Kisame returned covered in blood with a twisted smile on his face. His left hand held his sword above his shoulders and the bandaging around it had come undone to show a sharp scale-like surface. It too was covered in the crimson liquid. In his right hand, though, Kisame held the one thing that Kiba was really interested in. With blood flowing from a hit to his scalp and ugly face twisted up in fear, the leader of the men was dragged all the way from his position back at their festivities to where Kiba and Itachi waited.

"Pl-please!" The man begged, one of his eyes shut completely and beginning to bruise. "L-let m-m-me go!"

Kiba's face went from calm and relaxed to glaring in anger as soon as he heard those words leave the man. How dare he? How could that bastard ever consider himself anything more than a coward if he was already begging to be released?

But soon enough a sick smile found its way onto the boy's face.

The man was bleeding. He was afraid. He was injured. And he was on his knees.

With a sudden burst of crazed desperation taking control of him, Kiba got up from his spot on the floor and walked towards Kisame and the leader. The large, blue-skinned man quirked an eyebrow at the kid that was now wearing Itachi's too big coat but said nothing as he took one step to the side and released the leader's head. The man's head hit the ground for a second then his hands were under him and his upper body was pushed up to look into Kiba's eyes.

Kisame walked back towards Itachi with one hand on his hip and the other hanging, wondering just what kind of deal the two had struck while he unleashed pain and death on their targets. But he did not say a thing as he turned to look at the kid and the leader of the gang. He had a feeling that he would not be the only one that would shed blood that night.

Kiba's hands trembled beneath the long sleeves of the cloak. Actually, his whole framed quaked minutely as he looked down at the broken and injured man before him. And the more he looked, the angrier he got. The more the man sniveled, the more Kiba wished to see him injured further. And the more the man whimpered, the more Kiba wanted to break him.

This man deserved to bleed like Kiba had. This whimpering bastard deserved to lose who he was, just as he had forced Kiba to. Everything he had subjected the young boy to, he deserved to face.

"Perfect. Bitch."

Kisame's eyes widened marginally at the unexpected venom in the kid's voice. The leader whimpered from his spot below the boy. And Itachi's own faced showed slight surprise at just how spiteful the words had been.

Kiba did not lean down to look the man in the way. He barely even moved to touch him. But his eyes, which were so full of hate and disgust, were drilling into the leader's own terrified ones.

"Tell me, are you enjoying your place on the floor?" Kiba's words weren't yelled. Instead he spoke in a calm and composed voice that caused chills to go down even Kisame's back. "You really liked seeing me there before... So I'm wondering if there's any real pleasure or gain to find from laying broken and battered at the feet of your enemy."

There were so many spiteful thoughts roaring in Kiba's head. All of the pain, sadness, and humiliation he had been subjected to for the past few days bubbled up in him in a fever pitch. He had been angry before, he had felt hate. But never had he felt hate like this. This wasn't a destructive, explosive and careless feeling of hate. No, this was scarier. This hate made him cautious, careful, and silent. He had no idea what had gotten into him. But he wasn't about to stop it. He despised this bastard.

The leader didn't answer him. And this made Kiba's face twist up into a glare so hateful that the Akatsuki's members wondered if he was about to kill the man. But instead of doing that, the boy crouched so he was right beside the leader's face and hissed at him scornfully.

"You kidnapped me. Threatened my friends. Violated me. Made me lose everything that was important... And you dare beg to be let go?" A chilling, cold hearted, and unamused laugh burst from the kid's lips at that moment, only to cease as soon as it had come for Kiba to glare down at the man. "Oh no. You're going to die here." Then he smiled broadly, canines bared dangerously, "And it's going to fucking hurt."

"No... Please..." The leader's eyes were filled with tears now and they fell freely. "I want to live..." The whisper was filled with despair and terror and Kiba relished in those emotions. "Please let me live..."

"You don't deserve to live!" Kiba shouted suddenly, eyes wide and wild with his teeth bared. "You destroyed me! Destroyed who I was! What I was! Why the fuck would I let you live?!"

"Kiba."

Kiba hadn't noticed his hand was at the leader's throat until Itachi's voice broke through the dark haze that overwhelmed his mind. The boy blinked twice in confusion, then looked down at the leader to see his nails digging into his throat, then looked at the hand holding on to his forearm. Itachi's hand was firm yet gentle, not gripping to pull Kiba's hand away, instead to stop him.

"Let go."

Those calmly spoken words made Kiba's blood boil even more than the leader's begs had.

"Why?" The boy growled, close to snarling at the much taller male. "He deserves to die. And I have a right to make him breathe his last breath!" His breathing had become erratic and deep, his lungs struggling to acquire the oxygen he needed. "I have a right to kill him!"

The hand around the leader's throat tightened further and he gasped, eyes wide as his hands went up to scratch at Kiba's hand. The boy didn't even wince as his skin began to get torn, caught on the leader's nails.

He was tortured for days on end. He had felt hollow for so long... He wanted to feel something other than hate and fear again... And he thought... No. He knew that he'd feel once more when he killed this bastard. If he killed the monster in real life, he would kill the demons plaguing him. If he destroyed the man that had made him feel this way, so damned alone, then he wouldn't be alone again! It was a flawless plan!

"I told you to let him go, Inuzuka." Itachi's voice was calm and detached, but Kiba could not bring himself to understand why.

How could he sound so calm? How could anyone look at Kiba and dare tell him to not murder this bastard? How could Itachi look at Kiba and command him to let the bastard go?!

A feral snarl escaped Kiba's ground lips and his sharp canines flashed dangerously at Itachi, all the while his sharp nails dug into the leader's neck until they too drew blood.

"This bastard took everything from me! I should be able to take everything from him!" Kiba hissed up at Itachi, then winced when the hand on his arm began to tighten. "Why are you defending such an abhorrent piece of shit!? This is not a human! This is some detestable demon that needs to be wiped off the face of this Earth!"

Itachi's blood red eyes narrowed in disgust at Kiba's words, "Is this what the Leaf Village's ninja have become? Fools that seek destructive vengeance? Since when do your Shinobi preach blood lust and murder?" Itachi's voice was harsh and cold, face betraying none of those emotions.

Kiba could feel himself falter under that intense gaze and those scrutinizing words, hand loosening around the bastard's throat. He could feel his chest seize up at the accusations because he knew Itachi was right. A real Shinobi would not act like this. A real Shinobi would be strong enough to not be affected by the pain he had suffered.

Kiba was not a real Shinobi.

"You... You're right..." Kiba breathed out, finally letting go of the man's neck.

The leader gulped in a big breath of air and Kiba felt tears spring up in his eyes once more. The more he looked at the scarred man struggling to breathe, the more he felt like crying. He did not deserve the title of genin. He didn't deserve the headband he wore. The one item on his body that the men had not touched or perverted in any manner.

"You're right..." He whispered dumbly, taking one step back.

Then he took another, and another, and another, all the while repeating the phrase like a mantra. With wide eyes and tears falling, the boy continued backing up and away from Itachi and the leader. On one step, his foot caught with a root on the floor and he fell to the ground below. And when pain shot through all of his body at the impact with the floor, he began to sob like never before.

~/~

Itachi looked at the sobbing boy with an unreadable expression on his face. His red eyes were slightly narrowed, but not enough to express how angered he was with the situation he found himself in now.

The mission had been a simple 'Get rid of these pests'. It was bothersome and below them in Itachi's eyes, but if the Akatsuki wanted to keep their strangle hold on business around this area, then those mercenaries would have to be dispatched of. So, he and Kisame had done their recon and gotten the lay of the land and garnered an understanding of their targets.

He was a despicable human being. Itachi knew that he would never be able to atone for his sins, no matter how justified they were. He'd never go back to Konoha as a hero. But he had his brother. At least he still had Sasuke.

Even with how dangerous and disgusting he was, though, the mercenaries that called this campsite home had a special place in hell prepared just for them.

Someone was a special kind of despicable if they thought it was fine to rape a child.

When they had first seen the rapes of the young boy at the hands of these men, Kisame had had to physically stop Itachi from jumping in and murdering everyone in the place. The cries of the boy vibrated in his head and took him back to a time he wished to never have to relive and Itachi wanted, with all his being, to stop the screams. But to dispatch of the men before their assigned date could risk the Akatsuki's involvement being exposed and Kisame was smart enough to know to stop him.

After he had stopped Itachi from flying into the camp, Kisame had dragged him away as far as he dared and hissed at him for being such an idiot. Wasn't Itachi supposed to be the level headed one of the two? He should know better than to jump in before they were allowed to. Had Itachi really wanted to put their organization in jeopardy of being found out?

It took him a long time, but eventually Itachi was able to hold in his rage because of Kisame's- astonishingly enough- wise words. He had known that Kisame wasn't a complete idiot, but seeing how he had been able to calm down an almost blindly enraged Itachi showed that he wasn't as incompetent as the Uchiha had once believed. Maybe there was a reason as to why they had been paired together.

The wait for the correct time was almost unbearable. The kid's screams were stuck in Itachi's head. His wails and sobs of pain were all that Itachi could think about for some time. And what bothered him the most about the kid's screams was the fact that he didn't understand why they struck him so.

He had been around pain, death, and torture before. But he had never been affected like this. It was as if there was something about this kid that his subconscious refused to forget or ignore. As if this kid was supposed to mean something to Itachi. Honestly, it made no sense to the battle hardened Uchiha. But he knew that things didn't have to make sense to be real. His protective urges had flared when he had seen the kid bound and abused and he'd be damned if he'd allow further harm to come to him.

The time spent waiting to attack was frustrating to Itachi. He knew that these men were only preparing to hurt the kid in a harsher manner than before and this thought made his blood boil. But somehow, he had been able to keep himself from endangering their mission and waited until midnight came around. Then he had landed before the kid with an air of indifference that he certainly could not make himself believe.

The kid wasn't stupid. That much was clear from him being able to tell that he and Kisame were not good people from just their scents. And it was this very observation that had made the idea of 'tracker' pop into his mind. If he had been able to smell the danger they actually were, then maybe the Inuzuka's famed sense of smell was not as exaggerated as Itachi had once thought it was.

But from his eagerness to make a deal with two- even though he didn't know they were- S-Ranked criminals, Itachi knew he was desperate to save his friends. So, who was he to deny the kid's pleas?

The kid wanted his friends to be safe. Itachi and Kisame had already decided that they would not be harmed before they jumped in to kill the men. He also wanted the camp full of men murdered. That was the very reason as to why both Akatsuki members found themselves in this dark forest at such an odd hour. Kiba didn't have to know that they were going to do all that before he had offered his deal. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

So Itachi took advantage of the kid's fragile state of mind and recruited him as a tracker.

The burst of protective and worried feelings in his chest for the kid surprised him. But he didn't ask himself why he felt them. He just allowed himself to act selfishly for once and decided to keep the kid around so he'd be able to solve this mystery comfortably. He wasn't accustomed to deciding on things that would benefit him rather than others but his heart fluttered oddly at the idea of the Inuzuka at his side, helping him and Kisame track down their targets.

Then the kid had asked for the leader's head... And Itachi felt his body fill with a chill he had not experienced before. The spiteful and vindictive look on the kid's face just didn't seem right. Itachi had seen that look on people's faces before. And once somebody crossed the line Kiba was about to cross, they never came back. And once more that burst of wanting to protect ignited in his chest and he had stepped forward to stop the Inuzka.

For some reason he did not truly understand, Itachi wanted to preserve what ounce of innocence- however small- Kiba still held in him. This was the reason why he stopped Kiba from killing the leader. To keep him from going down a path he would never be able to come back from.

His words had been cruel and hurtful, but they had the effect Itachi had hoped for. Kiba had seen the error of his ways and regretted ever having thought of murdering the leader. Itachi just had not expected to see the kid that had been prepared to murder a man in cold blood a few seconds ago suddenly devolve and sob like a child.

The only noise around the campsite for some time was that which came from Kiba. His soul wrecking sobs pierced the night sky and twisted Itachi's insides in a way he was not comfortable with. But with their mission almost over, Kisame decided to keep his big mouth shut for once and didn't try to make Itachi hurry up. After some time, those sobs became cries and those sniffles. Then, after a few more minutes, the noises ceased and Itachi figured out Kiba had cried himself to sleep.

He had not been the only one for the leader's scornful laughter suddenly broke the silence that had formed and Itachi's anger flared.

"Dumb bitch! Can't do anything right!"

Itachi enjoyed breaking that man's mind more than he should have.

At the moment, he didn't care about it how much he enjoyed it, though. As he heard the man's blood curdling screams brought on by his genjutsu, all Itachi could think of was how good it felt to hurt him.

It was later on as he cradled Kiba in his arms and followed after Kisame through the trees that he began to wonder just why he felt so protective of the Inuzuka child.

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