"Nice to meet you, Miss Portgas", Itachi greeted with a polite bow.

"Please, do call me Rouge. Why don't you come in?"

"Ah, yes, okay.", he fidgeted nervously.

"I'll leave you to it then", Ross said joyfully, waving his goodbyes, "Gotta put away those boxes. Let me know your decision tomorrow, yea?"

Itachi stared at the already retreating back of the old man, eyes wide and panicked. His performance warranted some sort of price, he was sure. He swore he was never going to picking a persona like this again in his life.

An amused huff made him avert his eyes back to the woman who was patiently waiting for him, laughter dancing in her eyes.

"He didn't force you into this, did he?", she asked as she gestured him to follow her inside.

"Ah, uhm… no, that is…" he haltingly told her of his 'plight'.

By the time he was done, they were sitting in a small dining area, a cup of water each in front of them.

The inside of the house was just as homey, inviting, and comfortably furnished as the outside suggested. A lot of wood, flowers, and warmly painted walls. The occasional sketch or painting hung on the wall, next to what he assumed were family pictures. The most prevalent items were books, however. He could spy at least 19 from where he was sitting alone, most without a label on the outside. Those that did have any were medical texts of various specializations.

When he had finished his explanation Rouge hummed quietly in thought.

He fussed nervously with the cup in front of him.

"Um, Miss P-, I mean Rouge… if, if you don't need or want any help then I don't want to force myself on you either… I mean, I can find another job somewhere if I'm a bother… probably."

Rouge's gaze softened visibly as he spoke.

Well, how could she reject him now? This was so unfair! Those kind of puppy eyes should be illegal, seriously!

Rouge fought with herself for a few more long moments, her logic warring with her heart, before she sighed in defeat.

"How about this? You can stay and help me out until you find another job in town, yes? We'll talk about it again then."

She just hoped he'd find one soon. Leaving the adorable man homeless really didn't sit well with her but given her… situation it genuinely wasn't a good idea to stay in prolonged contact with a stranger. She hadn't even entrusted her secret to her own uncle, for god's sake! She wasn't going to do so with an unknown, no matter how adorable he was.

Itachi sighed in obvious relief and smiled shyly but eagerly at the woman.

"Great! That's… geat. Then, when should I start?"

"Well, how about tomorrow? You didn't bring anything, so I assume you got a room in town already, right? How about you sleep there for today and come here with your luggage tomorrow? I'll ready your room in the morning."

Itachi nodded in acceptance, a cheerful grin on his face.

"Hm, I actually need to get some things in town anyways. How about I write you a list and you bring them with you when you come?"

"Sure."

"Perfect"

Maybe having the man around wouldn't be all that bad. She could avoid going into town for a lot longer this way.

She stood up and opened a drawer, getting out a fountain pen and a sheet of paper to write out her purchase requests, along with some directions just in case her new helper didn't know where to get something.

She handed the list along with the approximate amount needed for the supplies to the former sailor and escorted him outside.

Really, she hoped her own impression and her uncle's judgment of the man were correct. Otherwise she could be in deep trouble.

Looking at the shy smile on the man's face though, she couldn't quite bring herself to doubt him.

Itachi on the other hand didn't know how to feel about this. The location of his new employment was, quite frankly, terrible for his purposes. He was so far out of town it'd be considered strange when he did show up there unless he actually did get another job.

Then again, the excuse of looking for a job was a good enough one to be seen loitering around town any hour of the day in itself. One couldn't have everything.

He sighed and quickened his pace once he was out of sight of the house. He didn't even take a fifth of the time it took to get here until he reached the questionable safety of his inn room. He had already canceled his booking for the next few days and was returned the proper amount of Belly. He was required to move out before 9 am, not that he planned to still even be in town by then.

He quickly packed the few things his clone had taken out of his luggage away again and hopped into the shower. He only had 2 more clean sets of clothing. He'd have to do the laundry tomorrow. It didn't take long for him to fall into a light doze after that, the closest he'd come to a good night's sleep unless he knew one of his companions was on lookout.

Just past 3 in the morning, he was woken up by a shadow clone popping out of existence. More specifically by the flood of scenes and thoughts that always resulted in said clones dispelling. It was the one who had infiltrated the ship. It had completed its mission.

Itachi closed his eyes and went over the events. There had only been a minor delay since he had been ordered to clean the mess someone left in the dining hall during dinner. Apart from that his self-imposed mission had been executed flawlessly. He had been able to spot a surveillance Den Den Mushi before entering its field of vision, conveniently confirming that Genjutsu did seem to affect the animals. To the degree that it did turn to where the clone wanted it to. To confirm what it projected when faced with a visual Genjutsu though would require further, more careful testing.

The commanding officer was, apparently a Marine Captain. You wouldn't be able to tell he was in charge of even a chicken coop from the state of his office though. It was a fucking mess. Like seriously, he had seen Inuzuka kennels that were more orderly than that room and those dogs were a nightmare to keep in any way neat.

Papers were strewn everywhere, folders and documents stuffed haphazardly into overflowing cabinets and drawers. Any type of filing system that may have once existed had long since been forgotten. It looked like a whirlwind had passed through, ripping everything out of its place, then someone had gathered it all up in makeshift piles only for the whirlwind to come back and do it again.

Yea, Itachi could feel the faint aftereffects of the headache his clone had felt at the task before it.

It had, surprisingly not taken long for the purpose of this whole campaign to become apparent. His clone had decided to go through every last piece of paper in that pigsty regardless. You never knew when and where useful information would show itself after all.

He hadn't found anything overtly useful to his goal but he did find out where all those missing pregnant women had been taken.

Itachi smirked.

A few things were starting to come together in his mind. If what he assumed was correct, then the team may soon be 1 step closer to a possible answer. Of course, it could just be a dead-end as well. He would worry about that later though.

First, he had to find that woman… before the Marines could. If she even existed, that was.

Itachi stood up. It was a little earlier than when he usually woke, so he spent some time doing basic exercises that were suitable to perform in a small room like this, being more thorough than usual. He left the inn just as the first stall on the market opened at 5:30 am, waving shyly at the bleary-eyed proprietor as he handed him his key.

He seriously couldn't wait for his persona to 'get used to' the new place and stop being so nervous. Being a perfectionist in infiltration wasn't really all that it was caked up to be. Truly.

During his recent investigation, when the chances of his clone being accidentally destroyed were low, Itachi had taken to leave one of them in charge and trained himself instead. He had to at least make sure his skills, as well as his body's condition, didn't degrade after all.

Today, he decided against such an action. He himself hadn't been socializing with people truly in person for a long time. The interaction yesterday had reminded him of that fact. Leaving his clones to do so was indeed most efficient but every now and again Itachi felt like he had to do it himself or he'd lose something, something important. Something that a certain bastard believed a good shinobi shouldn't have in the first place. The bastard who had orchestrated the whole situation that still made Itachi have nightmares, the one who had purposely thwarted all their plans and measures to prevent just that kind of tragedy.

All for no other reason than paranoia.

Itachi would be damned if he let himself lose his humanity, his emotions. Even if his nature was stoic and introverted, even if he could do what must be done, he would never fully lose them.

He would never again fall into one of the old ninja's traps. It had cost him way too much last time. He did not want to imagine the prize should it happen again. It may not be one Itachi would be able to pay.

That, he admitted to himself, was also the reason he had allowed himself to grow closer to his current teammates, especially Kisame. At first, he had been strongly against such a thing, after all the whole Akatsuki only consisted of criminals who had abandoned their duty to their homes or had been forced out as criminals.

But after a while in their company, Itachi had been forced to rethink his stance. He had gotten to know their stories and their reasoning, the motivations behind it all. He had been surprised. Well, all that had only started after he had been tasked with recruiting Deidara.

The ninja had been content with his life before the Akatsuki barged in, serving his home faithfully, even if he didn't agree with all their leaders asked of him. Until Itachi came and forcefully recruited him into the organisation, after humiliating the blonde in a duel.

He still felt seriously guilty about that, orders or no.

It had all snowballed from there. Finding out his sadistic, cruel partner whom he had secretly despised was in fact just a lonely outcast who had been vilified after executing a traitor to his own home had been the event that sealed the deal for Itachi.

He stopped feeling sorry for himself after that and slowly, ever so slowly, started opening up to them.

Don't get him wrong, he still hated what he had been forced to do with a passion, hated himself for not realizing, not preventing everything. He also still held on to his plan to have his brother be the one to kill him, to redeem their family's reputation, and finally conclude the whole messed up situation.

It may be selfish, it may be cruel, but Itachi had already set foot on this path. He didn't not think he could turn back even if he had wanted to.

Itachi had reached the market while thusly contemplating his life choices. The buzz of the early morning shoppers made him come out of his blank-eyed state.

He smiled at a motherly looking woman selling various kinds of seed and pointedly took out his shopping list before unsurely smiling at her and approaching.

"Um, excuse me? You wouldn't happen to be Madam Rosalyn, would you?"

"Good morning, young man. You've found the right place! What can I help you with today?"

"Oh thank god, I thought I got lost again…", he smiled sheepishly, "Um, I need some potato, passion fruit, tomato, and cucumber seeds, 100g of each. Also…"

The list continued for a while. The woman's smile got brighter and brighter the more seeds he listed, obviously happy with such a large sale, if a bit puzzled.

"That's quite a collection you need there", she commented leadingly, trying not to sound nosy as she wrapped up the last of it.

"Ah, you see, I was hired as somewhat of a gofer starting today. I think my employer may want me to ready and cultivate a small field for their family."

He randomly threw an assumption out to satisfy the obviously gossip-hungry lady. It wouldn't do to alienate her, the local gossip network could be an invaluable source of information… sometimes. Ok, not that often, but even a rare chance was a chance.

"Oh my, were you the young man who was kicked off that merchant ship yesterday? You poor dear. I'm happy you found some new work so soon!"

'Called it', Itachi wryly thought. She sounded happy with the piece of news she managed to squirrel out of him. He deeply blushed at her question, demonstratively lowering his head and fidgeting with his bag.

"Uh… yea", he muttered, ashamed.

"Oh, don't worry, dear.", Madam Rosalyn hurried to assure him, "These things happen to the best of us. Why just the other day…!"

Itachi marvelled at how little effort he had to put into making the woman talk. An embarrassed look here, hunched shoulders there and ding! We have a variable fountain of information, bubbling forth without stop.

Well, maybe it was a little unfair, measuring normal people like her up to ninja standards but still, in the nations even civilians knew not to be so open when pregnant women were abducted from town by a policing force they were supposed to be able to trust.

Putting it like that really highlighted how messed up this situation was all over again.

After a good 20 minutes of chatter that gave Itachi more information on who slept with who when and how often than he ever wanted to know, as well as led him to find out about the probable pregnancy of 3 women that had yet to be taken.

Well, that was a good start on that front. He hoped the next few stall owners or sales assistants would be just as helpful.

Itachi took a whole 3 hours to finish his errands. He didn't manage to squirrel out any other candidates but did manage to overtly confirm the info he had on the ones he had found out about earlier. The town population still felt very cautious of him, understandably. It would be strange if they weren't, after all, while a lot of them liked to gossip, most knew when and in front of whom to keep their mouths firmly closed.

Itachi would honestly feel sorry for the poor woman that was being looked for if they didn't. He wondered how long that would last. He didn't doubt that if enough women got taken, they would inevitably start turning against each other at one point.

He had to make sure to find her before that happened. The sooner, the better. He wasn't familiar with the true mentality of the population but from what he could see his most optimistic estimate put the time that'd take at 2 months, less if anyone with any kind of influence was affected.

While Itachi did pride himself on his information gathering skills, there was no guarantee he would manage. If she was secretive enough, he may well never find out at all. He would adore the challenge in equal amounts to how much he hated it in this case.

He allowed a determined smirk to cross his face as he left the town for his persona's employer's home.

He would not allow himself to fail.

Itachi let the rake sink into the now soft soil one last time before heaving the tool across his shoulders with a sigh.

His muscles felt comfortably relaxed from the now-familiar farm work.

He rolled his shoulders experimentally and secured the frayed straw hat that served as a small cover from the sun burning down onto him back into place. The breeze was strong today. He looked up to scan the sky. There was not a cloud in sight.

Baterilla was truly located on a tropical island. The jungle-like forest and the palm trees dotting the drier areas as well as the beach were an indication, of course, but there was no telling how the vegetation would behave outside the Nations. It was good to know his knowledge on the matter still seemed to apply.

Luckily for him, his stamina wasn't weak enough for him to collapse even in harsher conditions.

He reflected on the last month he had spent on the island.

He knew the whole land by now and had truly settled in, the natives accepted him in their midst, and his persona fit right in now. He had allowed the shyness to fade, making it a quietly introverted, but helpful, mask instead.

He felt way more comfortable with that, since it was closer to his true personality.

He was still careful to never let the darker side surface though, not while he felt anyone closeby. He still kept up with his training, had increased it in fact. His body felt in better condition than it had in years, and that was saying something, coming from a 16-year-old.

He sounded like an old man.

"Good work", the kind voice of Rouge pulled him out of his contemplation.

He turned his head at the sound, smiling at the sight of his employer.

They had become kind-of-friends during the time he had spent here. She was a gentle and kind woman who enjoyed intelligent discussions despite her early reluctance of company and he, well, he was bored, and frankly, her intelligence intrigued him.

She held out a bottle of water to him, a small basket in her other hand. He took it with a smile and an appreciative nod.

"I thought you may get hungry soon", she said in way of explanation, "I'm surprised you got done so quickly. I did ask you to develop a whole field after all, small as it is."

Over the last month, Itachi had been tasked with siting small plots of farmland, plant the various seed he had bought, and tend to said plants. Rouge had picked a suitable place for the project that was a small ways away from her house and well protected from the sea breeze and most of the sand it carried. It ended up being enough small plots close together to make up a decently sized field.

It wasn't hard work but it took a long time so Itachi really didn't have much time to look for work in town for his persona. It was exasperating, having that venue of information gathering closed to him but there really wasn't much he could do about it, since she paid him for the extra time he had to spend, differently from their original agreement.

He found he really couldn't be angry at the woman though. She didn't know about his intentions and thought she was helping him instead. He discovered her to truly be as kind and goodhearted as their first meeting suggested.

"Thank you", he said with a smile. He wouldn't insult her efforts by saying she shouldn't have. Instead he just thanked her and chose to show his appreciation by enjoying her efforts and paying her back in kind.

They walked over to the small alcove in a cliff Itachi had stored his things at, surrounded by some palm trees, chatting all the while.

Itachi took out a large sheet he had packed for the day and spread it out on the ground in the shade.

"Then, let's eat here together for the day. The weather is nice and you haven't been getting much sun lately", he decided.

Rouge looked surprised for a moment, having already readied herself to head back home. She did pack a little much for him to eat alone though so she didn't argue and sat down instead, her loose summer dress spreading out around her.

She smiled up at him.

"You're right. I did become a bit of a cave dweller, didn't I?"

She felt touched at her friend and employee's care for her. She had gotten to know the man over the last month and found herself enjoying his company more and more. While this was exactly what she had feared would happen – getting attached and not being able to ask him to leave… she couldn't exactly blame her new friend for that.

He was really intelligent, could keep up with her trains of thought and wasn't adverse to keeping her company and discussing medical problems. While he didn't have a doctor's knowledge in the field like her, he had a solid foundation in first aid and offered a refreshing perspective that made it truly engaging to talk to him.

Itachi settled down next to her, crossing his legs and pulling off the straw hat.

"You have, indeed. If you become any paler your skill will be translucent", he said, only half-jokingly.

She was indeed really pale, if not slightly sickly since he had first come to live with her. He was actually starting to worry. She had been throwing up increasingly regularly in the mornings. She had tried to keep it quiet but his hearing was too sharp for him not to hear her waking up and nearly falling over herself on her way to the bathroom.

At first, he had just ignored it, figuring the woman had caught a stomach bug. She was a doctor herself so she'd best know when to go to a professional.

Yet, it hadn't gotten worse or better and the woman made no move to get any help. This in turn lead to a certain suspicion taking root in Itachi's mind.

For now, he'd simply keep watching and offer his help should she need it.

Rouge's lips twitched and she pouted in mock-offense.

"Hmpf, if you're gonna be like that maybe I should eat some more, yea, I think I'll just have to keep all this to myself", she teased as she hugged the basket close to her stomach.

In obviously fake fear Itachi put his hands up in surrender.

"Please have mercy", he said in a monotonous voice, obviously not taking her seriously.

She huffed.

"You're terrible."

Itachi merely lifted his brows.

Rouge turned away from him demonstratively but still shoved the basket in his general direction, after taking out a few fruits to bite into viciously.

He snorted in amusement, unable to help himself.

She had made a simple dish of pasta with vegetables today and a salad. It was still warm and smelled delicious when he pulled it out of the basket. Several fruits were still inside, probably for dessert or a snack.

A real smile spread across his face at the sight. Before he had come here, he had always been the one to cook for everyone. Despite the fact he could honestly say his own dishes tasted better than what the woman cooked up – not that he'd ever say it, he did like his head where it was- it was still nice not having to cook himself for a while. Plus, he could tell how much effort she put into it.

He appreciated it.

"Thanks for the meal", he said quietly, before digging in with gusto.

Rouge smiled despite herself at the sight.

Yea, she really couldn't act mad anymore.

Rouge coughed as she raised her head. She literally felt like she was going to die.

Another wave of nausea hit her, causing her to quickly bow over the toilet bowl once more. She retched, throwing up the last vestiges of the previous night's dinner.

"Ugh", she moaned pitifully.

She felt like it was getting worse.

She thought the signs would mellow out after some time, not get worse. If this continued… she may have to risk getting a checkup somewhere.

The mere idea and the anxiety coming with it were enough to trigger yet another wave.

In that moment, she really, really wanted to curse into that man's face for daring to do this to her. Yet, she cursed herself even more. After all, she couldn't bring herself to do anything about it either.

Itachi was watching her in silent contemplation.

He felt more and more like his suspicion was likely correct. The question was just… what, if anything, to do about it, and how.

He watched her nearly choke as the next wave of nausea hit and made his decision. If he was wrong, he'd just have to deal with it then. Later, he would look back on his impulsiveness at that moment and come close to comprehend just why some people thought a ninja had no business being emotional.

Rouge didn't notice his presence until he stood directly beside her, gently placing a hand on her nightgown covered shoulder in support.

She jerked in surprise and whipped her head around to face him, a slightly panicked expression on her face.

Perhaps he should've said something before touching her suddenly, he admitted to himself as the sudden motion visibly set off another wave of nausea.

Instead of commenting, he carefully gathered up the few curls of hair that had escaped over her shoulders and held her hair back, rubbing soothing circles on her back all the while.

It took Rouge another 20 minutes before she felt her stomach was quiet enough to attempt getting up.

She shifted experimentally to see if the nausea would return. When it didn't, she heaved a sigh of relief. She looked up in surprise when the warm hand on her back disappeared, searching for the figure of her friend.

She soon spotted him at the sink, a glass of water in hand.

He handed it to her with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Thank you", she said hoarsely, before using part of the offered water to swirl in her mouth and get the bad aftertaste out. She drank the rest in small sips. She felt truly grateful to the man. His steadying presence and warm hand on her back had made the whole thing way more bearable.

He simply nodded in silence, cleaning up after the whole episode without a word, still no emotions showing on his face.

Rouge ignored the bad feeling that was starting to make itself known and shakily got up.

Itachi, having finished up helped her back to her bed, where she sat down gratefully. She had never been affected by the nausea for this long.

Rouge opened her mouth to thank him again, but no sound escaped her at the penetrating look he leveled her with.

Her heart sunk.

"It's you, isn't it", he stated rather than asked, "The one they're looking for."