Hello all! This is my new story, the first Naruto story I've created on this account. I hope you all enjoy it as I did writing it. Please favourite, follow and subscribe, I tend to update my stories as soon as I can so that's usually weekly and if not, I always give notice. Anywho, I hope you enjoy!

Flowers from stone

When Itachi Uchiha met Maoru Tochi, he was stirred.

It was a normal day at the Amegakure headquarters, the rain pounded against the building as thunder clapped outside in the grey, clouded skies. The base was eerily quiet as it usually was when the majority of the two man cells were on missions for the Akatsuki, in other far away countries. The only Akatsuki members present were Itachi and Kisame as well as Deidara and Sasori. The four members had been handpicked by Pain, their leader, to assist in training up the newly recruited subordinates. The Akatsuki saw the value of having subordinates for battle, mainly for assisting the main members but also for spying and infiltration missions.

It was a job given to particular members of the Akatsuki to help the subordinates train and hone their skills, to help them be of more assistance in their given job roles. Currently, there were only three subordinates being taken on and Itachi calmly walked towards Pain's wing, footsteps echoing against the silence of the place, the only other noise being the rain that thudded heavily against the small windows. Itachi's eyes slickered to the side as he passed the living quarters and Kisame joined him at his side, looming over him with his impressive stature.

"So, Itachi. Did you manage to get a background on all of the squirts?" He mused, his beady, shark-eyes penetrating the shorter Uchiha man. Itachi simply looked forward calmly, not interested in the slightest. Of course he's read the files of the subordinates before they'd be to meet them. It was only professional.

"Yes, Kisame."

"You know one of them was trained by Orochimaru. Something… Tochi I think. From the village hidden in the stone." The big blue man chuckled when Itachi said nothing, almost as if he was expecting that. Itachi didn't even feel obliged to answer, Orochimaru really didn't interest him whatsoever.

"Do you think she met your brother?"

Something in Itachi jumped for a second at hearing the mention of his brother and the man tried his best to conceal his interest.

"Most likely." He stated coolly, voice smooth and unbothered but inside, he was interested sincerely in the topic. His mind raced to thoughts of his brother and how his progress was coming along and he almost forgot to take the left turn with Kisame into the grand arch way of Pain's quarters. The rain became louder and louder as they entered the dark hall, the balcony seeping with rainwater that spread into the room, the water reflecting the sky light into the room. Itachi became aware of Deidara and Sasori already being there as well as Pain who stood before them, separating the trainers from the trainees who looked a mix of confident and nervous, all except one.

"Good, you are here, Kisame, Itachi." Pain's godly voice startled a few of the subordinates but there was still that one that seemed indifferent on everything that was happening. Itachi's dark orbs instantly flickered over to the three almost adults. There were two shinobi and a singular kunoichi. The female, he guessed, as the earlier topic of discussion between himself and his partner, also the one who was completely apathetic towards everything. As they found themselves standing beside the other two man cell, Itachi found himself staring at the girl whose eyes never left the godly figure before them. She was much shorter than the other males who towered above her but she seemed completely uncaring towards them, only focusing intently as Pain introduced them to their mentors.

"Your fourth mentor Itachi Uchiha is a name I'm sure is not totally unfamiliar to anyone in possession of a bingo book," He started, directing everyone's attention to Itachi who watched with keen interest at the young female before him whose clouded, grey eyes promptly flitted to him, staring him down with her captivating feline gaze before he noticed something akin to acknowledgement shimmer through her orbs and her pale pink lips fell ajar slightly, something the girl failed to do when taking in her other superiors. As Pain continued to talk, Itachi was captivated from behind the collar of his Akatsuki cloak at the fair haired girl with the stormy eyes. Immediately, his mind jumped back to his little brother and wondered for a moment if he had indeed met the girl and been captivated too. That would explain the female's look of recognition.

"Itachi, you will be responsible for Maoru along with Deidara. Be stern but fair. Dismissed."

As the others disbanded, he heard Kisame whisper something along the lines of, nice one, eh, Itachi? Assuming he was talking about the girl, Itachi closed his eyes and got a grip before she approached both he and Deidara who he suddenly became alert was scowling at him; not an uncommon thing when putting Deidara and himself together in any kind of social situation. The girl placed her hands together in front of her abdomen before approaching them, a serious look on her face.

"So, you're my new superiors." She almost seemed to be talking to herself as she spoke, but Itachi didn't fail to notice the sweet but unamused tone of her voice and nodded silently. The girl cocked her head at him and folded her arms over her chest. Deidara instantly spoke up, taking Itachi's much appreciated attention away.

"That's right, yeah. Hey, don't I know you already?"

The girl seemed to gaze up towards his head band and smile, a sight slightly strange since her eyes practically popped out at the same time.

"I think so! You were a few years ahead of me in the academy in Iwa, weren't you?" She began picking at her mesh arm bands, arms remained folded. Deidara let out a dry laugh and folded his own arms, leaning all of his weight on his left foot for a more comfortable stance, something Itachi didn't fail to notice. If he could have guessed he might have said the blonde bomber was flirting with the girl, a notion that made the Uchiha slightly prickly. But he wasn't too surprised. The girl was fairly attractive and scantily clad. Scantily clad enough to catch any male's attention. And Itachi had a feeling that the gesture wasn't entirely an accident with the way she seemed to be making herself more comfortable with himself and Deidara.

"You certainly have grown Maoru-chan, yeah."

Itachi took note of the pink blush that tinted the girl's cheeks as she smiled politely at Deidara. The dark haired man turned his head to stare down the other male, indicating to finish the small talk. Upon noticing, Deidara glared at him with an icy blue eye. The girl seemed to notice and was instantly uncomfortable at the heated staring. Maoru coughed, getting the attention of the dark haired man who she recognized as Itachi Uchiha.

"Your training will start later in the evening, be prepared. I will show you to your room." He spoke calmly, turning swiftly with the swish of his cloak and disappearing out of the grand room. Maoru smiled goodbye to her other Senpai and jogged slightly to catch up with Itachi. Deidara just stared behind her and smirked.

"Itachi-Senpai!"

The man stopped and turned. Strange. He'd been sure she'd followed him. Shrugging it off, he watched as she caught up to him and walked on slightly, smirking to herself. He raised an eyebrow at her strange behaviour and walked behind her.

"I know your little brother, you know." She mused. Itachi internally sighed. He had a feeling that topic would come up and he knew it would be an awkward one to answer. The conversation topic of Sasuke seemed to follow him wherever he went recently after confronting the boy when seeking out the legacy of the fourth Hokage. Thinking about it, the girl couldn't have been much older than Sasuke. Recalling her brief, fifteen came to mind. Itachi instantly scolded himself at his earlier thoughts and became stone faced, closing his eyes at the girl.

"Is that so." He murmured beneath the collar of his cloak. As they walked, the girl clasped her hands behind her back coyly, holding back slightly so her steps were on par with his own and she could look up at him. She was so short.

"Yeah, he was one of Orochimaru's new recruits and was immediately his favourite. Strutting about the place like a preening peacock. I asked him about you, didn't seem very fond but then again, I'm not surprised. No offense."

Itachi had to stop himself from smiling.

"This is your room."

The girl turned the handle and opened it, genuinely quite curious about her new accommodation and was shocked at what she saw. Her room was fairly large with a small double bed, a wardrobe, a book case, a weapons chest and an extra door. Running to the other door, she shoved it open and stared inside.

"I get a bathroom?" She exclaimed, genuinely quite thrilled. Itachi stared after her as she childishly hung off the door, gawking into the dark bathroom.

"Of course. It would be inappropriate for you to be asked to share a bathroom with any other of the male members."

There was a moment of silence when Itachi realised that his mouth had spoken without permission and made a poor attempt at a flirty joke. And by flirting, he meant speaking more than three words in a sentence and a bathroom reference in a monotone voice. Luckily, the girl was too busy fawning over her new room to have even noticed.

"I never had my own bathroom with..!" Instantly, her spirits dropped and she stood straight. Itachi stared at the back of her, interest piqued at her sudden change of mood. Sensing the now awkward silence, the girl turned and frowned.

"When would you like me in the training room, Senpai?"

"In two hours. You have until then to settle in and make yourself comfortable before I want to take a look at what you can do."

The girl plopped onto the bed and leaned back, smirking.

"You can have a look right now if you want."

"…"

"It was a joke."

"…"

Itachi coughed and turned on his heel, his composure being severely tested. Calmly, he stepped out of the room.

"I expect to see you in two hours." He stated before closing the door behind himself. Maoru exhaled loudly when he left, falling back onto her new bed. That wasn't too bad. The girl smiled to herself and rolled onto her front, staring out of the window above her. The rain pattered against the window and rolled down in streaks of clear trails, almost like each rain drop was racing the other. The sandy blonde girl sighed and buried her face in her arms, smiling when she thought about her superiors. Deidara and Itachi, both known to her. She had a feeling Pain-Sama had done that on purpose once she'd mentioned she was familiar with both. She knew it wasn't the only reason, however. She was an Earth user so both her superiors had a fair bit of knowledge on the element. Deidara was of Earth nature also. And if Itachi's sharingan was anything like Sasuke's, he would find it simple enough to use Earth style jutsu that she had up her sleeve.

Maoru's eyebrows furrowed at the thought of Sasuke and sighed. She'd most likely never see him again if she was lucky, she wasn't particularly keen on him or so she told herself.

The girl closed her eyes and let out a satisfied hum, feeling completely safe and content with life as an Akatsuki subordinate in training.

Itachi's dark eyes scanned over the brief in mild interest, trying to pick a part what he could of Maoru Tochi, his new subordinate.

Name: Maoru Tochi
Age: 15
Birthday: December 10th
Gender: Female
Kekkei Genkai: N/A
Other: Previous subordinate of Orochimaru for four years before leaving due to personal reasons.

Beside the information was a picture of a young Maoru, most likely from her academy photo. The man scowled and sat back, taking in the silence of his room. He needed to know more about the girl in question, not only for personal interest but for his occasional reports for Konohagakure. This could possibly be much needed information to present in regards to the Akatsuki's movement. There was a brief wrap on the door before it opened.

"So how was your one, Itachi?"

Itachi continued to read the brief over and over again whilst staring at the image of Maoru instead of answering.

"She sure did seem to stare at you a lot. Though, I'm not surprised. You're always pretty popular with the girls."

This got Itachi's attention, looking up to Kisame, the boy realized he made a grave mistake as the shark man's mouth stretched upwards into a sinister, toothy grin.

"Interested, Itachi? I don't blame you. She's a looker that's for sure. Oh, how sweet."

Itachi's head turned back to his brief, eyes distant.

"Don't be ridiculous."

Kisame chuckled and stepped into the room, closing the door and folding his arms over his chest.

"Don't worry, I won't tell a soul. There is something I thought you should know, however."

Itachi stared at Kisame out of the corner of his eyes, acknowledging the other man in the room. There was an awkward silence before Kisame's laughter split the quiet of the room.

"There's been word on the grapevine about the girl in question and… your little brother, Itachi. It's about their relations. This is coming straight from the horse's mouth, Sasori's subordinate in Orochimaru's faction. They apparently had..."

"…" Itachi knew all too well what Kisame was trying to say.

"There was also something about the girl being… forced to perform. To various other. Whether that included Orochimaru himself, it wasn't mentioned."

Itachi's eyes were calm and steady as they stared at the paper, particularly at the picture of the young girl.

"…I see." He murmured uncomfortably. The clock in the room ticked loudly as they both remained quiet. Itachi's posture turned as Kisame chuckled lowly, clearing finding the scoop as amusing as Itachi found it disappointing. A sudden knock on the door brought them out of their awkward conversation and Kisame moved aside to accommodate Deidara who poked his head, smirking when he saw Kisame before it twisted into a scowling frown when landing on Itachi.

"Oh, Deidara." Kisame mused in greeting the blonde bomber who stepped into the room, no longer wearing his cloak.

"Yeah hi. Itachi, it's been two hours, let's go, yeah." He growled rudely, retreating into the hall once more. The Uchiha man stood before following shortly, Kisame on his tail.

"Think about what I said, Itachi. Find out as much as you can." Kisame murmured before chuckling and walking the opposite directions, Itachi staring after him.

"Hey, quit daydreaming. I want to get this over and done with, yeah." Deidara spat, speech impediment and all. Itachi coolly turned and followed Deidara to the training room.

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Hey guys! So this is my first Naruto story on this account. I thought it might be interesting to try an Itachi story that still involves Sasuke references since quite a few out there don't. I hope Maoru didn't come across as Mary Sue, that's NOT what I intend to do at all, however when I began developing this character, I wanted someone who Itachi would be attracted to and being Itachi, he would have ridiculously high standards. She does have faults and I'll be developing those in the next few chapters. I feel like Itachi would be attracted to a certain type of person and I wanted Maoru to have a kind of playfulness that might have reminded him of Sasuke. After all, people are attracted to familiarity more than anything.

In the next few chapters, I want to delve deeper into Maoru's mysterious past and hopefully show the reasons why she is the way she is. I mentioned that she knew Deidara but I will emphasize that she didn't know him personally, just caught glimpses of him in the academy.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I will update again soon!