The moon is out in the night sky, and the breeze coming in from the window is somewhat relaxing. Mitsuki's absence left Itachi and Kisame with some quiet time.
"Itachi-san," Kisame broke the silence as he called for Itachi's attention. "That was unusual of you to actually agree to spar with me. What made you change your mind?" he continued.
It was true. Being a pacifist by nature, Itachi disliked engaging in unnecessary fight. He had always refused Kisame's sparring request before, noting that it would be best for them to conserve their energy in case of emergency. It was why that day's turn of event came out as unusual for Kisame, even though it was true that Itachi had never used his full power during the spar. To be honest, the whole "training" thing surprised Kisame, especially with how serious Itachi was taking it, along with attending to the girl so far.
Itachi kept his silence, as he thought of the answer to those questions. He noticed that he had been acting unusual as well, to his own surprise. The reason for him to accept the sparring request as well as his decision on the sparring limitations was to teach Mitsuki on how to utilise her known talent to her best advantage. However, thinking back, why did he went so far and took so much interest in training the girl? Itachi traced back the event in his mind.
At first, it was his curiosity in her and her unusual constitution as well as her ability that exists outside shinobi's logic. He wanted to know how her ability affects the natural state of thing without the involvement of chakra, and how will it react just by implementing the basic laws of nature and physics. So far the girl surprised him with her smarts and how fast she absorbed the information that he imparted, as well as her ability to apply what she learned with her creativity. He would like to know her limit as well as how far she could go in terms of improving her ability. However, that day's training was different.
Itachi had to admit that it was not solely for the sake of his curiosity. They didn't even touch the subject regarding experimenting with her power at all, it was a honest to good training that Itachi crafted for her to improve her likelihood to stand up on par with shinobi. Itachi couldn't help but recall the look in Mitsuki's face when she asked him to train her and teach her about Shinobi to overcome her own weakness and be of more use. Did the training come out of respect of the girl's will and maturity, as well as the sincerity she showed? Or was it, guilt? Regret?
Mitsuki did remind him of Sasuke sometimes. Itachi thought back of how he never managed to spend more time with Sasuke, either by teaching him all he could, or assisting in his ninja training. He was so focused on his own goal, and then, his duty. Was he using Mitsuki for his selfish repentance for those times, for the things he didn't do? Itachi still wasn't sure about the answer of the questions, however it didn't matter as there was no way he would disclose any of those truth to Kisame, considering his actual purpose of working with Akatsuki. No, he shouldn't show too much weakness, no matter how close the duo had become over the years.
"It was for Akatsuki's purpose," Itachi answered.
Kisame was not convinced by Itachi's answer. However, he knew that pressing further wouldn't do anything to change his answer. Kisame shrugged as he accepted the vague answer.
Sun has risen up high when Mitsuki opened up her eyes. As she stretched and yawned, sitting up, she looked around her. Both Itachi and Kisame weren't there in the room with her. She remembered going back quite late the previous night and sneakily went to take bath and showered before immediately passing out on the bed. She might not exactly need to eat or sleep as she could have just replenished her energy from the entropy, but she still love to eat, and sleep. There's just something about a good night sleep that refresh her like no other thing. Perhaps it was because she could put her mind to rest as well? As for food..
"Oh damn it, it's so late already! I don't even have time to scrounge for lunch if I want to train as much as yesterday," Mitsuki thought to herself in panic as she jumped out of the futon and dig through her new clothes and quickly changed to a comfortable training set.
Mitsuki quickly checked if the door was locked, before leaving the room through the window, re-enacting her practice traversal with Itachi the previous day. However instead of heading directly to the forest ground, Mitsuki took a detour and headed towards the clothing shop instead. It wasn't difficult to find her way from the high ground. She might even get addicted to traverse in that way, she thought to herself.
As soon as Mitsuki reached the electric pole besides the clothing shop, Mitsuki saw Hazuki taking a break in front of her shop. "Hazuki-san!" Mitsuki called out as she jumped down towards her, surprising her out of her daydream.
"Gyah!" she yelped as she catch the glimpse of Mitsuki as she fell towards the pathway, and landed on all four.
"I really need to work on my form and landing.." Mitsuki thought to herself, embarrassed remembering how elegant both Itachi's and Kisame's movement during the spar on the previous day. "Itachi-kun is one thing, but to lose to Kisame…." She felt her woman pride was weirdly hurt by the notion.
"Oh! You're the girl from before! I didn't catch your name," Hazuki added as she remembered the quiet girl from before.
"I'm Mitsuki," Mitsuki answered, smiling as she stood up, making sure she put on her cutest smile. Her smile put an ease to Hazuki's still thumping heart.
"Nice to get to know you, Mitsuki-chan!" Hazuki answered, smiling. "I didn't know you're a shinobi! I guess that's why you needed training clothes!"
Mitsuki felt it was too troublesome to explain. Keeping her smile, she responded, "Mmmmhmm, something like that!"
"How did you find the clothes? Did it fit fine?"
"Mmmhmm, thank you! It is very comfortable," Mitsuki answered with a sweet voice, slightly exaggerating her tone for some added cuteness. That was how she had been interacting with others, usually, especially whenever she was trying to obtain their favour or affection.
"Oh, but, you came here to see me? How can I help you?" Hazuki asked, realising that it couldn't have been a coincidence. Her shop was quite far from the inn area after all.
Mitsuki nodded, with a fake shy expression on her face as she scratched her cheek gently. "Ah, yes, actually, I might need your help with something."
Hazuki waited and listened attentively to what Mitsuki had to say. "Hazuki-san," Mitsuki continued, "have you lived here for a long time? Can you teach me about local plants? I'd like to know their function and how to harvest their seed."
Mitsuki's request caught Hazuki off guard. However, understanding that it might be related to her shinobi study, Hazuki nodded. She knew plants quite well as a local, and being an artisan, sometimes he might have to use them to process some of her cloth as well. Hazuki asked Mitsuki if she got time, and proceeded to take some pen and paper as Mitsuki nodded.
Mitsuki knew she couldn't rush this out. Regarding plants and herbs, one mistake can differentiate between life and death. She had expected that doing this will take some of her training time that day. But it was necessary; she thought to herself. If she was to surprise Itachi, less than that kind of effort wouldn't be enough.
"Khukhukhukhu…" Mitsuki let out a soft, suspicious laugh as a glint appear in her eye, out of Hazuki's sight. She felt an excitement as she looked forward to her rematch, as she crafted a ploy on her head.
Two hour has passed. During the time, Hazuki tried her best to teach Mitsuki about the basic medicinal herbs, local flowers as well as dangerous plants and how to avoid them. With a pile of drawings and writings on her hand, Mitsuki was ready to leave for her training.
"GROWL," suddenly Mitsuki's stomach roared to her embarrassment. Mitsuki just remembered that she hadn't eaten anything since the previous night. Hearing this, Hazuki laughed.
"Wait here, let's eat something together before you go!" Hazuki patted Mitsuki's head with a smile on her face as genuine embarrassment showed up on Mitsuki's face.
As Hazuki went inside and grabbed them some food, Mitsuki sat in front of the shop and flipped through the papers on her hand. She thought to herself of how nice Hazuki had been to her, and how she went to such an extent to teach her. "And now, she is going out of her way to give me food that I didn't even ask," she thought. Somehow pang of guilt hit her heart. Just because she was used to deception, it didn't mean that she liked it. Somewhere inside her heart, she wondered about how would people treat her if they could see her as how she actually was. But, of course she had to do what she needed to do. Mitsuki smiled bitterly.
"Aaah, I've become too greedy," Mitsuki mumbled to herself. Her genuine interaction with Itachi and Kisame, or at least Kisame, as Itachi still seemed to have a lot of reservation with her, had become a part of normalcy for her, and she began to constantly crave that kind of freedom to be herself. "But, if I want to stay with them, I have to do my part.. I must do what I'm best at.." Mitsuki thought to herself, steeling her heart.
"Mitsuki-chan, let's eat!" Hazuki said as she came back out of the store and approached Mitsuki who was still sitting on the store front bench. As she put a row of onigiri in between the two of them, Hazuki smiled at the small statured girl sitting beside her as she started eating one of the onigiri happily. Conflict brewed on her mind before she finally decided to ask the question that had been popping in her head since their last meeting.
"Hey, Mitsuki-chan? If you don't mind me asking, where are you travelling to? You're still so young, yet it seemed like it will be a long journey.." And that man wasn't even her family, Hazuki stopped herself from saying what was in her mind. Is she being deceived, she thought to herself. Looking at the girl's extremely thin limbs and how she was dressed when they first met, she couldn't shake the worry off her head.
Mitsuki looked straight into Hazuki's eyes as she tried to read the meaning between her questions. Through them and her aura, she felt genuine concern and worry behind her words. Seemed like her explanation last time didn't suffice, thought Mitsuki to herself.
"What should I do? Should I lie?" Mitsuki thought to herself. She remembered her resolve a few moments earlier. "I have to lie… do I have to?" Mitsuki bit her lips gently. Somehow, somewhere inside her, she was afraid. She felt like if she continued on like this, and lived only in pretense, she will be swallowed in her own lies eventually. Then, if that happened, would she still be able to learn about who she really was and accept it? Would it all also seem like a lie then? "I.. I don't have to lie to her." Mitsuki gritted her teeth. That was true, she convinced herself. It wasn't a task, nor is it a mission, or a necessity. She really wanted to greet Hazuki's sincerity with honesty and rid herself of that worry of hers. More than that, she wouldn't want to lose herself more and regretted it. Mitsuki noted in her heart, that for her own sake, she would only deceive when she really need to.
Hazuki was getting worried when Mitsuki stayed quiet for a while. As she saw Mitsuki's hand clenching, Hazuki opened her mouth to speak. However, before any word came out of her mouth, Mitsuki turned to meet her gaze with a gentle smile as she dropped her cutesy act. "I am not sure how to explain my situation to you, but I can assure you that everything is fine and I'm in a better place than I was before I'm with them."
Mitsuki's sudden change in tone and expression surprised Hazuki. Seeing Mitsuki's resolute face, Hazuki brave herself to ask her one last time. "Are you sure you can trust them? If you have nowhere to go, you can live with me and help with my shop, you know? I..."
Hazuki's word was cut off by Mitsuki's light laughter, "Hazuki nee-san, you're such a nice person!" Mitsuki stood up from her seat as she swallowed the last piece of onigiri that she held in her hand. Mitsuki then turned her body around in a light spin as she smiled happily. Greeted with Hazuki's worried gaze, Mitsuki added, smiling. "No need to worry, Ita.." Mitsuki stopped herself from saying Itachi's name, realizing the sensitive situation due to their criminal status. "I mean, that man yesterday and his friend might look scary, but he has a very gentle soul, I assure you of it!" Mitsuki grinned playfully as she thought to herself "Yes, Itachi-kun is very gentle, but no way I'm calling Kisame gentle!"
Hazuki's unconvinced look prompted Mitsuki to continue, "and besides, I'm the one who asked them to take me with them. I wanted this, so I'm intending to go through with my choice."
Hazuki sighed audibly, listening to the girl talk, she felt like she will never be able to change her mind. "Be careful ok? And if you ever change your mind, you can always come to me."
Mitsuki smiled as Hazuki stared at her with a serious look on her eyes.
"I will. Thank you, Hazuki nee-san." Mitsuki answered with a smile and waved her goodbye as she proceeded to her next destination.
Author's note:
Sorry that Itachi and Kisame barely appear here! I actually wanted to add more things to this chapter that involves them afterward, but I think it's better to cut the chapter off here to conclude on the theme of this chapter which is Mitsuki's mental struggle on finding out about who she actually is as a person, and break through the cage of her past and grow towards the future :3 I hope it make sense! Do leave me your thoughts and review if you guys are reading this!
edit: done proofread!