The wind kicked up and a warm summer breeze blew a few stands of Itachi's hair from the black tie that held it in place. The smell of sulfur, ash, and burnt rubber permeated the air, and traces of thick gray smoke blew past him before dissipating into the clouds. Looking to his left, Itachi thought he saw a quick flash of movement in the thick growth of trees on the mountain. Below him, Salt Lake City rose, a beautiful metropolis completely unaware of him standing above and looking down, watching his supposed prey run away.
"That's it, keep running, Naruto," he muttered to himself. Itachi pulled out his binoculars, trying to see if he could spot Naruto in the woods. So far, nothing, no signs of the young boy.
Itachi sighed with relief. No one had suspected that Orochimaru had a hidden science lab in the mountains above the city. The irony turned out that the complex ended up located so close to their main target, an old man by the name of Danzou, who turned out to be the receiving end for information leaked from their group. Danzou supposedly stayed somewhere in the city below him. And Itachi never expected to be hunting down a kid his brother's age. Every time he'd come close to Naruto, Sasuke was the one he'd see in his mind.
The world could often be cruel, but there were limits he wouldn't cross, even if Tobi wouldn't listen to reason. Itachi had never wanted this assignment and tried to convince his leader that someone else would be better suited for the job. But Tobi seemed to enjoy pushing his buttons and putting him in uncomfortable situations—his only recourse was to do things his own way without getting caught.
The sound of concrete crunching interrupted his thoughts, and he turned his slightly to see his partner walking out of the rubble, a long sword strapped across Kisame's back. Itachi put his binoculars away before Kisame could question what he was doing. Waiting for his partner to walk over, he relaxed his shoulders and back, releasing any tension in his body. Kisame bumped into his shoulder, making him tense up slightly again.
Kisame turned to him and set down the pack that held some of their traveling supplies. "So, how could he have managed to get away from you of all people?"
Itachi glanced over to his partner, noticing the bewildered and slightly salty look on Kisame's face. "We simply underestimated him. Don't make too much of this, Kisame."
Kisame had been some punk that joined their group about two years ago because he enjoyed getting his hands bloody. His brute force and uncouth attitude had won him recognition for his tactics in interrogation. Hailing from Kentucky, his bluish tinted skin always unsettled Itachi. It reminded him of something he'd see on a dead man who had laid around the morgue for a few days. And the massive deep scars that covered Kisame's face from a harsh childhood didn't help Itachi's discomfort to go away.
"What I don't get," Kisame scratched his left arm before jamming his thumb behind at the huge opening in the compound, "is how the kid managed to blow that big a hole in the wall all by himself."
"He's resourceful, not some dumb street kid like we've been told." Itachi looked Kisame directly in the eyes. "Orochimaru did enhance him after all. Who knows what he's capable of doing."
"Yeah, or he had help." Kisame eyed him up suspiciously. "You said he was already gone when you got here, huh. But I thought I heard the explosion after you would have been here by then."
"I don't believe I misspoke." Itachi turned away from Kisame, irritated already by their conversation.
They walked back towards the opening in the wall. Tobi would expect a full report on the contents inside before they would finish burning it to the ground. He had also told Itachi to check the computer's hard drive for any important information about Orochimaru's location and plans.
Bits of debris hung down from the explosion, but most of the lab was still intact. The room only had bare minimum furnishings. An old metal desk and a couple rusted metal chairs sat next to a small table that had vials of chemicals inside. There were two large iron-grated shelves that held jars, filled with everything to expect from a mad scientist, from pieces of flesh to whole organs.
Fortunately, the complex only housed one main area with a small room off to the side; the room Naruto had been held for over four years. Of course, no one had known until after Orochimaru had pumped him full of chemicals and animal DNA.
"I thought the reports said this place was abandoned, and he had been left behind." Itachi watched Kisame curiously eye the jars on the shelve racks, which had body parts and liquefied DNA samples. "Orochimaru is one freaky son-of-a-bitch."
Itachi ignored Kisame's ranting and headed over to the main computer. He dropped his bag onto the floor, pulled out a gaming graphics card and inserted it into the computer. Itachi decreased the speed of the memory while increasing the speed of the GPU. Pulling out an external hard drive and plugging it in to the UBS port, he waited for the graphics card to crack the password.
"Why he leave that freak behind, anyway." Kisame knocked a few books off the metal desk, causing them to crash loudly onto the floor. "I thought patient zero was his pride and joy, a new breakthrough. The thing that would make all those science geeks jealous."
"Maybe he felt he had no more use for him." The computer screen flashed and Itachi entered the command to input password, booting up the administrator's panel. "Or for the same reason he left all his other research behind here… to mess with us, let us know he's not afraid."
"He should be afraid of what we'll do once we find him," Kisame replied. "And that's not what I read in the report. That kid was important to his experiments."
"You misread it then. Let's finish up here so we can move on to our next target." Itachi sighed, noticing a worn journal near the computer. Stooping down, he picked up worn journal off the floor and bit back a retort about Kisame's poor reading comprehension.
The journal probably had belonged to Naruto. Itachi imagined that the kid probably needed something to do to pass the time by, or to keep himself for getting too lonely… or from going insane. Tucking it in his coat pocket, he looked behind him to make sure Kisame was distracted. If Kisame had made it sooner and not got tied up helping Sasori out with some loose ends, the outcome could have been different. Naruto would have been killed on the spot with no chance to escape. And it wasn't the kid's fault he had been sold on the black market for one of Orochimaru's schemes. Or that Tobi and Orochimaru had a cold war going on between them.
Itachi quietly went back to the computer screen, hoping the information transfer would be done soon so they could get the hell out there. The sooner they took care of Danzou, the faster he could check in on Naruto and return the journal.
"Leader isn't going to like this one bit," Kisame complained while sitting down on one of the hard metal chairs.
"Leader doesn't like anything that I'm aware of." Itachi fingers tapped in a few commands, pulling up the database. "He would be unhappy regardless of the outcome. He's more worried about us picking off Danzou than catching a harmless kid."
"Harmless?" Kisame looked at him incredulously. "How is he harmless? You just said he was capable or more than we gave him credit for. What the fuck, Itachi?"
The conversation felt more like an interrogation, and Itachi could only hope that Kisame would take his suggestion and head on out, leaving him to clean up. Bits and pieces of the explosive he used would be noticeable if inspected closely. Fortunately, Kisame normally didn't spend much time on the finer details, one of the reasons Leader had paired him with Itachi—Kisame the brute force, he the brains of their odd partnership.
Sometimes, though, his partner could string a thought or two together and figure things out. And there hadn't been time for Itachi to clean up after himself like he normally would. Itachi looked down at the computer, realizing that the information transfer was complete. Unplugging the hard drive, he tucked it into the inside coat pocket.
"I'm all set. Let's move out." Itachi picked up his bag and headed back outside.
"Torch and smash?" Kisame grinned, sharp, crooked teeth almost making Itachi wince. "Or should I say smash and torch?"
He exhaled a quiet breath. "Yeah, something like that." Itachi headed back outside, inhaling the fresh air while Kisame worked on setting the remains of the complex on fire and bashing anything he could. Soon heat from the fire wafted over and made a few beads of sweat drip down Itachi's face. He heard Kisame grunt a few times and then chuckle before hearing a loud popping sound. It would only be a few moments then. At least his partner was predictable and almost done.
Kisame walked up next to him and for a brief, pleasant moment, they shared a comfortable silence. Of course, it didn't seem like Kisame would let it go on for too long. Itachi felt a large calloused hand tightly grip his shoulder and squeeze. "You felt for that wretched little beast, didn't you?"
Itachi roughly grabbed the hand on his shoulder, pushing it off. He ignored Kisame's jab, pulled down his mask, and moved out towards the outer edge of the city. Their next target had been spotted holing up in a run-down old motel in the west end. If they expected to take out Danzou, then they needed to move out. Another day, another dollar, one more life lost to their reality.