He felt the kunai before he could see it. He tilted his head just as it was about to nick him in the ear and heard it whiz past him. That fleeting moment was all he needed to gauge the location of his opponent. With a speed too fast for the naked eye to see, he formed the hand seals for the jutsu and aimed at a distance behind him.

"Fire style. Fireball Jutsu."

Kisame emerged from his hiding place and jumped right into the path of the speeding fireball, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Water style! Shark Bomb Jutsu!"

The combination of fire and water created a massive explosion which shook the entire headquarters. The sound of the two elements colliding could be heard many kilometers away.

Itachi had gone blind. He didn't have excellent eyesight to begin with but the scalding steam that engulfed him had made it impossible to see. Almost on instinct his Sharingan activated, warning him of the Samehada coming down from above his head. He jumped out of the way just as the giant sword created a massive crater on the ground he just stood on.

"I told you not to go easy on me!" Kisame growled.

Itachi smirked. He could tell that his teammate was struggling to stop his heavy body's momentum. Taking advantage of this, he wielded a kunai with his left hand and slashed at Kisame's torso.

"Whoa!" The swordsman weaved out of the kunai's way. In retaliation, he grabbed Itachi's wrist. With both of his hands full, he had no choice but to take the younger boy's spinning back kick at the side of his face.

What had once began as a battle between nature transformation techniques turned into a taijutsu match. Itachi met each of Kisame's strike by blocking and even then he had managed to sneak in numerous counterattacks. What he lacked in strength he made up for in speed. Kisame aimed for the vital spots, his heart, his eyes and his joints. Itachi wanted him to have a taste of his own medicine by aiming for his neck when the presence of two other chakra signatures piqued his curiosity. Kisame caught him by the wrist and was on the process of breaking it.

"People are coming this way."

The echo of a slow clap emanated from the entrance of their training ground. Two silhouettes emerged from the haze and steam hanging in the air.

"Impressive. Looks like we caught you in a good time," Hidan admired from afar. Him and Kakuzu made their way to the other S-rank pair until they stood face to face.

"Goodmorning," Kakuzu greeted. "It's been awhile, don't you agree?"

Kisame grinned showing rows of sharp teeth. "You make it sound like it's a bad thing. What brings you here?"

"Oh you know, the usual," Hidan replied nonchalantly. "Trying to make the Akatsuki richer one bounty at a time. That and an interrogation assignment. We need to borrow your girlfriend, Itachi-kun."

Itachi and Kisame exchanged looks. "What's this about?" the former asked.

Kakuzu's reply was enough to put the four of them on edge. "It's about the jinchuriki of the seven-tails. It's not common knowledge since majority of the village elders wanted as few people to know as possible. But sources say that she's travelling outside of Takigakure soon. We need to find out where."

For the second time that week, Itachi found himself navigating their headquarter's maze-like hallways with his ward. The silence between the two of them was thick with anxiety. Shiori had been the first to cave in.

"How bad do you think is this reading going to be?"

Itachi took his time with his reply. "I'll let you decide for yourself."

He had found her in the moss garden talking to Fudo the caretaker. Some time during their conversation, the old man had said something which caused Shiori to burst with laughter. This unguarded display of emotion from her had been one of the most sincere images he had seen in a long time. He found it hard to admit to himself but something about its crudeness made it endearing for him. A heavy feeling filled his stomach when he realized that he had to put a stop to it. He doubted that he would see her laughing for the next couple of days after this.

Hidan and Kakuzu were already in the interrogation room by the time they arrived. In the middle of the room, strapped into a wooden chair was a young man with gray hair and a Takigakure hitai-ate which kept his fringes away from his face. His head hung to one side as he sat unconscious.

Mechanically, Shiori walked over to Kakuzu to obtain her target. When the mercenary opened the envelope and revealed a photograph, Shiori gasped out loud. Even from afar, Itachi could tell that she had started panicking.

'Dammit,' he thought to himself.

Shiori's eyes never left the image in front of her. It was a blown-up photograph of a young girl. Her amber eyes stood out from the background, complimented perfectly by her bright green hair.

"Her name is Fu," Kakuzu said. "She's a kunoichi of Takigakure and the jinchuriki of the seven-tails. I'm guessing from your reaction that you know what this means. Find her for me."

Another bout of deafening silence fell in the room. All eyes were on Shiori as she stood stock still in front of Kakuzu, neither meeting his gaze nor saying anything to acknowledge his order.

"Sotome Shiori. Did you hear what I just said?"

"I can't."

"What?" Kakuzu stepped back, incredulous.

"What the hell is she up to now?" Hidan wondered, turning to Itachi. The latter remained quiet and observed the scene unfold with a frown on his face.

Shiori felt trapped. She knew that if the Akatsuki was hunting down the young girl in the picture, it could only mean one thing: They wanted her dead. If she did the interrogation and started the chain of events leading to Fu's doom, she knew that her conscience would never let her live with it. On the other hand if she remained stubborn and refused to do what she was told until the very end, it will be her death that she was going to cause.

"I-I..." Shiori stammered, licking her lips nervously. "I can't. She can't be older than me, look at her! And she has done nothing wrong. Why would you want her dead?"

"What makes you think you have the right to know that?" Kakuzu replied, stepping closer towards the resistant ward. His sheer size intimidated the young girl who clearly shrunk back.

"Let me make this clear to you. You are the property of Akatsuki, not a member of it. No one cares what you want or don't want to do. The reason we're keeping you alive is to help us achieve our goals. If you can't do that then I don't know why I'm even talking to you. So start moving."

Shiori didn't budge. She didn't dare look at Hidan and Itachi's way. She knew their silence was a blatant disapproval of her rebellion. She was all alone in this one. Her gaze landed back at Fu's smiling face. Inside, her conscience begged at her to do the right thing. While it wasn't something she was proud of, she was aware that her cursed ability had caused the downfall of many men and women. However in the past, all of them had been guilty of something, be it espionage, murder or staging a coup d'etat. She understood why people paid mercenaries like Kakuzu and Hidan to take them down.

This time it was different. They were after a girl whose only fault had been that her elders decided to put a beast inside her before she was barely old enough to decide whether or not she wanted this kind of life for herself. Shiori couldn't stomach the fact that people were targeting her to the death because of this.

A cold pressure on her throat brought her out of her thoughts. She shrieked in horror when she realized that it was Hidan's scythe pressed against her skin.

"Now you're just being rude, Shiori-chan. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to disrespect your elders?" Hidan's cackle was cut short by Itachi's deep voice.

"If you think she needs to die then I'll kill her myself."

He was so fast that neither Kakuzu nor Hidan realized what happened until Itachi had pressed the kunai on Hidan's neck. The Jashinist burst out laughing.

"I never pegged you for a fool, 'tachi-kun. That kunai of yours won't kill me."

"Who said anything about killing you? You were implying that rudeness needs to be punished, were you not? This is me agreeing with you." Everyone could hear the threat behind his words.

"That's enough!" Kakuzu roared, making all eyes turn on him. "Rules are rules. We are prohibited from harming each others' wards and assets. Hidan, unless you want me to personally hunt down all of your assets as payback, I suggest you step away from the girl. And you Itachi, put her in line."

Ever since she entered the room, Shiori had felt like she was trapped between a rock and a hard place. But now, with Hidan's scythe replaced by Itachi's kunai, its sharp edge drawing blood from her skin, she felt the space she was trapped in getting smaller. It suffocated her. Every breath brought with it the shinobi's scent and rather than finding comfort in this, it terrified her. Gone was the young man she had spoken to a few nights ago, the man who made her feel safe in a place that was weighed so heavily with death. The one holding her now was a ruthless killer intent on finishing the mission.

"I'll do anything," she whispered shakily, "Anything else except this. I can't-"

"Be very careful with what you say next, Shiori-san," he interjected calmly. His warm breath against her ear made her shudder. "If you say that you are not capable of doing this job then it's proof that you're not as efficient as we want you to be. You won't be of any use to me anymore. I would have no good reason to keep you around. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

This was the most that she had heard Itachi talk and it had felt like a sledgehammer to the gut. She had been foolish enough to believe, even if she didn't admit it out loud, that Itachi kept her safe because he cared about her, that maybe he saw her as an ally.

'Apparently not,' she thought to herself. To him, she was a tool, disposable once she had lost her usefulness.

With frayed nerves and a heavy heart, she let her survival instincts kick in. She took a few steps forward and numbly kissed the unconscious man in front of her.

She didn't wake up until the second night. Even then she had felt so disorientated that she had a hard time sitting up on her bed. It was as if somebody had entered her mind and had wrecked havoc at her memories. The sequence of the events which had occurred for the past few weeks were so jumbled that she couldn't remember how she ended up in her room in the first place. With a pained sigh, she forced herself to think.

She remembered explosions but she couldn't remember being scared by them. Fudo had joked about those things. They were laughing, yes. They were in the moss garden.

'When did Itachi get in the picture?' she thought. She reached up to scratch her neck, wincing when she realized that she had accidentally picked on a scab. Alarmed, she ran her fingertips along the small horizontal cut just above the hollow of her throat.

"Itachi did this," she murmured to herself, more as a matter of fact than as an accusation. "But why?"

The answer came and hit her with the force of a speeding freight train.

She remembered the assignment with Kakuzu and Hidan, how every cell in her body screamed at her not to do it. But Kami forgive her, she did. And just like that, Fu's life was at the palm of her bound hands, ready for the taking.

She didn't even hear the door opening, didn't notice she wasn't alone in the room anymore until his silhouette loomed above her. A pair of glowing Sharingan looked down on her, bringing forth another surge of memories.

She had put up a fight. It had been a tearful, pathetic, and short-lived fight but considering it was against the Uchiha prodigy, it took all of her courage to hold her ground. She had partially made up her mind then that she'd rather die than spill the intel she had gathered from the guardian shinobi.

His name was Minato, not unlike that of the Fourth Hokage's. She loved it. It suited him.

If she died with him that night then she decided she was fine with it. At least she wouldn't have to meet Jashin by herself.

Minato died alone. Hidan didn't even offer him to his God and merely slit the defenseless man's throat out of pent up spite.

Itachi had her by her own throat and had slammed her against the wall, a thin layer of fabric separating his skin from hers. While his left hand effortlessly held her on a chokehold, his right hand had her left arm pinned above her head. Her right arm was caught between the two of them, reminding her of their proximity, of his intrusiveness. Just when her head had stopped spinning from the impact, the tomoe in Itachi's eyes began to spin lazily around his pupils.

"Itachi no," she rasped. "Don't do this."

"Tell us what we need to know," he said in a low voice. Then he pressed his lips against her ear, close enough that echoes of his own memories began ringing in her head. "Say it out loud."

Just like that, her body was no longer hers. Her lips moved on its own accord even as her inner self screamed at her to shut up. With Itachi's chokehold loosened, she had shouted that Fu was headed to Konohagakure to take part in the Chunin Selection Exams, the same exams which will be taken by the jinchuriki of the nine-tails. She had recited the names of the other shinobi who were disguising themselves as Takigakure genins. In truth these were jonins who were tasked to be Fu's undercover bodyguards. She exposed their specialties, strengths and weaknesses. She even blurted out the Minshukus they had planned on staying during their journey. And when she had said all that they had needed to hear Itachi had flung her on an adjacent wall, causing her to hit her head and pass out.

Admittedly he had been angry at her. Shiori had always been sensible despite being blunt and stubborn. Hence he had not expected her to throw her life away for the sake of a stranger, even if the said stranger had been an innocent girl. Her little stunt nearly cost her her life. It left Itachi with no choice but to coerce the intel out of her, all the while displaying cruelty meant for the watchful sadistic eyes of Kakuzu and Hidan. He felt a bitter pang at the thought of ruining her but he pushed the unpleasant sensation down and ignored it.

'She is a means to an end. What becomes of her is irrelevant,' he told himself, not for the first time.

His well-kept fear had been confirmed and more. When he came to her room that night not only was she angry at him, she was also disgusted. Gone was the fear that consumed her every time she encountered the Sharingan. In its place was a blind rage that made her gray eyes shine dangerously.

He didn't move as she crawled her way towards him. He stood in place as she shakily stood up on her feet. He looked numbly as she lifted her left palm above her head before bringing it down forcefully against his cheek. He didn't flinch at the contact. He deserved that one anyway.

She lunged at him again, this time aiming for his torso. Armed with a pair of leather gloves, he had caught both of her hands rendering them useless. She proceeded to kick at his shins.

"Bastard!" She roared. "You bastard! I hate you!"

He twisted her wrists further, causing her to cry out in pain. The pain distracted her enough to allow him to sweep her off her feet with a quick maneuver of his leg. Shiori cried as they both landed on her futon. His full weight on her hips had successfully pinned her down and his hands kept their firm grip on her wrists. Once again in a blink of an eye, he had defeated her but she was not done. She tried to buck his weight off of her. When he refused to budge she tried to headbutt and bite him. And when neither worked she spat at him. Itachi retaliated by tightening his grip on her wrists until her fingers turned blue.

"Get off me!" she screamed. "Goddamit Itachi! Why did you make me do it! Why?"

He didn't let her go even as her screams became sniffles. And then she was crying in front of him. Hot tears rolled down her temples and soaked into her hair.

"Damn you. She is fourteen years old, no older then Sasuke. Why would you kill her?" The question was an exhausted whisper, a dirty little secret she was incapable of preventing.

"We are going to kill her with or without your help. That cannot be avoided. What we didn't plan on was killing you. We've already caused enough deaths. We don't need another unnecessary one."

"I don't care."

Itachi gritted his teeth. He was determined to make her understand.

"It's true that we had paid Shimogakure to obtain you but it's a cost we have more than made up for a long time ago. Killing may be business for us but I know of more than one person in this place who would gladly kill you for free."

"Let them!" she sobbed, lips quivering. "Ask them to put a stop in this misery. I don't care."

Shiori meant it this time. It was no longer something she just said to make a point. With every person she helped them hunt down, the guilt she carried in her chest grew bigger. She was afraid that the day will come when it will grow big enough to choke her.

"I'm not like you," she continued, meeting his red-eyed gaze. "I'm not a shinobi. Killing people is and will always be wrong for me. I can't take this anymore Itachi-san. I hate what I've become because of you."

Itachi's face came closer and closer, startling her enough to curb her sobs. He was pressed so close against her she could feel his even breathing against her fluttering heartbeat. She could see the details of his long lashes. He continued to come closer, close enough that if he didn't tilt his head to the right, their noses would have ended up brushing against each other. Finally when there was only an inch of space between their lips, Itachi spoke.

"You're nothing but a tool. What you think or feel doesn't matter to me. I decide if and when you're no longer useful to the organization."

Before his heart skipped a beat and the lump in his throat forced him to swallow, giving away the fact that he wasn't being as truthful as he wanted her to believe, he pushed himself up to his feet and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him with a barely audible click.

Shiori cried her heart out that night. The feeling of being under a full-blown genjutsu haunted her, all the more because it was Itachi who had done it to her. She had wanted to scold herself for being so gullible, for even considering the Uchiha as her savior. In the end it wasn't about keeping her safe. It was about intel. He would probably chop her into pieces for the right information at the right price. Itachi was a master of deception. For someone who had seen the workings of his mind she ought to have known better.

Some time in the depth of the night, the dark-haired shinobi decided to check on her. He managed to go as far as outside her door with one fist in the air poised to knock on it. The pacifist in him wanted to make sure she was okay while the tactician in him seethed for leaving a problem unsolved. These were the things he told himself because these were the only reasons he could come up with which explained why sleep was impossible for him at that moment.

He had wanted to apologize, to say that he didn't mean half the things he had said but logic kicked in before his knuckles came in contact with the wood. How could he fix her when the very thought of him was what caused her to break? Accepting what he thought was failure on his part, he walked away and left her to cry it out.

He never did sleep that night. The whole time all he could think about was the uneasy weight on this stomach and the illogical thought that the only thing that could make it go away was to make sure that Shiori was okay. It was illogical because she didn't matter to him. Well, she wasn't supposed to anyway.

Author's Notes: I'm aware that Minato is the Yondaime's first name but I think it's really nice so I recycled it. Anyways, multiple chapters later and I still have no idea how this piece is being taken. It could be that a) this fandom churns out so many fics per hour that my fic gets lost in the queue an hour after it's posted, or b) Naruto fans aren't big on OCs (and I get it) or c) this ain't the majority's cuppa tea. Anyway, if you're reading this you know what I want you to do. Hit review and review. See ya.