Drawings on paper

It was cold now, and the more Itachi moved and the more he advanced, the more the weather would bite his skin. The rain had spared his journey for the moment, allowing him to jump in between branches without worrying to slip and end up on the floor, he glanced up, but gray clouds prevented noon's sunlight from reaching the exposed roots of the trees.

Itachi rubbed his lower lip with his thumb and jumped down, landing on his feet, a jolt of electricity went past his ankles towards his spine, and he clicked his tongue. He had been higher than he thought, he wondered if this misstep was a consequence of his deteriorated eyesight.

Kisame had been kind enough not to ask much, but Itachi knew that the man had his suspicions and he would, likely, take notes of his behavior. Still, he didn't pry on Itachi's reasons to travel alone for a couple of days, merely raising an eyebrow at Itachi's notice. It wasn't far-fetched to think that entering his village and confronting his baby brother had emotionally drained him, and Itachi hadn't discouraged that belief, he wasn't even sure it held untruths. Sasuke was alive and healthy enough, but Orochimaru was still a menace, and even now, there was a mysterious beast inside his hidden village that Itachi ought to look for.

The lock of blond hair was tightly secured in his pocket, held together by a slim thread of phormium tied right in the middle, there was no reason for Itachi to have it –other than to set a reminder to look into the matter, but Kisame had taken a taste for smelling what fragrance remained, and it made Itachi anxious enough to steal it from his possessions.

The woman he saw in the store was presumably dead if the hair indeed belonged to her –and Itachi was almost completely sure it did, more so considering the way she left and how the eyes of her male companion were so hollow: so Itachi set himself the task to find out why. Had she been a traitor? Was it an internal settling of scores? Itachi didn't know for sure, and he refused to tell Danzo of his suspicions yet, the man was quick to prevent crimes by painting the moonlight with bloodsheds, but Konoha couldn't spare to lose more soldiers. Not now. Not right now.

And while Itachi knew that Danzo wasn't stupid enough to use madness to justify a new massacre (two power-hungry clan members in a span of five years was quite a stretch for other noble families to believe), he didn't trust him to be patient enough as to know for sure if something was up; and without Hiruzen to contain him –he never did control him, did he? He merely slowed the arrival of the inevitable-, there was nothing preventing his actions.

He had never been good at investigating, Shisui was the one who took care of such things for him, Itachi was good at carrying out what was asked of him, he was good at taking people's breath away, but looking out for information hadn't been his strong suit –people believed it was, Hiruzen thought as much as well, because Itachi was also good at lying, he was marvelous really, and that had been the skill that became the most useful to him –not his Sharingan.

He didn't even know what to suspect if the woman was indeed a Yamanaka (but maybe she wasn't, the clan used secret techniques, not Kekkei Genkai, if someone was smart enough to copy them then what good would it do to investigate that family?), then what? How would he approach the village or the clan members to find out… –to find out what?

Itachi bit his upper lip, he had never investigated from scratch before, he infiltrated Akatsuki because he was asked to, he couldn't stay in Konoha after what he'd done; they gave him another mission just to get rid of him and ensure not many of their own will try to hunt him down. Every action he carried out was guided by someone else's hand, and even if some of his performances were completely his own, the path –the basis, had already been established: He knew what to look for.

Now he knew nothing and he had nothing other than a tight, pulsating feeling at the back of his skull –the instinct that something wasn't right; and that was it. He had to move forward from there, but he did not know which direction to take.

For now, this was everything he could think of, it will undoubtedly take time –more time than he had, but if he could at least find something to give the Grand Council, then Konoha will be safe.

It would be a tragedy for his partner to learn that it was him the sole reason for his journey, he never considered the swordsman a reason of intellectual amazement, nor he thought him worthy of deep considerations, and yet, Kisame's tactic to annoy him and force him into conversations was what manufactured this scheme:

"Had you've seen her, you wouldn't be so skeptical," Kisame had said when Itachi twisted his mouth, his voice low, "a color like that…" he shook his head, "she has to be."

"A pure-blooded," Itachi rolled his eyes, "what are the odds?"

"I know," Kisame smiled, not understanding Itachi's mocking for what it was, "do you think someone in Kusa even knows? I'll bet those primates won't even know what to do with her."

"There's a reason why the rumor even exists," Itachi narrowed his eyes, already annoyed, "they know."

Kisame snorted, clearly pleased with his reaction, "we should pay her a visit," the man smiled, "perhaps if you ask her nicely, with that face of yours, she'll come with us."

Back then, the comment almost pushed him to his very limit. It wasn't a remark that uncommon or something Kisame has never teased him about –in fact, he was obsessed with Itachi's looks, and Itachi was sure it was out of envy because Kisame liked women and liked to fool around a lot, but they didn't like him unless he paid them, and that got to sting somehow-. But Itachi had been tired and freezing, Tetsu no Kuni's weather had been unforgiving, so he contained his anger and merely replied: "let's just report to Pein," trying to stop his partner's chuckle.

Who would have thought that something like gossip will be his source of inspiration? Presently, Itachi chose to believe that the tale was truthful enough, thinking otherwise would force him to despair –until he held himself together again to reassess his situation, and if everything else failed, then to hell with it: let this be his last courtesy.

Kusagakure was not exceptional by any means, it was small and held a petite battalion that could barely be considered a threat, much less an army. He arrived by afternoon –Kusa wasn't particularly far from Hi no Kuni's "pleasure" town (where they had fought and fled from Jiraiya), and with the speed he moved, it took him a single day of travel to reach the village's borders.

There was little point to disguise himself, few were the ninjas moving around the city, lesser still seemed to be on duty, and none able to actually present a challenge; but Itachi wasn't about to risk whatever chance he might have by exposing himself, killing wasn't the best course of action, not until he reached her.

Henge himself was easy enough, he had a couple of models to choose from, his Sharingan was his best ally when it came to using the technique, memorizing flawlessly details that were invisible to the naked eye. There was no wonder about their superiority, if his family hadn't been so bitter, if they hadn't succumbed to their desires!

With the last seal, Itachi's body transformed, where before there was a handsome, pale face, now a faint yellow color painted his skin, softness got replaced with wrinkles that hung from the corners of his mouth and eyes, his perfect posture curved, and a small bump appeared over the right side of his back. His long tunic became a mere grayish cape, and his shinobi sandals transformed into brown, leather slippers.

Adopting the figure of an old fisherman he once knew took minimum effort, so he walked –limped, through Kusa's gates with a small smile on his lips, he didn't have to even fake how pleased he was. Shinobi inside the city were few, as expected, and they lacked any skill that might be of use to detect his disguise –it will do him no good to dwell on how useless they were, it was an advantage, he couldn't obsess over their lack of honor.

He did receive some suspicious glares from those who Itachi presumed were the most competent ninja that conformed Kusa's lines, but other than quick questions about where he was heading, why was he stopping in this village specifically, and for how long will he be staying (oh, just for tonight young man, I just need a good bed to rest, my back isn't what it used to be you see), there was no actual security.

And honestly, if Kisame went through with his plan to kidnap the girl, then they'll probably be doing her a favor. These people would never allow her to reach her maximum potential.

If she actually was who Kisame said she was.

Right.

Itachi shook his head –the cape, unlike the tunic, was light and autumn's weather seemed to move with him wherever he went, the breeze was cold, and, likely, rain will fall tomorrow. He knew that people would be watching him, so he ought to wait for the night to settle in order to look for his target. The inn of Kusa was small and warm, both inside and outside walls were made of uneven stones –most of them were the same grayish color, but there were few that looked faintly yellow. Indoors, the setting was more of a tavern –Itachi would have found pleasure in how old the place was if he allowed himself to. It possessed thick wood tables and counters, candles hanging from their holsters that hadn't been lit yet, daylight still poured inside from one of the windows, and a couple of customers turned his head towards the entrance at his arrival.

The woman at the counter –bar, it wasn't one of them in particular (too many papers and drawers to be a bar, too many bottles piled up in the shelves behind it and on top of it to be a desk), looked like it was about to drop dead, she glanced at him with one of her eyebrows raised –one of her eyes was blue, the other one milky white, useless. Itachi wondered if that's how he will look if he allowed their light to extinguish.

The woman made a gesture with her mouth like she was about to spit and, for a second, Itachi thought she might (she didn't), he limped towards her and the woman opened her blue eye widely, it moved up and down his frame. "What?"

"I wonder," Itachi pondered on whether it was too rude of him not to salute her, but the man he was impersonating was somewhat rude –as well, and he liked to keep his roles as close as the originals, "if a room might be available."

"What for?" The woman clicked her tongue against her palate, her teeth were brown.

Itachi smiled in what hoped was a friendly gesture, "to sleep." He was about to say a little joke, something in between the lines of 'us old people should know better than to walk long distances without a nice mattress,' but he was sure it wouldn't be well received.

The lady snorted, crouched under the counter –bar? And disappeared out of sight, there was a noise of bottles being moved around, and when she emerged (and honestly, her knees were actually quite impressive for someone who looked as old as she did), it was with a green bottle. "Yah' I figured, –you'd be shagging no one 'ere with that 'gly face of yours." She moved around the space, and set the bottle in the farthest corner of the bar –counter? "There, your glass's gett'n drier."

Someone in one of the tables raised his glass –it was metallic, old and rusty, in a silent toast and, with a groan, moved to retrieve the bottle the woman offered –he sneezed, and cleaned his nose in his forearm. He spared Itachi no glance.

"The rooms're 'pstairs," she pointed at the stairs in the back of the inn, they were swallowed by shadows –no windows were close enough to illuminate them, Itachi was able to see their outline, but pretended not to, blinking rapidly. "Key's in tha lock, choose one and stick to it –no stealing, there's nothing in there anyway." She licked her chapped lips, "I can't go there, bad knees." She patted her legs as if that would convince Itachi of her lie.

He nodded, and slowly made his way to the stairs, he noticed the woman's eye following his moves, before he could disappear, the woman spoke again, "my Kiki'll be with ya' shortly, you'll pay her."

It was weird for the lady not to charge him for the room before he set foot in it, she seemed like the type of woman who liked her money in her hands before anything else. Itachi allowed himself a sigh only when he reached one of the rooms –it was in the farthest corner of the place, awfully lit and it barely had any space to maneuver, but it will serve his purposes. Now, Itachi will have to wait for this Kiki girl, whoever she was. Perhaps Kusagakure wasn't as full of stupid people as he thought, this might as well be a tactic to make sure no one will wander around as they please. But again, he could just make a clone of himself and be done with it, so…

Four hours.

They made him wait four hours –by the end of it, Itachi was gritting his teeth. The first hour he started to unleash a patron, even contemplating that Kiki will never arrive, and he will have to pay the woman in the morning. He even imagined the slight smile on the old lady when he went to her. The sun set while he waited for the girl, and one more hour had to pass –he watched how darkness's cover slipped through his fingers for one hour, sixty perfect minutes-, for the girl to knock on his door.

He could have made a clone, he could have, but had been a sensor in Kusa's lines –he couldn't tell, he never learned to mold his chakra like that, his Sharingan supplied him with a better tool to spot his enemies-, they might sense his activities. He activated his doujutsu –it required a short amount of chakra on his part, and saw no one was around, but he couldn't risk being felt, that will be the last option in case Kiki (he already disliked the girl), didn't show up.

But Kiki did show up, if the girl in front of him was –in fact, the person that the old lady was referring to.

And Kamisama really, really was in Itachi's favor.

(Had you've seen her, you wouldn't be so skeptical… a color like that).

He had planned to activate his Sharingan and look for her chakra pattern, he had no experiences with Uzumaki's energies –the fourth's wife had died before he developed his doujutsu-, but he was sure he could discern her from the common crowd, he had heard enough stories about the clan's chakra to know that it possessed a rather uncommon sequence.

Red-hot habanero.

"Sir," the girl was looking at his feet, she was wearing a white nightgown that covered her from neck to ankles, it was an odd outfit to use in this instance, but perhaps she was headed to bed –or had been awakened. She was young, Sasuke-kind of young, her hair cascaded down her back like a bloodstream, it looked dry, disheveled, and her pale skin was decorated with pink strokes around her cheeks. "I came to…"

She didn't finish the sentence, she looked at his face and wrinkled her nose, disgusted, and Itachi almost slapped himself for not thinking of this possibility. He had been giving the older woman and Kusa a whole lot of undeserved credit, they cared not to protect their village from possible invaders, but to secure their shameful secret. A horrible market the old woman had gotten into, dragging the child with her.

Pity. But also none of his business.

"Come," he said, allowing her to enter his room, taking advantage of the opportunity presented. She swallowed and looked down again, taking slow, short steps inside the space, Itachi noticed she was trembling slightly, glancing shortly at the bed but her posture –her shoulders down and back softly curved, was of resignation: she has done this before. "What's your name?"

She gulped, then sighed, "whichever you please," she still was looking at the floor.

"I'll like to know your real one."

"Kiki."

"That's not your real name." He ventured. If the woman had stripped the young one of her safety, what was stopping her from taking away her identity also?

"That's how she calls me, Sir."

"Uhm…" Itachi cocked his head to the side, "an affectionate name for a pet?" At that, she did glance up, her lips pursed, she mustered a disgruntled expression with her brows furrowed almost comically. Yet, her response died on her throat when she was confronted with Itachi's neutral expression –as the old man, he knew he looked rather perturbing- she glanced down again. "I'm a businessman, child-" he lied, "-I won't touch you. I want something else from you."

The girl lifted her face, still unsure, she clasped her hands in her back and tried to bury herself on her neck in such a childlike gesture Itachi almost –almost, feels for her, "what is it?" And despite her posture, her voice came out bold. Interesting girl.

"You're an Uzumaki, aren't you?" The girl's eyes almost popped out of her sockets, she started to move backward –away from him and towards the door, but Itachi moved faster, blocking her path. She opened her mouth widely, a scream was about to explode out of her throat, alerting others, so he put a hand to block the sound from expanding. "I will not hurt you." He said. Forcing her skull to rest against his chest, she glanced up at him. "Not unless you give me a reason to – like screaming, trust me young one, if any screech comes out of your mouth, I'll snap your neck."

Her eyes were still huge, her skin paled further, making her hair look impossibly redder, he watched her, the posture of the old man making their faces almost touch. She nodded, showing her understanding, and he released her. She moved rapidly away from him, to the farthest corner inside the room. "I-"

She did not speak further, her breathing became erratic, nervous, "I want your services as an Uzumaki," he said, "your people have a special affinity that I'll like to take advantage of."

"I don't know, I don't know-" the girl said, clearly shaken by the circumstances she suddenly found herself in, shaking her head. "I-, I-."

"I can give you money –a nice amount of it, so you can leave this place and never look back." He pressed, "wouldn't you like that?"

She gulped and looked at him –she would, she would like that; of course she would, but she was all alone, her kind was being hunted –he knew what it felt to be the hunter of an entire race-, and if not here, then where? Itachi had no answers for her, but she had a better chance of surviving with money to move, and he doubted the old woman allowed her to have any savings. He brought up nothing of this, she might know it already or she might be oblivious to this issue –she was too young, after all; but if she thought she might have a chance outside, then he had to exploit it for his benefit.

The silence stretched in what seemed hours, but she couldn't stay here long, it would be suspicious if she did –no one certainly expected her to do so. He was impersonating a very old and sick-looking man, how much could he last?

"Yes." Her voice was barely above a whisper, he wouldn't have to compel her –that's a relief.

"What's your name?" He asked again, his fingers twitched.

The girl paused and blinked at him, tilting her head to the side, she was still wary of him –but her posture relaxed ever so slightly. "… Karin."

"Karin," he repeated, tasting the name in his tongue, "do we have a deal, Karin?"

"I don't-" she blushed and bit her upper lip, glanced back and forth in between the floor and his face, "what kind of work?"

"Well, Karin," he repeated her name once more, the child deserved to be recognized with her true identity, "I'll like you to design a particular seal for me…"

A/N: Okay, this is not going to sound good but Itachi canonically kind of sucks investigating. Honestly. He wasn't even close to figuring out Pein's complete plan and didn't even phantom Obito's. I'm not even sure he knew what type of relationship Kisame's and Tobi had. Furthermore, he didn't find Obito in the forest before the massacre: Obito's MS is Kamui, and if he wanted to, he could have moved while undetected, he clearly allowed Itachi to find him. Itachi's strengths lie elsewhere, but investigating? A resounding no.

As for why Karin didn't sense Itachi's enormous chakra –and why she didn't notice the similarities in between Itachi's energy and Sasuke's, whom she had known during the chünin exams: Henge no Jutsu allows the user –the expert user that is-, to transform absolutely everything into the object/person they desire to impersonate; from their looks, to their smell and chakra pattern. Like I explained, surely the Sharingan allowed Uchiha to use this technique at its maximum potential.

Naruto, for instance, during his fight with Kiba (and in his fight against Zabuza, where he made himself a shuriken) hadn't mastered the henge, Kiba was able to tell him apart by his smell –later on, Naruto tricked Kiba to doubt himself, and Sasuke could notice that the shuriken was Naruto because of the different weight. Meanwhile, Orochimaru was able to impersonate the Kazekage before the entire Sand Village, and it wasn't until he exposed himself that they found out his leader was dead, while Tsunade uses it all the time to appear younger.

In the right hands, the technique is infallible, the only way to know if someone is an impostor would be by asking the right question, and receiving the wrong answer.