Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 9: Codes and Secrets
Kisame leaned against the smaller form of Zannen as they leapt from branch to branch. They traveled for more than an hour at the fastest speed they could manage from the ANBU stronghold that once held the Akatsuki member.
No sound passed between the two except for the occasional instruction from Kisame concerning their destination.
His prolonged incarceration caused his limbs to become numb and forced him to rely on the Suna hunter for support. Although this went against his every instinct, Kisame allowed her to help him. He still couldn't get the sight of the woman with Sharingan red eyes out of his mind's eye.
How is this possible? Kisame thought. The only Uchihas left are Itachi and that brat, Sasuke. And Kakashi has the Sharingan as well, but he wasn't born with it.
He looked at the woman from the corner of his eyes and frowned. There was a large chance that what he saw was a genjutsu, but it sure as hell didn't feel like one. Kisame stretched his chakra behind them and knew that no one followed them.
"I'm not going to lead them to the Uchiha, Kisame-sama," Zannen said quietly, correctly guessing at the man's thoughts.
"Why are you helping me?" the shark-like man asked. "Do you want to be a missing nin?"
Zannen smiled ruefully underneath her mask. If only he knew…she laughed at herself.
"They won't suspect me," she murmured. "I'm supposed to be in the Country of Wave."
"That's not what I asked."
"I already told you what I want," Zannen replied. At Kisame's signal, she stopped in front of the mouth of a large cave. He sat heavily on a stone near the entrance and pulled his ring out of his pocket.
"The sky is velvet dark tonight," he muttered.
Zannen looked at the man as if he was insane. She already knew that he was, of course, but he was always more of the "I'll murder anyone bloody" type of insane than the "I'll talk utter nonsense about the sky" insane.
A shadow separated from the others in the cave and walked towards the duo.
Zannen immediately palmed three shuriken in each hand and watched as the shadow stopped in front of Kisame.
Genjutsu, she realized.
"The moon is bright, though," the shadow told the man. "God can see every sin committed this night."
Kisame smirked at the shadow-man and lifted his ringed hand to his hair. "What sins can you commit when you cease to exist? But a spirit knows that furred creatures and birds of prey all hurry home before the rising sun," he said as he pulled on his ear.
"However, a man must stand naked under her golden rays," the shadow whispered.
"The gods do not begrudge a man his walking stick," Kisame stated, glancing at Zannen. "Not when the staff was culled from his neighbor's tree."
"It depends on whether it was done with the neighbor's knowledge or not."
"My neighbor has not yet noticed the loss, but the wood itself is agreeable enough for my sensitive tastes."
The shadow was about to reply when Zannen finally lost her temper.
"Okay!" she shouted. "I get it…God, your codes are lame. I am not a walking stick." She took off her mask and stared directly at the shadow.
"I am here, not as a hunter nin from Suna, but as a woman looking for answers," Zannen snarled.
The genjutsu dissolved and the shadow-man stepped in front of the girl.
"And what makes you think that you will find what you seek?"
Zannen's hand tightened on her porcelain mask as she fought back her hate. She looked down for a moment before speaking.
"Because," she said, looking up at the man. "You are the only person who might have the answers."
The man stepped back at the sight of red eyes that had three comma-like shapes around the pupils. His own eyes narrowed as he confirmed that there were no genjutsus placed on the girl. She was exactly what she seemed to be.
"Come inside," he murmured, gesturing to the cave. "And you can tell me how you came to possess the Sharingan, Yawa Temeki."
"I can only repeat what has been told to me," Temeki replied, walking past Kisame. "But you can at least tell me the true name of the man from whom I gained these eyes, Uchiha Itachi."
00000000000000000
"I don't know how this could have happened," Morino Ibiki said.
He stood in the middle of a large room. Broken seals were on the floor along with the bandages that once held the escaped prisoner. Tsunade and an ANBU she called Taizen stood next to him. The three turned around as two more ANBU rushed in.
"How good of you to join us, Ikasu, Nonki," Tsunade said, without malice or sarcasm.
"What happened?" Nonki gasped. Ikasu just stared at the place Kisame should have been and quickly swept the room with her chakra.
"I would have thought it was obvious," Taizen said.
"How did he get out?" Tsunade growled to herself.
"He had help," Ikasu said, suddenly. She walked over to the bandages. She knew that the inscriptions on them were written with the blood of both Tsunade and Jiraiya. There was no way that they could be removed without either one of the Sannin from knowing.
Unless…
"Can't you sense it, Godaime-sama?" she asked. She ran her hand over the bandages.
Tsunade did the same and frowned. "The chakra signature is familiar," she whispered. "And the only living people who know the jutsu to negate the binding are me, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru…"
Morino Ibiki was shocked. "You mean?"
"No," Nonki said. "This chakra's different."
"Whoever it was knew exactly what to do," Taizen said. He leaned against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. "Do we pursue?"
"No," Tsunade said. "We don't know who we're up against. Cut Kisame out as a loss and relocate everyone in this compound to Site 4. Ikasu, I want you and Taizen to cleanse each and every room of chakra."
The two nodded and began writing cleansing jutsus on the blank scrolls they carried. Nonki immediately took out a few of his scrolls and passed them to his partner.
"Nonki, Ibiki, you two are in charge of transferring what scrolls we have here to the new Site," Tsunade continued. "Nonki, choose two ANBU teams to take care of the prisoners kept here. When everything is finished, blow the compound and flood the tunnels. I want this place to be unusable for the next fifty years, got it?"
"Hai, Godaime-sama," the four elite ninja barked before disappearing to do their jobs.
Tsunade turned back to the bandages and frowned. She knew that Naiou was good, but she never expected him to be this good.
All I can do now is trust him, she realized. If you turn on us now, Naiou, I'll kill you myself.
With that vow, she turned to leave and wait for more news to reach her office.
Once there, she looked at the worried figure of Shizune.
"Get Nara Shikamaru in here," she ordered. "I want to know everything Yawa Temeki's been doing for the past three weeks."
00000000000000000
Temeki followed the two men deeper into the cave. She still had her Sharingan activated, so when they stepped through what looked like a solid wall, she didn't hesitate and walked confidently after them. Her skin tingled as she experienced the strange sensation of a transportation jutsu.
She was surprised to enter a cozy living room decorated in shades of mahogany and forest green.
Twin couches faced each other with a low coffee table between them. Dark green tiles lined the floor in a sort of path that led to the room's fireplace while the rest of the floor had dark brown tiles. The living room had an archway that led to the dining room and two other doors were on either side of the fireplace. Temeki assumed that the kitchen was beyond the dining room.
Kisame sighed and walked through the door on the left of the fireplace. Temeki soon heard the creak of bedsprings and saw that the tall man had fallen face first onto a rather large bed. She walked into the room and frowned as Kisame's snores filled the silence.
"He shouldn't sleep like that," she said. "He'll tear the muscles in his hand. I just fixed it, I'm not doing it again." Temeki walked over to the dozing Kisame, turned him over, and, using a strip of cloth, made a sling for his right arm.
Itachi watched from the doorway with a half smile on his face. Not that anyone would notice since his cloak covered half of his face anyway.
Temeki turned from the bed and nearly screamed when she saw the life-like jaws of a shark mounted on the wall opposite Kisame's bed. Light glinted off of the shark's teeth and Temeki walked closer for a better look. Her eyes widened as she counted at least twenty tiny thimbles nestled in between the shark's teeth.
"Thimbles?" she whispered. "What the fuck?"
"Hey, hey," Itachi murmured. "Watch your language."
The woman turned toward the man and walked out of the room. Itachi closed the door on his fellow Akatsuki member and sat down on the couch. He gestured for Temeki to sit across from him, but she declined.
"Well?" Itachi asked.
Temeki looked at the man and frowned. "Well, what?" she echoed.
"How did you get the Sharingan?" he sighed.
"It happened a couple of years ago. One minute I'm doing my job and the next my eyes are burning a hole in my head," Temeki answered, describing how it felt to activate her Sharingan for the first time. "Suddenly everything's in slow motion and I can see what moves my enemy's gonna make next! On top of that, I can remember jutsus that other people do, but that I've never personally learned."
"At first, I didn't want to bother Kina or Gaara about it, so I asked around," she continued. She collapsed on the couch across from Itachi and stared at the man. "I thought that only you and your brother were left with these things," she accused.
That's what I assumed as well, Itachi thought.
"What are your parent's names?" he asked. "I know that you and Sabaku no Kinabuhi are not blood related. So who are your parents?"
Temeki knew that this question would come up and she already had the answer. "I never knew my mom," she said. "Dad wouldn't talk about her."
"Then who's your father?" he asked.
"We didn't have a last name," Temeki said, frowning as she tried to remember the details. "We moved around a lot and Dad was always a bit paranoid, y'know? Like something was gonna get him."
Itachi was getting impatient. "Who was your father?" he repeated.
"He died when I was ten," Temeki started. "I don't really remember his name."
"Could you describe him?" Itachi ground out through his teeth.
"Sure," Temeki said. "He had black hair—like yours only glossier—and it was kind of spiky. He was kinda tall. And he wore goggles all the time."
Itachi was only half listening until she got to the goggles part. "Goggles?"
"Yeah," she answered. She played with the mask in her hands. "He didn't want anyone to stare at him funny."
"Why would people stare at him?"
"He only had one eye."
Itachi was silent as his mind ran through the possibilities. The age is about right, he thought. But I thought that he died a long time ago. (1)
"Are you sure you don't remember his name?"
Temeki stared at Itachi for a long time. He could tell that she wasn't telling him everything, but didn't push it. Whether she was an Uchiha or not, Yawa Temeki was still the easiest pawn in capturing Kina and Gaara.
"I remember one person calling him Obi-something," she admitted.
"Obito?" Itachi supplied.
Her brow furrowed as she seemed to think about it. After a while, she nodded and stood up. "Yeah…I think that's it."
Itachi sat back as thoughts whirled around his head. His face remained passive, but his eyes followed Temeki as she wandered around the room.
This is very interesting…he thought.
A/N:
Okay…stuff coming up and stuff. Short chapter, I know…sorry!
Later!
(1) Let's pretend that Obito is older than Kakashi by two years, okay? I don't know if he really was, though.