INTERLUDE: The Mind of a Psychopath
To some, four years would seem a short time. To others, it would seem interminable. To others yet still, it would seem unbearable. To a certain individual, it was all of these things at once.
"Hey, what's your deal, man?"
Some people had good relationships with the people surrounding them. Some people might get along with certain individuals and not others. Some people might hate every person around them. Or indeed, all people in general.
"You awake?"
Some people might think life was a wonderful thing. Some people might think life sucked. Some people might hate it so fiercely they decided to prematurely end it.
"Uh . . . is he dead?"
Itachi Uchiha hated and loved life. He hated and loved people. He hated and loved himself. Truly, there must not be a more complex mind in the planet. This thought often popped up in his head. When it did, he tried to simplify. Simplification made everything easier.
Complexity was the spice of life. Whoever said that? Someone surely more insane than Itachi.
No, he corrected himself. He was not insane. Insanity suggested he was not aware nor in control of his actions. His awareness was heightened to painful degrees, and everything he did was with great deliberation.
A somewhat cruel irony, given his current circumstances.
Eyes the shade of angry rubies opened, and to any gazing into his face he looked emotionless and cold. However, heat blazed behind this façade, heat carefully concealed behind layer upon layer of ice. Better people perceive him as cold. Better they believe him to be unreachable.
"What do you want?" he said to the two men hovering over him. "You've seen me meditate before."
"Still freaks me out," said the one with yellowish hair arranged in a tie to the side of his head.
"Are we making our move, yet?" demanded the other. His skin was so grey it had a slight blue tint, and his filed teeth and narrow features made him look surprisingly sharkish.
"No," Itachi said, rising to his feet. "Not until we hear from our contact."
They gave him wide berth as he passed between them. A caution which never failed to amuse him. This organization of which he was part had some of the empire's worst criminals as its members, and most of them couldn't quite shake their fear of him. He was a true psychopath, a murderer who'd destroyed his entire clan without a clear reason for doing such a thing.
Well, let them continue to think that. His objectives were no one's business except his own. Mine, and one other's, he amended silently. There was one person to whom he would reveal everything. All in due time.
"Can we really trust that snake?" the shark-faced man asked, supremely skeptical.
"He can barely be considered Akatsuki," the yellow-haired one agreed.
"I will trust him until he betrays me," Itachi said.
The shark burst into laughter. "You're so sure he will?"
"I assume everyone will betray me."
The yellow-haired man gave Itachi a stupidly pouty look. "Including us?"
Itachi met his eyes, giving him a cold, dead smile. "Especially you. You are the most dangerous men I know."
They both laughed as though he'd made some grand joke. Itachi continued down the hall from his meditation room, heading for one of the control booths. It was high past time to check in on the doings of the Hokage, the Imperial Army, and the politicians running the empire. Always, always scouring the Net for any signs of a few certain individuals, ready to erase or adjust reports as needed.
Kisame, the shark-faced man who could be considered Itachi's partner, kept pace with him. "So how's that kid brother of yours doing? What's the last report?"
Though Itachi's control of all his faculties was superb, he had to force himself not to clench his jaw. "He's doing well," he replied. "Apparently, Hatake has him working on some new technique, though I don't know what."
Deidara, the yellow-haired man who often supported the two of them in any combat, sighed noisily. "Why does it have to be him? There are so many more skilled Coordinators in Akatsuki. Myself included."
Itachi paused in front of the comm and control panels, pulling up a half dozen holo screens and starting some generic searches of various governmental bodies. "None of you possess the particular skill I want to utilize," he said. Something he said often to Deidara. The man seemed rather fixated on the idea of bonding with the Uchiha.
Deidara huffed. "Sharingan. I don't understand. You already have Sharingan. And way more powerful than your baby brother. So why does it have to be him?"
To this, Itachi offered no reply. Firstly, it was none of the man's business. But mostly, he didn't want to reveal so much of his true objective to these two. Or to anyone.
No one, except one.
A few results popped up on the holo screens.
Kisame grunted. "Damn it, that fool is off getting himself noticed again. Clean up duty, Uchiha?"
Nodding, Itachi let the searches keep running. "Let me get my cloak."
Personal feelings aside, this was where he needed to be at the moment. That would not be the case forever.