Chapter: Two – Accepting the Task

Type: Story – Incomplete

Word Count: 2,720

Disclaimer: If you've heard of it before then it's obviously not mine.

Note: This was originally Sharingan-Youkai's but she decided to quit it and put it up for grabs. I liked it so I took it. The first three chapters were originally one chapter but when I did all the revising and such that I wanted to it turned out to be a lot longer and leaving it like that would leave a horrible unbalance between it and what was originally chapter two (now chapter four) so I broke it up into three chapters.

Itachi's thoughts will be in italics.

..:Xx0o0xX:..

A few hours later Itachi opened his eyes. He found himself lying on his side, with the sun was peaking over the trees and the snow beneath him had melted from his body heat. He looked around him and found Kisame, staring at him, blue eyes wide. He watched his comrade curiously in turn. What was the blue man staring at him for?

Kisame, as if hearing his thoughts, lifted a blue finger and pointed it at Itachi, causing him to tilt his head a little – an action he'd taken to when something intrigued or confused him. He sat up and rubbed his head.

He froze.

He rubbed his head again and found two odd furry stumps on top of his head. Furry? He lowered his hand down to eye level. He paled. His hand was actually a paw. A white-clawed paw. He looked at Kisame who was still sitting there staring at him. He saw a kunai on the ground next to him and looked into it. His reflection stared back at him. His once smooth face was now lengthened and furred, whiskers protruding from his cheeks and fangs glinting slightly in the light. He blinked; he looked behind him, a tail, hind legs, every thing white with black stripes.

He'd been turned into a tiger. He'd never fainted from anything but bloodless or injury before, but the very thought was so disorienting his brain had already shut down once more before he could stop it.

Another couple of hours later Itachi opened his crimson eyes once more, but this time it was to several other sets of eyes. He found himself tilting his head slightly.

"Uchiha? Is that you, un?" asked Deidera, jaw gapping. Itachi tried to sit up but was surprised to find that he had been crouching on the ground. As if he had just stood, then fell on his gut. He sat on his hind legs and looked himself over again.

"What did that woman do to me?"he tried to ask. But instead, it came out as a growl. Causing several off the members to jump back out of cautiousness and surprise. Itachi supposed it was understandable, most were intimidated by the sight of him. And now he imagined that he looked like a large white tiger with black stripes, crimson Sharingan eyes, and a mouth full of sharp teeth. And he'd just unintentionally growled menacingly. It was logical to be alarmed.

"Itachi? What happened?" asked Zetsu. Itachi again tried to respond. Say something, anything, but only growls and hisses came from his mouth.

He sighed. "This is impossible, like trying to communicate with an uncaring cat." He thought.

Deidera blinked, then scowled. "Hey you're the one that got turned into a cat, not us, un!" every one looked at Deidera, even Itachi.

"You can hear my thoughts?" he asked in his head, cautiously. And when every one nodded, he found himself turning to Kisame, wanting further verification. "Kisame?" the said man nodded slowly, eyes wide.

"I think I know what happened." Came Nagato's voice. The members turned to their Akatsuki leader. "Kisame explained what happened with the jewel and the woman. It seems that this Midoriko was an all powerful miko in the Feudal times. She had immense power and somehow, your now involved with her."

Itachi did what sounded like a snort, he was well aware of that. "She's the one who kept talking about me being set a task by some council! She's the one who said if I refused she'd turn me into a beast and-…oh jeez… I gotta find that Sakura girl."

This got him looks at him in confusion and raised eyebrows, like they thought he'd gone insane or something.

"But how are we supposed to find her?"

"Hn…" That was one answer he didn't have.

"Sakura you say? Would that be Haruno, Sakura?" Itachi nodded. Nagato in his Pein form nodded. "Haruno, Sakura, age fourteen, height 5'7 green eyes, pink hair, lives in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Medic-nin-in-training, known to have great potential, and is being trained by the Hokage herself."

"How do you know all that?"

"Simple." He lifted a manila file he had been reading. It was a file he'd thought to acquire considering the young girl was the Kyuubi container's best friend and teammate. Everyone sweat-dropped.

"So what, you have to kill her, un?" asked Deidera blinking. Itachi stood and stretched like the cat he is.

"No, worse, I have to guard her."

Again with crazy looks.

"Guard her? Like that? But what about that Midoriko lady, get her to reverse what she did to you." Sasori snapped, this was certainly an inconvenient time, what with Akatsuki getting ready for it's plans.

Kisame rolled his eyes with a snort but Itachi was already thinking out loud before he could open his mouth.

"She won't, I have to guard this Sakura girl until Midoriko thinks she's ready and then she'll change me back. At least, that's what she said."

Silence rained for a few moments, before Itachi growled with frustration, jumping off the table they had placed him on. He headed for the door, not even pausing to call over his shoulder. "I'm leaving; I'm not coming back until that woman turns me back to normal."

Nagato nodded nonchalantly, he'd been just about to order Itachi to do that.

"Kisame, escort him to The Village Hidden in the Leaves."

Kisame nodded and followed Itachi out the door. "So Itachi…how are you going to tell her? Are you going to tell her who you really are? What?"

"No, I'll give her a false name, I'll tell her I was sent to guard her, and that's it… lets just hope she buys it."

Kisame nodded, it was the most logical thing to do, Itachi is an infamous S-class criminal after all. Shouting one's identity to the enemy was foolish and had the potential to be costly. "Well, what false name do you have in mind?"

Itachi thought for a moment as they stepped outside. He looked down at the snow between his paws. Snow… "Yuuki." He said simply.

Kisame raised an eyebrow. "Yuuki? Whatever." Itachi rolled his crimson eyes. "Oh and don't forget to deactivate your Sharingan, she's your brother's teammate so there's no way she won't recognize it." Itachi didn't pause as red was quickly consumed by faded black. Kisame sighed. "We better hurry. How fast can that new body of yours run?" he asked smirking.

The former Uchiha heir shifted on his paws, smirking with an air of confidence. "Lets find out." With that he started to sprint, front legs darting out then vanishing under his body. His hind legs propelling him forward, he was surprised, as was Kisame, as he had to speed up to catch up. "I still have my chakra. I may not be able to use seals but I can still pulse it through my body!" with that they dashed through the snow covered forest.

Within a few hours they stopped on the edge of a drop off. Below them Leaf Village was revealed. Kisame laughed. "I'm looking forward to your report when you're back to normal."

Itachi rolled his eyes inwardly; leave it to Kisame to make jokes about a thing like this. But the younger of the two easily shrugged it off, used to the other's quirks.

"I'll think of this as a vacation."

He bounded down the drop, from ledge to ledge. By the time he made it to the bottom Kisame was long gone. He blinked when he noticed his tongue was hanging out of his mouth slightly. He jumped up onto the six-foot fence and looked around. Only a few people were out and about. Which was odd for a village of Konoha's size, though not surprising, it was the dead of winter – the coldest time of the year – people would be inside their homes keeping warm. Warm. Itachi focused on his body, finding that he hardly felt the cold. Maybe it wasn't so bad having fur.

He trotted along the fence with perfect balance and his normal grace. Would she be out now? He didn't know if she was even in the village right now and there was no telling how long it would take to find her. It wasn't like he could simply sneak into the place where they kept such information on file, not with this form anyway. Still, he looked about for any sign of the pink haired konuichi. He stopped a little while later when he noticed a flash of orange.

He only knew one person who would wear such a color. One that yelled to enemy ninja's 'Hey, I'm over here come get me!' The Kyuubi brat. And if the Uzumaki was here, then so was Sakura was bound to be as well, but then again so was Sasuke. That particular thought wasn't pleasing, little brother or not, the younger Uchiha had managed to irritate Itachi to no end because of his seemingly thoughtless stupidity. But that wasn't something he was in the mood to think about at this moment.

He jumped down off the fence, thudding silently when he hit the ground and easily followed Naruto down the street, sticking to the shadows. It was amazing how a trained ninja could be obtuse to the fact that he was being followed by a tiger that was stood almost shoulder-to-shoulder with the boy while staying on all fours. Soon he was led to a ramen stall with two other occupants. Sakura and Sasuke. He stopped on against the wall, easily jumping to the top of it without getting anyone's attention. Really, it was a wonder how the village had survived so long if people didn't even look once at a giant tiger on top of a ramen stand.

"Hey Sakura! Hey Teme!" chirped Naruto as he sat next to him team.

"Hey Sakura, what are you doing for Christmas this year?" asked Naruto energetically as usual. Sakura looked thoughtful for a moment. That's right, Christmas and all those other winter holidays were right around the corner weren't they? Oh well, it's not like he celebrated them anyway.

"Well I was going to spend it with you guys, but Tsunade-shishou's got something set up for my training as a medic. Sorry Naruto."

Naruto's head dropped, scowling at nothing in particular. "Damn that old lady! It's Christmas for crying out loud!" shouted Naruto. "Ok fine, what about you Sasuke?" The Uchiha in question blinked. He had never really thought about it before.

"I don't know, training I guess." Naruto looked incredulous.

"Training? On Christmas? Why do you have to train Sasuke? You've already beaten your brother!"

Sasuke glared at Naruto who was completely unfazed. Itachi didn't even flinch at the reminder. Sasuke hadn't really beaten him, he'd merely allowed the boy to think so when they'd fought. The elder Uchiha had gauged the younger one's abilities and power only to find it insufficient and too easy to defeat and so had feigned weakness. He'd had something of the beginnings of a nasty cold at that time and had used it to fake an incurable illness, which had worked like a charm. But that had been nearly half a year ago and now Itachi was recorded as dead in all documentation that he was in. But that was a subject for another time, his focus in Konoha now was Haruno, Sakura.

"So? I can do what ever I want with my time, can't I?"

Naruto's fury cropped up suddenly and brightly. "Fine then, go train and get stronger! I thought Itachi might've knocked some sense into you before you killed him! Of all the evil things he did, you had to kill him when he was trying to save you!" With that Naruto stalked off.

Sasuke was boiling. The thought of Itachi trying to 'save' him was clearly unnerving for the fourteen-year-old. Though Naruto had been right on the mark. When Itachi had learned that Sasuke had defected to join Orochimaru, needless to say he hadn't been pleased. And so he'd gone to see his brother to convince that such an action was foolish and that he should return to Konoha. But he'd been more stubborn and narrow minded than Itachi had realized and thus the fight had ensued.

Sakura sat next to him, watching him boil. "Come on Sasuke. Do you really have to do this to yourself? Why not have some fun for once? I mean ever since you came back you've been so…withdrawn. After we worked so hard to break your shell, you've gone and thrown it up again. What can we do to be the friends we once were Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned and looked at her with a blank but analyzing stare. "You've done enough Sakura." With that he slid off his stool and began to walk off, not even turning to see the wounded look in his teammate's eyes.

Itachi growled. "You're becoming what I once was Sasuke. Don't go down that road, it's not easy to find your way back." He thought. Meaning for Sasuke to hear him. Which he did. The youngest present stopped dead in his tracks, Sharingan glowing red as he looked around him and his breathe white in the cold wind. He stood there silent, searching.

"That voice…no, he's dead. I must be hearing things." With that he walked off.

He jumped down from his perch and padded toward Sakura. He hopped onto the stool next to her, placing his weight on his hind legs. Her eyes were wide with shock and cautiousness, gasping as he looked right at her, black meeting startled green.

"W-who, what are you?" She asked shaking slightly, eyes skittering around as discreetly as possible. Itachi repressed a sigh; she clearly still had a lot to learn as a shinobi, but at least she knew when she was faced with a potentially dangerous threat and should look for a way out just in case.

It was now or never. "My name is Yuki, and I am your guardian."

Sakura froze. It spoke, in her head! "G-guardian? But you're a-a tiger."

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "Clearly." he said flatly.

Sakura's eyes widened. And though all he could think was 'what now.' He realized he should have put more thought into this plan than he did. "T-that voice! I-Itachi!" Because he honestly hadn't thought that she'd be able to recognize him by his voice, he'd barely spoken a few sentences around her, let alone to her. It was a mistake he hadn't even taken into account, but then again, people who had chased him all their lives couldn't correctly know it was him by a handful of words.

Still, Itachi's headshot up as Sakura stumbled backwards off her stool. Quickly finding her feet as she turned and dashed around the corner. This time he really did sigh as he jumped down from the stool and started after her. Sakura leapt up onto the rooftops, bounding from roof to roof with a stealth that could still use some work. Itachi chose to lope along side from the ground, keeping a continuous eye on both her and the terrain in front of him. He jumped up onto a crate and kicked off landing behind Sakura on the rooftops. Hearing the noise, she glanced back and yelped when she realized he was right there and tried to move even faster.

Itachi glanced ahead of her to where she was running.

She was heading for Sasuke's house. Not good, that could cause some tricky and unwanted problems.