"The jinchuuriki of the five-tails is planning to head south to Ishigakure. I've relayed the intel to Sasori-san who has informed Konan-san. She and Pain-sama are the ones nearest to him so I'm guessing they will be the ones going after him."

Shiori was in the dining area of the Hot Water Headquarters with her handler. Merely half an hour ago, she had been handed over by Sasori and Deidara. The trio were caught in a storm a kilometer away from their destination. Hence, they arrived at the doorsteps of the old monk's temple soaked to the bone and shivering from head to foot. After taking a detailed report from Sasori, Itachi had ushered his freezing ward into the warmest room in the building for a thick blanket and a cup of piping hot tea.

While he already knew every detail of the mission, they decided to follow the routine anyway and made her relay her own report to him. It was one of the ways that they kept up their appearances. Considering the kind of scandalous secret they were hiding, they had to do everything to avoid getting sloppy.

He looked at his ward as she slowly sipped her drink. Shiori looked absolutely miserable with her hair plastered on her head and her fingertips turning blue from the cold. But he knew her well enough to know that physical discomforts were the last things in her mind at that moment. Ever since that disastrous assignment concerning Fu nearly two years ago, jinchuuriki retrieval missions had become a tough pill to swallow for the twenty-year-old Rinha descendant. Itachi knew that Shiori had always been against killing people, even those whom most people would consider scum. What made these retrievals especially difficult for her was the fact that these people had done nothing wrong to deserve the kind of deaths the Akatsuki were known for executing. She had no idea what the organization was planning for them. But whenever they were brought up in conversations, the topic always veered towards ways on how to put them down. Fu had been their first victim. After the intel she had given them a few days ago, she was certain that the mission to capture Han was well on its way. He would be their second hunt.

"You look tired," Itachi said, genuine concern flashing in his face. "Try to get some sleep once you've finished your tea."

"You and I both know that's not going to happen tonight," she deadpanned. She curled her fingers against her cup, warming them back to life.

"It's you or them, Shiori. If you died trying to deny intel to the Akatsuki then those men will simply find other ways to get to the jinchuuriki. Acting stubborn won't help anybody in this situation.

"I know." She stole a quick glance at him. "You don't look so good yourself either. What's the matter?" She was consciously trying to sound nonchalant. Fudo, Sora and Kisame were in the building with them. They can never be too careful.

The truth was, he didn't feel so good either. He woke up that morning in the middle of a spell. It took a lot of his willpower not to panic while he drowned in his own bed. He decided to keep this from her and skipped to the other big issue that was bothering him.

"Sasori-san finally got hold of Kabuto, one of the sleeper agents working directly under Orochimaru. He confirmed that Sasuke is with them."

Her eyes grew round with surprise. "Until now? Is he okay?"

"He's fine. Healthy even. Orochimaru wants to take over his body once he deems him ready. I heard he still has ways to go so for now he's safe with him." His voice was flat, void of every emotion that ought to have been there.

"Itachi-"

"He's alive. That's all that matters to me."

Shiori paused for a minute. She took a long gulp of her lukewarm tea.

"Shisui-san had it spot on, you know," she said.

"Shisui?" He asked, confused.

"You're good at fooling yourself, Itachi. That's why you can't grasp your true feelings."

A chill ran down his spine upon hearing his koibito repeat the words of his dead bestfriend.

It took three days and two nights to seal the five-tailed beast inside the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. After one final surge of concentrated chakra from each Akatsuki member, its final remnants were forced into the stone behemoth in front of them. The body of its jinchuuriki hovered in the air for one moment before plummeting head first on the ground some twenty feet below them.

Itachi let out a long, shaky breaath under his cloak. This time had been different. He wasn't personally in the lair when they extracted the seven-tails from Fu. Both him and Kisame had been stuck in the rubbles of Uzushiogakure and had participated in the sealing ritual using the Gentoshin Jutsu. Now, with him and his partner taking a breather from missions, they had been summoned to appear in front of the ghastly abomination in person in the hopes of speeding up the tedious procedure. He tried to ignore the sickening crack that resonated as Han's lifeless body landed on the ground. Murmurs began among the group as they took turns guessing who among them would be the one to get rid of the former Iwagakure shinobi's giant remains.

"Moments like this makes you think you work in a circus, doesn't it Itachi-san?" White Zetsu chirped happily beside him.

In the end it was Tobi, whom everyone thought was the newest member, who was tasked with the troublesome disposal. The masked man let out a defeated sigh from where he stood at the foot of the statue.

"But Pain-sama, at least get one of them to help!" he begged, his one visible eye looking expectantly at his cloaked comrades.

"Move, Tobi. Today," Pain replied.

"Oh man!"

Itachi's gaze followed Tobi as he trudged towards man. The faceless shinobi grabbed on to the corpse's collar before disappearing into a vacuum-like void.

'Kamui,' Itachi thought to himself. Unlike some of the members, he was privy to Tobi's real identity. Beneath the playful tone and clumsy maneuvers was a man more sinister than all of them combined. He tried to maintain as much distance from him as possible, to remain inconspicuous and blend in amidst the violence and deceit which ran rampant within the Akatsuki. The last thing he wanted to happen was for Uchiha Madara to find out that he was working against him.

With the five-tails sealed and its jinchuuriki dealt with, Pain began asking for updates regarding the status of the other tailed beasts. One of Sasori's sleeper agents reported that Gaara, the one-tail jinchuuriki, had been chosen as the fifth Kazekage. It was too early to tell whether or not this will work in their favor but either way, he would most likely be their next target. A hunter-nin working with Kakuzu had disclosed that Utakata of the six-tails was last spotted near the border of Tsuchigumo Village. Meanwhile, Uzumaki Naruto of the nine-tails had left Konoha to train under the tutelage of Jiraiya the Toad Sage. Their current location remained unknown.

"Itachi, I expect you to figure out the answer to that," Pain declared.

"Yes."

"And I believe that you'll be able to capture him."

"Yes." Despite the only pair of Rinnegan in the world staring back at him, the lie slipped out of his mouth flawlessly, like all the thousand lies he had said. The truth was, he wasn't as concerned with how to capture Naruto as he was with how to make it look like he was actively pursuing him. Due to the sheer power possessed by the nine-tails, it was likely that they were gong to seal it last. By the time they get more than half of the tailed beasts, he would have been dead already.

"We should have taken that jinchuuriki with us that day we infiltrated Konoha," Kisame said as they made their way out of the cave. "Now the seeds of your paranoia has come back to haunt you."

"That was not the right time," Itachi replied. "I doubt it will be for some time."

"You're right," a female voice replied from behind. Kisame and Itachi turned around and came face-to-face with Konan.

"I didn't even sense you, Konan-san," Itachi greeted her. "Not that I expected otherwise."

"A compliment from an Uchiha. I guess all that hard work is beginning to pay off." She gave them the faintest of smiles before handing Itachi a sealed mission scroll.

"Something to keep you occupied," she explained. "This is going to be particularly hard for your ward but I suggest you take her with you. The success of this mission lies on how well the interrogation was done."

"You make it sound like Shio-chan has a choice," Kisame piped up.

Konan gave Itachi a lingering look before excusing herself with a bow.

Shori greeted them with a bow before limping her way towards the dining table. Her feet ached terribly. Never had she ran as fast as she did that morning when Hidan decided to make her his impromptu live bait for their target shinobi.

"Rough day?" Kisame asked as she plopped on her seat with a pained wince.

"I'll live," she mumbled. Her gaze fell on to the scroll sitting in the middle of the table.

"It's an interrogation job so it shouldn't be too hard on your part," Itachi pointed out, noting her wary look.

Shiori nodded, not that she minded if it had been a field mission. If she was doing it with Itachi and Kisame, her chances of returning to the headquarters alive were quite big.

"What's it about?"

There was a long pause before Itachi replied. "Shimogakure has requested our aid in a rescue mission."

Right in front of their eyes, Shiori's expression changed from that of shock, to confusion and then to suspicion. She didn't even bother hiding her distaste at the mention of the village that had just about ruined everything for her.

"I thought this was an interrogation mission," she said. Her throat suddenly felt thick with tension.

"A part of it is. One of Shimo's kunoichi has been kidnapped. She belongs to one of the village's most powerful shinobi clans so you can understand why they are keen on getting her back. They have captured an accomplice to the crime but he's not talking. That's where you come in."

"They want her back before the day of her wedding, which is a week from today. Otherwise we only get half of the pay," Kisame supplied. Shiori snorted at this.

'Damn Shimo and its shrewd elders,' she thought.

"Actually I was thinking along the lines of rescuing her before she dies. But I guess a wedding is as good an excuse as any for a speedy rescue."

"Don't get smart with us. I'm not in the mood," Kisame replied with acid in his voice.

Shiori quickly apologized. "Sorry. So who's the kunoichi?"

This time it was Itachi who replied. "Ueda Yuki, betrothed to the heir of the Matsushiro clan."

He waited for her to move, to say anything which could clue him in on her thoughts. She remained still as a statue. Even her gaze was unmoving, boring holes into the stone walls behind him. From where he sat with his Sharingan on, he could see her pupils slowly dilating.

"Do you know her?" he asked cautiously.

Shiori snorted again. This time she was quieter. The names Ueda and Matsushiro echoed inside her head in a deafening chorus.

"I've heard of her."

The interrogation took less than five minutes. It took more effort for them to get to the small village right outside of Shimogakure than it was for Shiori to gather intel on Yuki's current location.

Even at first glance, Itachi and Kisame could tell that the Shimo-nins and their captive recognized Shiori. The surprise of seeing her back in Frost Country after two years was quickly replaced with fear and repulsion.

All of the men in the room except the two missing nins took several steps backwards as Shiori made her way towards her subject. As she began reading, Itachi could hear murmurs among the other shinobi.

"I do not want to be that bastard."

"I heard she can suck the life out of you with a single touch."

"Shame. I'd be more interested to see her suck something else."

Low chuckles echoed in the enclosed space. It was all Itachi could do to not slam his fist on their mouths. He was in an official mission. It was neither the right time nor place to let his anger get the best of him.

This had been an hour ago.

Now they were plowing through shin-deep snow towards the southwest border of Frost Country. Snow was falling so heavily that Itachi had to activate his Sharingan to see clearly. Kisame guarded his back while Shiori trudged quietly at his left. She hadn't said much since the three of them left the warehouse along with the four Shimo-nins assigned with them for the rescue mission.

"I still don't understand why we have to go with them," she mumbled. "They already got the location. They should have things under control by now."

"This is part of the agreement in the mission scroll," Itachi explained. "My guess is the Shimo elders wanted to make sure that we weren't bluffing so they specified that we have to escort Yuki-san back to the village safely before we get paid."

"Or it could simply be that they know their shinobi don't stand a chance against Kumo-nins," Shiori replied with a voice too loud. He could tell that the statement wasn't just for his ears.

Jun, the Shimo-nin who made the lewd comments earlier, turned around to glare at her. "Watch your mouth witch. In case you've forgotten, you have overstayed your welcome here." His eyes widened when he noticed a pair of Sharingan glaring back at him.

"Are you questioning my decision, shinobi-san?" Itachi asked him casually. True, the agreement had been to use Shiori to gather the intel then send her back to Yugakure on her own. But with news of a blizzard approaching from the east, he put his foot down and insisted that they took his ward all the way to Shimo, much to Shiori and the Shimo-nins' chagrin. He wasn't keen on losing an asset over something as petty as hypothermia.

Jun struggled to find his words. He was about to throw a retort when Itachi beat him to it.

"I suggest you keep your eyes forward. We're on dangerous terrain. It would be a shame if you meet an untimely end in the glaciers you've become so familiar with." The threat in his words was evident. Fortunately, Jun was smart enough to back down. One of this comrades nudged him and signaled at him to walk faster.

"Pussies," Kisame spat from behind them.

Itachi turned to Shiori. "You. Stop riling people up. You're just a tag along so lie low."

"But-"

"Lie low, Shiori."

The bulk of the rescue mission was done by the Shimo-nins. Two of Itachi's bunshin as well as Kisame himself provided back-up, throwing the necessary shuriken here and there if the situation called for it. Most of their time was spent breaking down the enemy's defense outside of the small minshuku which held their target. While the skirmish ensued, Itachi preferred to stay out of the way and instructed to Kisame that he do the same.

"Has anyone told you that you're too kind Itachi-san?" Kisame asked gruffly, annoyed when one of his partner's kunais prevented the Samehada from landing a fatal blow on a Kumo-nin.

"It's not worth it getting worked up over these kinds of missions."

Infiltration was made many times easier as Itachi cast a genjutsu over the five Kumo-nins defending the interior of the building. One of them managed to break through but was quickly put down by an earth jutsu by one of the Shimo-nins.

"I got her!" The shinobi named Roka exclaimed. He jumped down from the second floor with Maeda Yuki in his arms. The orange-haired kunoichi was unresponsive and had a glassy look in her green eyes. Other than that, she looked alright.

"She's under a genjutsu," Jun pointed out. He turned to one of Itachi's bunshin, knowing full well that the Uchiha prodigy specialized in genjutsu. The bunshin merely signaled at them to head out.

Outside, behind a tall bush, Itachi and Shiori crouched down, waiting for the team's return. The two had been mostly quiet, bracing themselves for anything that could possibly happen.

"It's frustrating isn't it?" Itachi started, catching her attention. "The village asks for your assistance and you answer their plea. Even then they still try to rip us off."

"The Shimo elders can be a bunch of assholes sometimes," Shiori replied.

"Hn. It's not just them who can play that game." He turned to face his koibito. "In a few minutes, the team will return with Yuki-san who is in a genjutsu-induced stupor. I want you to release her from it - "

"-release her? Whoa. Whoa!-" She flailed her hands in front of her to stop him but he wasn't having any of it.

"-Do what you do when you're trying to control your chakra and then your release it but in a smaller scale-"

"-I'll make her face explode!-"

"-You won't." He grabbed her shoulders to keep her quiet. "Your chakra control is way better compared to how it was with the Uzumaki redhead. If you can't hurt me with it I doubt you'll hurt Yuki-san. Now, let's show them who the real businessmen are."

He let her go with a wink just as the group appeared in their hiding place. The two bunshin vanished and he signaled at her to keep moving.

Shiori approached Roka who had the limp Yuki in his arms. He took a few steps back.

"What are you doing?" he asked warily.

"Giving you your precious kunoichi back. What do you think?" Her words came out sounding more bitter than she would have wanted them to. With a nervous sigh, she placed her hand on the clothed part of the kunoichi's arm. She concentrated on gathering a small amount of chakra into a coil and released it. The orange-haired girl woke up with a start.

"Holy Kami it worked," Shiori whispered.

Yuki looked around at familiar faces before her gaze landed onto a pair of familiar gray eyes. Eyes which have haunted her since their disappearance two years ago.

"Shiori," she blurted out, unable to hide the shock in her voice.

The Witch of Shimogakure blinked at her once. Twice.

"Welcome back, Yuki," she greeted quietly.

Itachi turned to Jun. "I'm sure you have read the agreement. It only said that we assist in physically bringing her back to Shimo alive. There's a clause at the bottom which states that any kind of assistance given outside of that definition warrants a different pay. Double if Kisame-san and I find ourselves unable to do the job ourselves and ask for assistance from other sources like my ward Shiori." He smirked at the older shinobi. "I'm afraid there's no going around it. Now we really have to take her with us to Shimogakure to get her payment."

"You..." Jun took a step towards Itachi, stopping when he felt the tip of the Samehada hovering on his shoulder.

"It would be a shame if you guys sour the partnership between Shimo and the Akatsuki," Kisame butted in, sensing the game that the Uchiha was trying to play. "In fact I'm betting that your wise elders will agree with me when I say that you do not want to get on our bad side."

"You didn't have to do that. I'm not too crazy about going back to Shimogakure either. I don't mind waiting on a nearby village for you guys. Honestly."

"Don't be ridiculous. You're coming with us."

"Itachi, please-"

"They know you're with us. They know who you are and they know that Shimo already has the money from selling you to us. What's stopping them from getting rid of you if they get a chance?"

"They won't."

"Are you sure about that? They've done it before have they?"

Perhaps Kisame was right. He was getting more paranoid especially when it came to his ward. That could be true. What he found curious was that the more Shiori voiced out her refusal to go back to her old village, the more Itachi wanted her to. He couldn't deny the fact that he was intrigued. She was avoiding something or someone. It certainly wasn't the disgust of the villagers. Her reaction from the Shimo-nins' jeers from earlier told him that much.

'So what is it? Or who?'

Itachi's brain churned out an answer not too long after and its genius suggestion made him sick. He looked at his ward with his peripheral vision. She had not said a word since she greeted Yuki during the last leg of their successful retrieval mission. Now with the silhouette of Shimogakure looming over them, she seemed to have shrunk into herself, hiding beneath her oversized cloak. Her face was now completely hidden by her hood. A few yards in front of them, the tangerine-haired Yuki kept looking back at Shiori's direction. Her look wasn't that of repulsion but of uncertainty and, if Itachi wasn't imagining it, nervousness.

"I was under the impression that you two knew each other Shio-chan," Kisame said from behind them, voicing out his partner's thoughts.

Shiori remained quiet, only moving to brace herself as a gust of icy wind blew from the south. Not one to be ignored, Kisame marched over to Itachi's side and gently poked his ribs with his elbow.

"Something's up with those two," he muttered under his breath. When Itachi raised an eyebrow at him, he added, "I'm betting one hundred ryos on it."

As the gates of Shimogakure came into view, they noticed a small group of people waiting right outside it. Yuki broke away from the group and sprinted towards them. One person from the waiting cluster did the same and ran towards Yuki to meet her halfway. His hood peeled back revealing long jet black hair which was haphazardly secured into a ponytail. Itachi did a doubletake. Before he could think more into it Yuki jumped into the man's arms, giving him a tearful embrace.

"Eiji!"

"Yuki. Thank goodness you're safe."

His soothing words sounded jumbled to Itachi as he came to a stop.

'Eiji?' he thought. Hearing the name made his stomach churn uncomfortably. It reminded him of a narrowly-missed skirmish, of gray eyes pleading at him to hold back for one more minute. Who's Eiji? He had asked that question before. He never got a clear answer.

"I swear I've heard that name somewhere," Kisame wondered loudly. "He doesn't have a bloodline limit, does he Itachi?" He turned to his partner but did not get a reply. The younger member of the duo was looking pointedly at Shiori as though willing her to look at him. She stayed unmoving on her spot.

As the couple continued to stare lovingly at each other, the Shimo-nins stepped aside to give way to two middle-aged men walking towards them. It didn't take much for Kisame to deduce that they were the heads of the Matsushiro and Ueda clan. The one on the right had auburn hair which was many shades darker than Yuki's but him and the kunoichi had many facial similarities. He bowed down in front of Kisame and Itachi.

"I never doubted for a second that you were the right men for the job. The Ueda clan will be forever in debt to your organization," he said in a smooth voice.

The man beside him bowed in gratitude as well. This one had graying hair and sharp obsidian eyes which were eerily shaped like Itachi's.

"It's not just them who are thankful," the man added.

With his partner going mute, Kisame realized that he had to do all of the talking this time. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you. Though I must say, circumstances wouldn't have been that easy to overcome had it not been for the assistance of our asset. She played a big part in the success of this mission," he concluded, implying to the two that they were expecting additional charges. Ueda was quick to pick up on this.

"That assistance will be compensated accordingly," the redhead replied.

Yuki whispered something to Eiji causing him to stiffen and for his jaw to grow slack. He untangled himself from his fiance's embrace and stumbled towards the clan heads, stopping beside the dark-eyed man. The young shinobi bore such a striking resemblance to the Matsushiro head it was apparent to everyone that he was the heir.

"Otousan," he sighed. But his eyes were glued to the cloaked figure beside Itachi. The Uchiha glared at him.

"Please," the older Matsushiro started, nodding at the duo's company, "may we have the honor of meeting you so that we can extend our gratitude wholeheartedly?"

Shiori complied and pulled her hood down, revealing to the three men and to the crowd gathering by the gates her ashen features. She locked eyes with Eiji who couln't help but whisper her name. The two clan heads exchanged alarmed glances while murmurs erupted from behind them.

"It's true. That's her."

"The witch is back."

"No way."

Shiori steeled herself and bowed to the three in greeting.

"Hi Eiji," she said, voice shaking with pent up emotions. She turned to his father who stood gaping at her. "Bad decisions have a way of haunting us don't they, Matsushiro-san?"

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Shisui's line is not mine (The line Shiori was talking about on the first bit). If you're a massive Itachi fan and had painstakingly gone through every episode that even breathed his name, then I guess you would know what a koibito is. I'm sure by now we ALL know who Obito really is but at one point nobody did, even Itachi thought he was Madara because he introduced himself as the big M-I'm still in that part in this chapter.

Trying to de-OOCify Itachi here just a wee bit without taking away his humanity. I dont know if it worked but...hope you liked it. The next chapter may still revolve around Shiori more but I tried to even it out in this chapter by writing through Itachi's POV most of the time. Hope that helped as well.

Anyways...y'all know what I want. Click. Review.