A/N: Sorry this took a while to get written, I only have time to write sporadically. I got a second job that is eating up way more of my time then I first anticipated. Well that's all, so on with the show. Oh, and as always I don't own Naruto, if I did I wouldn't need that second job.

Chapter 8 – Unsanctioned Missions

Keeping himself within the long shadows of the main manor Itachi silently crept toward the back gate of the Uchiha compound, and began his regularly scheduled journey to the Konoha hospital, ready to begin his daily vigil at Obito's bedside. He knew his father had refused Uchiha medical care to the older boy, though he certainly disagreed with his decision, he believed family should be forgiven regardless of the action, yet he knew it was only a matter of time before he himself felt his Otousan's wrath. Instinctively Itachi was also aware of the fact that he would be even deeper in the trouble that was coming his way if he was incriminatingly found at the hospital, in the Uchiha pariah's room. Unfortunately he didn't have a choice, he couldn't stop himself; he just wasn't strong enough.

Itachi knew that for all his five years of age he was pretty powerful, scarcely a day went by without one of the gossipy old hens that made up the "respected" Uchiha elder's wives reminding him he was destined to do great things, all in the Uchiha name of course. However, he also knew that strong for a five year old was nothing in comparison to the strength of his father Fugaku, the current Uchiha clan head. So despite the fact that he was probably the mightiest five year old in Konoha's history, though he had heard that Hatake Kakashi, he of the pilfered sharingan, might have given him a run for his money, he had been powerless against that man. That man's power was overwhelming; Itachi doubted that even his otousan would have stood a chance against him.

He'd first made his presence known three weeks ago. He'd show up masked, wearing a heavy black cloak embroidered with blood red clouds, while whispering orders that would never leave Itachi's head, leaving him with unending nightmares, explicit objectives, and an irate father. Sneaking into the police morgue had been by far the worst of his implanted tasks. Corpses, mutilated and deformed, unrecognizable as human even in some cases, were pouring into Konoha, casualties of the Third Great Ninja war. The hospital's morgue was incapable of accommodating them all and Konoha's police morgue was now taking in the overflow. Itachi had been terrified, his body shivering in the mortuary's frigid air, as he pulled out drawer after drawer of dead bodies, unzipping body bag after body bag, searching for the carcass of an Uchiha, that that man had promised was somewhere in the mess. Itachi's eyes had run dry as he mutely sobbed silently screaming into the night, wishing he could just go home to his Kaasan, where it was warm and safe, but he couldn't, his mind wasn't anywhere near strong enough to counter the sharingan of that man. Eventually he'd found it, which he wasn't really sure was a better thing. At least when he'd been seeking it out his sight was the only sense being horrified, when he'd found it, he'd had to touch the body and involve the rest of his senses, which somehow made what he was doing that much more real. The body's tangibility stealing away all the illusions he'd created in his mind to mask his actions, the body's skin felt cold and hard beneath his fingertips, the smell of burnt flesh from the fire jutsu that killed the man so thick in the air Itachi would swear he could taste it, making it impossible forget. Using the dull practice kunai otousan had given him for getting into the academy; Itachi had pried the dead Uchiha's eye from its socket where it promptly fell to the floor making a sickening pulpy plop that echoed through the metal walled meat locker when it landed and violating Itachi's last unmolested sense. He had often reminded himself that the tortured look on the corpse's face was from his death on the battlefield and not the result of a blunt kunai ripping through his flesh. That man had promised he could take away the nightmares that plagued him since that night but Itachi had yet to see any proof of this. The masked ninja refused to do so until he was sure Obito was going to be okay and until then Itachi had to mind what he said. So back to the hospital he headed; his charge to make sure nobody harmed the recovering Chunin.

"Itachi-kun, come here. We've got to go down to the police station," Itachi's pregnant mother, Mikoto waddled over and gently grabbed her son's wrist to pull him up into a hug, even as he squirmed in protest.

"I don't want to go," he pouted sullenly when she returned him to the ground. "I have to visit somebody. You said I should never break plans."

"I'm sorry sweetie, but you have to come with me. Otousan wants to see you." Still holding his hand she started walking back towards the house to get her coat when she slowed, then stopped to kneel in front of her young son, her gentle face was pensive; her voice tinged with sadness and worry when she spoke, "Itachi, musuka* you don't have anything to do with this right? Hokage-sama was wrong, right baby?"

Itachi could never lie to his mother, so he didn't say anything at all.

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"Kuso!*" Inuzuka Tsume slammed the phone down. It was a cordless and had already been hung up, so the slamming of it into the charger was mostly pointless overkill but damn did it make her feel better. So as long as Kami continued to bless her with a moronic genin cell the slamming would continue. Rikku, the lone kunoichi on her squad, was a delight; intelligent, obedient, and always wanting to learn more, she was the ideal pupil. Unfortunately, poor Rikku's teammates, Kotetsu and Izumo were nothing but trouble. If it wasn't one, it was the other, and sometimes, like today, it was both.

Yamanaka Inoichi, the proud jounin sensei of the infamous Shiranui Genma and Morino Ibiki, had warned her that a genin team could be difficult. Tsume had of course scoffed and assured him that just because he had raised a bad bunch of pups didn't mean she would too. After all, students were only as good as their sensei. Now she was paying for the remark tenfold.

Five months pregnant and already the mother of a four year old, Tsume would only have her cell for two more weeks. Then they would be reassigned and another sensei would take over their training until she was back to work. While she was glad to be getting them off her hands, she was also a little sad to give them up for almost a year. Sure they were bad, and they pissed her off, but they were her bad students and the bond she'd formed with them was strong. She didn't want to admit it but she had a soft spot for troublemakers. She looked down at her growing belly and chuckled. Her baby's father was long gone, having blown town immediately after finding out about her pregnancy. Izumo and Kotetsu had been outraged, calling him a coward and offering to chase him down and kick his ass, but Tsume had declined the offer. After all, she had expected it; he'd done the same thing when Hana was born. Hana was the best thing she had in life though, so she'd only felt an overwhelming happiness when she found out about her new baby. She was grateful toward her children's father, even if he was a coward, he'd given her two miracles and she couldn't find fault with him. In any case, she'd known what she was getting into this time around and she'd done it anyway. She knew she should go after someone stable, but where was the fun in that, the heart wants what it wants she reasoned, and hers always wanted the bad boy.

"Hana!" Tsume called to her daughter, who was far too busy wrestling with her nin-dogs, well more like nin-puppies, the Haimaru Sankyodai, to pay attention to her mother. At four years old, Hana was already showing signs of becoming a great ninja, the Haimaru triplets had chosen her despite the fact that nin-dogs didn't generally bond with anyone under the age of eight, and even more signs of being all Inuzuka. The tiny brunette's red tattooed face was fierce with concentration as she prepared to launch an attack on her furry friends. At the sound of Tsume's voice the Haimaru Sankyodai took off running, Hana erupted after them, faster than any child had the right to be, and Tsume stood in the doorway gaping at her toddler. Tsume's gape quickly spread to an ear to ear grin as she stared at her baby who had, without any instruction, just molded chakra.

"Hana!" Tsume called again, grin still plastered on her face, she shook herself out of a stunned silence. This was an amazing feat, but she still had to go bail out her two idiot genin from the police station. She caught her speeding child and forced her into her coat under the pretense that Izumo would teach her how to use his sword if she helped him get out of jail. While Tsume knew that would never happen – there was no way Izumo was getting anywhere near her daughter, with any weapon, she wouldn't even trust that idiot with a potato gun—there was no reason her little ninja had to. Hana may have been on the fast track to becoming a great ninja, but her choices for love were going to need some work. If Tsume had to hear even one more time about how handsome Kamizuki Izumo is, and how cute he would be in a suit when he married his Hana-chan, and how they were going to have at least five children who would all have nin-dogs and use swords "just like Izumo-kun," she was going to snap. Of course in the presence of "Izumo-kun" poor little Hana-chan couldn't even say anything without becoming flustered and red faced, so Tsume really had nothing to worry about. Actually her biggest concern was how heartbroken her sweet little girl would be when she found out her precious twelve year old Izumo-kun was not interested in marrying the four year old daughter of his sensei, but was in fact smitten with the creepy snake sannin's prize pupil, Mitarashi Anko. Ever since the girl had caught him sneaking into the women's bathhouse and promptly kicked his sorry ass, Izumo had been fascinated with her. The deceptively small kunoichi had beaten him soundly in a matter of seconds. Orochimaru had actually had to step in to stop her from slitting his throat, and as it was she managed to put a small slice on the boys neck, with one of his own kunai no less, scarring his otherwise unmarred skin. Izumo wore it like a badge of honor; proof that his psycho lady love had indeed been gracious enough to touch him. Tsume cringed when she thought of the boys' future love life, sadomasochism held no thrills for her.

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Kotetsu lazily swung his feet back and forth as they dangled from the uncomfortable bench he was handcuffed to. A little short for his age, the genin was often able to hand his legs off things and wave his feet in the air, which he did at almost every possible occasion. At first his small stature had pissed him off, and Izumo's teasing did little to assuage that, but Tsume-sensei had said underestimating him because of his childlike appearance would be a mistake many shinobi would make, which would only work in his favor. Since then Kotetsu had taken every opportunity to behave as immaturely as possible. Taking it up as a personal challenge, the genin wanted as many people to underestimate him as possible, especially these stinking Uchiha police officers.

Wishing he had a big red lollipop to suck on, nothing said childlike innocence like a cherry stained set of lips and tongue, Kotetsu swung his head distractedly around the room feigning disinterest as he trained his ears on the conversation going on in the other room. It looked like little Uchiha Itachi, pride of the Uchiha clan, had gone and done something to get himself in trouble. The lower ranking officers were betting on whether or not the "little brat" would get what he deserved. Apparently Uchiha Fugaku was in his office waiting for his wife to arrive with his son, and everyone was all a twitter.

Kotetsu looked across the room at Izumo who was lounging on his bench, sprawled out with his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep. Kotetsu wasn't fooled, Izumo snored louder than an explosive tag EVERY time he slept, if there was no snoring, there was no sleeping going on. Obviously he too was interested in the Uchiha gossipers. Kotetsu continued listening but now only half heartedly. If there was something interesting Izumo would fill him in. Kami he was bored. He seriously hoped Rikku had called Tsume-sensei right away. He really didn't want to wait here forever, and it would be just like Rikku to go home, shower, do some needlepoint, or whatever it was girls liked to do when they weren't busy being kunoichi, before calling their sensei just so he and Izumo would have to sit around longer. It was unfair really. It had been Rikku's idea to fill the drop ceilings in the police station with thousands of crickets, they were good luck after all and who needed luck more than the people in charge of protecting the populace in a ninja village? And where was Rikku? Home, while he and Izumo were stuck in the stinking police station as usual.

But the plan had been ingenious really. Rikku had batted her big green eyes adoringly at Aburame Ko, the awkward fourteen year old chunin hadn't stood a chance against their charming blonde teammate, and he'd quickly agreed to control the crickets into the police headquarters. That had been the easy part, getting thousands of crickets into a building staffed with ninja without being seen was difficult under normal circumstances, practically impossible when all of said ninja possessed the sharingan.

Genjutsu wouldn't work. Nobody could trap an Uchiha in a genjutsu, except maybe another Uchiha, and certainly no genin level shinobi could do it, so that had been out of the question. Rikku's specialty was transportation jutsu and they briefly toyed with that idea but teleportation was difficult with more than one target and doubly tricky when there were thousands of living moving targets. For her to maintain control of the jutsu would require a massive use of chakra and discovery would be inevitable, so in the end they'd settled for a much simpler mode of delivery.

They loaded the crickets into large knapsacks and hoisted them onto their backs, being careful not to jostle the packs and harm their precious cargo. Rikku had used her mother's Anmitsu recipe, Kotetsu and Izumo had picked up the fruit, kanten jelly, and azuki beans from Izumo's grandfather and the three of them marched into the police station with their gift for the valiant law enforcers of Konoha, Ko didn't need or want to be anywhere near the action and opted to stay across the street at a tea shop. As Rikku began her speech about the most courageous, and don't forget handsome, men in Konoha Izumo began to hand the tray of Anmitsu to the officer directly in front of him. Kotetsu quickly nabbed the plate from his hands in an attempt to be the one who gave the gift. While Izumo's fist swung to clock Kotetsu in the jaw, knocking him back and splattering Anmitsu through the police station, Rikku slid the packs from their backs. A quick replacement jutsu later the knapsacks were in a little travelled hallway, Kotetsu and Izumo were engaged in a melee free-for-all in the police station lobby, Rikku was shrieking about her ruined dessert and generally making the scene an even bigger one, and thousands of crickets had begun their trek to spread through the building.

Izumo and Kotetsu had been restrained, and handcuffed to their current locations until someone could get them, which was actually not a part of the plan. The pair had expected to be able to leave with Rikku, as a trio, instead the "Dumbass Duo", so aptly named by their sensei were stuck on a bench. Rikku's tears and objections had managed to free the blonde ingénue but did little in the way of getting the boys released. Although they had granted her permission to get their sensei, rather than their parents to pick them up, so Kotetsu figured she was at least good for something. Even if he and Izumo were always in trouble for her ideas, he had to admit she did usually manage to get their punishments reduced. And at the rate things were going he might even be around for the first cricket concert.

Suddenly Izumo sat up on his bench, awake and alert, Kotetsu felt it too. An angry chakra erupted from down the hall and Uchiha Fugaku, police captain and Uchiha clan head stormed into the room dragging a small boy by the arm and whipping him around to push onto the bench next to Izumo.

"You defied me!" he raged. "Your father, head of your clan, chief of the Police in your village gave you an order and you disobeyed me! My own son is nothing but a criminal. You are no better than this trash here. If you want to behave like a thief then I'll treat you like one!"

Fugaku's face was purple with fury as he handcuffed his son to the bench next to Izumo. Crazily enough the boys face remained blank in the onslaught of his fathers' insane ranting. Uchiha Itachi remained passive and uncaring, which only served to enrage the man further. Kotetsu decided it was probably not a good time to remind him that he and Izumo were not in fact thieves, but actually only in trouble for fighting, and since it was over whom was going to give snacks to the police force, they could hardly be considered trash. But the mad man would be made aware of that fact all too soon; he could feel his sensei's chakra getting closer by the moment and it didn't' feel happy in any way.

A cricket chirped from somewhere in the rafters and Kotetsu laughed out loud.

A/N: Randa-chan and Yet-another-Gaara-fangirl both brought it to my attention that I need to pick up the pace here. I promise I am trying; I just have so much I want to fit in here that I'm not sure it can go that fast. I am working on scaling down the scope of the story, but I'm so attached to it I might not be able to. I hope you can bear with me and stick it out.

Much love to all those who reviewed. Thank you so much, you make opening my emails all the better.

Below are the Japanese words I most likely used incorrectly in the story

musuka = my sonkuso=shit