I wanted to take a second to thank everyone that's been favouriting, following and reviewing so far.
Your support is greatly appreciated, and I am so happy that you're all enjoying something I've worked so hard on.

Thank you!


Chapter 8 - Concern

It was late in the evening and Itachi heard the abrupt noise of a thud, a clink, and someone swearing from outside his apartment. It seemed to be a female's voice he could hear, and he assumed it was Hitori. He had been living in the apartment across from her for the most part of three weeks now, and she had been away on a mission for most of that time. She was right when she had said that it was just right for one person. The apartment was less than a quarter of the size compared to the house he lived in as a child in the Uchiha Compound.

As he stood up from his seat and opened his apartment door, he saw Hitori in her doorway, and a splatter of blood on the floor as she unsealed the chakra lock on the door to let herself in. From the way her shoulders slouched and her feet scuffed the floor, he guessed that she was either injured or exhausted but the blood suggested injury. It may not have been her own though.

"Sokkenai. Are you hurt?" He asked her quietly and she slowly shuffled her feet to turn and look at him.

Her face was pale and haggard from exhaustion but it was the way she looked like she was struggling to breath that worried him. He felt his dojutsu activate naturally and he watched her every movement to analyse what was wrong with her, or if she was just exhausted. She was hunching over slightly, and had a hand over the left side of her ribcage. Immediately, he suspected that she had broken her ribs, and sighed mentally at her stubbornness.

"I'm fine. Sorry if I disturbed you." She bowed her head respectfully and went to turn away but he spoke first.

"Why are you not at the hospital if you are injured?" His voice became deeper and firmer, signalling that he was speaking to her as her Commander.

"I am a medic, Commander. I am perfectly capable of healing myself. The wounds are superficial." She explained and took careful, shallow breaths intermittently, which she couldn't hide from his sharp eyes.

"Must I order you to go and get treated?" He said with a hint of exasperation. She sighed, knowing that she was busted.

"It's only cracked ribs and a few scratches. I would prefer to heal myself in my own home rather than give the medics at the hospital extra work. Kisuke's cell just returned knocking on death's door. They are busy enough already." She began to get short with him, but despite that being a bad idea to do with her superior, he actually found it somewhat amusing.

"Then as your Commander, I will ensure that you treat yourself before you rest."

He practically marched over to her door and ushered her inside. She made her way in slowly and he could swear that she was rolling her eyes at him, even though she had her back to him. He closed her door softly and walked over to her after she sat down at her small dining table with a pained wince. She stripped off her vest with a grimace and unclipped her weapon holsters before she pushed her shoes off with her opposite foot.

Hitori closed her eyes, took a deep breath and sat back to begin healing herself as Itachi stood authoritatively nearby and supervised. As she healed her wounds, he looked her over to check just how badly she was injured. Most of it seemed superficial as she said, just a bruise or graze, but there was a few deep cuts and one on her thigh that looked like a kunai stab wound. Her right eye was puffy, but that quickly went down with her healing herself. He noticed that she had rather long eyelashes, coupled with softly curved eyebrows.

Occasionally, she would pull a face or shuffle in her seat, but he watched as a laceration on her arm slowly shrunk and disappeared. It left a pink line behind, the only sign she had been hurt at all. The stab wound on her thigh got smaller as well, but left an angry red line in its wake. Her grazes and bruises didn't change though, as she obviously focused her healing on severe injuries. Superficial things would fade with time. No need to waste chakra on them.

Although it had been roughly five minutes by the time she finished, it didn't feel like that long. He had been watching her the entire time and only shifted when she opened her eyes, signalling she was finished. Sitting up straight, she rolled her shoulders backward a few times before she opened her eyes and stood up.

"Done." She spoke offhandedly and he nodded in confirmation.

"Your ribs?" He asked as he examined her once more.

Casually as could be, she lifted up her shirt and whacked herself with her other hand to show that she had healed the damage. The only thing left was a bluish-purple tinge to her skin. It took him by surprise, but he didn't look away, although he felt like he should have. Regardless, she had made her point. She let the material fall from her hands and walked toward her fridge, he stepped aside to let her past. After she grabbed out a container of soup, she poured its contents into a pot and turned on her stove to heat up her meal.

Abruptly she turned to him with a partially hidden frown on her face. It seemed she really had no patience for him today.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, Commander?" Although she was speaking politely, her body language betrayed her.

"Are you alright?" He softened his voice as best he could.

His question seemed to surprise her and her frown dissipated instantly. He could see the cogs turning in her head and she dropped her shoulders and sighed. Shaking her head, it looked like she realised what she was doing.

"I apologise. I am merely frustrated at how our mission went. My abilities as a medic should not have to stretch to those who make idiotic decisions that put the cell in danger." With her thumb and pointer finger, she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Is that why you were unable to heal your wounds earlier?"

"Yes. I had to focus on getting the rest of the cell well enough to keep moving. I knew I could look after myself once we were home safe. My bleeding had stopped and I had no mortal wounds to be concerned with."

He nodded slowly and she stumbled over her words for a moment as she figured out what she wanted to say. She chewed her lip in uncertainty before she bowed and finally spoke.

"I am sorry I was so brusque. You are my Commander and-"

"There is no need." He cut her off but she did not rise. "I am more than aware your anger was not directed at me." He moved to lean against her counter and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I must still pay obeisance and apologise for my rudeness."

Itachi stayed quiet until she straightened up and he couldn't help but huff faintly at her expression. She seemed exhausted in more ways than one, but was still concerned about how she had spoken to him. This break in his composure made her relax and she looked to one side and smiled.

"I assure you that you did not upset me." He allowed a teasing hint to appear in his voice and she relaxed enough to laugh softly. Instinctively, he felt the corners of his mouth turn upward at the sight and he decided to leave her be to eat and rest. "Get some rest, Sokkenai."

Itachi pushed away from the counter and she smiled at him once more before he left to her to her own devices. He pulled her door shut and felt her chakra flare for a brief second as she sealed it behind him. After he went back to his own apartment, he returned to his files and his cold tea.

The shadow of a smile on his face did not fade until much later…


Hitori had been summoned to HQ after having two weeks leave after her last mission. She was bored out of her mind and hoped that Commander Uchiha had something for her to do. Since he had seen her while she was injured, he had forced her to stay at home and told her that if he saw her at HQ during that time, she would have to wait longer to get assigned to a mission. There was no way that she would be able to sneak in there without him finding out, so she had spent most of the time off reading her book, and she had gotten to train with both Haruko and Sakura once each, which was good.

She bowed before she entered the Commander's office and put on her professional expression. Since they had become neighbours, Itachi had become much more friendly with her when he saw her, even going so far to tease and joke with her, which surprised her. But she was glad that he was comfortable enough to be like that with her. He made for pleasant company and let her ramble on about whatever she wanted to while he listened silently. She had helped him with the medical reports a couple more times, but he had actually brought them to her apartment, since she hadn't been allowed in HQ for the last fortnight.

"Sokkenai. Come in." his voice was firm and serious, which was normal for the times when it was strictly business between them. "I have a mission for you. It's not going to be easy, but I believe you'll be a good choice for the medic in the cell."

"Thank you for trusting in my abilities." she nodded in appreciation, glad to know that she must be improving if he was assigning her to something more difficult. Regardless, if Uchiha Itachi said it was difficult, then she might have her work cut out for her.

"This is A-ranked, but I expect if you follow the plan I have set out, you'll have minimal issues. Your Captain has the details, and you leave first thing tomorrow morning."

"Thank you." she bowed once more, and went to turn away, but his voice stopped her.

"Don't be so nervous." he looked at her with a raised eyebrow, clearly able to see through her facade. "You'll do well."

He gave her the faintest hint of a smile, and she couldn't help but feel a little more confident. She took a breath and nodded a few times before she gave him a smile and bowed again and left his office. If he had faith in her, surely she couldn't manage to stuff everything up too badly...right?


Their four man cell had set off at sunrise this morning and they were heading for the southern part of the Hot Water Country that was north of Fire Country. It was only small, but it did hold its own hidden village. Their team consisted of the Captain, whose name Hitori didn't know and hadn't worked with previously, Kisuke, who she had met but not worked with before, and Ryuka, who she had worked with a few times before.

On the way, the Captain explained that they were going to assassinate a cult leader who had gone mad with power and began to abuse his followers and physically harm them. He had also been ordering his followers to steal food and supplies from nearby villages. They were to kill the leader and take out any others that threatened them completing their mission. He told them about the mission plan the Commander had given them and broke down what their role was.

Ryuka's doton jutsu would be good for breaking into the compound that they were living in, and she would be followed by Kisuke and the Captain while Hitori stayed back to provide any long ranged support she could and be ready to heal and help them fight their way out when they killed their mark. The reports said that the majority of his followers wanted out now that he had started on his power trip, and just needed an out, so they wouldn't put up a fight. Some of them still believed in the cause though, and would make things difficult.

They travelled into the night, and stopped to rest just after midnight until sunrise before they set off again, only a few hours shy from their target. They kept up the pace and reached the large compound just before midday. It had been abandoned during the Fourth Shinobi World War, along with a lot of other villages in the country and had been a big part of the battlefield. As a result, the country was still recovering from the fighting that occurred here. It's people and economy had been slowly stabilising since.

Stopping so that they could both analyse and finalise their plan, they were a few hundred metres from the compound and they tested out their comms before they were ready to go in. They took a breath simultaneously, and headed for their target, Ryuka in the lead ready to smash the doors in with doton jutsu. Kisuke was close behind, ready to back her up along with their Captain after she blasted through.

Hitori stayed back and tried to use her jutsu to peek inside, but she was still too far away. Her range was a big weakness at the moment, and she definitely needed to work on it before she stepped up for jonin. When they were only a hundred metres away, she finally looked inside and found the place wasn't guarded by the followers, but there was armed shinobi instead. She hissed at the other three through her wireless radio to let them know, but they didn't slow their pace at all as the Captain told them to push forward. From where she was, she could see at least 20, but there might have been more further in the compound.

She had a bad feeling gurgling in her stomach, and readied herself for a real shit fight while cursing under her breath, and even more colourfully in her mind.

After Ryuka barged in, from a distance Hitori tried to disable as many of the hired guards as she could without rushing in like she was ordered to. Taking Genma's advice into account, she knew that she couldn't overstep with this Captain; he was far too stern. Kisuke and the Captain disappeared in the fray and Hitori concentrated on their chakra as best she could whilst trying to help, making sure that she would know if any of them got seriously injured. Charging a handful of kunai with raiton chakra, she began tossing them at anyone who came within range of her, only landing about two thirds of them. Unfortunately, they didn't all disable or kill their targets, some of them only grazing or giving decent slashes.

On closer inspection, the guards seemed to be rogue shinobi, meaning that they had minimal use of their chakra and probably didn't know much jutsu at all. They would have received a small amount of training, but not enough to make them fully lethal against hidden village trained shinobi. However, their numbers were the biggest issue they were facing. Ryuka, Kisuke and the Captain were yelling at each other through their radio, and Hitori continued to tell the Captain to let her get closer to help. Their mark having hired help wasn't in their original plan, so she argued that they should be able to ditch it to come in and assist. They were only expecting a few fanatic civilians to try and stop them, not a force of rogue nin.

From her perch in a tree, Hitori saw a strangely coloured cloud forming on Kisuke's right, and moved to a different spot to see if someone was creating it, or if it was an after effect of a jutsu. Her eyes went wide as she realised it was an enemy creating a poison cloud, and decided that disobeying orders or not, they might not survive if she didn't get in there now. If the poison was lethal enough, seconds were going to be the difference between the four of them dying or getting through this.

Leaping down from her spot, she ran in at full speed and when she was about halfway, the enemy released the poison cloud, hitting Kisuke first, then Ryuka and the Captain shortly after. The three of them continued fighting at full efficiency and would be able to keep going for a few minutes, which is all they needed to finish this. Hitori ran straight through the worst of the fray and headed for the back of the compound, as she could now peek ahead to see that was where their mark was.

The two guards at his door posed little threat and she left one of them gurgling with his throat slit, bleeding out on the stairs, and the second was clutching his stomach were she had sliced him deeply with her ninjato. Kicking the door in with minimal effort, she saw a horrible sight. The man they were supposed to kill had three girls tied up on his bed, all completely naked. The poor girls began screeching loudly for help as soon as they saw her. He was sitting on her left in an armchair, apparently waiting for her.

"If you kill me, the group of well paid bounty hunters watching this compound will come after you and kill you. If you let me be, they will not chase you." his voice was as narcissistic as she expected it to sound, and he stood up and began to walk over to her.

She left no delay in closing the gap between them and crouched down, then drove her ninjato between his ribs on an angle upward into his chest cavity where his heart was. He was dead within seconds, and she reefed the blade back out of him and the girls screamed. She swung the blade through the air, ridding it of any excess blood before she placed it back in its sheath. Although she wanted to take her mask off to ease the girls fears, she couldn't risk it.

"I am here to help you. May I come over to you and release your bonds?" she spoke evenly, and softened her voice as must as she could to try and calm them.

The one in the middle nodded slowly, and she rushed over and untied them, and checked them over for severe wounds. They were mostly unharmed aside from some cuts and bruises from being beaten by him, but they would heal in time. No need to waste her chakra on them when she had three cell members that would be dying from poison shortly. They explained that they had been kidnapped from the local villages as she checked them out. Hitori sent them on their way after they grabbed their clothes from the floor and haphazardly threw them on. Hitori didn't waste any more time focusing on them, as her comrades seemed to have stopped fighting, by the feel of their chakra. She couldn't sense anyone else that was alive, or well enough to fight around them and knew that she needed to get back and start breaking down the poison in their system. They ran into the room and saw that she had already completed the job, and she could feel that Kisuke was beginning to feel the poison's effects judging by his chakra.

Their Captain began to rummage around, to see if there was any evidence of any illegal activity that they needed to put a stop to. Ryuka helped while Hitori began metabolising the poison in Kisuke's body. It was a tough poison, but luckily it was slow acting, so she had time to stop any permanent damage from occurring. She waited, still healing as best she could until she had enough of waiting for the other two.

"We need to get behind Fire Country borders. I can't heal all three of you when you've all been so badly poisoned. We won't all make it home." she spoke in a low voice, directing her words at their Captain, who seemed not to care. "If we get behind our borders, I can send word and get us picked up."

Still, he continued his task, even though Ryuka had stopped, and Hitori could feel that she was beginning to get faint. Gesturing her to come over, Hitori changed to healing her, since this was the most critical time in dealing with poisons. If she was able to break down the majority of it, or at least the active ingredients, then it wouldn't affect them anywhere near as much and would be taken out of their system when they got back to Konoha.

"Captain!" Hitori shouted angrily, and he finally stopped to look at her.

"You've already disobeyed orders today, Yami. Do not press me further." his voice was much deeper than hers, but she didn't care about pissing him off or being reprimanded for her actions. She was trying to get them all home alive.

"I will fucking press you if it gets us all home alive! I will not let my teammates die for your arrogance!" she held nothing back, and kept up healing Ryuka as best she could. Her aggressiveness even surprised her, but she didn't care if it meant they would leave.

"Fine. Let's move out." he replied after a quiet moment that dragged on for too long.

As they headed back towards the Fire Country border, she swapped between them, breaking down the poison from within their body as best she could on the run. Her chakra was running low just after they crossed the border, and their pace had slowed significantly. All three of them had already began to feel the effects of the poison, and they had already had some blood seeping out from their noses and ears. If she didn't keep up healing them, it would cause them to hemorrhage and die slowly. She gave them all an injection that was an antidote for most poisons with the hemorrhaging effect, and hoped that it had the same lethal ingredient, which would buy her more time. However the antidote wasn't completely correct, although it did ease her workload somewhat.

Not to mention the bounty hunters they had sensed on their tail. She just hoped that they wouldn't cross the border, but she felt a prickle on the edge of her senses and knew they weren't alone.

Kisuke went down first, and the Captain attempted to hoist him onto his back, but was much too weak himself and the two of them fell in a heap on the ground. Ryuka was barely able to stand, and Hitori was doing much better, since she had only come across a much smaller portion of the poison, but she was just as exhausted from healing the three of them.

Ryuka found a small clearing that was naturally hidden by a rock cluster, and the three of them collapsed while Hitori did her best switching between them to heal them. She grabbed out her storage scroll, and gave them a soldier pill each, which would help to at least keep them going for a while longer to stop them from passing out too early. When they kicked in, she took the chance to quickly send a message to Konoha, and hoped that it would get there before her comrades began to die one by one.

Kisuke went unconscious around half an hour later, being in the worst shape and Ryuka managed to stay awake for another ten minutes after that. As much as she hated him right now, she was still concerned when their Captain passed out another ten minutes later. She gave them another dosage of the same antidote, but now she had none left for herself. Fortunately, she needed much less chakra for her own upkeep and she would need to keep some of the poison active in her system for the medics in Konoha to analyse. She wouldn't be hemorrhaging to a point of mortality either.

Through the rest of the day, she nursed them as best she could, cursing under her breath every few hours when they had barely improved. She just didn't have the chakra to heal all three of them when they had been injured as well as poisoned. Her medical ninjutsu was passable, but even the most seasoned medic would struggle with the severity of this situation.

Once the sun went down, the skirmishes began. They approached her one by one, every hour or so, testing to see how tired she was. Luckily, they weren't too skilled, but she had a feeling that they would send their stronger members once she couldn't fend them off any more. By the time sunrise was almost upon her, she had created a little pile of dead bounty hunters around her.

Another approached and she felt them try and charge from behind, but it left them very much open. They blocked her initial sword strike, but although they were much bigger than her, her agility and technique was far superior, and she felt blood splatter upon her when she cut him diagonally from shoulder to hip, his ribs exposed from the depth of the wound. Landing with a heavy thud, she grabbed a syringe filled with adrenalin from her cloak and jabbed herself with it.

This was going to be bad later on, but if she didn't use something to keep her going, she was going to end up passing out from exhaustion. She had given the others most of the supplies, since they were in more dire straits than she was. She just had to contend with staying awake, staying alive and not using her chakra as much as she could in these little fights.

She just hoped that a rescue team would arrive before they got the best of her...