A Personal Errand

"Hey, you guys." Dairuko greeted his teammates as he arrived for breakfast.

"Hey, Dairuko." Natsuki and Jiraiya greeted while Itachi just nodded in acknowledgement.

"So what exactly have you three been up to lately?" Jiraiya asked after they had finished breakfast.

"Training." Natsuki said.

"Research." Itachi said as he sipped his tea.

"Stuff." Dairuko said.

"Well you three suck at conversation skills."

Dairuko looked outside then to Itachi. "Yo, Itachi, I need help with something."

"When?"

"Now, 'cause I'd like to get this over with before tomorrow night."

"Alright." Itachi and Dairuko got up "Thank you for the breakfast, sensei." Itachi said and they both left with Dairuko just saying "Yeah thanks."

"Don't worry, sensei, you still got me." Natsuki smiled.

"And that's why you're my favourite, Natsuki… that and you have a nice rack." Natsuki just looked at Jiraiya for a moment.

"SUKEBE!" Natsuki exclaimed as she grabbed a fist full of Jiraiya's hair and smashed his face into the table three times. She then got up and said to the waitress, "He's paying." and walked out.

As Natsuki walked out she ran into one of the few people she didn't expect to run into…

"Tsunade-sama?" Natsuki said, almost not believing her eyes that Tsunade was out of her office.

"Hello, Natsuki, just the person I wanted to see." Tsunade said.

"Should I be scared?" Natsuki gave a slight laugh.

"No, I actually want to get to know you better, Natsuki."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You are Dairuko's sister. No matter happens you will always be his sister and you are an exceptional ninja, but I want to know Natsuki- the person not the ninja."

"You flatter me, Tsunade-sama."

"Come! Let's have a girl's day."

"S-sure."

"What you think, Itachi?" Dairuko asked.

"A little more off on the left side." Itachi scanned the object in question and Dairuko did a combat roll then cut the left side.

"Now?"

"Perfect."

"Sweetness!" Dairuko exclaimed as he took a few steps back to admire his work.

"I never expected you to be much of botanist, Dairuko."

"I'm not done just yet." Dairuko walked toward the perfectly trimmed bush then placed his hand over it and roses of all colours grew.

"How did you do that?" Itachi asked.

"I have no idea how I got it, but it happened after that Ryuzaki mission."

"That mission…"

"Longest fucking mission we were put on. You still don't talk about what happened."

"On that we agree." Itachi said then grabbed a log.

"This is a good place to call home right, Itachi?" Dairuko asked as he carried two logs.

"Sure it is, Dairuko." The two of them let out a deep breath "May I ask why you are building a cabin so far from Konoha?"

"Well, Itachi," Dairuko started then lifted two more logs "I can't be a ninja forever and if I die in battle that's cool and all, but I'd much rather die out here from old age on what's officially my land," Dairuko planted the logs into the ground then continued "that and I can't stay with Natsuki until I die. She was right in saying we needed to do other things outside the team."

"That sounds reasonable."

"I thought that too."

"Dairuko, I have an errand to run tomorrow would you care to join me?"

"Normally I wouldn't mind but c'mon, Itachi. You and me both know who you really want to ask. So I'm gonna pretend you didn't ask me first so you can go ask Natsuki to join you, and should she say no- which I doubt because not only are you asking but it's a chance for an adventure for her- you can ask me again and I will turn you down again because I need to put this cabin through the rings."

"And how exactly do you intend to do that?"

"There's a storm coming tomorrow. Gonna be a big one too, so my suggestion to you is; leave early, get to where you're going, find shelter and wait out the storm before proceeding back home."

"How do you know there's a storm coming?"

"Because, my untrained, uncaring-about-plant-life friend, some plants only bloom before a storm so they can soak up as much sunlight before it hits."

"I'm surprised you of all people know this… thank you, Dairuko."

"Noooo problem. Now come help me finish up." Itachi nodded and the two continued to work on Dairuko's cabin.

After spending the majority of the day busy building a cabin, Dairuko and Itachi returned to the village full of sweat and dirt, their shirts slung over their shoulders, needless to say the stares they were receiving from the females were intense. Both of them thought back to when they walked through the village while Dairuko carried the stove.

"Doesn't this bring back memories?" Dairuko said.

"Yeah, except that now all those girls are staring at us with something closer to lust than amazement... you must be enjoying this." Itachi stated.

"Well if I didn't, then I'd be one step closer to being you." Dairuko smirked "So you going to ask her?"

"I don't have much of a choice do I?" he asked, slipping his shirt back on.

"No."

Itachi let out a sigh as the two continued walking.

They intended to arrive at Ichiraku's on Dairuko's word to get something to drink, instead they found Natsuki and Tsunade having a lovely conversation… at a bar.

"Speak of the two handsome devils." Tsunade whistled.

"Tsunade-sama! Have some decency, he's your son." Natsuki said.

"Exactly! He's my son and as a mother, I can say my son is handsome."

"Well she wouldn't be lying… I mean, look at me! I'm in peek physical condition aaaand I got this killer smirk." Dairuko flexed and demonstrated his smirk.

"Dairuko, shut up. I was just telling Tsunade-sama about our karaoke career." The mention of karaoke caused Itachi to stiffen, so in order to save his friend from embarrassment, Dairuko nudged him forward.

"Itachi has something to ask you, Natsuki."

"You do?"

"Uhm, well yes," Itachi cleared his throat "I have a personal errand to run tomorrow out of town. I was wondering if you'd like to join me?"

"Yes! I mean... Uh sure, o-of course."

"Well... now that we're done with that, Itachi and I will be heading home for some R&R, don't stay out too late, you two." Dairuko smirked and left.

The next day Itachi decided to go pass Natsuki's place and pick her up, hoping she wasn't sleeping off any hangovers, because if Tsunade is anything like Dairuko, she could drink like a fish and feel little to no effect. Natsuki may have a high tolerance but she's easily roped into challenges, at least, in her mind its a challenge. Itachi was about to knock on the door, half expecting to see a still semi-drunk Natsuki but instead saw a fully dressed, sober Natsuki halfway out the door before realising Itachi was standing in front of her.

"Ohayo, 'Tachi... am I late?" Natsuki asked.

"No, I just decided to check on you and see that you're ready and fit to travel." Itachi said.

"Don't worry about me… I'm good." Itachi gave Natsuki a nod and the two left.

Dairuko had decided to hit the training grounds for some exercise when he found Hinata already training there. Dairuko hadn't seen Hinata since that day he had snapped at her.

"Hey, Hinata." Dairuko greeted her.

"Oh, o-ohayo, Dairuko-senpai." Hinata replied.

"Listen, Hinata... I'm sorry I snapped at you and if you'd like, I want to continue training with you." Hinata was silent for a moment then gave Dairuko a nod. "Yoish…go easy on me, Hinata. I haven't trained in a while I might be rusty."

"Hai, senpai." Hinata and Dairuko took their stances and began sparring until Hinata became too exhausted to continue.

"You've gotten better since last time, your footwork is good but you need to learn to fight with your strength, y'know, try to force your opponent out of their comfort zone. Example; fight someone who is exceptional in taijutsu and try and keep them at a distance."

"Senpai, what if both of you are exceptional at taijutsu?"

"That's the trick ain't it... winning battles isn't about who's stronger, faster or smarter it's about who can adapt faster to the situation."

"H-hai."

"But hey, not everyone has greatness thrust onto them but believe me, Hinata, working hard to become great is so much more rewarding," Hinata gave a nod. "oh Hinata, you should probably stay indoors later today. There's a storm heading our way."

"Really?" she asked, looking up at the crisp, clear sky. "Arigatou, senpai."

"You better get some rest as well."

Itachi and Natsuki walked through the forest in silence with the occasional bird chirp or some other animal sound. Itachi suddenly stopped and picked something up, when Natsuki tried to see it he stretched out his arm.

"Here." Itachi said flatly as he held out a flower.

"T-thanks, Itachi… but what's this for?" Natsuki asked as she took the flower.

"It's your birthday isn't it?" Natsuki thought for a moment and it hit her.

"Oh shit! I forgot my own birthday!" Natsuki exclaimed and Itachi let out a light laugh.

"Considering what we've been through you can forgive yourself this time."

"Is that why you brought me…" she trailed off, eyes going wide. "do you have some super-secret party planned for me? Tell me! I'll still act surprised, I promise!"

"I told you, it's a personal errand that I need to attend to as early as possible."

"Fine…"she pouted. "So what's this errand?"

"I require eye-drops."

"I'm sure they have that in Konoha."

"Not the ones I need. These are special eye-drops to help lessen the irritation of using the Mangekyou Sharingan."

"Okay, that sounds important… why did you bring me though?"

"I like the company on journeys like this."

"Well I like company on journeys too."

"Then don't hesitate to ask me to join you."

"I won't." Natsuki said with a smile.

When they arrived Natsuki saw it was just a house in the middle of nowhere surrounded by some strange plants that Dairuko would be quite interested in; before she could touch one of them Itachi grabbed her hand to stop her.

"Some of these are dangerous... do not touch." Itachi said and Natsuki nodded when someone came out.

"Itachi-sama!" the boy called out and Itachi placed his hand in front of Natsuki telling her to wait while he went to speak to the boy.

"A group of bandits kidnapped his brother and took him north." Itachi said as he came back.

"Well then we'd better go after him before the storm." Natsuki said.

"No. I'm going alone."

"Like hell."

"Natsuki, you need to stay here in case they come back for him." Itachi pointed at the boy.

"But-"

"You asked me to trust you with Dairuko; now trust me here… they're just bandits. I can handle them."

"Just... be careful, alright?" Itachi nodded and left.

...

Itachi followed the bandits' trail until the storm started. Dairuko hadn't been kidding, the storm had a serious scare factor -which is just what Itachi needed.

"Hey!" Itachi called out to the bandits. "Let the boy go and you can walk away… refuse, and this will be the place where the scavengers pick meat from your corpses."

"And who are you?" the leader of the bandits said.

"Your worst nightmare." Itachi said and with a flash of lightning he was gone.

"See, boys? He's scared!"

Another flash of lightning crossed the sky revealing Itachi stabbing one of the bandits, then another flash and Itachi was standing between another two and they attempted to stab him, instead, a third flash showed they had stabbed each other. Itachi repeated the process of killing the bandits in the lightning flashes until only the leader remained.

"W-w-what a-are you?" the leader asked, cowering in fear.

"I told you… your worst nightmare." Itachi's eyes turned crimson red with the Sharingan and placed the leader in a genjutsu and left him screaming while Itachi took the brother back home.

...

"About time you got back, Itachi." Natsuki said.

"Its difficult timing kills with lightning." Itachi responded.

"Always going for the theatrics."

"The Uchiha are feared by all."

"So you've said." Natsuki grinned then gave Itachi a hug.

Ayame was unlucky enough to get caught in the heavy rain while looking for some herbs for her father, and the rain made it pretty difficult to see exactly where she was going until she chanced upon a cabin with a light on. Ayame ran to the cabin hoping it didn't belong to some murdering psychopath and knocked on the door.

Dairuko was laying down in bed when there was a knock at the door, although he wasn't expecting anyone to visit. The storm didn't really allow him out of good conscience to ignore the person knocking on his door so went to answer it and was surprised to see, of all people, Ayame.

"Ayame?"
"Dairuko?" they asked in unison.

"Well, get inside before you get sick." Dairuko said and Ayame walked inside.

"Dairuko, what are you doing all the way out here?"

"The better question is, what are you doing out here?"

"I'm here for herbs."

"Well take off your clothes."

"Excuse me?"

"Ayame, you're soaked through and you need dry clothes… Geez, I'm not as bad as you think. Come, I've got a few things you can borrow." Ayame hesitantly agreed and Dairuko let her use his room to get dressed.

"You still haven't answered me though." she said through the door.

"I built this cabin... and I decided to test it out. Thanks to this storm, should there be any compromises I'll be able to fix it quickly."

"That's… smart."

"I thought so too." Dairuko said as Ayame walked out of his room in a pink shirt.

"Dairuko, why do you have a pink shirt?"

"Red and white shirts don't wash well together."

"That's pretty much common knowledge."

"Found that out the hard way." Dairuko shrugged. "Come sit by the fire before you catch cold." Ayame obliged and sat with him near the fire.

"Thanks for taking me in, Dairuko."

"Nah it's nothing really… you want something to eat?"

"You're cooking?"

"Yeah."

"I'll pass thanks."

"Why? I can cook."

"You can't... I've heard the stories."

"What stories?"

"Just show me around and I'll make something we can both eat."

"Okay then, little miss picky." Dairuko stood up and showed Ayame around his kitchen.

"Dairuko, this is so small" she commented as she cooked.

"Well, I never expected to be a host tonight. Maybe one day I'll extend but until that day it will stay this size."

"And when someone wants to see you?"

"No one wants to see me aside from my team, my mother and Hinata if I decide to tell her."

"That's actually quite sad…"

"It's the life I signed up for."

"Would you change it if you could?"

"Change what?"

"Your lifestyle… as ninja I mean."

"Honestly, I'd change nothing."

"Why not?"

"Because I've done some pretty amazing things; saved many people and villages. For that reason, I am a ninja."

"To save people?"

"To protect and avenge the innocent."

"That's noble of you."

"Yeah… I got wine would you like some?"

"That'll go down nicely with the food."

After dinner Dairuko and Ayame sat in front of the fireplace drinking wine while Dairuko told her some of his crazier stories.

"So we're standing there on stage, and Itachi starts his song 'Am I bluuuuue' he was fucking awesome too… but his pride will never let him tell this story." Dairuko said and sipped his wine while Ayame laughed.

"Wow... you three were excellent at karaoke?"

"We were the shit." Ayame laughed and placed her head on his lap.

"Dairuko?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you kiss me that day?"

"... for a large part of my life I loved you and I always wanted to kiss you." Dairuko said and moved a lock of hair from her face.

"What changed?"

"I found someone else."

"I would've waited for you, Dairuko…" Ayame trailed off and fell asleep on his lap.

"I wouldn't want you to." Dairuko had considered trying to form a relationship with Ayame many times but if he ever died, he'd put Ayame through more pain than she needs. Dairuko kissed her cheek before carrying her to his bed where he tucked her in. "Goodnight, Ayame." Dairuko walked to the couch with his blanket and got comfortable.

Itachi walked down the hallway to Natsuki's room, seeing as it was a bit late he was hoping to catch her before she was fell sleep. Itachi saw the door was already open a bit, so he let himself in.

"Natsuki we need to-" Itachi started but instantly stopped and looked away because Natsuki was in nothing but a towel. "I apologise… I'll come back later."

"Itachi, you've seen me in a towel before just talk." Natsuki said.

"Natsuki, ahem I wanted to tell you… more like... confess something to you."

"What's wrong?"

"My vision… it's deteriorating."

"What do you mean?"

"When I use the Mangekyou Sharingan it damages my eyes each time."

"So... these eye-drops don't restore your eyesight?"

"No it just eases the irritation."

"Can't you stop using it?"

"No."

"Why?"

"The process is slow. Depending on how often I use it... " he sighed. "but that's not why I'm here."

"What are you here for then?"

"If I am to lose my sight one day, I want to have this memory of you, Natsuki."

"M-me. What do- what do you mean?"

"Natsuki… I want to see you," Itachi stepped in front of Natsuki, voice low. "I want to feel you." Itachi softly caressed her cheek. "I want to taste you." Itachi placed a gentle kiss on Natsuki's lips. "Natsuki… I want you… I burn for you."

"Itachi, I…don't know what to…" Natsuki whispered, taking a step back. The back of her legs nudged the bed and she sat down on the edge of her bed.

"Just say you'll stay with me .Even when all I see is darkness, I want you to be my ray of light." Itachi crouched down to her level.

"Of course I'll stay with you, Itachi," Natsuki pulled Itachi's head to her chest "for as long my heart beats I will stay with you."

Itachi pulled back just enough to look into Natsuki's eyes, then he brought his lips up to Natsuki's and kissed her softly, slowly. Natsuki unhurriedly pulled off Itachi's shirt and he, in turn, reached for and undid the knot on Natsuki's towel. Outside, thunder cracked and the wind howled mercilessly across the yard of the inn.

Ayame woke with a start at the sound of thunder and decided to wake Dairuko.

"Dairuko-kun…" Ayame said, shaking him gently until he woke up.

"What's wrong?" Dairuko asked, still half asleep.

"Please... lay with me?"

"What?" Dairuko instantly felt all his senses come back to him.

"I'm… afraid of thunder and lightning."

"You are?" Ayame nodded in response. "Alright." Dairuko said then got up and walked with Ayame to bed.

At first they laid back to back but eventually after much tossing and turning they ended up face to face. Ayame however, was already asleep and Dairuko just looked at her wondering what she was dreaming about.

'I wish I could let myself love you Ayame… you're so beautiful with your chocolate brown hair, soft lips and smooth skin.' Dairuko caressed her cheek and she placed her hand over his then opened her eyes.

"Dairuko, do you still love me?" Ayame asked and Dairuko remained silent for a while.

'Yes.' "No."

"I'm sorry asked… goodnight, Dairuko." Ayame took Dairuko's hand off her cheek and turned her back to him.

"I'm sorry too." Dairuko turned his back to Ayame and clutched his chest. 'I'm truly sorry, Ayame.'