ii.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Apathetic Eyes

"The fool who knows he is a fool is that much wiser."


Nanami looked up sharply as the small animals chakra pinged on her mental map just outside the sealed entrance. She'd been dozing quietly under the watchful eye of her Red Clouds, a little cold and stiff, but nothing she couldn't ignore.

She lifted up onto her arms, shifting against the smooth surface of the stone to cradle her chin in her palms and looked towards where she knew the round stone pressed the entrance firmly shut. Nanami narrowed her eyes in thought, trying to pick apart the signature. It had a very... canine feel to it, but it also had that certain tinge that humans had, that sharpness to the edges that made it self-aware.

It was a summon, she knew. Too dense to be a regular animal, but too light to be a humans.

"There's a summon outside." She broke the hours long silence, Gaara having long since fainted from the strain and she could feel the eyes on her back even as she kept her attention on her senses.

"Zetsu." Pein's voice commanded.

"I'll just go see then shall I?" She heard the plant man reply. (She didn't miss the spiteful tinge to it, but she couldn't bring herself to care.) His sickly chakra flickered behind her, and his lantern image chakra was halved even as the projection remained in the room.

The summon flashed away quickly, she nibbled gently at her bottom lip in thought, (It was still sore from all the biting she'd done in Sunagakure.) trying to remember if this had happened in the story or not.

She vaguely thought it might have. She wasn't sure. She supposed it didn't matter either way.


Kakashi watched as Naruto leapt to another branch ahead of them, ever the most eager shinobi to get the job done.

He sighed.

Sakura and the old woman from the sand village kept the pace with him easily, leaping through the trees at breakneck speeds towards the location Pakkun had reported before he'd sent his summon to intercept Gai's team.

"Naruto." He called, and the boy's blue eyes flashed to meet his over an orange clad shoulder.

"We should talk." He told the three year-long absent gennin. Sakura looked over at him too, and he worked not to sigh again.

He had hopped he wouldn't need to discuss this with Naruto on this mission. When he'd been debriefed by Tsunade almost a year ago, it had been stated that Naruto may become emotional if faced with the girl, and this was already a tumultuous situation with his friendship with Gaara involved.

What a mess.

"The girl you asked about before," and he could practically feel the defensiveness rising off the boy. They coiled and sprung off a new branch in tandem to reach the next.

"She is called the Child of the Akatsuki." He told Naruto, and at his side Sakura tilted her head questioningly.

"We've been receiving tid bits of reports on her for years." He answered the pink haired girls unasked question with a curved eye smile.

"Hou? Is that so." Chiyo seemed to murmur to herself. Kakashi nodded, even though he knew she wasn't speaking to him. He was sure she was coming to her own conclusions with his words, the woman was a shinobi veteran after all, and he had just implied Konoha had an informant.

"They took her when she was fairly young, either attracted to her kekkei genkai… or something else- it's not really known for sure. What we do know, is that she's managed to survive in their midst." He skipped over the whole 'future knowledge' bit. That had been hard for him to swallow, he still didn't believe it. Regardless though, that particular information was highly classified. The threat of execution kind of classified.

Here he paused, because he wanted to make sure Naruto was listening, and he needed the boy to understand his next words carefully.

"She is loyal to them to a fault, Naruto." Ahead of him, the son of the fourth sprung from another branch with a bit more force than necessary. His fists clenched at his sides.

"You haven't met her, Kakashi-sensei. So maybe she is loyal to those freaks- but she's still just a little kid with a good heart. She's just lost her way is all." Naruto said, and Kakashi knew that for all the boys show of personality contradicted it- that Naruto was willfully stubborn, not stupid. So he was grateful that he could at least get Naruto to understand where her loyalties lie. All the rest… well, no one could sway Naruto once he'd set his sights on rescuing someone he considered a friend.

No one except probably the girl herself.

Kakashi did sigh then, because he knew there was nothing else he could say on the subject that would make any sort of impact.

"Naruto." Kakashi said then, because he had to at least make sure his old student was informed, "The Child of the Akatsuki has a capture order on her head, and if that is found to be impossible… orders are to eliminate the threat." He tried to soften the blow with his tone of voice- but Kakashi knew he wasn't really the ideal candidate for this kind of talk. If only Iruka were here...

"We'll get her out of there, her and Gaara." Naruto said with a tone of finality.

"What's this about a kekkei genkai?" Chiyo inquired innocently. Kakashi closed his one visible eye, bouncing from another branch to soar through the air.

"Yes, the details are classified, even above my clearance I'm afraid." Which was a complete lie but he wasn't going to tell this old bag anything.

Plus he kind of enjoyed annoying her, knowing she hated him so much.


"The enemy's presence has been confirmed." Zetsu spoke after some time and Nanami rolled onto her side across the hard stone so she could look up at the figures atop the massive wooden hands.

"They are approaching our location." Zetsu continued, reiterating what she had told them an hour prior. That was about as far as her chakra detection could reach, but it was still nothing to scoff at.

Deidara looked a little smug, and he flashed her a grin from his perch like he was pleased she'd had this information before the plant man had. Nanami grinned back, relieved at the return of his usual demeanor.

"A highly skilled enemy." Zetsu continued gravely, bringing Nanami and Deidara's attention back to his wavering colorful image. "By the name of Might Gai."

And Nanami found herself smothering a laugh into the crook of her elbow with a vengeance, because it was hilarious hearing anyone say that name with such a serious tone.

"Someone important?" Pein inquired. It was Itachi who answered him though. "A taijutsu master from Konoha. He's clever despite appearances, don't underestimate him." The warning rang clear, and because it was Itachi it was taken seriously.

"Ah, that freak." Kisame chuckled, probably remembering his previous encounter with the green beast when they'd infiltrated Konoha in their first attempt to retrieve the Kyuubi.

"I see. In that case… we might as well utilize Sasori's preparations." Pein spoke.

Hidan's image grinned ferally. Eager at the thought of blood. "I'll go." He volunteered.

"No. I'll go… I have something of a person quarrel with him." Kisame interrupted.

Nanami narrowed her eyes at Ocean's colorful flickering projection, barely registering his words. She was struck by the way he sat, legs folded with something in his lap.

Was he… reading a book?

Damn, she should have brought some ledgers or something.

"Go then. I'll be taking a percentage of your chakra to remain here for the extraction." Pein told him, ripple eyes sliding from Hidan to Kisame.

Hidan made a mildly annoyed sound.

And with that, the body lantern of Kisame dimmed considerably; down to less than half his normal chakra. Even still, half of what he had was five times more than what she had at a full rest.

"Be careful." She murmured quietly to no one. She didn't think Kisame could hear anyways.

Nanami watched over the next hour as more eyes on the demon slowly slipped open, and Gaara's chakra grew fainter.

"More guests." Zetsu announced into the quiet.

Pein flashed Burning Earth an annoyed look. "Getting a little noisey isn't it Deidara?"

The blond man laughed awkwardly, and Sasori interjected before he could say anything. "I told you your jutsu wasn't meant for covert operations."

Burning Earth's blue eyes flashed in his own annoyance.

"We'll it's not like your traps were quite as a mouse either! Un!"

"Stop bickering." Pein's monotone cut through whatever Sasori was about to snap back with.

"They're Konoha shinobi." Zetsu informed them.

Rinnegan eyes slid over to Itachi. "Well, if that's the case." He informed Raven Eyes.

And the majority of Itachi's chakra flickered away too.

Nanami sighed. She wished Konoha had just kept to themselves.


"Everyone Stop!" Kakashi's voice had him skidding across the dirt to a halt behind his sensei, Sakura and the old woman right behind him.

Naruto felt a shiver of panic curl in his gut at the sight of the man standing apathetically on the road before them, as if he had just happened to be here.

"Who's that…" Sakura whispered at his side. He could see sweat trickling down her neck from the corner of his eye.

"Those eyes…" Chiyo said quietly in recognition.

"Well, this is sudden." Kakashi-sensei said a little louder, calling the Akatsuki's attention to the silver haired jounin.

"Uchiha Itachi." Naruto bit out, Sakura muffled a surprised gasp next to him, her green eyes sliding from him to the cloaked man who continued to stand quietly before them.

He's stalling, Naruto realized; clenching a fist in frustration.

"So he's the one who slaughtered his entire clan." Chiyo warbled scathingly. Itachi didn't even twitch, he made no sign at all that he'd even heard the old woman let alone had an emotional reaction to what she'd said. His features were like they'd been carved from stone.

"It's been a while Kakashi-san, Naruto-kun." He said pleasantly from behind the high collar of his cloak.

His spinning eyes didn't give away much.

Naruto clench his teeth.

This was the man responsible for taking Gaara. For twisting Nanami… for scarring Sasuke.

He hated him on sight.

"I'm going to take all of you down!" He yelled his frustration at the elder Uchiha with a rudely pointed finger.

Itachi didn't even blink, but he did lift a casual hand.

"Don't look at his eyes. It's dangerous." Kakashi interrupted the movement with a slightly panicked voice. Naruto felt the coil of unease tighten inside him in response. Very few things set sensei on edge.

This man was deadly.

"What the hell are you freaks planning! Kidnapping little girls not enough anymore? Now you're stealing jinchuurikis?" And he was proud that his voice only shook a little.

Red eyes slid to look at him, but he keep his gaze firmly on the man's shoulder.

"Ah, that's right." Itachi spoke softly, he strained to catch all the words.

"You made friends with our little Nanami-chan, didn't you Naruto-kun?"

Naruto's teeth snapped together with a sharp clack at the sound of the monster before him talking so casually about his friend.

"What did you do to her." Naruto hissed back. Itachi made a miniscule gesture, like a helpless shrug almost.

"Nanami does as she pleases." He informed the furious blond boy blandly.

"So you wouldn't mind letting her go then." Kakashi cut in with that tone Naruto recognized as the fake casual tone he used when information gathering.

Itachi just stood there, eyes blank giving nothing away. This man was the god of apathy, the perfect shinobi.

The perfect killing machine.

"Nanami doesn't stay because she has to. She stays because she wants to." He informed them and for the first time there seemed to be an edge of warning in his voice. It scared Naruto; more than any killing intent he'd ever felt.

"Bullshit." Sakura murmured at his side, he could see her shaking form the corner of his eye. And then she spoke a little louder, "Like anyone would choose to stay with a bunch of murders."

"I never said I understood why." Itachi softly said.

"She called you her family." Naruto called out loudly, and was rewarded when Itachi seemed to go unnaturally still. Sometimes a lack of reaction was just as good as the reaction you were looking for.

"What kind of sick genjutsu did you have to put that little girl under to make her think something like that." He added scathingly.

Indignation flashed across the man's face for a split second, but he saw it. And he knew Kakashi-sensei saw it too when he shifted slightly in front of him.

"Nanami is under no outside coercion to stay." The Uchiha corrected him. Naruto could have sworn that undertone of warning from before became a little sharper, a little more pointed this time.

"Bullshit." He repeated Sakura's earlier choice of wording, because even though he was afraid, he wouldn't be Konoha's number one most unpredictable ninja if he let it get to him.

He had too much riding on this.

"Is this really what you came here to talk about Naruto-kun?" Itachi monotoned, and his voice started to sound a little… distorted?

And Naruto discovered why when he burst into a flock of ravens that screeched angrily and took to the sky, and suddenly his comrades were no longer standing next to him but melting into the ground…

Genjutsu? But… how?

And then another thought occurred to him that was so left field and situationally inappropriate he felt his lips part and his eyes widen when it fully registered.

Itachi had a doujutsu. He had just dispersed himself into ravens.

"Raven Eyes" He murmured aloud, realizing who she'd been talking about that day.

It had been Itachi the whole time.

"Yes?" A soft voice said behind him, with only a tinge of surprise beneath the layers of apathy.


AN: Wow! 100 reviews! Thanks so much you guys for taking the time to tell me what you think, and to everyone for taking the time to give my story a chance! I hope you've all enjoyed it so far, i'm so happy at all the nice things everyone has had to say!