU could quickly get in, attack, and get out before Kisame had fully swung the sword around.

Pissed off and thoroughly offended, Itachi told Kisame to leave the room, and closed his right eye. Once it opened, he shot a good amount of black flames, but not enough to burn down the cabin, towards his opponent who once again managed to dodge it all and put a hole in the wall anyways. Tch. he'd been so careful to avoid that.

Slowly counting to ten mentally, Itachi calmed down; no matter how aggravating this was, he needed to stay cool, even if sometimes the idea of getting angry and destroying everything in his path seemed grand. Kisame however, burst through the door worried by the lack of noise.

"Huh? Where'd she go? How do you lose someone like that?" Kisame was now extremely pissed off; Itachi had never let enemies get away before, and was usually very efficient in covering their trail during travels. This was an important survival tactic needed by all missing ninjas, yet here they were, allowing someone to know where they had been. Leader was not going to approve.

"Hn." Itachi's favourite answer to any statement or question. He really didn't care where she went; he could find her easily if he wanted too, but going back to Konoha – even for a short amount of time – to track one ANBU was nothing he desired. Mostly because he'd have to go into ANBU headquarters, and that would be suicide, but stalking her would take too much time. Besides, now they had to pack and leave so that annoying, speedy ANBU girl didn't have accurate information on their whereabouts.

Quickly stuffing his sealing scroll full of clothes and hair ties, Itachi readied himself for a long night. Kisame had already been packed, a surprise to Itachi, since the shark nin usually took longer than a woman to get ready for anything. Within mere minutes, the two were out the door and speeding through the trees, looking for shelter.

"Ne, Itachi-san, it looks like it's going to rain again. It seems like we're in rain season, ne? Either way though, we should make camp underneath these trees, I think they're big enough." Itachi looked and had to agree, these trees were definitely big enough, even for Kisame's large form. Unrolling his sealing scroll, Itachi produced his sleeping bag and laid it out. Obviously leaving Kisame with first watch, Itachi laid down, the sounds of the rain lulling him to sleep.