Itachi Uchiha had no idea why they had been given this particular mission. It made no sense to him; in fact he would even go so far as to call it random.

He and his partner, Kisame, were meant to hunt down Haruki and Tsukiko; sisters and also, according to Pain, witches.

"Heh, witches?" Kisame smirked, showing his sharp teeth; "That's just from a kid's fairy tale,"

The raven haired man remained silent, he seriously doubted that Pain would deceive them in this way; and he wasn't going to underestimate his enemies. And he had been right.

The sister's lived on the outskirts of the Water Village; and Itachi and Kisame had come upon a girl, who appeared to be the same age as the Uchiha's younger brother; she just glanced at them with her piercing brown eyes and brushed her dark blue hair out of her face as the wind blew.

She never ran, or back away; which most people did, especially when they see Kisame with his shark-like teeth and blue skin; though it was usually the former that was enough to scare them away.

She was calm, far too calm he noted as Kisame moved and suddenly she vanished. Itachi's own Sharingan couldn't copy it, as there was nothing to copy.

They continued to walk, deciding that they must be close; and as it turned out they were right. They came upon a woman, who looked similar to the girl, only her eyes showed her age; they weren't friendly towards them. As she looked them up and down she spoke;

"Huh, this is what he sends?"

Kisame's hand instinctively went for his sword hilt as Itachi quickly stopped him and remembered what Pain had told them;

"Tsukiko will try to wind you up. Don't fall for it,"

"What else?" Kisame had asked.

"Nothing, the ninja's who go after them usually wind up missing,"

"Missing?"

"Nobody knows what happens to them,"

The two just looked at Tsukiko unaware that her sister, Haruki was chanting while hidden in a tree over looking them;

'Omba omba, omba omba!"

And without warning the two were blown away; back towards the village.

"Some people…" Haruki began as she moved out of her hiding place.

"Have no manners," Tsukiko finished and the two moved away from the area.

They knew that those two would be back; and they also knew that the game had begun.

***

"Urgh…" Kisame hissed as he managed to get out of the bush; pulling the leaves from his clothes.

Itachi had faired better, landing in a tree.

"They'll die…" He growled through his sharp teeth.

"We need a plan first," The raven haired man informed his partner.

"We'll track and then kill,"

Itachi restrained himself from rolling his eyes; Kisame was a Mist nin, it was to be expected that he would want to kill.

"You remembered what was said…" Kisame began; "What do you suggest?"

"Gain their trust,"

"What?" Kisame couldn't believe it, was he hearing things?

"We can't do it looking like this," Itachi fingered his black cloak, and they moved into the local village, to get new clothes from the market.

Kisame followed, not happy and also wondering; what had happened to Itachi? Who happened to bring out a green shirt with brightly coloured flowers on it.

Yea, something is wrong…

***

Unbeknownst to Kisame; who had figured that the Uchiha must have hit his head pretty hard in the fall; Itachi was in the hands of the two witches.

Well; one pair of hands, in fact just one hand as the other gently stoked his furry back. The bad part was that the Uchiha enjoyed it. He never really got the chance to chill out anymore, and this was so…

Itachi Uchiha, Sasuke Uchiha's older brother and enemy, was a mouse.

"He's rather cute like this isn't he?" Haruki looked over at her sister, who was staring intently in a bowl of water.

"Hum… Our doppelganger isn't doing a very good job…." Tsukiko ignored the question.

"Does he…" When she saw her sister shake her head Haruki shrugged; "Well? Nothing to worry about,"

"Maybe…" Tsukiko murmured, deciding to look closer at what was going on.

And at least she would actually be able to hear what was being said as well. With that thought, she was gone.

"Just you and me," Haruki told the mouse Itachi, continuing to stroke his back.

***

Kisame was ready to kill Itachi, but then they came upon Tobi… And if that idiot was here; then Deidara wasn't far behind.

The masked ninja took one look at the pair and was on the ground, clutching his stomach as he doubled over in hysteria.

"You have a death wish?" Kisame threatened the newest member of Akatsuki.

"It's probably odd to see us in these clothes," Itachi admitted; "But we need to complete our mission, and this will help," He gestured at their clothes.

"You… Look like… You're… On…Holiday!" The masked ninja gasped out; before he was back into fits of laughter.

Hidden further away the witch watched; the doppelganger was doing a bad job, but it proved to be entertaining to others… Just not to the shark-man.

Carefully she looked around and spotted a blonde haired man wearing the same cloak as the other three had.

"Come on," Itachi told his partner and they moved away to find the witches home.

Tobi carefully lifted up his mask to wipe away the tears, trying to compose himself as well as he could when Deidara finally found him.

"What are you doing?" The blonde looked at his partner, who was dusting himself off.

This is too good to keep… Tobi thought to himself and spoke; "I saw Itachi and Kisame,"

"Yes?" The blonde wasn't paying any attention though; those two had nothing to do with their mission.

"They were wearing bright shirts! With flowers and stuff on them!"

Deidara raised an eyebrow, What has he been up to…; "What have I told you about eating forest fruits?"

"B… But… It's true," Tobi couldn't believe that his senpai wasn't going to believe him.

"Let's go, you're definitely high on something," The blonde walked away; not even he could picture Itachi and Kisame wearing brightly colour shirts with flowers on it… It was just too… Weird.

Tobi quickly changed the subject; "Why do people say curiosity killed the cat?"

And now Tobi was back to his usual form, random questions that shouldn't need to be answered, because it just was.

"I'm not a cat, so it wouldn't kill me…. Plus cats have nine lives…."

Deidara lost his patience rather quickly, and blasted Tobi away; in the direction that Itachi and Kisame were going. The blonde had inadvertently done what Tobi had actually wanted, to see Itachi in a really funny shirt, he just didn't realise it at the time.

***

Falling through a good lot of branches, and then landing in a bush, Tobi stood up and began to swipe away the dirt on his cloak; while having a crow try to peck him away from her nest of chicks.

He did the only thing he could think of… run away and when the crow finally left him alone, he slumped at the base of a tree; exhausted, never even noticing that Deidara was there, though the blonde's focus wasn't on the exhausted Tobi, but on the girl in the garden.

When Tobi finally realised that Deidara was there, and wasn't berating him; he looked at his senpai and saw where he was looking; finally noticing the house, and the dark blue haired girl in the garden, searching for something.

"He can't have…" She murmured to herself.

"Tch," Rather than move away, the blonde remained where he was.

Tobi was surprised that his senpai hadn't just walked away from the scene.

The girl looked over at them, and smiled.

"Hello,"

Deidara was taken back; but Tobi…

"Hello! What are you looking for?"

The blonde was ready to hit him; they were already on a mission!

"Oh, my mouse,"

"What's it look like?" Tobi asked, ignorant that Deidara planned on hitting him.

"It's black," She told him; "He should be around here…"

She looked at the vegetable patch and Tobi went to look around the shrubbery; with Deidara watching the girl, getting the feeling that something wasn't quiet right about her… After all, most people were weary of the Akatsuki.

As they continued to look around Haruki thought to herself; Maybe I should have cast a spell to find him? That blonde one is keeping an eye on me… Like I need to actually say the spell out loud…

"Is this it?" Tobi said, the black mouse just barely visible in his gloved hands; "He's a cute little thing,"

The black mouse was calm as it was exchanged into the girl's hands. Neither Tobi nor Deidara took a close look at the mouse; if they had they would have noticed the Sharingan in the eyes of the black mouse.

"Thanks," Haruki said gratefully, using her index finger to stroke the back of the mouse; At least I didn't have to cast.

"Are you hungry? I can make you some food," She asked them, knowing it would have been rude to just let them continue on their way, after all one of them did help her find her mouse.

The blonde was about to decline, they had to get going; but Tobi beat him to it.

"Sure!"

What Haruki didn't know was that Kisame and 'Itachi' were walking towards the house. Luckily for her, Tsukiko had managed to cast a spell that caused them to walk in another direction; the spell wasn't exactly fool proof, but it would keep them walking for extra time.

She looked over at the front door to see the two ninja's leaving the house. They were the same one's that she had seen with 'Itachi' and Kisame.

Once they were out of sight she entered her home; and looked at Haruki who was starting to clean the dishes.

"What?" Haruki asked, but her sister just gave her a questioning look; "I lost the mouse,"

"You lost…"

"I found the mouse!"

"You just said…" Tsukiko got a feeling that her head might begin to hurt later if this kept up.

"Yes, but we found the…"

"So those two helped?" She interrupted, deciding that she didn't want a headache later.

"Just the one in the mask," Haruki held the black mouse up for her sister to see, proof that they did find the right mouse. The Itachi mouse sniffed at her finger's, wondering when he was going to get fed.

"They never commented on the eyes?"

"Nope,"

Tsukiko looked thoughtful; "We'll need to move on. I think we've messed with their heads enough,"

"Wonder why Pain wanted us to do this though?"

"Doesn't matter, he paid us to mess with them, and we have. Time to move on," She stroked the mouse as she spoke.

"You have a plan?"

"Always big sister," Tsukiko said with a smirk.

The two waited outside the house, seeing Kisame and 'Itachi' come towards them, still wearing their colourful shirts. Haruki started to giggle, but she vanished from sight before Kisame could do anything.

"You little bitc…"

"Ladies are present," 'Itachi' scolded him.

The mouse began to squirm in Tsukiko's hands, and she decided that it was time.

The doppelganger of Itachi vanished, Kisame blinked with surprise at where his 'partner' had been; then noticed that the house and the witch had also vanished; leaving a quiet, undisturbed meadow.

"Itachi?" Kisame said, amazed.

The Uchiha was crouched in the tall grass, though when he heard Kisame's voice he stood and finally noticed what his partner was wearing.

He managed not to laugh, but he did smile.

"Those witches…" Kisame began.

"We're not dead," Itachi reminded him

"Yea..."

"Can't have been that bad,"

"We've failed our mission,"

"Pain never ordered us to kill or capture them," The Uchiha pointed out.

"Why send us?"

"A test? See if we'd die or end up missing?" He shrugged; "Does it matter?"

The two walked away, to start a new mission; but first they would get Kisame to change, he wouldn't get far with that shirt.

And to eat, Itachi felt hungry… And oddly enough; he fancied some cheesecake.