Tracking the little shit was about as easy as finding a needle in a muggy wet mud bog filled with several infestations of crawling creatures. Kisame laughed heartily glancing over at Itachi's face. He was cringing slinging mud off the arm sleeve of his cape sighing he shut his eyes and groaned. Kisame was used to all of this and remembered his old home well. There weren't many places that you couldn't go without finding mud and stale stagnant water. He waded through the water at a slower pace than his comrade smirking still. He let a low chuckle escape his throat as the Uchiha growled low in the back of his throat slushing through the water.

"Can the little princess not handle some mud?" he asked grinning. Itachi stopped walking and turned glaring at him with those impudent red eyes.

"Say that again Kisame, I dare you." He said in a low hushed tone.

"Little P-r-i-n-c-e-s-s can't handle a little…."

"Shut up!" Itahci snapped his eyes slipping back to black quickly. Kisame realized the difference between the tone of voice that Itachi was using from the annoyed one he'd had previously.

"What did you hear?" he asked in a smaller voice so he didn't interfere with what the boy was listening too.

"Her breathing." He said glancing at Kisame. "I can hear her breathing, it's labored, like she'd passed out." He said knitting his brows together making a face. Kisame used his shark senses while standing in the water to sense the little brat out. He was right. There was a presence not far away from them hidden deep within a cave laying in a heap at the back of it. He turned looking at Itachi.

"She's out cold. We didn't injure her so who did?" he asked tilting his head to the side.

"I think we should just go find out. I'm done playing around." He snapped back to his old self.

As they approached the mouth of the cave they had to slide several vines of moss and other foliage away from the entrance. The leaves were a dark green shaded with water and mold since there was little sunlight illuminating this side of the swamp. Inside it was dark, cold, moist, and very still. Nothing was moving and there were no sounds but dripping water and the girl's breathing. Kisame touched the wall letting the sound of the water dripping reverberate off the stony rock act as a sort of sonar to guide him through the cave. Itachi let his eyes grow wider and turned red. The Sharingun would help him see what the girl didn't want him to see. They made their way back slowly and carefully attuning themselves and preparing for a self-defense attack. Her chakra gave way that she was passed out but it was moving at a fast rate as if she were trying to wake herself up in a sort of panic. Itachi moved in front of Kisame as they approached her and looked down at her body. She was huddled back against the cave wall laying on her side half in the water. Her eyes were shut but tightly squeezed in pain. Her hair was fanned out around her shoulders some floating in the boggy water, it had fallen out of her hair tie no doubt as she'd run. Itachi bent over her brushing the stray strands from her eyes and listened to her sharp breaths. She was sucking in small quick pants the breath puffing out barely before she'd take another. Her chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate and it appeared that before she'd passed out that she'd ripped off her vest leaving only a black tank beneath bared to the water. She was shivering soaked with the cold water one arm floated out in front of her. He sighed reaching a hand forward and ran it underneath her right side in the water pulling her up into a sitting position. She made a sharp sound like he'd stuck her with a kunai almost making him drop her back into the water. Kisame cringed, the injury probably wasn't a good one if she was breathing this hard and jarring her hurt that bad.

Itachi looked her over now that she was sitting up leaning back against the hard mildew stone face. Her hair stuck to the right side of her face against her cheek, he ran a finger over the angle of her face removing it. She had to be an Uchiha. It was also now that he could see little details that had been hidden in the water. Dark red stains were smeared from the corners of her lips down her chin and across her neck where she'd tried to wipe at it. He looked down also seeing it on the hand that hadn't been in the water. She soughed violently causing him to lean back quickly afraid she was waking up. She groaned in pain involuntarily falling forward gasping, her lungs grated for air, it was like listening to someone who was suffocating. Kisame looked down at his partner as he caught her shoulders to steady her as she continued coughing until finally she hacked up a large amount of sticky dark liquid that splashed into the water between the two. Itachi was rigid while holding her. She most definitely not alright, but he could not find any real physical wound. These were internal wounds and he could almost guess what was causing them. He laid her into his lap slowly trying his best not to jar her again and lent her head on his thigh. His fingers delicately grazed her eyelid before pulling it up. He saw the partial formation of two different Sharingun formations. They were caught between and shifting ranging in size and shape until finally they faded back to normal and they became large eclipsing black discs over the white. He let her lid fall shut gently and took a long breath. It was at that moment that he realized she had woken up.

She pulled in a hard breath and bolted upright scared. She flung an arm out hitting him squarely in the stomach hard. He felt the air rush out of his lungs as she ripped away from him shaking. She was in a half crouch but stumbled in the water barely able to keep herself standing.

"You might want to take it easy there." Kisame said raising an eyebrow.

"You're in no position to be standing let alone defending yourself girl." Itachi quipped rubbing his stomach where she had hit him. Her eyes were half lidded and he knew that she had absolutely no sight at the moment. She was blind in the darkness and could not use the Sharingun to save herself. They finally had her cornered and he could get the answers he was looking for. She stayed very still and was trying desperately to get her breathing under control so that they wouldn't be able to use it as a complete weakness. If she could just get her pulse to a normal level and concentrate her mind on something, anything else, she could stop the panic. As it was however, she was beginning to have another coughing fit. Her chest felt like it was going to explode and her eyes ached severely. Thunder crashed behind her sockets rocking her skull and entire body to her knees. She felt it then; that disgusting wave of nausea that she couldn't stop. She doubled over on her hands and knees puking more dark liquid into the water. Kisame watched knowing that what the girl was going through wasn't far from similar situations he'd seen Itachi in.

"You're eyes are failing." He said putting a hand on his hip.

"No, I think it's more than that." Itachi said walking closer. He put a hand on her back before kneeling in front of her again. She flinched coughing and tried to pull back but he caught her chin forcing her to stay both still and angling her face up towards his.

"Let go of me." She demanded weakly grabbing his wrist. She was relentless, he'd give her that.

"Who are you?" he asked again pumping just a small amount of chakra into her body directing it towards her eyes to clear her vision some. The pain would not subside but at least she could meet his eyes when he was asking her a question.

As her eyes came into focus, a very hazy focus, she saw the outline of Itachi Uchiha's face. His eyes bore into her with a sort of dark intensity that should have scared her instead she found it entrancing. There was an entire world in his eyes. Mostly he seemed tired and worn but there was also a certain sense of determination; a will to finish something. His face was drawn and paler than he probably should have been while the lines under his eyes aged him a few years proving that the boy had some serious baggage deep inside himself. He sighed, his warm breath spread over her face in the dank cave like a blanket. His fingers traveled down from her chin and over her throat catching her mid-breath settling over the vein and applied some pressure.

"I said…who are you?" he used an extremely cold tone of voice.

"I don't know…" she rasped out her grip was weak on his wrist. Her eyes dropped from his sliding down to the black water around them. "I have no idea who I am…who I am born from…I don't know." The pressure on her neck grew densely tight before it was gone completely. She fell forward in surprise before a soft weight caught her and swooped her entire body up. She started to fight back against the strong arms that encapsulated her.

"Then I guess we will have to find out…" Itachi said before cracking her neck. Kisame made a face his shoulders tensed up.

"Aw, now why did you go and do that Itachi?" he said still grossed out.

"She's not dead you idiotic twit." Itachi snapped. "It will just be ten times easier to carry her ass back to the hide out this way." He sighed shaking his head at his partner's stupidity.

"What are you going to do with her? I mean Pein won't…" he started.

"Pein won't know about this. Is that understood?" he snapped glancing back at his partner.

"Yeah ok Mr. Creepy I got it." He rubbed the back of his neck shaking his head.

"I'm serious Kisame. I need to figure out who she is and where she came from." He said in a definite tone. "She's staying in our room until I figure anything else out."

"Then I'm staying in the basement. Have fun with your cousin kid." He laughed as they began walking out to the mouth of the cave.