Itachi was waiting for the two others who were going to get the blonde to finish getting ready when he saw Tobi the next day. "Why are you guys all packed up?" He heard Tobi asked innocently.
"We're leaving to recruit some new member," Kisame, the blue shark-man, Itachi's own partner, replied.
"Oh. Whose partner is he going to be?" Tobi asked.
"Sasori-san's," Itachi answered.
"What happened to Orochimaru-san?" Tobi asked.
"He was my partner, but he was weak," Itachi commented. "So, he left." The younger Uchiha imagined that Madara would be laughing when he heard that, from inside Obito's head.
"Hai," Kisame agreed. Tobi sat down in one of the chairs in the room. After some moments silence, jingling and clanking was heard down the hall. Then a large, turtle-like man walked into the room. All that was visible of him was a small strip of his face.
"So, we're all ready to go?" Itachi asked, glancing at the man. He figured that it was Sasori, or, rather, one of his toys. The puppet master always seemed to be inside his newest toy at the time, and so, no one except Itachi's former partner, Orochimaru, had seen his real body.
"Hai," The man said in a low voice. He left with Kisame and Itachi in toe.
It took a few days to return to the lair, carrying the blond the whole way. Kisame was the one who had to carry the blond. While they were out, Itachi had trouble keeping his condition under wraps, as almost immediately after using the Mangekyo and Tsukyomi on the blond, he felt the condition flare up, and noticed his vision steadily growing worse. He told himself he'd have to talk to Madara when he could. It was obvious his medication wasn't working properly.
When they got back, Tobi rushed over the moment they got inside. Kisame set the newest recruit, the blond, down and Itachi released the jutsu he had put on the person. The blond snapped into reality and looked around. "You bastard!" The person screamed at Itachi. "You put me under your genjutsu, hnnn!"
"Tobi," Kisame started, obviously not worried about the blonde's infuriation at Itachi. "This is Deidara, and he's the newest member. Show him around." Tobi nodded, and walked over to the blond, who was currently sulking. Itachi, having enough of this, silently left, going to his room and laying with his face in his pillow. He felt so exhaustedly tired, and really was in quite a bad mood. He heard his partner enter the room and felt him sit on his bed. "Itachi-kun…" He reached to pet Itachi's head, but the Uchiha flipped over quickly and caught his hand.
"Don't touch me, Kisame. I am really not in the mood to deal with your shit."
"But… I… Itachi, I really like you…I care for you... "
"Well, I really don't like you. Now, go to your own bed before I Tsukyomi you."
"But…" He reached more, stronger than Itachi, even when he was healthy. The Uchiha lit up his sharingan.
"Do you really want to play this game?" He snarled. "Because I will tsukyomi you so fast you won't know what hit you." Kisame whined, but proceeded to move closer. Itachi used the tsukyomi on the fish man, who fell to the ground. "I told you I wasn't in the mood."