Author's Note

Hey! You know, I feel good. I got my first negative reviewer! But their comments have been removed simply because it seems they didn't read the warning. The one right beneath the review responses and above the disclaimer? On every chapter? Yeah, they didn't read it. Kept reading the story to keep finding ways to complain though. I wouldn't have removed them, but since it was just them going 'You're fucked up! I don't like your character because I don't like this story!', I felt it was reasonably justified since there was no actual constructive criticism.

But that's enough about that, there's a story to write! Not going to stop just because of someone who doesn't get the point in the first place. As long as there are others that enjoy the story, one person isn't going to make me feel bad and stop. Now, onwards!

Kurogane Yokaze: Well, I know about a lot of those people, but Yoichi doesn't. But yes, it's pretty much better Hero's Water, and the idea is ridiculous, but there's a reason for it. As for the third heart, I probably could have explained it better, but it doesn't need to be done after first putting both the other two marks on.

Guest: You know, I like you. You read at least enough of the story to be able to leave a review, so surely you saw the warning at least once that's at the beginning of each chapter, and continued to continue reading, just to leave a few more comments. You're a rebel, I like that. But you know, I am fucked up. I probably do need some help. But there are still people that enjoy reading this story, so I'm just gonna keep going. Thanks for the extra views, though!

Warning! This story will contain language, sexual situations, and possibly fetishes that some people may feel uncomfortable with. If you are easily offended or disturbed, don't complain, you've been warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter 22: Knee-Deep Deception

"You know, you could just come back. You've been officially pardoned, the truth was brought out to everyone, and people have been considering you a hero. It's been a month now." Jiraiya said. As per Satsuki's request, since she had not left and there was no sign of Sasuke returning, Itachi was no longer a criminal after a long, boring, and arduous discussion of the true reason behind the Uchiha's downfall. However, while he was allowed to return, Itachi had taken refuge a few miles away from the village.

"I have to make sure there's no one following me." He stated simply, Jiraiya furrowing his brows.

"For a whole month? Surely whoever is after you would have given up by now. Who's after you anyways? The other Akatsuki? Orochimaru? Some other village?" Itachi shook his head.

"I don't know who they are. The leader of the Akatsuki had to figure out a new plan since there is no way to collect all the tailed beasts anymore. I'm not sure what happened, but he seems to have had a change of heart, not minding that I left. As for Orochimaru, I haven't ran into him or any of his subordinates." Jiraiya nodded slowly. Ever since the attack on Konoha, he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. There hasn't even been word of Oto popping up at all either.

"I see… But still, why not come back to the village? Wouldn't it still be safer?" The Uchiha thought for a moment before letting out a sigh.

"I may just be overthinking things. I'll return with you. I believe it's time I finally met with her." Jiraiya understood who he meant. Sasuke and Satsuki were both similar and different in so many ways from what he had heard from Kakashi's reports. Itachi might be able to accept her, or he might not.

As the two exited the hidden hideout where Itachi had been mainly secluded in, they went off to Konoha, not noticing the single figure watching them.

At this point in time, Yoichi started to hate himself for even bringing out one of those scrolls, let alone three. He could only sigh as he looked around him at all the various items and articles of clothing as the girls sorted them out amongst each other. He didn't even think that showing them how much he had earned from his little business would cause them to go on a shopping spree all day. He couldn't tell if they were missing so much stuff, or if they just wanted to buy things for the sake of buying.

Even Satsuki, when she woke up, joined in. While his previous fun with her hadn't affected her too much, she seemed to smile a bit more. So, maybe twice the whole time this went on. Thankfully he had made some improvements to his sealing scrolls, able to put everything they bought into one scroll. However, instead of taking the items out one at a time to sort them, they practically dumped them all out, leading to the current chaos around him.

"Anything orange is Naruko's, right?"

"Who picked this out? It's so cute!"

"Careful with that! It's fragile!"

"Why are these shirts so big? Oh, wait, they go to Yoichi." Hey, he's been gone for two years. He out grew most of his clothes.

Rubbing his temples he sneaked away into his room to collapse on the bed. They'll probably be able to tell what's his and put them to the side. Probably being the key word. Worst part was that he couldn't sit on his couch thanks to the amount of stuff on it. Taking a look at the time, he saw it was getting close to five. As he was thinking about what he should do to pass the time, having been specifically told not to help, his door opened, him moving his head up to see Ino closing the door behind her.

"Is everyone done already?" He asked, Ino shaking her head as she made her way over to him and laid down beside him.

"Nope. Only me and Naruko so far." He raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Naruko's stuff is easy. Anything with orange. You though? I'd thought you'd have the most amount." She shrugged, stretching up a bit.

"I try on clothes all the time at the agency. I just bought a couple things that I knew I liked." He nods, turning a bit on his side to look at her, her doing the same.

"Didn't Satsuki buy the least? In the six places you all went to, I could have sworn she only bought like, four things." Ino rolled her eyes.

"She did, but she's probably hunting them down. I think Naruko's also hiding them. It's really hard to tell, you saw what it's like out there. That's the whole reason I came in here after I saw you sneaking away." Yoichi gave her a playful pout.

"And here I thought it was because you missed me and wanted to be alone with me!" He mock-whined, Ino pouting back.

"Well, I thought you were going to be alone with one of the girls that lived with you first, but you picked the three newer girls!"

"Fair enough. But we're alone now, aren't we?" He asks, wrapping an arm around her waist, turning onto his back again, Ino being pulled on top of him. She let out a small sigh, resting her head against his chest.

"But for how long? You've got seven girls now, including me. Tayuya is going to be with you the most because she's made herself your bodyguard. And then I might be around you the least because I'm either on a mission or working at the agency. I might get a day off every two weeks." He nodded, gently stroking her hair with one hand, the other rubbing her lower back gently.

"True… But with me back, you, me, and Hinata should be on a team again, and we're focused on capture an interrogation, right? Plus, I believe you told me how Temari took my place on the team for a while, so she is probably going to be put in the reserves." Ino nods before pausing, letting out a groan of frustration.

"We forgot to tell Kurenai-sensei you were back, today! She wanted us to go on a mission tomorrow." She rolls off him before jumping up. "I better go let her know before it gets too late." She said, heading out in a bit of a hurry. Yoichi let out a sigh before heading out of his room as well, checking if the coast was clear. Seemed he and Ino had talked a bit longer than he expected, the main room back to normal.

"Where'd everyone go?" He asked aloud, looking around to see most of everyone gone. Temari was the only one still there, reading a book on gardening.

"Ino just left, Kin's cooking, Hinata went to talk to Kurenai about you being back because we forgot, Satsuki got called to the Hokage tower for something, and Naruko and Tayuya went back out to grab a few more things. Something about a surprise." She said, Yoichi taking a seat next to her.

"Well, Ino left to tell Kurenai about the same thing. If we don't want to distract Kin, then I guess it's just you and me for now." She looks at him out of the corner of her eye, turning her body to stretch her legs out, placing her feet in his lap.

"Can't remember the last time that happened. Oh wait, yeah I do, it was only that one time." She sarcastically remarked, Yoichi sighing.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. I just talked to Ino and she mentioned how some of you see me more than the others. I've just been trying to figure things out." She didn't even look at him or respond. He sighed again. "What can I do to help you be happier? Anything at all." That got her attention, lowering the book and thinking.

"Well… to start off, you can rub my feet. They've been killing me for days. And then, this Sunday, you can take me out on a date. Just you and me." He nodded, going ahead to do the first part. "And no chakra!" He hung his head, hoping that she wouldn't say that.

"Alright, alright… Wait a minute, what's today's date?" He couldn't remember the last time he took a look at a calendar. He didn't exactly have a precise schedule. Temari rolled her eyes, hitting him on the head with her book.

"Thursday."

"The?" She sighed.

"Twentieth."

"Of?"

"August." Did she have to say the year too?

"Alright! So then, Sunday, August 23, we'll have that date. Wait, August 23… why does that sound familiar?" Lettng out a groan, she hit him up-side the head once more, harder this time.

"I swear, you wouldn't be able to do anything without us…" She muttered, going back to reading her book. He rubbed his head, feeling it throb from the hit. She was definitely strong. He was about to retort when he heard the front door open.

"Ah, welcome back!" He said, turning to the door and pausing.

"Yoichi Sakata. We need to talk." One Itachi Uchiha stated, Satsuki standing behind him. He stared at Yoichi, sharingan blazing, looking the same as he always did, except his cloak lacked the red clouds symbolizing the Akatsuki and had a new forehead protector.

"Alright, I've got time." He had a bad feeling in his stomach.

"Okay! This isn't the kind of talking I like!" Yoichi exclaimed, dodging a hail of flaming shuriken. Itachi had led him out to an abandoned training ground under the premise of talking with him, but he suddenly found himself under attack. "Can we do the actually talking first so I know why you're trying to kill me!?"

"Where is the God Tree pond?" He questioned, right before shooting a giant fireball at him.

"Okay, doing both at the same time, I guess!" He exclaimed quickly running through a few hand seals to form a wall of rock to defend himself. All he knew was that Itachi was supposed to be very strong, and that he needed to avoid looking into his eyes.

"Answer me!" He heard Itachi behind him, turning around just in time to avoid a kick.

"Whoa, whoa, I will if you give me a chance to answer! I can't run away and talk at the same time!" He didn't want to take his chances against an opponent he knew nothing about, even at home. Thankfully, the Uchiha stopped, glaring at him. He could almost feel his rage. Itachi took a deep breath.

"My anger got the best of me. Now, tell me, where is the pond?" Yoichi sighed, knowing full well what he meant.

"It's gone." Itachi narrowed his eyes.

"Gone? Impossible. You've said yourself it refills." Yoichi couldn't ask him how he knew that. It was a business after all, had to keep buyers interested. He shrugged.

"I would take you there now, but the amount of chakra I would need to use to get there and back in one day would kill me. All I know, is when I went back to refill my supply after running out, it was completely dried up. I even have the Mizukage as a witness when I brought her there to see if she could help, but it's as if the water evaporated. I'll even let you go through my scrolls, I don't have any clue where a single drop can be found." The Uchiha relaxed his guard slightly, not sensing that he was lying.

"Alright, we're getting somewhere. Mind if I ask why you need to know? It honestly isn't that great. The youth portion was still part of the myth. Had a 60-something year old drink some and nothing happened. All it was, was water mixed with chakra." Itachi didn't like that answer.

"You were seen as you drank from it, received a boost in your chakra, and left, hiding it under a genjutsu. Now, where is it?" He asked again, walking closer to him. Yoichi was a bit confused.

"Wait, I just drank it and left, and THEN put a genjutsu over it? That's not right… I didn't put a genjutsu over it until the second time I went there to collect some." Itachi froze, a sudden burst of realization hitting him.

"If that's true, then someone could have taken the water between those visits. There's no way something like that could have been infinite, someone might have used a jutsu! And the person who reported that was-" He was interrupted by a voice nearby.

"Seems we were right to keep an eye on you, Itachi." The Uchiha and Yoichi turned to watch as someone rose from the ground. One half was black, the other white, and split down the middle, with some sort of venus-flytrap around him.

"Zetsu." Itachi finished, getting into a fighting stance. "So, you took it and left behind a fake to trick him, is that it? What did you do with the real water?" The white half of the plant humanoid laughed.

"If only you hadn't left, then you'd know. But then again, you wouldn't have found out what it was. If only you could have been in two places at the same time…" The thing began to laugh again. Yoichi narrowed his eyes.

"Then I did drink from the real pond! So why am I not some superhuman? Isn't that what the water does?" Both halves of Zetsu laughed at him.

"Oh yes, take the legend to heart because you found it. You aren't strong because you are weak, and only the potential to be strong. Which is why it would be best to get rid of you both for knowing too much." Yoichi clenched his fist, him and Itachi about to attack before the noticed figures emerging around them.

"Have fun with your deaths." The two-colored Zetsu said as he sank slowly into the ground, copies of his white half surrounding the two, each with a twisted and gnarled right side.

"You know, this probably wouldn't have happened this way if you didn't take us all the way out here to talk in private. We could have done just better in the abandoned Uchiha district… oh, wait." Itachi glared at him before turning to the small mass of white zetsus around them.

"Shut up and fight if you plan on surviving." Yoichi let out a sigh before rolling his shoulders, getting his body prepared.

"Just promise me that if we survive, you won't give out the secret behind the water I sold. I made a lot of money off of it."

"No."

"Okay, fair enough."

7 Months and 3 Days since Yoichi Left Konoha

"Yoichi, the hell are you trying to pull with this shit? It's just water with chakra!" Mei yelled at him, making him step back and raise his hands defensively.

"Look, look, I know. But, I made you think it wasn't right? I mean, I'm surprised no one thought of this before. I mean, it does make your chakra more potent, because it's being condensed from what you already have. Just can't drink too much of it. And it only condenses if you're at your capacity, otherwise it helps refill it." He explained, Mei glaring at him for a moment longer.

"So, what your telling me, is you want to sell it as if it's some sort of unique water because no one else has thought of this? What will you do if they find out?" Yoichi sighs.

"That's why I want your support on this. It's found near here, so it makes sense that you'll be the first to know about it. Just need to make sure to sell it in small quantities while letting others know that too much at one time leads to chakra poisoning, which is true, and if they call it out for being just water and chakra, we say it has to be else it would be too dangerous." Mei moved back, cupping her chin.

"So, you want to con the other villages for money, and you want my help as a figurehead to support the claims. What do I get out of it?" Yoichi smirked.

"If this goes perfectly, I'm sure we'll be selling plenty. I think I'll only need about twenty percent of the profits, the rest can go to you and Kiri." Mei thought for a moment before smirking back.

"You know, I'm beginning to like you even more. Maybe even offer them a fifteen percent discount if they agree to a treaty?" Yoichi nods.

"Sounds fine by me. First, we go to some of the smaller villages to see how it works. From there, we'll see if it might be worth investing on replicating it."

"Perfect. Now, I've also been wondering, what all can you do with that technique of yours?" She asks, giving him a seductive grin, Yoichi letting out a chuckle, intending to show her exactly what he could do.

Author's Note

That'll be it for this chapter. No smut, because there's been three straight chapters of smut and it gets a bit stale to write if every chapter has it. As it turns out, Yoichi's a bit of a con-man. Why exactly did Mei not turn down the idea, though? Well, would you turn down 80% of profits from something no one else thought of? Sure, may be a bit misleading, but I'm pretty sure their laws aren't the same as ours since murder is practically legal.

How will Itachi and Yoichi handle against the White Zetsus? Probably pretty well. I mean, they're Whie Zetsus. And Itachi's there. Why is Itachi there? Because of events that happened during the time skip. I'll get around to those. Maybe. Possibly. Might forget.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed! Please make sure to follow this story to keep up to date on when I post as I do not have a regular schedule. Also leave a review/comment telling me what you did or didn't like and what you'd like to see more or less of. Any bit helps!

Until next time!

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