Not Sick

by Ser Serendipity

In one world, after defeating his brother, Itachi Uchiha dropped dead, victim of a mysterious disease, and the future of the ninja world was set for the worse. However, in another, Itachi was not sick. From this small difference, many changes will spring, and many plans will be overturned. The path of the last of the Uchiha, and the world itself, will be altered forever.

9. Consultation

Not Sick Chapter 8

Urban Warfare

The streets of Tanzaku Gai were really quite a remarkable place.

On the surface, of course, they were no more impressive than the thousands of streets like them that one could find all across the world. The more open areas of the town, the main thoroughfares, were cobbled, a soothing tan monotony of bricks and compressed gravel.

The back alleys, the purely pedestrian areas, and the hidden corners of the small town were much less pleasing to the eye. They were paved in blank, ugly concrete, long stretches of bland, unmarked street. Ironically, it was these streets, despite their out-of-the-way nature, that were the most traveled.

This was, of course, because the majority of the cheaper gambling halls, brothels, and other such entertaining places were placed out of the way, out of sight; the flood of casual tourists that regularly swept into Tanzaku Gai would have to look to find them if they didn't want to place their money into the hands of the larger casinos.

However, even the least savvy traveler eventually tired of Tanzaku's rather expensive gambling halls, and sought out the less ritzy places. This search carried them into the back-alleys, and thus, despite their unappealing aesthetic, the hardly paved streets of Tanzaku Gai were marked by uncountable footsteps: the only memento of many desperate, lecherous, despairing, or foolish people.

Karin could feel every single one of them.

Most ninja could suppress their chakra presence if the situation called for it. Whether it was to keep from projecting fear, or bloodlust, or normal lust, or a thousand other things that could give a shinobi away, it was a simple task.

Genin learned it in the academy, nearly unconsciously, as their increasing affinity for chakra made them all the more aware that if they listened when their friends weren't regulating themselves, they could feel things.

No child wants their friends, their family, to have a vague idea of their mood all the time. And so, by the time they graduated, it was the rare shinobi that didn't bother to put the minimum effort into concealing their chakra as they went through their life.

Shinobi like Naruto Uzumaki, for example.

To Karin, it had never been enough anyway. She'd always been all too aware whenever people were around her, whether they were projecting or not.

But civilians never even tried. Or more accurately, just didn't know how. It was the rare non-shinobi who was sensitive enough to sense others moods just from their chakra, and so for the most part, those without training tended to splatter their emotions all over themselves and others.

And in this case, the street.

From a distance, Tanzaku Gai had felt like a field of fluttering fireflies, dim due to the distance and their own flickering nature. But up close, it was no longer a field.

Now, it seemed more like a pool covered in tenuous, clinging moss; moss that told a vivid story.

Here had been someone so consumed with anger that looking at the tiny patch of concrete still made a part of Karin's stomach drop in anticipation. There was a slimy patch of lust and impotence: it made her lip curl in disgust.

Behind the redhead, stuck at the head of a hasty patch job that gave a ragged stretch of the middle of the street a paler shade of grey, there was a strange marking of something like fear, but that carried a touch of… hope? Chakra, even hypersensitive as Karin was, could only carry so much.

The redhead likely wouldn't have noticed any of this leftover emotion if she hadn't been stretching her senses to their fullest.

Itachi Uchiha was close.

His chakra was almost overwhelming, in a strange, precise way. It wasn't massive, or bizarre and turgid, like Pain's had been. It was almost worse: a spike, a shard, of ice that sped down the street and drove itself into Karin's chest, making her heart stutter.

As she'd drawn closer to it, the sensation had only become worse.

Karin missed a step as she walked down the street, stumbling forward as the near physical weight of the chilling strike staggered her.

Someone caught her arm.

The redhead looked to her left, giving a shaky smile to Suigetsu as he held her arm. His hand felt strange: malformed, and cool to the touch.

He gave her a toothy grin back, but he looked just as uncertain. He had never seen her react to any chakra like this.

Since his outburst outside the town, he and Karin had traveled in silence. The Uzumaki didn't know how to look at the Hozuki anymore. For the entire length of their time spent together, he'd acted capricious, vindictive; there had been no indication he cared any more about Sasuke than he did about the birds that followed Juugo around.

Now, given how he'd reacted to her attempt to put off retrieving workable eyes for Sasuke, she was sure that had been a façade.

She made her way back to her feet, shaky but standing once more.

Itachi was close, and so were his eyes.

Karin turned a corner, the wall inscribed with crude, colorful graffiti, and she realized that the signature had been far closer than she'd thought.

It was practically right in front of her.

The road they'd been following had branched back onto one of the main streets, the pleasant cobblestoned paths. People of all walks of life, well dressed, barely dressed, old, young, and everything in between, strolled along the thoroughfare.

Several turned to look at the bedraggled young girl emerging from the extra-large alley… and then turned away when they saw the lanky boy hefting an enormous sword standing next to her.

Anyone with a weapon like that was none of their business.

A younger couple lugging a small child, babbling and excited, tugging along a bright green plush frog, sped up slightly. Other's followed their lead.

A tall man with pale skin and spiky black hair stopped talking to a rather portly merchant on the other side of the stall. He leaned back and casually put his back to a wall, beady eyes analyzing the redhead.

Karin didn't care about them, and she knew that Suigetsu definitely didn't.

Her attention was focused on the rather plain, if pleasant, looking building about a block away from her alley entrance. It had a simple wooden entrance with a sliding shouji door, lending it a certain ambience of simplicity and homeliness.

The rest of the entrance was defined by varnished wood and impressively ornate kanji, and in general the whole establishment calmly emanated class.

Itachi's chakra was definitely emanating from there.

But…

"What?" Suigetsu asked, seeing her pause. It was the first word he'd spoken to her since they'd entered the town.

Karin spoke back, hesitant. "It's just… I didn't think he'd be in a place like that, is all."

"Huh?" Suigetsu looked where she was. He snorted. "Well, I'm sure everyone enjoys some now and again."

"Sure, but…"

"Ah, come off it Karin. Sasuke went to plenty while we were with him, right?" Suigetsu walked into the street, and for once Karin was the one following him.

"I guess," she said, trailing after him.

Inwardly, she realized that she shouldn't let her suppositions surprise her so much when the reality turned out to be different.

But she never would have guessed that Itachi Uchiha would have been lurking in a teashop.

It was too… domestic. She couldn't picture one of the last of the Uchiha resting on a tatami mat or in a wooden booth, idly sipping at his tea, delicately holding a plain porcelain cup. It was just strange to imagine someone so lethal doing something so normal.

But, she supposed, Itachi couldn't spend all his time brutalizing his brother and fighting off leaders of S-ranked missing-nin. And maybe he spent that off time drinking tea.

As she and Suigetsu drew closer to the shop, she drew herself closer to Suigetsu.

"You know the plan?" She didn't whisper, but her voice was certainly hushed. Irrationally, she was afraid that Itachi, who she now knew was less than thirty feet away, would somehow hear their conversation.

Suigetsu didn't share the same fear. "Yeah, yeah. Hand me the tags, will you?" He gestured impatiently, and Karin reached into her back pouch, slowly drawing out three slips of rough paper. Two, she handed to Suigetsu.

One, she held onto.

Fuinjutsu was not Karin's greatest strength. That was, of course, her sensory skills and medical jutsu.

But in the modern age of shinobi, being a proper doctor was just as much about seals as it was about chakra control and mending wounds.

Seals to look inside bodies. Seals to stem bleeding when making precise cuts. Seals for more mundane but nevertheless important purposes, such as regulating heartbeats or keeping a patient unconscious; and, more rarely, seals for making sure that someone didn't move while they were being operated on.

Paralysis seals. One of which Karin was handing to Suigetsu.

Karin wasn't great at the art of sealing. She knew enough to get by: more than the average medic-nin did, certainly. Her time with Orochimaru had taught her that at least.

But spending two days, moving at high speed, while doing her best to craft one of the strongest disabling seals she had ever pushed herself to make… it certainly hadn't been easy.

She definitely wouldn't have been able to manage it moving at Sasuke's pace. Even now, Karin felt herself somewhat irrationally hating the small slip of paper that had eaten up so much of her time and chakra.

Though she also somewhat loved it, because it was that tiny slip of paper that would let her and Suigetsu retrieve Itachi's eyes.

The other piece Suigetsu now held was not as esoteric. It was merely a storage scroll, and the moment it was in Suigetsu's hand the pale boy's butcher cleaver of a sword vanished into it. He looked pained, before refocusing on Karin.

"Make sure to place it on his neck," she said, heading for the main entryway. Suigetsu followed close behind her. "It'll work fastest from there."

She reached the door, and bent down next to it, pulling out a canteen and placing it on the ground. She kneeled, and shot a look at Suigetsu, who looked irritated.

"I don't like the idea of just slapping it on him," he said. He began to melt down, his form compressing. The water that made up his body shaped itself into a tinier and tinier cube, his features slipping away as it did. "And I really don't like you carrying me around like this." By the time he said this, he was little more than a hyper-compressed pillar of water, barely a foot tall and two or three inches wide.

Karin unscrewed the extra large water bottle, and Suigetsu obligingly toppled into it. The redhead struggled for a moment to close the bottle back up, before finally managing it as Suigetsu surged down to give her another centimeter of space.

Both seals she had handed him bobbed within, inactive.

One of the few people who had remained on the street after the remains of Hebi had made their appearance blinked, and looked down at the bottle of water he was holding. A horrible paranoia stole itself over him. He threw the water to the ground and ran in the other direction.

Karin, ignoring the onlooker, hefted the bottle, over one hundred pounds shoved into a total space of barely two square feet. Without chakra augmentation, she would have stumbled backwards with the weight. As it was, her arms trembled slightly, before she shoved the bottle in the crook of her elbow, trying to carry it naturally. Her robe hid most of it.

"It'll work," Karin murmured. "Trust me." She heard the Hozuki mutter something from within the plastic – no doubt calling her sanity into question – but dismissed it.

Then, she snapped her head to the side.

There had been a flare of chakra, deeper in the town. For a moment, something slimy had drawn up and out, before snapping back into itself, disappearing completely. Now, there was a void.

None of the civilian signatures around the flare disappeared, and Karin didn't hear any sounds of far off destruction. As quickly as the chakra had appeared, it had vanished.

She stretched herself to the fullest, trying to ignore the pulsing ache of cold from within the shop. But she still couldn't feel anything from where the flare had originated.

Whatever it had been, it was gone now.

Shaking her head, Karin turned back towards the shop. If it wasn't going to affect them or Itachi, then it was none of her business. It was possible there were other ninja in the town, but if that were the case, it just made her current goal more urgent.

And if they were able to hide themselves so completely, it would be best to just stay out of their way.

Though… for a moment, that chakra had felt so familiar.

Taking a deep breath, she placed her free hand on the door and gently pulled it aside.

---

"So… you ready to talk yet?"

Jiraiya didn't answer. He just kept staring out his window, taking in the sight of the Hidden Village outside.

Naruto fidgeted. Ever since he'd gotten back from his rather short conversation with Hinata, he'd been waiting in anticipation for the Toad Sage to acknowledge him. It hadn't been long: only a minute or two. But for that whole minute Jiraiya hadn't turned towards his apprentice, and Naruto was beginning to get impatient.

The Sannin sighed. It wasn't a weary sound; it wasn't much more than a deep breath, and a loud exhalation. Nevertheless, it prefaced a conversation, and Naruto instinctively sat up a bit straighter. Jiraiya turned to him, his face looking tired but his eyes looking younger than Naruto had ever seen them.

He wondered what the pervert and the Hokage had discussed while he'd been gone. He didn't see any sign of Tsunade anywhere; she had left before he'd gotten back. But his sensei seemed much… happier. As if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

It made Naruto feel lighter too. He'd never been gladder that Jiraiya had escaped Pain. Seeing him like this, younger and smiling, was invigorating.

"So… you wish to know the incredible secrets of Sage Mode! The art that gave me, the Great Toad Sage of Myōboko, his incredibly awesome, and not at all contrived, title?!" Jiraiya boomed, before trailing off with small, hollow cough. He rubbed the stump of his arm, but Naruto's smile didn't fade. It would take more than a missing arm to bring down his master.

"Uh… yeah?" Naruto said, letting his amusement show on his face.

"Hmmph," Jiraiya hmmphed. "I don't know. Such an unenthusiastic response… you might not be ready, Naruto. Being a sage is a huge responsibility, you know. You have to have your entrance choreographed down to the last second. Are you sure that you are willing to go to those lengths?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "'Course, Ero-sennin. I'll put together the most amazing, fantastic, awesome, jaw-dropping entrance you've ever seen. Now," he leaned forward, "tell me! C'mon! Is it some sort of jutsu?"

Jiraiya chuckled, before his face straightened out again. His tone shifted over to serious, and Naruto began to give his full attention: it wasn't often that Jiraiya gave him a simple, flat out lecture about something, but he always learned a lot when he did.

"I guess you could say that, Naruto. Though it's more of an… alteration," he said.

"An alteration?" Naruto asked. He was completely invested in the lesson.

"A jutsu, whether it be genjutsu, ninjutsu, or taijutsu, is when a shinobi molds their existing chakra, or influences another's. It doesn't matter if they're doing it so that they can breathe fire, or punch through stone, or change their shape. They are manipulating their own chakra to do it. Even in the case of a genjutsu, when you add your own chakra to another's system to mess with them, you're still using your own chakra."

Naruto nodded his head. He knew all this already.

Jiraiya gathered his thoughts. "So, a jutsu uses up your own chakra. But something like Sage Mode is completely different. Instead of using your chakra, you are altering it."

"Huh?" Naruto wasn't lost; not yet, at least. But he definitely needed clarification.

"It's actually pretty simple when you think about it," Jiraiya said, frowning. "How much do you know about natural energy?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side. It was all Jiraiya needed to know.

"I'd be surprised if you did know anything about it. It's not exactly common knowledge," he conceded. "Simply put, natural energy is the energy created by everything on this world," Jiraiya said. "It doesn't matter if it uses chakra or not. Every plant, animal, person; even inanimate objects such as mountains and dirt can generate natural energy. It's the presence of life that causes it to be created."

Jiraiya hesitated, before shrugging. "Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that, but that's all you really need to know if you want to harness it."

"Harness it?" Naruto asked. He was bent forward again, eager. He could tell this would be where it would become interesting.

"Sage Mode is achieved when you take in natural energy and use it to augment your own chakra; mix it into your system. It makes you much stronger and faster. Your skin can become as hard as steel, and if you're as good as I am you'll start to sense energy around you. Not just natural energy, too. It makes you a fantastic sensor."

"That's awesome!" Naruto was, as always, enthusiastic. "How do I learn it?"

"I learned it from the toads of Mount Myōboko."

"Huh?"

"The ones you have a contract with, Naruto." Jiraiya deadpanned.

"…I knew that," Naruto said, blushing.

"Uh-huh." Amongst other things, Jiraiya was also a master of sarcasm, and at times like this, it shone through.

"So, I just gotta go to the toads and ask them to train me?" Naruto asked.

"It's dangerous training," Jiraiya warned. Naruto frowned for a moment, before his master continued. "I don't doubt you're ready for it. It will hardly be the first dangerous thing you've done. But I'm gonna warn you now: you'll need a lot of patience and discipline if you want to master it."

"Will it make me stronger?" Naruto asked seriously.

Jiraiya blinked at him, a wordless question. Naruto stared back. The Sannin was slightly confused. His student wasn't usually so solemn.

Naruto saw his teacher's confusion, and tried to explain. "I mean…" he scratched the back of his head before he found his voice again. "Listen, Pervy Sage. When Pain came after me…"

He shook his head. "I wasn't good enough. I managed to take out one of his bodies, and I only did that because I let it stab me. I can't exactly just go around getting stabbed over and over next time we meet." He silently chuckled at his own rather morbid joke.

Jiraiya noticed the 'next time', but didn't say anything. After all, it was a foregone conclusion. Nagato was hunting the Jinchūriki, and Naruto was one of them. It was almost certain they would meet again, and it wasn't likely that that meeting wouldn't be a fight.

"So I mean… I need to get stronger. And quick. We were really lucky this time, and no one got too badly hurt… but Hinata and Sakura and Kiba… I mean, I'm basically the only one who met Pain and isn't still in the hospital. So next time, I need to be ready. If Sage Mode is going to help me beat him, I don't care how hard it's going to be. I'll do anything it takes to protect my friends!" Naruto grew more and more impassioned as he went on, and Jiraiya sat back, impressed.

"Well, it'll definitely make you stronger, Naruto, if that's what you're looking for." Jiraiya shifted. "But don't go crazy, okay? It took me a while to get Sage Mode down, and from what you've told me, you dealt Pain a pretty significant blow: you and your friends. He's not going to be ready to pull anything for a while yet."

Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment. "Don't use your clone trick."

"What? Why?" Naruto asked. Shadow clone training was an incredibly helpful, if tiring, tool; he couldn't understand why his master was telling him to avoid it.

"Taking in natural energy is dangerous. Too much, and some pretty nasty things can happen. Until you have the process mastered, I wouldn't rely on your clones. They might speed you up… but the risk wouldn't be worth it," Jiraiya explained. "Like I said: you have time. And you're not afraid of a little hard work, right?"

Naruto wordlessly shook his head.

"So just be a little patient on this one. Trust me. It'll be worth it."

Naruto sighed. "I know."

They sat in silence for a moment, before Naruto spoke up again. He did so slowly; he was almost positive he was going to regret what he was about to say.

"So…" He wasn't stammering, but it was damn close.

"Hmm?" Jiraiya perked up: ears trained by years of perversity detected something in Naruto's tone, and he reacted accordingly.

"Um… there's this girl…" Naruto didn't get to finish.

"I knew it!" Jiraiya crowed triumphantly, uncaring of the pain in his stump.

"What? What?! How could you know?" Naruto demanded, flushing red.

"When you were in here earlier! I know that look anywhere! You were thinking about her!" Jiraiya said triumphantly.

"No way, Ero-sennin! You're bluffing!" Naruto said, standing up.

"No way, kid. You don't call me that for no reason, you know!" He tapped the tip of his nose discreetly. "I've been around a long time; I've picked up a thing or two. So," he leaned back, grinning widely. "Who is it? That pink one? Sakura? You been chasing her a while-"

"I wasn't chasing her," Naruto said, embarrassed. His teacher snorted.

"Yeah, right. You were pining after her. Lovestruck. Besotted. Smitten. I could go on, but you get the point." Jiraiya was still grinning. "So, it's her?"

"Uh… no." Naruto spoke quietly; he was suddenly all too aware of how annoying it must have been to be Sakura while he was 'chasing her'. No wonder she'd hit him. He probably would have too.

"Oh?" Jiraiya said, not actually surprised. If that had been the case, Naruto would have been strutting more, and not self-conscious and unsure. "The Hyuuga, then?"

"Huh?" Too call Naruto's reaction over the top would have been an understatement. His eyebrows looked like they were desperately trying to escape to the back of his head, and his mouth was so wide he probably could have eaten an apple whole.

Jiraiya chuckled. "C'mon Naruto. Don't take me for a fool. Both times you've been in here that 'Hinata' girl has been the first person you talked about. So, spill. What happened? No way you went after her. You're way too brainless for that."

Naruto's face made it quite clear he resented what his teacher's assertion, but after a moment, he was forced to come to the same conclusion.

Fighting? Sure, he could do that. Noticing a crush?

He had a better chance of making friends with the Kyuubi.

"Uh… well…" He rubbed the back of his head again, trying to figure out the best way to say it.

"Spit it out!" Jiraiya demanded. For him, this was extremely serious business. He'd nearly lost hope for his student in the years they'd traveled together. The number of broken hearts he'd left behind… hearts that he hadn't even known had existed.

"She said that she loved me," Naruto muttered.

Jiraiya stopped his antics for a second. "Really?"

"She meant it, too. I went to talk to her while you and baa-chan were doing… whatever you were doing. She's… serious." Naruto was growing redder and redder.

"You actually went to talk to her?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah?" Naruto looked at his master, who was staring at him. He looked impressed. And a little amused. "What?"

"Nothing. That's just much more mature than I would have expected of you, Naruto," Jiraiya said. "I'm glad you did that. So, you two talked?"

"Yeah. It was… I mean, it was nice, but still a little… I dunno. Weird. I don't really…" Naruto hesitated again, before pressing on. "I mean, what should I do?"

Jiraiya opened his mouth. "And I swear, if you say something pervy, I'm shoving a Rasengan down your throat. And then, I'm telling Baa-chan."

Jiraiya closed his mouth. This time, his brow actually creased in thought, and he remained silent for several seconds. Finally, he shrugged.

"I'm not the best person to ask, you know," he warned.

"Yeah," Naruto shot back. "But you're the only one I can ask."

Jiraiya hummed for a second, before throwing his hand up. "I got nothing," he said, still grinning a smile that made Naruto know he was silently laughing at him. "Best thing I can say? Take it slow."

"Take it slow?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah." The sage settled back, readjusting: his arm was starting to ache again. Or at least, the place where his arm should have been. "Get to know each other. Talk more. Find out her likes and dislikes. Hell, go on a couple dates."

His eyes suddenly went wide. "Don't go to that ramen place."

"Eh?! But Ero-sennin-" Naruto whined.

"Naruto." Jiraiya fixed his student with the kind of look that denoted a life or death decision. "Please, for the love of all that is good and kind in the world. Do not take her to eat ramen with you. If she sees how you inhale that stuff…"

The sage shivered. "Trust me. It's a bad idea."

"Alright," Naruto conceded. "No ramen," he said, even though something inside him screamed desperately before he stomped it down. "But… I should just… take it slow?"

"That's what I said, isn't it?" Jiraiya said. "Are you doubting your amazing master?"

"I dunno," the blonde said. "It just sounds too… simple."

Jiraiya smiled. "Sometimes, it is just that simple, Naruto. Trust me. Just spend some more time with her. You'll see what I mean."

Naruto sighed. "Okay. But if this goes wrong, I'm blaming you."

His master snorted. "If this goes wrong, you got no-one but yourself to blame, kid. Don't try to drag me into this thing."

Naruto chuckled, before growing a bit more serious. "Uh… there's another thing I need to talk to you about, actually."

"Oh yeah?" Jiraiya was relaxing again.

"When I was fighting Pain… the Kyuubi talked to me."

Jiraiya stopped relaxing. "It talked to you? You didn't initiate contact?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. It was weird. I mean, normally I have to go to it if we want to… talk, I guess. But then… I was just knocked out, but it was there anyway."

"Naruto…" Jiraiya looked grim. "That's not good."

"Yeah. I thought so. Ero-sennin, is the seal…" Naruto looked just as grim as his teacher; but underneath that, there was undeniable fear.

"It's getting weaker," Jiraiya confirmed. "You haven't been using the fox's chakra, right?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not since I fought Orochimaru. And that was months ago."

There was a moment of silence, and master and student considered the implications of Naruto's conversation.

"I don't get it," the blonde finally said in frustration. "Why is this happening? Why is it getting weaker?"

Jiraiya shrugged. "The Yondaime designed your seal so that you could use the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto. You know that. It leaks its chakra into your system over time. There's nothing you can do about that: no matter how much I tighten the seal, it won't stop some from getting through."

His remaining hand came up, cupping his chin. "But I doubt that he realized that the Kyuubi's chakra would loosen the seal as more came through." Jiraiya refocused on Naruto. "I'll tighten the seal more; but that's only a temporary fix. We're going to have to figure out how to keep the fox in its cage, or else this will just keep happening."

Naruto shivered. "I can't… I won't let it out."

"I know, Naruto," Jiraiya reassured him. "Don't worry: we'll come up with something. You don't have to worry too much now. It'll be months, maybe even years before the seal degrades to that level."

Naruto nodded, his face grim, but worry still gnawed at him internally, and the toad sage knew it.

"So!" he said enthusiastically, trying to distract his student.

"Tell me about this girl."

---

The teashop was crowded.

Karin couldn't understand why.

Itachi's presence was so obvious. How all of these people managed to blithely sit around, drinking their tea and making polite, quiet conversation when something so dangerous was emanating from right next to them…

She would never understand civilians.

Intellectually, she knew that they couldn't feel him. But that didn't make them seem any less ignorant.

As soon as she had opened the door, a woman, older than her but still quite young, dressed in an understated grey kimono that screamed 'service', had made a beeline towards her.

Karin wondered if it was to help her, or to tell her (politely, of course) to leave; even after a cursory effort to clean up, the redhead still looked exhausted, and it was obvious she'd been doing some traveling. Hardly the kind of person that a place like this wanted.

"Hello! My name is Izumi! Would you like to take a seat?" The woman looked Karin over, her nose wrinkling. "Or maybe a bath?"

Oh, they were going to get along great.

"I'm looking for someone." Karin pasted a neutral smile on her face, the kind that said, 'Listen, I may be filthy and tired, but the sooner you help me the sooner I'll be out of your perfect, shiny black hair.'

Izumi apparently understood exactly what the smile meant, because she immediately doffed a similar one. Her voice became unnaturally sweet.

"Of course you are. Who is it?" After a brief pause during which she tapped her lip, she bent in and loudly whispered, "A man, I presume?"

Karin's eyebrow twitched. Violently. "Yes," she bit out.

She shifted Suigetsu minutely. She knew that he was laughing at her in his tiny plastic prison.

"What does he look like?" Izumi's smile had moved from cooperative to shark-like.

If she hadn't been trying to stay somewhat unnoticed, Karin would have punched it off.

"He's tall, but not huge. Rather thin. Black hair…" She struggled for a moment. Itachi could be under a henge, in which case any description she gave of him could be for nothing.

Then again, if that were the case, there was nothing she could do about it.

"Last I saw him, he was wearing a cloak. Also black, with red clouds."

"Oh!" Izumi's hand came up in front of her mouth. "You must be talking about Itachi!"

Karin stared.

'She knows his name?'

Briefly, she considered the idea that Izumi was Itachi, before disregarding it. The Uchiha wouldn't get anything out of impersonating a serving-lady, after all.

Izumi kept talking. "Well, he doesn't wear that cloak anymore. You're here to see him?"

"He's here?" Karin asked. She already knew he was, of course, but apparently Izumi knew his name: and if she knew that, who knew what else Itachi had told her.

"He's practically a regular customer by now!" Izumi confirmed. "He's spent most of the last two days here. I don't blame him, what with his condition, but-" She looked around conspiratorially before leaning in with a grin, "I'm not complaining."

Karin idly wondered if it was just something about Uchiha men. Also…

'Condition?'

"Can you take me to him?" she asked.

Izumi waffled for a second, but Karin knew what her answer would be.

"Sure," she said, and without another word turned and strode deeper into the building. Karin, silently huffing, followed her. Suigetsu quietly sloshed with every step.

They moved past several tables, most of whose occupants did their best to ignore Karin. The redhead didn't really care about that: in her condition, she preferred to be ignored.

Izumi reached the back of the establishment, and Karin was faced with another set of sliding doors.

Private rooms. Unsurprising, really: she doubted Itachi thought it safe to sit around in the open.

People besides Karin were searching for him, after all.

Izumi slid the door open, somehow making it look effortlessly graceful. How you did that by opening a door, Karin didn't know, but it made her hate the girl just a little bit more.

"Excuse me? Itachi? Someone is here to see you." Her tone had lost the false sweetness it had held while she was dealing with Karin. Now, it was genuinely cheerful, and… gentle?

"Who is it?" Karin stiffened at the unseen voice. That was, without a doubt, Itachi Uchiha.

Izumi turned to her, a questioning eyebrow cocked. Karin spoke over her, stepping forward.

"Karin," she said.

She could almost hear the cold smile. "Ah. You've finally arrived."

Karin finished stepping past Izumi, brushing her hand against the doorframe as she did so, and found herself looking at Itachi Uchiha's back. The man was seated on the floor, atop a comfortable looking tatami mat set before a low-lying hardwood table.

Izumi had been correct: he was no longer wearing his Akatsuki cloak. However, the cloak he was wearing was functionally identical to it: simply plain black, with a crimson lining.

There was only one real difference: a hood was pulled up over his head, hiding his hair, and though Karin couldn't see it, she knew it fell before his face, concealing his features.

No doubt another measure taken to keep those he didn't want to find him from doing just that.

As she took another step forward, he lifted a hand. She heard him take a sip from the cup clenched in it.

Itachi set the cup down. "Izumi, if you don't mind, I'd like to talk to her alone." He sounded perfectly pleasant. Karin shivered.

No one like him should be able to mask themselves so well.

Izumi bowed so hard Karin wouldn't have been surprised if it had cracked her back. "Of course, Itachi. Please, just call if you need anything." She smirked at Karin, and then backed away, closing the door as she did so.

It was silent for a moment. Karin stared at Sasuke's brother's back, and Itachi sat perfectly still.

"Please," he suddenly said. "Take a seat." He gestured to the mat across the table from him.

Karin didn't sit down.

Instead, she strode forward, unscrewing the water bottle as she did. Itachi didn't react to the sound.

"So," he said. "What is your plan? I imagine you wish to take my eyes."

Karin grit her teeth, but didn't respond. Instead, she upended Suigetsu, and the seal he was holding, on the Uchiha's head.

The liquefied Hozuki formed a hand into existence as he fell. It held one of the seals. He slapped it down on Itachi's neck-

And the Uchiha disappeared.

Karin blinked.

"How amusing."

She spun around, and found Itachi leaning against the closed door. He was holding his tea again, and he took a sip as he watched her, his eyes unseen beneath the hood.

There was a puff of smoke behind her and a muffled splash. Suigetsu had retrieved his sword from the storage tag. Karin could feel him reforming.

The redhead didn't move. Itachi cocked his head. "That was it?" he asked. It sounded like an honest question.

There was a sudden hissing noise, and the Uchiha stilled.

Karin grinned.

Itachi dropped his tea.

The door exploded.

Not inward or outward, in an eruption of wood and paper. The sliding door literally detonated. The tag Karin had affixed to, the third one, which she had held onto, did its job admirably.

Itachi nearly managed to escape the blast despite having less than a second of warning. He threw himself to the side, away from the negligible shrapnel and shaped chakra.

Still, an arm of his cloak was shredded, and he started bleeding from his right leg: a piece of wood was buried in it.

His cup of tea was caught in the wave of force and shattered, an unusually clear sound in the cacophony of the explosion. The fragments were thrown into the far wall, narrowly missing Suigetsu. What was left of the tea splashed there as well.

Suigetsu finished reforming, and hefted the Kubukiribōchō over his shoulder.

Itachi rolled to his feet, the hood falling back from his head.

There was a moment of silence as the Uchiha rested on one knee, looking towards Karin and Suigetsu who both stared back, astonished.

Karin sucked in a breath.

The patrons of the teashop began screaming.

Karin barely paid them any attention.

Itachi eyes were gone. There were just empty sockets in their place.

He was undeniably blind.

"What the fuck?" Suigetsu, as ever, made his feelings on the new development quite clear.

"What… did you do?" Karin asked, astonished. She'd never thought this would have happened.

Taking Itachi's eyes: yes, hopefully.

Finding that they were gone when she found him: never.

"I," he said almost ruefully, "was enjoying that tea." Then, he shook his head.

Karin continued to stare.

"I removed them, of course," Itachi calmly stated, as if he hadn't said anything. He was still looking- no, not looking, because he couldn't see, he didn't have anything to see with - right into Karin's eyes.

"Where are they?" she asked desperately, having to speak up over the sound of the shop emptying. The tourists had clearly decided that there were better places to have their tea.

Itachi cocked his head. "In Konoha, of course."

Karin froze. "What?"

Itachi spoke relentlessly, giving her no time to think through what he had said. "I removed them after the fight with Pain. Then-"

Suigetsu rather abruptly interrupted him. "Do you still have Sasuke's?" He grinned.

Itachi, unaware of the Hozuki's intimidating teeth, wordlessly reached into his undamaged sleeve and withdrew a familiar looking jar.

Karin felt a chill go down her spine. She had nearly destroyed Sasuke's eyes. If the tag had been placed just a foot or so to the left…

Her thought process was cut off just as abruptly as Itachi's words had been when Suigetsu charged, his blade pulled back for a decapitating strike.

"Suigetsu-" Karin yelled. They needed Itachi alive! His eyes-

'Wait.'

'Itachi's eyes are gone. He did it himself.'

'And now they're in Konoha.'

Karin's eyes went wide. "Don't!" she finished her shout.

Itachi watched Suigetsu come for him, staring at him as if he could see, even without eyes. After a moment of consideration, he ducked, the blade whistling diagonally over his head.

Suigetsu followed the motion, setting up for an overhead chop, but Itachi jumped back as it fell, moving him into the shop's main sitting area. The blade made a miniscule cut in the material over his shoulder, but didn't touch his skin.

Karin stepped forward as the Hozuki did, spinning into another strike. "Suigestu, stop!" she yelled again, but the boy barely listened.

The Kubukiribōchō came in sideways, intent on biting into Itachi's side as the Uchiha regained his footing from his dodge. The blind man stilled, before snapping one arm up and leaning back in the same motion.

His palm hit the underside of the blade, forcing it up, and it shot over his head, snipping away hair. The Uchiha spun and planted a foot in Suigetsu's gut, sending him flying back. He struck a table and liquefied, his top half sliding along the top and his bottom half under.

Suigetsu emerged from the other side of the table whole once more, his butcher's blade hefted in a ready stance.

Karin reached his side at the same time and slapped him hard enough to liquefy his head, rather ruining the image.

"Hey!" he managed to burble as soon as his head reformed. "What was that for?!"

"Stop fighting, you idiot!" she yelled. There was a moment of calm as Suigetsu stared at her, uncomprehending, while Itachi remained motionless.

Karin turned to the Uchiha. Sasuke's eyes were still in his hands. She forced herself to not look at them.

"You gave your eyes to the Leaf?" she asked, her voice firm.

"Yes," he answered calmly. She hated that.

He was blind. How could he be so composed?

"Why?" she demanded.

"For Sasuke, of course."

Karin rocked back on her heals, and Suigetsu's mouth dropped open. His sword slowly dropped to his side.

"You gave Sasuke your eyes?" Karin didn't understand. Not at all. "But… he wants you dead. You want him dead! Why- I don't-"

"I have never," Itachi murmured, "wanted Sasuke dead."

"Oh yeah?" Suigetsu stepped forward, the Kubukiribōchō raised once more. "Funny way of showing it, then."

Itachi didn't respond. The sound of people fleeing down the street had finally died down, and it absence made the silence all the more apparent.

"I need his help," he finally said.

"And so you took his eyes?" Karin said, scoffing. She was careful to stand behind Suigetsu: the Uchiha had proved himself dangerous even without eyes.

"Yes." Itachi was completely sincere. But Karin's doubt only grew.

"It is a secret of the Uchiha. A way of strengthening the Sharingan; through the exchange of two sibling's eyes." Itachi kept talking, raising the jar that held Sasuke's eyes as he did so. "Why do you think I took them with me, instead of simply destroying them? You're a medic-nin: I'm sure you had suspicions."

So she had been right. Itachi wanted her to implant Sasuke's eyes in him. But…

"You… you're trying to make Sasuke stronger?" she said. It didn't make any sense. Why had he brutalized his brother like he had, then?

"As I said: I need his help." As always, Itachi didn't give any indication to his emotions. Karin wondered: if he was telling the truth, did he feel guilt?

'No. He's probably below that.'

"With what?" Suigetsu asked, suspicion clear in his tone. His voice broke Karin out of her momentary musings.

"The true leader of the Akatsuki is an Uchiha. He and I have… a history." Itachi shook his head. "He needs to die. But I can't hope to attend to him by myself. I'll be needing my brother's assistance."

That would be the masked man, then. What kind of 'history' did he and Itachi share? Hadn't Sasuke's brother killed his entire family?

And if he hadn't, how had Sasuke not known about this survivor? Did Itachi want him dead to make a clean sweep?

But then why empower Sasuke?

Karin remained silent while Itachi finished, as questions swirled through her mind.

"So, what, you're just conscripting Sasuke to help you take this guy out?" Suigetsu spoke up again. "You think that if you power him up, he'll just drop everything and help you?" Suigetsu chuckled, aimlessly swinging his sword in what he imagined was a menacing manner. "If you haven't noticed, he's kinda focused on killing you. And I doubt ripping his eyes out has endeared him to you."

Karin wondered when Suigetsu had learned the word 'endeared'. Maybe spending time around Sasuke had been better for him in more ways then one.

Itachi shrugged. "I'm confident I can change his mind, if only for a time." And then his face grew hard. "But you don't need to concern yourself with that. All that matters here is the question of what will be done with these." He gestured to Sasuke's eyes with his scuffed hand.

"I would like you to give me Sasuke's eyes, Karin."

"No!" she responded, without even considering the possibility. How could this man even believe she would help him, after what he had done to Sasuke?

Itachi didn't flinch. "I would urge you to reconsider."

"In what world would I help you?" the redhead hissed.

Itachi sighed. "Please, think. I have not harmed Sasuke; not permanently, as least. In fact, he will be stronger than ever, in due time. And I have not wronged you personally. There is no reason for you not to help me."

He was so cold. How could he not understand that taking Sasuke's eyes had set Karin against him? How could he not understand how monstrously cruel that had been to his brother?

And not just that... "And how the hell can you know he'll get your eyes, huh?" she yelled, no longer worrying about her composure. Her chest felt heavy. Everything was going wrong.

And… there was something slimy in her mind.

'What is that?'

Concentrating on the bizarre, slick chakra that had suddenly made itself apparent to her senses, Karin nearly missed Itachi's answer.

"He will." The Uchiha spoke with absolute certainty. "I have ensured it."

"Really?" Suigetsu glared at the elder Uchiha. "And what have you done to fucking 'ensure'-"

Karin's eyes went wide, and the rest of Suigetsu's bitter words became muffled, as she turned inward, focusing. The slick chakra had suddenly been joined by a monstrous, echoing one. It felt like the sea, swirling into an infinite abyss.

It and the slime had clashed against each other for a moment; and now both were approaching her position rapidly.

"-'cause I don't fucking think that a-" Suigetsu was still going, Itachi watching him with a stoic expression, when Karin finally opened her mouth.

"Get down!"

Itachi went down without hesitation, cradling Sasuke's eyes beneath him. He hit the wooden floor, and put his burned arm over his head.

Suigetsu turned towards Karin with a confused expression on his face just as she threw herself to the ground, beneath one of the tables.

"Wha-" was all he had time to say.

The wall behind him exploded.

Not like the door had when Karin had placed the tag on it. The wall bent inwards for a moment, futilely fighting the pressure lain against it, if only for a moment. Its resistance was so brief that it was imperceptible. And then, it shattered, chunks of concrete and wood throwing themselves away, filling the world with deadly shrapnel.

The vast majority of it missed both Karin and Itachi. Safe on the floor, the mild hurricane of debris rolled over their head, blowing their hair back and shredding Itachi's hood, but leaving both of them mostly unharmed.

Had Suigetsu, who had remained standing, been anyone other than a Hozuki, he would have been so dead that the very definition of 'overkill' would have had to be expanded.

Fortunately, he was a Hozuki, and so instead of dying a horrifically messy and unexpected death, he was merely rendered down into a decently large puddle, one that splattered itself over a couple meters of what had once been a rather respectable teashop, but was rapidly turning into a perfect example of why urban warfare was avoided throughout the Elemental Nations.

Two figures entered along with the debris that had once been a wall, grappling with each other.

The first was a tall man with spiky black hair and blue skin wearing a non-descript black cloak who held a mass of bandages from which protruded dozens of hungry-looking spikes.

It was unmistakably Kisame Hoshigaki.

The second was a leaner, paler man. He was also in a black cloak, but that was where his similarities with his attacker ended. His features were delicate, but blunt: he looked more like a doctor than a fighter, a look that was accentuated by the oversized round-rimmed glasses he wore.

This man had gone by many names over his life. Most of them he'd chosen for himself.

But he had always preferred the first one that had been given to him.

Kabuto.

The two men slammed to the floor amidst the rubble, and there was a flurry of motion. Kisame struck first, darting forward and crashing his forehead into Kabuto's, rocking the smaller man back with the force of the blow.

But Kabuto responded almost immediately, slashing his glowing blue hand across the arm that held him.

Kisame's arm fell limp, and Kabuto slithered from it, his body elongating bizarrely. Kisame struck at him with his other limb, but the angle was too awkward and he barely grazed Kabuto's face.

Rolling along the ground away from the large blue man, Kabuto sprang to his feet, one hand relaxed but ready at his sides, and the other adjusting his glasses farther up his nose. A casual smirk was already making its way onto his face.

In the same moment, Kisame rolled backwards, sweeping his squirming sword from the ground and regaining his feet in the same motion. He settled into a ready stance, the blade set horizontally in front of him, and grinned. His left arm hung slack: Kabuto's touch had disabled it.

Karin looked up. Itachi didn't, but he did pull himself to his feet, forming a rough triangle out of him, Kisame, and Kabuto.

As he stood, he slid Sasuke's eyes along the ground towards Karin, who grabbed them with both hands, a shocked look jumping onto her face.

Suigetsu squirmed on the ground, tiredly reforming. If he'd had a mouth, the sheer amount of horrifying curses would likely have melted all of the teashop's occupant's ears.

And so, five seconds after Karin had given her warning, a formerly well-put-together teashop was in need of drastic and costly repairs, two of the most dangerous missing-nin in the world were facing off against the apprentice of another, and Karin found herself more confused than ever.

"Kabuto?" she gasped, pulling herself from beneath the table, wincing as she did so: a fleck of stone had grazed her arm, and opened up a shallow but lengthy cut. It was already healing, but it stung viciously.

The pale man languidly turned his head towards her, and his smirk grew into a shining grin as it did. "Karin," he said, sounding perfectly cheerful. "How surprising to find you here."

'Kabuto," Karin said again, her voice dropping from questioning into disgusted, "what did you do?"

She wasn't asking about the wall of the teashop, though that probably would have been a reasonable question.

Her horrified response was directed at Kabuto himself: specifically, the scales that crept up onto his face, moving from his left arm. They were cracked, flaking… but they were clearly intact and alive, and they lent that side of his face a bizarre chapped look.

Snake scales. And, as Karin stared, she saw another disturbing feature.

Kabuto's left eye was yellow, the pupil vertically slit.

He looked just like Orochimaru.

"Oh, this?" He gestured casually at his face. "Just some… improvements." Kabuto's grin was vanishing, and the smirk was returning.

But unlike before, this smirk was cruel, and psychotic. The former Leaf ninja's eyes burned with cool madness behind his glasses, and Karin took a step back. Suigetsu finally finished reforming behind her, and she bumped into him as he did.

"Huh," he flatly said, reaching down to retrieve his Executioner's Blade from the floor as Karin moved to his side. "That was annoying."

"And the Hozuki too!" Kabuto truly sounded delighted, even as he bit out the consonants in Suigetsu's name with unneeded precision. "Wonderful! There are so many tests we must catch up on!"

Suigetsu stiffened. But before he could open his mouth, Karin spoke again.

"Why are you here?" she demanded, trying her best not to give any hint of the fear she felt. Kabuto's chakra was twisted, slimy; he no longer felt at all like a human being.

The man in question lowered his head, his glasses glinting in the sunlight that poured in through the recently demolished wall. "Not for you, I promise," he said, though every syllable somehow sounded more deceitful than the last. He jerked his head towards Itachi, who had finally deigned to raise his own.

The motion, rapid and without warning, looked distinctly inhuman, and tossed Kabuto's matted hair about, revealing more scales higher up on his temple.

"Just him."

"Hm." Itachi spoke. "Kabuto Yakushi." He did not sound surprised. "Come to avenge your master, I presume?" Kisame, who had remained silent, grinned.

Kabuto giggled.

Itachi frowned, while Karin took another step back. Suigetsu just snarled and pushed forward, making a square out of the triangle the missing-nin had formed.

Soon, the giggling escalated into manic chuckling. And then, Kabuto threw back his head, stretched his mouth farther than any ordinary jaw could go, and began laughing hysterically. The sound was deranged, and run through with a hissing note, one that made itself apparent in the beat between exhalations.

Itachi shifted, shuriken falling into his left hand. Kisame and Suigetsu both raised their swords.

Karin looked down, and found her foot pressing a familiar piece of paper to the floor. She immediately bent to pick it up, not taking her eyes off any of the others in the room.

Kabuto finally wound down, bring a hand up to wipe at his eye. "Heh." He let out one last deep chuckle. And then, he snapped his head towards Itachi, his eyes wide. "You think Orochimaru-sama is so easy to destroy?!" he hissed.

Itachi made no response, but that didn't deter Kabuto from continuing. "You cannot dream of the power he has!" he said, clenching his left hand and staring at it, fascinated with the play of veins below the surface. "He is immortal! One so weak as you could never hope to kill him, with your limited perception!"

He threw his hand aside, glaring at the Uchiha, before shifting his inhuman stare to Karin. "You can understand, can't you?" He sounded almost pleading, and it only made Karin back farther away from him. "Why I would want, need, that kind of power? How else can I remain in this empty world long enough to-!"

He froze, his eyes twitching in their sockets before he slowly closed them. Kisame and Suigetsu traded glances, before realizing it and quickly looking away. Kabuto took a deep breath, his left hand tightening, and when he opened his eyes again they were flatter.

"I apologize," he said flatly. "I am still… adapting." The familiar smirk returned, and Karin didn't know whether to be relieved or more frightened. "That was… unprofessional." He turned back to Itachi.

"Itachi. I'm sorry to have burst in on you like this. Truly, I only intended to check in on you. It appears my impulses got the better of me." He sighed. "Ah well. I won't be making that mistake again."

Kabuto peered closer, frowning. "Hm. A shame about your eyes. Although…" His head whipped towards Karin, and his tongue darted out.

The redhead flinched. "Is that Sasuke I smell?" Kabuto asked. Karin looked down, and found the jar containing his eyes still clenched in a death grip in her hand.

'He can smell them through the container?'

"How morbid," Kabuto grinned. "I believe I understand now, Itachi. I must commend you for your… ruthlessness."

"I did what was necessary," the stoic Uchiha said, and Suigetsu snorted.

Kabuto raised an eyebrow. "Justification?" he chuckled. "How you have fallen. To think Orochimaru-sama still wants you as a vessel…"

"Enough of this." Kisame stepped forward. "While I'll admit this has been amusing, and I particularly enjoyed that laugh of yours," he grinned, "this is the part where you die, and Samehada eats what's left."

Kabuto coldly chuckled. "Funny," he said. "I was about to say something similar." He made a simple one-handed sign.

Three massive snakes burst from the floor of the teashop, brightly colored with jaws wide, and flung themselves towards Kisame.

"Hah!" He flung himself forward, swinging his sword and slamming one of the summons to the ground with a brutal blow. "About time!"

Things escalated quickly.

Karin jumped back, distancing herself from the fight. As she did, Suigetsu charged straight at Kabuto, pulling his sword back for a blow that would slice the snakelike man in two. Itachi flung a trio of shuriken forward, spaced awkwardly, and began running through signs.

He took a deep breath.

Kisame continued to entertain himself with the oversized summoned snakes. Their hisses had rapidly moved from menacing to panicked.

Kabuto grinned, barely raising the corner of his mouth, and moved.

He jumped, horizontally spinning into the air, neatly dodging two of Itachi's shuriken as they shot below him. The third, set to strike him just behind the ear, he caught by guiding his left hand's pinky into the circle at the center of the star. His foot also came up, and crashed into Suigetsu's face, obliterating the Hozuki's features.

Kabuto released the shuriken from his pinky at the same time, sending it flying directly towards Karin. She yelped, and threw her arms up in front of her face. The ninja star dug into her forearm, and she winced as blood began to run down her arm towards the paper she clutched in her hand.

Both of her forearms were now slick with a thin layer of her own blood.

Suigetsu came on, uncaring on the blow the head, but also unable to completely alter his blade's path to account for Kabuto's new elevation.

So instead, he let go of it.

The Kubukiribōchō flew out of Suigetsu's hands, slicing through the air below Kabuto like a runaway windmill. It sliced away a decent amount of material from the back of Kabuto's cloak, missing his body completely, before burying itself in one of the shop's intact walls, sticking fast.

Kabuto's eyes widened behind his glasses; Suigetsu bared his teeth. He thrust his newly freed hand forward into Kabuto's face.

Suigetsu's hand, already lumpy and lacking definition, struck Kabuto square in the face and liquefied, spreading itself over the man's features.

"Gotcha!" he snarled.

Kabuto landed and jumped back, getting away from the Hozuki. The water on his face, however, began to squirm and move of its own accord. Rushing forward, it began to try and shove itself down the man's throat, or push itself beneath his eyes.

Kabuto made an annoyed noise, and a thick yellow material began to speed over his face, keeping the water from suffocating him or invading his eye sockets.

Karin stared. She recognized the material.

'That's… chitin. Like Kidōmaru's!'

What little was left of Suigetsu's water on Kabuto's face retreated, making its way back to where it had come. Kabuto stared forward, most of his head encased in the dull yellow chitin, blocking his vision.

But not his hearing.

Itachi Uchiha exhaled the deep breath he'd taken merely a few seconds earlier.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu."

The Uchiha's grand fireball incinerated a table in between him and Kabuto. The man twitched his head towards the oncoming conflagration, and began making signs even as the chitin around his head cracked and fell to the floor.

"Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" he said as his face finally was completely uncovered, and a volley of water shot from his mouth, shaped in image of a dragon.

The dragon and the fireball collided and destroyed each other, filling the room with steam. Karin's glasses fogged over, and she squinted, trying to get a better look at whatever was happening.

The slimy chakra surged, and her eyes went wide.

Kabuto flew from the opaque mist straight at her, his mouth set in a crazed grin, and Karin screamed.

He struck her and flowed around her, and in less than a second Karin was secured in a tight hold around her neck. Kabuto could kill her with the slightest twitch of his arm. He stood behind her, and she could here his breathing, harsh but leveling out.

There was a murmur, and the steam burned away, revealing Suigestu, Itachi, and Kisame all standing nearby. The Hozuki's face was twisted in rage, while Kisame looked delighted, covered in blood that his sword eagerly licked at.

Itachi looked calm… but Karin could feel his chakra, and from that, she knew he was agitated.

Why would he be worried?

"Now, Itachi," Kabuto said, and Karin could hear him grinning. "Please, carefully consider what you do next. It would be a shame to kill someone as… unique as Karin."

"Let go of her, you slimy son a bitch," Suigetsu hissed, but Kisame's hand clapped down on his shoulder before he could do anything else.

The boy turned around, ready to verbally tear into the larger man, and Kisame punched him in the face hard enough to turn most of his upper body to liquid. He bent down towards Suigetsu's lower body, which crumpled into the puddle.

"Hey," he grinned. "Don't get so worked up." He straightened up, turning to his partner. "Well?" he asked. "What do we do? I'm pretty sure you need that girl, Itachi."

"Kabuto," Itachi said. "I would appreciate it if you released her."

"Oh?" Kabuto cocked his head to the side, amused. "And what would you be willing to-"

He froze, his mouth remaining open, mid-speech. His eyes darted down to Karin, still secure in his grip. She looked up at him, and smirked.

She drew her hand away from the hole in the back of his cloak… and the patch of flesh it exposed, directly over his spine.

Kabuto's eyes tried to narrow, failed to do so, twitched horrifically, and then he fell backwards, Karin gracefully stepping from beneath his slack arm. The man toppled to the floor, landing without an ounce of grace, and stayed there.

Karin bent down and wiped the blood from the cuts on her arm on the lower part of Kabuto's cloak. He didn't react.

Suigetsu, who had managed to pull himself back together once more, stared, along with Kisame. Itachi seemed to be surprised as well, however much of a minor miracle that may have seemed.

"What?" Suigetsu asked, before chuckling loudly. "What the hell?"

Karin smiled, and kicked Kabuto over onto his side in response.

The tag she had handed to Suigetsu, something that had seemed like hours ago but had barely been ten minutes, sat upon Kabuto's spine.

As soon as he saw it, Suigetsu moved straight from chuckling to full blown laughter. And despite how evil it sounded, Karin couldn't help but quietly and exhaustedly join him.

"Heh," Kisame got in on the act, even as his toothy grin grew wider. "Didn't see that coming," he chuckled.

"What happened?" Itachi asked mildly, and suddenly Karin was aware that despite how well he masked it, the Uchiha was blind. He couldn't see the tag.

"Your little medic paralyzed him. Looks like some kinda tag," Kisame said. "Pretty nice, I gotta say."

"Hn," Itachi grunted. Karin almost felt like sighing. Whatever else he was, he was certainly Sasuke's brother.

Suigetsu, still laughing, moved to retrieve the Kubukiribōchō. He yanked it from the wall, and turned back to Kabuto. "Okay," he said, done laughing.

"I'm gonna kill him now."

"Hey, hold up," Kisame said. "Who says you get to kill him?"

"I do," Suigetsu said, completely serious. He strode towards Kabuto, hefting the Executioner's Blade over his shoulder. "It's simple. I called it: so I kill him. Plus," and he became rather grim as he said this, "he and have some unfinished business."

Kisame looked to Itachi, who was frowning. He shrugged. "What do you think, Itachi?" he asked, not really sounding like he cared what the answer would be.

"I believe," the Uchiha said slowly, "that he may be useful."

"Hm?" Kisame wordlessly asked.

Karin felt something behind her; a spasm of chakra.

She jumped forward, putting herself closer to the rest of the group, and they all stilled, watching her.

Then, there was a sickening, liquid noise, and all attention was redirected to Kabuto.

The man's mouth fell open, growing wider and wider, impossibly so, and something began to push itself up out of the depths of his throat.

The glint of glasses became apparent.

Suigetsu's eyes widened. "Oh what the fuck-!"

Kabuto burst from his own body, squirming across the floor of the teashop, writhing away from the group. He spun around, his teeth bared, and Karin saw a flash of elongated fangs.

The shell of himself he'd left behind, with the tag still affixed to it, slowly decompressed, falling flat and beginning to melt into an odorless, colorless skim upon the hardwood.

"Impressive," Kabuto spat out. "I underestimated you, Karin." He grinned, becoming genial once more, even as he stared up at them from the floor, spread out on all fours. "One more thing that I'll be sure to keep from happening again."

He straightened up, standing on his feet again. "Now, while this has been fun, I'm afraid I can't afford to play with you anymore." He shot a look at the Uchiha. "Itachi. I'll be seeing you again."

Then, before anyone else could react, he brought his hands up in a single seal, and caught fire. Starting from his feet and burning rapidly upward, the flames consumed him completely, leaving nothing behind.

And so, a moment later, Kabuto was gone. And so was his chakra.

Karin blinked. So did Suigetsu.

Kisame just grinned. And Itachi…

Itachi sightlessly watched the spot where Kabuto had once stood, before sighing heavily and turning to Kisame.

"So," he asked, "what happened?"

Kisame didn't look at Itachi. He was busy moving his arm around; trying to figure out how to undo whatever Kabuto had done to it. "Little snake ambushed me outside. And I was keeping a low profile like you asked, Itachi. Hell," he smirked, gesturing at Suigetsu and Karin, "they walked right past me. I don't know how he figured it out."

"Or why he attacked," Itachi murmured.

"How did you hide from me?" Karin asked Kisame, curious beside herself. She doubted he would respond at all.

He turned to her and grinned; making it clear that Suigetsu was still an amateur when it came to using his intimidating teeth. He waved his sword high with his working arm. Its mouth was still visible, and its tongue flipped out for a moment.

"Samehada," he said proudly.

"You used your sword to hide yourself?" Karin raised an eyebrow.

"Heh." Suigetsu laughed. "I never even thought of that." Karin turned to him, and he answered the unspoken question. "Samehada eats chakra. I bet Kisame had it gorging on him. And it's probably why this place is still standing at all."

"Ah, you flatter me, brat."

Suigetsu grinned at Kisame. "I'd be stupid to underestimate someone who could use Samehada at all, you know."

Itachi shifted, and the subtle motion shut down all conversation in the room. He looked towards Karin.

"You still have Sasuke's eyes?" he asked.

Karin calmly brought them up. "Of course." She'd been careful to make sure Kabuto hadn't had a chance to grab hold of them when he'd taken her hostage.

"Where were we?" he asked. If Karin didn't know better, she'd think he was trying to be funny.

"I'm pretty sure I was just telling you I would never give you Sasuke's eyes," Karin said.

"Oh yes." No, he was trying to be funny, in some horribly opaque way. Karin didn't know whether to find it amusing or sad.

"Hm… What could I say to convince you?" he asked. "I would prefer this be done without coercion, after all."

Karin stared at him for a moment, suddenly aware that however agreeable he and Kisame had been for the past few minutes, they were still incredibly dangerous criminals. In retrospect, she was astounded Itachi had asked her at all.

"What would you say to convince me?" she asked.

"Simply that everyone benefits from you doing so. I would regain my sight, you two would have a powerful missing-nin in your debt…" Itachi said. Karin was still doubtful.

"Let's say, purely hypothetically, that I implant Sasuke's eyes in you," she said. Suigetsu shot her a disbelieving look. "What happens to us? What happens to Sasuke?"

Itachi made a thoughtful noise. "You would have to remain by my side after the implantation process."

Karin sucked in a breath, and he put up a hand disarmingly. "No more than a week or two: it will not take long for the eyes to… acclimate. But I will need a medic-nin nearby in case there are complications, and you are the most competent available to me."

"And Sasuke?" Karin asked. The implications of spending 'a week or two' in Itachi's presence was a frightening one, but depending on his answer…

"I will ensure that my eyes are implanted in Sasuke," Itachi said. Karin didn't doubt that he could manage it.

However…

"But your eyes are…" Karin trailed off. "Your eyes are… damaged?" She grabbed her head suddenly. "But then… why did we even…".

Suigetsu broke in. "You used a genjutsu on us, didn't you?" he asked. Calling his frown thunderous would be calling Kisame large. It simply didn't do either of them justice.

Itachi frowned. "So you noticed. Unfortunate."

"Why?"

Itachi sighed. "I was anticipating this moment. I had hoped that by making your motivation for finding me into taking my eyes, rather than Sasuke's, I would be able to alleviate your hostility towards me when I revealed that I had already given them to him."

Karin felt the outrage and practicality warring in her head before practicality won out. "It doesn't matter right now," she said, shaking her head. "What does matter is that your eyes are damaged."

Itachi smiled. Karin took a step back. "True. You'll just have to trust me when I say that that won't be an issue." He was definitely amused.

Karin didn't think Itachi transferring his blindness to his brother was especially funny.

However, Itachi continued speaking. "The Sharingan will heal itself: yet another genetic quirk. I'm sure you of all people are familiar with such things."

She traded a glance with Suigetsu, who mouthed 'Are you crazy?' at her quite energetically. She looked back at Itachi, who waited patiently, watching her with empty sockets, and Kisame who stood with one arm slack, watching the whole affair with his perpetual grin.

She couldn't trust him. A week ago, she wouldn't have trusted him.

But that was before she had seen the Uchiha's other side.

The side of him that, despite all evidence that he would do the opposite, had gone out of its way to protect Sasuke. The side that had made the man put himself at great personal risk just to keep Pain off of their backs. The side of him that had made the Uchiha abandon Akatsuki.

Itachi was not a simple man, but in this one case, she felt that he was telling the truth. She could feel the sincerity practically rolling off his chakra.

Karin sighed. Loudly. Suigetsu flinched.

"Allright," she said, fervently hoping she wouldn't regret her decision.

Itachi didn't smile. Instead, the whole of his face instantly became less severe, the lines relaxing. Kisame's grin grew wider.

"Excellent," the Uchiha said.

Then he sighed and turned to Kisame.

"We won't be coming back here, will we?" he asked.

Kisame looked around, taking in the devastation, his gaze lingering on the ashen remains of the table Itachi had incinerated, before moving on to the sizable hole in the wall.

He chuckled.

"Nope."

---

Two days after Itachi and Kisame had met Karin and Suigetsu within Tanzaku-Gai, Tsunade sat in her office, looking out over the village.

It was a peculiar fact of the Hidden Villages that each of their Kage's offices were exposed to the Village at large, instead of being tucked away in a secure location.

Suna's Kazekage was installed in the highest building in the village. While that building only had several windows from which the Kage could look down on the village, 'several windows' was far more windows than most dwellings in Suna had.

The office of the Mizukage had shifted its location many times over the last few decades. At first, such impermanency had been due to the Yondaime Yagura's growing paranoia, and general lack of trust for his subordinates.

Then, it had been because there had been no office of Mizukage at all.

After the installment of Mei Terumi as Godaime, the Kage's office had been moved to the tallest spire in the village; identical to the Kazekage in all but material.

Iwagakure somewhat broke this mold. The Tsuchikage was placed in the tallest stone tower, yes: but calling that tower exposed would be a mistake.

Of course, there was a reason that Iwa was the only village who's Sandaime was still alive, and in power. Ōnoki the Fence-Sitter was not the kind of man to leave himself open to assassination attempts.

Kumogakure held true to the pattern: the Raikage sat atop the village, able to see the whole of his domain through a panoramic window.

And finally, Konoha. While the office of the Hokage sat far back in the village, closer to the monument than the outer walls, it was still the tallest building in the village, and from their office, the kage could look down upon the whole village.

Oddly enough, despite this seeming uniformity, each of the Kage had established their structures as they were for different reasons.

The first Kazekage had needed a line of site beyond Suna's imposing walls. Otherwise, he would have risked starting tornadoes inside the village, which he obviously couldn't allow.

Mei had established herself in the tallest building so that she could always keep an eye on the village… and on any young men entering through the front gate.

That, and she always held the fear that one day she would wake up, and find the whole thing on fire again. Looking down on it every day, however tedious, eased her mind.

The first Tsuchikage had had purely practical reasons for taking his place in the tallest tower. From there, he could easily fly to any point in the village after taking a small jump.

The Raikage as well, despite the whisperings of megalomania, had made his home at Kumogakure's tallest point for a very good reason.

The closer he was to the clouds, the easier it was to call down their lightning.

Hashirama Senju, Konohagakure's Shodai Hokage, had the simplest reasons for placing the office as he did.

He liked the view.

At the moment, so did his granddaughter.

It was a good distraction from the troubles brewing right behind her.

"Tsunade?"

The voice pulled her out of her quiet place. Tsunade sighed, and turned around.

The Konoha Council, two-thirds of the long dissolved Team Tobirama, watched her with unreadable eyes.

Perhaps her grandfather had had irritating elders to deal with as well? Was that why the view was so fantastic?

"We would appreciate it if you didn't drift off like that, Tsunade," the woman on the left said. Koharu Utatane leaned forward, her mouth set in a line. "You're not quite that old yet."

Tsunade snorted. But her amusement didn't last.

"I am still rather… dubious of your decision, Tsunade," the man sitting next to Koharu said. Homura Mitokado adjusted his glasses. "The Uchiha boy. He is dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Tsunade asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, he left the village of his own will. That alone should have been more than enough to brand him a missing-nin," the man said, sounding reasonable. "I understood that you held off on doing so as a personal favor to the Jinchūriki, but-"

"Naruto," Tsunade interrupted.

"What?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Homura. He is a shinobi, like any other in this village. You will talk about him as such," Tsunade said calmly. It wasn't the first time she had had this conversation.

Homura shared a glance with Koharu. "Of course. My apologies." He continued. "While I acknowledge that you did not officially declare him nuke-nin as a favor to Naruto, that does not change the fact that he spent three years out of the village, under the tutelage of the man who killed Hiruzen."

"Before killing him himself," Tsunade pointed out.

"Attempting to kill him," Koharu cut in, interrupting Tsunade. "According to the tracking team, Itachi was the one who finally put him down."

"Still, that proves that he at least had no malicious intent towards the village. So far, his actions have all helped it," Tsunade argued. "He left, and then devoted his life to killing two of our most dangerous renegades. Hardly something worth punishing, wouldn't you think?"

Koharu grew subtly but noticeably frustrated. "That doesn't change the facts that he left. You must not be so forgiving, Tsunade!"

Tsunade slowly stood up, and Koharu sat up straight, recognizing that she had gone too far.

"Listen to me," the Hokage said. "Sasuke Uchiha, purposefully or not, has done this village a great service. The least we can do in return is give him shelter. He is blind. Itachi, whatever his intentions, has taken his eyes."

Homura leaned back, his features softening. Tsunade continued.

"He is, for all intents and purposes, harmless. And," she smiled, "what do you think Naruto will do if you send him back out of the village?"

Koharu slowly massaged her nose. "Go chasing after him, undoubtedly."

Tsunade nodded. "Exactly," she said. "For the time being, keeping Sasuke in the village in the best option."

"I disagree," a cracked voice spoke up.

Tsunade sighed again.

Konoha's shadow had joined the meeting.

Danzō Shimura limped into the room, his stick clicking against the ground with every step.

"Danzō," Tsunade said, suppressing her sigh. "I don't recall inviting you."

The man looked down on her with a single crinkled eye. "I invited myself, Tsunade. Now, tell me," he said, finally deigning to sit.

"What's this I hear about allowing Sasuke Uchiha to remain in the village?"

"As I just finished explaining," Tsunade said, trying not to grit her teeth, "I see no reason not to allow him sanctuary here, considering the service he has done us."

"Service?" Danzō said. Tsunade gave up on suppressing her gritted teeth. She hated when the man did this, feigning ignorance, forcing her to outline her decisions in excruciating detail.

So he could pick them apart.

"Severely weakening Orochimaru, allowing Itachi Uchiha to finish him off, and tracking down Itachi himself in a bid to kill him. Granted," Tsunade crossed her arms across her chest, "the attempt failed, but that doesn't mean it should be ignored."

"Hmm." Danzō's rattling voice filled the room with cloying condescension.

Tsunade just waited. Homura shifted minutely.

"I believe you are making a mistake, Tsunade," Danzō said.

'Big surprise,' Tsunade thought. Even she would have bet that.

She didn't say that out loud, of course. Instead, she said, "Oh?"

"The Uchiha… are a dangerous clan. Prone to madness, and grudges." Danzō shook his head and stood back up, beginning to slowly pace back and forth before the Hokage's desk. His cane repeatedly tapped on the floor.

"Sasuke may be back in the village now. But he has no tie here."

"He has Naruto," Tsunade spoke up, curious where Danzō could be going.

The old man made a dismissive sound. "The Jinchūriki? Whose lung he vaporized three years ago? Hardly a stable bond."

"If you knew Naruto, you wouldn't say that."

Danzō turned to her. "Alas, I haven't had the pleasure. Hiruzen was adamant I not influence the boy."

Tsunade scoffed.

"At any rate, we are not discussing him right now. We are discussing the Uchiha." Danzō came forward, and bent towards Tsunade, carefully enunciating each word. "And he is a danger to the village."

"How could he be?" the Hokage said. "He's blind."

"He won't be for much longer," Danzō said.

Tsunade blinked. "What?"

"Why do you think Itachi sent his eyes back with him?" Danzō asked.

Tsunade blinked again.

She chuckled. Danzō watched her, unamused.

"Danzō… I never believed even you could be so paranoid," Tsunade laughed. "Itachi blinding himself, to give his eyes to his brother? The brother who wants him dead?"

Danzō remained steadfast as Tsunade continued to laugh lowly.

"Sharingan, when implanted in another, are capable of unbelievable things," he said, fighting a subtle twitch in his left arm.

Tsunade waved him off. "Please. No more of this nonsense. Who would even give him Itachi's eyes?" she said.

"Your apprentice."

Tsunade sobered instantly. When it came to Sakura, she had to remain on guard. "She was only released from the hospital yesterday."

"And already, she is hinting at her motives," Danzō muttered. "She cares for that boy, despite what he's done. She and the Jinchūriki both. Left to their own devices, who knows what they will do for him?"

"First, you claim that Sasuke is a danger," Tsunade said, her eyes narrowing. "Then that his teammate's concern for him is."

Danzō shifted discretely.

"You are being unusually blunt today, Danzō. Something has you worried, and it's not just our blind Uchiha." Tsunade leaned forward, steepling her fingers.

The bandaged man remained silent.

"I could just order you to tell me, you know," Tsunade said mildly. "I am the Hokage; I doubt even you would disobey such a direct order."

Danzō shot her a look with his single eye, and Tsunade shrugged. He had started this: even the Yami of Konoha couldn't expect to approach the Hokage with so little tact and expect to not be received in kind.

Danzō remained silent for a moment longer. He looked to his left and shared a brief look with Koharu. The woman's wrinkled mouth firmed, and she nodded. Danzō turned to Homura, and got the same look.

He looked back at Tsunade. Sighed.

Opened his mouth.

"He's concerned about me, of course."

It was not Danzō that spoke.

Tsunade's head turned to the left so fast that a normal woman's neck would have broken. Homura and Koharu had similar reactions.

Danzō just closed his eye.

"And it's not just that, of course. He's worried about why I sent Sasuke back here. And worried why he came with such powerful eyes alongside him." The voice continued, as its owner moved away from the side of Tsunade's desk, and the open window there, towards the center of the room.

All of its occupants merely stared at the man as he steadily walked forward.

"So many worries. But can you blame him?"

Itachi Uchiha reached the center of the Hokage's office, and turned around to face the woman and her counselors. The empty sockets that had replaced his eyes made themselves apparent.

The man's mouth turned up into something that could probably be mistaken as a smile.

"With so many secrets, he must always worry whether one will come out."

---

AN: I'm alive!

Also: and that's that. Everything is slowly becoming clearer.

And next chapter, even more so.

Remember: follow if you want to read more, favorite if you want others to, and leave a review if you want me to tell you how damn shiny you are (or, you know, discuss your criticisms. That's fun too).

Fun Fact: This chapter brought to you by Chandler's Law.

Also: now that Not Sick has over 150 followers now(!) so I figure I can make recs without sounding like a braggart.
Today's suggestion: As the Last Leaf Falls, by AlmostElectric. This one is totally biased, considering I'm betaing it... but I don't beta a story unless I think it's good.

And trust me, Last Leaf is good. All the tragedy that I wish I could stuff into Not Sick, children so sweet they'll rot your teeth, and several wonderful fight scenes to round everything out. And the plot it's setting up?

You have no idea.

Serendipity, out.