Itachi didn't have a very compulsive personality. He tended to want to keep to the status quo and never deviate from the plan. But if he was being honest, he'd admit that his choice to follow Carson to her work place was completely random and in fact compulsive. He was truly curious about just what goes on in her daily life because he had mixed feelings about her. On one hand, he thought she was a charitable and kind girl, but on the other he knew there was something dark that she was hiding about her past. He normally wouldn't pry or care about it, but considering the fact that these secrets are causing men to come to her home or stalk her into dark alleyways, he felt that the best course of action would be to find out why.

He originally planned on checking it out by using his sharingan on her, but his better judgment told him to wait it out first and see if she comes out clean. Even though she very well may turn out to be a genuinely good person, Itachi was not willing to leave it to chance, which is why he is currently standing atop a building across from her workplace.

So far, he found that she led a boring life and wasn't too good at her job just by how she painstakingly took peoples orders or how she fumbled with their food.

"What am I doing here," he thought. He saw Carson mingle with a customer and head to the back of the café. From his vantage point, she didn't have a look of someone with an ulterior motive nor did she seem untrustworthy either.

He was about to turn and leave when he saw a suspicious black van pull up next to the café. The door slid open and revealed about a dozen different sized men wearing all black clothes and black masks. What put Itachi on high alert was that they all had guns on them.

Itachi narrowed his eyes when he saw them force their way into the restaurant. He heard the patrons inside screaming and the armed thugs yelling for them to be silent. The hostages were then gathered together in a large group in the middle of the café as more and more of the men went inside.

Itachi contemplated on whether or not it was his place to interfere and put a stop to this. As much as he despised men like this, he knew that this was not his world and that the smart thing to do would be to stay low and wait until the police arrived. Carson did mention that this world had people with extraordinary abilities who stop criminals like this on a daily basis. They were called superheroes. He admired the title, but he knew he was no super hero, he was sent to be a savior.

He then spotted one of the men dragging two people towards the front of the restaurant. Itachi narrowed his eyed when he recognized one of the people being dragged. It was Carson and the other was a red headed woman. They were put into a circle with the other hostages and had guns pointed at them immediately. He figured they were being told what would happen to them if any of them tried to do something stupid like fight back.

This was a really bad situation that they were in. A lot of people were in danger, including Carson. Even though he felt he had cause for pause, he knew that if someone didn't help them quickly then this could end badly. He started to calm down though when a thought came to mind.

"The heroes of this city will show up, there is no need for my interference," he tried to assure himself but he knew that time was winding down. If something didn't happen soon, then they would all die. The thought of seeing Carson dead did not sit well with him at all.

He chose to wait for a couple of minutes to see if the police or a hero would show up. If no one came, then he'd deal with this himself.

After about eight minutes of watching, Itachi was on edge. On the outside he stayed stoic and cold looking but in his head he really was starting to get anxious. The situation had gone from bad to tragic. One of those crazed mad men shot a woman dead in cold blood and then took her baby hostage. He was most likely threatening to kill the baby too unless their demands were met.

"It seems it doesn't matter what world I go to, there will always be darkness and hate."

He felt horrible for letting the baby's mother die, he felt responsible. His father once told him that in the eyes of the victim, the third party is just as guilty as the oppressors. To just sit there and do nothing is the same as pulling the trigger yourself. He let that mad man kill that woman and he'd have to live with that. It's not like he hasn't seen a woman killed before though. When he killed off his clan all those years ago, that included innocent women and children. He left no stone unturned. But that was for a purpose, they didn't die in vain without a cause. The woman lying on the floor dead lost her life for no reason whatsoever and that bothered Itachi, much more than it should.

Minutes later he looked inside and saw Carson stand up from the huddled group of hostages with a frightened yet determined look on her face. She was then grabbed by the arm and pulled towards what Itachi guessed was the leader of this group of criminals. He then pointed his gun at her head and began to speak. After a while he began slapping her hard across her face and berating her. Itachi's patience was wearing thin.

"If someone doesn't show up now…"

"Itachi!" When he heard her shout out his name and saw that the man was about to kill her, Itachi jumped into action. He sprinted into the café at blinding speed and tackled the man into the back of the café.

To the others it seemed like the leader had just vanished into thin air to which Carson was relieved for but when she thought about it more she thought she recognized whoever that blur was, "Was that Itachi?"

Itachi was now in the back of the café with the leader of these mad men. The thug quickly recovered and went to shoot Itachi but he was too slow and was almost instantly put under genjutsu. Itachi felt it was appropriate since the man liked to sensibly murder people. The crook started shoot his gun at Itachi but the bullets would be slowed down and deteriorated before ever reaching him. The man looked down at his gun and yelped when he saw it turn into a crow and start to attack him.

He went towards the door but saw the handles melt away and the door become riddled with sharingan eyes. He turned and saw Itachi with the same eyes, staring him down menacingly.

"What is happening to me? What are you," he yelled out to no one. He did a double take and saw that Itachi was gone. He quickly went to try to escape but the kitchen soon turned into a nightmare world filled with evil kitchen utensils attacking him. His face was getting scratched up and his clothes were getting ripped to shreds. He yelled out in pain and fear.

"Stop this! Fight me like a man!" Itachi then appeared behind the man. He turned and struck Itachi but the punch went right through him. Itachi struck him with a right cross that dropped him instantly. The crows inhabiting this nightmare world then started to pounce on and attack the thug. The man was helpless as his body was so violently devoured. The last image he saw was Itachi with blood dripping from his eyes.

Itachi, having been satisfied with the result, released the genjutsu when the man was lying unconscious on the floor. He knew his job wasn't over though because there were still about eleven men left, all of which had guns and seemed trigger happy.

After seeing him take their leader in a flash, he was surprised no one came back here to check it out, but then again maybe he wasn't surprised; they all seemed like the cowardly type. They would shoot at the smallest sign of trouble. That gave him an idea.

"I-Itachi is that you," Carson whispered as she looked on at the spot where her would be killer used to stand. She was brought out of her stupor when she heard a man scream from the kitchen. There was then a rumbling and then out of the blue there was nothing but silence.

Everyone, including Carson, stared on in fear. Everyone had their mouths agape in shock, very much surprised at what they saw, well none of them could really say they saw anything besides a blur. Soon after came the screams of the very man that had disappeared. It sounded like a murder was going on behind those double doors.

A few minutes passed by, and without warning, the lights went out. There was zero visibility in the café. The thugs got worried and scared as more time quickly passed by, and with no trace of their leader to be found. The door to the kitchen opened up revealing a dark looking silhouette. Because it was dark they couldn't see whether or not it was their leader. It wasn't until it spoke that they knew it wasn't their leader.

The figure said, "Leave now. If you stay here and choose to shoot, I promise that you will not be shown any mercy.

Carson's lips quirked at the sound of that familiar masculine voice. "Itachi came to save me," she though feeling tears prickle at the corner of her eyes.

Itachi looked Carson's way and saw that she was safe, and from the smile on her face she looked very much glad that he was here. He tilted his head at the small glint in her eyes mentally filing that look away for later. Right now he had something else to focus on and that was getting Carson and the other hostages out of this situation alive.

One of the masked men responded, "I don't know who you think you are, but you made a big mistake in coming here! Light him up boys!" All of the men propped up their guns and began to shoot at mysterious figure. It stood there still, getting lit up like a Christmas tree. There was the sound of a thud soon after, with the figure now lying on the floor.

Carson cried out in horror as seeing Itachi being murdered. She started to weep and wail when one the masked men walked over to her cockily. "Aw, you thought he was going to save you," he pulled out a knife from his pocket. "Sucks for you."

He went to stab her but before he could a knife was plunged into his arm. He turned in shock and saw that the knife a come from the figure they thought was dead. The rest of the men turned back to the figure to see that Itachi was still standing. Since the lights were still out the iridescence of Itachi's sharingan lit up the room. The cold look in his eyes sent a shiver down the thugs' spines.

It was then that they finally saw what they really shot. Next to Itachi, laying stone cold dead on the floor was their leader. His corpse was riddled with bullet holes, with blood oozing out of them onto the floor. Carson, the thugs and the hostages stared down at the dead body in confusion and fear.

"But we shot you! Why is the boss dead and not you?!"

Itachi responded as he raised his right index finger at the thugs, "Because you shot him of course. Though you shot at me but what you didn't see was that I was using your leader as a human shield just in case you all didn't heed my warning. Now, because of you, two people lay here deal. I believe it's time for you all to face the consequences of your actions."

His plan worked to perfection. Once he took out the lights, he knew that these mad men wouldn't hesitate to shoot first without evaluating the situation at all. Now since they used all of their bullets in shooting their boss, he had free reign to fight without trepidation of them threatening a hostage.

He rushed them and one by one took them all down. They tried to fight back but Itachi's sharingan coupled with his taijutsu was too great for them to overcome. From corkscrew kicks to roundhouse punches, to flying knees to critical palm strikes, Itachi physically dominated them. One of them tried to grapple Itachi, but ended up with his arm broken in three places and then was thrown at the wall hard. Before they knew it there was only one thug left standing. He took his knife out and went to stab Itachi. The guy's form was sloppy and too obvious, leaving so many openings, so Itachi didn't even need his eyes to parry, disarm, and then use that knife to stab him in the shoulder. The masked man cried out in pain as the blood started to flow down his arm dripping down to the floor. Itachi delivered a spinning left kick to the man's head which broke his mask and knocked him out cold.

"Wow," Carson remarked in shock and awe. It was a blur but she was still able to see the thugs being decimated by her friend. She looked up at Itachi and he turned to look at her. They smiled at each other with Carson's cheek's turning a light pink. Once Itachi realized that he was smiling at her he quickly looked away out of embarrassment. He tightened his hands into fists as his face returned to its usual stoicism.

The hostages slowly got up from the floor, still looking quite out of it from being threatened. They all either chuckled in relied or cried that the horror was finally over.

"Carson," Carla bawled out in tears, running up to Carson and throwing her arms around her. She almost lost her balance from the woman throwing herself at her.

"I was so worried for you! I thought you were going to die," the red woman tightened her hold on the girl as she cried harder. Carson was shocked that her boss was so worried about her.

She sighed and gave the woman a pat on the back. "I'm fine Carla, really. If Itachi hadn't of come when he did then I would be dead right now. A lot of us would." She shivered at the thought. Thank the good lord for small miracles like having a ninja for a roommate.

Carla pulled back from hugging Carson keeping her hands on her shoulders. She gave the girl a stern look with tears leaking from her eyes as she looked on. "You should have told me about this sooner! If I had known that Black Mask was after you I would have let you stay with me and my husband. He is a lieutenant in the GCPD you know."

How could she forget? Her boss would always bring him up and brag about him being the best policeman in the GCPD. Whenever Carla wasn't bragging she was fussing at Carson about moving out of her apartment and into a stable home, with her. Carla knew why she couldn't do that though.

Carson was about to remove the woman's hands from her shoulders but saw how intently her boss was staring at her. She had a weird look in her eyes, a look that threw the brunette off for a bit as they stood there in silence. After a while she finally spoke.

"I don't want to tell you how to live your life, I know enough about trying to be independent, but please know this," Carla took her hands off of the girls shoulders and took a small step back, "Getting involved with scum like Black Mask will never right the wrongs that your mother caused your family."

No one else, besides Itachi who was standing not too far from them, saw the pure look of hatred cross Carson's face. That same look reminded Itachi of his younger brother, Sasuke. The look of pain and misery swam through her eyes, a look Itachi was very familiar with, though he wondered how on earth Carson of all people would be able to pull off a look like that.

"I don't want to talk about my mother," both Carla and Itachi heard the girl mutter under her breath. Her tone sounded so hateful and cold.

"But-"

Carson glared at the red headed woman. "No! I do not want you to say another word about that woman! She was never a mother to me and quite frankly she will never be a mother to me. It's too late for that." And that was the end of that conversation. She walked out of the café, walking away without another word to be said.

"I…I shouldn't have mentioned her mother, what a dumb mistake," Carla said sorrowfully. Her eyes were filled with regret and sympathy. Itachi saw something else in her gaze as well…pity.

He normally would keep quiet and stay to himself, but what just transpired left him confused and curious. "If you knew mentioning her mother would hurt her, then why did you-"

"Bring it up," Carla finished for the young man. She looked back at Itachi whose face was still shrouded thanks the hood of his jacket. "She hasn't told you anything about her family, has she?"

Itachi shook his head. "I see…your name is Itachi right?" He nodded at her. "Since she has met you, you're all she talks about. Itachi this, Itachi that, I swear you're in that girls head more than the food on our menu which she supposedly memorized, though I highly doubt she remembers it all."

Itachi didn't know how to respond to her so he decided to stay silent.

Carla laughed. "Wow, she said you were the silent type but I didn't expect for you to be this quiet." The woman's chuckles died down until she stopped, then she spoke. "Hey, I have a request for you if it's not too much trouble."

He looked on as she walked up to him, grabbed his right hand with both of hers and looked up at him with desperation in her eyes.

"Please keep looking after her. I'm scared that if she stays on this path that she's on now, she might find herself in even more trouble, or even dead." Itachi closed his eyes. Death was a burden to a lot of people, something to fear. But to Itachi, death was a release. It was a sign that his mission was finally over. At first, he looked back at his death with discomfort and regret. He wished his life could have gone differently, that he could have had a normal life with his clan and his brother. Death was a sign that his story was over. But Carson, she was a sign that his life had another chapter to it. She was naïve to just about anything besides what she's seen with her own eyes, which to him was virtually nothing. He could tell that this world still had dangers out there that he had yet to experience, and the thought of his friend falling prey to those dangers, and dying...it made him feel sick to his stomach just thinking about it. He felt uneasy.

The unease was because death wasn't always as peaceful of a release as some might think it is. He has seen and caused more death than anyone his age should ever have to. He murdered his entire clan and joined a terrorist group whose main goal was to gain complete control of the world by collecting all of the Bijuu. He joined the Akatsuki because it was part of his mission given to him by the Third Hokage, to spy on and relay intel on the group just in case they became a threat to the Hidden Leaf Village. He did it all for the purpose of keeping his brother safe. Seeing her die, would be the same as him seeing his brother die. It would break whatever was left of his humanity.

It would hurt that much because he was beginning to feel a bond form with her. He hasn't figured out what that bond actually meant, but he cared for her like he would his village or his brother.

Itachi looked down at the woman and opened his eyes again. He gave her a nod and she sighed in relief to his answer and let his hand go.

"Thank you. It means a lot to know that someone like you is watching over her." Carla gave him a broad smile. She gave him a pat on the shoulder and then went over to where some of her customers were standing.

Itachi went over to the corpse of the woman who was killed before having her baby taken. An old couple was tending to the crying baby as Itachi looked over its mother. He felt shame and regret for letting her die and silently vowed he'd never stand by and let something like this happen again. He closed her eyes shut and said a silent prayer before leaving in a cloud of smoke.

Carson had been walking down the sidewalk from the café for about fifteen minutes. She had tears running down her eyes and her nose was running. She even had to take off her glasses so they wouldn't get fogged up. A low whimper escaped her lips as she continued to walk. Guilt and anger filled her heart.

"I can't believe they took that baby's mother away from it….all because of me. And why, of all the things to bring up, why did it have to be her," Carson uttered in a hurt voice. She couldn't get the image of the woman's cold dead eyes out of her head. The only thing that over shadowed the guilt she felt was the anger she had towards Carla. Carla knew how she felt about her mother, she told her time and time again to never mention her because she was dead to her. Hearing someone bring up her mother made her break out into tears, angry tears. Her mother was the sole reason why she was in so deep with the Black Mask and his crew in the first place.

She stopped in front of a window that had small to large sized televisions on display. She stepped closer to the window to see a reflection of herself. She frowned at the image that she saw.

She looked horrible. The right side of her glasses were chipped, her forehead and cheeks were bruised from being hit, her arms had marks on them from when one of the masked men grabbed her roughly, her black stockings were ripped along with the apron that was tied around her waist, and her hair, it was an utter disaster. Her hair was all over the place and it made her look like she belonged in Arkham. She literally looked like one of the many patients that were imprisoned there with her disheveled appearance.

Carson was utterly horrified. She started to cry harder. She looked absolutely awful, and she left out of the café looking like this?

"Unacceptable," she said under her breath shakily.

"What's unacceptable," a familiar voice asked from behind her. Carson jumped up in surprise with a small squeal coming out of her. With her glasses still off she quickly wiped her face with her hand before putting her them back on. She turned around and narrowed her brown eyes as she looked at her friend.

"Dude, you scared me." Itachi gave her an apologetic look as he removed his hood and walked closer to her.

"I'm sorry Carson," he apologized, moving his hand to touch her forehead. He stopped mid motion once he realized what he was about to do. He stepped back and returned his hands to his sides. He kept his stoic expression on his face so as not to give away anything. He really had no clue what he was about to do.

Carson blinked and wondered what was wrong but she decided to let it go. "You should be. I was attacked by armed thugs not too long ago and if I had kept walking home looking like this I would have been attacked again…sorry," she mumbled moving a piece of loose hair behind her ear, "I don't mean to sound so irritated, but…it's just that being in that kind of situation and seeing what I saw took a lot out of me. You can understand that can't you?"

Itachi nodded at her. Carson shook her head at him.

"Words! Itachi use words for once please!" Itachi smirked at her when he heard her groan.

"You know what, fine, whatever; let's just get out of here. I don't want to be questioned by the cops today." Itachi nodded, grabbing a hold of her and lifting her up into a bridal hold. Carson blushed at his forwardness but soon got past it when she felt him leap up into the air to the top of the building they were closest to. She clutched onto him tightly as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop. This type of travel was still all new to her, and she doubted whether or not she would ever get used to it. But she knew eventually she'd have to get over her fears, or else….

"Would you like to talk about it," Itachi asked suddenly bringing the girl out of her thoughts.

"Talk about what? Oh…you must mean how I got involved with scum like Black Mask, don't you." It was more a statement then a question.

Itachi nodded. Carson stared at him for a second before sighing. She was never going to get any type of clear answer from him, no matter what she asked him it was going to be the same response. She lightly tapped her knuckles against his forehead while smirking up at him.

"Once we get back to my place then maybe I'll tell you…just be ready for a sob party," her smirk slowly faded from her face and was replaced with a melancholy stare.

"I'll listen to you," Itachi said, "if you want me to of course." For a second Carson thought she saw something in his dark onyx eyes, something distant and strange. She was no stranger to seeing weird things, she lived in Gotham after all, but there was a glint in his eyes that told her that he has suffered too. It wasn't clear as day but it was just visible enough to where she could see the darkness in him. She just hoped that he didn't act on that darkness.

Robin enjoyed his job as Batman's sidekick. He honestly did, but when the man makes a big deal about getting something done fast enough then that's when he gets annoyed, just never openly though.

Now here they were investigating Carla's Café, a quaint little place owned by a woman named Carla. A few hours ago there was a raid by some of Black Mask's men. They held up the place fully armed with AK's and AR-15's, all while having hostages. There was no indication as to what the motive for this was but that was the reason why they were here.

"Commissioner," said the deep monotone voice of the dark knight. Said man jumped up in shock. This happened every time.

"Geez, will you stop sneaking up like that! One of these days you're gonna give me a heart attack doing that." Robin snickered behind his gloved hand. He knew it was mean but seeing Gordon like this made his job just a tad bit entertaining.

Batman continued to stay there with his usual unreadable expression. "We arrived just as soon as we got the alert saying there was a hostage situation, but it seems like the situation has been taken care of." His eyes narrowed behind his cowl as he stared inside of the café through the window. He could see several of the Black Mask's men unconscious on the floor while others were being carried out by the police. He then eyed the two dead corpses that were covered up. One of them was the leader of the hold up and the other was a young woman who had been of the many who was held hostage. The report says that the woman was shot point blank in the head and that she has a young child. Until her closet kin can be contacted the child will stay with child services. The thug has multiple gunshot wounds…it seems he was shot and killed by his own men.

Gordon breathed a heavy sigh. "This is awful. We had gotten the distress call from one of the people living across the street. Something about a large black van stopping in front of the café and dropping off armed masked men. The lady was pretty panicked so she didn't give us any more detail than that. All I can say is before we got here someone had already taken these guys out."

Batman nodded and slowly made his way to the café with Robin and Gordon following behind him. Once inside they saw some of the remaining people that were held hostage who stayed behind, giving their testimonies on what happened. Some were still shaken up; seeing someone die isn't something you can just brush off.

"Oh thank goodness," they heard a voice say. They turned to see a red haired woman approaching them with a relieved look on her face.

"Ma'am," Gordon greeted, "You're the owner of this cafe right?"

"Yes, I'm Carla," she answered.

"I know you don't want to talk about what happened earlier, but we need to hear everyone's viewpoint of what transpired here before we can proceed with the investigation."

Carla nodded moving both of her hands to her chest. "Yes, I understand. What would you like to hear first?"

Gordon gave the dark knight a quick look before turning back to the woman. "We just wanted to know if you by chance saw the person who took these guys down. Other witness' say it was a man in a hoodie and jeans."

"That's correct, he had shown up completely out of nowhere, there was a blur and then the man, the leader, who was about to shoot Carson was just gone."

"Who is Carson," Batman asked.

"She's one of my employees that work the morning shift. She…she had been singled out by the leader of the group." She said pointing to the dead man that was covered up.

"I-I don't really know what they wanted with her but one of the other men pulled her from the group and…and…" Carla's eyes started to well up as she eyed the corpse of the now dead mother.

Gordon gave her a sympathetic look. "You don't have to continue ma'am."

Carla shook her head. "No, you need more information on what happened," she took a deep calming breath and continued. "They had singled out and taken Carson out from the hostages and started to bark at her and strike her because they wanted her to tell them something. I don't know what they would want from her."

Batman narrowed his eyes. He could tell just from the tone in her voice that she was either lying, or she was deliberately omitting pieces from her story.

"What is she trying to hide," he thought. From what he's heard from her he could deduce that she was pretty close to this Carson girl, but there is still the issue of this hooded figure showing up out of the blue. "Carla is trying to sound like she doesn't know the guy but from her disposition and demeanor she definitely has at least had an interaction with him. Then that leaves Carson. She was definitely an anomaly, but why would Sionis send his men to take a whole café full of people just to find one girl?" he thought. Then it hit him. "Whatever they were demanding must have been valuable enough to require them to extort a large number of people to pressure it out of Carson. I feel bad for the girl. A woman died and many more were being threatened, that doesn't give a lot of options. But I still don't know what they made her give herself up for."

"That's all I know," Carla said while turning away from them. She was nervous to say the least. Being in front of a man like Gordon wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the brooding caped crusader standing right next to him. She had never seen him so close up before. It gave her chills and not the good kind.

"Yes, well thank you for your time ma'am, and once again you have my sincerest condolences for what transpired here," Gordon gave a solemn look around the store. Tables were destroyed and the panic of it all could be felt everywhere. There were bullet holes and blood all over the store; it was a miracle only two people died.

"Oh you're welcome." She waved goodbye to them as she watched them walk out the doors. When she saw that they had finally left she sighed, not realizing that she had been holding her breath.

"Thank goodness that's over…Carson, Itachi; you better thank me for this."

"Sooo," Robin began finally speaking up, "You figured out anything yet boss," he asked his mentor. Batman grunted in reply, which in his language meant yes.

"That woman, Carla, was hiding something. She gave no detail as to why those men were after Carson nor did she say what kind of connection the hooded figure had with her either."

"Maybe she did it out of courtesy to them," Robin shrugged.

Batman scowled as he looked down from the top of the building they were standing on. "I doubt it. Lying for someone in courtesy would mean acting with more emotion than we saw her express."

Robin raised a brow, "So you think she was covering for this hooded guy and this Carson lady?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying and I intend to find out why." Batman narrowed his eyes again. He could deduce from the report and everyone's account of what transpired that the hooded man showed up in order to save Carson and single handedly took down all of Black Mask's thugs. According to witness, he didn't kill the leader; he tricked the rest of the thugs to do that. He didn't know if he was dealing with a metahuman or someone who is highly skilled in combat but since this happened in his city he would get to the bottom of this. He still had so many questions. What kind of connection does Carson have with Black Mask? Who is this hooded man really and what is he capable of? He let out a breath catching his protégé's attention.

"We're going back to the Batcave," he announced as he got out his grappling gun.

Robin frowned. "But we just got out here like two hours ago! Don't our patrols last longer than that?"

Batman glared at him. "No complaining or you run the training course three times," he said before using his grappling gun to soar off into a nearby building.

"Aw man, that is so not fair," Robin pouted before doing the same.

Sorry for the wait guys and gals. Let me know what you think with some of the changes. I hope it doesn't deviate too far from the original story. Don't forget to read and review! Till next time!