Mitsuki was lost in her thoughts as she walked the street mindlessly. The image of the mystery man and his soul still freshly etched in her brain. Mitsuki shivered. If she could, she wouldn't want to get involved with that person. However, if that person was really after them, then? Mitsuki bit her lips. Sometimes, feigning ignorance is best, she thought. If she pretend that she didn't know anything, people would be less wary of her.

"I think I'll do just that.." Mitsuki nodded internally. "..and if that guy is really after us, Itachi-kun and Kisame should be able to handle it.. could they?" Mitsuki shook her head as her nervousness took over. Judging by the amount of energy and the pattern on that person's soul, Mitsuki couldn't be sure. "But Itachi-kun should be able to do something about it, or at least, he would notice and create a plan somehow.."

"Mitsuki?" A voice called out to her.

Mitsuki turned her head towards the voice's source.

"!" Mitsuki immediately recognised her caller. "Itachi-kun?" Mitsuki couldn't believe it. It seemed like in her distress she naturally gravitated towards where the familiar warm soul was to seek comfort without her realising. Embarassed at her moment of weakness, Mitsuki grumbled.

On the streetside stall's teashop bench, Itachi sipped on a steaming hot green tea. Beside him, a few set of three colored confectionary was laid down on a plate.

"What's wrong?" Itachi noticed the distressed look on her face as Mitsuki approached his bench.

The girl pondered a while as she sat beside Itachi, her expression changing rapidly from frustration, to consideration, then to a big sigh, before she finally turned her head to met Itachi's confused gaze.

"Haaaah, If only every soul in the world is like yours…" Mitsuki said with a tired look on her eye.

"Soul?" Itachi inquired. However, the girl surprisingly didn't respond like she usually would. Instead she seemed to be lost in thought again as she turned her head towards the street, looking at nothing in particular with unusual dark look in her eyes.

Itachi slid the plate of confectionary closer towards her, offering it in silence. The motion immediately caught Mitsuki's attention. The instant she saw the cute looking food in front of her, her eyes immediately sparkled. Itachi couldn't help but smile behind his cloaked hat at her sudden change of expression.

"What is this? So cute! Is it food?" Mitsuki exclaimed as she gazed at the smooth looking balls-on-skewers with three different color.

Thinking about it, there were no dango in Mitsuki's origin village or the previous port, Itachi noted.

"It's three-colored dango. Try some." Itachi replied.

Mitsuki gladly grabbed a stick and chomped down on one of the skewered glutinous ball. As she chewed, her eye practically sparkled as she brought her other palm up to hold her cheek in bliss. "Woah, what the.. it's sweet and chewy, mmm~" Mitsuki exclaimed softly as she swing her legs happily while she chewed with an overjoyed look on her face. Beside her, Itachi sat in silence as he continued sipping his cup of tea with slight smile on his lips.

"Hahah, thinking about it, I was hungry… I forgot," Mitsuki dejectedly said in low voice as she smiled bitterly.

"Forgot?" Itachi thought. Among the things that the girl beside him might forgot, he didn't think that food would be one of them, judging from her obvious love of food. "Whatever bothered her must be quite dire," Itachi thought, frowning.

As Mitsuki noticed Itachi's questioning gaze on her, Mitsuki smiled awkwardly. "It's probably nothing," she said. "If anything comes out, I'll tell you." She really hoped that it wouldn't be the case, as she'd prefer to stay away from the owner of that soul if it's none of her business.

Hearing her statement, Itachi decided to not press her further. As he took the last stick of his favourite dango, the two sat in silence, enjoying their food.

"Wha? Why are you two here? I thought we supposed to split up?" Another familiar voice drifted as a tall figure approached the two.

"It's a coincidence, this village is small," Mitsuki answered as she swallowed the last piece of dango that she took. "Should we go? I'm bored." Mitsuki said impatiently as she stood up from the bench, followed by Itachi.

"Yeah, let's go." Kisame replied as the three of them headed towards the village's exit together.

"Shit, he's really following us." Mitsuki groaned internally as she tried to keep her expression carefree as she tried her best to maintain her perception during their traverse.

It's not just him either. Mitsuki could feel two, no, three other souls following their trail. "Can it be a coincidence that they are heading the same way?" she thought. "What are the chances the four of them are working together?" Mitsuki tried to recall where she had seen the other three souls before.

"Hrghhh its those bounty hunter on the street confronting some of the criminals. Did I just jinx us?" Mitsuki's brain shouted in frustration as she tried to suppress it into a simple frown. "Darn it all," she thought, "They must have saw the three of us leaving together and decided to follow us out of suspicion." She really hoped that they wouldn't have to confront the masked man, but at this rate.. "But wait," Mitsuki realised, "The two soul are on similar level, and the third one is even weaker, but it seems like she's the one who kept track on us. But, the masked man, why would he team up with the other three? Even by himself I'm pretty sure he's already a big problem on his own. Wouldn't the other just inconvenience him? Or.."

Mitsuki's scowl went deeper as a few scenario pops up in her head. In the end, she decide that she would just observe the masked guy's action again. With annoyance, Mitsuki turned her head towards her traveling partners.

"Who the hell went undercover while wearing such an eyecatching uniform! It's like screaming look at me remember me!" Mitsuki shouted in her head as she gritted her teeth in annoyance while glaring towards the other two. Itachi and Kisame, who now had turned their head towards her, seemed to have noticed something as well. To her surprise, Itachi nodded to her and signalled her to split and kisame to stop.

Swiftly, Mitsuki jumped away in random direction and completely concealed her presence as she observed further. Frustrated, she swore in her head that when they are taking a long stop, she will try to earn some money and force the two to dress properly to blend in.

As Itachi and Kisame stopped in their track and looked behind them, waiting, the one of the pursuing souls came out of their hiding.

"So you noticed huh?" The short-haired bounty hunter grinned. Not long after, another man popped up silently from the opposite direction.

"How about the other two?" Mitsuki observed in hiding as she strengthened her perception. Immediately, Mitsuki found the weakest soul's owner. She seemed to be hiding and observing as well, but she had not found Mitsuki yet. "She must not have much combat ability," Mitsuki thought. Somehow it pissed her off a little, thinking that she was in the same situation as that girl. Did Itachi instructed her to split because she would be a burden in combat too? Gritting her teeth, Mitsuki accepted the situation and refocused herself.

"Hmm? The masked guy is obviously suppressing his presence further," Mitsuki concluded as she combed through the area in her mind. His concealing skill seems to be on the same level as Itachi, if not higher, evident by the fact the he managed to suppress the sign of his chakra and presence to almost nothing. If not for his soul color, Mitsuki might not recognise his chakra at all. Feeling slightly proud of herself, Mitsuki smiled.

"Now then, what's he gonna do? Will he ambush us, or?" Mitsuki thought as she decided to keep her perception on both the masked guy and the tracker girl at the same time.

"Didn't expect to find you two here, Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. What are two S rank criminals doing here near the Land of Fire? And what's with the girl who was with the two of you?" the short-haired bounty hunter continued.

"Heh, you seem to talk a lot, boy," Kisame jeered at him. "Seriously though, what answer was he expecting, declaring his knowledge of their crime like that," Mitsuki scowled internally at the ridiculousness of the bounty hunter's question.

Without a warning, the other bounty hunter dashed towards Kisame and swung his sword in high speed. However, Kisame seemed to have anticipated the attack. Without a delay, Kisame pulled his samehada to his front, blocking the attack as both Itachi and Kisame stood back to back. Mitsuki's eye sparkled with excitement as she watched the fight unfold. "Oops, I shouldn't lose track of the other two," Mitsuki reminded herself of her self-assigned task. Quickly, she made sure that the two souls were still in their previous places. Mitsuki grinned as she noticed how the girl still seemed to be frantically searching for her.

"I know about your sharingan, so I won't look into your eyes," the talkative bounty hunter declared as he created seals with his hands. However, his movement abruptly stopped as Itachi sighed and pointed at him.

"Kagiri!" The swordsman shouted in surprise as his short haired partner collapsed to the ground. Seeing his partner was brought down just like that, he quickly altered his course to check on his partner. However, suddenly, Itachi shifted his body and moved into his line of sight.

"Sharingan: Genjutsu!" Itachi muttered in his head.

And just like that, the swordsman collapsed as well.

"Shit!" The tracker girl muttered as she shifted her attention away from her tracking effort, and went to reach for her bag. Mitsuki spotted something like a flare inside her pouch. Swiftly, Mitsuki jumped down without a sound, and grabbed her by the neck. In a second, her life energy was gone, absorbed into Mitsuki's body. The now empty body tumbled down the hiding place unto the ground, grabbing Itachi's and Kisame's attention. Mitsuki landed beside the unmoving body, her face unchanging. Calmly, she stated,

"This girl was their tracker, she seemed to be not a combat type, but she is good at hiding her presence as well so I kept track on her just in case."

Kisame whistled in commendation.

"Now, to see what the masked man will do," Mitsuki thought silently in her head, not letting her guard down.

Itachi was at a loss for word. With his sharingan, he knew the girl's existence as well, and she planned to deal with her afterwards. But instead, with his sharingan, he saw the girl's last moment. Painless, swift, but it still weighed heavily on his heart. "Another life lost," he thought. Pacifist as he is, he would rather not harm people more than necessary most of the time, as long as it wouldn't pose any issue for Akatsuki or his mission, he would avoid killing as much as possible. However, another thing that bothered him was Mitsuki's nonchalance attitude towards the life lost. Itachi knew that it was likely not her fault that she viewed life in such way, but he couldn't help but feeling disappointment and sadness at his inability to predict this outcome. In silence, he deactivated his sharingan as he turned his back towards the girl and continued forward on the path.

Mitsuki was relieved. The masked man didn't approach or initiate any attack. It seemed to her that he was just observing without intervening. Seeing that, she drew another possible conclusion.

"Can it be that guy is with Akatsuki too? And he's observing us?" Mitsuki concluded that this might might be the closest to the truth she could get for now. Indeed, she forgot that Akatsuki is supposed to be an organization of dangerous criminal. Mitsuki tried not to shiver once more as she recalled the feeling she got from that man. "Now this one is more like a criminal, alright," she thought in silence as she relaxed her posture, albeit still trying to maintain her perception as much as possible.

"Hmmm?" Mitsuki tilted her head as he noticed Itachi's soul wavering.

"Sadness? But why?" Mitsuki thought to herself, unsure. Lost in her head, she missed the exact moment when the feeling surfaced within Itachi previously. Questioning herself, Mitsuki followed the duo in silence.

Author's note:

Itachi, please go and fix Mitsuki x'D You can fix kabuto you can fix her too! Hahahah

This girl needs a lot of education =w=

Also, yay for bonding over sweets!