Last week Aya was setup by Madara into fighting Kyoko and after killing her obtained the Mangekyou Sharingan.
Thanks for the reviews and favs!
Orichimaru is coming but not for a while. He still wants an Uchiha body and Sasuke is going to be at the head of that list. Kyuubi will also be showing up later as well. And of course, one question I've always had will come up – If the only person who could stop Orochimaru was Sarutobi and he was killed doing it, could anyone really have stopped Oro from taking Sasuke? In my opinion it didn't matter if Sasuke wanted to go or not, Orochimaru would have gotten him no matter what. Of course, with the Uchiha clan still alive he's going to have a much harder time grabbing the boy.
I'm going to be so disappointed if Sasuke doesn't get to at least beat up Danzou. At least the Anime is back on track again. Can't wait to see how they animate team Hebi. I hope they do a good job.
Disclaimer: Kishimoto owns everything.
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Chapter 19 – A Lesson in Diplomacy
The first rays of the early morning sun refracted off the angles of several perfectly cut diamonds in radiant starbursts, turning the room into one large kaleidoscope of color. The necklace was Aya's most precious possession and she had sworn to herself to never part from it. It wasn't the value that drew her to it – although that was considerable – but Shisui, her dead boy friend. He had given it to her as a gift right before he had died.
"It glitters, just like Shisui's eyes used to when he would…" Aya's quiet voice trailed away as she sat on a chair by the door, lost in her memories.
She had returned to her room a couple hours ago, after confronting Madara about being set up to kill Kyoko, and changed into a pair of green shorts and a white tank-top then pulled the necklace out of its hiding place. She hadn't trusted anyone enough to ask for access to a safe so she had sewn it into the cup of an old bra she no longer wore. Viewing the jewelry meant undoing the stitching and risking someone seeing her with it. But right now, she had to do it. She had to hold the last vestiges of Shisui's glittering light in her hands because, when you got right down to it, she felt like she was betraying him and it was breaking her heart.
Exhausted, she finally got into bed and clutched the diamond to her chest as she closed her eyes, "I'm… getting married, Shisui, but I promise I won't love him. I'll only ever love you."
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Itachi found himself walking next to the lake in the Uchiha compound when he heard voices. Ducking behind a tree he saw Shisui and Aya sitting on a wood bench, talking. He started to turn away, feeling that he should leave them alone, when he realized he was now standing a couple feet behind them. He stepped back in shock and started to apologize, but quickly realized they didn't know he was there.
"That's right…" Itachi muttered, "Shisui is dead and Aya is in Mist… What's going on?" He decided to listen, to see if he could get some idea of why he was there.
"A present? It's not my birthday or New Years. Is this a bribe?" Aya asked suspiciously, then broke out into a laughter.
"Did the bribe work?" Shisui teased back, a big smile on his face.
Aya smiled and opened the small box. Her smile disappeared as it turned into wide-eyed amazement. A chain composed of inset diamonds that had eleven flower-shaped settings, inset with more diamonds looked up from the immaculate black velvet lined box. Two earrings, diamond studs, were placed in the center. Aya and her sisters had seen it in the jewelry store and drooled over the beautiful stones. However, the price was almost 250,000 ryou. She remembered that clearly.
Aya licked her lips then swallowed a couple times, trying to compose herself. Her feelings were conflicting. She was extremely flattered that Shisui had purchased such a beautiful necklace. However, it was her practical side that won out, "Shisui, you can't afford this… you can't. Please, take it back." She felt tears welling up and she quickly looked down as she put the cover back over the box. A tear leaked out of her left eye and she quickly wiped it away.
The expression on Shisui's face was veiled as he re-opened the box and removed the necklace. Placing it around her neck he then pulled out the earrings and put then on her ears. "You're so beautiful Aya. So beautiful…" His voice faded away as he gripped her chin with one hand and pulled her against him with the other. Lowering his face he captured her lips with his. A few seconds later Aya began returning his kiss, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Finally breaking out of the kiss he pulled back and placed his forehead on Aya's. "I can afford it, my love. The clan pays well for missions at my level, and I got a large inheritance from my uncle when he died. I want you to have everything, but this is all I can give you." His dark eyes looked into Aya's own dark eyes.
"Shisui!" Itachi called out as he stepped forward and grabbed at his cousin. His hand passed through him and he fell through the bench, landing on the ground. Standing up he continued to call out, "Shisui! Don't do it! Don't kill yourself! It's all Danzou's fault! It's a setup, Fugaku is caught in the trap too, if you live we can expose Root and the coup will never happen!" He stopped to catch his breath, upset that his cousin wasn't listening. He yelled again, practically screaming until he was hoarse before falling to ground onto his knees. Tears were streaming down his face and he began pounding the ground in frustration.
"It's too late, Itachi."
Jerking his head up he looked up. It was now dark out and Shisui was now sitting on a large rock next to the river where he had drowned. Dripping wet, the boy looked the same as he had when he had been alive – except for his eyes. They were no longer there. Instead, two eyeless sockets, as black as the infinite reaches of death, stared down at him.
"It's too late. Danzou's evil is without precedent, Itachi. You already know this. But I'm already dead and I can't do anything about it. We can't go back in time, but I am in your eyes now and I can see what you see."
"What… what do you want me to look at?" Itachi knew he was in a dream and that, if Toshiro's suspicions were true, he was now speaking with the remaining vestiges of Shisui's chakra – trapped in his Mangekyou Sharingan.
"Aya. Forgive her, Itachi, and do not judge her too severely."
"She's with Madara. He wants to marry her for some reason." Itachi added, bitterly.
"And he will." Shisui sighed, "You call me a victim of Danzou, but so is she. We should never have been separated. What she becomes from here on out is because I am not with her."
Itachi shook his head, "That's not true. She… all of us… can choose…"
"Choose what? You are in Akatsuki. Can you leave it? You are working for Fugaku who is ruling an increasingly poverty-stricken Konoha by executing criminals and sticking their heads out for display, you are training your little brother to take your place when you die, you are going to marry a woman chosen for you by your parents and then leave her a widow when you die from an illness you inherited. Can you walk a different path?" Shisui's words were strong and filled with desperation and they cut into Itachi deeper than any knife he had ever been cut with.
"I could… Yes. But…"Itachi's voice trailed off.
"Humph. Free will exists, Itachi. No one has ever denied that. However, the intelligence to know when to choose a different path or 'go with the flow' is what drives many of us to an early grave, either through desperation or worry. You can no longer choose your path, Itachi. However, you can at least choose which side of the street to walk down, or whether you will stop and rest or pick some flowers, or perhaps watch a passing insect or even the clouds drift by. It's the same with Aya. When I died, her choices died with me."
"I see. I think I understand." Itachi sighed, "But you forgot something…"
"What?" Shisui asked curiously and a strange, knowing smile played on his lip, as if pleased about something.
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Itachi sat straight up in his bed and threw back the covers. He was surprised to find himself in a hotel and for a few minutes he stared straight ahead, very disoriented. Slowly the dream played out over and over in his mind. He had the feeling that Aya had done something, or been manipulated into doing something, that Shisui didn't approve of. However, because he loved her he refused to hate her for it. Or perhaps "hate" was the wrong word. Either way, what she had done could not be turned back.
"Itachi? Are you awake?" Jiraiya poked his head through the door. "We need to leave soon if we want to get through that pass to the Cloud village on time to meet their representative."
"Yeah. I'm up." Itachi exhaled as he glanced at the clock. Jiraiya nodded and started to close the door, "Jiraiya? I have a question."
"Huh?" The Sannin stepped into the room crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall.
"A machete." Itachi replied, distracted.
"A large, slightly curved knife used for chopping undergrowth, vines and small trees and branches. Next question?" Jiraiya gave a short laugh.
Caught off guard, Itachi blinked a couple times before speaking, "Have you ever been told you cannot change the way you are going? That you can't turn around or go off on a side road?"
"Hmm. Many times. Some call it 'fate' others use it as an excuse to quit trying."
"And have you proved them wrong?"
Jiraiya moved over the bed and sat down a few feet away from Itachi and looked him in the eye. "It's impossible to answer that, Itachi. If we move off onto another road, how do we know for sure if we did it because we wanted to, or because some divine force or not-so-divine force made us? It's a circular argument and certainly not something I myself dwell on. I suggest you do the same. You can use a machete to cut your own road, certainly, but… as I said… it may have already existed."
Itachi's face fell, "I…" He was now thoroughly confused. He couldn't decide if Shisui and Jiraiya were saying the same thing or not and for some reason that bothered him.
"What's brought all this on? Besides some sort of teenage angst."
"Just… a dream. It was pretty weird. I'm getting up now. We don't want to be late."
Jiraiya stood up and patted the teen on the shoulder, "I'm not going to be nice and say 'everything will work out, don't worry', but I will say that you can depend on me, Itachi. There's a reason I refuse to move back to Konoha, and I have a feeling you are walking down that same path. We may understand each other better than you think." He left the room, leaving Itachi with yet another quandary to decipher.
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The village hidden in the Clouds was, possibly, the most difficult shinobi settlement to access in the entire ninja world. And you would have to go a long ways to convince either Itachi or Jiraiya otherwise.
Lightning country was located on an isthmus on the northeast part of the continent. To the east was open ocean, and to the west was a very large bay that was so big some people referred to it as an inland sea. The center of the isthmus, running north to south was a mountain range consisting of sharp pointed peeks that rose upwards of ten-thousand feet into the air.
Strong winds coming from the ocean or from the bay blew clouds that hit the mountain range and dumped their load in dramatic, violent thunder and lightning storms that often dropped as much as one-hundred inches of rain a year in some places. Yet there were few forests, and those that did exist were sparsely populated with trees and shrubs. The frequent lightning storms often struck the trees, burning them to ground, and the rocky soil made it hard to for anything but the hardiest of shrubs to grow.
Travelling to the Cloud village had involved walking through mountain passes that left one exposed and vulnerable. The two leaf nins had felt the chakra from their observers as they moved forward. It was difficult for them, of course. If there was one thing a shinobi did not like it was feeling helpless. This village was very well defended. Possibly better than Konoha.
The mountain pass had finally opened up, revealing a series of peaks with gravity-defying buildings attached to them. Walkways stretched over vast chasms, attaching the buildings to each other. It almost looked like a series of bird houses perched on a very thick, old tree. Itachi had seen no training fields, but considering how the mountains were situated they were probably hidden wherever the Cloud nin found room to build one.
They had been directed to a hotel near the Raikage's tower that had been dubbed "The Ambassadorial Suite" by the elderly advisor that had met them at the entrance to the village. The room turned out to be a full apartment with kitchen, living room, dining room, six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a large balcony. It was very luxurious and obviously designed to impress.
"Whoa." Jiraiya exclaimed after they were left alone. "Our ambassadorial suite back home isn't nearly this nice."
"We don't have ambassadorial suites in Konoha. They stay at the hotel like everyone else. I think this is probably where the Daimyou stays when he visits. Our Daimyou has a similar apartment. Of course, he hasn't used it in years since the advisors usually go to his castle in the capital instead." Itachi shrugged off his heavy jacket and hung it in a closet next to the front door.
"Humph. You're probably right."
"Which means you need to behave yourself."
Jiraiya smirked, "I always behave myself."
Itachi grunted in disgust, "Are you forgetting four days ago when we were run out of that town because you made a pass at the mayor's wife?"
"How was I supposed to know she was his wife? She was forty years younger that him! It wasn't my fault!"
"It never is." Itachi mumbled, disgruntled. Of course Jiraiya heard the comment and laughed.
"Well, they said they would leave us alone until six o'clock so I'm going to shower and then go…"
Itachi interrupted, "You will not be doing any research while you are here."
"Itachi, my boy, research is an invaluable tool in my writing career. My publisher demands well written books…"
"I've read your books. They aren't well written." Itachi interrupted again. He pulled a soda out of the refrigerator and watched the dark colored bubbles rise up over the rim as he opened it.
Jiraiya frowned, "Are you eighteen?"
"Are you?"
Blinking in surprise, Jiraiya turned around and stood with his back to the boy, "Touché. Nevertheless, you will make no attempt to touch any of the books in the bottom my pack between my shurikens and throwing stars."
Itachi mumbled, "Yet he tells me where they are anyway."
"You know something? Sometimes you act just like a teenager."
"I've had a year to practice. By the time I'm eighteen I ought to have it down perfectly."
"Great." Jiraiya muttered sarcastically. "Just what the world needs, more teenagers."
Itachi smiled as the middle-aged Sannin made his way to one of the bedrooms to clean up.
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Dinner that evening was an interesting affair. Although a formal occasion, the behavior and conversation of the Cloud Shinobi was anything but formal. The Raikage and his younger brother started up a boisterous discussion with Jiraiya that involved a lot of tall tales, loud voices, and raucous laughter.
Feeling out of place and wishing he could return to his room Itachi quietly ate his vegetables, then stared disconsolately at the large steak on his plate. It was covered with seasoned butter and still steaming hot from the grill. However…
"Don't you like steak, Itachi?" A girl, perhaps a year or two older, said quietly. She had been sitting next to him, looking equally uncomfortable with the boisterous antics of the three men at the end of the table. Itachi stared at the blonde teenager curiously. Her black eyes were angled up exactly like a cats and her skin was too pale – as if she hadn't been out in the sun in years. His first thought was that she was an albino, but the absence of red eyes and white hair refuted that argument.
"It's fine. I was just saving it for last." Itachi politely cut off a bite-sized piece and put it in his mouth.
"Ha! Well, that'll make the cook happy. My name is Yugito, by the way. As always the Raikage is too busy goofing off to make introductions. You kind of need to force you way with him to get him to listen. He's kind of single-minded sometimes. But it looks like he found someone new to play with. Jiraiya is getting along famously with him and his brother."
"Jiraiya gets along with everyone. He's just that kind of guy." Itachi placed another piece of meat in his mouth.
"You don't have to eat it. Are you a vegetarian?" Yugito replied, concerned.
"Oh, no. I just… don't eat much meat anyway." He gave a short laugh, "I keep getting yelled at because of that though so I'll eat it. Besides, it's very good. However they prepared it, it's definitely the best tasting steak I've ever had."
"The chef he has here is the best. He's devoted his life to cooking and travels around looking for new and exiting ways to prepare food. He owns a restaurant in town but he'll come up here for special occasions and cook for the Raikage. Too bad his wife and kids are out of town right now. They would love this too."
"Where are they?" Itachi asked.
"Lightning country capital. Their youngest daughter doesn't want to be a kunoichi so she's taking the entrance exam for the elementary school there."
"Entrance exams for six-year-olds? What do they ask them, 'the correct way to play tag'?" Itachi was a little shocked at the revelation. He knew the civilian school in Konoha had entrance exams, but only for the kids going to the secondary school and they were usually eleven or twelve by then.
"Yeah, that's what I'd like to know. The poor kids a nervous wreck. Way too serious considering who her parents are. I guess some kids just turn out that way. In a way I'm hoping she fails so she'll learn the world doesn't end if things don't go the way you want. But then again, she really wants to go there. It's where her mother and grandmother went so it's a bit of a tradition."
"Humph." Itachi realized that the meat was gone and grinned. It really had been good. His grin grew bigger when he though of Kisame. He would probably be very surprised if he had seen the size of the steak he had just eaten. The tall swordsman was always bugging him about eating enough food, particularly meat.
"Oh man! Itachi! You weren't supposed to eat the whole thing!" Jiraiya moaned.
"Ha! I win!" The Raikage's younger brother, a man who looked to be about the same age as Kakashi, pounded his hand on the table once then stood up and cheered. "You owe me a free copy of you latest book, old man!"
Yugito jumped to her feet and pointed her finger at him, "You were betting? Itachi's a guest here, Killerbee! That's rude!"
Killerbee ignored her, "I told you, no one can resist our cook's food. He's the best!"
Itachi gaped at them, mouth wide open. "What… what's…"
"Ignore them, Itachi. I think between them they've probably got a single digit IQ." Yugito sat down and put her head in her hands.
Itachi smiled when he saw that she was blushing, "It's okay. I should be used to it. Jiraiya is a little… eccentric."
"Ha ha ha!" The Raikage laughed as he leaned back in his chair, "Yugito is the second most powerful ninja in Cloud and yet she's been brought down by a cute boy from Konoha!"
"That's a nice shade a red you got there Yugito!" Killerbee added, laughing.
Yugito blushed even redder, "I'm not blushing… I'm just… it's hot in here!"
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While the "formal" dinner may have been laid back and fairly uninhibited, the treaty negotiations definitely were not. The Daimyou of Lightning country had sent three advisors to the meeting and they, along with the Cloud village's elder council, were very picky about the document's contents. Each sentence of each paragraph was discussed, argued over, and a few were re-written to say exactly the same thing but with different words or sentence structure.
Jiraiya had assured Itachi that there was nothing unusual about the proceedings, but the teen was getting an uneasy feeling in his gut anyway. The Daimyou's advisors were stern men in their thirties who talked endlessly about politics and their very important "the country would fall apart with us" role in it. They were very critical of everything Konoha had to offer and even more critical when they realized that the Daimyou of Fire country was not backing the treaty.
"The ninja villages are not necessarily required to follow the lead of the Daimyou." Itachi stated authoritatively.
"Meaning," One hawk-nosed, impish advisor named Dai replied sarcastically, "Lord Fugaku Uchiha has not received the blessing of his Daimyou to rule as Hokage."
"It could be interpreted that way." Itachi replied. He looked calmly at the man in front of him and smiled inwardly when a faint sheen of sweat appeared on his face.
"'Could be'… meaning what?" A second advisor, Eito, asked.
"'Could be' means that we have reason to suspect Danzou has hands in the Fire country capital somehow." Jiraiya added.
"Humph." The Dai crossed his arms over his chest and frowned in a way meant to inspire uncertainty in those watching him.
"I do not see this as a problem." The Raikage said sternly. "We have been discussing this for two days now and I have every intention of signing it."
"You would go against the Daimyou's wishes?"
"The Daimyou is not here to express his wishes. Only you three."
The third advisor, Emori, rose to his feet and slammed his hand down on the table. "What is your motivation, in this? Why are you pushing for a treaty above and beyond what is already in existence?"
The Raikage also stood up and walked forward until he was standing directly in front of the man, "The Senju had given us problems ever since Cloud became a village. This is our chance to move forward without them. I'm not going to let you get in the way of this."
Emori started to speak and by the time he had finished he was shouting. "It sounds to me like Konoha is blaming all its problems on this Danzou guy. Creating a scapegoat instead of owning up and solving its own problems. Does that sound like the makings of a strong ally? No! It is the hallmark of a weak Hokage and one that will, soon enough, find himself out of a job. Just like the one before him. I cannot condone an alliance with such weak-minded fools!"
Itachi stood up and glared at the three advisors. He had been through a lot, his whole clan had, not to mention the villagers. To hear someone call them "weak" was crossing the line, "How dare you say such things! You have no idea what we've been through these last few years! You sit in your castles in the capital, nice and safe only because the ninja villages exist to watch your back. Yet when we suffer all you do is pour salt on our wounds!"
"Itachi…" Jiraiya said softly as he placed a hand on the teen's arm, "you don't have to say…"
"I do have to say it!" Itachi stated firmly, but bitterly. "Because its fools like this that…"
The Raikage closed his eyes and shook his head, "Jiraiya's right, Itachi. You don't have to say anything. We all know the truth even if these three" He sneered as he referred to the advisors, "don't want to admit it. Ninja have been nothing but tools for hundreds of years. We accepted that… God only knows why… but…" He looked over the three men, who were now all standing a few feet away from the table. The Cloud elders hadn't spoken up; in a show of solidarity they quietly supported their leader, making the advisors feel like three steaks in a cage of hungry lions. "Leave here now. I will sign the treaty and form an alliance with Konoha. The threats we have before us are more important than your petty affairs of state and if I have to go behind the Daimyou's back to protect Lightning country then so be it."
"This will all be on your head." One of the men warned as they hurried out of the room.
"A leader afraid of loosing his head is not a leader, but a follower. Thank-you for the compliment." The Raikage grabbed the paperwork from the center of the table and shoved it in front of one of the elders. "Have this written up in final form for review in four hours. At which time I will sign it."
The elder, a small man in his nineties with long blond hair and dark skin gave the Raikage a big smile as he carefully stood up with the help of a cane, "Gladly, my Lord." The other elders followed him silently out of the room, leaving the Raikage alone with Itachi and Jiraiya.
"And that, my boy, is your first lesson in diplomacy." Jiraiya spoke proudly, as if conducting a class.
Itachi took a deep breath and let it out. He couldn't think of anything to say so he just stared at the empty table in front of him. Everything had been moving so slowly, then… suddenly it was over.
"I think his brain overloaded." The Raikage gave a hearty laugh.
"Just think, kid, as clan leader you get to do this many, many more times." Jiraiya volunteered with a laugh.
Itachi muttered under his breath, "No wonder father's in such a bad mood all the time."
Jiraiya hit him playfully on the back, "He's pretty good at all this. I must say, what you said earlier was almost the same speech I heard from him when we were a lot younger and negotiating a treaty with Waterfall. It fell through, of course, because the Daimyou staged a sneak attack on the border during the talks."
"Figures." The Raikage replied bitterly. "Well, why don't you two go enjoy the hot springs. If everything goes together tonight, you can get an early start in the morning."
"Ha!" Jiraiya laughed, "Sounds like a plan!"
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"Research time!" Jiraiya was cheerfully tying a white towel around his waist as he peaked out through the door into the large bathing area beyond. It was an oval shaped pool with a natural barrier of twenty foot stones separating the male and female areas. Hot steam rose from the bubbling waters and, as luck would have it, Killerbee was already there reclining against the edge with his head in his arms.
"Wake-up!" Jiraiya jumped into the pool, splashing the young man with hot water.
"I'm awake… barely." Killerbee sat up and gave a big yawn. "Big brother makes me and Yugito train almost constantly. We figured since he was in meetings all day we would knock off early and goof off. Besides, my Genin team got an assignment this morning so we'll be leaving tomorrow for a couple days or so."
"So you're a sensei?" Itachi asked politely, climbing a little less dramatically into the pool than his partner had.
"Yep. This year. Got a great group of kids. Two girls and one boy."
"Is Yugito on your team then?"
"Her? No way. She's the second most powerful in the village, after my brother. Been a Jounin for a while now. Wouldn't surprise me if she became Raikage one day."
"Hmm."
"So do you think she's cute?" Killerbee asked conspiratorially.
"Huh? Yeah." Itachi shrugged. "Most girls are, actually."
"Ha ha ha! So how many girls you got back home?"
"One. We're betrothed. She's very cute, too." Itachi was surprised to hear himself bragging. He didn't do it very often, but for some reason he felt like doing it now. "My mother is teaching her how to be clan matriarch and bought her this beautiful kimono for official functions. She modeled it for me, but she didn't get the top tied right…"
"And you got a really nice view. Ha! That's one thing I really like about kimono's. I think women should go back to wearing them full time." Killerbee was proving to be very easy to talk to and Itachi found himself relaxing. Until he heard a scream.
"Peeping! There's a man peeping in at us!" A woman's voice rose over the barrier in a terrified screech followed by another, calmer voice.
"One million ryou for one look."
Jiraiya, who had scaled the side of the rock in an imitation of a salamander fell back into the water, a thin line of blood flowing from his nose. "That was the best one million ryou I've ever spent."
"The hell?" Itachi asked, still in shock.
The first woman's voice rose again, this time in anger, "Nami! How could you? That was scandalous!"
"What are you talking about? That was easy money." Nami's voice rose, "I'll be standing outside to collect, so you better not be dead!"
Jiraiya groaned happily, "I love my job."
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"That was embarrassing." Itachi said later. It was evening and they were getting their things together so they could leave in the morning.
"Oh, come on. One peak isn't going to kill you." Jiraiya laughed.
"You lost a million ryou."
"So? It's not like I'm broke or anything."
"A hooker would have been cheaper." Itachi said grumpily.
"Not one to go after hookers." Jiraiya commented absent-mindedly. He was trying to organize his pack. Contrary to the reputation he had garnered over the years he was a very orderly man and he insisted on an orderly backpack. "You finish reading those book?"
"Oh. Yeah, I put them back. Are they missing?" Itachi had, of course, 'borrowed' the books the middle-age Sannin had 'told' him not to touch.
"That's why I was asking, they are exactly where I left them. You are very good at not being detected, I have to say that."
"Yeah, well, I still don't know what I'm going to get Sheeta for her birthday. You're books aren't exactly 'romantic'."
"Well… perhaps it's more an issue of you being fourteen and not knowing what you yourself want more than it is an issue of what you want for Sheeta. Those books are romantic, it's not just mindless porn like people make it out to be. They're really just teasing me when they say that stuff, you know."
"I don't know." Itachi sighed.
"I think that's the point I was making."
Itachi blinked, "I… guess it was."
"That woman… wow!"
"Are you still going on about that?"
"Her image is burned forever in my memories."
"Jiraiya?" Itachi moved so that he was standing directly in front of the older man.
"What? Ah!" Jiraiya stepped back when he suddenly found himself in a red and black world. Itachi stood some distance away holding what looked like a six inch guillotine.
"Do you know what this is?" Itachi's strong voice carried in the empty world as black clouds drifted at an unreal speed across the red sky.
"I... have an idea… Is this your Mangekyou Sharingan? What are you up to?" Jiraiya was not happy about being caught in the teen's jutsu and looked around desperately for a way out.
"Tsukuyomi. Everything that happens here, is because I will it. Time, space, cause, effect all pass as I see fit." He held up the small apparatus. "If you embarrass me like that again Jiraiya, you will have seventy-two hours in a hot-spring with a hundred of the most beautiful women. But there will be a catch." Itachi stuck a carrot into the device and released the blade, neatly slicing the vegetable in half. "You will be a eunuch."
Itachi ended the jutsu and stepped back a few paces from the Sannin, just in case he was a little angry at him for catching him in a Genjutsu.
"Very clever, boy. You think that would scare me, huh? It's just seventy-two hours. I could put up with it." Jiraiya was sweating and his face was drawn up in a worried scowl that he tried to hide behind an over-sized smile, "After that everything would be fine. The equipment would still work and…" His eyes popped out of his head when he saw what Itachi was holding in his hand. It was the "device" from the Genjutsu.
"Really?" The teen replied calmly.
"Okay! Okay! I get the message! Jeeze… you Uchihas are sure uptight."
Itachi shrugged, "If you say so. But it wasn't an Uchiha who lent this to me. It's from the museum. The old emperors used to require that any man entering their palace was a eunuch. That's what the woman who handed it to me said. Lord only knows why she did so. I'd better go return it now."
Jiraiya wiped his brow and laughed, "Remind me to never get in a real fight with you. You fight dirty."
"I'm a ninja, remember? We all fight dirty."
"True enough."
Itachi grabbed his jacket and stuck it on as he exited the suite. 'It probably wouldn't matter how dirty I fought, Jiraiya,' He thought to himself as he punched the "down" button on the elevator, 'you are the toad sage and certainly my equal.' He remember how, when he was younger, he had always wanted to fight someone that was powerful so he could see just how far he had come. He wanted to delve into the depths of his soul and pull out all the determination and resolve he could grasp, then release it in a powerful contest of wills with a worthy opponent. And he had to admit, he still felt that way, but for some reason it was no longer such an overwhelming urge as it had been back then.
"Still," Itachi said out loud as he entered the elevator, "I wonder who would win?"
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Next week, Itachi and Sheeta journey to Mist.
Itachi doesn't know Killerbee and Yugito are Jinchuuriki's. To him, they are just a brother and a powerful kunoichi who happen to be close to the Raikage. And keep in mind that the Lightning advisors didn't want the treaty signed.
Oh, and the "event" in the hot springs… that was stolen from an episode if One Piece. Nami caught the guys looking over the wall of a hot spring and yelled something like "One million Beri's" and opened her towel. For some reason, the first thing I though of was Jiraiyas reaction if someone did that to him. xD It was episode 127 or 128, the end of the Alabasta arc. (Watch the subbed episodes, not the "ForKids" junk – they probably edited it out even though you don't see anything.)
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