"Scavenger's Salvage—how quaint." Kisame glanced at his partner. A week after the surgeries, Itachi was still wheeling around, but the bandages had come off in places. He glanced up at Kisame, the heavy black glasses hiding his eyes, but his eyebrows and lip setting saying enough.

"I thought it was fitting." Itachi rubbed the head of the mechanical crow on his shoulder. The bird preened and then took off for the upper reaches of the large warehouse. "It was nice of Kakuzu to give you that loan." Itachi wheeled his way into the building. Though he'd sworn he'd make Kisame find him a manual chair, his left shoulder was still healing. He moved well enough in the power chair, fingers tapping on the control board.

"Maybe he got tired of me whining about how bored you'd be," Kisame rumbled as he too looked around. The place was empty, but if you were going to run a junk shop, you needed space. It didn't have to look pretty, but where would they sleep? As close as they were, they both did like to have privacy once in a while, and Itachi hated sleeping in open places.

"I'm sure," Itachi glanced back over his shoulder. After over six year as Itachi's partner, Kisame was pleased to not that his skills of hair braiding were much better. The braid he'd wrangled Itachi's hair into this morning was tight and hadn't fallen apart yet. "How much interest is he charging us? Fifty percent?"

"Lower than that…." Kisame rubbed the back of his head. Itachi snorted. They both knew it wasn't much lower. "He expects us to pay him back soon."

"Utter faith, I see." Itachi turned around and his lips smiled. "I'll get the license all sorted, then."

"License?"

"Yes. If we're going to operate for any amount of time, I want a neutral ground license. They don't have a neutral scrap dealer here, so we should find business, and it will be easier to get business of no one's worried about being arrested for a bounty," Itachi explained, though Kisame knew all of this.

"You think you, inter-spacial criminal that you are, can get a neutral trader's license, even on this little planet?" Kisame asked.

"Yes, I can. I'm halfway there. You should know better than to doubt me, Kisame." Itachi leaned back lazily and pressed his fingertips together, looking all too much like Madara.

"I don't doubt. I question to keep things like the Viridian incident from happening again."

Itachi had the decency to look sheepish. At least he'd stopped winging things at Kisame's head when that was mentioned. It had been years ago, but still-! Some things should never be let go and, more importantly, never forgotten.

"And once it gets out our names are in this, you think anyone's going to trust us?" Kisame pointed out.

"They will. I have a contact here with some good rapport with the…less legal side of things. He'll let it be known we mean business, and that we won't be using this to collect bounties. If anyone violates the neutral agreement while here, well…" Itachi smiled. "I think we can take care of that."

"You know, the reason we're doing this is to keep you from tearing something up before you're completely healed." Kisame was feeling the urge for a strong drink. Funny, before Itachi drinking had been fun, not mandatory. Kids ruined everything. Kisame had been careful not to get anyone pregnant and he still had to deal with kids-a kid. One kid hell bent on making everything twice as hard as it had to be.

"I thought it was so I wouldn't complain about being bored. I'll need to wire this place up," Itachi turned around again, taking in the rusted building. "Can you take care of the structural problems?"

Kisame scoffed. "Now who's doubting."

"I was only asking to be polite. I never doubt." Itachi looked up at the darkened and exposed metal rafters. The crow sat on one, red eye gleaming down at them. It cawed, highly unmusical and very morbid. Like a dead man's chuckle.

Kisame couldn't see Itachi's smile, but he could hear it. "I think I'm going to like it here."

Itachi was in charge of all the technical aspects of how the business would run. He was the one who hummed and wondered if they could make it a satellite business-it would really be better for them. Kisame just posed impossibilities and smiled to himself as Itachi kicked those all down with a calm decision. The boy wasn't a fighter, though he was a good one. He was a builder—a puzzle solver.

He was also one hell of an electrician and programmer.

Kisame was good with wiring, but Itachi was worlds above him in programming. Kisame could fix things better. He was best with his hands, and while Itachi was a great mechanic, he lacked Kisame's natural flair and intuition for machines. Give him something to solder and he was perfectly mortal, albeit talented but mortal. Give him something to program, and the kid was a god.

Especially hands off programming. Another week later, Itachi was in a wheelchair he himself powered, but he spent most of his time wallowing on the floor. Kisame has tired of cracking jokes about that and dodging things within the first two days. Itachi only threw things because he knew Kisame didn't like it, and he believe in negative as well as positive reinforcement to train people. Today Itachi sat with his back against the wall, eyes closed. He had his implant hooked to the wall. The crow sat on his knee, pecking his fingers from time to time. Kisame shook his head and went back to fixing up rooms. The crow would come get him is Itachi needed to be hauled out.

So far, he and Itachi had been sleeping in the Star, which really only had one bedroom—and that was tiny—but it was better temperature controlled then the warehouse. Kisame was working on getting everything air tight right now, which was a pain. Another grudging call had been made to Kakuzu to get a land craft so Kisame could get the supplies he needed, but it was worth it. Itachi wasn't fretting or messing with things he shouldn't be fiddling with yet, and the implants all seemed to be taking this time.

Kisame had been sleeping in his Bull, which, while larger than Itachi's Stingray, was still not that comfortable. Both were top grade fighters, though, and all they could fit in the dock bay of the Star. The Star was small herself, but fast enough with enough fire power that Kisame was confident taking her almost anywhere. If there was going to be serious fighting, Kisame and Itachi defaulted to their fighters. Itachi was, undoubtedly, the better fighter. That was in part due to his Stingray. One of the smallest fighters out there, the Stingray left no room for a second person to pilot. Most ships had a double cockpit system, allowing for one person to fly and another too shoot. A Stingray sacrificed that room for speed and engine space. Handled correctly, they were some of the deadliest little ships out there. Itachi's technique amazed Kisame more, because the kid flew an open system, constantly running the programs that kept the fighter's feeds up. Of course, he wasn't doing all that alone.

The crow cawed and shook all over. It didn't rattle, but the feather substitutes were not quite like organic feathers, giving the bird a characteristic chatter noise whenever it moved. Kisame looked up from his welding. The bird cawed again.

"What, do I need to come get him out?" Kisame asked. The bird bobbed his head. Kisame sighed and flipped the reader of his half-plant up.

Lunch time~

The happy green print flashed on the screen. Kisame turned off his torch and stood. He didn't have a full wireless implant like Itachi, but a hobcobbled deal his partner had made up to help Kisame pilot his fighter and keep up with what Itachi himself was doing. It also allowed for the crow to speak to Kisame, which was helpful at times and annoying at others.

"Am I going to fry him if I pull him out right now?" Kisame asked, crouching down by Itachi and the crow. The crows squawked and ruffled its feathers, looking very indignant. Kisame sighed and reached out, placing two fingers on Itachi's arm.

"Itachi, time to eat." There was no instantaneous reaction. Itachi could sense it was Kisame and therefore no threat. Within a few moments, the boy began to rouse himself from the programming. His breathing changed to something less regular, and his body twitched as all senses reengaged. Itachi opened his eyes. The glasses were off, and Kisame was confronted with the quiet red of mechanical eyes. The new design was interesting, no doubt. Kisame thought the more complicated, the more likely they were to break down, but no one had asked his opinion before they'd stuck the things in his partners head.

"I suppose I should be happy I'm hungry again." Itachi sighed and smoothed his hand over the crow. Crow preened against the attention, and then took flight, out over the warehouse.

"Think he likes it too?" Kisame asked, hands draped over his knees.

"He likes it anywhere." Itachi stood slowly. Kisame watched warily for any signs of strain. He was a mechanic only, but he knew a lot about implants and how they should and shouldn't work. Itachi showed all the signs that this was a good recovery, and there would be no rejections. That was good. Kisame didn't like digging things out of Itachi's skin.

"He hates Suna," Kisame pointed out, standing and moving as soon as he was certain Itachi wouldn't topple.

"Everyone hates Suna," Itachi quipped. He stretched and moved easily in front of Kisame, rotating joints and stretching muscles that hadn't been used enough recently. Even with things going well, it would be another few months before Itachi was back to strength.

"Done!"

"Chair!"

Itachi had fallen down yesterday, embarrassing them both and pulling something in his hip. Kisame had spent at hour doing checks on Itachi's implants in that leg, listening to the very dry monologue about sexual assault while he did so. Kisame heard Itachi's body hit the chair. Kisame heard the slick of wheels across the concrete, and Itachi came skidding to a halt beside Kisame. He flicked on the screen on the table, the soft blue glow giving Itachi's face a manic cast.

Kisame glanced at the crow. "You've been in his head. Is he really that crazy or is it all just an act for me?"

Crow shrugged.

"You're right, I'm not important enough for such an act, am I?" Kisame leaned on the table. The crow shivered in a manner much like a chuckle. Then, the light went out of its eyes, and the mechanical creature collapsed onto the table. It never failed to alarm Kisamw when it did that, possible why it did that. Kisame directed his gaze to the screen, and laughter crackled over the tinny speakers.

"Man, Tachi, took you long enough." A curly haired man, no older than sixteen, looked out from the screen. He waggled his long fingered hand at Itachi and then at Kisame.

"Have you got this place all wired for him?" Kisame asked.

"Yes, he can get into anything from anywhere," Itachi had that pleased smile. Kisame knew he should be annoyed. Shisui, while helpful, still often acted as a sixteen year-old. Itachi's smile made it hard to be, and, you had to cut a kid who'd been living without a body for over six years some slack. At least he wasn't bitter.

"Give it a run through and make sure I've got all the kinks worked out, okay?"

"Aaaaw, but I like kinks!" Shisui grinned, his wild hair bobbing before he vanished, winked away into the electrons that made up his being. Itachi looked at the screen, and he seemed tired. The pained marks around his mouth were not just physical, but they never had been completely. Itachi brushed his bangs back from his face, hands ghosting over the implant in the back of his neck.

"Don't start." Kisame commanded. Itachi dropped his hand and didn't answer. He finally glanced at Kisame.

"I don't remember—was he always like this, or did I make him like this?" Doubt, whether days or years old, looked the same in Itachi's eyes. Always the same, no matter what new robotics has been shoved into them. Kisame wondered how human the boy has started out to still be so much of one now.

"People change. Even memories change." Kisame shrugged.. He didn't like to lie, even though lies would make Itachi feel better for now. "He can't be the same as he was when he was alive, and you shouldn't expect him to be. He's happy, Itachi. Just leave it at that."

Itachi's eyes asked if that was enough, but Shisui appeared back on screen. "No kinks! You need to leave me some fun, Itachi!" Shisui's eyes were bright. he looked like Itachi, though less refined. Kisame had not doubt this was a perfect recreation of what the Uchiha had looked like before his death. As for the personality…well, who could tell? It only mattered to Itachi, and as long as Shisui wasn't driving Itachi mad, Kisame was content enough with the brat.

Shisui vanished from the screen and the crow came back to like. Shisui shook his feathers into position and cawed. He shuffled across the desk and hopped onto Itachi's shoulder, starting to preen the young man's hair. Itachi sighed and tried to shoo Shisui away, which made Shisui more determined.

"Will you stop?"

One thing, the most telling thing, was how Itachi reacted to his cousin. They'd been close friends, and, now, they were still friends. If Kisame ever really wondered if Shisui was still himself, he only had to watch Itachi's reactions—ranging from exasperation, to fury, to that soft delight—and he had to think this, body or not, was Uchiha Shisui.

The crow took off across the room with Itachi's hair tie. Itachi, twirling the chair, went after the crow, threatening to take his wings off. Kisame shook his head and went back to work.

KIDS.