Pubs are interesting. First time I went I didn't get ID'd either time I went to get a drink. I don't exactly look 18 (or even 16).
Oh and I saw Inception, I now want to see it again though my motive is different: the guys were hot. It's a shame it would be almost impossible to crossover into TTP, I'd need to try to fit the plots together and it'd have to be in a different univ- ooh, I wonder... hmmm
As I may have said in a previous chapter, FFNET was a bastard and took out all of my partitions, and with over 100 chapter to have to sort out and revise in general you'll have to bare with me and I thank you for dealing with it up to this point.
And for the record I love each and every review I get, and I'm always open to suggestions.
It was six days after the Ark Max finally woke up. She then promptly rolled over and tried to pretend she'd never woken up. The mismatched group of her associates were crammed into her room, all giving each other weird looks. She did not want to explain this now.
"Max?" Laura tried. She recognised the look Max had briefly shown and shooed everyone else out.
"It's Rho at the moment," Max mumbled. She turned over again, trying to get comfortable but gave up and sat up rubbing at the bandaged area.
"Back to using Greek letters then."
"Never stopped using them."
"You want to talk?"
"No, I want to ask a few questions. First being, why is Itachi here? He almost killed me."
"You two used to try to kill each other all the time, at least one of you two would be in hospital every month."
"That was sparring, completely different." Max waved it off.
"He's permanently off any deep cover missions. Akatsuki has been fully disbanded, apparently a few members are dead."
"How?"
"No one knows. You remember the rumours of Murdock though, all surviving members remember seeing her." Laura was looking at Max suspiciously not really believing it wasn't Max.
"I thought she was just stealing the rings," Max said, then she went cold realising exactly what she had just said.
"How do you know she was stealing the rings?"
"I think I'm tired, I have no idea why I said that," Max lied, stifling a yawn. "Maybe she told me one of time I saw her. My heads still a bit fuzzy from the painkillers." Max could tell that Laura wasn't sure about her story but was willing to accept it for the moment. Max had never been so glad Laura believed in evidence before accusation.
"Do you want to see any of the others?" Laura asked, Max understood the subtle hint.
"I guess I do need to explain a few things, you can let them all back in before they start trading stories about me."
Once again the room was crowded but more at ease. Max guessed they had been talking. She swallowed to calm her nerves, her mind was blank. How was she supposed to do this?
"Uh, I suppose I never realised this many people cared that I got shot so um… any questions?" Max said trying to shrink into her bed as everyone's attention was on her.
"How many times have you been shot?" James asked. Max sighed, figures the kid would ask that. She saw the way people were looking at her and wasn't sure if she should actually tell them the exact number.
"More times than you, next question."
"Why weren't you wearing body amour?" DiNozzo asked.
"I was dying in the heat. I didn't think I would get shot at by the nutters, and I was right. Who did shoot me?" Max asked narrowing her eyes.
"On of the TAG teams got a bit too trigger happy. Thought you were going to lead the Survivor's assault." Chloe explained sheepishly.
"Figures I'd get shot by my own side. I have another question, how did all of you know I'd been shot?" Max asked, she knew why the CHREUBs knew but they were the only people who should have known.
"I called the last saved number you called on your phone which was Mr DiNozzo," Chloe admitted.
"Gaara sent a message to Tsunade so we found out," Naruto said in Japanese shrugging.
"Mrs Jones told me and I got Haku."
"Wow, I'm touched. I really am. Now you guy know I'm fine I think I need to talk to a few people in private since they're here. DiNozzo you stay, others please leave." The room was once again down to two people.
"You really get around."
"I'm just glad L didn't turn up as well. So, what do you think of my motley bunch of people, ranging from work mates to practically family, especially considering they're only a small fraction of it?"
"Well now I know why the team doesn't faze you." There was a bit of silence, both wondering how exactly to bring up the subject without making it awkward. "Uh, so do your 'practically family' know we're possibly related?"
"Other than Gaara and your team nope, no one knows. I haven't had the time to tell them. I suppose they should know."
"Any warnings you want to give?" DiNozzo was asking about one of the guys being an Ex or something.
"Most of them could kill you and leave not only no evidence but absolutely no links. Laura's going to want to make sure we are actually related with her own DNA test, I suppose I want to confirm it too. She was the one who kicked you all out. Her jobs actually really similar to yours."
"What about the others? How do you know them?"
"Naruto is the other old blond, he's a bit protective. I suppose he's just returning the favour. Me 'n' Laura rescued him when we were kids. Itachi's the guy with long hair, he's… complicated. Those three I've know since we were kids." Max paused to drink, it felt good to tell someone this stuff.
"Alex, well I met him when someone was trying to assassinate him, then later we worked together. He's the reason I went to England in the first place. The blond kids, they're classified really along with Chloe, they're also the reason I'm in Australia. Then there's Haku who's just walking in the door." DiNozzo looked to see someone who he assumed was a girl.
"Well hello there." DiNozzo said suavely with a flirty grin. Max had to hold in her giggles while Haku just had an amused smile as he started to check Max's vitals.
"Before you get too into hitting on my doctor, please take note he is in fact a guy," Max informed him before it got too out of hand.
"Seriously?"
"What can I say? I know weird people," Max said with a dramatic sigh.
"I'm no weirder than you. Does Psychology for dummies ring a bell?" Haku reproached. Max was glad he didn't mention any of her other weird habits, like killing people.
"I needed a non-violent hobby and a way to amuse my self. Two birds with one stone," Max said defensively.
"What's- no I don't think I want to know," DiNozzo said, when the other two shook their heads.
"Hey Haku, do you know any DNA comparison things?" Max asked curiously, wondering if she could get this settled here and now so she could get some proof for Laura.
"Yes. Why?"
"You might want to get Laura and Naruto in here for this." DiNozzo figured out Max wanted to tell them.
"Not Itachi?" Haku asked, he knew he'd been out of the loop for a while so wasn't exactly sure what had been happening.
"Not at the moment." Max didn't elaborate so Haku didn't press it, instead he summoned the two blonds.
"This is going to sound very bizarre to you two but keep listening anyway. I broke my arm a while back in some backwater place, they couldn't access my records so ran a DNA test to find a possible relative." Max paused to let it sink in and sipped at her drink again. Laura figured it out first as she repeated it in Japanese for Naruto's sake.
"They got a hit? That's impossible," Laura said frowning.
"That's what I said too, Haku's here to either confirm or deny this here and now with witnesses and the match."
"Wait." Laura turned to DiNozzo. "You could be related to Ma-Rho?"
"Seems that way."
"Haku, if you would. By the way DiNozzo, nothing you see in here leaves this room."
"Can I have a hair from each of you?" There were identical winces as they both pulled out a hair and held them out. Haku held them in one gloved hand, not wanting even the slightest chance of contamination. He held a glowing hand over the two hairs. DiNozzo's eyes were wide in confusion but he didn't question it.
A few moments passed in silent anticipation. Finally Haku finished, the glow fading from his hand.
"There's a 99 percent chance you two have one common parent," Haku announced, Laura once again translating for Naruto.
"Well, that's solved, now to figure out how that even possible." Max grumbled. More work to do. Haku ushered everyone else out citing the fact Max needed her rest.
It was pretty much dark when Max felt someone sneak into her room. She threw some kunai on recognition of the person. They never hit the intended target.
"Get out," she hissed in Japanese. Itachi didn't move, just held the kunai a few inches from his heart where he'd caught them. Max would have followed it up with an attack but she was still attached to various tubes and wires.
"Listen to me first."
"Why should I?"
"Because I would hate to have to blackmail you Murdock." He threw the kunai back at her, making sure she could catch them easily.
"I'm not Murdock. I was in a padded white cell."
"I know, I rescued you. Orochimaru had you, originally, you were unconscious for the whole trip to Konoha. But do you want to know something interesting? Orochimaru had detailed notes on you, what drugs he had you on and when." Max was panicking, if he was implying what she thought he was implying then she was sunk.
"There were a few months missing between my return to Akatsuki and his records. They weren't missing though, they never existed because you weren't there. That leaves a few months when you could have been doing anything, letting everyone believe you were dead. I believe that makes you as bad as me when it comes to lying." Max was cornered and they both knew it.
"Fine. Since you went to so much effort. Talk." Max hissed, still glaring at him.
"Laura's probably told you I'm no longer on deep cover missions. That means we'll both be in Konoha-" Max snorted. "Or I could tell Laura everything if you chose not to return. I just want to make sure you can deal with not killing me on a daily basis. Our relationship will probably never fully recover but I would like to at least try, especially considering I was trying to protect you while undercover. Akatsuki never did find out who the holder of the shichibi was."
"I don't need protecting."
"Which is why you're in the hospital bed," Itachi snorted.
"Completely unrelated."
"Had Orochimaru known you had the shichibi he could have sold you out to the Akatsuki some way or another. I spent time planting misinformation that could have blown my cover."
"That would never have happened if it wasn't for your deep cover."
"What about during the chunin exams?" Max gritted her teeth, what had she done to deserve this karma backlash?
"So what do you want me to say?" Max growled. "Thank you? Then thank you for saving my apparently ungrateful behind. Happy now?"
The door to Max's room opened and DiNozzo burst in, gun drawn and pointing at Itachi.
"I heard arguing. I think it was arguing anyway, it was raised voices," DiNozzo explained looking at Max to see if she was ok.
"I didn't know you were going for old guys now." Max twitched, resistingthe urge to throw more sharp objects st Itachi. He must be pissed off, he never went for that kind of blow. She motioned for DiNozzo to lower his gun.
"Itachi, get out." Itachi shook his head, refusing to budge.
"Wow, the tension in here is thick. Did you two date or something?" DiNozzo had no idea how right he was.
"It's nothing to worry about. Itachi was just giving me some news that affected me." No lies there, just a bit of stretched truth. Max couldn't remember if Itachi had learnt English but it was better to err on the side of caution by saying little.
"Didn't Haku say you were supposed to rest though?"
"Itachi thought it was important for me to know." Max was having some difficulty keeping the contempt out of her voice when she said Itachi's name.
"Okay then, seriously get some rest." Max was glad DiNozzo hadn't tried to kick Itachi out, she really didn't want her new found brother to get his arse kicked.
The two ninjas were alone in the room again.
"You're a bastard."
"I need to be cruel to be kind Maxie-chan." Max didn't dignify that with a response instead she rolled onto her side facing away from him and tried to get back to sleep.
There are theories that when you sleep your true desires show through whether in dreams, movements or sleep talking. By the time morning came Itachi knew Max was experiencing conflicting emotions.
Either that or she really hated hospital pillows. Somehow Max had managed to nestle her head in the crook of his shoulder as he sat in a plastic chair near the head of her bed.
"Just like old times," he muttered carding his fingers through her hair. It was painful to see her so jaded, not just against him but everything.
"I agree, you never could tell when I was awake," Max scoffed trying to tug his arm further onto the bed.
"I thought you hated me."
"I hate the pillows here more." Itachi was happy to hear that, if he ever became more hated that hospital pillows then he knew there was nothing to be done. At least now he knew there was something to be salvaged. "Don't push it, I still don't like you."
And in the next chapter you find out just why Max is being so bipolar. Feel free to guess: If you get it right then you get a shout-out character, a repeat appearance of your previous shout out character and maybe a drawing of your shout-out character.
As a hint: it's something that happened in Part 3 of TTP.
For anyone with a shout-out character I'll be working on a drawing each for you both and PM you when it's done. It'll be on deviant art.
Arrivederci mein amigos (yes that was three different languages)
