Itachi and Kisame are not the most friendly of newly-matched partners. But hunted and hated, the Akatsuki fosters a complex refuge for its members. Small lights cast long shadows, and revolt against the organization's mysterious leader seems increasingly likely.
Chpt 1 Here
Chapter 7: Yatagarasu
-Uchiha Itachi-
Itachi dragged his thumb through the blood and smeared it to a pattern on the dirt. Smoke overtook the scent of blood, and he saw soft light gently reflect on scaled black claws. Itachi did not know if he could trust his partner to help him, but the alternative was death.
"Bring me Kisame."
The four-spiked eye of a martyr blinked animally, and the toothy choanal slit inside its beak separated the fading light as his messenger cawed its obedience. Air and dust from the downstroke puffed against his face, and Itachi was terrifyingly, relievingly, alone.
Itachi focused on breathing. In and out, like the waves on the sand of the mangrove shore. He wanted to cough, but some still-reptile part of his brain advised him that was unwise. The vibrant world of the sharingan had faded in the sad colors and weak detail of an ordinary human eye, and then to something less than that. Itachi did not know if he closed his eyes, he did not know how blind he was, some things he saw from multiple angles at once... He drew gentle swirls with his fingers in the mud. Tiny Vs like rising crows, no, they were gills, three tight chevrons next to esurient silver eyes. Why was there mud beneath him? The summer was hot and dry.
He could see a dead weasel on the ground next to him. A convocation of crows gathered in an impatient funeral. With plunging swordlike beaks they tore out the weasel's tongue. They raised its tiny black eyes, tender as berries, and the nerves slithered down their throats. A crow hopped over the corpse's ribs, it had three legs. They tore open Itachi's chest and bore into his heart and all was hot and red, and then, nothing.
He heard a hiss. Samehada, no, heal him damn you!
He felt wind on his face, and his head swung dizzily, though he didn't remember telling his legs to move. The being who smelled of ocean's salt took him somewhere; its humid scent was unfamiliar to him.
Two strange tall birds looked at him. One was orange with violet eyes and the other was violet with orange eyes.
"He needs a healer," the breath of salt sailed to the violet bird.
"I'm a sensory ninja. Not a medic. But there's a doctor in a village nearby."
The world shifted as the ocean bowed. "I'm sorry for assuming."
Shivering steel chilled Itachi's wet skin. A bee stung him on the arm. Someone gave him a glass of orange juice with a straw. It was sweet, tangy and delicious, bright as an orange blossom on a mud puddle. His attention drew to this glass of juice, and his surroundings sharpened. He became aware of a stranger in a white coat in the background.
"The IV will ease the desanguination. However, proceeding further has drawbacks..."
"Like what?" the ocean voice said.
Itachi was out of orange juice. He tried to get the doctor's attention, but he was busy. A blue hand gave him another juice. What a kind hand.
"Chakra-healing him will cause permanent scar tissue damage in his chest cavity. If we go through with this, he could have endurance problems for the rest of his life."
"And if you do nothing?"
"The internal bleeding will rot his organs, and in two days, sepsis will kill him."
"Please do all you can."
The doctor placed his cold hands on Itachi's bare chest. He felt he should have shivered, or flinched, but his body would no longer respond to its nervous impulses. A pulsing like ripples on a puddle spread across his body. It warmed his limbs like alcohol but dispelled the delirium like icewater.
Itachi coughed the blood clot that previously must have held his lungs together. The doctor grimaced.
"Excuse me," Itachi apologized through bloody teeth, looking up at an unfamiliar doctor from the red soaked towel.
The doctor's eyes traced to the medical-waste bin adjacent the chair, and Itachi deposited the towel there.
"How do you feel?" the doctor asked.
Itachi did not feel like answering. He looked instead at the two other menacing individuals in the room with him.
"You are, as usual, praised for your discretion," Konan, the violet crane, told the doctor in what was both thanks and a threat. She drew a black velvet pouch from her robe and paid him in gold coins. It seemed Konan at least was unconstrained by Kakuzu's budget. The pleased doctor accepted the gold without concern.
Itachi examined the treatment room. The equipment was modern, but it was on the ground floor of an ordinary building, with mud walls, and a glassless sunny window. Konan and Kisame stood backlit. He had thought he'd seen Pain, but their leader had not accompanied them to the doctor if he had been there at all. Itachi was not sure what he had imagined of the last hours and what was real. In as subtle a way as he could, he pressed his fingertips over his own eyelids, his tongue against his palette, to make sure they were real. That no crows had picked them out.
He looked at Kisame, his silver eyes were like cautious mirrors. In front of this doctor and Konan, Kisame's expression maintained a perfect mask of normality. Itachi was tempted to probe his thoughts, cast aside the flimsy tin shields guarding the man's mind and dive beneath. He could do it, but he didn't.
The three Akatsuki exited the building. Konan, tall for a woman at his height, walked on his right side with Kisame on his left. Her amber eyes slid to Itachi with aloof concern. "Who did this?"
"Anbu got a hit in while we slept. We took care of them," Kisame answered for him.
"It happens. Have someone professional clean your robes," she advised. She gave them each a gold coin. Little did she know they were already loaded with stolen cash. But they took the gold anyway.
She flared her angular paper wings, and Konan left the fire and water pair to their devices.
"Do we stink?" Itachi asked, turning the gold coin.
"Yes. Well, you do. I can't smell me."
The chakra healing left Itachi feeling disquietingly whole, minus a tightness in his chest. It had been since his Leaf Village days that he received effective treatment. The closest the Akatsuki pack of killers had to a field medic was Kakuzu, and well… fortunately Itachi had never needed his reattachment specialty. Or Sasori, who after a battle might aloofly recommend a certain plant. 'A purple mountain bloom with heart shaped leaves, but chew only its roots, for the pistil metabolizes a stealthy toxin when combined with hydrochloric acid…'
A stealthy toxin.
Kisame gave him a wary, perhaps expectant, side eye as the two men walked silently abreast.
"A question for you, Kisame."
"Yes?"
"You do understand, entrapping me would not be wise for your health," Itachi warned, eyes straight forward.
"You think I set you up."
"I entertain the possibility. You repeatedly asked me about the Infinite Tsukuyomi, interrogated me on the whisper of disagreement, and Zetsu reported it to Madara."
A daring smile. Kisame halted on the path. "Why don't you just look in my head and find out?"
Itachi used no genjutsu on Kisame. When he didn't, Kisame spoke.
"When you disappeared from that orchard, I imagined you and our leader had some Uchiha secrets to discuss. Or you pissed him off. That raven of yours found me, and with one look at your sorry carcass, I knew that you definitely pissed him off.
"But, if Madara wanted you dead, I would not have been able to help you."
Kisame's statement did not exactly exonerate him of double play. Obviously Madara had still had a use for Itachi in letting him live, and therefore Kisame would be instructed to treat him. But it did explain Kisame's train of thought. He believed Kisame was innocent of conducting any purposeful snare against him, for now. Perhaps in asking his questions, the wandering Kisame had just been curious on his worldview. And Itachi realized, he wanted to investigate his partner's principles as well.
"What happened after Madara took you?" Kisame asked.
"Madara used his ability to teleport me somewhere, through some other dimension. We exchanged words, then blows. When he let me live, I vowed my hatred."
"Hopefully he'll credit your rudeness to you being delirious from pain," Kisame continued. "Otherwise, you've got a problem on your hands."
Somehow Kisame's chastation relieved him.
"I know," Itachi agreed. "You need not worry about me. I'll hunt this beast of his — I would prefer not to die."
A short, sure laugh from Kisame.
Itachi's contract with Madara stood: the Leaf would be safe from him as long as he fell in the Akatsuki line. And Itachi would do whatever it took to serve the Will of Fire. Itachi was, for better or for worse, a master of small evils.
"In my hallucinations, I saw the three-legged crow, Yatagarasu. In the myth of my country, he heralds the emergence of gods," Itachi said.
"You've got some weird religion in the Leaf," Kisame dismissed.
"What is the folk religion in the Mist?" Itachi asked.
"Our elders say the world was born on the back of a giant turtle. And when that turtle dies, the world will sink back into the sea."
"So you learn how to swim," Itachi noted.
"I'm not saying I believe in giant turtle gods."
"What does Hoshigaki Kisame believe in then?"
A grunt, apparently.
Kisame was a being on the hunt, the hunt for some sort of belief system. He sought belonging in serving something greater than himself. So he attached himself to Akatsuki and the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Without it Kisame had no purpose and no self.
No, that last part was false.
"Thank you for helping me," Itachi said. "I apologize for accusing you of betraying me."
Kisame looked away from him and said, "Not a problem."
Itachi viewed the sky with his Sharingan. He searched for the ultraviolet aurora of the earth's magnetic field. Perhaps in a peaceful century, the Uchiha clan would reveal to scientists that this was the mystery of how birds migrated: they could see these magnetic, purplish, static in the sky that indicated latitude and north. But Itachi's ancestors taught him early to never reveal exactly how the Sharingan worked to outsiders. The magnetic field hazed in a weak aurora far to the northern horizon, indicating that they were further south than previously.
"Where exactly are we?" Itachi asked.
"Can you smell it? Land of Tea," Kisame answered.
An idea germinated in Itachi. It would be on the way. He thought of banished Susanoo, who wandering earth after his crimes, found his greatest weapon, his Totsuka Blade, in the belly of a giant serpent he had slain.
"I would like to speak with someone here."
"Never took you for one good at making friends."
"I'm not."
"Anything I should know about them?"
"If he licks you… bite him."
Kisame, expression amused, gestured for Itachi to lead the way.
In a few hours, the two dangerous men had arrived in an equally dangerous place.
With his Sharingan, Itachi noticed a small camouflaged snake emerge from a crack, flick its tongue, and recede. He was unsure if his target would answer his summons but it was worth trying. No, he would be answered. This man's greatest sin was curiosity. He would not be able to resist wondering why Uchiha Itachi was on his doorstep, even if it killed him.
The stonework hidden under the jungle vines began to tremble. Itachi had not seen this individual since their last clash in the Akatsuki. Itachi had paralyzed him with a glance and struck his body full of rods. He had not even needed the Tsukuyomi.
A slender white-skinned demon stepped from the revealed earthen cave. His venom-smooth androgynous voice coursed unruffled to the two ninja.
"The young crow approaches the snake at its den. Not how I expected your revenge, Itachi."
"If I wanted you dead, I would have done it already," Itachi commanded.
Orochimaru, somewhat more diplomatic than Itachi, narrowed his eyes. An uneasy wind blew between the two Leaf Rogues as Orochimaru waited for more information. Itachi was too merciless to speak twice.
"Orochimaru of the Sanin," Kisame broke the silence, stretching his lips over his teeth and maintaining eye contact in something between a greeting and a threat. "Good to meet you at last."
"And who are you?" the Sanin returned.
"Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly of the Hidden Mist. A pleasure."
"Mhm," Orochimaru hummed smug as a song, and his vertical pupils traced back to his main interest. The question was an insult: the most knowledgeable being in the five nations surely already knew who Hoshigaki Kisame was.
"I require information," Itachi said. He had reserved fatal judgement on Orochimaru at their last encounter in hopes that this Sanin's talents could be subverted. And one way or another, Itachi would collect his debts.
"Concerning?"
"Forbidden jutsu."
A sly, approving, perhaps flirtatious noise. "You know who to ask."
Orochimaru headed into his dark den, exposing his back in a gesture Itachi found coquette and arrogant. Orochimaru turned his head for Itachi to follow, and paced forward into the darkness. Kisame made eye contact with Itachi, sensing the matter was far more personal than it seemed. Perhaps Kisame's pause confirmed that he was welcome.
"Come," Itachi said. They needed to get away from where Zetsu could see them. And, he could use an ally's eyes in a house of the enemy. Itachi was not arrogant enough to think he was above being outsmarted by an Orochimaru with years to ruminate against him.
Like down the esophagus of a snake, the two rogues walked an earthen corridor after Orochimaru. Flaming sconces gleamed green on modern scientific equipment, and animal specimens lined the walls in glass jars. The jars contained mostly reptiles, but Kisame looked at a shark pup and a crow, and back at Itachi.
In the belly of his lair, Orochimaru halted before a green flaming hearth in a great stone hall. Library halls of tomes and scrolls stretched behind him. He faced Itachi with the flames at his back.
"How truly desperate you must be to come to me for wisdom, Itachi. However… my knowledge has a price."
Itachi did not come to trade.
"I've come to reap your debt. Your cooperation is wholly optional." Itachi's Sharingan spinned Mangekyou.
The fire at the hearth extinguished and it was completely, disorientingly black. Itachi and Kisame were blind. Itachi could not use his genjutsu without light. But he knew snakes could sense heat signatures as precisely as an eye could light. He felt Kisame tense next to him, and his arm reach for Samehada.
Stay calm, Itachi thought at Kisame. He would feel it in his body.
"There's no need for that," Orochimaru deescalated from the darkness. Apparently he had changed his mind on the payment.
"Good," Itachi maintained curtly. "We will continue this discussion in the light."
The green fire returned. Samehada slid back into its hilt. Itachi's eyes retracted to their normal red.
"So," Orochimaru said.
"Tell me all you know about the Second Hokage's instant transportation technique."
An amused purr. "Teleportation. My, my, who has got you on the run, Itachi?"
"We've got places to be," Kisame maintained. The Mist ninja was right.
Itachi cared little about being on time for their next mission in the Land of Rivers. But he had to conceal the exact target of his question from both Kisame and Orochimaru. Madara had no doubt used something related to the Second Hokage's technique for his dimension-hopping. And until Itachi had a way to bind Madara to this plane, Itachi knew he would lose their next fight.
"As much as I respect the Second, it was the young Fourth who was the true master of space-time techniques," Orochimaru said, stepping towards his library.
"I understand. The Flying Thunder-God technique gained the Yellow Flash a run-on-sight order from the enemy alliance, and created the illusion that he was in multiple places at once."
"You are not completely uneducated," Orochimaru pulled a scroll from the wall.
"I would also like to know how to disable it."
Orochimaru paused. "You mean, how an enemy could theoretically stop the Fourth from transporting himself."
"Yes."
"There is some research into this."
"By who?"
Orochimaru pulled a second scroll. "Minato himself. However, Minato's research went incomplete. It involved a sealing jutsu currently unreplicatable."
Orochimaru opened the scroll to Itachi. On it was written a simple character in a brownish ink.
"Human blood," Itachi noted. Aged.
"Minato's blood, specifically. Unfortunately, as you know, Namikaze Minato has been a corpse for thirteen years."
"There must be another way," Itachi said.
Orochimaru closed the scroll. "You could ask him."
"Make no jokes, or worse, threats, Orochimaru," Itachi warned.
Orochimaru dipped his sly head without submission. "I apologize."
Itachi examined Minato's blood scroll. "Are these two all you have on the transportation subject?"
"All that would be of succinct use to you."
Itachi turned the scroll in his hand. He would keep them both for study. Orochimaru was too wise to comment or object.
"We'll be taking our leave now." Itachi said.
"A moment."
Orochimaru presented Itachi with a snake's egg. It was rubbery and pill shaped, rather than hard and tear-drop shaped like a bird's.
"If you need to come here again, do be polite and use this."
Fair chance Itachi would awake to a snake hatchling poisoning him in his sleep, or find himself strapped on the demon's dissection table when activating it. But Itachi accepted the egg anyway. Same as the original Orochimaru, it could be researched, repurposed, or destroyed.
Itachi walked out of Orochimaru's lair, the two scrolls under his arm, purposefully slow and dominant. Then he and Kisame ran briefly in the daylight trees, not wanting to dwell in Orochimaru's territory, and slowed again to a walk when they thought themselves far enough from any possible backstabbing. Kisame extended the first of the two scrolls before him.
"'Mark the jutsu formula on the target...' how are we supposed to use this? We can't teleport ourselves to this country if we've never been there before."
"Indeed we cannot," Itachi said.
"Well!" Kisame closed the scroll with unusual enthusiasm. "Too bad your transportation idea didn't work. I suppose we'll have to travel to the Land of Rivers my way."
As he spoke, Kisame looked through the jungle trees at the emerging ocean.
Your way? Itachi battled a sinking premonition. "Does it involve giant sharks?"
"No."
Good.
"Just one question for you, Itachi."
"Yes?"
"Have you ever taken over a ship before?"
Author's note:
Aaand next up is chapter 8, the KisaIta zany sea adventure!
Many thanks to beta SilverLion for her help reviewing this chapter!
Thank you readers for being patient with this chapter. I had an especially difficult time navigating current world events and I had to leave my home. But it's important to weaponize your creativity when you're stuck in the unknown. Please share this story with your friends if you like it, and let me know what you think :D
Steadfast,
Kelto