I was glad I had to spend a little while in the medical wing of the Akatsuki base. After all, I needed a bit of recovery time from the shocks my partner had just given to me.

First he informs me that no, he hadn't tried to poison me; he'd just given me food that could kill me because he didn't know it was poisonous to me. Itachi not knowing something was a big enough shock, never mind him making a mistake.

Then, he asks me if there are any other allergies he needs to know about, for future reference. If I didn't think the probability of him murdering me was so high, I might have interpreted the move as kindness.

And finally, he admits that there is something in the world he likes! That was probably the biggest shock of all, hearing Itachi say he cares for something. It's very weird, really. It makes Itachi seem like an actual human being, instead of the withdrawn, twisted, sadistic little weasel of a psychopath I know him to be.

So, after that, he walked out. Leaving me to think about everything that had just happened.

I kinda wished Itachi hadn't accidentally given me the wheat. If he had purposefully poisoned me, I could brush this off as hatred and move on. But no, everything had to point to the weasel being nice to me! Which was impossible, seeing as how Itachi was about as loving as a feral cat that had recently been drenched in a bucket of ice water.

Still, he'd come forward and apologized to me. He'd acted as though he cared, and even opened up a bit. Logical conclusion: my partner was sick, and possibly deranged. Other, less likely conclusion: Itachi was being friendly to me, after years of remaining silent and distant.

If those are the kinds of people skills Itachi possesses, it's no wonder he killed his family.

Still thoroughly confused, I decided to sleep, and figure it out later.

-n-

After I got out of the hospital wing, I noticed a change in my partnership with Itachi.

For one thing, when we fought on the battlefield, we weren't just fighting on the same side, we were fighting together. Those things may sound the same, but take it from me; they're entirely different.

See, until this point, when we'd go into a fight, we'd recognize the enemy as being, well, the enemy, and then we'd rush into the fight (or whatever Itachi's plan called for at the time). We'd fight, but it was almost like we were on our own, and just trying to stay out of each other's way during the battle.

Now, however, we were working as the two man cell Pein had created us to be. I could count on a fireball or kunai being thrown by my partner if an enemy got too close, and in exchange I'd try to slice up a few ninjas who got too close to the weasel. He never mentioned it, and I followed suit. Come to think of it, telling Itachi thank you for protecting me probably would have set of some sort of "kill-the-weak-shark-who-needs-your-protection" switch in that evil little mind of his.

Hey, I just said my partner was being helpful. That doesn't change the fact that he's a sadistic little weasel.

Aside from that, we changed our shift schedules. Like, we started letting each other sleep through a shift or two, just to give them some more sleep. I actually started this trend, and Itachi followed my lead. Eventually, we just changed the routine to have two night shifts, instead of four. Makes things a heck of a lot easier for me.

Oh, and then there was the time I fed Itachi.

What had happened was this: Itachi and I were walking back to the base after completing a mission, it was a nice summer day, blah blah blah, we got hungry, and stopped to eat.

My partner led us off the path and into the woods so we wouldn't be seen by any passerbys. Once he thought we were far enough away (roughly a quarter mile from the blasted road) he let us sit down to eat. I had no problem resting on the forest floor, but Itachi chose to sit on a half-rotted log. He probably didn't want his cloak to get messy or something.

Don't tell him I said that.

Well, we both dug into our meals, eating in the comfortable silence I've been accustomed to for years. As usual, I watched Itachi out of the corner of my eyes. I was surprised to se that my partner was taking larger bites than he normally did, and was eating faster than the norm as well. Either he was in a hurry, or was very hungry.

Considering we'd skipped breakfast that morning and eaten an early dinner the night before, my money was on option number two.

In fact, he was completely done in the time it took me to finish half of my food. Noticing that he still looked a little hungry, I offered him one of my riceballs to help satiate his hunger.

Like I expected, he took the food that I'd offered him. Then, just before he took a bite, he seemed to hesitate.

In that instant, I realized what was going through Itachi's mind. Something alone the lines of, "He's still mad at me for the wheat incident, so he's poisoned the riceball and now he's going to finish me off! I must kill him first! Hissss!" Except that it was Itachi's thinking process, so the exact wording was probably a bit more eloquent and complex. I'll bet he still hissed though.

Right, I'm getting off topic.

To my shock, he took a bite of the riceball. I watched in stunned silence as he slowly consumed the rest of the food, before wiping off his fingers and rising to his feet. "We're going now," he said. I watched him take a few steps towards the road, before I regained my senses and climbed to my feet to follow after him.

Itachi, the most paranoid, distrustful, sadist I'd ever met, had just taken food from a person who more than likely had a grudge against him, and eaten it. Either my partner really was going nuts, or he was…dare I say it…beginning to trust me.

To my shock, the latter only sounded slightly impossible. No, I had to kill those thoughts right then and there! Itachi only relied on himself. There was no way he could EVER trust me.

Right?