This week we're jumping forward two years.
Thanks for all the reviews and favs!
Great news! They're going to animate volumes 36 – 56 of the Inuyasha manga – that's the whole thing! It's going to start broadcasting this fall so I hope someone picks it up quickly for subbing, or that Crunchyroll or someone online broadcasts it. Sesshoumaru is returning to us! If you haven't watched Inuyasha yet – try it out. Now if only they would finish animating the Twelve Kingdoms…
Disclaimer: Naruto is owned by Kishimoto.
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Chapter 24 – Just Another Autumn in Konoha
It wasn't so much that the day was bad, per se, it was just that everything – one after the other – was all going wrong. And they weren't big things – just the little stuff – like his toothbrush breaking in half, the strap on his sandal snapping, and Ino and Sakura fighting over which one of them would sit next to him in the classroom. It was all a bother, but it wasn't what was dragging the eleven-year-old Sasuke down. No, it was something much, much bigger and to make things worse, there was no way to anyone could help him.
For the past month he had been having the same dream two or three times a week – it was the same dream he had during the coup when he had woken up screaming in the old temples' basement. Itachi, moving through the Uchiha compound and killing the entire clan, then targeting him. Last night, though, his dream had been different and Sasuke supposed it was because of the importance of today.
"Welcome everyone!" Sensei Iruka strode purposefully into the room and stopped in front of the podium. The room went silent. "Yesterday you all passed your final exam and are now Genin."
Sasuke gulped as a surge of adrenalin coursed through his veins. He felt more stress right now than he had the previous day during the exam. And that was saying something. Called before the Uchiha clan elder council he had been read the riot act about what would happen to him if he failed. They predicted he would become the head of the clan instead of Itachi, despite Itachi's protestations to the contrary, and they refused to put up with a weakling who couldn't pass a "simple" Academy exam on the first try.
Iruka continued to speak, his voice sounding friendly even when serious, "Today you will be placed into teams."
'Why won't that image go away?' Sasuke thought to himself as he half-listened to the sensei. He had seen himself, in that dream, an older boy maybe sixteen or seventeen, strike down his older brother – killing him. Itachi's lifeless corpse then lay on a platform of some kind, covered with a white cloth and a voice, deep, dark, and in no way comforting spoke quietly and with respect that, the boy suspected, may have been either fake or real.
"He is resting now, safe from the world that haunted him for so long. And now… you will fall into darkness if you use the gift he gave you. If you take his eyes you will be saved. Think about it for a few hours before you make your decision." The voice – Sasuke didn't bother turning around to see who it was but he had the feeling he had heard it before – disappeared and he was left alone with his brother's body. And he knew he was truly alone. In that instant the dreamer knew that his family – his entire clan – was gone. He was all that was left.
That was when he woke up, so startled that he had actually jumped out of bed looking around at his room in confusion before settling down again a couple minutes later.
"Hey! We're on the same team!" Naruto clapped Sasuke on the back as he gave him a big grin.
"Huh?" Lost in his thoughts, Sasuke hadn't bothered to listen as the roll-call as the new teams were read off.
"Wow. You're really out of it today. Are you sick?" Naruto gazed into his friends eyes with a worried expression.
"Oh… no… just… anyway, who else is on our team?" Sasuke knew there should be one more.
"Sakura. But what do you suppose they are going to do with Sai? I mean, he was already a Chuunin but they made him go to school here anyway for last two years. He didn't take the test yesterday either." Naruto's good spirits quickly returned.
Sakura spoke up, "He said they told him he didn't need to. Maybe he's going to go to a Chuunin team?"
"Oh I hope not. I want him to be on our team!" Naruto said eagerly.
"Idiot!" Sakura whopped him over the head, "They only let three people on a team. You know that!"
Sasuke smiled at Sakura's horseplay. Over the past two years she had become more assertive and was very good at keeping people in line. Especially Naruto who seemed to enjoy pushing the envelope – often with disastrous results. Recently he had even been heard to mumble to himself, "If I do that Sakura will hit me." Of course, he usually didn't heed his own advice, much to Sasuke's chagrin.
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"He's sooooo late!" Sakura moaned as she dropped her head down on the table.
"What if he forgot about us?" Naruto worried, "How long are we supposed to wait?"
"Good question." Sasuke leaned back on the bench in and rested his head on the desk behind him. "They said Kakashi was our sensei. I don't know much about him, but dad and Itachi know him. Itachi is friends with him, in fact."
Naruto sighed, "Too bad he's on patrol right now. There's a phone by the door so you could have called him." He started to giggle and an evil look appeared in his eyes, "Let's play a trick on sensei for leaving us here."
"You'll get in trouble." Sasuke replied half-heartedly. He'd learned a long time ago that when Naruto got that look in his eye there was no stopping him.
Standing on a chair, Naruto placed a chalk-filled eraser on top of the door and stood back to admire his work. Sakura giggled and stood up to stand near Naruto so she could get a better view when the prank went off. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the smile that played at the corner of his lips. He was getting rather pissed off that Kakashi hadn't come yet; it would serve him right to get a head full of chalk dust.
A minute later a man with spiked whitish-silver hair and one eye covered by a forehead protector ambled leisurely into the room and winced as a cloud of chalk dust enveloped his head when the eraser dropped from its perch.
Naruto and Sakura giggled, while Sasuke stood up and walked down to join them, a big smile on his face.
"I have only one thing to say: I hate you all." Kakashi stated in a calm voice.
Sasuke was suddenly suspicious, "Were you waiting out in the hall until someone did something like that before coming in?"
Kakashi blinked once in surprise, "Why would you say that?"
"It hasn't been two minutes since he set the trap and then you show up."
"Sasuke Uchiha." Kakashi said the name pensively, as if deep in thought, "Tomorrow morning you and your teammates will join me on the training field. I have a little surprise for you all, and I guarantee none of you will enjoy it."
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"What's wrong with you two?" Itachi asked as he walked into the living room and eyed two boys sprawled out on the floor staring at the ceiling. He quickly noted that they still had their forehead protectors and deduced that Kakashi had probably passed them into the ranks of the Konoha Shinobi.
"We died. Just bury us here." An exhausted Sasuke muttered.
Mikoto peaked into the room, "Boys! If you want to sleep do it in your rooms. I'm not going to have people tripping over you."
"Everyone here is a ninja, if they trip it's their own fault not ours." Sasuke argued back.
"Suit yourself, but Fugaku will be home soon..."
"We're moving." Naruto said as he and Sasuke stood up and wandered down the hall to their rooms. After the "test from hell" they had undergone with Kakashi, being yelled at by Fugaku was so far down on their list of "wants" that they would have burrowed down a mile into the earth to escape it.
"What's wrong with them?" Mikoto said with exasperation. "They just came home a half hour ago and collapsed."
"Kakashi gave them the same test Minato gave him when he graduated. He told me about it, and it's quite clever actually. The test appears on the surface to be about strength and logic, but it's really to see if the team can work together."
"Hmmm. Well, they passed, so that's good. The elders were pretty hard on him. I don't like seeing them pushing him or you like that…"
Itachi interrupted, "It's okay, mother, don't worry."
"Wait until you have kids, Itachi, you'll worry constantly." She smiled and turned on the TV. "By the way, Emi and I are leaving for Mist in a few days."
"You finally settled on a schedule?"
"Yeah. The wedding date was finally set and there is no way Emi isn't going to be involved in her daughter's wedding so she asked me to go with her."
"Won't that get a little awkward?" Itachi remembered that Madara had, for several years, chased after Mikoto and he suspected the man still loved her.
"Yeah. It will." Mikoto sighed, "I… can't say no to Emi and I think I just want to see that he really cares for Aya. I can't shake the feeling that he's just using her."
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Itachi pulled the needle through the fabric of his new Akatsuki cloak slowly as he carefully sewed the hem. Now sixteen, he had recently undergone a growth spurt rendering his old cloak too tight in the shoulders as well as too short. The new cloak was a little big – hence the hemming – but it would probably be good for a year. He hoped. The last cloak had only lasted five months before he outgrew it.
He smirked as he held the hem out to see if it was still straight. Deidara, who was the same age as him, has split the shoulder seam on his cloak during their last mission three weeks earlier. Blushing as red as a tomato he had shrugged off his cloak and stared at the hole dejectedly. The expression on the blond teen's face had been of confusion and for some reason Itachi didn't learn until later, horror. It seemed Sasori had told him that the next time he tore his cloak, he would be sewing it up himself. Why that would scare Deidara was a mystery, but that night, around the campfire, he had pulled out a small sewing kit and masterfully stitched up the seam as he muttered unintelligibly to himself.
As he tied the final knot and shook the cloak out he heard his father calling for him to come downstairs. Sighing, he folded the garment and hid it under a secret panel in the floor. Glancing outside he saw that the late October sun was setting and closed the curtains before heading downstairs.
"Itachi, I have a task for you." Fugaku was sitting cross-legged on the floor of his meeting room with Mikoto next to him and Itachi, Sasuke and Naruto a few feet in front of him. The shoji doors were closed and a jutsu had been used to sound-proof the room. Placed directly in front of Fugaku was a large scroll with a seal that Itachi recognized as coming from the secret Hokage's library.
"Yes father?" Itachi acknowledged.
"Before me is a scroll that contains a forbidden jutsu used by the Fourth Hokage…" Fugaku was interrupted by Naruto who gazed at the document wide-eyed.
"My father."
"Yes Naruto. You are going to learn that jutsu and Itachi is going to supervise." Fugaku smiled at the blond boy, "But it has to be done in secret and if you can do it in one night it would be best. The document is priceless to the village and the longer it is outside of a secure location the greater the danger it will be stolen. Which is why Itachi will be with you – to protect the scroll."
"Wow! Thanks!" Naruto stood up as he pumped one fist in the air and hopped up and down a couple times.
Mikoto gave a short laugh, and smiled happily as she stood up and handed Naruto the scroll. "It's a type of clone jutsu so you can practice in the back yard without too much trouble, or you can go out to the woods somewhere. Just watch out for spies."
"So if it's so secret how do I use it when I'm fighting?" Naruto finally asked.
Fugaku answered, "It doesn't matter if anyone sees it at that point. It's just the scroll we want to keep secret."
"Oh. Okay." Naruto turned to leave as Itachi and Sasuke stood up.
"Sasuke," Fugaku called out to his youngest son as he started to leave the room, "I haven't given you permission to leave yet. Sit down."
Sasuke blinked twice in surprise and quickly sat back down on his legs. The expression on his face was one of guilt and Fugaku wondered if he could blackmail the boy into revealing whatever it was he did that he wasn't supposed to have done. But then again, he had other things to do so teasing his son would have to wait.
"That's my boy, Sasuke, you have reached the rank of Genin. I am very proud of you. The power you can attain from here on out is almost limitless, but should be approached with caution and used sparingly." He reached behind himself and lifted a scroll off the floor. "I want you to sit in here tonight and read this. It is the chronicle of our clan. What is said in the scroll is secret and is not to be repeated to non-clan members. Even Naruto. Is that understood?"
Sasuke nodded eagerly, "Yes! I can't wait to read it and I promise I will keep it secret."
Mikoto handed Sasuke a pill, "Take this, it will help keep you awake. It took me about six hours to read it after I became a Genin. I'll bring you some snacks later."
"Thanks mom."
Fugaku chuckled as he stood up, "Well, then, I'll leave you to it."
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Itachi yawned as he walked into the Hokage's office. It had been a late night, but finally, around four AM, Naruto had mastered the jutsu. The boy had been so excited that he had spent the next three hours playing around with it until he finally collapsed, exhausted and nearly out of chakra.
"Did you return the scroll?" Fugaku asked sternly.
"Yes. The librarian put it away and resealed it. Naruto mastered the jutsu perfectly."
"Good. As expected of the Fourth's son." Fugaku gave a small smile as he nodded his head once in affirmation before changing the subject, "Stones new Kage is a bit of a surprise. Have you heard?"
"No." Itachi sat down in a chair in front of his father's desk. "Who is it?"
"It's the same guy who retired twenty years ago. He's an old man, older than Sarutobi, and apparently he got pissed off and ordered the council to fire the current Kage. Rather unusual. I don't think I've ever heard of that happening before."
"So what happened to Kage who was fired?"
"Died the next day."
"Humph." Itachi assumed he had probably killed himself, ritual suicide or something, but it would be hard to say. Politics was never cut and dry.
A small voice spoke up from the door, causing Fugaku and Itachi to turn suddenly, "Umm… Lord Fugaku?"
Fugaku smiled, "Yes Konohamaru?"
"Grandpa says he'll be over later because… um… he's…" Konohamaru's attention was diverted as a cat lithely sat up from a red cushion next Fugaku's desk and stretched. It's white and tan fur glistened in the morning sunlight and many long sharp white teeth could be seen as it yawned. "Can I play with the kitty?"
Itachi gave a short laugh. The six-year-old Konohamaru had a very short attention span, much to Sarutobi's exasperated chagrin.
Fugaku shook his head, amused, "Didn't you come here to tell me something?"
"Oh yeah!" The boy straightened up and smiled broadly, "Grandpa says some guys who are friends of uncle Asuma's are here and he and Asuma are talking to them. They're dressed funny too!" He gave a short laugh and lifted his arms to lace his fingers around the back of his head. He wore a cream colored beanie over his hair and a long scarf was wrapped around his neck - an imitation of both his grandfather and his deceased father.
"Hmm. Okay. I'll wait then. Thank-you, Konohamaru." Fugaku watched as the boy bowed and walked out of the room, followed by the cat.
"He bowed." Itachi said, surprised. "Someone's been teaching him manners."
Fugaku shrugged, "He does that occasionally. Usually when his grandfather isn't around. Sarutobi is far too casual with the boy and it causes him to forget his manners."
"Hmm." Itachi knew Fugaku was a stickler when it came to manners, but over the years even he had loosened up, allowing Sasuke to refer to him as "dad" instead of "father" was the biggest surprise to the teen, but he was certainly not going to bring it up.
"The Daimyou is still hiding." Sarutobi said when he entered the room fifteen minutes later. He took a seat next to Itachi and gave Fugaku a stern look. His son Asuma had been in service to the Daimyou for several years, after leaving Konoha. However, a year ago, Asuma had suddenly turned up saying that he had been fired and wanted to pick up his old rank as a ninja. Of course, Fugaku gladly reinstated him as a Jounin and even offered him a sensei position, which Asuma accepted.
"That's one-and-a-half years then." Fugaku said quietly.
"I would bet my life Danzou is in the capital pulling the Daimyou's strings." Sarutobi groaned, "But at least we aren't on retainer to them any more."
The usual arrangement between Konoha and the Daimyou was that Konoha would pay a percentage of the mission profits to the Fire country treasury, and the Daimyou, in return, would pay them a large sum of money to go on missions for him. When that money had been cut off after the coup, Konoha had run into serious financial trouble. Faced with no missions, a war with Stone and rebuilding costs, it had been a very difficult two years.
Konoha was now a Shinobi village without a country. It was contrary to the First Hokage's dream when he founded the village, but Fugaku had assured the citizens of Konoha that it was temporary and for the most part, they believed him. There had been one odd side-effect to Konoha's new status. They were getting more and more missions from independent entities. People who were not connected to governments and wanted to remain anonymous. They paid twice the going rates and the missions were fairly normal – ranging from farm work to assassinations.
The increased rate was due to the danger involved. A farm owned by a missing nin from a foreign country was not the safest place for a Genin team to pull weeds – as evidenced by several instances where they young Shinobi-in-training had to be protected from ANBU trying to collect their employer. They were missions that would have been refused in the past.
"There is a lot of money funneling out of the capital as well." Itachi added, "Akatsuki has been keeping an eye on their treasurer and he has been handing cash off to Root to deliver. We aren't sure where they're taking it. The last report was that almost four billion ryou was missing."
"By any chance is there a new treasurer?" Fugaku asked.
"No, it's the same guy that's had the job forever."
Fugaku closed his eyes in thought, "So the Daimyou is out of sight, commands indicative to Danzou are being given by… someone… in the capital, and large sums of money are disappearing. It sounds like perhaps Danzou is building a new ninja village somewhere."
"That would be my guess, Fugaku." Sarutobi frowned. "It will be hard to guess where, though. There have been at least seven new ninja villages founded in the last five years. The small ones are always coming and going – like small businesses. The new one in Rice country for example, the village hidden in the Sound, is the third attempt the clans up their have made at creating a Shinobi village. Wave country's Shinobi village went bankrupt three years ago and they never re-organized despite several attempts."
"Yeah, it would be easy for Danzou to step into any one of those situations, hand over a lot of money, and come out on top. Sound is coming to the Chuunin exams in a few months, as well as three other new villages that never attended before."
"Too bad it's an exam. It would otherwise be a perfect opportunity to spy on them." Sarutobi commented wistfully as he glanced sideways at Itachi, who had suddenly stiffened in his chair.
"Yeah, too bad." Fugaku sighed, also looking at Itachi. "We wouldn't want them feel unwelcome after all."
"Whatever. I've got work to do." Itachi stood up and left the office, annoyed at the "mission" he had just been given. Spy on the participants of a Chuunin exam that wasn't scheduled for six or seven months. "How annoying."
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"Wow, Itachi. Those civilians really hated us." Naruto commented as he and Sasuke stepped into the upstairs living room where Itachi was watching a movie.
"What's with them?" Sasuke added.
Itachi paused the movie and looked at the boys. Back from their first mission - stocking a warehouse in a neighboring town – they looked rather tired. Naruto was wearing a rather loud orange jumpsuit while Sasuke went for a pair of black shorts with a blue wide-necked t-shirt that had the Uchiha crest emblazoned on the back. Itachi thought back to how he had prepared for his first mission and when he compared his near-commando getup back then to the two boys standing in front of him now, he couldn't help wonder if he had over-prepared or if Sasuke and Naruto were being too casual.
"Shinobi are secretive and can kill without detection. That scares people." Itachi explained, "You have to understand that. No one wants to die and when they see our village association it's not pleasant. I've actually been refused board at hotels or food at restaurants because I'm a ninja, but I don't let it get to me. I've seen too many dead civilians from ninja attacks… I understand how they feel. But…"
"But?" Sasuke wondered why his brother suddenly stopped talking.
"There is a definite smear campaign going on. I've seen flyers posted in towns nearby that falsely accused Konoha of killing parents and abducting children to turn them into Shinobi recently. Did you see any of those?"
"No…" Sasuke said slowly, trying to remember if he had or not.
"I didn't either, but I did see Kakashi rip something off a wall. He wouldn't show me what it was." Naruto commented. "He was really mad, too."
"Well, keep this in mind when you leave Konoha. You are an object of fear to the civilian population, and they have a valid reason for that fear so don't be too harsh on them."
Both boys nodded in agreement.
"You're watching a lot of TV lately." Sasuke changed the subject.
"Why not? Nothing else to do when I'm not on a mission." Itachi retaliated as he restarted the movie.
"Samurai movies? Are those Mikoto's?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah. As far back as I can remember she's always watched them. Father thinks she got Sasuke's name from a movie because it's a common name among Samurai." He smiled as Sasuke grimaced at the thought of being named after a movie character.
"Well it's better than being named after a fish cake in a bowl of ramen." Sasuke tried, unsuccessfully, to turn the attention away from himself.
"I don't mind. At least you can eat Ramen. If you ate a Samurai you'd get arrested for cannibalism. Especially if you're name is 'Sasuke'." Naruto smiled at his pun, eliciting a short laugh from Itachi who was surprised Naruto was able to put such an abstract joke together.
"Ick. Why would I do that anyway?" Sasuke smiled and grimaced at the same time, causing Naruto to break out in laughter over the strange expression it made.
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"So are you both packed? Got all your weapons? Food? A change of underwear?" Mikoto fussed over the two boys as they fidgeted at back door of the house, waiting impatiently to escape into the big world of adventure and intrigue.
"Mom, we got everything! Can we go now?" Sasuke was really close to whining as he watched Mikoto go through his bag.
"Yeah Mikoto, its all fine! We packed everything Sensei wrote on the list!" Naruto was whining and clutched his pack close to his chest as he snuck a glance out the open door.
"Mikoto, just let them go." Fugaku had wondered down the hall to see what the noise was, dressed only in a pair of shorts he yawned sleepily as he watched the two boys grin thankfully up at him and take off at full speed before they could be detained again.
"Fugaku." Mikoto said with a sad lilt to her voice, "I know they forgot something. What if it's important?"
"It's okay. Kakashi is with them, after all. I promise he won't take them out into the wilderness and abandon them." Fugaku wrapped his arms around his wife and rested his cheek on the top of her head. "And if he does and they can't find their way back home then they shouldn't have become Genin and they'll deserve whatever misfortune befalls them."
Mikoto sighed in exasperation, "You sure know how to ruin the mood, don't you."
"Yes I do." Fugaku teased as he gave her a short kiss and returned to bed, yawning repeatedly on the way.
A noise from the stairway caused Mikoto to turn around as Itachi walked toward her. He was also yawning. "You and your father should really learn to go to bed at night, you'd be yawning less, you know."
"Mother, it's five in the morning. I think instead of asking why we are yawning you should ask why you are not." Itachi stated matter-of-factly. "Are the boys gone?"
"Yeah. Itachi… could I ask you for a favor?"
"No mother, I am not going to follow them so I can jump out at the right moment and rescue them from some non-existent danger."
"But…"
"It's just a 'C' rank mission. And it's not even one of the dangerous 'C' ranks. They're just escorting an old man back to the land of Waves and standing guard over his bridge for a few days. Quit worrying." Itachi smiled as he tugged on his backpack and straightened the black sweater he had opted to wear instead of a jacket. "Besides, I have Akatsuki business to attend to this week."
Mikoto smiled in resignation, "Okay. I'm leaving soon for Mist anyway. We'll be gone for a couple months it turns out so I won't see you boys again until you come for the wedding."
"Have a nice time, mother." Itachi left the house quickly and took off at a run, putting his brother's mission and his mother's trip out of his mind.
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Leader had been pairing him and Kisame with Sasori and Deidara for any mission that might bring them into contact with Danzou's Root organization. The reason he gave was that he wanted a sure kill, no near-misses, no escape attempts, no failures. If they ran into the elderly Shinobi they were to take any and all measures to kill him
This week they were going to a small castle a few miles from Konoha to steal a set of accounting books that Kakuzu suspected were kept in a safe. Of course, he had no idea which safe and as he was currently in the southern tip of Wind country he couldn't do it himself.
"There you are, Itachi." Kisame was leaning against a tree just outside of the barrier that protected Konoha from intruders.
"Don't you even bother to hide anymore?" Itachi asked petulantly. "What if someone saw your cloak?"
"What if they did? You're father is practically in Leaders employ right now anyway, considering all the information we pass back and forth." Kisame stated truthfully.
"Yeah, well, let's just keep that low-key for now. I guarantee that if it wasn't for our common enemy there would be no cooperation. Where are the others?"
"Up ahead. Deidara found a cat and got distracted."
As they moved through the autumnal forest they came upon Sasori's motionless puppet and Deidara, sitting on the ground rubbing the stomach of a rather large and overfed silver tabby that was purring louder than a train engine. Or at least that was what it sounded like in the otherwise still forest.
Itachi sneezed a couple times and rubbed his nose to stop the itching.
"Not allergic are you, Itachi?" Deidara gave him a big grin as he stood up, a large quantity of loose cat-fur in his hand. He blew it towards Itachi and laughed as the teen stepped back to avoid it. He then turned around and started walked down the path, having decided not to fall for Deidara's teasing.
"Hey, the cats following us!" Deidara said happily two hours later.
Itachi mumbled to Kisame under his breath, "This is going to be the mission from hell, isn't it?"
Kisame muttered back, "At least it's not that cat you summoned back when we were searching for Sarutobi."
"I am thankful for that." Itachi gave a short laugh. At least the cat would distract Deidara for a while. He looked back and saw that the teen had picked it up and it was now resting its chin on Deidara's shoulder, eyes closed and fast asleep.
Itachi sneezed again, causing the cat to open one eye and meow, as if telling him to be quiet. "I think I'm catching a cold." He rubbed his neck, feeling the first burning sensation of the virus spreading through his throat.
"Well, a cold isn't going to get you out of working, kid." Sasori's gravelly voice said calmly.
Kisame, who was walking behind Itachi, looked at the teen and gritted his teeth. He knew Itachi's secret, but had pushed it to the back of his mind. Now, as he stared at the sixteen-year-old boy in front of him he remembered his own clan back in Mist. His cousin had died at eighteen after suffering for three years with the same illness. After all his talk of "Survival of the Fittest", it still hurt when he remembered how weak he had become.
"We should be at the house we will be using for the mission in a few hours." Kisame offered, then thought to himself, 'But if you get sick and screw up this mission, you won't have to die of a disease, Leader will kill you himself.'
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Next week: Akatsuki and Team 7 begin their missions. But who is that extra person on the squad and what is Deidara going to do with his new friend?
There's a lot going on in this chapter – I hope it isn't too fragmented. I also hope it doesn't sound too absurd that Emi is going to visit her daughter for two months. Remember, it's a long journey so staying for a long time is actually a good idea, and Mikoto is going to help plan the wedding because as the clan matriarch she's a pro at planning events and Emi didn't want to go alone.
I hope you don't mind that I skipped over the bell test and the final exam. I figured it would just be redundant. The Forest of Death scene coming up in a few chapters (2 or 3 I think) will be more in depth though. Can't skip over Orochimaru, now, can I? xD He's still important to the story. Oh, and I won't skip over Haku or Zabuza either. They're also pretty important.
Please review!