"Then, I'll be on my way," said Itachi. "Let's meet again near Iwagakure's border hideout in three months time."
"Got it. Safe trip, Itachi-san," said Kisame,
"Safe trip, Itachi-kun," Mitsuki said, smiling. Somehow her smile felt a bit mischievous somehow.
Seeing Mitsuki's smile, Itachi couldn't help but felt suspicion. Previously, he had informed both Mitsuki and Kisame that it was time for him to replenish his eyedrop that he had been using to soothe Mangekyou's effect. Kisame being Itachi's partner for a while, had gotten used to this turn of event, as Itachi would be doing this trip once or twice a year, and he would demand to travel alone due to the nature of the medicine's and the clan's secret. Having gained Kisame's trust, Kisame would let him go while updating each other's position as they proceeded with their journey separately before reuniting again after an agreed amount of time. However, this time round, they have gotten a new addition on the party. Hence, the previous night..
"Kisame, keep an eye on Mitsuki for at least 30 minutes after my departure," said Itachi. According to his prediction, such amount of time would allow him to exit her detection range.
"Hmm? You sure you're not taking her?" asked Kisame, making sure that he heard Itachi right.
"? Why would I?" Itachi frowned as he threw back the question, not understanding why Kisame would think otherwise.
"Nothing, just that you seemed to always have so much fun training her up," Kisame grinned as he answered. "Well, if you say so.. you must have your own reason," Kisame added as he agreed to Itachi's request.
Hearing Kisame's response, Itachi was caught in silence, wondering if he really looked like he was having fun, even in Kisame's eyes. However it was, Itachi believed that Mitsuki would insist on following him somehow, knowing how fixated she was on him as well as her excessive worries about his health. Also, by distancing himself and the girl for a while, he'd hoped to regain some emotional distance between him and Mitsuki, keeping her at an arms length to prevent further attachment between the both of them, as Itachi had felt that he and Mitsuki had grown unexpectedly close, too close for his own comfort. Hence, Kisame's cooperation was needed.
That's why, the next morning, Mitsuki's calm reception on Itachi's departure was unexpected. Hearing Mitsuki's calm response and her relaxed smile, Kisame and Itachi glanced at each other in confusion.
"Hmm? Why? Did you forget anything?" Mitsuki asked with a concerned expression on her face that both Itachi and Kisame couldn't tell if it was genuine or not.
"Nothing. I'm off," said Itachi as he walked his way out of the village, with Mitsuki waving gently behind him, still with a smile on her face.
"What are you plotting?" asked Kisame as he saw Mitsuki's weirdly nonchalant behaviour.
"Nothing," Mitsuki answered smiling as she tidied up Itachi's futon for return.
"I'll just warn you now, I'm keeping an eye on you for Itachi-san. Don't you dare try anything funny," said Kisame with doubt in his voice.
"Mkay~" Mitsuki said calmly, still smiling as she finished folding Itachi's futon and laid on her own futon with books on her hands.
"Hmm, it's about time. Then, I'll be going to find us some dinner," Kisame said as 30 minutes had passed. "Don't do anything weird, allright?" he added towards Mitsuki's relaxed figure.
"Sure. I will probably be returning these books soon tho," said Mitsuki calmly as she flipped the last few pages of the book she borrowed. "By the way Kisame, you should get your favourite foods for dinner tonight," she added.
Grinning at Mitsuki's offer, Kisame agreed. "Well, don't mind if I do then," he said as he approved her suggestion and left Mitsuki to her own devise.
Upon Kisame's exit, Mitsuki smiled calmly as she finished the last page of her book.
"Oh well, it's time then," she said with a cheerful smile on her face, as she closed her book and shoved it inside her cloth bag.
When Kisame came back, Mitsuki had yet returned. Somehow, Kisame got an uncomfortable feeling inside his stomach. He had just passed the village's clinic, and he was sure that the girl was not there. Either Mitsuki had just left the room recently, or…
"At her pace of reading, and seeing that he almost finished the book before I went out.." Kisame thought, grinning awkwardly as he realised "Oh my, Itachi-san's going to be mad.."
Mitsuki dashed as quickly as she could, smile plastered on her face. She was proud of her own infallible plan. Judging from Itachi's previous speed during their travel to Konoha, Mitsuki had estimated that by then, Itachi would have travelled at least 45 kilometers away. Mitsuki had no doubt that she would be able to catch up with him after their previous journey on the road, however, as of figuring the direction where Itachi went..
"Itachi-kun's so cautious, hahahaha," Mitsuki muttered in her mind, giggling as she propelled her body forward as fast as she could. During the time when Kisame kept his eyes closely on her, Mitsuki had been constantly, occasionally sending a detection signal to track the direction whence Itachi had been moving towards. As she did, Mitsuki had noticed his constant change of direction, as if trying to confuse her. Thinking back, Mitsuki grinned and chuckled, adopting a mischievous tone.
"Heh.. heheheheheh," she couldn't stop herself from laughing, as she had another backup plan in mind. This time, Itachi wouldn't possibly be able to guess her trick.
"There he is," Mitsuki thought, as she felt Itachi's presence within her tracking field. "As I thought, he haven't fully recovered.. If he had, he would've travelled way further than this.." Mitsuki pondered deeply as she did a quick mental calculation. Considering Itachi's wishes, she decided to keep surveiling Itachi from afar without his knowledge to give him some space that he needed.
"I'm here just to make sure that he will be ok, that's all," she thought to herself.
Few days passed, Mitsuki had been sustaining herself with nature energy, as well as some wild fruit she found along the way. Itachi had been doing so as well, sometimes supplementing himself with Chakra pill as well. Through observing him Mitsuki had learned more about the surrounding wildlife as well. As impressed as she is with Itachi's wide range of knowledge, Mitsuki couldn't understand why would shinobi go so far to sacrifice their proper mealtime, just for the sake of efficiency. "How do they even live like this constantly," eating so little, surviving on tasteless food, Mitsuki thought to herself. "What for?" Mitsuki pondered, as she recalled what Kisame told her about those who had chosen the shinobi path, and wondered what Itachi's reason was.
As night fell, the temperature sharply dropped. "Well, it's about time for season change," Mitsuki thought to herself as she sensed the drop in the temperature and the change in humidity. Worried, Mitsuki sneaked closer towards Itachi's position, confirming his physical condition with her own eyes.
Indeed, his condition seemed to have dropped, once again. As Mitsuki watched Itachi cough occasionally, followed by light wheezing, the drop on Itachi's travelling pace seemed to fit perfectly into the puzzle. "Cold and dry air will irritate airways, and can be particularly problematic for people with lung diseases," Mitsuki recalled the information that she had learned from one of her borrowed books. Judging from Itachi's cough of blood, it was very likely that whatever condition he had was affecting his lungs. Worried as she was, Mitsuki could only wait for the night to fall for her to be able to do whatever she could without Itachi's knowledge.
Night has fallen once more, and the crescent moon illuminated the forest path. As Itachi fell asleep with his back towards a tree, Mitsuki dropped down as silently as she could from her hiding place. Quietly, she opened her small water container, while slowly infusing her power into the water inside. Slowly a thin layer of mist spawned out of the container. Gently, Mitsuki lowered herself to a kneel as she tried to guide the mist slowly towards Itachi without waking him up. However, she soon realised that it was all for naught. In an instance, Itachi quickly caught her wrist with his left hand as his right hand swung a kunai precisely towards the nape of her neck, stopping just right at the moment the blade touched the skin of her neck, lightly scratching it.
"Yo, Itachi-kun," Mitsuki said with a complicated smile as the kunai's scratch let a drop of her blood out.
"Mitsuki!?" said Itachi in disbelief. Seeing the familiar face, Itachi quickly let go of Mitsuki's wrist as he took his kunai away from her neck.
"How.. Why are you here?" asked Itachi as he rested his palm against his face, a sigh escaping his lips as he pondered about the current turn of event. Being caught red-handed, Mitsuki couldn't help but try to make light of the situation.
"Hehe, who do you think I am? It's me, Mitsuki*!" Mitsuki said as she proudly posed, covering her embarrassment over getting caught in action. However, seeing Itachi's unamused face, Mitsuki quickly corrected.
"Sorry, I tracked you.." she said with a guilty smile, even as she felt no remorse over her action.
"..How?" Itachi asked briefly, still a little angry at himself for not seeing it coming.
" It's a secret, hehe.. If I tell you it would be as if I'm revealing my cards, isn't it?" said Mitsuki cheerfully, in an attempt to persuade and soften the man in front of her. On the contrary, Itachi's frown etched itself deeper, with such an intense look it looked like he was about to activate his Sharingan.
"Sorry.. It's spore.." Mitsuki quickly corrected herself as she avoided Itachi's firm gaze by glancing away. Hearing her response, Itachi tilted his head lightly in an attempt of enquiry.
"I smeared some mushroom spore unto your cloak and clothes. They are very small yet plentiful, so it will be hard to notice. The idea was that as you travelled, the wind would have blown them off your coat little by little, and the spore would land and grow into a trail with my energy's support. They shouldn't be native in this area so it would be easy to tell them apart." Mitsuki explained in greater detail as she caught the meaning of Itachi's gesture. Hearing her explanation, Itachi sighed as he leaned back against the tree once more. This time, the girl had really blindsided him, and he was not sure whether he should be mad or laugh as a strange sense of amusement over her unexpected growth seeped into his heart. In the end, all he could do was just glaring at her in silence with a complicated expression. Seeing Itachi being at a loss, Mitsuki took it as a chance of redemption.
"Hehe, since I've been figured out, I guess no need to hide anymore," Mitsuki laughed mischievously as she lifted the water container and continued onwards with her plan. "Inhale, Itachi-kun," Mitsuki instructed gently, as she kept her eyes directly gazing on Itachi's face.
"What is this?" Itachi asked, as he couldn't smell anything from the container that Mitsuki held.
"I just infused some mist into the air. Dry and cold air is not good for your lungs, that's why," Mitsuki smiled bitterly as she explained.
"? What do you mean?" Itachi frowned at the notion of her words.
"You can stop lying, Itachi-kun. I know you're not in a condition to be travelling alone," said Mitsuki, still with a sad, complicated smile on her face. It was as if she was trying to hide her pain to comfort Itachi. "So, let me accompany you and monitor your health during this journey. At least, when it's just me, you don't need to keep up your tough pretense.." said Mitsuki.
Hearing her words, Itachi frowned as he opened his mouth to utter words of protest. However, Mitsuki quickly cut into his words.
"You didn't even realize the masked man was monitoring you a few days ago, didn't you?" Mitsuki cut straight to the topic. Hearing this, Itachi could only freeze as he realized what Mitsuki's word pointed at. Seeing that Itachi had given up on his attempt of protest, Mitsuki continued.
"It was that bad, and painful, wasn't it, for you to let your guard down like that.. And now that I'm sure that the man's interest is on you, the less willing I am to leave you alone on your device while you're still in this state," Mitsuki said with a frown on her face as she dropped her smile. Genuine concern and fear reflected in her eyes as she spilled what she had been silently holding in her heart all those while, rendering Itachi speechless.
"Why?" Itachi uttered in his mind. "What do you wish to gain by doing this?" he uttered verbally, unconsciously spilling the next word that came unto his thought. Hearing this, Mitsuki smiled bitterly.
"You were the one who taught me that everything doesn't have to be a transaction, and that it's ok to depend on someone and ask for help sometimes. This time, let me do that for you instead, Itachi-kun," said Mitsuki with a light chuckle, her eyebrows still knitted in a light frown as she smiled. Hearing her returning his word, Itachi unconsciously returned her sad smile.
"Seems like I need to be telling myself those as well," he reflected silently once more as he recalled his own words to her. However, a tinge of pain filled his heart as he thought further. Could he even afford to show his weakness, to open up like that, as he was? With the thought, came a frown. Noticing the shift in his expression, Mitsuki frowned harder as she narrowed her eyes in annoyment.
"You don't have any say about this. No matter what you say, I'll still be following you even if it means jumping over a volcano," she said as her right eye twitched as she gave up on her negotiation attempt. Witnessing her sudden change in attitude, Itachi's heart softened as he couldn't help but chuckle at Mitsuki's extreme words and expression. To him, it was ironic, how the girl in front of him was the one who complained upon her friend's sacrifice, yet he sensed no ulterior motives from her action as well, whether she realised it or not.
"She had picked up a good trait, huh?" Itachi recalled Kisame's word as he saw Mitsuki frantically assessing his change of expression.
Omake:
The next day, a crow landed in front of Kisame's-now-private-room.
"Mitsuki is here with me." Kisame chuckled awkwardly at the word that Itachi had written inside his note. He could almost see Itachi's frown in his writing as Mitsuki added her own writing forcefully below Itachi's word.
"I'm sorry, Kisame 3", she wrote.
Reading the note, Kisame could only sigh with mixture of relieve, amusement, and a slight feeling of loneliness upon the departure of his two teammates.
"Oh well, I guess it's free time for myself. Wonder what I should do in the meantime?" Kisame uttered to himself to break the silence of the room.
Author's note:
As I wrote this, I was thinking about how the change in season would affect Itachi's condition and did some research while loosely having an idea in my head. Confirming it through the available information, I shall say, I'm proud of my own biological knowledge :) (probably cos I'm also sickly as hell with childhood asthma). Here's some information that I found! It's just right that the timeline aligned with the changing of season (I read somewhere that Jiraiya and Naruto's departure was somewhere around August, hence just perfect for the changing of season towards fall in Japan-like climate)
Temperature effect on lungs: Cold and Dry
Cold weather, and particularly cold air, can also play havoc with your lungs and health. Cold air is often dry air, and for many, especially those with chronic lung disease, that can spell trouble. Dry air can irritate the airways of people with lung diseases. This can lead to wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. Definitely not good for Itachi!
Extra notes:
(*) It's a.. Jojo reference! Got a problem? hehehehe