Chapter Two
Missing-Nin

She was in the hideout, resting on the pallet, wearing her big, comfortable hoodie and shorts and thigh-highs combination. It was a little childish, but she was thirteen. She was allowed to be childish, sometimes. And if it led others to underestimate her, then all the better.

Itachi quietly wound the cloth out from around her forehead, and dropped it into her lap. The steel glinted, knowingly. She hesitated, for a long second, before she drew a kunai from her pouch and lifted it.

The stylized, glinting leaf sigil stared back. She resolved that yes, there was no going back. She was leaving behind everything, giving entirely everything into the idea of this new, reformed Akatsuki. Agreeing to this strange surgery, and hopefully gaining an even stronger dojutsu. She was still getting used to the ones she had, but there was something comforting about the idea of ultimate power.

Obito was solicitous. She knew that big promises were easy to make, and harder to replicate, but she was trusting him. She'd trusted him already, a great deal, but she couldn't reconcile her view of him as the awkward, fumbling man who'd comforted her in his own way that first day, and the kind of person who'd cut her up for parts.

She'd even asked him his heritage, to make sure he wasn't going to steal her Mangekyo. He was too distantly related - they were both Uchiha, but he was a distant cousin. Neither hers or her father's eyes were useful to him, not like that, and other than that, she was unremarkable. She was far more useful alive. He had plenty of access to Uchiha corpses, if that's what he wanted.

He wanted some new blood, someone he knew he could trust, that wouldn't side with Pein or Zetsu or even Uchiha Madara, if he somehow came back. So it made sense - he offered something she wanted, and she was his ally, before anyone else's.

And that meant before Konoha's.

She pressed down, the kunai making a terrible scraping noise, against the metal, as she gouged a thick slash through the leaf. There. It was an ugly thing, but she wanted it to look ugly. She wanted others to know that Konoha had fucked her, so she defaced its emblem and wore it proudly.

"Right, so yea, the fuck Konoha thing, huh?" Obito asked. He was lurking, sitting on his crate, watching her. She'd noticed. She didn't particularly mind. He at least had the decency to let her work through her thoughts before he spoke. He had a bushel of grapes, and was popping them into his mouth, one by one.

"I was serious," she said, mildly. "And I wanted you to know that I'm in this. I'm not going to go slithering back at the first chance they offer me."

"Right, right," he agreed, eating another grape. "Slither, huh? Thinking about our new friend?"

"He's a friend, then? What guarantees do you have that he's not going to betray us at the first opportunity?" She paused, and motioned towards the grapes. "Hey, share."

"Demanding," he commented, but he did so. "I'm going to put a seal in the new body we give him that means if he tries it, we can just explode him," Obito said. He mimed an explosion with his hands.

Itachi grinned, leaning forward. "That's good to hear. I'm very reassured by that. Am I going to get a bomb in me, too?"

"No," he said, rushing forward and putting his hands up. "I - Madara put a bomb in me. But you - I don't want to do that to you. Besides, no offense, but," he shrugged, "you just slashed your forehead protector. You don't really have anywhere else to go."

"True, but that doesn't mean you won't do it anyway," she retorted, tying her hitai-ate back on her forehead. "But I suppose there are no guarantees in this world." She ate one of the grapes. They were large, almost as large as plums, and surprisingly sweet. She couldn't quite fit it in her mouth, so she had to chew, awkwardly. Damn Obito and his adult male-sized mouth.

"Hey, I-" he cut himself off. "Wait, what? You're not going to make me swear or threaten me with death?"

"Well, I'm trusting you, aren't I?" she asked, once she'd finished her grape. "And you said you wouldn't do it. So, either your word is good, or it isn't. I am, however, going to set up a crow to go to Shisui and tell him that if I die, it's your fault, so there's that. And then who would help you take over Akatsuki?"

"That's smart," Obito countered, his head tilting, as he popped another grape in his mouth. "But if I was smart, I'd wait until you helped me take over the Akatsuki before I betray you and blow you up from the inside."

"I suppose that's true, too," Itachi agreed, smiling widely now. "But by then, many things could be different. You may still need me, or you may decide that I'm more useful to you alive than dead. I might have figured out how to disarm the bomb inside me. Who knows?" She bit into another grape.

"Or you might become too powerful to keep alive, with the Rinnegan," he replied, the humor in his voice obvious, his mouth full of grape. "But as you said, that's in the future."

"Good," she agreed. "Until then, we're partners."

"I think you're technically my minion." He shrugged.

"I think we're partners," she returned. "Since I'll be able to beat you in a fight."

"Ah-ah!" he said, holding up a finger. "No, that just means you're my muscle. The important guy isn't the best fighter. That's not how the yakuza works."

"Oh, are we a yakuza now?" Itachi asked. "Where are my cool yakuza tattoos then?" She ate another grape. Two bites, but she wasn't eating them whole, like him.

"Well, you're a free woman, now," Obito pointed out, chewing while he talked. "You can get all the yakuza tattoos you want."

"Are you genuinely trying to tell me to get yakuza tattoos without being a member of the yakuza? Uchiha Obito, I can't believe you. I don't know if we can be partners anymore."

He made a face, looking very offended. "That doesn't change how cool they are."

"You know what's really cool? Authenticity. And I gotta say, I don't think we've got quite the chops to qualify as a yakuza group."

"What do you mean?" he asked, eating more grapes. "You're an internationally wanted super mass murderer and I am the shadow leader of an international criminal organization."

"Maybe," she pointed out, swallowing her own grape, "But the Akatsuki is only criminal right now because it's outside the influence of the village system. You told me that all they do is totally legitimate jobs, for pay, and they don't even rip anyone off, or anything. That's not yakuza at all. That's rebellious, but not really criminal." She nodded, decisively, and continued, "And as for me, murdering a whole bunch of people in one go isn't very yakuza. It's something the yakuza avoid, as far as I know. They're more about making money through not-legitimate means, not about rampant mass murder. That makes you too notorious."

"Oh," he said, nonplussed. "I guess we aren't very good yakuza, then, are we?"

"No," she agreed. "And while I think their tattoos are very beautiful, I am not the kind of loser who gets yakuza tattoos when they're not actually a yakuza." She glanced up at him, considering. "You… don't have any yakuza tattoos, do you?"

"No, no," he said, laughing. "No way."

She activated her Mangekyo. "I think you're lying to me," she warned. "I can see through that."

"I'm not lying!" he protested, and strangely, he wasn't. "Hey, if you're going to use that on me for the yakuza tattoos thing, why didn't you use it when you asked about the bomb?"

"I didn't think of it." She bit into another grape, to hide her embarrassment.

He howled with laughter, popping another into his mouth. "Well, at least your priorities are straight!"

She hissed, in anger, and snarled, "Okay, fine. Promise me you won't put a bomb in me, for any reason."

"Okay, okay, I promise! No need to get all, 'spooky feathered transformation' on me." Again, he was telling the truth.

"Wait, what?" she asked. "What transformation?"

"When you were in the base. I thought you knew - when you were all rage-y, and punching dudes' chests in half and stuff? Your hair was feathered, and your lips black, and you had these claw things on your nails," he said. His face was concerned. "You didn't notice?"

"No," she said, confused. "Like you said, I was all rage-y. Now that you mention it, I did notice something was off about my hands, but I was worried about other things, honestly." She finished that grape.

"It was neat," he soothed. "Very intimidating. I almost didn't recognize you."

"Well, I guess that makes sense. One of my eyes takes in this strange chakra. I think it's nature chakra, so that's the version of my sage mode, I guess?"

"Sure, sounds right," he agreed. "It was very cool, though."

"Thanks," she said, popping the last grape into her mouth. She had to awkwardly bite off the rest of it, because it was so big.

"Anyway, you almost ready to meet Orochimaru? Actually, we should see Zetsu, too. He'll be fun. The good thing is that you've got a bit of him in your chest, so he won't want to eat you."

"That's… reassuring." It was not, in fact, reassuring at all.

"The thing with Zetsu, is that he's like, super loyal. So just act normally, and go along with it. You shouldn't need to speak too much, so it's easy. Just don't mention anything of my secret plans to betray and murder him soon. Y'know, simple stuff."

"Right, right," she agreed. "My eight year old brother Sasuke could handle that part."

"Good, then you won't mess it up. Orochimaru is a bit harder, but we're just looking over plans for transplants, with him."

"Why do we need him, anyway?" She asked.

"Mostly, for medical knowledge. I fudge a lot of things, with the Hashirama cells, and Zetsu's not… normal. I want to make sure all the things we're doing are correct. And he's been modifying his body for years. He might have good suggestions."

"Seems like an awful big reward for just checking over your work," she commented, trying not to sound bitter.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, our clan's dojutsu," she said, tossing away the stem of her grapes. "You're giving a set away, just for that? Can't you just order him to?"

"Not really." He made a face, munching on the last of his own grapes. "That's practically asking for sabotage. And I'm not giving him an Uchiha body, only the eyes. And we can make Zetsu keep an eye on him, for us. Make sure he doesn't get up to too much."

"This would be better if I could watch him, but I'll need to be under for the procedure," she pointed out.

"Well…" he glanced away, nervously. "If we replaced your eyes early, within the next few days, your original eyes will be free. Do you have any plans for them?"

"I was going to save them for Sasuke," she said, a little bit sharply.

"Well," he said, coolly. "The nice thing about the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan is that whatever state the eyes are in, they're always at full power, when you transplant them. So if I had your left eye, I could use it to tell whether Orochimaru is trying to fool us. And it's a useful ability, I'd think. My Hashirama cells, too, prevent most serious eyesight loss. So… are you willing to loan it out?"

Itachi pondered that. "You'll give it back, when Sasuke needs it?"

"Hopefully, he never does. But yes, when the time comes that he does, I will return it."

"Well put."

She considered the offer. "And you're sure that it won't turn into an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan for you?"

He smiled, sharply. "We both know that, Itachi-san. That's why you asked me about my parentage."

He was right, and besides, she'd already established that she trusted Obito, and more tools for her allies were better than less. "Fine, you can have it. How long will an eye transplant take to heal?"

"A few days, for us. We should go to this meeting, make the offer, then let Zetsu make up the body for Orochimaru and grow your organs. Then, we transplant eyes and get ready for the procedure," he mused. "That way, we'll be strong, in case something comes to a fight and I can make sure it goes off without a hitch."

"Okay," she agreed. "Are we meeting them, now?"

"Yes," he said, sticking his hand out.

She stood, and walked over to him, and grabbed it. Another short trip through that strange dimension, and they were walking through dark tunnels, to a thin room, half-underground. It was lit, only by bright slats, showing the world outside. The hum of chakra was steady, in this place.

A man rose up out of the ground, as strange-looking as Itachi had ever seen. He was half bone white, and half inky black, split straight down the middle. His eyes were yellow, cold, and unfathomable, and he had moss-green hair and great green spines, like a collar, above his Akatsuki cloak.

Obito was wearing his own, so Itachi stood out in her plain black hoodie and childish outfit. She wasn't particularly bothered by that, however.

"Madara-sama," the creature greeted.

"Zetsu-san," he returned, voice pitched almost comically low and imposing. "This is the girl."

Zetsu eyed her, and she held his gaze, unconcerned. "Strong," he commented. "And she's already accepted the cells?"

"Yes," Obito agreed, mask tilting. "She's shown promise, with just a small infusion in the chest."

"And you'll want to add to that, and incorporate your own DNA, and replace most of her body?"

"The internal organs, at least," he said. "Enough that she is likely to develop the Rinnegan, once we transplant her eyes."

"A larger transplant would guarantee more success," Zetsu pointed out. "Limbs, head, that sort of thing."

"No," Obito cut him off. "I don't want to disfigure her. And the risks - an entirely Hashirama cell body has its own drawbacks."

"Fine," Zetsu said, clearly unhappy. "The samples?"

Obito smoothly clapped his hands together, and a section of wood rose out of the floor, making a small table. He withdrew a sheaf of papers from his cloak, including three small vials. "This is the plan," he said, spreading them out.

Itachi looked. It was quite a bit more gruesome than she expected. He had laid out a detailed sketch of her torso, including all the major organs, and detailed plans for how to extract and replace nearly every important vital organ, all the way to the brain stem.

She looked away. That was enough, for the moment, to know. Obito and Zetsu hashed out a few more details, including asking for an empty body for Orochimaru. And then Zetsu was gone, sinking into the ground.

Obito turned around, and offered his arm, silently. "Orochimaru next," he said, in that low, smooth voice.

They were in the strange, in-between dimension when she spoke. "He wanted to do more," she pointed out. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"I doubt it. He wants to serve me," he said. "He's made of Madara's will, and another Rinnegan wielder is another failsafe for his plan."

"As you say," she acquiesced.

"Don't worry," he told her. "I've been dealing with Zetsu for a decade. I have him figured out."

"If you say so," she said. "I'm going to keep my Mangekyo on for this conversation, though."

"If you must." He chuckled, underneath the mask. "Doesn't hurt that it looks scary, huh?"

"No," she agreed, quietly, and turned it on.

They stepped out in a long, tiled chamber, with a throne-like chair at the top. Orochimaru sat there, idly, playing with the sleeve of his cloak. He, too, wore the red clouds. The web around him swirled, like tidepools, but there was something calming to it, a stillness, like watching a waterfall or a fire. There was a discordance, but it was low, and deep, not the kind of momentary deception that a lie meant. This was something on a fundamental level, a disconnect. Itachi wondered what it meant.

"Hello," he said, calmly, as if they just hadn't swirled out of thin air.

"Orochimaru," Obito boomed, in that voice of his. "I am Uchiha Madara. I have a proposition, for you."

"Fascinating," Orochimaru mused, still playing with his hem. "You're looking spry, for a man who must be nearly a hundred. How do you do it, I wonder? Exercise? Good eating? The blood of the innocent?"

"Good genes."

Alien, golden eyes flitted to Itachi. He pulsed, with what seemed like amusement.

"Oh, is this your great-great-grandchild? How quaint, that you're kidnapping them and teaching them to hate their village already."

"Are you interested, or not?" Obito asked, harshly.

"Very well. I understand, you're worried about the time. You must have so little left. I, however, have no such problem." He smiled, slowly. "Now, what's in it for me?"

"A body, made of superior genetic material cloned from the First Hokage." His dramatic sweeping voice made it sound like a grand present. "One that can be made compatible with your body-switching technique. I understand it has a limitation - you must change, every three years."

Orochimaru perked up, both visibly, and in the web. "Oh, do tell. What are we doing?"

Obito stepped forward, and produced a similar scroll to the one he showed Zetsu. "An invasive operation, to replace someone's entire organ structure."

Orochimaru slouched up, and stepped forward, smiling widely. "Oh, very fascinating. Your little pet is getting a tune-up, no? What are you replacing it with?"

"Cloned cells, mostly from the First Hokage," Obito replied. "There are many benefits."

Those yellow, snake's eyes flicked over Itachi again. The web pulsed, but not with aggression. "I… see. What a fascinating insight into the proclivities of one of our village's founders. No wonder you never took a wife…"

"If you provide willing assistance in this matter, I will deliver you an entirely new body that will suit your needs nicely," Obito said. "If you perform in an exemplary manner, I will implant two Sharingan into it before I deliver it to you."

The web flickered, as Orochimaru snapped to attention. He was truly a fascinating subject to observe.

"I would be… in your debt." He was stiff, with anticipation.

"Then make this body the best it can be. I had better be impressed," Obito replied, smartly.

"Well, if that's the case, then perhaps we could talk about the limbs," he replied, clinical in his examination. "I assume that you would not allow me to cut her open to examine the musculature myself, but… how versatile are these cells? What are their capabilities? I assume from the lack of bones removed on your diagram that they do not replicate those as effectively. But muscles?"

"The muscles have more potential than normal, yes. I did not want Itachi-chan to face the disfigurement."

"Luckily you came to me, then," Orochimaru mused. The web around him lit up with delight. "There will be no surgery scars, when I am done with her."

"Excellent," Obito said, smiling. "This partnership is proving fruitful, already."

"Yes, yes. I've recently been experimenting with the idea of extra limbs. But the internals - I never considered that. I wonder… three days, with these plans, and I can give you a more efficient internal system."

"The cells, by their nature, will change the body's normal processes. Once implanted, the girl will have increased durability, fast healing, and the ability to survive without food or water."

"Fascinating," he said. "So, if we are prudent, the need for much of the lower body's systems can be reduced, or eliminated entirely. I would be happy to design the body with a system like this - if, of course, the body I receive has them too."

"The reproductive system remains as planned," Itachi said, speaking for the first time.

"As you wish," Orochimaru agreed, nodding to her. "There is very little need to remove that system, anyway. It provides much of the hormone regulation, and without it, there would be… inefficiencies."

"Your body will be, of course, to your specifications."

"Mhmmm," Orochimaru said. "Of course. I will keep these. I have… ideas. I will have the designs in three days, and however long it takes the parts to be fabricated. We can start then."

"I will be back." Obito's voice was full of dark promise.

He held out his hand, and whisked her away.


The new kid was pale, so pale he looked like one of the black and white manga comics that were for sale in the shops. He stood up at the front of the class, sullen and silent, and Sasuke dismissed him, when he wouldn't speak.

Sasuke settled down for a nice long lecture about the Henge, a technique he already knew, and found boring. Itachi had taught him this ages ago, and Shisui had promised to teach him a new wire technique tonight.

Naruto dozed next to him. He was almost entirely certain that Naruto knew nothing about the Henge, but he spent enough time turning into a naked woman that Sasuke was sure that Naruto could pass the Henge part of the graduation exam today, even as he napped on the desk.

His fangirls lurked around him, too. None of them seemed particularly daunted now that the news had come out that his sister was an apparently insane mass-murderer, and a criminal on the run from the village.

They'd liked him the same a month ago. It was a mark of just how shallow the affection truly was, that they had no idea that his father was dead, his sister gone, and his mother a pale shadow of what she once was.

Only Shisui really saw him, now.

The lesson ended, and he grabbed his bento and went out to the tree where he usually nestled. He had to pack his own bento, today, half-full of tomatoes, because half the time, Mikoto seemed to have no idea Sasuke existed at all, and half the time, she was like a hawk, making him do his homework and stuffing him full of food.

Naruto, oddly, did not follow him this time, instead gravitating towards that new boy, Sai. That was unfortunate, because Naruto was a very good fangirl repellent.

Today, Haruno Sakura was the most brave, sitting only a scant few feet away in the grass. Her usual competition, Yamanaka Ino, seemed to have lost a little bit of her enthusiasm, so she was on the outskirts of the circle.

Across the yard, Naruto was gesturing, animated, to Sai. Sai said something in return, and Naruto flipped out. Sasuke felt as if he ought to pay more attention, because Naruto was doing his level best to punch the crap out of the pale boy, and was soundly getting trounced.

Sasuke sighed. The idiot couldn't help it. He was always picking fights.

Sai left Naruto in the dust, and he picked himself up, scrambling over to Sasuke.

"Hey, hey, you!" he shouted. "Sasuke!"

"What do you want, loser?" Sasuke asked.

"He was talking shit about Nee-san!"

"About Itachi?" Sasuke was up in an instant, his lunch forgotten. "What did he say?"

"He said he was going to kill her! He said she killed all his friends, and that she's a monster! She's not a monster, she's Nee-san!"

"She's my sister," Sasuke vowed. "I'll kill anyone who talks bad about her." He turned to Naruto. "Where is he?"

"Over there? I guess you're not so bad, bastard," Naruto shot back. He pointed towards the other end of the yard, where Sai was standing, glowering at the rest of the group. As if glowering and looking mean made him cool, or something.

Sasuke was the only one that could make that look cool. And if he wanted revenge on Itachi for something, well, then there was only room for one of them on the playground. It was time.

"Back me up," he ordered Naruto. He nodded, vigorously, and followed Sasuke across the yard. Eyes followed them, right up until Sasuke stood face-to-face with Sai, in the yard. Naruto lurked behind them, even as a crowd formed.

"What did you say about my sister?" he asked, tone low and threatening.

"You're Uchiha Sasuke," the kid said, not even blinking. "Your sister, Itachi, is a dirty, murdering traitor. The worst kind of-"

He was cut off, by Sasuke's fist colliding with his face. He slumped, lightly, rubbing it. "I see you're trash, too."

"Don't call the bastard trash! Only I get to call him that!" Naruto warned.

"I see the village idiot is here too," Sai snarled.

Sasuke exchanged a quick glance with Naruto, and, as one, they jumped him. Eventually, the teachers had to come and pull him off. And he got a whole week's worth of detention, and Naruto did too.

Somehow, over the course of serving those detentions, they'd become friends, he realized, as he grudgingly allowed Naruto to drag him to the ramen stand, on the last day.