Itachi: Discovery

Itachi sat patiently in a dingy corner of the bar, waiting for Kisame to arrive. It was more than three years since he had become a nukenin and surreally, his life now was better than it had ever been before. Yes, he was supposedly working for a madman who followed the lead of a psychopath attempting to bring about the conquest of the entire planet, but he had a family who cared for him and a partner who watched his back, which was two up on how Konoha had been.

"Kisame's here."

Itachi glanced up as his real partner whispered in his ear; while Hoshigaki Kisame had been assigned as his official partner by Leader-sama, Usei-sempai had tagged along with him into Akatsuki. Leaving behind a high-functioning shintai bunshin to look after the children with Minato-san she had modified her form, changed her name and stuck by him as he ventured into the lion's den. Leader-sama had only discovered her existence eight months before this particular mission -one in the eye to the self-proclaimed 'god'- by which point she had already befriended Kisame, Iwa no Deidara, Akasuna no Sasori, Konan and, weirdly, Zetsu. Itachi had no idea how or why, but both of the plant-human hybrid's personalities liked her tremendously. The Uchiha had the plants on his windowsill to prove it.

Itachi had learned a lot about Usei-sempai over the past few years, the most immediately important being that her kekkai genkai gave her what he privately termed 'almost multiple personalities'. They were all different versions of the same core personality, each with their own differing skills and backgrounds. Some of them were even male, which had been... awkward at times. Sempai called them personae, or when she was in a detached mood, pawns.

Her current persona was Amerei, the rain-ghost, and her character matched her name: She was transparent to the point of intangibility. Amerei's chakra also blended in with ambient levels so well she was undetectable even to his sharingan. She could make herself both visible and solid, but it was an effort that left her very vulnerable to attack. When visible her hair was white, hanging loosely over her face with the ends brushing her shoulders. Her skin was pale with the veins showing blue underneath, even the skin inside her mouth was bluish. Her eyes where blank black, the absence of the stars more troubling to Itachi than any of her other alterations.

She wore one of Itachi's Akatsuki cloaks with the signature red clouds, which was ridiculously overlarge on her fragile, child-sized frame, and never wore tabi or sandals.

Since she was small and so light she was practically insubstantial, Itachi didn't mind the fact she spent almost all of her time clinging to his back. Everyone in Akatsuki knew Amerei never walked anywhere. Instead she went everywhere with Itachi: ate, travelled, fought, washed, slept on her perch on his back.

Others were occasionally favoured with her presence, though it was rare. Fourteen months into her acquaintance with Kisame she had abruptly climbed onto him and let him carry her for two whole days before retreating back to Itachi. There had been random repeats of this behaviour every now and then. The shark-nin didn't seem to mind it at all; he apparently relished the fact that Amerei trusted him enough to fall asleep on him at night.

It was well known to everyone in Akatsuki that Amerei did not understand the concept of personal space, as Deidara discovered to his utter bemusement one morning when he woke up to find her curled around his chest. Nor did she pay the slightest bit of attention to the word 'no' or variations thereof unless Itachi said it, as Sasori had found out. He still had no idea how she'd managed to get hold of his Sandaime Kazekage puppet, let alone work it.

She didn't talk much either, but when she did it was always relevant and usually important, no matter how strange it sounded. She also spaced out a lot, but as far as quirks went, by Akatsuki standards she was fairly harmless.

Itachi called her 'sempai-chan', and had been designated by Leader-sama as her minder since she actually listened to him. Amerei was invulnerable to conventional attacks and an exceptional sensor, but her spaciness meant she couldn't become one of Akatsuki's inner circle. Her inability to pick up the membership rings settled her position as adjacent to the top ranks rather than within them. Thus she was now officially the third member of the Kisame and Itachi partnership rather than just unofficially.

"Hey, Itachi!" Kisame dumped the bottle of sake and two servings of dango on the table and folded himself into the booth. Itachi picked up a stick of dango and heped himself, Amerei stealing bits over his shoulder.

"Anything?" Itachi asked quietly.

"Target's gone; Some bastards killed him already," Kisame grumbled. "I hate missing a fight. Is there anyone I can kill in this damned town without attracting too much attention?"

Amerei's head shot up, eyes unfocused as she stared into the middle distance towards the bar area.

"Sempai-chan?" Itachi murmured inquiringly.

"Konoha ninja, white lightning," She said, voice quiet yet clear enough for both nukenin to hear, "with eight Iwa-nin targeting him. They stole your prize-" she caught Kisame's eye, "-and won't be missed."

"What are we waiting for?" Kisame boomed, his good humour restored as he bounced out of his seat and fingered the handle of his infamous sword, Samehada. "I say we get some payback, a workout and maybe even pick up a few bounties!"

"Hurry," Amerei whispered as the former Kiri-nin muscled his way out of the bar, "The leaf-nin is special."

Itachi hurried after his blue-skinned partner, sharingan whirling and loosening his ninja-to in its sheath. "Special?" he asked.

"The world circles around him; his actions matter, his words have weight. The odd-eyed wolf-dog is necessary. Silver and blood; loss, sacrifice and sorrow," Amerei rambled, flickering in and out of sight in agitation. "outside and inside, through and through. Lost in yesterday and blind to tomorrow." She turned her eyes to meet his, stars igniting in her dilated pupils. "We need him Tachi-chan. We are all together, but without him we will never be whole."

"I won't let Kisame kill him," Itachi promised, speeding up to a dead run towards the sounds of the fight.

A/N: Almost caught up to the beginning of canon, now. Review and I'll try to update faster...