For see1like because you reviewed every chapter since you started reading this story and single-handedly motivated me to write another chapter (even if it was, perhaps, not put up as soon as you would like...)

Chapter 9- The Meeting

I was beginning to notice a trend. Konan and another blond man I didn't know were also in the limousine, and were also wearing black and red 'uniforms'. I looked up at the dark, nighttime sky as the streetlights flashed down at regular intervals.

As we came to a halt Pein spoke, "Look sharp you lot, we're here." He opened the door on the pavement side and got out. I sat indecisively, wondering if I should follow. My confusion was soon cleared up when Konan frantically gesticulated for me to follow him out first. The blond man just sighed and rolled his visible eye, probably at my lack of knowledge. I realised that I would have to learn fast. Pein didn't look very happy, though he seemed to be more annoyed at himself for not explaining things to me beforehand.

We entered the two-story building and I soon found that it looked as though it had once been a hotel. We appeared to be in the lobby area, but this lobby was furnished with several groups of couches, armchairs and tables. It also had a pungently smoky atmosphere; I could smell more than just tobacco in the air… There were stairs to an upper floor, which probably had rooms for hire. I felt that not a lot of sleeping would get done in them.

"I suppose it's a bad time to mention my asthma, huh?" I joked weakly, exceedingly nervous all of a sudden.

"Don't worry, we're not staying amongst the feral." He replied, "Most of this lot are just customers for the drug ring."

"How can you do that to people?" I demanded quietly, "Destroying their mental capacity for your own prosperity."

"Hey, I never said it was my drug ring! Actually, it's your grandfather's." He added as he led me through a door, which had been painted white. Thankfully this room wasn't full of non-breathable air.

"I don't have a grandfather, he died-" I paused as I realised that my dad had to have a father as well. Though, Sasuke and I had never met him. Perhaps my father had ostracised him for being gay as well. All I knew of him was his name, and that had only been found out by listening to he and my mother having a row about whether Sasuke and I should at least meet him. "Uchiha Madara?" I asked with a sense of foreboding. Was it he who had sent me the message with Kakashi?

"Ah, that would be the one, but you'll have to wait until we get back before you get your reward." He replied, before turning his attention to the ten or so other people in the room. I wasn't sure I wanted a 'reward' from this Madara person, somehow…

"How the hell do you do it!?" One man stormed at Pein, attempting to glare him down. "Just as you arrived, my assassin went missing! I'll probably find him dead as well!"

"Oh dear, maybe he fell." Said Pein, with mock concern.

The other man just snorted and left the room. I shifted closer to Pein as the man passed and looked up at him in askance.

"Later." He promised, before putting an arm around my waist and seating us on a vacant, white couch. I was infinitely glad that the material wasn't leather, it got so uncomfortable when you weren't wearing pants… This room was surprisingly bright and tidy compared to the 'feral' one, as Pein had so eloquently put it.

The half-masked man sitting across from us laughed humourlessly, "Shouldn't that one be gathering funds? We'd make a packet."

"We already make more than a packet on these escapades, Kakuzu. Besides, he makes me look cool!" He taunted in a friendly manner.

Ignoring the gazes of the other people in the room, I tried to relax. However, Pein made this difficult by putting a hand on my upper thigh. I didn't know why I reacted to him so strongly when I hadn't for anyone, bar Kisame, until now. I glared at him, not quite sure what he could have done, even if it was his fault.

The other patrons in the room had noticed the sudden spurt of tension. Suddenly I found myself being able to think with more clarity.

"I'm sorry Itachi, I forgot that you had been injured there." Pein invented a viable excuse for my glare. I knew it wouldn't do for people to think his whore didn't enjoy his company. So he instead shifted his hand to my inner thigh. This time I had no out of place reaction and privately felt relieved. It still didn't explain what Pein had done to me, though.


Hours later it was mutually agreed that we would have a break. Embarrassingly enough, I realised that I had fallen asleep at some point. Pein just laughed it off, using it as an excuse to go and get some fresh air. After navigating our way upstairs and finding an empty balcony area, I asked Pein the questions that had been bugging me all night

"What did you do to me?"

"Hm, it's difficult to explain. Madara sama will want to do the explaining anyway… Let's just say I'm able to influence people."

'I can also communicate telepathically, of course.' A voice added, as though it was coming from the inside of my head.

I had the railing of the balcony in a death grip as I turned to face him again. My thoughts were everywhere, panicked, irrational. What if he influenced me to jump off this balcony, as he had probably done with that assassin? He could make me do any amount of things. What if he made me hurt Sasuke or Kisame or-

'Or what if he's been ordered to protect you and wouldn't do that to you anyway?' Pein added sounding amused and somewhat resigned. 'A bit paranoid aren't we?'

Had he killed my father? What would he do to me when I wasn't of use anymore? The fact that he could invade my mind easily and at will had me practically in hysterics. My body had been invaded and now my mind. I had nowhere…

"Calm down, Itachi." He muttered out loud this time, hands on my shoulders. My thoughts began to slow down a little, probably under his influence. 'I'm afraid it was my influence that killed your old man. But the way Madara behaves, it was either him or me. It wasn't anything personal. But Madara doesn't want you in a state of morbid depression, so don't worry about your brother or your… lover.' He spoke, seemingly from within my mind once more.

He pulled me close again and I felt myself overreacting and blushing again. "Stop that!" I hissed angrily, glaring up into his oddly ringed eyes.

"I'm sorry. It's instinctive for me to influence people I… ah… want." He explained, looking a bit embarrassed at being caught. I felt the odd 'cloud' that blocked my thought processes lift and clarity return. I found it disconcerting that I never noticed the onset of 'the cloud'…

"Let's go back in. They're waiting for me." I had no doubts that he actually knew this and wasn't just saying it because time was getting on.

It may be a little hard to tell between telepathic speech and speaking out loud, but it's difficult for the characters unless they pay attention, too, so we're all in the same boat :)