Part 6
Red eyes stared at me in the mirror. A slow spinning tomoe like a single tadpole on a red pond. There was a knock at the bathroom door and I quickly pulled back my chakra from my eyes. My hands braced against the sink as I struggled to stay upright.
"Chizu, are you okay?" Itachi asked from the other side of the door, jiggling the handle.
No. I wasn't okay. My brother was killing his soul for this village and no one seemed to care. Every mission he came back with fewer pieces than he had started with. Every time he walked out the door my heart shattered.
"Yes, I'm fine," I said, breathing deeply before unlocking it. "Can't anyone in this house go to the restroom in peace?"
His cheeks turned red. Capitalizing on this momentary embarrassment I continued, if only to get him out of his head for a moment. "If you must know, we're also out of tampons. This is the last one." I threw the packaged object at his head. His mouth popped open as his entire face gave a very convincing impression of a tomato.
Slapping his cheek a few times, I grinned. "Careful, you'll catch flies in your mouth that way."
The tomato then turned into a fish, his mouth opening and closing. These moments were rare. We were sixteen, but I almost never saw him. He closed his mouth then and looked at me before huffing a laugh. The finger against my forehead that followed was gentle as he pushed me back.
"Very crude."
"True, but it got you to laugh," I pointed out. I could remember the genuine smile he gave me then. His entire face lightened and the premature frown lines smoothed. His chest was warm against my face when I threw my arms around him. "I love you."
I'll save you, nii-san. I'll take this burden from you.
That drew his attention and he pulled back to look at me again. The hardwood floor still echoed in my mind when I waved goodbye and walked out of the door. I had an appointment to keep, after all. He didn't need to know the nature of it.
Itachi laid his head against the cool pillow. The very idea of his sister becoming a spy for Konoha rankled him. Though she was far from helpless, she was still not a kunoichi. He suspected she had her reasons. It was awfully coincidental that he was promoted the same week she had an appointment with their godfather as the Hokage. Yet, Itachi never believed in coincidences. Irony, yes, but not a coincidence.
The sleeping pills the doctors had forced on him were slowly working their way through his bloodstream. An image of Hoshigake Kisame came to mind. A red circle in his bingo book. Stolen from his own safe that could only be accessed by his hand. Or a twin, perhaps, could have a close enough chakra to open it.
There was no possible way Chizu could have activated a sharingan to use it. Unless that night with the kyuubi. Father and Chizu never talked about what happened. The village had only been told that Fugaku and Minato worked together to seal the beast back into Kushina.
Even if she had accessed his safe and his bingo book, how do Hoshigake Kisame factor into her plans? To his knowledge, she had only left the village five times in her entire life. Three of which was to obtain contracts with new merchants.
'New merchants that ventured through the trade routes of the Land of Water,' he added groggily.
"What have you been doing, Zu?" he quietly asked the night before closing his eyes.
AN: If you like this; be sure to leave a comment! Any guesses as to what our spy has been up to?
