'My best ninja, my best ninja.' Yeah right. Kakashi is so not her best ninja! She's just trying to ruffle my feathers. Moriko grumbled quietly as she stalked to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. If I have to apologize, I'll do it with flowers. Maybe his allergies will kick in and I can watch him squirm. Hahaha, yesss. Onlookers shied away from the angry ninja; not wanting to be caught in her wrath. Moriko's green eyes narrowed when she entered the store; she hated the smell of flower shops, it was just too much.
"Hello, how may I help you today?" A young girl was watching the store, clearly the daughter of Inoichi. "I've never seen you in here before, what's your name?" A little chit chat couldn't hurt, right? As long as I'm polite, yes Moriko, be polite.
"I need something that says 'I'm sorry'. My names Moriko, by the way, you have a lovely flower shop." Moriko smiled, flashing some pearly white teeth, hoping that was all she needed to say. Hopefully, the girl wouldn't ask who the flowers are for.
"My name's Ino. Is it for a boy or girl? I've never given a boy flowers before. And even if we did, we all know boy's dislike pink. I could get you some Lily of the Valley; or maybe something a little bigger, like a White Calla. Fancy or simple?" The young girls eyes were sparkling, she loved her job.
"Simple. It's for a guy, we had a fight." Moriko's eyes softened, at least this girl could help her say sorry properly.
"Aw, that's too bad." Ino shared a look of sympathy with Moriko, and picked up some white lilies. "Here, about 6 would be good. And we can put this with it." She picked up some grass-like things and put them in with the bouquet. "This is perfect for 'I'm sorry'!"
"Yes, thank you so much." Another smile. "I don't know flowers, you were a great help." Ino's eyes seemed to pop out of her head from sheer joy.
"Do you want a card?"
"Card? Uhh…" No, say no. No thank you. Well, maybe I should, since I don't plan on giving to him while he's awake. No, he should know it's from me, since he's sooo smart. "No thank you." Moriko walked to the till, payed for her flowers, and left. God, why are flowers so expensive? You'd better like them Kakashi or so help you God, there will be pain.
Ω
"Hello, may I help you?" A woman was sitting at the reception desk, with curly blond hair and round glasses. "Are you here to see someone?" She eyed the woman in front of her, carrying flowers, and looking a little lost.
"Yes, I'm here to see Kakashi-san." Moriko's eyes darted around the room; she hated hospitals and was subconsciously finding ways to escape.
"Oh, I'm sorry. He was discharged very early this morning by Tsunade-sama herself." The receptionist didn't look very sorry.
Ω
"You had me go all the way to the hospital with these, just to have him discharged! Why? Why would you do that? Please Tsunade, I hate this." Moriko's arms waved frantically in the air, the flowers seemingly attached to her hand.
"Kakashi didn't even have to stay the night; I was hoping that you would have gone yesterday, to apologize, since I had to send him on a mission with his squad." Tsunade brushed the conversation off, like a fly on the wall.
Moriko's eyebrow twitched. "Mission?"
"Yes."
Twitch, twitch.
"What mission, could have been more important than you humiliating me by apologizing?" Moriko was seething, and Tsunade's calm aura was not helping her.
"To capture Itachi, in order to capture Sasuke."
Ω
Rain was heavily pouring down upon two figures, one big and burly the other small and petite, yet both adorned black cloaks with red clouds. A small forest was behind them would be the only provided shelter.
"Let's wait this out under a tree. We can't have the body getting too cold." Kisame's gruff voice entered the small clearing of rock, partially drowned out by the rain.
"Right." Itachi glanced at his partner as he picked a body from the ground with his sword.
"We should be hearing from Leader-sama soon." Kisame was smiling, he'd recently had a good fight. Kisame was always for the glory, the elderly man was strung upon his sword like a trophy.
"He looks like he is about to die. Be careful with him, he is very old." Itachi felt a small pang of pity for the old man, but he was a jinchuuriki and it was necessary.
"You only say that because you don't know what he's capable of. The "four tails" uses many differently elemental fusions. This jinchuuriki was no pushover, I assure you." Kisame hated it when Itachi demeaned him, purposefully or not. "You didn't fight him directly; I wouldn't expect you to understand what I went through." Defending his honour, Kisame's voice was rough and harsh.
"Hmph."
Whoops! Made him mad. "Then again, I was the one who wanted to go in by myself. Perhaps you'll let me beat your target half to death, too?" Kisame smiled again, showing rows of sharp teeth.
"Do not get cocky, Kisame."
Man, he needs to learn to take a joke! "I'm a bit tired. I'd like to find him quickly so I can rest." All this running around after the tailed beasts is really getting annoying. Especially when my partner doesn't know a joke from a slap across the face.
"There is no rush, go ahead and take a break. It is going to take a fair amount of time." Itachi replied, while walking alongside Kisame into the thick protection of the trees.
"I wonder… There's only a few left, right? Obviously we need to seal the nine-tails last. Our leader has made it clear that if we don't, the balance will be destroyed and the sealing statue would crumble. And since we need to bring them back alive, don't you think we should try to find the jinchuuriki as quickly as we can?" It only makes sense, we could keep them prisoner until we needed them.
Itachi lowered himself to sit underneath a tree. "Not really." I want to draw out Akatsuki's plans as long as I can. Konoha needs the nine-tails to be safe. "Deidara screwed up too. If our target needs to be sealed last, there should be no problem with leaving that hunt for last."
Damn, this old guy is getting heavy. Unceremoniously, Kisame dumped the four-tails to the ground, and then waited for Itachi to continue.
"Plus, Akatuski has started standing out too much. If we try to take the nine-tails now, the response from the leaf village will be even bigger than the last time."
Friggen genius-kid. "Hmmm... I suppose so…"
"The leaf has a large amount of contacts in other hidden villages. If they put the word out, it will be very difficult for us to make a move. Getting the jinchuuriki up to the eight-tails first is a much better plan."
"I see… I must admit, that makes sense." I wish I could see these things before he has to tell me. Man, I'm looking pretty bad.
Itachi's face remained impassive as their leader contacted them. Good, now we'll seal this jinchuuriki and then I can be off. I need to do something.
Ω
Okay, I had to put that in there. It was sooo long; I thought that little bit was going to take forever! But that's what was happening when team Hebi and Konoha were planning to catch Itachi. X.x And then, there's even more. Gross.
EDIT: woooo time flies! Again.. A few minor changes. LOVE IT!
-Moriko