No sun was there to alert the rise of dawn, but Itachi Uchiha was awake without haste and stumbling over himself towards his bathroom.
He contemplated if he should brush his teeth before squinting at his reflection in the mirror. Toothpaste was soon foaming out of his mouth, making him spit most of it out in a single go as he accidentally choked on rogue water.
Just to spite his heritage, he opted for a shower, crumpling his nose at his less-than-perfect hair.
It was barely a week since Itachi had joined the inner circle of the Akatsuki and he'd already been paired up with a very undesirable choice: Hoshigaki Kisame.
Kisame was half shark, hence him having blue skin, shark eyes and gills on either side of his face. Kisame himself was preferable in close combat and water jutsu, both complementing Itachi's long-range approach, and disadvantaging Itachi's fire prowess.
Itachi could have much preferred Sasori, a puppet master who used long range. Sasori also had a much more blunt personality than Kisame, preferring not to keep people waiting and finishing assignments without hassle, much like the Uchiha.
While Itachi could see the advantages of having Kisame as his partner, he was still mildly peeved, though he'd never risk the position he'd spent months trying to achieve.
Itachi looked down at his hair, watching in familiar fascination as it clumped together over his left shoulder and formed something akin to a black curtain due to its dampness.
He shook off his childlike wonder and rinsed out the rest of his hair conditioner, later standing at the sink and wringing his hair out, leaving it damp to dry the rest of the way on its own.
Heading out of the bathroom, Itachi was reminded of Uzumaki Naruto, the one person he wished the most he could see once more, even for a moment.
Once, he'd found the blonde sitting on the edge of his bed with Itachi's clothes neatly folded, ready to wear, proclaiming that breakfast was ready.
Itachi shook off the memory and went to rummage haphazardly through his drawers to grab the appropriate wardrobe to wear for the day's events. While not a morning person, Itachi had been forced to wake at ungodly hours in his youth, making his internal clock constantly torture him through his later life. This led to Itachi just haphazardly grabbing the nearest pair of decent clothes he could find, slinging his uniform-regulated cloak behind him as he dragged his own legs towards the kitchen.
Unsurprisingly, Sasori was working on the dining table, screwing in joints for a new puppet, and one of the few to see Itachi's disgruntled morning mood.
Their leader's enforcer always forced Sasori out of his workshop at midnight until the next noon, which was really being the only reason Sasori was seen at all outside of missions. Sasori himself was not human, simply a human consciousness within a life-sized wooden puppet, leaving him eternally awake and constantly working on different projects. Itachi respected the kindred introvert's peace and went to the coffee table, slumping down on the couch and slamming his head painfully against the wood. Sasori briefly looked up at the unusual behaviour before turning his head back down towards something he was fixing in the arm of what appeared to be an animal puppet.
Itachi felt his mood worsen every second he was awake.
Today was his birthday and he had genuinely felt disappointed when he wasn't woken up before midnight by Naruto to brave his next year of life together. He almost felt like crying, but he steeled himself as always, remembering he was still infiltrating a top secret criminal organisation for the sake of his village and his little brother. [And Naruto, his subconcious reminded him].
Itachi sat up on the couch, not bothering to move his hair away from his face as he stood and went to grab coffee. Very bitter coffee. He held the mug with shaking hands as he sat back down, eventually grabbing his hand with the other in a futile attempt to stop the movement.
Sasori was completely done with the weirdness and stupid shit of Akatsuki years ago, but he branded himself officially mentally done when a fox made its way into the kitchen at six in the morning on his day off.
The fox was a burnt gold colour and was about the length of Sasori's short torso, with one long fluffy tail wrapped around a parcel comically larger than the fox itself.
The fox casually made its way to Itachi, who made a rushed grab for the parcel, only for the fox to demeaningly bop Itachi's nose with its paw and held out the other one like it was asking for payment.
Itachi did the regal Uchiha equivalent of rolling his eyes and gave the fox a high five down low, but was too slow.
The fox disappeared after that, leaving behind the huge parcel in the table.
Itachi glanced at Sasori, as if realising the redhead was actually in the room as well.
Itachi quickly looked around as if to check if anyone else was in the room before picking up the huge package with almost visible strain and dashing out of the room.
Sasori tracked him out with his head, completely poker faced, unfazed after the initial small spark of recognition at the fox.
He turned back toward the complete wood arm with unbothered eyes, picking up his drill again and placing a hinge in place to accurately measure where the holes for the screws should be.
Itachi almost squealed like a schoolgirl when he put down the oversized box on his bed.
He quickly locked his door before turning back around towards the box.
Happiness swelled in his chest.
The fox had been far too familiar; it was the animal Naruto would most ften use for long range contacting. A fox that small shouldn't have been able to carry such a heavy object, but Naruto had a way with adopting unnatural creatures.
Once the room was sealed shut and soundproofed, Itachi leapt for joy, literally, finding himself almost hitting his head backwards against the wall in his excitement.
He spent a moment glaring at the wall, before he returned to his bed in hopes of opening one of the few gifts he'd ever received.
Itachi grabbed a kunai to carefully cut through the wrapping of duct tape that sealed the package, slicing straight in between the flaps that held the box closed, ready to scold himself if he cut too deep and damaged the contents.
He flipped open the box without hesitation. The box had been protecting a care package.
Itachi's eyes stung, but nonetheless he took the package out of the equally large box.
Itachi placed the package on the bed and found it to be a wood carved chest. His heart beat loudly as he recognised the craftsmanship on the chest, noting the eccentric use of sharp curves and circles.
Again, Itachi almost broke down crying in that moment, knowing that it must have taken hours of painstaking care to create so much detail, and possibly more since Naruto hated making anything from anything he hadn't done himself.
The tree had likely been grown and cut down by Naruto, waxing and sanding done by him as well; there was a red mineral that filled in the space left by the carving, likely found, crushed and lacquered by Naruto himself as well.
Knowing the overachiever, Itachi couldn't doubt that Naruto had probably found a way to do everything in this gift.
Itachi gathered himself and opened the latch on the box, noticing it was made of the same red mineral and had a seal carved on it, which reacted to Itachi's chakra to unlock the chest.
Itachi opened the lid, finding himself faced with a ladder heading down from the inside of the chest towards a wood floor below.
He did what any curious person would do and trusted his friend, softly dragging the chest to the floor and stepping in, heading down the ladder in a calm fashion.
Seals were fantastic, their very nature was to bend space-time and create unnatural realities, much like the pocket dimension Itachi found himself in when he went down the ladder into the wood chest his friend had sent him.