Chapter Eight
Vacation
The new, third eye did not convey any new planes of sight, other than the fact that it worked as a normal sharingan, one that was always on, and took not chakra. It just was, constantly watching. Itachi couldn't even close it - it seemed like a natural weakness, at first.
Itachi was just getting off her high, getting around to burying that poor fellow that Zetsu had possessed when Obito appeared, finally. That other shinobi - Iwa, according to his hitai-ate - was just beginning to rot, and the smell had started to fill the cave. Itachi wished she had some kind of Doton jutsu, because that would have made a better hole than Shinra Tensei. She had lit a torch, or two, so there was some illumination, even if it was flickering and weak.
"You're late," she informed him.
He flinched, harshly, and ran to her. She was caught off guard as he picked her up, arms tight around her, squeezing for all he could give. The hungry instinct to drain him as she had the others rose up inside her, but she clamped it down. It was surprisingly hard to resist - he seemed like he'd taste good.
"You're alright," he said, eyes damp with tears.
"I am," she returned. "Put me down, please." He put her down, gently, and ran his arms up and down her ruined hoodie, as if reassuring himself she was real. She gently detangled them from herself, and he allowed it. "Zetsu was the traitor, by the way. In case it's not obvious?"
He snarled, and the expression twisted his handsome face. "Sage, I can't believe I let you alone with him," he muttered. "Ever. What was I thinking? I mean, well, it was dumb of me. I just trusted that he was made from Madara, and that was enough. I'm not even working for Madara anymore, and-"
"Stop it," she told him, harshly, folding her arms. "He wasn't made of Madara's will. He was made of someone else's, and he kidnapped me to make me into some weird, twisted version of her. We both made that mistake, but it's over now. Done."
"That's… okay, that's not what I wanted," he admitted. "I'm a huge fuckup, okay? I'm really sorry. Can I make it up to you?"
"I'm okay," she told him, stepping out of touching range, and over to the statue, over the corpse of the Iwa shinobi. "You don't need to do any of this. I'm fine, he barely touched me. And, hey, did you see this?" She pointed to the new eye. "Guess what? I don't need you anymore. I can make cool portals of my own."
"Itachi, I don't care about that," he said. "I just care you're alright. Where's Zetsu?"
"Dead," she replied, rolling her eyes. "Or, well, I don't really know if he was alive. But he's dead now. I ate him."
"What?"
"It goes with the eye and the horns. I eat chakra, now. He tasted like chocolate, with mint. Wasn't bad." She perched back on the statue's knee, affecting nonchalance.
"You ate him?"
"Not literally," she huffed. "That's what we called it. I consumed his chakra. I thought it was a Rinnegan thing, but I'm not as sure anymore. Think it's a freaky demon thing."
"You do kinda look like a demon," he admitted. "The eye and horns are very… something."
"Intimidating, right?" she asked. She held up one long-nailed hand. Her nails were pitch black, almost two inches, and harder than steel. "And I have to re-learn to fight, because I've got huge claws now, and can't make a fist properly. It will be worse, when I use either Sage Mode. So this is the new normal."
"You could cover up the eye," he said, carefully. "Wear your forehead protector over it. You could look mostly normal - the nails and hair just make you look arrogant."
"No." She was sure about that. She wanted people to be frightened of her. She was dangerous. It was better that they knew that. "I don't want that. I want people to think I'm a demon."
"Well," Obito replied, frowning, "I, uh, okay, I guess, if that's what you want. I mean, uh, honestly you can probably pull it off. Uh, either Sage Mode?"
"One from Tenjin, my Mangekyo ability, and one from the enzyme that Orochimaru modified this body to produce," she said, smiling coolly. "Both are… monstrous. In a good way."
"Okay," he said, sighing. "Okay. It's up to you, and maybe - well, it might be useful. Reputation is useful."
"Speaking of reputation, Zetsu killed a bunch of Konoha chuunin. They're going to think it's me," she said, dryly, rubbing her sides, lifting her legs up, and folding them so she could put her hoodie around them. She felt cold. "They're going to want revenge. But maybe they'll be scared. It's a good thing." The last sentence was uttered half to herself. Maybe she would even believe it.
"Yeah," he said, smiling, wide and fake. "It's okay, Itachi. Take all the time you need."
"I wouldn't mind, I dunno, a mission or something," she said, instead, eyes flicking up at him. "Something normal."
"How about some bounty hunting?" he asked, holding out his hands. "We can put the fear of, well, you into some poor fools. I can spin it that I'm trying to recruit you for Akatsuki, if Pein even notices."
"It's been a long time since I slaughtered some trash." She quietly thrust down the instinctive revulsion in her gut, at the mention of bounty-hunting. Katsu-sensei had died for a bounty. If she ever saw that Kakuzu again, she wouldn't even sell his head. She'd just cut it off and send it to Kane, in the mail. Or use her new powers to drop it in his house.
"Okay," he agreed. "Some time off. Just you and me, how about. Not talking about Akatsuki, or plans, or anything. I might need to check up on some things sometimes, but that's easy enough."
"What kind of things?" she asked, more to distract him than anything.
"Well, uh, I sort of have the Mizukage under a genjutsu."
She paused, considered that, and then thought it over again. "What?"
He smiled, sheepishly, and rubbed the back of his head. "Madara did first. And then, well, it was useful. I was angry at them, for a long time, so I destroyed their country, their nation. After, I didn't care. But now, well, I'm trying to fix things, but Kiri's in bad shape. It'll take a lot of years before it's back to what it was."
"You really were going to take over the world," she mused, half to herself. "You might have succeeded, too, but for the Kotoamatsukami."
"Yeah," he replied, chuckling to himself. "I mean, at this point, why not? I'm already halfway there."
She chewed over that. "And do what?"
"I don't know, really, that's the thing. I can't say I have much interest in ruling the world, and the original plan - the genjutsu that spanned the world - we know that's a real bad idea, now."
"Mhmmm," she agreed. "Whatever you do, you have to admit that keeping Kiri under your control is better than not."
"And Pein controls Ame," he agreed. "I might need to speak with him occasionally, but that's not too hard."
"Okay," she agreed. "I need - well, I need to bury this poor guy, I need to find new shoes, and, well, a shower wouldn't go amiss. Do you know any Doton jutsu, by the way?"
"Yeah, I do," he said, curiously. "Why?"
"To bury this dead shinobi."
"Right," he said, decisively. "I had wondered about the shoes. But this guy - Zetsu kill him?"
"No. I did."
"Oh." He paused, frowning. "I, uh, it might not be my place to ask, but why?"
"Do you care?" she asked, aggressively, showing her fangs.
Obito stared at her, less frightened by her reaction but more perturbed by her secrecy, it seemed. His eyes wandered to the bloating body.
"Well, yeah, kinda," he said. "And you said the Konoha nin... I just, well, were they innocent, in all this?"
"Yeah." Itachi wanted to snarl, wanted to rip him limb from limb, wanted to slice him open and drink the chakra from his flesh-
"I just," he muttered, cringing. "Could you maybe resurrect them? I just - yeah, I dunno. It would make me feel better."
All of her hunger turned to cold, sober realization. She'd have to give the chakra back. But still, resurrection. And it meant something to him.
"How?" she asked, mouth dry. Her throat felt like sandpaper. "How? What are you talking about?"
"They, uh, Pein can do it. It's the Shinigami, you can just, you know, use chakra, and then they're back up. Poof." He mimed a delighted dead man, rising from the grave and giving a thumbs up.
To think she had been living in such a tiny world. A world where the blurred line between life and death, family and village, duty and justice, had been the only line she could see, and in the far off distance she'd missed the bigger picture. Gods walked in this world, Gods who controlled gravity and summoned the ungodly; Gods who stole through worlds like a thief through windows; Gods who shunned death and played with mortality like pop-up characters in a children's picture book. Now, she was something like them - or at least, a cobbled-together replica of one of them.
"I didn't know that," Itachi breathed. "It's not like all these stupid new powers come with users' manuals. I was just getting a handle on the Mangekyo, and now I've got this thing on my forehead." Could she resurrect her father? The rest of them? That might have to wait, a little. Not now. But there might be time, later.
"Well, maybe the time away can do some good," Obito said, quietly. "I'm not going to make you, but, well, if he was innocent, he should stay that way."
"Okay," she said, clamping down her feelings. This was one of those things she should feel, but, frankly, the man from Iwa had been too tasty to care about his death. Per usual, she felt slightly ashamed that she wasn't really ashamed at all. "Okay."
She rose, untangled herself, and went over to where she had buried the Konoha chuunin. She calmly grabbed him with Shinra Tensei, and deposited his body next to the Iwa one.
"There's no way out of this cave?" she asked.
"No," he agreed.
"Well, we should move them up to the surface, if I'm going to bring them back," she suggested.
"Ah. That's a good idea." He grabbed both corpses, and they were gone in the swirling of Kamui. He held out a hand to her, and she eyed it.
She could trust him, Itachi reminded herself. She had trusted him. He was her friend, and she believed him about Zetsu. She could trust him, at least for now.
She took his hand, and allowed herself to be drawn into his jutsu, where the two bodies rested. He picked up the bigger man, the one from Iwa, and Itachi grabbed the second one. She followed him through the strange, grey, flat dimension, until he deposited them out in a grassy field.
She nodded, and dropped her burden. She leaned down, and performed the Summoning Technique.
The God of Death appeared, an enormous head, purple and yellow and glowing with a thousand colors, and stared at her, carefully.
How to do this? Just ask, she supposed.
"Bring back these two," she said coolly, indicating the bodies. He opened his mouth, long, too-long teeth shining in the morning light, and two thin ribbons of green chakra shot out, piercing the two corpses.
She could feel it, pulling at her. Draining what she had reclaimed back, away. Like losing a part of herself - much more than just the original amount of chakra she'd taken from them. The drain of chakra was somehow all the worse for it. She felt the saliva tickle the back of her throat - she could always tell when she was about to vomit, and sure enough, a moment later, she was on her knees, emptying what little was inside her stomach into the dirt. It came out thin and slick, red with blood. How she had more blood, at this point, was a mystery.
It was like… loss, but the loss of losing something precious. A part of her, like losing some fingers, or her right arm. Obito had crouched down, next to her, in the grass.
"That was awful," she admitted.
The Shinigami blinked once, twice, and then he was gone, rumbling back into the earth. The two shinobi twitched, and opened their eyes, looking around, wildly.
The Iwa man was up in an instant, his heavy armor lurching around his body.
"Konoha," he hissed, throwing himself back. He did a double-take, at Itachi. Obito had donned one of his masks, looking tall and intimidating next to her.
"Go home," she told him, in no mood to deal with this.
"I… died," he said, murmuring. "Where is Kokuo?"
"Who?" she asked.
"My friend," he snarled, eyes flinty, glaring at the both of them. "My bijuu."
"Oh," she murmured. "Oh. Gone. You're alive, though. That's all I can give you. Your life." And it had cost her enough. The bijuu was so much more than just one life. There was no way she was giving that up. Never again, she vowed.
He snarled. Obito stepped forward, menacingly. "Go."
"Konoha," he hissed, again. "This is a naked grab for power."
The chuunin had finally woken, peering around at all of them. He started, when he saw Itachi.
"Uchiha Itachi!? You killed my squad!" he shrieked, scrambling backwards, dumbfounded. "How?"
"Go home," she repeated. "Or don't, I don't care."
"I'm not leaving," the Iwa nin said. "I am Han, of Iwa, and I will not let Konoha steal what is mine."
"Are you blind?" Itachi asked. "Konoha can burn, for all I care. My name is Uchiha Itachi. You can find me in the Bingo Book."
The chuunin paled, and he picked himself up, before backing away, slowly. He seemed afraid to move too fast, in case she'd instinctively chase him, like a movement-based predator. But she didn't, and so he didn't stop, moving carefully.
Han started moving through hand seals, but Itachi lifted her own hand, with its long claws, and she summoned Shinra Tensei to blast him away. Not too harshly, and since they were in a field, he was unlikely to break his neck.
She turned to Obito, and raised another hand. "Yomotsu Hirasaka," she intoned, and a piece of the world simply just… folded away. She held out her hand, invitingly. Obito looked at it strangely, but went through. Itachi didn't glance back. She followed.
Kakashi eyed the bedraggled chuunin at the table, frowning. "Do we believe him?"
"I believe that he is telling the truth, as he understands it. But I once saw Itachi-san give a man brain damage from too intense a genjutsu. If she wanted him to report a false story, she could have easily made him see what she wanted him to. Or maybe he was hallucinating all on his own."
Kakashi rubbed his face, and leaned against the glass. "That's true. But to what purpose? And resurrection? That seems a little far-fetched. I'm not sure I believe that really happened."
Morino stilled, folded his arms and eyed him. "Perhaps to fool us into believing that she was acting against her will when she killed that patrol. If his story is true, she was struggling against this Zetsu, who was apparently capable of possession."
"Would it not be easier to simply… not kill the patrol?" The question seemed obvious.
"Yes… but maybe she killed them and regretted it."
Kakashi let out a long sigh. "And resurrected one? Morino-san, normal people don't just kill people, regret it, and then just bring them back to life. And possession? You know what? Fuck it." He sighed again, rubbing his face. "I can't keep thinking about this. Last time something popped up, I kept obsessing about it and wondering about it and looking for a reason, but…" He shrugged. "Itachi-san is a missing-nin now. An enemy of Konoha. If she cared half as much about how she was viewed here as I have, she would never have gone within ten miles of a Konoha patrol."
Morino nodded, gravely. "I understand. It is painful, but you must do what is right for yourself, if nothing else."
"I guess," Kakashi said. He wasn't completely sure he agreed - with Morino, or himself. He needed a drink.
"What about the claim that she stole the Gobi? Surely that was not faked. If she did have it, it would make little sense to allow anyone to know that."
"You're right," Kakashi allowed. "But again, no proof. No proof of anything. The jinchuuriki of the Gobi is named Han, sure, and the physical description matches, but this could be an elaborate ploy to undermine our information about other village's secrets."
"It could, but the trend I've noticed, in twenty years of T&I, is that the simplest explanation is far more likely. It is possible that this Zetsu was in conflict with Itachi-san, and the struggle between them was real. The other shinobi - our patrol, and Han, of Iwa, were caught in the middle. If it is true that Itachi can now resurrect the dead, she attempted to undo the damage she did."
Morino Ibiki was like a dog with a bone, Kakashi thought. He did not give up easily. Still, he was a clever, analytical man who read his subordinates well. He was undoubtedly fond of Itachi. Kakashi was fond of the kid, too, but he wasn't so sure she was decent enough to care about collateral damage. It might have been much easier to leave Han in the ground, and he couldn't help but wonder why she brought him back.
The Konoha nin? Sure. That was old village loyalty. Most missing-nin had at least a little of it. Itachi was attached enough to visit her little brother and her best friend, so he would have been surprised if she had none left. But resurrecting - if it was that - Han of Iwa was decent.
"Uchiha Itachi was a number of things, including an impressive shinobi," he started, slowly. "But I would not have called her a good person. Not a person who'd use a powerful technique on a person who was not an ally, or could not benefit her in some way."
"I don't disagree. There is something you may not have considered," Morino pointed out. "The casual theft of a bijuu is no small thing. Perhaps she wanted the world to know that she was dangerous, not to be trifled with. Particularly if this Zetsu did kidnap her, and cut off her legs." He paused, and opened his hands. "Perhaps she wanted an example, for the consequences of crossing her.
"It is not uncommon, among missing-nin. Reputation is everything, and sometimes, the threat of force is as effective as force itself. I think it is possible that Uchiha Itachi wanted to make sure that we did not send hunter-nin squads after her." He glanced back at the man behind the desk, in the cold T&I room. "If she does possess the legendary Rinnegan, a retrieval squad might not be enough."
"Let's not forget the masked man," Kakashi pointed out. That was another mystery. How could she have befriended a man like that? There was no record of him, ever, in Konoha. When did they meet? Why did she trust him?
It was the same as everything else about this incident. No way of telling the truth from the lies.
"An unknown shinobi, with unknown capabilities," Morino agreed. "It seems prudent to elevate Uchiha Itachi to flee-on-sight, to all teams on missions B-class, or lower."
"It does seem so," Kakashi agreed. "Particularly given that she has demonstrated no hesitation in killing Konoha shinobi, even if she did feel a bit bad afterwards and brought one back to life."
"Quite."
"Right, Morino-san, I'm off to have a drink."
"Good night, Hatake-san."
He left. Uchiha Itachi seemed just fine, on her own. She didn't need him looking after her.
She followed Obito's heels as he stepped into the bar. Something about his gigantic height and broad stature was appealing, in times like this. He was a huge dude, not particularly heavy, but he had broad shoulders and he was tall enough.
They were almost as scared of a big man in a mask as they were of a deathly pale teenage girl with a horrible, red eye on her forehead and demon horns. There was a wicked sort of delight, in her, when someone flinched away as if she had thrust open the gates of the underworld, a yokai come to walk amongst the living.
Maybe her time with Zetsu in that horrible cave was walking amongst the dead, and their fears of her being a spirit had some truth to them. She had more abilities than she could shake a stick at, and more chakra than a bijuu. She could not be hurt, by most mundane means, and she could open a door to anywhere, even the other side of the world, with a gesture.
Her abilities were almost wasted, hunting chuunin and genin-level missing-nin, for money, but there was something relaxing about it.
The target's eyes met hers, widening at the sight of her. "Mugen Tsukuyomi," she said, and the third eye on her forehead throbbed pleasurably. He immediately slumped face-first onto the table, and she felt the pleasant twinge of chakra absorption as the genjutsu transferred his chakra to her. It was soothing, like taking one of those fancy painkillers that left you high and drifting. She yawned, and followed Obito over to the bar.
The bartender, a woman with a long scar on her face and a number of tattoos over her arms, stared at them. Itachi wondered what she saw that made her pale. There was enough to look at, surely. Obito had forgone his usual masks, instead, he wore a mask over his mouth and nose, reminiscent of Kakashi, and he'd found an old Mist hitai-ate somewhere, a scratched line through it. He was still tall and dark and half his face was twisted, looking sinister with the mask and the scratched headband.
"I'm not serving you," she insisted, eyes hard. "You two are nothing but trouble."
"Too right," Obito agreed, lightly. "We're just here for your friend, here." He grabbed the target, and hoisted him over his shoulder. "And we'll be on our way."
"Good," the woman snarled. "Shinobi are trouble."
"Then how come you were serving one?" Itachi countered.
"Didn't know. Don't ask. If they're quiet and they keep it to themselves, that's they're business," she said, with a meaningful glance over both of them.
"Why, Tobi, I believe we're being discriminated against for our appearance," Itachi commented, wryly.
"Let's go, brat," he returned, hand around her collar. She allowed herself to be dragged out of the bar, pouting slightly. "She's right."
"Well, I'm sure there are some nice shinobi who happen to be in River Country and would just like a drink. Somewhere, they've got to exist."
"Yeah, maybe, but that's not us. We're the kind of shinobi that make civilians distrust shinobi. And you're not doing anyone any favors with those horns. You know, most people see those and think you're just a demon." He strode down the street, limp body over one arm and a hand that made sure she didn't wander off.
Which was annoying, so she slapped it away.
When she didn't respond, he said, "What did you hit this guy with, anyway? He was conked out, and I heard you - I dunno, I thought I heard - anyway, what was the genjutsu?"
They were in the middle of River Country, which had no shinobi village, and thus, it was a den of scum and villainy. Ironically, the lack of an established authority meant that missing-nin were somewhat more cordial, there. It was a place for them to live relatively freely, so, therefore, there was a somewhat brutal reprisal for missing-nin who refused to respect the established peace.
"Mugen Tsukuyomi," she replied. "Came with the third eye, and extra bits. Like a, I dunno, like the Mangekyo. Nobody taught you to use Kamui, right? Well, it just sorta, comes to you. Like an inherited memory type thing. But anyway, it's a nifty little jutsu. Uses a lot of chakra, but I'm pretty sure it's unbreakable and it drains their chakra, continually, and gives it to me."
"Right," he said, casually, smiling. She could tell because of the way his eyes crinkled, at the corners. "Well, do you remember what the original plan for Akatsuki was?"
"Vaguely? A genjutsu for the whole world, correct?"
"Yeah, well, that's what it was called. Mugen Tsukuyomi." He sighed, as they passed another man who viewed Itachi with fright and disgust. "Depressing."
"Why's that? Because we finally got what we needed for it now that you no longer want to?"
"Well, mostly because I think Zetsu just replaced Madara with you. He woulda been… demonified, and probably possessed, just like you. Maybe worse, if his mother had actually come back to life. So yeah, I spent ten years building up to something that was a trick in the first place. I wonder how Pein will take that news," he mused.
"Probably not well," She suggested. "We could always, just, you know." She pointed at an imaginary Pein and just mimed, shooting something at him. "Bam, Mugen Tsukuyomi."
He eyed her. "You're like a new kid with a toy, huh?"
"Wait 'till you see what I can do with my body parts."
Obito clearly chose to ignore that comment. "Well, I don't even know how that would work on Pein. There's six of him, see."
"What?" she asked. "Wait, what? Can there be six of me?"
"You're the one with the Rinnegan. Weren't you just rambling about inherited memories and eyes and shit?"
"Well," she explained, like he was a child. "The Rinnegan's not quite like that. It's just got a bunch of abilities, and those weird chakra rods that want to be used. It's confusing."
"You're a smart girl," he said. "You can figure it out. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that apparently, you keep using a literal world-ending genjutsu on bounty targets we find in bars."
"Well, it's a genjutsu that's really not that chakra-intensive for what it does, it's unbreakable, and it slowly siphons their chakra without draining them completely," she explained, shrugging. "So, yeah, it's a good technique."
"Why don't you just… knock them out?" he asked, brows knotted in confusion. "That's got to be easier."
"Well," Itachi said, frowning. "Do you know a genjutsu that just… knocks someone out?"
"I mean, no, but I never really had the patience for genjutsu. I never really learned it properly."
"It doesn't exist," she told him, shortly. He stopped, the man on his back, swinging wildly, the path through the forest quiet beside them, the wide river flowing quickly on the other side. "You can make people see things with genjutsu, but it's complicated. You can stimulate the part of the brain that makes someone sleep, producing melatonin, GABA, and adenosine, but if they are halfway aware, they already have adrenaline in their system, which means that your genjutsu is pointless.
"A complete illusion is another way to simulate that effect, but you still have to make them see something. There's an entire philosophy of genjutsu that focuses on making elaborate, complicated illusions that are hard to navigate. Another philosophy is focused on making them subtle; so that enemies don't know to dispel them. But I've never found a genjutsu that just knocks someone out, not like in Icha Icha."
"Okay," Obito said, resuming their walk along the path to the bounty office. "I think I follow."
"My point is that Mugen Tsukuyomi might be chakra-intensive, but nothing compares to what it offers."
"Not even the Rinnegan?"
"The Rinnegan can help genjutsu, yes, but it's just a more powerful Sharingan. It can defeat lesser eyes, and cast them without hand seals, but it doesn't solve the problem of an instant knockout. As an expert in genjutsu, I can say that the Mugen Tsukuyomi is literally the perfect technique. It's sublime."
"I'll take your word for it," he said, nodding decisively. "I'm more of a hitting stuff ninja."
"Obito big strong man," she mocked. "Genjutsu make tiny man brain hurt lots."
"Itachi big shithead."
"You're the big shithead." There was a cabbage farmer, driving his cart down the road who gave them a funny look, then.
"Rude," he huffed. "How come Icha Icha is wrong, then?"
"Cuz it's written by an old pervert with one hand, duh." Itachi sneered. "I mean, have you read it? The tits are massive, the women two-dimensional, and the men are just all Jiraiya, disguised in a new way."
"With one hand?" he asked. "Don't most people write with one hand?"
"His other one is touching his dick," she said, flatly. "I'm saying he wrote them while whacking off."
"Oh! Why didn't you just say, then? And besides, you're what, thirteen? Aren't you too young to be talking about whacking off?"
"I'm not a baby," she snarled. "I bought some when I was old enough to realize I could Henge into an adult and buy them."
"Geniuses," he said, dismissively. "No wonder you're emotionally stunted. Bakashi was the same way."
"Hatake?" she asked. "Perpetually late, weirdo Hatake? Emotionally stunted? No way!" The last bit was said with a faux-astonished voice.
"Perpetually late?" He glanced at her. "What do you mean?"
"He's always late with awful excuses? Any of this ringing a bell? 'Oh, sorry I'm two hours late to ANBU training, I was helping a cat stuck in a tree.' That kind of shit."
"Yes." When he spoke, Obito sounded oddly subdued. "Unfortunately, it does."
"See? He's like, pathologically incapable of acting like a normal human being in any situation that isn't life or death."
"The thing is, that's not the Hatake Kakashi I remember." Obito's voice was quiet, hoarse. "He was always a little shit, but he was a stickler for the rules. He used to quote them at us, literally. And I'd be late every day, and he used to be such a dick about it." He laughed, dryly to himself.
"Oh," she said, almost stumbling on a root. "So he's… oh."
"Nothing like realizing the friend you abandoned ten years ago has been imitating your most annoying habit, to remember you by." He huffed, turning his head toward the path. She could see tears in his eyes. "I hated him for a long time. Now, I think Madara was just manipulating me to make me just as miserable as him."
"I'm not good at comforting people," Itachi warned. "Feelings, or anything. But that sounds pretty awful."
"Yeah." He huffed. "I feel like I can finally see clearly now, for the first time in years. And I don't like the person I was."
"You've changed that, though."
"But I can't exactly go back to Konoha, stroll in and say, 'Oh, sorry, I totally did a bunch of evil shit for a decade, while you all thought I was dead. While you all mourned me, and everything. But I'm better now, promise,' can I?"
"No," she agreed, softly, watching the river churn slowly by. "I guess not."
"Just sucks. If I'd gone back years ago, yeah, I coulda made the argument, but I've done too much. Things I've done - I can't undo them. That's not how life works."
Itachi sighed, and nodded. "No, you can't." She was thinking of her regrets - which might not have been as copious or as detailed as Obito's, but they existed all the same.
"Well, that got depressing fast. We're supposed to be on vacation, you know," Obito said. She could tell he was papering over his pain with good cheer, but she could not blame him for that.
"Okay," she said. "Vacation time."
"We could get food?" he offered. "You haven't bugged me about dango in a while."
"I don't care about it," she replied. "I haven't felt the same way about food since my changes. I can still eat, I just - I'm not bothered enough to. I haven't felt hunger for weeks, not since the Rinnegan operation."
"Oh," he said, dumbfounded. He glanced at her, face twisted into a grimace, and finally sighed. "Well, shit. That's my bad, again. I'm not doing a particularly good job of taking care of you, am I?"
"I don't think you owe it to me to take care of me," she pointed out, mildly. "I've been a shinobi for six years."
"You're still a kid. I know that you might not act like it, that you may even have been ANBU, but you're just a kid." His insistence was odd, for a man who had so openly admitted to doing horrible things in the past. Why would he care about her age? He'd probably killed plenty of thirteen-year-olds in his time as Madara.
"It's alright," she said. "This is kind of nice, actually. A bit boring, actually. Any more dangerous targets you know of?"
"Okay," he agreed. "Sure. Maybe we can wander through one of the Five Great Nations, that'll be a fun time. Is there anything you do want?"
"I like eating people," she admitted, quietly.
"Eating people? Oh, right, your weird ability."
"It's nice," she defended. "Feels nice. Nicer than eating actual food, or sex."
"You've had sex?"
"...Yes." She refused to back down from this.
"With who?"
"No one you know."
"Alright," he said, putting his hand up, in surrender. "Fine. Better than sex. So, okay, so you want to just… drain people dry? Like a yokai? As if the rest of you wasn't enough."
"Yes," she admitted. "Uh, I'm not sure. I don't know very much about those legends. But the draining - it's really nice. The Mugen Tsukuyomi drains chakra the same way, too. It's a nice low buzz."
He smiled, narrowing his eyes. "Are you high right now?"
"I am currently draining the man you are carrying, yes."
He stopped, and picked the man off his shoulder, tossing him to her. "Then if we're going to carry him around, you should be doing it. No wonder. Perfect genjutsu, my ass. You're just using it to drain people without me knowing."
"It's healthier for me than cigarettes," she pointed out, mildly, hoisting a grown man over her shoulder. She was strong enough, but this was more a question of leverage. It wasn't easy, and she was more tired than she expected.
He laughed. "I suppose you're not wrong. And I'm not your dad, so… do what you want, I guess. How does that work, though? When you absorb chakra, is it… extra? Because it's not your chakra?"
She shrugged. She didn't know how to tell him that it felt like all chakra was her chakra, and she was just… reclaiming it. That felt wrong. She might feel that way, but some things, you weren't supposed to say.
"It works," she said. "It doesn't really distinguish between my chakra or someone else's chakra."
"So, you just… have loads of chakra?"
"I did eat a bijuu," she pointed out, as they turned onto a bridge. "Most people consider that lots of chakra."
"Oh, right," he muttered. "Is that… how does that work?"
Itachi shrugged. She didn't know. And saying, 'regaining a lost limb' seemed like the wrong thing to say.
"I'll let you know when I figure it out," she said, instead.
"Right. Okay. You do you, Itachi-chan."
She just raised her eyebrows at him, meaningfully. "I already do."
He just nodded, and kept walking.
The sun was slowly making its way down, the clouds stained wine-red, as the day waned. They walked on the road, in no rush, and Itachi could say that she found the time relaxing. It was nice, with only Obito for company, and nothing pressing to worry about.
an: If you're reading this and wondering how the fic has gained two chapters but the previous chapter is the same, there's a new 29, entitled Abura Soba, which is a short, non-story progression interlude to pad out the space between Rinnegan and Ghosts, since they're both big, development chapters with a lot of things happening. Ghosts has moved to 30 and Yakiniku Q has moved to 31.
