"Alright, see you guys for dinner!" Mitsuki cheerfully exclaimed as she waved her goodbye to her two "teammates". "Kisame, don't forget ok?" Mitsuki said for the last time, narrowing her eyes in doubtful glare, right before leaving the room.

"Yes mam," Kisame answered half-heartedly. As Mitsuki shut the door closed, Kisame laughed. "I can't believe it, that girl," said Kisame, shaking his head as he added, "So what are you going to do today, Itachi-san?"

"There's something that I would like to look into as well," Itachi responded briefly.

"Hmm, then I'll likely explore on my own again today. I think I might train for a while too. I just had a feeling that our new task will be coming in soon."

Itachi had the same feeling too, it has been quite a while since they last communicated with their Leader in the Land of Water's headquarter. Besides, it seemed like Madara has been keeping up with what was happening in Akatsuki as well, hence his recent attempt in observing Itachi and his new party's addition. It was very likely that Akatsuki's leader and Madara is connected in some way, judging on the timing of his reappearance. If he really was the true leader behind Akatsuki, all the better that he hid whatever he would find about Mitsuki's ability from both Kisame and Akatsuki themselves. "For Konoha's safety, for that girl's own benefit, and for Sasuke.." Itachi reminded himself of his own intention, and strengthen his resolve. Silently, he gave Kisame an acknowledging look as he stood up from his futon and left the room.

"Are you sure, Mitsuki-chan?" Aida's mom asked after hearing Mitsuki's offer.

"Mmmhmm, I'll likely take a stop here for a while, and I'd like to earn some extra allowance, so.. Besides, Aida's ankle hadn't healed completely yet, right?"

Aida gave Mitsuki an apologetic stare as she wondered if Mitsuki's did that to help her and let her rest. Noticing Aida's stare, Mitsuki chuckled.

"Really, there are things that I'd like to buy! Don't need to pay me that much too, just let me eat lunch here, or even teach me to cook! It seems interesting!" said Mitsuki cheerfully.

"Alright, if that's really what you want. Thank you for the help, Mitsuki-chan, you're hired!"

Mitsuki's smile widen as her eye sparkled. "I got my first job!" she thought to herself.

"Shall we start your training now? Oh, and call me Keiko!"

"Understood, Keiko-san! Looking forward to work with you!*" Mitsuki bowed as she exclaimed in excitement.

Itachi browsed through a row of bookshelves. Surprisingly, the village where they were at had a proper library. "Some of these books are quite old, is it because this village had existed for a long while?" Swiftly Itachi picked up a few book on various field of study. Medical study, shinobi study, senjutsu study, chakra study. On the corner of his eye, Itachi spotted another book. "Myth and Legend Anthology?" Curious, Itachi took it into his hand. A ridiculous thought came up in his mind as he took the book. He was doubtful that he would actually find something, but even myth may have been grounded from reality too, and in a world like theirs where chakra monsters exist for a long time, can there be another likely existence without chakra as well? As ridiculous as it was, his curiosity got the better of him.

With Samehada in his hand, Kisame made a big swinging motion towards the ground, sending a shockwave through the ground from the sheer strength. Around him countless holes and broken stump lied about, seemingly an aftermath of his training.

"I guess I'll stop here, too much more of this will be hard to cover up," Kisame muttered to himself. He had picked a secluded area in the forest for his training session, but being Itachi's partner for a while now, he knew better now than to carelessly leave any mark to track. "Heh, I can't believe I would be concerned about getting tracked now," Kisame chuckled in his head recalling how many times Itachi told him that his moves are too eye-catching.

Suddenly, Kisame felt a distinct chakra signal in his head. Knowing what the signal meant, Kisame grinned. His prediction was on point.

"Oh well, cleaning up can wait I guess," thought Kisame calmly, as he found himself a secure place to sit and formed his hands into a seal. Not long after, his consciousness drift as it was guided by the chakra signal.

When he opened his mind's eye, a blurry copy of his form made of chakra also opened its eyes. In front of him, the wooden statue created by Pain's power stood, and he was there standing in one of the statue's finger with Pain standing on another one of them. As of then, he was not sure yet what the statue was for.

"Seems like I'm the first one here," Kisame noted to himself, wondering where his partner went. However, not long after, one by one, more figures appeared on top of the statue's fingers. So did Itachi's.

"Seems like everyone has gathered," Pain's figure spoke as nine of the spot on top of the fingers are filled. In front of him, eight other figures of Akatsuki's member stood.

"Today, we are all gathered here to announce that our plan will be officially proceeding to the next step." Pain announced sternly as he looked around, addressing all the members.

Hearing Pain's word, Itachi tried his best to not let his real emotion show. Of course, he had already known that mercenary works are not all that is for Akatsuki. In fact, he joined the organization precisely because he expected so. "Finally, he will reveal more of what he is planning with Akatsuki," thought Itachi silently, hoping that the timing was only a coincidence.

"Thanks to everyone's hard work, we have secured enough funds for our next step. By doing all the mercenary works so far, we have also built a relationship with all the ninja villages of all country as their underground force, which will further destabilize and eventually will lead to dissolution of shinobi's village."

Up to this point, Itachi had heard the inkling of it when he joined. To be honest, he also wished that eventually, shinobis wouldn't be needed anymore, and therefore, there won't be any more shinobi world wars that took countless lives. However what might be the problem was what came up next.

"Hence, we are ready to move on to our next step." Pain continued, as the members waited for his next words in silence.

"We will focus our resources in both tracking and capturing Jinchuurikis"

No one made any noises, even as some of them glanced at each other. Itachi kept his calm, even though he could feel uneasiness surfacing in his heart.

Noticing that no one raised their voices yet, Pain continued, "Then, by extracting the bijuus from the Jinchuurikis by the means planted in this statue as well as all of our interconnected quarter network, we would gain control of all the bijuus and use them to further our goal."

"Use them?" Itachi thought. The memory of that night when Kyuubi appeared in Konoha was still fresh on his mind. Memories of his Mom being in danger, and his little brother crying in fear resurfaced in his head, so does the countless victims it incurred, all because of Madara's ploy of using the Kyuubi for revenge against Konoha. Itachi dreaded the thought of such incident occurring all over the world once more under Akatsuki's ploy. Concluding from Pain's plan as well as his wording, it was very likely that Akatsuki will create both the problem and solution for their sake using the tailed beast and Akatsuki, in order to effectively cripple the shinobi villages.

"Then, by the end of it all, it will be us Akatsuki who prevailed and conquered all the countries, as well as effectively monopolizing the greatest weapon to exist, preventing further oppositions."

Hearing Pain's latest word, the member started to show their reaction. Some looked excited, while the other gave a look of interest. Some other didn't show any emotion at all, Itachi among them.

"This is different from what I initially heard," Kisame thought, not sure how to take in this development. In the end, he decided that there's no harm in seeing it through, for his own wish from a long while ago. Besides, his travel so far had been quite a nice experience, with Itachi as his trusted partner even as he still had suspicion about the reason behind his pairing with him. "And there's also that noisy kid now," Kisame let out a grin as he thought of his new conversation partner and teasing target, something that Itachi refused to entertain him with.

Itachi on the other hand, was feeling more and more concern about his home village and his little brother. The previous day, he had just received information about chuunin exam's participant in Konoha, listed neatly based on their teams. As someone who lived through the Kyuubi's recent attack in Konoha, he was more than familiar with who the Jinchuuriki was. "Uzumaki Naruto," he recalled. He had come to know the jinchuuriki's face during his years in Konoha, as well as having the honour of conversing with him. However that was not all.

In the same genin team as Naruto, was his little brother, Uchiha Sasuke. If Akatsuki's plan moved on, it was likely that Sasuke will be implicated too as Naruto's teammate. Not only that, he remembered that during Sasuke's isolated childhood, it was Naruto who tried his best to befriend his little brother, and he was thankful for that. Complicated feelings rose up in his chest. "I need to do something," he thought to himself.

"Yosh, this is getting interesting, Un!" said a figure with a half ponytail on his head. Itachi immediately recognised him as Deidara, a terrorist that he himself helped Akatsuki to recruit. Beside him, a few other members grinned, or chuckled.

"Of course, while you guys are out securing funds for us, we did a few work and started figuring out who the jinchuuriki's are and their general location as of now," all of the sudden, Pain continued, interrupting the murmurs. "I'll soon be assigning target to everyone. Nine target for nine of us."

Suddenly, Itachi raised his hand and spoke. "May I interrupt," he said. In an instant, everyone's attention was drawn to him, as he was known for his usual silent demeanour.

"As you all know, I was previously affiliated with Konohagakure," Itachi continued as he noticed everyone's attention had been captured. "I was there during the Kyuubi attack, and I also knew who the Jinchuuriki is and how he looked like," he continued. Everyone stood in silence, wondering where the conversation was heading.

"Leave Kyuubi's jinchuuriki to me. It will be most efficient that way," Itachi said in determined voice and with stern expression, closing his sentence.

"Approved. I will leave this to you," Pain answered promptly. "Anyone else with preferences?" he added.

A short, hunched looking figure raised his hand for attention. "Then, following that logic, it will be best if I go for Sunagakure's jinchuuriki, considering my affiliation and knowledge."

"Approved. Anyone else?" said Pain as he waited for more people to raise their voices. "None? OK then I will be starting the assignment and information distribution soon. After this we will only be taking minimum mercenary mission, and instead focusing our resources in tracking and capturing all the Jinchuurikis," said Pain promptly to close his words, as no one else joined in the conversation.

And with that, the group was once again blanketed in silence.

"Thanks for today, Mitsuki-chan! You're such a fast learner!" Keiko exclaimed as she handed Mitsuki an envelope, prompting her to beam with happiness and pride.

"Thank you, Keiko-san!" Mitsuki grinned as she conveyed her gratitude. It was her first income ever, and she couldn't wait to think about how she can spend it effectively.

"Do you want to take some bento boxes back?" Keiko offered as Aida limped slowly towards Mitsuki to send her goodbye for the day.

"Mmm, not for today! Today's my teammate's turn to bring food back! But, is it possible for me to take three box of bento for dinner once every three days?" Mitsuki smiled as she answered.

"Of course, take what you would like, I don't mind teaching you how to cook your favorites too if you want!" Keiko replied with a smile.

"Yay, thank you Keiko-san! Also, bye Aida-chan, see you tomorrow!" Mitsuki waved her goodbye as she rushed out of the shop, Aida still waving at her.

Omake:

"Why is mine the only one filled only with vegetables…" Mitsuki frowned in suspicion as both Itachi and Kisame open their balanced meal filled box.

"You have been eating a lot lately, kiddo. Wouldn't a woman want to take care of their diet?" Kisame grinned. Mitsuki stared at him with unconvinced look in her eyes, especially suspicious with Kisame's sudden remark about her being a woman.

"You sure you are not just being cheapskate? Oh well, happy eating**..." Mitsuki said as she gave in to Kisame's excuse.

As Mitsuki chomped through her bitter vegetables filled bento set with ease, Kisame realised his plan had failed spectacularly, leaving him wondering if the girl will even have any food that she don't like.

Author's note:

This is weekend when I wrote this, and I'm tired. But I just found out a funny information that I'll definitely use in the future for this fic HAHAHHAHA. Please look forward to it! A lot of illustration idea popped in my head already because of it.

Oh yea, if you guys are wondering about how there's differences on this one with the anime, it's because I'm more closely following the written sources and manga. Hence the part where Itachi got partnered with Juzo had never happened, as well as Tobi being in the organization as member since the start (since he officially directly joined only after replacing Sasori and only pain know about his identity), so even Itachi was not sure what relation Madara have with the Akatsuki, only knew that they might be/are connected.

Oh ya BTW i'm not sure if i noted here somewhere first, but I post illustration for this story on an X account made just for this fanfic (+fangirling) so if you guys would like to see the illustration feel free to find it on ance_moondemon

I'll chase up the posting pace here to make up for the time ffnet was down!

Extra notes:

(*) Yoroshiku onegaishimasu is used here, it's used in various situation, but the context might be differing depending on the situation. "It can be nice to meet you", "I'll be in your care", "I'm looking forward to your guidance", and so on! This one is kinda hard to bring context with to different culture and language!

(**) Itadakimasu is used here, it's a bit like saying grace before eating, or just declaring that you are about to eat the food. Can also be taken as a "let's eat," "thanks for the food," something like that :3