Almost three years after Jūzō's death, Koharu was leaving Howling Wolf Village with Itachi when she suddenly stopped. Itachi noticed this immediately and looked at the young girl.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Orochimaru is approaching..." Koharu told him, "With ill intentions..."

"What kind?" Itachi inquired.

"I don't sense killing intent... so my guess would be capture? I can certainly sense enormous greed. At any rate, he plans to betray us and attack."

"Go hide yourself in the forest." Itachi told her, indicating the forest that lined the road they were on, "I will deal with him."

"Right." The young girl replied, hurrying and hiding in the greenery. Itachi continued walking forward. What was it that Orochimaru wanted, and why was he making his move now? Come to think of it, the snake-man had told him when he first joined the Akatsuki that he'd been reborn twice in the six years since he had left Konoha. Did that have something to do with it?

Koharu hid herself and suppressed her chakra as much as she could within the forest. She was still relatively close to its edge, but not enough to be seen. She had more or less taken a straight path from where she had been with Itachi, and now she was monitoring the situation as he approached Orochimaru. She could only hope that her sensei would be all right against one of the legendary Sannin.

Abruptly, she became aware of another person's presence and she quickly threw a kunai through the trees at the newcomer. A man, whose chakra was unfamiliar to her, dropped down in front of her.

"Well, although I knew your sensory abilities were amazing, I didn't expect that you'd be able to throw a kunai so accurately." His voice was unfamiliar too, but she could tell it was a young man.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" Koharu demanded calmly, her attention still partially trained on the signatures of Itachi and Orochimaru.

The man chuckled, moving in a way that suggested to her that he was pushing up a pair of glasses. "As expected of Itachi's student. You're so calm, even though you're so young."

The prepubescent girl readied her kunai, "Answer my question." The man chuckled again before making a series of hand signs and chakra flowed into his hands. Koharu's eyes widened as she recognized the form of the chakra. "Chakra scalpels?!" He dashed toward her and she jumped to the side, but he reached out and grabbed hold of her left calf. Koharu gave out a small cry as she fell to the ground. "M-My Achilles' tendon..."

"That's right..." the man said thoughtfully as he stood over her, "You're a prodigy in medical ninjutsu. It's really too bad that Danzou didn't simply deliver you to Lord Orochimaru as promised. Then I wouldn't have had to injure you."

Koharu narrowed her eyes. So that was it. However, she was still aware of what was happening with Itachi and Orochimaru. "Perhaps you should worry about your master instead of me."

This caught the man's attention, and he sprinted away. Koharu groaned and went limp in the grass.

病

"...haru... Koharu!"

Koharu groaned and opened her eyes at the sound of Itachi's voice, "Sensei?"

"What happened?" Itachi asked her with concern.

"I was attacked by Orochimaru's subordinate. He used a chakra scalpel to sever my left Achilles' tendon. I can't move my lower leg." Koharu explained, seething in pain as she tried to get up.

"Can you heal it?" Itachi asked with concern, but Koharu shook her head.

"No, I can't move my leg well enough to reach it."

"Then we'll have to find a place where you can receive medical attention." Itachi replied as he carefully picked up his young charge, "We'll start by going back to the village, perhaps the hospital there can treat you."

Koharu nodded slowly. The pain in her leg was making her feel like throwing up, even though she knew that Itachi was being as careful as he could be.

"Do you know why Kabuto attacked you?"

She wrinkled her brow in thought, "He said that Danzou had promised to deliver me to Orochimaru. I don't understand. Orochimaru is a rogue ninja, and has been since I was a baby. Why would Danzou cooperate with him?"

"Danzou doesn't care about the rules of the village or protecting the citizens of Konoha." Itachi replied as he began making his way back toward Howling Wolf Village, "His concept of the Will of Fire is twisted. He'll do anything if he thinks it will benefit the future of the village."

"But what good is it to protect Konoha if you don't protect its citizens, especially the children that are its future?" Koharu asked.

"Exactly." Itachi replied, relieved that she could already see the flaw in Danzou's logic, despite being only eleven years of age.

"That man is insane." Koharu said decisively, "He ought to be the one treated as a traitor."

"I agree." Itachi said with a nod, "I don't know why nothing has ever been done about him." Itachi had long felt that the Third Hokage was too careful and too slow to act. In Itachi's opinion, the old man was so afraid of upsetting the balance that he often failed to actually protect the village. Maybe it would've been better to have gone rogue sooner and taken Danzou out of the picture. He mentally shook his head. No. That wouldn't have been possible. By the time he had obtained his Mangekyou Sharingan, Danzou had already stolen Shisui's right eye. Prior to that point, he wouldn't have had the ability to kill the man, and if he tried to set his sights on Danzo now, he probably wouldn't even manage to reach him because the Foundation would get in his way, to say nothing of the Third Hokage if Itachi were perceived as attacking Konoha directly. Assassinating Danzou would require Danzou to leave the village, which he never did these days.

Itachi proceeded through the village, all of the vendors steering clear of him and Koharu rather than trying to garner their attention. They had learned in the past three years that it was better to avoid the nukanin and his student. Itachi returned to Amai no Amai, which also now doubled as Reishi's herbalist shop, Rengyoudou, causing the now sixteen-year-old Amai to look over at him before her eyes widened in alarm and she rushed over. "What happened to Koharu-chan?!"

"We were attacked on our way down the mountain." Itachi replied as he carefully set Koharu down on a seat.

"Attacked? By who?" Amai asked with concern, "I didn't think there was anyone left in the village that would be that dumb."

"It was one of my associates from Akatsuki." Itachi explained, causing Amai's worry to increase.

"One of your...? Did they find out that you're...?"

"No." Itachi assured her, "I think he's betrayed the organization. His name is Orochimaru. He's originally from Konoha like I am."

Now Amai looked confused. "One of the legendary Sannin? But why would he...? What was he after?"

"With him, there's no telling, but he probably sought to take my Sharingan for himself." Itachi replied, "While I was engaging him, his subordinate, a byouninja, attacked Koharu and injured her leg. I'm going to go and see if it's something that the doctors at the hospital would even be able to treat." He looked at his young charge, "Stay here with Amai-san and wait for me."

"Not to be impertinent, but I don't really have a choice in the matter, Sensei." The young girl replied. She wasn't able to see Itachi's wry smile, but she could sense his mild amusement at her dryness. As Itachi walked off, Koharu tried—without much success—to find a remotely comfortable position before Reishi insisted that she stop. She wasn't intentionally scanning the people milling about, but there was a chakra signature that jumped out at her. 'Such massive chakra reserves...' She thought to herself, 'An Uzumaki? But... somehow... most of it is concentrated in the center of her forehead...'

"Lady Tsunade! Please wait!" A woman's voice pleaded. It wasn't the one whose chakra had caught her attention, but another woman who was following her with an animal in her arms. A pig? No, never mind that. The second woman had called the first Tsunade... did she mean Tsunade of the Sannin? The world's greatest byouninja?

Koharu winced as another wave of pain surged through her leg, her "vision" becoming distorted as she lost the ability to even sort of concentrate.

"Good grief." Tsunade complained as she walked into a cafe that was apparently attached to an herbalist's shop, "This is supposed to be 'the Land of Medicine', but thus far, I haven't seen one person who actually knows anything about medicine. Hm?" She suddenly stopped, although not because Shizune had asked her to, but because the apparent proprietor of the shop, along with two young boys, was leaning over a preteen girl lying on the seat of one of the tables, her face twisted in pain. Something about the child's left leg didn't look right. Although she had given up her career as a medic years ago, she instinctively walked over to the child. "What happened to her leg?" She asked.

The older girl and the two boys suddenly looked up at her, having apparently failed to notice her entry due to their concern for the younger girl. The girl's wince faded slightly as she opened her eyes, although they didn't shift at all, and Tsunade quickly realized that on top of being injured, the girl was also blind.

"I was attacked by a medical ninja who was trying to abduct me." She explained, "He used a chakra scalpel to sever my left Achilles' tendon. My teacher went to find out whether the doctors at the hospital would be able to treat me."

The brunette teenager beside the girl scoffed, "I wouldn't even trust those idiots to treat a paper cut. Just a passing flu my foot..."

"That was... a far more direct explanation than I was expecting..." Tsunade remarked in surprise, for the most part ignoring the older girl's muttering.

The younger girl smiled wryly, "I'm a byouninja myself. I would've already treated my leg, but I can't reach the injury under the circumstances."

"You're really young for a byouninja." Tsunade murmured, moving her hands forward to treat the girl's leg, "How do you even manage to treat people when you're blind? For that matter, how did you know that I'm a byouninja?"

"The only person I ever have to treat is myself or my teacher." She replied, her face relaxing slightly, "As for your second question... I noticed your enormous chakra reserves immediately. When your companion called out your name, I figured out who you were."

"So you're a sensory type..." Tsunade said, almost to herself.

"Yes. I was born blind, but... I have a Kekkei Genkai. It's supposed to be a visual prowess, but in my case, it bypasses my optic nerves and feeds sensory information directly to the brain. It's related to the Byakugan. I can see people's chakra network, but not their tenketsu." She explained, "In most cases, I can make a diagnosis by analyzing that."

"Well that explains how you manage with the blindness, but not how you've already become a byouninja at your age. You don't even look old enough to have graduated from Konohagakure's Academy."

"I'm not." The girl confirmed, "But my father was also a byouninja, and my Kekkei Genkai allows me to control my chakra very easily. I learned Mystic Palm when I was about six or so. My teacher is not a byouninja, but nowadays, I further myself with the help of my grandfather or by reading books and scrolls that are specially made for me."

"Ah, so it runs in the family." Tsunade surmised.

"Yes." The girl sat up when Tsunade pulled her hands away, her face filled with relief, "Thank you for treating me. I would've tended to it myself, but I couldn't reach an injury of that nature."

"It's more difficult to heal yourself anyway without some kind of regenerative power." Tsunade remarked.

The girl nodded before suddenly looking shy. "Um... If it's all right... may I ask for your advice about something?"

Tsunade raised a brow, "What is it?"

"My... my teacher is sick. I first became aware of it about three years ago, but it may have started before that. I've carefully analyzed the situation and have come to the conclusion that his chakra network is, for some reason, placing strain upon his blood vessels, resulting in hemorrhaging when the flow accelerates beyond a certain point. Right now, it is limited to smaller blood vessels, mostly his eyes when he uses his more powerful doujutsu, but... I suspect that over time, larger blood vessels are suffering damage and slowly wearing thin. The damage is less when he doesn't have to extend his chakra beyond a certain point, but, I'm fairly certain that, sooner or later, he will..." Tears filled her eyes, but she brushed them away, "My grandfather has never seen or heard of anything like this, although he doesn't have a visual prowess like I do. I can't find any information in any books about it either. Aside from mending the damage as much as I can when it happens and treating his pain, I don't have the slightest clue what to do."

Tsunade frowned, looking thoughtful, "Based on your description, it could be genetic, or a birth defect, but my actual guess would be Microscopic Polyangitis."

"Microscopic Polyangitis?" The girl repeated, unfamiliar with the term.

"You know what auto-immune diseases are, right?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes. They're the result of an overactive immune system malfunctioning and attacking the body instead of defending it." The young girl said with a nod.

"Microscopic Polyangitis is a type of auto-immune disease." Tsunade explained, "It's a rare form of systemic vasculitis, characterized by antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies attacking the smaller blood vessels, causing them to hemorrhage when there is an increase of inflammation."

"I see..." The girl said thoughtfully, "The chakra network and vascular system are closely linked... acceleration of one's flow of chakra, in addition to acceleration of the blood flow, which often occurs in tandem with the former, could increase the inflammation and accelerate the damage."

Tsunade nodded in confirmation, "Has your mentor received any form of treatment during the time since you noticed this?"

"Yes." The younger medic said with a nod, "I've been administering anti-inflammatory medications regularly. Mostly in the form of an herbal tea compounded by Amai-san." At this, she nodded to the older girl, "I only resort to steroids when he is in particularly bad shape, because of the risks associated. I also administer a sedative when possible, in order to forcibly slow the flow of his chakra."

"Then what you need to add is an immunosuppressant." Tsunade told her, "That will help to extend his life, but... to be honest, curing him is likely something that would be beyond your abilities."

She sighed quietly, "I see... I was afraid of that..."

"Um... could you not go find your teacher and bring him here for examination?" Shizune asked, but the girl shook her head.

"My teacher is unwilling to be seen by anyone other than myself or my grandfather. Besides, while I can see people, in a sense, I can't see walls or other manmade objects. If I went to go look for him..."

"You'd just injure yourself again." Tsunade surmised with a nod.

"Yes. But thank you for at least hearing me out. I won't take anymore of your time."

Tsunade nodded and stood up, "Be more careful from now on. Next time, you might not be as lucky."

病

Itachi was surprised when he came back a short while later and found Koharu sitting in the cafe, swinging her legs freely as if nothing had ever happened. "Koharu?"

"Sensei!" Koharu said as she smiled brightly at her teenaged guardian, "Guess what! While you were visiting the hospital, Lady Tsunade happened to pass by and decided to repair my severed tendon."

Itachi sweat-dropped, wondering just what kind of luck this girl had that the most renowned medical ninja in the world had just happened to walk by and see her while he—her guardian, who happened to listed in the Bingo Book as an S-class criminal—so happened to be absent. "I see... Well in any case, we need to get going. We need to return and report what happened."

"Okay." Koharu said while hopping off of the seat, "Oh, but before we go, we need to collect the medicine that Lady Tsunade recommended for your condition. Reishi-kun should be just about finished preparing it.

病

Soon Itachi and Koharu had gathered back at one of the Akatsuki's hideouts with the other members. Tobi was there too for some reason, sitting on a rock off to the side.

"Orochimaru betrayed and deserted our organization." Pain said to the others.

"I knew it. That snake..." Sasori said from beside Itachi. "He always put himself before the organization."

"I don't know for precisely what reason he joined in the first place," Koharu began, "But it seems that he was after Sensei's body. I suspect that's been his goal since we joined, and therefore the reason that he kept trying to switch partners. There was something specific though... It seemed to me that his own body was... weak somehow. I suspect he'll have to settle for an easier target if he wants to live. His own jutsu are killing him."

"You discerned that much even though you were dealing with Kabuto?" Itachi asked, somehow surprised even though he'd been Koharu's teacher for three years now.

"Sometimes I observe things subconsciously and analyze them later." She replied, "Besides, I had to keep tabs on what was happening with you too. It was how I got Kabuto to leave me alone when he had already succeeded in inhibiting my movements."

"I don't intend to let Orochimaru get away with this," Pain began, "But right now, we're short members."

Tobi jumped down from his rock, "Hey! Hey! Hey! How about letting me join?" Koharu cringed slightly at the way the man's persona contrasted with his true personality.

"Get lost!" Sasori said in annoyance.

Tobi acted like a scolded child, "Right..." Koharu found herself coughing in an attempt to cover the choking noise she nearly made in response.

"Leave Orochimaru to me." Sasori said, "His subordinate, Kabuto, is my puppet. I'll find out where he's hiding in no time."

"I don't mean to be impertinent, Sasori-san, but you might want to be careful when it comes to Kabuto." Koharu remarked.

"What?" Sasori asked as he looked at the young girl.

"When I encountered him, I sensed that Yakushi Kabuto was fiercely loyal to Orochimaru and that he deeply admires him. If he were to truly betray Orochimaru, it would be on purely his own terms. Any information he gives you could very well be a trap."

"What would you know about any of this?" Sasori asked in annoyance.

"Koharu's ability to read a person's chakra is unparalleled." Itachi told him, "Her judgment of character is never wrong."

"There's no need to rush." Pain told Sasori, "I have someone in mind to be your partner. It can wait until he joins us."

"What about me?" Kakuzu asked. "Do I team up with Itachi and his brat?"

"Work alone for a little longer." Pain told him, "I have someone else I've prepared to partner up with Itachi."

Koharu wasn't sure if she was relieved to hear that or not.

病

A short while later, Itachi sat on a dock near the hideout with Koharu by his side. He was watching some sharks moving in the water below them, but he looked up when he heard somebody approaching him. The man who walked up to them in an Akatsuki cloak didn't look human, but then again, most of the Akatsuki didn't.

"I'm going to be your partner from today." The man said politely. "I'm Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly of the Hidden Mist, and an ex-member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. Pleased to meet you. And you are Uchiha Itachi, formerly of the Hidden Leaf. I've heard the rumors... You slaughtered all of your fellow Uchiha clansmen." Itachi said nothing and looked away, while Koharu kept her face turned toward the water. "I understand you well." Kisame told Itachi, "That's the reason why I decided to team up with you in Akatsuki. The sensation that comes from killing your comrade is indescribable, isn't it, Itachi-san?"

"You talk a lot." Itachi replied flatly, implying that he was annoyed, but Koharu knew that he was simply burying his pain beneath a cold facade for the sake of concealing the guilt that weighed heavily on his heart. Kisame... didn't understand a thing in her opinion. "You may know a lot about me, but what about yourself?" Itachi asked suddenly, "You got lost in the mist and ended up here. You're just a thug who couldn't figure out where to go. Am I wrong?"

Kisame's eyes widened at Itachi's words before he suddenly drew the sword on his back and held it above Itachi's shoulder, "Do you want to know something interesting?" He asked, "Some sharks are ovoviviparous, which means the eggs hatch inside the female's body, then are born. However, with some kinds of sharks, the number of eggs that hatch don't match up with the number of pups born. Do you know why?" Koharu considered answering, but then chose not to, believing that Itachi himself already understood the answer, and was simply waiting for Kisame to make his point. "Cannibalism." Kisame said simply, "When the eggs hatch, the pups resort to cannibalizing their siblings inside their mother's belly. From the moment they are born, the fratricide begins. Other than itself, every other pup is fodder. From today, you and I belong to Akatsuki. Please be wary... of me."

Itachi opened his eyes and allowed his Mangekyou Sharingan to spin to the surface. "That goes for you too."

Kisame grinned as he pulled back his sword and rested it on his own shoulder. "Well, anyway, let's have fun, and hope that we're not the last two facing each other."

"Anyone who has ever raised their hand against a comrade, even once, never dies a decent death." Itachi said calmly as he stood up and turned to face Kisame, "Remember that."

Kisame chuckled, "Which means you and I are both worthless."

"No..." Itachi began, "We aren't fish, we're human. No matter who you are..." he continued as he walked past Kisame with Koharu following, "You do not know what kind of human you are until the very end. One realizes their true nature at the moment of death. That's the way to view death."

Kisame watched Itachi for a moment, slightly baffled, before he followed after the sixteen-year-old and his student. Itachi led them to a nearby tea house and the three of them sat down.

"By the way..." Kisame began, "I don't believe that I was informed about the young lady."

"I'm Mayonaka Koharu." Koharu replied shortly, "I'm not from anywhere, and I don't know what it means to have comrades." Closing her eyes, she stood up from the table and headed back toward the door.

"Koharu?" Itachi asked her in confusion.

"Sorry Sensei, but I'm not really hungry." She turned and placed a small packet of medicine on the table next to him, "Be sure to take that with your tea. I'm going for a walk."

"Stay within earshot." Itachi told her, and she nodded before leaving. Itachi turned his attention back to Kisame, "Koharu was rejected as a shinobi because she is blind, yet she was feared for her skills at perception and for this, targeted. Her father died protecting her. Since then, I have looked after her as my student. I don't bring her with me into combat situations, but she aids me by using her sensory abilities and her knowledge of medicine. I will warn you, as perhaps I should have before, that if you ever attempt to betray me, Koharu will know it in an instant and alert me. Perhaps her strongest ability of all... is the ability to know who to trust."

I feel like Kisame and Itachi's first meeting is kind of sad, in part because of Kisame's grave misunderstanding of the type of person that Itachi is. Koharu is aware of this misunderstanding, is frustrated by it, and moreover, annoyed with Kisame for thinking he knows all about Itachi and troubled by Itachi's suffering. On top of that, their initial exchange has reminded Koharu of the feeling she already struggles with of not having a place to belong.

Itachi's diagnosis is a fan-theory that happened to fit with what I had previously said was the cause of his sickness. The explanation is a little inaccurate because it doesn't take into account the effects of the medicine that Itachi received from Reishi. After reviewing the fight between Itachi and Orochimaru (if you can even call it that), I realized that it probably happened on the road to Howling Wolf Village, rather than on a road leading to an Akatsuki hideout, so I rewrote part of the chapter to fit that.