Chapter 22: Intrusion

Rin lifted her head briefly to greet him with a slight nod before she went back to completing her daily, routine checkup on Izumi. The legs of the chair scraped noisily against the tiled floor as Itachi dragged the chair to Izumi's bedside, taking care to leave enough room to not block Rin's way. Itachi absently watched as Rin flicked on the switch, shining a beam of light into Izumi's eyes as two of fingers kept her eyes pried open. Thirty seconds later, the flashlight was tucked away and Rin was scribbling something onto her clipboard.

Itachi craned his neck to look over her arm. A glimpse informed him that even if he had gotten a better look, he wouldn't be able to comprehend her messy scrawl anyways.

Itachi was tired of asking this question and he was sure that Rin was tired of hearing it from him, but his curiosity wouldn't relent. Even if he was going to receive the same answer as the other seven days, there was still a burning desire to know, to receive the tiniest sliver of hope that her condition had changed for the better.

"How is she?"

"The same." Apparently, today wasn't the day. After receiving his answer, Itachi sank into his seat. His eyes stared blankly in the general direction of Izumi and Rin, but truthfully, he was hardly aware of what Rin was doing at this point other than the few flashes of movement around the bed.

In the week following her rescue from Orochimaru's hideout, Izumi hadn't opened her eyes once. Initially, Itachi wondered if Shisui's jutsu to put her to sleep had been too powerful, resulting in her current coma-like state. However, according to Shisui, his Mangekyo only forced her to shut off hers. When her Mangekyo turned off, the adrenaline had worn off and her body pulled her into a deep slumber to replenish her energy.

A week was more than enough time for her physical energy to be restored. The problem was her spiritual energy; whether or not it was recoverable was completely up to Izumi and her mental willpower. When Rin didn't have an exact answer of how long it could take, the possibility that Izumi would never wake up had planted itself in the dark crevices of his mind.

And it wouldn't leave him alone. The thought kept him tossing and turning in the middle of the night, resulting in a slew of sleepless nights for him. The bags under his eyes became even more prominent.

Sleep deprivation wasn't something a thirteen year old should be experiencing. His mother panicked at the thought of it stunting his growth, but in Itachi's opinion, sleepless nights were nothing in comparison to being treated like a test subject.

The click of the pen signaled the end of Izumi's check up.

Rin eyed him with concern. "Are you sure you don't want any sleeping medication?"

History was repeating itself. The two of them had the same exact conversation every single day: itachi would ask her about Izumi's condition, Rin would tell him there were no changes. Then, Rin would ask him if he wanted any sleeping medication. Itachi would politely decline because the point of him coming to the hospital was to not only accompany Izumi, but also catch up on some sleep.

For some reason, the only place he seemed to be able to fall asleep these days was by Izumi's bedside.

"Alright," Rin conceded. It probably took a lot of self control for her to accept his request; doctors meant well, but most that Itachi have encountered were quite adamant in curing their patients, even if pushing their boundaries further than necessary. "If you ever change your mind, let me know. I'll be back in a couple of hours."

Itachi nodded. With bleary eyes, Itachi watched Rin as she slipped out of the door, shutting it behind her with a soft click. Only when Itachi was sure that Rin was far enough from Izumi's hospital room to make any sudden backtracks did he scoot his chair closer to Izumi's bed. Itachi leaned forward, resting his head in the crook of his arm. His other hand covered Izumi's.

The combination of soft beeping from the heart monitor and her rhythmic breathing pattern lulled him into deep sleep, the best that he had in days.

Her merry laughter trinkled in his ears. Even minutes after Itachi finished his story about something stupid Sasuke tried to do last week, Izumi still periodically broke out into fits of giggles. Just the mere thought of Sasuke standing on the edge of the dock and boldly jumping into the water as if that would make him magically know how to water walk sent Izumi into another round of laughter.

"I can't believe he would do that. I thought all he knew was how to put on a scowling face," Izumi said, in between her laughter. "Serves him right for always being unfriendly to me. If he was nicer, then maybe I would have taught him how to water walk since his nii-san is always too busy to train with him."

Itachi cracked a small smile. "Don't take it personally. Sasuke doesn't like strangers in general."

"Oh yeah? Then what about Shisui? He's always so excited to see him."

"Well, I suppose that Sasuke has known Shisui for a lot longer." That may have been true, but ever since Itachi became friends with Izumi, she had come over to visit more often than Shisui. Adding up all the times they visited, they were probably on par now. Not to mention, Sasuke probably didn't even have memories of the first few years of his life; the time when Shisui dropped by more frequently. As his cousin had gotten older and shackled with more responsibilities, leisure visits drastically diminished.

Izumi rolled her eyes. "Whatever, I know Sasuke just doesn't like me. Next time I see him, I'm going to hold this over his head." A glee of satisfaction twinkled in her eyes. "I'm never going to let him live this down."

"And then Sasuke will know that I spilled his secret even though I promised I wouldn't tell anyone." To be fair, Itachi had planned to keep that incident a secret, but upon seeing Izumi's downtrodden state after failing the third round of the chunin exams, that was the first thing Itachi could think of to cheer her up.

Thankfully, it worked because to be honest, Izumi was the one who always maintained a cheerful facade. The moment she allowed the mask to fall, Itachi was completely at a loss of what to do.

"Alright fine, I'll keep it a secret for now," Izumi conceded. A huge grin stretched across her face. "But next time Sasuke insults me, don't blame me if I let it slip. It would do him some good for his ego to be knocked down a peg or two."

Itachi nodded in agreement, then tactfully changed the topic. "The dango shop should be open now. Do you want to go? My treat."

Her eyes lit up, shining so brightly. Full of so much innocence and youth and happiness…

The brightness in her eyes suddenly dimmed. The scenery behind her changed, the clear blue skies shifting to a pitch darkness. The cool summer breeze replaced with a hauntingly chilling feeling that sent goosebumps forming all over his arms. The wide smile was completely wiped off of her face; her lips now donning a sinister smirk.

"Itachi," Izumi whispered. She cocked her head to the side, tongue darting outwards to lick her lips. Brown eyes bled red, the three tomoes spinning and spinning until it connected to form a four pronged pinwheel pattern. "Where were you?"

The air thickened. Itachi suddenly found it difficult to breathe.

"All of these years I called out your name expecting you to appear and save me." Her lower lip jutted outwards, forming a pout. Her eyes wide and round, in an innocent child-like manner, yet it was a sight that was going to haunt Itachi for the rest of his life.

"But you never came." Izumi tilted her head. "Why didn't you come?"

His jaw quivered. His mouth was parted, ready to give an explanation, but the words remained lodged in his throat. Itachi swallowed thickly, then tried again to no avail. No words were coming out. And as each second ticked by, Izumi began to grow more impatient. Her hands shot outwards, grasping Itachi by both sides of his shoulder.

"Why?" Izumi demanded, in a low threatening voice. "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?" In between each demand, Izumi shook Itachi fiercely. The rapid succession of whys had eventually become so slurred that Itachi was unable to make out the individual pronunciations; not that he even had the headspace to focus on her words when he was being jostled uncontrollably.

His hands reached out, grasping air as he struggled to latch onto Izumi's arms.

"I couldn't!" Itachi yelled hoarsely. "I would have come to you sooner if I knew where you were!"

That answer apparently wasn't enough to satisfy Izumi as she emitted a blood curdling scream from the back of her throat. Instinctively, Itachi raised his hands to cover up his ears as Izumi kept screaming at the top of her lungs, the agony and pain interrupted by a periodic choked sobs.

"How could you let him do this to me?" Izumi screamed. Both hands pressed on either side of her head as Izumi shook her head rapidly. "Get out! Get out! Get out!"

Itachi reached out to her, yet his hand didn't seem to be closing any distance. The more he approached her, the more Izumi seemed to be drifting away from him. With a burst of chakra, Itachi closed the distance between them. The tips of his fingers briefly brushed against hers before Izumi began to slip away from him again.

Izumi…

"Itachi!" The sudden shout was enough to jolt Itachi back to his senses. Air rushed back into his lungs. In an instant, his back was ramrod straight, head wildly turning every which way as his eyes rapidly soaked in his current surroundings.

Right, he was at the hospital. He had been asleep. Everything was a dream.

Izumi was here, safe and sound. But so was Rin, gripping tightly onto his right wrist with a senbon poised in her other hand. Only when Itachi looked down did he realize he was gripping so tightly onto Izumi's wrist that the complexion of her hand was ashy white.

Itachi immediately released his hold.

Warily, Rin lowered the senbon and released her grip on his hand. "If you didn't snap out of it when you did, I would have no choice but to knock you out."

Itachi nodded, still a bit dazed. "What happened?"

Rin shot him a scathing glare. "Why don't you tell me? You were holding onto her so hard that her circulation was cut off to the point where the monitors started going wild. Any longer you and Izumi would have suffered damage to her nerves."

Rin let out a frustrated sigh. "You should go home, Itachi. The patient needs uninterrupted rest."

A protest was at the tip of his tongue, but after seeing Rin's annoyed expression, Itachi quickly swallowed it. He obediently stood up.

"I'm sorry."

Rin remained unimpressed. "If you truly are sorry, then pick up a bottle of sleeping meds on your way out of the hospital. Don't come back until you're well-rested. I don't want something like this happening again."

"I'll be fine–"

"Yeah, sure you will. Have you thought about what will happen if it happens again? What if next time your hand is wrapped around her throat instead of her wrist?" Rin shook her head. "Go home. Get some rest. If you're going to be plagued by nightmares, I don't want it happening here."

There was no room for argument as Rin promptly shoved him out of the door and slammed the door behind him. Itachi hadn't imagined that Rin would have enough strength to wrestle him out of the room but then again, Itachi didn't have enough energy to put up a fight. Rather than refreshing him, the nap had completely drained him.

Perhaps, Rin had a point.

Itachi needed some sleep.

A loud clang vibrated through the clearing. Itachi jumped backwards, fingers already weaving through the familiar sequence to execute the fireball jutsu. From across the river, Itachi's Sharingan picked up Shisui doing the same exact thing. At the same exact moment, their movements stopped. Like mirror images of each other, the fireball emitted from their lips, growing larger with each additional second of chakra poured into it.

The two fireballs met in the middle, clashing fiercely against each other. A sudden wave of heat came blasting back towards Itachi, with almost enough strength to knock him off balance. He barely had two seconds to recover as Shisui teleported behind him, leg already extended outwards. Itachi ducked, narrowly avoiding his roundhouse kick. Itachi's hand shot upwards, the palm of his hand aiming for a hit in Shisui's jaw.

Shisui danced out of his range, leaving his hand to pummel air instead. Itachi whirled around, three shurikens leaving his hand as he did so. Shisui's lips curled up into a small smile as he brandished his tanto to knock the shurikens off course, severing the wired string while he was at it.

Of course Itachi's shuriken tricks wouldn't escape his notice. Shisui had been the one to teach it to him after all.

When Itachi saw Shisui form a tiger seal with his right hand, he knew that his cousin was getting serious. In a split second, dozens of images split from the original body. Regardless of where Itachi looked, Shisui was everywhere in the clearing.

No chance of escape. Itachi's only option was to forcibly fight his way through it.

Shisui of the Body Flicker Technique. A jutsu that created after images of the user, yet unlike regular clones, they couldn't be easily dispelled. And unlike genjutsu, these after images possessed mass to them.

To date, it was still Shisui's most annoying jutsu and one that Itachi never looked forward to fighting during their spars.

A handful of shurikens were released from his right hand. The shurikens spun rapidly towards the group of Shisui to his left. In tandem, all the Shisuis raised their tantos, holding it in a manner to deflect the incoming shurikens. Right as the shurikens were about to make contact with the tantos, Itachi snapped his fingers, dropping the illusion of how far away the shurikens were. Shisui was quick to react to the sudden change, bending backwards to allow the shurikens to sail past him.

As expected, Itachi's next move was to tug the wires connected to the shurikens and pull them back in his direction. Shisui anticipated this movement and stayed low for long enough for Itachi to successfully pull them back without getting stabbed in the back. Only, he hadn't anticipated that each shuriken would suddenly multiply into four and suddenly change their trajectory back towards him.

Itachi dropped his control over the spinning shurikens as he jumped to avoid Shisui's kick. Landing deftly back onto his feet, Itachi drew a kunai just in time to parry off the force of Shisui's tanto blade.

"Your movements are quite sloppy today," Shisui lightly commented after seeing Itachi stumble over an uneven patch of grass. "What's bothering you?"

His question was answered with a punch that Shisui easily caught. Gripping onto his fist tightly, Shisui moved to twist his wrist but Itachi easily broke out of his hold by firing a small fireball to his face.

Or would have been in Shisui's face if he hadn't let go.

"Have you heard anything from Kakashi yet?" Itachi asked as he sidestepped to dodge Shisui's wind enhanced kunai.

"Not yet." That answer seemed to anger Itachi as his next punch was packed with much more force. Luckily, it had been a tree and not Shisui who received the brunt of that release of frustration.

Shisui didn't follow up with another attack. Their sparring match was over. Fighting while angry often meant sloppy mistakes, and sloppy mistakes often led to injuries. As much as Shisui enjoyed besting his genius of a cousin in a spar, injuring him was the last thing he wanted.

"What's gotten into you today?" Shisui questioned, while tucking away his tanto. "You're usually not this angry."

Itachi let out a loud sigh. "Sorry, I'm just a bit frustrated today."

Shisui joined Itachi in the shade, tucking his legs beneath him as he sat down cross-legged. Reaching to his left, he fetched the two water bottles they had left there before their training session and handed one to Itachi. Itachi wordlessly accepted the bottle, unscrewed the cap in one movement and tipped his head backwards to take a large gulp of water. Meanwhile, Shisui took small, but frequent sips in between wiping the sweat off of his forehead.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shisui noted Itachi dumping the rest of his unfinished water over his face.

"What are you doing?"

"Clearing my mind," Itachi answered as he shook his head. Water droplets flew everywhere. Shisui held up a hand to shield his face from the brunt of it.

"What got you so worked up? And tell me it's nothing."

"If I don't tell you, who else would I tell?" Itachi grumbled underneath his breath. It probably wasn't meant for Shisui's ears, but he heard it anyway. "Rin kicked me out of the hospital today."

Shisui raised a questioning eyebrow. "So what did you do?"

Itachi grunted in annoyance, probably at how well Shisui knew him. "While I was visiting Izumi, I fell asleep and had a nightmare. When I woke up, I was gripping her hand tightly. Who knows what else I would have done if Rin didn't wake me up."

"A nightmare about what?"

"The same old stuff," Itachi confessed. "Izumi blaming me for not getting to her sooner."

Shisui patted Itachi lightly on the shoulder. "Don't let these kinds of thoughts get to your head. We did our best; heck we did even more than the village had. These same kinds of thoughts used to haunt me too, especially after finding Emiko's body. We tried our best, Itachi. It's not our fault that Konoha let us down."

Itachi pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know that, but it's easier said than done. I think I'll stay away from the hospital for a couple of days, at least until I can clear my mind. Will you visit her for me?"

"Yeah," Shisui promised. "Although I'm leaving for a mission soon, so I don't know how many more days I'll be around."

"A mission?" Surprising, considering Minato had chosen to halt all external missions until he had enough time to sort out the mess left behind in the village. Third party missions would eventually be reinstated, but Itachi hadn't expected it to be so soon. Especially since Minato still hadn't issued any official statements on the incident.

"A personal mission. Hokage sama granted my request to lead a team to track down Orochimaru."

Itachi's eyes widened. "I'm going with you."

"No you're not." Shisui was quick to shut him down. "You're needed in the village. Someone has to keep an eye on the Uchiha clan to make sure they don't decide to revolt while the village is in chaos. And if you leave, who is going to be there when Izumi wakes up?"

All valid points, but that didn't dispel Itachi's desire to join the tracking team.

"Don't worry. My only mission is to track him down. I have explicit orders to not engage until I have reported back to the village. Once that happens, I'll advocate for you to come along, alright?"

"Alright," Itachi conceded. "Are you not going to wait for news from Kakashi?"

Shisui shrugged. "I don't believe in relying on other people. It's not that I think he won't keep his word and help us, but more that I think it'll be faster if we do it ourselves. I heard from Yamato that he already searched a few places, so that will at least narrow down our scope."

"Keep me updated."

"I will."

Dozens of foreign presences entered Konoha throughout the day. Most of their chakra presences were quite weak, mostly belonging to civilian tourists or traveling merchants. Occasionally, a few foreign shinobis would be sprinkled in there, but knowing that the sensory barrier picked up their chakra signatures at the front gate, Minato wasn't worried about the possibility of any intruders.

The majority of foreign traffic occurred during the day. The volume usually began to dip when the sun began to set. A couple of stragglers during the night wasn't all that strange either. However, when Minato felt four strong chakra signatures enter the barrier from the eastern side, alarms went off in his head. His eyes immediately snapped open. Red blaring numbers stared back at him.

Three in the morning.

Intruders.

Lifting the blanket off of his body, Minato swung his legs off of the bed and slipped into his slippers. Beside him, Kushina turned in her sleep. As Minato pulled open the closet door to retrieve his shinobi gear, Kushina cracked one eye open.

"Minato, what are you doing?" Kushina murmured sleepily.

"Some Hokage duties," Minato whispered, conscious of a sleeping Naruto next door. "Go back to sleep. I'll be back soon."

After pulling on his newly issued Yondaime cloak, Minato was gone in a flash. By the time his feet touched the ground again, he was at the eastern border of Konoha, relatively close to where he felt the intruders slip in. Crossing his pointer fingers together in a cross, Minato summoned a clone.

"Alert the Anbu that we have four intruders," Minato ordered. Clone Minato nodded before disappearing out of sight.

Meanwhile, the real Minato took off into the night, following the faint traces of chakra that lingered in the intruders' wake.

Coincidentally, when the alarm sounded – one that only the Anbu would recognize – Itachi was the closest to the scene. For some inexplicable reason, while Itachi was on his regular patrol, he found himself straying from the route. His feet carried him to a nearby park, where he spotted the yellowish hue of cat eyes staring intently at him.

Then the cat bolted. His instincts told him to follow the cat. By the time the alarm had sounded, the cat was long out of his sight and his comrades were nowhere to be seen. The chase brought him to the eastern district.

Or most notably known as the district that housed the Hyuuga compound and a few smaller clans.

The corner of his eye caught movement. By the time Itachi glanced upwards, he spotted four blurs streaking across the rooftops at a speed that an ordinary shinobi didn't possess. Itachi took off down the cobblestone street, the sound of his footsteps almost nonexistent. His steps didn't slow when he reached a turn; Itachi allowed his momentum to carry him sharply around the corner, shoulder almost ramming into the wall.

The intruders still remained in sight as Itachi sprinted down the street.

At a junction that was one street away from the main entrance of the Hyuuga compound, the group split. Two members went left, while the other two went right. While his feet slapped against the cobblestone, he raised his arms to form the sign to summon a shadow clone. A copy of himself appeared next to him; the clone easily kept up with his strides. A few words later, the clone broke formation, turning to head back the way Itachi had just come from. Itachi continued forward.

He never stopped once, not until he realized he was rapidly approaching a dead end. In the darkness, his eyes furiously swept his surroundings for any trace of the two intruders.

No one in sight.

Channeling chakra to the soles of his feet, Itachi raced up against the wall and hopped onto the rooftops. Swiveling his head in a full arc, all Itachi could see was the darkness that seemed to stretch on forever, riddled by the weak beam of light that shone from the streetlights.

Where did they go?

As if it was his mind's way of answering his own question, Itachi felt his clone returning to him. The clone's memories were worthless; the last thing the clone had seen was the kunai that dispelled it.

A nondescript kunai, one that Itachi couldn't even identify as belonging to a foreign shinobi.

Boar's feet touched down on the shingles next to him. "Report," his leader commanded.

As much as it pained him to do so, Itachi admitted he lost them. Boar simply shook his head in disappointment before hopping over to the next building. Itachi followed him; this time his Anbu sword was drawn and ready to engage if necessary.

This time, Itachi wouldn't hesitate.

Twenty minutes. That was how long the intruders were able to roam freely in the village. It was long enough for them to sneak into the Hyuuga compound, slip into Hinata's room, and abduct the child while she was asleep. While they were on their way out of the Hyuuga compound, under the illusion that they had succeeded in throwing off all of their tails, Minato caught up to them.

Twenty seconds was all that it took for the Hokage to knock all of them out. Boar had been the first Anbu to appear by Minato's sight; he had been tasked with returning the Hyuuga heir to her room. Itachi was the second to show up; he assisted Minato in tying up the intruders.

Goose, the third Anbu to have shown up, was immediately turned away with the instructions to summon Ibiki to the Hokage's office.

The intruders had been smart enough to shed their hitai-ites before breaking into Konoha, but not smart enough to discard a family photo that featured them with their hitai-ite proudly displayed on their foreheads. Minato crumpled the photo in his hand.

"Kumo," he stated, not a single trace of emotion present in his voice. "Bring them back to T&I. Tell Ibiki to not relent until he finds out their purpose for being here. I want a report on my desk by noon."

A/N: Hi again!

Thank you for reading! Until next time.

-MM