Chapter 1

"Assignment"

It was a cold, cold night.

A woman perched atop the roof of an apartment in the heart of Konoha. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, but nothing seemed askew that she could detect from her vantage point. The streetlights were all on, one blinking, the streets themselves almost entirely empty - another uneventful night. She wasn't complaining about the lack of excitement, though; Konoha having robbers or thieves, or even just plain troublemakers, would imply a lack of shinobi discipline, meaning the Elders would blame the Hokage, who would then take out her fury and frustration on the shinobi. And she would rather the Hokage be content.

She sighed through the hole in her porcelain mask, a puff of her frosted breath rising before her eyes. It was far too cold for her liking.

When the sky started to alight with the beginnings of sunrise, she jumped down from the rooftop, landed silently upon the ground, and commenced her walk towards her own apartment.

This was her routine nearly every night; she watched the calm streets of Konoha for four and a half hours and then left for her rest, handing the job over to her neighbor, Niki Ashikaru, who would watch for the rest of the night. She had been doing this for almost a year, now - when she was not out on missions or working late at the hospital, of course - and she was starting to get tired of it. It was simply too much of the same thing, especially considering how peaceful Konoha had been in the past year.

When she had arrived at Ashikaru's, she knocked four times, then went next door and unlocked the peeling white door to her own abode. She heard Ashikaru's door open and close as she stepped inside, and took that to mean that he had no verbal complaints this time. She closed her own door and walked to her bedroom. Her black hitai-ate was pulled free of her thigh.

She slept, and a hundred miles away, a group of missing-nin rested and awoke the next morning, continuing their journey towards the Land of Fire.

Tanade Chiharu awoke the next morning to find herself still fully clothed, her mask laid upside-down on the rug and her hitai-ate gripped loosely in the hand that hung over the side of her bed. She groaned and mumbled to herself, attempting to clear the fog in her head, and slipped out of bed and into the short hallway as she re-tied her headband around her leg.

She had to admit, she was very tired that morning, and a large cup of coffee was sounding more and more appealing as it wore on, but she knew that she couldn't waste any time.

As she dressed herself in more casual clothes than her ANBU ones, she couldn't help but remember what Tsunade had told her just the day before: "I want you in my office at 9:44 sharp. No sooner, no later!"

Of course, Chiharu had asked her why she needed to be there at such an extremely specific time, but the Hokage just shook her empty sake bottle at her and shooed her off. Chiharu knew that Tsunade had been a bit troubled the moment she entered - the Godaime's eyes never failed to show her true emotions around her fellow shinobi - and had been wary of what she wanted her to do. Of course, setting extremely specific tasks was certainly not an unusual feat for the Fifth, but the way that the order had been given was foreboding on its own.

As Chiharu exited her apartment, stretching out her shoulders and fingers as she did, she heard a ruckus from below and immediately peered over the railing of the apartment building.

On the street below, Haruno Sakura's mother bent down to pick up the various bags and boxes she had been carrying, mumbling in irritation at the backs of a small group of almost-genin sprinting towards the Academy. Chiharu called out to her over the railing, "Need any help, Haruno-san?"

The older woman sighed and waved her away as she picked up the last of her things. "Thank you, Chiharu, but I'll be alright now," she called back up to her. "But do me a favor and become a jounin soon so you can teach these kids better than to run over their elders!"

Chiharu flipped over the railing and landed next to the woman with a smile. "I don't know about that, ma'am, but I can certainly put in a word or two to my jounin colleagues for you."

"You'd better!" replied Mrs. Haruno as she continued the way she'd been going. "My Sakura was the last decent student I've seen out of that Academy and even her temper never got any better in that school!" She laughed loudly in farewell, as Chiharu waved her own goodbye.

She never spoke much with the Haruno family, but it seemed that every time she ran into the Haruno matriarch, there was some similar ruckus inciting her to ask Haru to fix the Konoha youth, despite the fact that she'd always had very little to do with their education. That was more Hatake Kakashi's speed, and even he struggled to have enough patience around young shinobi to teach them much of anything – at least until he'd been assigned Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura two years ago. Nevertheless Haru always passed on Mrs. Haruno's requests to him, though usually just for their amusement.

As she arrived at the door of the Hokage's office fifteen minutes later at exactly 9:44 a.m., however, any thoughts on Konoha's youth left her mind.

She knocked four times and, upon hearing an irritated "Come in!" from inside, opened the door and stepped over the threshold.

"You wanted to see me, Tsunade-sama?" asked Chiharu as she scanned the office out of habit. Kakashi was present, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, and she offered him a smile. The only other thing that interested her was that the desk was messily covered in scrolls and books and sake bottles; so messy, in fact, that a good fraction of the things from the desk had piled onto the floor around it.

Tsunade sighed and turned her back on the window behind her desk. "Yes," she said, and, in the back of her mind, Chiharu noted that she sounded distressed, though it was slightly hidden by the authoritative power in her voice. "Let's get right to it. I have recently received a report that Suna was attacked a week from yesterday."

"What?" said Kakashi in disbelief as he pushed himself off of the wall. "Why weren't we told earlier?"

"Because the first shinobi who was supposed to deliver this news was ambushed and killed as he entered the country," Tsunade explained, casually emptying a sake bottle as she finished. "The second person they sent was an elite ninja of theirs and only just arrived here yesterday."

"Who was Suna's attacker?" inquired Chiharu, although she felt she already knew the answer.

"Akatsuki, of course!" yelled Tsunade in tired irritation, and slammed the empty sake bottle down as she sat down behind her desk.

"What was the motive?"

"I can't be sure. That's what I need to discuss with you two." She leaned forward across the desk. "Danzou and the Elders are concerned that depending on their motive, Konoha may soon be involved in the situation. But so far it seems to be isolated to just Sunagakure."

Kakashi took a step forward. "You don't think they could be trying to finish off the Kazekage, do you?"

Chiharu shook her head, and the other two shinobi turned to her. They could almost hear the gears in her mind turning and clicking. "No, they wouldn't." She started to pace. "He's useless to them now, and is in no way a threat." Kakashi gave her a skeptical look.

"What do you mean, 'not a threat'? He's strong, and has command over an entire country," Kakashi supplied, crossing his arms again.

"That's irrelevant, to them at least," she said. "And do you really think Gaara would try to face Akatsuki again? He knows better - he was almost killed the first time, and he even had his 'ultimate defense' then. Now, because Shukaku left his body, he has to defend himself by himself, and it slows him down. He's no threat to them, nor are his people. Akatsuki is way too strong."

There was a knock on the door.

"What?" yelled the Hokage.

"It's me! I need to talk to ya'!"

"Fine. Come in."

Uzumaki Naruto entered as soon as the words left her mouth, smiling, and eyed the office innocently. "Wow, you really need to clea- Kakashi-sensei! Haru-chan!" Naruto grinned wider as he saw his friends. Haru smiled lightly at him as Kakashi gave a short wave and a "Yo."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something else (most likely an overexcited greeting, since he hadn't seen Kakashi or Haru in weeks,) but Tsunade interrupted. "What do you want, Naruto? We're in the middle of something!"

"Oh, sorry," said the male jinchuuriki as he scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Uh, well, you said you had a mission for me, so I decided to come early…."

"WELL, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE!" Tsunade bellowed, waving a bottle at him.

Naruto cringed. "I said I was sorry!"

Before things could get out of hand, Haru stated calmly, "It's alright. We can continue another time, can't we, Tsunade-sama?"

The blond woman sighed and sat down again (when had she stood up?). "Fine. The mission is actually for you, Haru, Kakashi, and Sakura, so if you would -"

Another knock sounded, and the four turned to see Haruno Sakura standing in the open doorway. "Am I late?" asked the pink-haired teen upon seeing everyone in the room.

Tsunade sighed. "No. Early. Come in."

Sakura walked over the threshold and stood between Naruto and Kakashi.

"Alright," Tsunade began. "I have a mission for all of you…"

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading! Don't forget to let me know what you think of this work in a review, and to follow the story if you'd like to know when it's updated~

As I've said on my profile, this work was originally posted back in 2007 when I was a much more inexperienced writer. Recently the news about the upcoming Itachi Shinden anime got me inspired to revisit this story, and I've since been revising and updating it like crazy. I've changed the trajectory of the plot from my original intention and made it more of an ItachixOC story than a KakashixOC story. There are probably a few kinks left for me to smooth out, but all the same I hope you guys enjoy this new version!

I have 13 more chapters basically ready to go and then I'll have to start writing fresh. Don't expect more than one update a day, but I'll try to get updates out in a reasonable amount of time.

Thank you again!