"My hair is getting soaked, taichou," Yugao complained again as she pushed her soaking wet bangs out of her face again."
"You could pull it back," Itachi replied, "I have an extra hair tie if you need one."
Yugao turned to stare at Itachi with her mouth open slightly, "Are you offering to share something of yours with me, Itachi?"
Itachi blinked, "I always have extra hair ties, because one never knows when a stray kunai or jutsu will damage one's current hair tie."
Yugao blinked at Itachi again, "Is this a hair tie that has been on your hair, Itachi?"
Itachi nodded his head just a fraction.
Yugao squealed and jumped up and down, reminding both Itachi and Kakashi of a fangirl, "Please may I have it?"
Itachi frowned, but slowly reached into his pack to grab one of the hair ties that he had wrapped around a scroll.
When he held it out to Yugao, she grinned and snatched it out of Itachi's hand, "Do you know how much I can sell this for?"
Kakashi stared at her, "What?"
"You heard me, I can sell this in the village for more money than a single A-rank mission," Yugao grinned even wider, "There is a huge market for items pertaining to the great Itachi Uchiha, fangirls are willing to pay double if it has been touched by you and triple if it was something of yours. So, this baby is going to pay for my rent for the next few months."
Itachi and Kakashi stared at Yugao in varying degrees of shock, "What?" Kakashi asked.
"You heard me," Yugao put the hair tie in one of her many pouches and nodded, "I won't even tell you how many people have asked me what is under your mask or how much a picture of you without your mask is going for taichou, but really, a girl has to make a living."
Itachi's mouth dropped as Yugao continued to talk, his sense of doom continuing to grow, "Are you telling me that people routinely come up to you and ask you for my stuff and pictures of Kakashi-taichou?"
Yugao nodded, "I'm not the only person who gets approached, anyone who has any connection to you really. Also, the market is a badly kept secret, are you telling me that you two didn't know about it?"
Kakashi turned away from the two and continued to walk in the direction of Ame, "The more pressing question would be, how do you know about it?"
Yugao shrugged and followed Kakashi, "It isn't that big of a deal, I was told about it by a friend and we were curious, so we went to one of their secret meeting places and boy, were we shocked. They have weekly meetings where they discuss any new rumors about the men and boys that they are stalking, then there is a list of items that have been acquired, then where you can bid on them. So, all in all, it was an enlightening experience."
"Do you take stuff from us often?" Kakashi asked.
Itachi jogged to catch up to his teammates, "That is a very good question, do you take our stuff from us?"
Yugao shook her head, "No, not normally, but you two were looking way too serious for my taste, so I decided to help you two out and take your mind off of the current mission for a little bit."
Itachi shook his head and pulled the hood of his cloak up to cover his head, "I expect to see some of your profits from the sale of my hair tie."
"Can I get a few hairs to put on the hair tie?"
Itachi sighed.
Kakashi laughed, "If the hairs are there I'm sure that the price of that hair tie will skyrocket."
Yugao nodded, her hair hitting the back of her cloak with her movement, "It will. Anything with a piece of you, will push the price up into high S-ranked missions."
"Does that mean you will share your money with me?" Yugao paused for a moment, as if to think about it then replied, "Sure, Itachi, I will split my profit with you."
"Then yes, you may have some hair also."
"Great! I will grab some later when we are finished."
"Hn," Itachi replied.
"Well as enlightening as that was, I think we should talk about the plan for when we get to where Harumi is being kept."
"Hai, taichou," the two replied.
"I want Itachi to be charge of getting Harumi to safety," Kakashi began.
"With all due respect, I think I should be the one in charge of getting Harumi to safety. I am a medic too after all," Yugao interrupted.
"You don't like Harumi," Kakashi replied.
"I don't have to like someone to do my job, taichou. This is an important mission, one that we will not fail."
"I know you won't fail," Kakashi began again.
"What Kakashi-taichou is saying is that he might be in need of your medical expertise," Itachi interjected.
"Do I need to be here for this conversation?" Kakashi asked jokingly.
"Only if you want to be, taichou," Itachi answered. "We know what to do. Collect Harumi, get her to Tenzō or Shishui and protect your back. Then we can all go home. Harumi is a competent medic, if she needs medical assistance that she can't provide then I'm sure that she will let either of them know. Or we could assess her situation before we even take her to Tenzō or Shishui."
Kakashi nodded, "Good plan. We will have to play most of this by ear, but I am trusting you two to make sure Harumi is safe and that you will protect her."
Both Itachi and Yugao nodded.
"Good. Your mission is to ensure Harumi's safe return to Konoha. Don't fail your mission, there are brats there who are counting on you to not fail this mission."
"We won't fail, and we all will go home, taichou," Yugao replied solemnly.
Kakashi nodded and picked up his walk just a bit so he was no longer strolling but walking in a hurry. Because of this, he missed the look Itachi gave him. It was a look that spoke of betrayal and fear. Itachi might be young, but he wasn't stupid, they called him a genius after all. Kakashi wasn't planning on coming home from this mission. The betrayal of Kakashi's resolve hurt, Itachi made a promise, they would all go home after this mission, even if he had to drag Kakashi home kicking and screaming. Itachi had a feeling that Harumi would help him.
Hours later, Kakashi looked up at the city of Ame. It was as Jiraya described. The whole city was surrounded by water a low wall surrounded the city and the whole thing was towering above the ground. Towers stretched as far as the eye could see. They were taller than the few trees found in the area. Itachi and Yugao stood at Kakashi's back as he looked over the city.
Just then the man that kidnapped Harumi appeared in front of the trio. "Wonderful, you made good time. Not that I expected anything less from the great Kakashi Hatake. If you will come with me I will take you to Harumi," Without another word, the man in the black cloak wearing an orange mask turned around and walked straight into the city.
A pointed glance to the two people behind him and Kakashi followed behind. A series of jumps to different levels had the group standing in front of a series of tall towers.
"Harumi will be joining us shortly, however we wanted to ensure that you understood why you are here. We will return Harumi to you safe and sound, just like we promised, she was, after all, just a tool to get you here."
"Then tell me why I am here," Kakashi demanded.
"Simply put, you are here to pay for your crimes."
"What crimes?" Itachi asked.
"His crimes against my student, of course."
"Again, what crimes did he commit?"
The masked man tilted his head slightly to the left, causing his exposed eye to gleam in the light, "Well to put it simply, he is lower than scum. He has left his comrades to die and even killed his teammate. He watched his sensei be killed right in front of his eyes and did nothing! But like I said, I'm not the one with the grievance against him. My student will be along shortly, and he will better explain what he would like from Kakashi as penance."
Kakashi ignored the pain ripping through him with each word the masked man said. He let the pain wash over him before resolutely putting it back into the box where those feelings and memories belonged. The sacred box he just didn't have the strength to face yet. "So, we just wait here?" Kakashi asked, his voice slightly higher than normal.
"For just a bit longer," the masked man laughed, "You young shinobi should really learn some patience, after all, not everything can happen on your time table." With that the masked man sat down on the head of one of the statues attached to the building. "My student will be here shortly."
Kakashi, Itachi and Yugao stayed standing, but all of them stretched their senses out to survey the surrounding area. Ensuring that no one was sneaking up on them from behind.
Then a moment later the first masked man glanced to his left and when Kakashi followed his gaze, he saw another masked man appear with tied up Harumi standing next to him. Once they became fully visible, Harumi bent forward and started breathing heavily.
"I feel sick," Harumi moaned.
AN: The gang is all here!
Thank you to all the new comments and new readers. I am always amazed at how many people are enjoying this little piece of the stories I have floating around in my brain. I hope you all continue to enjoy.