True Lightning

Chapter 4

From her month spent as Itachi Uchiha's partner, she now understood how Deidara had formed a 'one-sided rivalry' as Sasori had put it. The Uchiha was adept at everything he did. He rarely spoke, most of his few words were used to discuss plans. Admirable in a way. Yet, in the short time she had spent with him, Maiko had noted that his views of the Akatsuki, although heavily guarded, aligned with her own.

They had been in a restaurant in the Hidden Stone Village, scouting for an assassin who had made an attempt on an Akatsuki spy in the Iwagakure government. Pein, fearing the worst, needed to know if the assassination was related to the spy's Akatsuki ties. Not Itachi and Maiko's typical work, but they had been in the area at the time.

So, under a henge, they masqueraded as brother and sister; the children of ambassadors from the Hidden Rain. They chatted nostalgically of fake memories, all the while watching for a business tycoon, his identity given by the assassin Itachi had 'dealt' with prior.

Maiko scanned the room eliminating suspects one by one. 'That one is too young. This one's clothing is unfitted and he ordered the cheapest item on the menu. Too poor.' She rolled her eyes as she watched a woman knock over her drink in an attempt to seductively lean onto her elbow on the table. The restaurant was a hotspot for young professionals on first dates as proven by the sheer number of couples dining over candles. This proved quite useful to Maiko as each man eventually brought up the topic of his career to his disinterested date.

Armed only with the description Itachi had provided of 'business tycoon', she narrowed her search to one. A middle aged man, dressed in a pressed pinstripe suit, laughing alongside two younger associates who eagerly smiled with a nod each time the man spoke. She gave Itachi a light tap and pointedly directed her eyes over to the man.

"That one. I've eliminated the possibility of any other man here being the target," she explained in a hushed tone. Itachi frowned as he discreetly observed the man. "I'm certain, I've been observing his mannerisms for the last 5 minutes." He then turned back to Maiko with an amused look. Itachi's uncharacteristic smile made her frown with confusion.

Itachi's smile only grew at her confused stare before he turned to look at the door, placed a sum of money by his plate and stood to leave. Maiko followed, assuming the plan was to wait and confront the man outside.

As soon as they passed through the door, Maiko stopped to wait by the wall, only to realise Itachi was continuing down the street. It was exceptionally dark on the streets, the restaurant was located in a reasonably residential precinct and most lights were off at this hour of night. Maiko could barely make out the smudge of darkness that was Itachi against the black street. She walked briskly to catch up, her brain began ticking, attempting to figure out what was going on.

They made a left turn.

Too caught in her own thoughts she almost didn't notice the click of high heeled shoes ahead of them.

Another left turn.

'We haven't made an effort to be secretive, even a civilian would have noticed us by now.'

A final left turn.

The click of heels stopped. Two chakra signals became apparent, one from the balcony of the building to their left. '20 metres. 11 o'clock.' Another from the roof of a three-storey building to their right across the street. 50 metres. 2 o'clock.' The woman we had been following turned to face us.

"A little late for a business meeting, don't you think?" She called, straightening her blazer. Maiko blinked. 'Huh. Pencil skirt and blazer of course. How could I discredit my entire gender.' She felt a light wave of embarrassment as she recalled how adamant she had been to Itachi.

"We are here on behalf of Representative Isobe." Itachi replied calmly. The woman's eyes betrayed her guilt for a fraction of a second.

"Well, I suppose it's what I get for investing in such a cheap assassin, quality truly does come with expense." With a sharp look from the woman to the balcony, the two shinobi descended upon Itachi and Maiko.

The closest, in an attempt to catch him off guard, attempted to attack Itachi, sword in hand, with a flying leap from the balcony, only to smash face first into the ground beside him as Itachi briefly activated his sharingan.

The second, also armed with a sword, attempted to engage Maiko in close combat. Maiko stepped beneath the swing of his sword. She grabbed his arm. A surge of chakra was sent from her hand into the shinobi's arm, sending a bolt of electricity through the man's body.

As Maiko dropped the unconscious man to the ground, Itachi flickered behind the woman who had turned to run.

"Investment into better guards also seems necessary," Itachi stated bluntly as his eyes bled red. Maiko boredly stared across the street, attempting to distract herself from her curiousity of Itachi's sharingan. After a moment of waiting, Itachi caught the woman in his arms as she fell unconscious after being released from the genjutsu, before he laid her against the wall. He then turned to Maiko and gave her a nod to indicate they had what they needed.

"She was unaware of Isobe's connections to the Akatsuki, we should return to the inn to report to Pein." Maiko gave a nod of understanding and began walking alongside Itachi back through the village. Once again her brain was ticking in an attempt to understand why the woman had hired an assassin. 'Well it is most probable that it had to do with her business, but from there…' Maiko grew frustrated as she realised she didn't have near enough information to understand the woman's motive. Her lament was interrupted by Itachi.

"You didn't think the target to be a woman," Itachi stated, it wasn't a question but it held a curious tone to it. Maiko forced herself to not blush, embarrassed that he had remembered that.

"Well...statistically speaking it was logical to assume the target to be male," she reasoned. Itachi thought over this excuse for moment, before giving her the same amused expression he had provided earlier.

"In some countries perhaps, but the Land of Earth has proven to be quite progressive in gender equality," Itachi responded. Maiko gave a quiet hum in defeat. "Though, there was an easier way to find the target." Maiko looked up curiously. "You could have asked," Itachi ended with a slight smile. Maiko frowned to hide her embarrassment. So used to working on her own, the prospect of her teammates having answers that she didn't, seemed foreign.

"I guess I need to practise that," she admitted quietly.

"Why not start now?" Itachi looked down at the girl who gave him a confused eyebrow raise.

Itachi was perhaps four or five years older than herself, and much to Maiko's annoyance she couldn't suppress her innate desire to impress him. Maiko looked to the ground briefly before returning to his gaze with a hesitant expression.

"Well...Why did she hire an assassin to kill Representative Isobe?" Itachi returned to staring blankly down the street, but not before he gave a slight smile in Maiko's direction, almost in praise of her newly awakened inquisitive nature.

"Isobe's party had been pushing for a bill tightening regulations and increasing taxes on imports from the Land of Fire where our target's main source of products reside. The assassination was meant as a warning for other representatives planning on voting for the bill." Maiko gave nod of understanding, satisfied with the new knowledge.

"So it was a matter of profits," Maiko concluded.

"Yes but…" Itachi's face grew darker. "The relationship between the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth is tense, restricting trade from the Land of Fire would be a hit to their economy." Maiko examined Itachi carefully. She knew of the crimes he had committed in his home country, but the man described in the bingo books was a completely different man. She had witnessed the Itachi from the bingo books, during missions or when around other Akatsuki members, but in moments like this he was someone else. Politically driven. Inquisitive. 'Teacher-like.' Despite his advice that she should ask more questions, she knew there was a line. Asking Itachi of his facade, of why he did what he did, was far beyond that line.

Instead she focused on Itachi's previous statement. People so rarely thought further than their own gain, but she knew restricting trade would have a negative impact on both nations, the Land of Fire primarily, but no nation would gain anything from the act. A realisation dawned upon her that dampened her train of thought immediately. She gave Itachi a dark look.

"Strange isn't it? That an Akatsuki puppet would be advocating for a potential breakdown of relations between the two nations," Maiko raised her gaze to meet Itachi's. His face had changed for a fraction of a second, evaluating her statement, before returning to a stern stare.

"It would be best if we don't share this discovery with anyone else, Pein in particular."

Maiko gave a nod before blankly staring ahead. The Akatsuki was her best chance of helping the Hidden Mist, but methods like these made her uncomfortable. The people she had met in the Akatsuki all seemed to be there for personal gain, blinded by their own goals. Deidara and Sasori were so obsessed with their art that they gave no thought of the Akatsuki's larger motives, she doubted they would care even if they did. Pein, she was skeptical of, although his ideas seemed morally guided, they held little substance. His idea of peace had a greater number of similarities to a cage than happiness.

Itachi on the other hand, she didn't really know. His history indicates that he gave little thought to morals or the lives of others, but something told her that wasn't quite right.

She mentally reprimanded herself for being a fool and trusting instincts over evidence, yet she couldn't shake the idea. Maiko knew the probability of her ever receiving an answer to Itachi's ambiguity was miniscule. For a man who advocates for questions, he rarely left answers.

Maiko had been travelling alongside Itachi for approximately 48 hours, wandering the Forest of Heaven, an expansive area of forestland that bordered the Valley of Hell, in the Land of Hot Water. They had been tasked with collecting the bounty of a rogue ninja, a jounin defector from the Bamboo Village, said to be taking refuge in the dense forest.

So far they had little to show for their time spent searching the area. Even Itachi who had shown immense skill in tracking had failed to find any signs of the elusive ninja.

They thoroughly scanned the area approximately 3km east of the only water supply, a thin strip of river that cut into the forest, under the impression that the rogue would rely on extensively on the water.

"We'll lose light soon, let's refill our water before setting up camp," Itachi suggested as he watched the sun dip further into the west horizon. Maiko nodded in agreement, sighing slightly as she realised they had lost another day.

They walked in silence towards the river, Maiko occupied by her thoughts. Ever since their departure from the Amegakure headquarters, Maiko had been consumed by the information she had garnered from Sasori. His comments had been off-hand and clearly he thought very little of them, but to Maiko they were ample fuel for her mental debate.

"I am aware of that aspect of his history, anyone who has touched a bingo book is aware of that, Sasori," Maiko sighed. Sasori gave an indignant 'hmph' as gathered his supplies together.

"You wanted information, I am merely gauging your base level of knowledge in order to not waste time."

"Have you gauged enough," she replied sarcastically. Sasori was about to lose it, Maiko could see that much, so she forced herself to bite down any other comments.

It hadn't been an entirely suspicious question, "I want to know more about my incredibly secretive partner" in essence.

"Well, there isn't much to know. He was a member of Konoha ANBU and son of the Uchiha clan-head before he murdered his entire clan in a night and fled to the Akatsuki." Maiko took a moment to think over everything Sasori had said, word by word. They sat in silence for a moment as Sasori continued his work on a new puppet.

"Elaborate on 'fled to the Akatsuki', are you saying that his departure from Konoha and his arrival here was fluid?" Sasori took a moment to think.

"Uchiha was in the Amegakure headquarters the day following the massacre, perhaps by midday," he finally answered.

"But the massacre occurred during the night, you mean to say he travelled from Konoha to Amegakure in such a short amount of time?" Maiko stared in disbelief, attempting to calculate the travel time of all known routes between the two villages. Not to mention the underlying implication that Itachi had been scouted by the Akatsuki prior to his crime.

Sasori had turned his attention back to his work, ignoring her question. 'Sasori would certainly have realised that no-one can travel in that time, perhaps he just doesn't have an answer.'

Realising he could just move on from the subject, Sasori continued his story.

"He became the target of my Akatsuki partner of the time, Orochimaru, during his first few months here."

"Target?"

Sasori sighed slightly as he dropped his work to sit back on his chair. "Orochimaru utilises a jutsu that allows him to inhabit the body of another person in order to regenerate. Alongside this jutsu comes the ability to utilise the skills of the body that his soul has been transferred into," Sasori's face conformed into an expression of contempt as he spoke of his previous partner. "Itachi was his primary target of his operation, but seems like Orochimaru has Itachi's younger brother in mind." Maiko immediately ceased her train of thought.

"Brother?" Maiko thought out loud, "I thought he killed his entire family."

"His younger brother, Sasuke, is the exception to that."

"Why?"

Sasori picked up his work again, Maiko could see that he was annoyed by not knowing the answer once more.

"There's no clear answer to that," Sasori explained, "but it is known that Sasuke sought out Orochimaru in order to grow more powerful, in order to kill Itachi."

Maiko's interrogation of Sasori had come to a quick end after that, as he had lost patience with her endless series of questions and simply left the room without a word.

But the information Sasori had provided raised a lot of questions for Maiko.

Maiko had realised sometime into her investigation that she had subconsciously separated her partner, Itachi, and the Itachi who killed his family; the same Itachi that reappeared during Akatsuki meetings. The cold stare and harsh words were absent on their missions. 'Is it an act?' She often asked herself. Whilst in teahouses and restaurants he was the perfect gentleman, polite words to waiters, exquisite table manners. His upperclass upbringing certainly shined through his sinister facade in those times.

Occasionally, a sanguine fantasy would come to her mind. It was logically absurd and Maiko had decided it to be a result of self pity for herself and a desperate desire to have someone to understand. She would justify herself with pathetic scraps of circumstantial evidence.

'He left his brother alive.'

'He showed no signs of criminal behaviour prior to the crime, he was even in ANBU.'

Any conclusions that she deluded herself to were quickly dismissed. It was better not to assume anything grandiose about her partner.

Itachi slowed in front of her as they approached the river. A young boy sat fishing on the edge of the bank, stick and string in hand with a bucket; presumably for fish, beside him. Maiko decided that he was most likely a peasant boy from the small town just outside of the village, with signature civilian brown hair and simple cotton clothing. Perhaps nine or ten years old.

As Maiko and Itachi approached, the boy excitedly yanked the stick upwards as the string began to tug. The boy fell backwards onto the grass as the opposing weight on the string let go, to reveal an empty string. He immediately jumped up, giving an indignant stomp as he cursed and waved his fist at the escaping fish.

They were only metres aways when the boy finally noticed them.

"Oh…hi…you didn't see that did you," the boy awkwardly fidgeted as he attempted a small wave before deciding against it. Itachi and Maiko shared a quick look before turning back to the boy. "Oh…well…it was nothing…I'm normally so much better."

Itachi gave a polite nod to the boy before taking the water bottles to the bank where the boy had previously been sitting.

Maiko approached the boy who was staring dejectedly at a large crack that ran lengthways down the stick that served as his fishing rod. 'Perhaps the boy has information.' But as she came closer, she noticed tears welling in the boys eyes that he wiped at with the back of his sleeve. 'Another emotional civilian,' she thought to herself resisting the urge to roll her eyes. 'Crying over a broken stick, really.'

But out of the corner of her eye she noticed Itachi, still sitting on the bank, quietly catching fish and placing them in the boy's bucket. She watched him throw kunai into the water with deadly precision before retracting them with wire, placing fish after fish into the bucket.

"Oh…hi Miss…can I help you?" She turned back to the boy and gave the broken stick and quick glance. She pulled out a kunai from pouch, much to the boy's horror, as he stared at it with wide eyes. Turning to face the tree-line, she examined each tree before pulling back the kunai and launching it towards a branch. The boy fell back again with a yelp in fear. The branch was severed instantly leaving a fishing rod sized stick to fall the the ground.

By the time Maiko had marched over to retrieve the stick and hand it to the boy, Itachi had returned with two full water bottles.

"Uh, thanks Miss!" The boy exclaimed as he began to retie the string. Itachi and Maiko just gave slight smiles in return before turning to walk away.

Published: 1/18

Revised: -

MissLightningStrike