Altruistic Tenacity

...Shadows the Hopes of Progress.

Another day was close to coming to a close, and the sun never looked so beautiful setting on Kumogakure. Even though they had suffered the loss of one of their Jinchuuriki, one of their specialized kunoichi, to the Akatsuki, they still had one left. According to recent intelligence, that was still more than most other lands. The only one who still had a Jinchuuriki was Hi no Kuni and they kept all information involving the Nine-tails under wraps. In fact, all of the lands who had one kept their information on them top-secret, accessible only to the current Kage. Yet the Akatsuki was still managing to pick them out and kidnap them, leaving only the hosts' dead bodies to be recovered later.

The Raikage had no idea what was going on, but he was sure the Godaime Hokage was doing all in her power to find out what was happening. Some of the only information he had on their Jinchuuriki was that he was highly guarded and adored by both the Sandaime and the Godaime, meaning they would do all in their power to keep him alive and in their hands. Perhaps, just this once, he would put aside all feelings of animosity and such towards Konohagakure to rest and meet with their Senjuu Tsunade. The Akatsuki were becoming just too troublesome to be ignored these days.

And after all, the enemy of one's enemy is one's friend. For a while, at least.

"Raikage," one of his advisors spoke up, waiting for permission to continue speaking, "Team Samui is here to report on their mission."

He nodded, and his advisors left to let in one of Kumo's most trusted teams. From assassinations to recon, they did it all flawlessly and with unwavering loyalty. A hidden village could ask for no more. Had he been a lesser man, he would have sighed and showed all fifty of his years at thinking about the mission he asked of them. That little slip of a woman they found within Kaminari no Kuni was proving to be full of more trouble and secrets than he first thought. And she seemed so innocent and delicate, which is why he never suspected her lies and inner strength. It was just a good thing she was so horrible at lying.

"Raikage," the smooth voice of Samui had him turning around to address her and her team.

Like other ninja, they wore the standard black cloth clothing and sandles, protective vests, and their weapons of choice. Samui, a buxom blonde, kept only a tanto on her person, while her teammates kept long swords. Omoi, the only male of the team, kept a katana strapped to his back; while Karui, the very slender and boyishly built woman, used a broadsword. As usual Omoi, with his lack of respect towards authority, kept a sucker in his mouth.

"Your report?"

"As requested, we shadowed Higurashi Kagome without her knowledge," Samui said as she stood from her kneeling position to rub her shoulders. "Using Omoi's plan, one of us kept watch over her residence while the other two tailed her whenever she went out. In the morning, she went to watch over Killer Bee's training as is her job. On her way back, she picked up unusual supplies for one of her status."

Raikage cracked his knuckles, having a bad feeling as to where this was going. "What'd she buy?"

Karui stepped forward. "I watched her buy two pairs of nondescript clothing for a male, along with more food than usual for a single woman, and extra bathing supplies."

The muscles of the Raikage's jaw visibly tightened, but Samui took over the report briefing again. "We followed her back to her residence, where Omoi reported that there had been no activity. However, as we watched, she pulled an unconscious man out of her main room and into what we believed to be her bathing room. Karui and myself where unable to get a good look at him, other than the fact that he was built like a ninja, but Omoi..."

"What!? What the hell did you find out Omoi!" The news was getting too hard for the Raikage to hear. Not only had Kagome, his Kagome, lied to him about what took her so long on return trip from Hi no Kuni, but she was keeping an unconscious man in her house! And not just any unconscious man, but a ninja! Until this moment, he never believed she could piss him off so much.

The heavily-tanned male, rolled his sucker around in his mouth. "My position allowed me to get a good look at the man she's taking care of. He looked to be in his early twenties, very pale skin - natural - with black hair. He wore very basic grey clothes, and as she moved him, his eyes opened. He had black eyes. There's only one clan-..."

"Uchiha! That little-...!" Without thinking, Raikage slammed his fist against the table as he stood up. He didn't even register the sound of splintering wood as he took off a good chunk of wood. "How positive are you that she has an Uchiha in her care?"

"One-hundred percent. There's no doubt in my mind that she is with Uchiha Itachi."

He tried his hardest to keep his cool, but the information he was being told did nothing to ease his anger. "Bring her here immediately! One of you stay there to keep an eye on that bastard. Make sure he stays alive for now."

With their new mission, Team Samui left his office. As soon as they were gone, he flipped his desk over into a wall. It seemed he had a little miko to teach a lesson to about lying and harboring wanted criminals.

"Zetsu," Pein said in a calm voice, full of authority. "Have you disposed of Uchiha Itachi's body as ordered?"

Had Zetsu been more human, he would have sighed. "There was a complication..."

The look in Pein's eyes was anything but pleased. "What kind of complication could arise from a dead man?"

"The kind where they're able to walk away." Black Zetsu laughed.

"Uchiha Itachi is still alive?" From the way Tobi and Pein looked at Zetsu, they were not happy at knowing that. The misguided, peace-loving Uchiha was supposed to be dead, if not by Sasuke's hands, then by the hand of his disease. If he still lived, it ruined all their plans. He was the only person who could sway Sasuke's mind easily, he could stand toe-to-toe with Madara, he could give so much information to any hidden village he so desired that could bring them down. This just would not do.

Tobi leaned forward. "What do you mean he was able to walk away."

If White Zetsu had been able to, he would have glared at his other half. "We mean that it appears someone stumbled across the battlefield and dragged away his body. We found one set of small footprints leading to Kumogakure."

"Yes, but it's no secret that Kumo is obsessed with Eye doujutsu," Pain interjected.

Tobi shook his head, "They only want the Byakugan, having no desire for the Sharingan. That means, someone must have found him when he was still clinging to life. He's probably dead by now."

Pein's eyes narrowed. "Given what he managed to accomplish over a few short years, I would not be surprised if he was still alive. Zetsu, take Kisame and hunt him and whoever saved him down. If he is alive and at full strength, bring him here. If otherwise, kill him. One alive Uchiha is enough."

"And what of the person who saved him?"

The leader shrugged. "Kill them. The world doesn't need people like that in it."

She was humming again, that same haunting melody that pulled him back into the world of the living. Itachi was sure if he said something to her along those lines, she would brush it off by saying she couldn't save the living from death. Even though she had. As he was now more alert, he could actually make out the tune of what she was humming. It was something familiar yet completely new. If he had heard it before her, he couldn't remember.

"What's that song?" he asked, his voice still holding a hint of raspiness to it.

She started, stopping her combing of his hair, not expecting her usually silent ward to speak. And she was also nothing more than a bundle of nerves after her meeting with the Raikage. He was a man she could never encounter again and be happy about it. Itachi's senses picked up on her changed demeanor, but said nothing. His were questions for a later date when they knew and trusted each other more than the current doctor-patient relationship allowed. He did owe her a lot, after all.

"It's a song from my home country... Really, just nonsense," she said, giving a tittering laugh that caught Itachi's attention. Once more, he found himself wanting to have the use of his eyes again. One never realized how much they relied on the information from the eyes until they were gone.

"You're not a native of Kumogakure?" he asked.

His caretaker shook her head, a motion he could only hear. "No, I'm from To-... A land that no longer exists."

"It's been years since a country was last destroyed." Itachi was not about to let her little slip-up pass. It seemed she knew so much about him, yet he knew far too little about her. This was his chance to pry, and she was stupid if she thought he was going to let it drop without a question. "I've never heard of a land that starts with 'To'."

He heard her sigh heavily, but it was different from the normal heavy sighs of people. This one carried more sadness and far too much time to be normal. "Because it's most likely been a very long time since it last existed..."

There was a long pause as they both tried to sort through their own thoughts. Itachi was processing the little information that she let slip. While he may be rather useless in the physical and vision department at the moment, his mind still worked perfectly fine, and he was still a ninja, no matter how useless. And from what she said, he had either miscalculated how old her voice led him to believe or she had misunderstood his question and thought he was asking about her clan. For some reason, neither seemed to be the case, but they had to be. What else could it be?

He narrowed his eyes, even though such a thing was useless. "How old are you?"

Her surprise was easy to pick up on, but it was quickly replaced by one of her smiles. Her slender fingers began to comb through his hair again before she spoke, "That's not a very nice question to ask of a woman... But I'm almost twenty-one. You?"

His confusion grew as she shot down one of his theories, leaving only the latter one. Yet, she seemed too intelligent to have misinterpreted his question. "The same. Your clan moved to Kumo?"

She laughed the same tittering laugh from earlier, he supposed it was her uncomfortable laugh. "You sure are inquisitive tonight!"

He shrugged lightly, not having the strength to do much more with his body yet. "This is a world full of strife, forgive me for wanting to know more about my savior who seems too altruistic to be true."

The woman sighed and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry. You're right, you have every right to want to know more about me. Especially since you are a shinobi without the use of your eyes in a place you don't know..."

"Shinobi? That's a very archaic term for one of my status."

She bit down on her lip, knowing she had slipped up. At least his ears worked fine, in fact overcompensation for his lack of eyesight seemed to have already set in. Whether it was from embarrassment or because she knew she had slipped up, he didn't know yet. "Ahh... It... It's just a habit I can't seem to break... I always thought shinobi sounded so much cooler than ninja!"

That caused his lips to quirk up into some sort of small smile. Hearing the embarrassment in her voice over her admission had him thinking about his brother. It was something Sasuke would have said when he was still an innocent little boy. She seemed to sense the sadness that wrapped around him because she tightened her arms around him before letting him go. It caught him off-guard for a second before he heard her settle down in front of him.

"You know, I've been thinking. Here I am, able to see you and trying so hard to get you to trust me when I haven't even asked if you want to see me."

"What do you mean?"

Itachi could hear her smile as she grabbed his hands. "Where I come from, we discovered that those who are blind can see with their hands. Would you like to try?"

The hope in her voice was almost overwhelming. How someone could be so innocent, so hopeful, so full of good intentions at her age in these times was beyond him. After all he had done, and the new chance at living the life he always wanted she had given him, he couldn't refuse. His approval must have shown on him somewhere, because she placed his hands towards the top of her head before letting go. Not only was it a sign for him to explore, but to a ninja it was a sign of trust. She was trusting him to not do anything improper or kill her. Probably because she was too innocent to believe he could.

He could feel the softness and volume of her hair, making him wonder just what color it was. Was it black or brown? Perhaps something more exotic? He trailed his hands down and felt the smoothness of her forehead, the sides of her face. There were no signs of stress or life that would mar a much older woman's brow, but there were laugh lines at the edges of her large eyes. Soft, arched eyebrows and high cheekbones that led to soft lips. A small chin completed the mental picture of his caretaker's face and he found himself believing her when she said she was twenty. There was no way she could be older than that since genjutsu didn't work on the blind.

Her lips twitched up in a smile underneath his fingertips, giving him the perfect image of her smiling. "You can keep on feeling your sight, you know. It's only fair to you."

Itachi wondered if she knew exactly what she was saying, but given her innocent demeanor, he didn't think so. However, he was not about to pass up this opportunity to get an idea as to who she was and what she looked like. He slid his hands down her neck, not at all surprised at how slender and delicate it was. If he had his strength back, it would have been so easy to break it. As he trailed his hands across the rest of her body, he found himself focusing on just how slender she was. He wondered how a woman as tiny as her was able to get him to Kumogakure from Hi no Kuni.

The last part of her that he touched were her hands. He saved them for last because they would be the ultimate answer to a question that had been bothering him since he first woke-up. If she was a kunoichi, then her hands would be rough and calloused from years of training and weapon use. If she was a civilian, they would still be rough though not calloused in the same way, from work and everyday life. Yet her hands surprised him. They were completely soft without a single hint of rough skin from old blisters. They were delicate and feminine, as if they hadn't seen work in years.

He glanced up to where he thought her face to be. "You are a civilian?"

She slid her hands out from his weak grip. "Not technically, just as I'm no shinobi. Truthfully, I don't really know what my status is in this village, just that I'm someone important to the Raikage and his power..."

The way she said those words with such sadness had him wondering more about the strange woman who saved him. He wished again that he had the use of his eyes, so he could fill in more of missing pieces of her puzzle. Before he could think more on it, she pushed him back down on the bed. "You should get some rest, you'll recover faster that way... Before I go, is there anything else you need?"

Just my eyesight back, he thought, but kept that to himself. She took his silence as his answer and started to walk away. Before she could get very far, he caught her hand. "There is one thing... What is your name?"

"Ah... I'm sorry! All this time, and I never told you my name! Gah, I feel so intelligent! My name's Kagome... Higurashi Kagome... And you are?"

He debated telling her his name for a little bit, but he answered, "Itachi."

Sorry about the long wait for a new chapter. But...life happens. Work happens. Death happens. And sometimes it takes a while to find one's way back to hobbies and the things they used to love to do.

As always, please don't be afraid to let me know what you thought of this chapter. Whether you loved it or hated it, I always appreciate hearing it.