Disclaimer: No matter how hard I wish, I will never own Naruto or any of the other characters. Just Kai, any my little OC village!

Chapter 5: The Boy Who Makes A Lot of Promises and The Man Who Realized He Was Wrong

Author's Note: In this chapter, you will see a very OOC side of Itachi.

Tsunade's eyes never wavered off of the Tsugakure ninja that were standing before her. One, the sensei. She was a tall woman with brown eyes and long straight back hair with bangs. Next to her, two, the first student. He was also tall, with shoulder length light blue hair and brown almond shaped eyes. Next to him, three, the second student. A shorter male with scraggly black hair and hawk like red eyes. And finally, next to him, four, the third student. A female, who stood mid height between the two boys. She had shoulder length brown hair and pale blue eyes. The four of them looked weary, no doubt they had obviously been traveling for days.

A knock sounded through the big, wooden double doors. "Lady Tsunade, they've arrived." The guard announced. Tsunade nodded and the man opened the door and in stepped Team 7 and Team 10. The four guests that stood in the center turned towards the new people in the room and there was an empty silence floating amongst them all.

"Thank you all for coming." Tsunade said grabbing everyone's attention. "Naruto. You'll remember that we spoke briefly about the Tsugakure ninja in the Akatsuki correct? Kai Miashi." He nodded hesitantly. "Well, as you can all see, these four ninja are also from Tsugakure and they're here to question you about the encounter you had with her last week. You'll all answer your questions to the best of your abilities and we'll move forward from there."

The eight Leaf shinobi nodded and followed through with Tsunade's orders. Each of the Tsugakure nin introduced themselves and questioned them individually.

"When you made contact with missing ninja, what did she look like?" Takami asked.

"Long hair."

"Silvery blue eyes."

"No visible scars on the face or hands."

"When you made contact with the missing ninja, did she say or do anything that is abnormal for Akatsuki?"

"She let us live."

"When you made contact with Miashi, did she tell you anything of significance? Anything that seemed odd under the circumstances?"

"Not really."

"I didn't speak much to her."

"She said we were all the same."

"When you made contact with Kai, did she seem under duress? Were her movements fluid and natural?" Naruto noticed the way this girl questioned him. The other two, the woman and the red eyed boy, they'd spoken about Kai as if she weren't a person they knew, just an enemy target. She was detached from them. The blue haired boy, he acknowledged their history by giving her, her last name at least, but this girl. She called her by her first name and Naruto could tell the emotion wrapped around her words. It's like she was begging him to say 'they had a kunai to her throat.'

"You know her don't you?" She looked up at him.

"Please just, a-answer the question." She stuttered.

"Ya know, your eyes, they kind of look like hers. Sad. She looked sad. That's the most defining characteristic about her. Not her hair, not any scars that she may or may have had, not the color of her eyes, just the look in her eyes. I made contact with her once before. She found me on the training grounds. She told me she was gathering intelligence on Konoha and she sat down and she sympathized with me. She made me feel like I wasn't alone when I thought I was, which was weird because I had never met her and she is supposed to be the enemy. Did she tell me anything significant? Yea. She told me about her childhood and the last time I saw her, she apologized for whatever it is she did to my teammates and she apologized for taking those two other Akatsuki bastards with her. She- she wasn't forced to protect them. I believe she did it by choice. She told me they were her friends, that they shared a common goal and she actually see's the good in them."

Naruto's words left them all in silence. He seemed adamant about defending this woman. Whoever she was, whatever she's done, it wasn't his concern. His concern now was explaining to these people that he didn't believe in the evil that she was being accused of.

"I don't know her personally, definitely not as well as you, or any of you, do, but what I do know is that she's nice. She's a misguided soul who can't leave that dark place because if she goes back to her village, or to any village, they'll kill her. I mean, that's why you're here right. To get your facts right so you can find her, and kill her?"

"You don't understand." The brown haired girl frowned. "It's her life, or my clan's life. Don't you think I know this about my own sister? I know she's not some cold hearted murderer, but I can't prove that because what's done is done and there's no bringing the Kikage back and there's no real proof as to why in the world she would throw everything away by killing him! He was a good man who punished the wrong man and died for it! And now, they've placed the fault on my head. To do two impossible things! Turn my back on my own sister or turn my back on everyone who's looking for me to save their lives right now!"

"What kind of village do you people live in where they kill off clans because of the mistake of one person!?" Naruto shouted back. The two of them locked eyes in a death glare. Who was he? Who was he to try and make her feel shittier than she already did? Did he think she enjoyed being handed missions like this? It's not like she had an actual choice!

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed. "Knock it off! This has nothing to do with you!" Naruto's fists clenched into tight balls by his side. He could feel that familial rage inside him. The rage he got whenever he felt injustice happening.

"Fine." He hissed. "I'll make it my business. I will find Kai, and I will find out the truth about Tsugakure and your precious Kage and I will prove that she's innocent and when I do, she'll leave Akatsuki and she'll at least have a safer, a better place to call home here in Konoha!" Tsunade stifled back a gasp. Naruto was making promises she didn't think he could keep. The details were already spotty on the Kikage's assassination, but she'd met him before. She'd been one of the firsts to accept him into the summit and add his village as a powerhouse.

"Well." Ayame breathed taking a few steps away from the blonde haired shinobi. "Naruto. I'll hold you to that. If you find her, and you can prove her innocence, then I'll be the first to apologize." Naruto smirked at the girl and gave her the good guy pose.

"I will! Believe it!"

XXX

Today was a particularly cold day for a sick man to be out and about searching for jinchuriki, but when you align yourself with the Akatsuki, that's what you have to do and so Itachi was doing it. With Kai, his loyal stalker, following ever so safely behind him..

Not that he felt as though he needed her, but Kisame was away and Pein thought it better to have the two of them go together so they could finish quicker. Kai was internally thrilled and externally content with the situation. Itachi was content as she perceived it.

"Hey Ita, do you think we'll find this tailed beast soon? I've been very sleep deprived lately." Kai sighed.

"Do not rush this Kai, we can not afford to make mistakes. Besides, staying up late every night is your decision." Itachi responded. Kai narrowed her eyes at him.

"I know that, but sometimes I can't help it."

"You can always help it. You're the only one who can make those types of choices." He countered.

"Types of choices?" She questioned. "Ugh, yea we can not get philosophical right now? I'll make better life choices later, I promise."

"Kai, when you're making these choices, remember the word 'no.' It still exists, in case you didn't know." And then she paused while the taller man kept walking. No? Was he talking about her sexual escapades?

"What do you mean 'it still exists?' Are you calling me a whore Itachi?"

"I merely noticed that you either don't know how to say it or you just weren't aware that it was still a word."

"So you are calling me a whore!?" She yelled. "Hey! You look at me when you're insulting me Uchiha!" Itachi finally stopped walking and he turned to regard the woman.

"So," he said, "we're on a last name basis? How odd, I thought you considered me a friend."

"Yeah well my friend wouldn't call me a slut and act all nonchalant about it!"

"I believe the term we'd chosen to go with was 'whore' and I believe that if we are to be true friends then we have to be completely honest with each other. You going to bed to with three different men almost every night while claiming love and affection for a fourth is very whorish my friend." Kai's pretty eyes widened and her mouth slacked a little. Itachi usually had a way of making anything sound polite when he used that voice and that fancy grammar of his. But there was no making this sound polite. It hurt.

Just because she enjoyed her frivolous activities didn't make her a whore, did it? It'd not like she was claiming serious relationships with them all, and she and Kakuzu barely ever hooked up anymore. It was a lopsided balance between Hidan and Deidara with Hidan on the higher scale thanks to his brashness and need for excessive cursing and violence if Deidara tried to get too close.

The only one she actually wanted to be with was Itachi, but he'd made it clear before- and again now- that he didn't want her. With all the other complications in her life, it made her feel empty and hollow. She needed the feeling of want. To know that someone wanted her. Without judgement, without ridicule, and Deidara and Hidan, and Kakuzu at one point, did that for her.

"How long have you felt this way Itachi?" She muttered. The long haired Uchiha stared at her blankly before turning his gaze towards the ground. The dirt was beautiful this time of year.

"Approximately the moment that it became clear to me that you were having affairs with half of out organization." For an instance it felt like he'd just burned her with the Amaterasu. Targeted towards her heart. Kai could feel her old instincts coming back. Like when she was younger and she would get really sad, to keep herself from crying she would gnaw on her bottom lip and even then she would still cry. She was doing it now and she already felt the first few threatening tears just taunting her.

"Itachi-" was all she could manage before she choked up. "The aftermath of her decisions had never occurred to her. She'd never thought them through or anything. She always figured that if she and Itachi did get together she would just leave the others behind, which she still would, but she didn't think about this. She didn't anticipate or prepare herself for it. "I-is this why you-"

"Want nothing to do with you romantically? Yes." Kai squeezed her eyes shut and began trying to steady her breathing. She wiped at her face with the back of her hand. Did he really have to be so cruel about it? Did nobody teach him social cues or just the basics of social interaction at all?

"But I- Itachi." She was at a loss for what to say.

"Do not cry Kai. I never said anything about your personality…or your looks. You're a beautiful girl with a beautiful soul, but you're tainted." God would he just shut up already?

"How the fuck am I supposed to 'untaint' myself for you then!? Do you want me to stop messing around with Deidara and Hidan? Because I can! They don't mean anything to me romantically."

For the first time since their talk began, the man was quiet. The blonde didn't like it. She didn't like that now he had nothing to say when she needed him to say something the most.

"Ita-kun." She pleaded throwing the honorific onto his name to express how badly she wanted him to say something.

"Enough Kai, come on. You said you were sleepy so let's get on with the mission so you can rest." Itachi turned back and began walking again. So that was it. She knew there was no need to press it further. Or at least not now at least. She was not going to give up, she refused to give up now. It was then that she made it her personal mission to let go of Deidara and Hidan and focus her attention solely on Itachi. Sucking up the last of her tears, she quickly walked after him and fell into step beside of him. She felt a lot smaller than she usually did and she knew it wasn't because he'd hit an unusual growth spurt over night. It was because he just cut her down about a good two inches.

For the majority of their walk, she said absolutely nothing and neither did he. They were approaching the land of lightning now where they would find their jinchuriki target. Everything was going smoothly until Itachi was overwhelmed by one of those coughing spells. Only this one was worse than they usually were. It was loud and bloody and it worried Kai. In Between asking him if he was fine and begging him to let her heal him and ease the pain, the noise had drawn the attention of unwanted visitors.

Itachi instructed Kai to scatter and hide herself. She refused. In his current state he was in no fighting condition. His breathing had become labored and she could hear the sickness in it. It was thick with illness. Kai looked back and forth between the two cloud ninja that were headed straight for them and Itachi who had doubled over to his knees. Kai helped her partner back up to his feet placing his arm on her shoulders for support and managed to narrowly dodge an array of shuriken engulfed with lightning. She took the trees leaning the Uchiha against the trunk. Without even a second thought she removed the straw hat from her head. Summoning her wind chakra around the edges of the hat she launched it at one of the ninja and in one clean sweep his head was detached from his body.

"Itachi, you're in too much pain to move. Stay here while I finish off the last one." Without waiting for his response the woman jumped back down to the ground and commenced to combat with the other shinobi.

Inside Itachi was reeling. He'd never felt so weak and so…embarrassed in his life. Having a woman protect him, and not just any woman, but the woman he'd just insulted and had in tears only moments ago? Was this how Kai felt when he was laying into her about her antics? Peering down at her through the leaves he watched her deliver a hard punch to the face of the cloud nin and then jump back to form the hand signs to one of her various jutsu.

She'd shed tears of pain because he'd rejected her-again- harshly and now she was protecting and defending him? Where was her woman's scorn? From the day he first found her, he knew something was different about her. She stood out, and it wasn't just because her hair and skin was all the color of her blood and her body was so exhausted of chakra that shouldn't have been able to move. It was because of the very determination and ambition that she used to make herself move. Her will to live. It amazes him. It peaked his curiosity in her.

It made him want to tell her things that he hadn't relayed to anyone else, except Kisame in riddles. She was the first woman he'd taken interest in since his lover back in the Leaf, the same one he killed. He liked this girl. He liked Kai Miashi and he'd ridiculed her not to be a good friend, but because he was angry with her for giving herself to someone else. He'd only realized this now as he watched her kill for him. Without hesitation. And the next thing he realized was that now, other than Sasuke, he had two people to apologize to.