I know the prank Shisui, Han and Katsiru pulled on Itachi was just wrong, but bear with it all.

Thanks to Oc2le, Aesura and The twillight owl for reviewing

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

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Itachi suffered from insomnia. He lay wide-awake the entire night, waiting to be blessed with sleep. Unfortunately, all he did was stare at the ceiling. He knew he wasn't traumatized, because he knew Katsiru had a girlfriend who lived just down the road from the diner. He knew that dwelling on that scam was meaningless, because eventually, someone would apologize in hopes of escaping his wrath.

"Apparently they don't know me too well…" Itachi thought to himself, "They should know I don't waste my time with petty things like that."

Itachi finally decided to get up and walk to Sarutobi's office, despite the fact that it wasn't even dawn yet. Sarutobi always posted the missions for the week up on his door if anyone was to arrive early or late. He slipped his sandals on and exited his house and the Uchiha compound making as little noise as possible to not awaken his family. He strolled down the streets, looking at the people who were preparing their shops for the early morning traffic. Itachi yawned and put his hands into his pockets, then someone called out to him.

"You're Uchiha Itachi, right?"

Itachi glanced over to where the voice came from, and saw a vendor at a nearby vegetable stand waving at him. Itachi walked over to the man slowly, and asked blankly.

"What is it?"

"You're heading to Hokage-sama's house aren't you?"

"Perhaps."

The vendor smiled and rubbed his short, scruffy beard, "Why else would you be out this early?"

"You're just saying that to act like you know me." Itachi began walking away, and the vendor realized he angered the teenager.

"I would like you to bring these vegetables to him!" The vendor held up a basket.

Itachi glanced back with the same expression on his face. "If you want me to do that, go submit the task at his office, I don't do things like this for free." And with that, Itachi left without saying another word.

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Once Itachi arrived at the office, the door was closed and locked just as he expected. There was a bulletin board right next to the door with the missions for certain people for the next week. Of course, for today, Itachi had no missions. Then he looked at the next day and rose an eyebrow at what he saw.

A Rank Mission for Itachi, Han, and Kitsaru.

Mission: To catch a missing nin that goes by Nijo. Sources say that he was last seen near the village of sound.

Itachi turned around to begin walking back home. It was time to get his ANBU uniform prepared for tomorrow. It was about time he received a real mission instead of doing tedious chores. He smirked at the thought of being able to take care of this person just as he did Fachisi.

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Itachi took a small detour that cost him about an hour to get back at the Uchiha compound, and the entire family was up by then going by their daily lives. Itachi stepped back into his home and Sasuke was next to the door when he arrived.

"Hey Itachi!" Sasuke yawned.

Itachi looked down at his little brother. "Hello Sasuke."

His little brother looked up at Itachi with a small smile on his face. It almost seemed as if he had slept in. Itachi waited for the moment when Sasuke would say something, and then he realized why his brother was remaining silent. He was still eating his breakfast.

Mikoto stopped when she walked by Itachi and asked, "Where have you been?"

Itachi leaned on the wall and spoke so softly, Mikoto had to lean towards him in order to understand what he was saying. "I went to Hokage-sama's office to see what I had to do tomorrow."

Mikoto had a bit of a concerned look on her face when she saw Itachi's eyes. "What is the mission?"

"I have to go hunt down some missing-nin that goes by the name Nijo. It's an A-rank mission, so I probably won't be home for a few days." Itachi pushed himself off the wall and nodded towards his little brother, "Follow me."

Sasuke nodded and kept close to Itachi. Then Itachi knelt down and looked back at Sasuke, "Get on my back."

Sasuke hopped on Itachi's back, and the eldest brother stood back up and began walking towards the forest just outside the Uchiha compound.

"Hey Itachi," Sasuke began, "Could you teach me a few ninjutsu techniques?"

Itachi smirked, "Maybe later, Sasuke. Tell you what, I'll help you out when I get back from my mission."

"Okay." Sasuke agreed. "I would like to be better than anyone else in my class."

Itachi said nothing, but kept the smirk at hearing his little brother talk about his hopes and dreams. Once they arrived at a waterfall, Itachi stopped and let Sasuke off of his back.

"Why are you always angry when you come home every night?" Sasuke asked.

"Because I have a moron for a partner." Itachi replied. "Thanks to him, yesterday was uneventful, and he was acting strange later that night."

Sasuke knelt down and drank some water from the lake which the waterfall supplied water. Itachi lay on his back and glanced at the sky. It had been a while since he had been able to be this lazy.

"So what did you have to do yesterday as a mission?" Sasuke lay next to Itachi and watched the sky.

"I had to deliver a message to Hyuuga Haishi. Came straight from Hokage-sama himself."

Sasuke nodded, "Did you look at it?"

"I didn't see it directly, but I know what it says." Sasuke knew immediately what Itachi was talking about.

"So what did it say?"

"It's not important." Itachi replied while yawning. "So what do you do while I'm gone?"

"When I'm not making visits to the academy, I'm helping things at home. I don't really leave home that much. There's every now and then I decide to walk around, and yesterday, I saw the western gate collapse." Sasuke chuckled a bit; "It was funny seeing whoever it was run those bull into the wall."

Itachi's lazy smirk turned into a frown. He had been trying to force that sight out of his head since he had heard about it. "Yeah, that person was Katsiru, the one who keeps sending you messages, my ANBU squad member."

"So that's the moron you were talking about." Sasuke realized.

"Yes, he is." Itachi sat up and sighed. He glanced over to his little brother, and noticed how bored he looked. Itachi sighed once again, and looked at the sky, and noticed the clouds began to grow thicker and darker.

Itachi leapt up to his feet and turned to where he had just heard a sound from the heaviest area of trees. Itachi's face soon grew pale when he saw who it was.

"HELLO GOOD UCHIHA ITACHI AND SASUKE!!!" Gai had come out of nowhere, and this guy always scared Itachi, and he could never quite put his finger on why aside from the way he acted.

"Maybe it's the spandex…" Itachi thought after he slapped himself on the front of his face. Gai walked over to Itachi and was prepared to give Itachi one of his trademark hugs. "Touch me and I'll show you why I'm the most feared ANBU captain. The same goes for Sasuke, now tell me…why have you come here?"

Gai made a thumbs-up and smiled, and the twinkle escaped from his teeth.

"Yep…it's the smile…" Itachi realized why Gai scared him so much.

"The reason I have come here is to deliver a message from Hokage-sama. He wanted to know if you have stopped by his office today."

"I have, and I'm fully aware of the mission. I'll be leaving first thing tomorrow. Make sure Han and Katsiru know about it too."

Gai nodded and took his leave. Itachi grabbed Sasuke and put him on his back. "We're going back home."

"We just got here!" Sasuke said with a depressed tone.
"It's about to rain anyway." Itachi began making way towards the Uchiha compound, but took his time getting there because he felt like enjoying the cool air that the dark clouds had provided.

"Konoha has been dreary lately…" Sasuke sighed when the two of them passed by Konoha square, where people could be seen doing their daily chores, and preparing to return indoors to avoid the coming storm. The entire village seemed a little too active, at this time of day and for this type of weather.

"The wind picked up…" Itachi whispered, then he closed his eyes and inhaled the air through his nostrils. "Let's go home before it starts to rain."

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Why Itachi agreed to sit with his family at dinner was almost beyond him. He hated crowded places and above all, hated places with a lot of noise.

"I thought when he said family dinner, he meant just the four of us. Not every Uchiha in existence." Itachi sat in front of his plate, and it had several assortments of food, Itachi scowled for a moment. "I wish I had some dango…"

Fugaku held a cup in the air and said aloud, "To the Uchiha!" Everyone held their cup in the air and repeated it in unison. When things quieted down, Itachi began eating his rice slowly, trying to enjoy the taste of the food his mother cooked for him. It was always something about her cooking which made it better than any restaurant could offer. He never could put his finger on it though.

Itachi had finished his plate about three minutes before anyone else did. Itachi never said a word the entire time, but his parents seemed happy that he was even there.

Then someone decided to say something to Itachi. "So Itachi-san! Why haven't you been here for days?"

Itachi saw a large man, who had a type of hearty laugh with everything he said. His hair was black and long, and he had a goatee. "What's your name again?"

The large man laughed, "My name is Ulrask! I wouldn't expect you to remember me! It's been ages since you've seen me."

Itachi took a small drink of tea, "I'm in ANBU. I've been on missions. Everyone here should know of this by now."

"You've been out in restaurants for the past few nights!" Shisui shouted from across the room.

Itachi shuddered in remembrance of what Katsiru did the night before, even though he knew it was a prank. It was all disturbing nonetheless. "It's only a fast meal then and I never stay long."

Ulrask just laughed and continued eating. Fugaku smiled at Itachi, and went back to eating after he realized his son would not return it. Mikoto seemed happy that Itachi enjoyed his meal. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Itachi however, was concentrating more on the upcoming mission.

Itachi finally decided to take his leave after everyone had finished their plate and wait in his room until nightfall.

His bed in the corner of the room remained untouched since he had left in the morning, the clothes remained piled up in the corner where he had always left them, and the spot where he sits next to the window was waiting for him as always. Itachi sat himself in that spot and watched the fuzzy glow of the sun behind the clouds vanish beneath whatever horizon it met.

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Itachi knew he had to leave at midnight. He always wanted to get a head start on the hunting missions, and this Nijo sounded like serious business. He gathered his ANBU uniform and put it on. His steps were slow and silent, as he didn't want to wake anyone from their slumber. When he reached the front door, Mikoto was waiting there.

"I wanted to say good bye." She said softly. She wasn't fooling anyone, her watery eyes gave it away she was upset about her son leaving. Mikoto embraced Itachi and almost whispered, "Be careful son."

Itachi returned the embrace and replied. "I will mother." Then he broke the hug and walked out the door.

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Katsiru and Han already knew how Itachi acted like about missions like these. Midnight was always the rendezvous time at Sarutobi's office. Itachi grabbed the mission paper and stuffed it in his pocket.

"We're leaving." He said firmly.

Han and Katsiru nodded. If any bystander saw the way they left, they would have sworn they were a type of genjutsu.

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Sorry for the long update

So there you have it! Did you like it? hate it? tell me!

It might be a while until I update. (I'm working on more than 1 fic here…)

Anyway, keep reading, I'll keep writing.