Dawn has broken, the trio had checked out early of their room that day.
"You're not meeting your girlfriend, kid?" Kisame asked as they headed directly towards the village's exit.
Ignoring Kisame's joke, Mitsuki answered with a determined look, "I've said my goodbye."
As both Itachi and Kisame glanced at each other, questioning, the three quickened their pace towards the land of fire.
"We shall not stop until we reach Konohagakure," said Itachi.
Kisame grinned, "Are you serious?"
"Hahaha, sounds interesting, should we race then?" Mitsuki grinned, not knowing the extent and the length of their journey.
It only took about 9 hours of full speed travel without stopping for the trio to reach Konohagakure. Yes, only…
Mitsuki breathed heavily as the trio halted into a stop, franctically recovering her energy by taking in Nature's energy. In the contrary, the two guys in front of her seemed to be unfazed as they looked at the tall wall not too far from where they had stopped.
"You… Monsters…." Mitsuki furrowed her brow as she glared at her companions' relaxed stature despite their long, non-stop journey on full speed that Mitsuki had never witnessed them use before. They didn't even have the chance to eat along the way. Mitsuki silently wondered what kind of intense training the two of them had been through to make them the way they were.
As she finished replenishing her energy as well as cooling herself down with her ability, Mitsuki's breathing calmed.
"Mitsuki, stay here and keep watch of any onlooker as we scout," said Itachi calmly, and coldly. Hearing the instruction, Mitsuki thrown a seed that she took out from her pouch to Itachi.
"I'll control that remotely and inform you guys if anything happened," Mitsuki said as Itachi caught her gift.
Itachi nodded silently as he vanished, along with Kisame. As the pair went ahead on their own, Mitsuki went ahead and covered her presence as well as starting her tracking, by planting her consciousness around and expanding her perception, trying her best to surpass her limit even more.
Itachi and Kisame had managed to pass the 1st layer of surveillance, and had found their way to the top of Konohagakure's wall undetected.
"Well, it survived, but barely. The damage is extensive," Kisame grinned as he stated his observation result verbally.
The village of Konoha was still visibly damaged, with ruins of the building laid all over. Seeing this, Itachi couldn't help but feel a sense of sadness within him.
"Not long ago, this village was at the height of it's glory still. What a sorry state it's in now," Itachi responded, unconsciously letting out part of his inner thoughts. Hearing his response, Kisame chuckled as he looked at Itachi's expression.
"Don't tell me you still have feelings for your old home?" Kisame teased.
"No, none," Itachi answered briefly, cursing himself for revealing too much. He had to be careful, so that Kisame wouldn't notice what he was trying to do, his real mission and the reason of his hastened visit to Konohagakure.
"Sasuke, are you safe?" Itachi silently muttered in his mind as he took in the view of now dilapidated Konoha once more
Activating his sharingan, Itachi quickly scoured over the area. It seemed like most of the shinobi are gathering in the funeral ground, likely in honor of the Third Hokage's passing. Even though he, himself, felt sympathy for what happened, there surely wouldn't be any chance for him to pay his respect. As he memorized the positions of the guard's post as well as estimated patrol route and compared it with the memory in his head, Itachi started to craft their plan of infiltration.
"So how should we go about it," Kisame asked. By then, the trio has retreated some distance away from Konohagakure, to an area less frequented.
"We'll start our mission tomorrow at dawn. Judging from the surveillance and patrol route, it will be most efficient to enter through the main gate. Mitsuki, can you provide us some visual cover?"
"If that's what we need, I can do Kirigakure no Jutsu (Hidden in the mist technique) as well," Kisame stated.
"Using a jutsu will have a risk of the chakra usage being detected. It's best if we play it safe," Itachi explained briefly.
Looking at the pond close to their location, Mitsuki nodded. "Sure, how far and how much would you need it?"
"Make it as natural as possible," Itachi said briefly.
"Understood," Mitsuki answered as she gazed directly at Itachi's red tinted eye. It seemed like he was making it a point to continue surveilling as much as possible, even as removed from the village as they were. After all, they will never know when a shinobi would come by on the way to their mission or looking for a place to train.
"How odd," Mitsuki thought. It was definitely not just her feeling, but that day, Itachi seemed to be colder, and tenser, than usual. Peeking at his soul, Mitsuki saw the mess of emotion swirling inside him. Not saying anything, Mitsuki noted to herself to ask Itachi about it once they could find time for another training session between the two of them.
After going through the details of their operation, the trio set up a camp discreetly for their resting place the night before executing their plan. As the three of them split up to procure each of the necessity, Itachi silently approached and signalled Mitsuki to keep quiet. Noticing this, Mitsuki approached quickly and prepared her vines to communicate.
"What is it, Itachi-kun?" Mitsuki said as she offered her hand to Itachi to write on, as they did previously.
"I'll have to be brief," he wrote. "Tonight I'll sneak ahead to my clan's compound to procure some information that might have relation to what I've found out."
Not sure what Itachi meant, Mitsuki tilted her head, questioning.
"Keep an eye on Kisame for me, and let me know with your seed if he woke up," Itachi added, writing as he signalled towards the seed pocket that Mitsuki left him with.
Mitsuki frowned a bit, she didn't get why would Itachi took such length to hide things from Kisame. Even though she knew there must be a reason behind it, she wished that one day, he'll explain to her properly about it, as she felt guilt from having to hide things from Kisame without knowing the reason. Despite that, Mitsuki nodded her head in agreement.
"Also, try your best not to grab too much attention tomorrow, It's best that our presence is totally undetected." Itachi added.
Once again, Mitsuki nodded.
After hesitating for a moment, Itachi added, "..and you should probably work on your sleep faking."
As she understood the message and the context of it, Mitsuki immediately frowned in annoyance. However it soon turned into a smile, knowing that the man in front of her seemed to have relaxed enough to point out such thing for her then.
"Understood," Mitsuki wrote in the air with her vine as she held back her smile.
Itachi's night covert operation went without a hitch, and Mitsuki had silently noted the coordinate of Itachi's visit inside her head as she let her curiosity took over, thinking of checking the location out on her own during their separate time for the operation the next day. With that, the night passed…
.. and the morning came.
Without delay, Mitsuki started as early as she could in order to disperse the nearby pond's water as mist slowly over time, to build it up as naturally as possible. Coupled with her control over the wind and minor temperature control, Mitsuki had finished setting up the scene perfectly.
"It's done," Mitsuki spoke softly, informing the pair to go ahead with their plan.
Covered by the mist and the darkness of the dawn, the duo approached Konoha's gate slowly, waiting for the right moment when the surveillance of the gate was the thinnest. Noticing their presence, the sole guard of the gate prepared himself to verify their identity. However, as he called out to the pair, his eyesight and Itachi's lined up, putting him inside a sleeping genjutsu. With that, the duo safely entered the village without a hitch.
"I shall wait a bit more before going in," Mitsuki thought, as she kept her surveillance on the gate area, making sure no one had discovered the sleeping guard yet.
"There he is," Itachi thought as he saw the blonde haired boy. "Blonde hair and blue eye, just like the late fourth Hokage. He hadn't changed much since our last meeting," Itachi noted silently in his mind.
As the blonde boy rushed through the street, towards the village's humble ramen shop, Kisame asked Itachi,
"Is that our target?"
Itachi responded in a clarifying silence.
"Oh well, it will be boring if we finish our mission this fast," Kisame grinned as the unexpected turn of event came to be. "Hasn't it been a long time since you were here? How about we go and take a stop before we continue? I'm wondering how your favourite food tastes like in your own hometown," Kisame teased.
"Fine," Itachi answered, unexpectedly. Kisame tried his best not to let out a chuckle. Either this partner of his also missed the food of his hometown, or somehow Mitsuki's laxness has rubbed off unto him. Secretly, Kisame planned to tease Mitsuki about both of them having a snack without her later on that day, as he noticed that the girl had been taking her own sweet time.
Mitsuki sneaked inside without a hitch, blending with the crowd under the cover of the lingering mist that had dispersed slowly. Immediately, her curiosity took her towards the area where Itachi went the previous night. As she approached the area, Mitsuki noticed a gate with the symbol of a red and white colored Uchiwa* hanging in front. However, the area seemed to have been abandoned for a long while and left in ruins. Frankly, that wasn't what Mitsuki had expected to found.
"Ara, little missy, are you planning to enter there? It's better if you steer clear of it instead," a voice of an elderly woman rung as Mitsuki took a step closer towards the gate. As she looked back towards the voice's owner, an idea entered Mitsuki's head instead.
"Granny, what's with this place over here?" Mitsuki pulled out her most innocent voice, accompanied with the look of sincere curiosity.
"Ara, you didn't know? Thinking of it, I haven't seen you around before!" The fierce looking granny stared at Mitsuki, seemingly assessing her.
"Is it because this is shinobi village? Or is it because of the recent attack in the village? This granny sure has a fierce aura around her," Mitsuki secretly thought as she made sure not to let her surprise surfaced on her face.
"Ah, actually I came here some time ago to accompany my brother for his chuunin exam, too bad what happened, huh?" Mitsuki smiled as she approached the granny's shop.
"Hmm, you seemed to be taking it really well despite what happened," the granny stared at Mitsuki fiercely, sending a wave of nervousness around her.
"Oh well, not that it's a secret anyway. You sure you want to know about it, missy?"
"Mmhmm! Tell me! I love stories, even scary ones!" Mitsuki answered in excitement, still maintaining her innocent, childlike tone as she took a seat nearby the shop's counter.
Itachi and Kisame took their seat inside Konoha's teahouse. Apparently, their specialty was Dango, Itachi's favorite pastime snack. Kisame tried to hold back his smile as Itachi unexpectedly entertained his request seriously. "I'll definitely let Mitsuki know about this," he thought to himself, wondering what kind of reaction he would get from her.
In truth, Itachi just wanted to stall their hunt. He had never truly intended to capture the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki. The pair finding Naruto that early was merely a coincidence. Suspicious as it is, Kisame's offer was the perfect chance for him to stall their objectives as long as possible.
Suddenly a familiar figure caught his eye.
"Shinko?" he uttered internally. Shinko, his teammate during his genin time had retired and worked at the teahouse even before the dreadful incident. He hadn't expected to see her again, nor expected that she would still be working in the shop, the same one he went with Izumi in the past. Somehow, melancholy filled his heart as he recalled the peaceful time of his life, and also.. Itachi's face darkened as he tried to stop his train of thoughts. "Hopefully, she don't notice.." Itachi thought, regretting his decision to come to the teahouse.
Suddenly, another familiar figure approached and stopped in front of the teahouse. As he recognised the figure, Itachi was immediately put back into his alerted state. Noticing this, Kisame braced himself as well. The pair listened in to the conversation between the figure and the other two approaching shinobi as the other shop-hand served them their tea and dangos.
"Hey, you two, you seem to be getting along well," The familiar figure who was standing in wait in front of the teashop greeted the other two.
"Stupid, I'm just helping Anko picking up her sweets," said the female with flustered tone hidden in her voice.
"How about you, what are you doing here?" The male shinobi who was accompanying the female shinobi turned the question back to the asker.
"Well, I'm just going out for some shopping, and also waiting for someone here. Sasuke, that is," said the figure in wait.
Itachi's finger twitched as he heard the name. It seemed like the small disturbance in his composure had attracted the attention of the shinobis who were conversing in front of the shop. Quickly, Itachi signalled at Kisame that it's time for them to leave, while the three was still engaged in their conversation.
However, soon after, Itachi could see a figure approaching the three jonin. Immediately, he recognised him. "Sasuke?" thought Itachi, as his body froze for a while the moment he saw how much his little brother has grown. As much as he would have liked to take in his little brother's growth into his memory, Itachi knew that it wasn't the time. Forcing himself to move, Itachi quickly blitzed out of the teahouse, followed by Kisame.
After getting the full story from the granny, Mitsuki quickly rushed to find Itachi and Kisame. Thankfully, due to the village being a shinobi's village, even her swift movement was not an uncommon occurrence. It seemed normal, even. As Mitsuki quickly arrived at the spot that she took note of where she detected Itachi and Kisame's presence were, she saw a young looking boy with the Uchiwa shaped crest behind his back conversing with a white-haired, adult male.
"Sorry Sasuke, something suddenly came up," said the white haired man.
"Huh? Seriously? After calling me all the way here?" the boy responded with annoyance in his voice.
As the white haired guy made an apologetic gesture, he blitzed away from where he stood, leaving the boy in an obvious annoyance. Seeing the crest on the boy's back, Mitsuki stood silently behind him and observed. The boy noticed the burning gaze behind him, and turned his back to meet the person's eye. There, stood a girl he had never seen before, staring at him intensely with an assessing gaze in her eye.
"Hmm.. I can see the resemblance," Mitsuki thought to herself as he connected the two and two of the information she gained together with the crest on the boy's back.
"What is it?" the boy said with annoyance apparent in his face. Looking at his grumpy face, Mitsuki couldn't help but let out a mischievous smirk.
"Our Itachi-kun is still more beautiful," she remarked in her head proudly for some reason, and turned away from the boy without a word, leaving him baffled for the lack of response. However..
"AGH!" suddenly the girl let out a shout, "Darn it, those two!" she exclaimed with frustration in her voice as she saw the hot cups of tea and leftover dangos. Realising the attention that she gained from her sudden outburst, she quickly covered her mouth and bowed around to apologize with innocent awkward look on her face. As she turned her gaze back towards the table, she confirmed once more. Indeed, she could definitely still see the traces of Itachi's and Kisame's chakra on the table where the dango was left off. Considering how they didn't have much chance to eat any proper meal since the previous day, their secret tea break was akin to a betrayal for Mitsuki. Luckily, there are still some leftovers, Mitsuki thought as her stomach rumbled.
"They probably paid for this already right?" Mitsuki questioned in her head as she quickly grab the last sticks of dango and reactivated her perception to chase after her companions.
As Itachi and Kisame walked on the riverbank, they were suddenly stopped by the pair of male and female shinobi that they had previously encountered during their stop in the tea house.
"You two aren't from this village, aren't you?" said the male shinobi. "What are you here for?" he asked again.
"It's been a long time, Asuma-san, Kurenai-san," Itachi greeted calmly.
Hearing his respond, the guy named Asuma deduced verbally.
"Seeing that you know our names, it must mean that you're a Shinobi, formerly of this village."
Itachi decided that it was his chance to reveal himself. Slowly, he lifted his Akatsuki issue hat, and revealed the red tinted iris beneath. The pair quivered at the sudden act of display, recognising the person under the robe.
"You're.."
Itachi took off his hat and loosened the top half of his robe, showing more of his face.
"Uchiha.. Itachi.." the male shinobi remarked.
Seeing Itachi's reveal, Kisame grinned.
"Are you two Itachi-san's acquaintance? Then I suppose I'll introduce myself as well," said Kisame as he too, dropped his hat, revealing himself.
"The name's Hoshigaki Kisame, nice to make your acquaintance." Kisame grinned as he greeted the two shinobis of Konoha.
Seeing the confident reveal of the two suspicious robed figure, Asuma retorted.
"There's no need for greeting, I'll take you two down, right here, right now," he said with a smile colored with nervousness and anger. Seeing the aggressive response, Kisame held back his chuckle as he teased.
"Itachi-san, seems like you're well hated in your village," said Kisame with a grin.
"I knew about you, Hoshigaki Kisame," said the female shinobi in red. "Former shinobi of Kirigakure, suspected of espionage and the murder of a feudal lord. You're a missing-nin of the land of water, wanted in every nation."
Hearing her remark, Kisame smirked. Seemed like his reputation preceeded him in Konohagakure as well, he thought.
"You're both S-rank criminal, listed in Bingo Book," Asuma added, closing Kurenai's sentence.
As the two robed figure returned his statement with silence, the shinobi named Asuma continued.
"Itachi, I gotta hand it to you for returning to the village once more after what you did. It takes some guts," he said as he met Itachi's gaze directly, confronting him.
"Asuma-san, Kurenai-san. Please don't interfere with me. I don't have any intention to kill the both of you," Itachi said calmly. Indeed, he wouldn't want to hurt any of his fellow Konoha shinobi. However, with his current situation, he doubt that it would be possible to completely avoid fights.
As the conversation went on, Mitsuki discreetly hid herself as she caught up with her two companions. "Here they are," she thought as she hid herself and erased her presence, while keeping tab on the two.
"I didn't expect those words to come out from someone who killed his own people," Asuma retorted coldly. "I don't know what you're thinking, but I assume you wouldn't be coming here dressing like that for no apparent reason."
"What is your purpose?" Asuma demanded.
Getting bored, Kisame lifted his samehada and slammed it to the pathway.
"He talks a lot doesn't he? Should I kill him?" Kisame asked.
"Looks like they wouldn't let us off peacefully. However, don't overdo it, your moves tend to stand out too much," Itachi responded coldly, preparing himself for the confrontation.
"Then, it's decided," said Kisame. To be honest, he had been itching for a real fight for a while now
Hearing Kisame's response, Itachi dropped his bell-adorned hat, signalling Kisame to start.
Kisame and Asuma clashed, and the female shinobi disappeared. Meanwhile, Mitsuki watched over the fight in curiosity.
"I see, genjutsu," Itachi thought as Kurenai formed seals with her hand and seemingly dissolved into the air. Immediately, Itachi activated his sharingan skill.
Being unaffected by the genjutsu herself, the progression of the fight looked especially odd for Mitsuki on Itachi's side. Meanwhile, Kisame had slowly overpowered Asuma. As the edge of his sword slowly touched Asuma's arm, Kisame grinned.
"My Samehada is not for cutting," said Kisame. "It's for shredding!" he added, as he pulled his sword back towards him, maintaining friction as he pressed into Asuma's arm. Immediately, the bandages around his sword were thorn, revealing Samehada's true form.
"Uagh!" Mitsuki exclaimed internally in horror as she clutched her neck, remembering her first meeting with Kisame. She couldn't imagine her neck getting torned off by those sharp, big spikes. "I.. need to thank Itachi-kun later," she said as she rubbed the side of her neck where Kisame aimed his sword at her back then with a horrified look on her eye.
Suddenly the flow of the battle turned strange on more in her eyes as Kurenai caught both Itachi and Kisame in genjutsu.
"With this, it's over!" Kurenai exclaimed as she aimed her kunai towards Itachi. However suddenly, her position overturned. It seemed like her genjutsu had been returned towards her and cancelled with Itachi's sharingan power.
"Genjutsu on that level wouldn't work on me," said Itachi. As Itachi brandished his kunai, the female ninja seemed to realise her situation and bit her own lips to free herself from the genjutsu by inflicting physical pain. Just in time, she managed to snap back to reality and evaded Itachi's kunai. However, Itachi quickly followed up with a kick.
Almost caught off guard by the sudden kick, Kurenai quickly used her hand to block the attack. However the overwhelming power of the kick still sent her flying towards the river, past the railing.
Suddenly Mitsuki felt another presence approaching.
"This presence, the white haired guy from before?" Mitsuki thought to herself.
"As expected of Kurenai-san, however.." Itachi said as he swiftly moved behind Kurenai's back.
"However, it ends here, for you at least," suddenly the white haired shinobi said as he split into two and positioned himself to threaten both Itachi and Kisame. Kisame who had been battling Asuma and was caught off guard by his attack, proceeded to form seals to cast his signature jutsu. Unexpectedly, the double of the white haired guy did the same, and countered Kisame's attack with the same jutsu.
As the fight and conversation goes, Mitsuki watched closely, wondering if she should jump in to even the odds and balance the number. Realising the ridiculousness of her thoughts as she watched the shinobis effortlessly stood on top of the river, Mitsuki recalled what Itachi had instructed her the previous day during their planning. "Not to interfere huh," that, and don't get discovered. Frustrated as she is, she couldn't help but stood her ground and watched.
"Hatake Kakashi," said Itachi as he recognised the owner of that voice. He knew him well, they had worked together for a same mission before as well, and Kakashi had been the one who saved him during his first encounter with Madara as well. As Itachi connected the dots about Kakashi as well as his statement about meeting with Sasuke, he figured out that the shinobi in front of him must have been the jonin assigned to both his brother's and the jinchuuriki's genin team. Realising that, and idea popped up in his head.
"Well, that's surprising, to be able to copy my Jutsu. There really is someone else with those eyes other than Itachi-san, it seems. If I'm not wrong, they call you the Copy Ninja, Kakashi, didn't they?" Kisame remarked with amusement at the man who appeared before him.
"I'm the one who's surprised, I saw some suspicious person at the teahouse and was curious, but I didn't expect it to be the two of you, Uchiha Itachi, and the Kirigakure's monster, Hoshigaki Kisame," The white haired guy replied.
"Oh my, I'm flattered that you even know my name," Kisame said, amused by the turn of event.
"I see, then I assume that giant sword is the Mist's Seven Swordman's Samehada?" the shinobi named Kakashi confirmed as he conversed with Kisame. Hearing his response, Kisame laughed as he remembered the information that he got recently.
"I heard that you and Zabuza fight it out a while back?"
The ninja named Kakashi confirmed Kisame's word.
"Then I'd look forward to shred you soon," said Kisame as he lifted up his Samehada once more.
"Stop it, Kisame," suddenly, Itachi interrupted, catching everyone's attention.
"If you go against him seriously, it won't be without repercussions. Besides, it will take time, and will attract more Shinobi to come here," Itachi explained.
"But," Kisame retorted, before Itachi cut into his sentence and continued.
"Don't forget our motive, you didn't come here to get injured," said Itachi, casually dropping a hint.
"?" Mitsuki couldn't understand the reason behind Itachi's word.
"Then, let's hear about that motive," Kakashi said as he dismissed his clone. Silence ensued for a moment.
"Of course we don't need to tell you, stupid," Mitsuki thought, frowning as she heard Kakashi's question.
"We just came to find something that we are looking for," surprisingly, Itachi answered.
"?" Mitsuki couldn't believe her ears.
"Something? What is that?" Kakashi asked, surprised that his question had earned an answer.
Thinking that it would be too suspicious for him to divulge further without putting up a display of fight, Itachi planned his next move as he said,
"Unlike Kisame, my method won't take too much time," said Itachi, as he quickly pulled out shurikens. With that, another high speed battle of deceit ensues, something that Mitsuki had gotten used to seeing during their journey together so far.
"As expected of Kakashi-san, your insightful eye is not just for show, isn't it?" Itachi said, as he positioned himself and his clone quickly, causing one to appear right behind Kakashi and proceeded with a stab of the Kunai. Surprisingly, the stabbed body suddenly turned into water, which created an opening for Kurenai to start another attack. Seeing this, Kakashi quickly jumped to bring her away, noticing that the Itachi near her was the clone. Immediately, Itachi caused his own clone to explode with chakra's force.
"Don't let your guard down, he was the guy who got nominated as Anbu's captain as a 13 years old," Kakashi stated.
"Anbu? Aren't those like the hunter-nin of the mist we met previously?" Mitsuki recalled as she tilted her head. "They didn't seem to be that impressive, are they supposed to be strong?" she thought, amused.
"His power is way more than what he had shown us so far," Kakashi added as he informed the other pair of Konoha's Shinobi.
"Even though you're not from Uchiha clan, you had used the sharingan well. However, you don't have the constitution to match that of Uchiha clan," said Itachi, as he intended to take his ruse one step higher.
"Why is it that Uchiha clan was feared so much by many? I'll show you the true power of the Sharingan's bloodline," Itachi said, as more power shifted unto his eye.
"This is bad! You two, don't look into his eyes!" said Kakashi as he closed his non-Sharingan eye.
"Indeed, with your Sharingan, you have better chance of resisting this Mangekyo Sharingan, however.." Itachi paused, before continuing.
"You won't be able to break away from this special Doujutsu** of the Sharingan, Genjutsu skill, Tsukuyomi," Itachi declared.
"The only one who can defeat me would be the only person who shares the same bloodline of Sharingan as I do," Itachi added, hinting at Kakashi.
"Train him well," Itachi added secretly in his head.
Suddenly, the pattern on Itachi's eye changed and combined into three edged shuriken as it converge near the middle, and as the power filled Itachi's eye, the shinobi named Kakashi immediately dropped and kneeled on the water. Then Mitsuki saw it.
Itachi's black, spear shaped mark flickered. As it returned to it's original shape, it had become slightly darker. Seeing this, it took everything she got not to jump in and stop Itachi from doing whatever he was doing.
Hearing Kakashi's fall, his fellow Konoha shinobi panicked. As for Kisame, he was more surprised of how Kakashi managed to endure Itachi's Tsukuyomi.
"Hoo, even after taking on that jutsu, his spirit remained intact," Kisame remarked.
Of course everything was as Itachi had planned. He had never planned to harm the Konoha's shinobi, as he had said previously.
"But Itachi-san, using that eye of yours too much is not a good thing for you."
"Kisame knows?" Mitsuki questioned the meaning of Kisame's statement in her head.
"This thing that you are looking for, is it Sasuke?" Kakashi asked.
"Sasuke, is it the name of the boy just now?" Mitsuki recalled the boy who bore the same crest as etched in Itachi's abandoned clan compound's gate.
Hearing this, Itachi decided to drop another hint.
"No," he denied, "It's the legacy of the Fourth Hokage."
Itachi's word took everyone by surprise, ally and enemy alike. Mitsuki couldn't help but question what prompted Itachi to reveal such information to the enemy side.
"Then, is your aim… the Kyuubi inside Naruto?" said Kakashi. Indeed, Itachi expected that Kakashi would be able to deduce that much.
"I also know, that you guys are not the only one hunting. Your organization's name.. is Akatsuki.. isn't it?" again, Kakashi continued, catching both Itachi and Kisame by surprise.
Mitsuki clasped her head in frustration, grudgingly blaming the eyecatching uniform of theirs once more. Once again, she swore vendetta against those black robes with red cloud patterns.
Hearing this, letting Kakashi go as he is would only incur suspicion. And after the effort that he took to spare his life as well during the Tsukuyomi.. Itachi thought, regretting the turn of event. He had only expected for Kakashi to try and find out more about it based on his given hint, but seemingly, someone had handed him the information about Akatsuki already. "But who?" Itachi thought.
"Kisame, we'll take Kakashi with us, you can make the other two disappear," Itachi told Kisame about his change of plans. Hearing this, Kisame immediately charged forward towards the enemy trio.
However, swiftly, someone intercepted his movement.
"What are you?" Kisame said, surprised of the sheer strength of the new opponent's kick.
"Konoha's Proud Blue Beast, Might Guy!" said the man in tight green suit who just joined the battle.
Hearing it, and looking at the ridiculously dressed figure in front of him, Kisame couldn't resist his urge to chuckle. "What a look, are you sure you're not an exotic beast instead?" he teased.
"Don't underestimate him," Itachi said to Kisame. Kisame knew that already, after all, he had been the one who received Guy's strong kick. There's not much occasion where someone can actually overpower him physically in that way.
Not long after, the shinobi named Kakashi collapsed. As the Konoha shinobi discussed on a countermeasure, Itachi decided that Guy's involvement would be a great excuse for both him and Kisame to retreat, especially hearing that Guy has informed the Anbu.
"Interesting, you have nice guts," said Kisame, as he readied his Samehada once more.
"Kisame, we should stop," Itachi declared, stopping Kisame from attacking with his words.
"We didn't come here for war. It's a pity, but more than this is nonsense," Itachi explained as Kisame turned his head to face him.
"Let's go back," said Itachi. Hearing his insistence, Kisame sighed.
"After getting all fired up like this.. Oh well, it can't be helped," said Kisame, as he gave in to Itachi's decision. Immediately the two swiftly disappeared from the battle scene, causing Mitsuki to franctically kept track on them once more while avoiding the crowd.
Author's note:
I.. I did the full retelling with additions of stuff coming from Mitsuki's thought, hahahah gosh this chapter has became very longggg. I thought it might be better than to send you guys off to rewatch the anime or reread the manga ahahaha, but if you guys want to go down the memory lane, I'll write more information and guides on the video and the thought behind the canon alignment below!
For those who are wondering, special for this chapter, the timeline is a mix of both the anime and the manga. Here's the detail!
Manga chapter 139:
The pair arrived on what looked like midday, 2 days after the Konoha Crush. After that, the third hokage's funeral was shown.
However on Anime episode 28 and 29:
Even though the pair arrived on the day of the funeral and overlooked the village, they would only enter the village the next day at dawn (morning mist), then the sequence of event will follow closely to the anime to allow some breathing time for Mitsuki's mission!
I hope you guys do enjoy looking back at the source material as we went ahead with this fic ^^! I'll do my best to fit everything in together.
Extra Notes:
(*) Uchiwa is a type of Japanese style fan, the shape is exactly like the shape of Uchiha's crest. Fun fact, the ha in "Uchiha" can also be read as wa sometimes in other occasion xD so now you know where the name came from hehehe. I think maybe cos this fan is usually used for fanning up fire?
(**) Doujutsu, simply said is eye/gaze related jutsu, I think most of you guys who watched with sub will know already :3 Amaterasu and tsukuyomi is included among these~