-Itachi and Kisame-
The duo stood from their meeting with stiff legs and tired eyes. Itachi's weight shifted from his lack of chakra and he swayed ever so slightly.
Kisame's arm managed to steady his partner. He asked the raven haired man, "How much longer can you keep up this sharade?" Itachi grunted and swayed more.
Kisame sighed in annoyance and replied, "You really should take better care of yourself..." Itachi looked on emotionlessly and nodded the slightest bit.
Kisame sighed, "At least let us find a hotel for the night before we head out on the mission."
Itachi seemed to agree and nodded. His eyes slanted in as he concentrated on not showing how weak he was.
The duo walked in time for a while before a town came into sight. Kisame pulled a hat from the depths of his cloak and sat it upon his head. His partner followed the example soon after.
The village was wide awake even in the dead of night.
Laterns set the streets alight with their flickers. Shadows danced in the corners. People watched with measuring gazes. Drunkards wallowed in the gutters as they passed out.
Itachi's tired eyes flickered around to every face under his hat. Kisame noted this and walked slightly faster. Itachi always seemed to know when things were going to get out of hand. it was always best to be ready for whatever was to come.
The hotel thay managed to find was relativly empty and they each took seperate rooms.
Kisame was wary to do so as he believed his partner would simply sit in a chair all night. He sighed and walked straight up to the his partner's door.
He found, unlocked, and opened it just wide enough to see Itachi under the sheets on the bed with an arm flung off the side and his hair in a wild upsweep.
Kisame smiled to himself in his sharkish way and closed the door silently so as not to wake the man as he needed all the sleep he could get.
He made it to his own room and quickly finished a nightly routine before also collapsing onto his bed in sleep.
-A village not very far away from the two Akatsuki-
A girl looked up from her floor as the door slid to the side. Her father stepped through in a drunken manner and swayed on his feet.
Kioko dashed to his aide only for him to slap her across the face. She leapt back and tripped over her bucket and into the floor.
The man laughed and called out behind him, "I don't see why you are interested in her!"
Kioko looked around her father to see another man in the dark.
He had long black hair that hung in a long wave down his back and slightly over his shoulder. His eyes were hard and serious. His mouth set in a permanent snarl.
Kioko shot her father a curious look before standing and dusting her outfit off.
Her eyes darted back to the man outside as he made a move to enter the house.
She cringed and moved aside to allow him entery. Her father smiled drunkenly at him. "Kioko-baka, this is my old friend, Bunko!"
Kioko eyed him with dreary and wary eyes. She mouthed, "I see..."
The man took another step forward and replied, "I am aghast at her beauty! And I hear that ring in her voice! Surly she can sing like a Jay bird!"
Kioko in return took a step backwards and farther into the house. She stuttered, "I-I will make y-you some t-tea!" The man nodded and her father led him deeper into the house and into the spotless dining area.
Kioko silently shuffled into the kitchen and set a pot to boil before adding the green tea ingrediants and walking away to clean the rest of the enteryway.
The pot whistled and she dashed into the kitchen as fast as she could to save it. She set it onto the counter and began to pour it into cups. Kioko walked out with her tray and over to the two talking men. The father glared as she sat the cups down. He was undoubtably, out of his mind, drunk. He swung the back of his hand across her face and screamed, "WE HAVE A GUEST! A GUEST! AND ALL YOU THINK TO SERVE IS TEA! TEA OF ALL THINGS! YOU USELESS WITCH! WE WANT SAKE!"
The new man watched the precedings with amusment etched on his face.
Kioko leapt back and reached up to her smarting cheek. Her father seemed to fume in a drunken rage and the girl shot forward and into the kitchen.
She unlocked the Sake cabinet and grabbed a total of five bottles before skidding back into the room.
She set the bottle down and began to back away.
Her father stood and smacked her again and screamed, "HOW DARE YOU TAKE THAT LONG!"
Kioko flinched and backed away. Her father grabbed her hair and yanked her down beside him.
She heald back her tears and sat with them. The man before her began to drink as heavily as her father was and before too long he was drunk as well.
Kioko grimanced as their attention turned from the drink to her.
The man she was ashamed to call father, stated, "How much will you give for her?" The drunken man said, "I do think I only want her a night."
Her father nodded, "No charge then for old times sake?"
The man smirked and nodded. Kioko was in shock.
She leapt back from the table and turned to run. A hand grabbed her hair and she screamed.
The man stood and wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear, "I will have such fun breaking you in tonight!"
Kioko gasped and yanked out of his grasp and ran for the door. The two men were too drunk to even notice her leaving.
She ran through the night as fast as she could and out of the small village where she lived and into the countryside.
Trees shot past her but she only ignored them as she struggled to escape.
Her bare feet were cut and bleeding as she ran from her home. She was alone. Just as her tears hit the road, she ran on.
She only stopped as a new light surrounded her. One of their neighboring cities almost three miles away.
She sucked in breath after breath of needed air before managing to walk down the street and up to a hotel.
She sucked in another breath as she looked in at the black booth in the dark shadows of the closed hotel.
She heard a sound from behind her and turned.
-Itachi and Kisame-
Kisame was yet again awoken far too early by Itachi. His form stood above him in a silloutte and was enough to make a grown man like Kisame gasp.
Itachi chuckled at this and stated, "It is time to head out."
Kisame nodded and struggled from bed and into his cloak. The duo stood and stalked from the building as Kisame attached the sword he wore to his back.
Kisame was the first to see her.
The girl in front of them turned and looked directly at them. Itachi stopped in his tracks and looked at the girl in confusion.
Both could feel the chakra eminating from her. It was a vastness thay had never expected to meet on any mission.
Kisame looked up to her face in the dim city light and saw the beginings of a bruise etched on her lovely face in the exact shape of a hand.
He ground his teeth together as his eyes also took in her scared expression and the pool at her feet.
Itachi slid his eyes up to the very corners and met the gaze of his partner.
Kioko gasped as she looked at them. Her eyes were shining with fright and confusion. She opened her mouth to speak but all that left her mouth was silence.
Kisame asked in a tone that sent waves of confusion over her ears, "Who are you?" Kioko gasped at the sound in his voice and looked again back between both of their faces.
She lifted a hand to her throat and gasped and managed to mouth perfectly, "Kioko..."
Itachi asked, "What has happened to you, Kioko-chan?"
Kisame looked to his partner in suprise at his concern; although, the girl still looked absolutly terrified.
Kisame ground his teeth as he thought the girl was scared of his appearance. After all, everyone was scared of his appearance. He must be what was truly scaring this girl.
She looked at both of them again and her eyes rolled back in her head as she fainted.
Kisame and Itachi both reached her at the same instant and lifted her into the air. Kisame looked hesitantly around as Itachi lent him all her weight and stepped away.
Kisame held her bridal style with her head and arms drooping over herslef. Her calfs hung down as well.
Itachi sighed and said, "She came from the road. Her blood is its own trail."
Kisame growled and looked down at her face. Now another bruise was sketched across her other cheek in disgrace.
Itachi sighed. "We might as well take her home." Kisame nodded, "As long as she stays out like she is I don't think she will care."
The two nodded to one another as they moved on. Even they were not heartless enough to leave an unconsious and inocent woman on the side on the street after clearly having had something happen to her. Kisame knew Itachi might have if it were any one else... But there was just something that pulled him to her. Maybe it was her chakra... or maybe it was something else altogether...