Immediately after they got into the tunnel, Yugito and Itachi switched to shinobi run. The kens of the stone walls flew past in an instant, but in the pitch darkness it was difficult to keep track of them.
Already in the first seconds, jinchuuriki suddenly accelerated, and although Itachi intended to keep her in sight all the time, now he barely had the agility to catch up with her. Kakuzu's treatment had been too beneficial for Yugito; the Two-Tail's boundless powers had been replenished, so now Itachi even began to regret agreeing to help her. In the end, it became almost impossible to run along with the kunoichi - she was too far away, and he himself, due to illness, could no longer move as fast as he once did it in ANBU.
However, halfway out of the caves, Yugito slowed down. Keeping up with her, Itachi remembered about the handcuffs.
“Damn chains…” the girl cursed on the way, raising her fists in frustration. “I can't even run with them at full strength.”
Itachi made his way around her and raced ahead, holding kasa by the edge with one hand. A pale glow appeared somewhere far in front of them.
“The further away we are from the statue, the more the handcuffs suppress the chakra.”
Telling her about the key was a good decision.
“As soon as we get out, the first thing you do is help me to take these irons off!”
Oh, he wouldn't be so sure. From his side, there was absolutely no need to rush to release Yugito from the handcuffs.
Meanwhile, the dim light ahead, indicating the exit from the tunnel, was inexorably approaching.
“First we need to climb up the cliff and choose the direction,” Itachi shouted before they one after another flew out of the cave’s mouth.
Yugito nodded silently. The power of the beast emanating from her, the aura of which Itachi could feel even without sharingan, gradually began to weaken, and jinchuuriki herself ran after him less briskly; she started to get out of breath and made a lot of unnecessary movements because of fatigue. Well, better still for him - it would be much easier to control her that way.
Moving roughly side by side, they jumped onto a steep slope and raced vertically. The rock, in the thickness of which the statue was installed, raised its gray zigzags to the dark sky. Heavy clouds had covered it overnight, and the faint glow of dawn barely made its way through the cracks between them.
When Itachi reached the top, he immediately felt that his strength was also running out, although he would hardly have allowed anyone to notice it. Only a partner whom Itachi trusted had the right to know about his need for rest. Opening up to this strange Cloud kunoichi was too reckless now.
Itachi jumped over a pile of rocks near the highest peak and stopped to catch his breath. Up here, the mountainside was increasingly ripped up, the stone layers broke off and grew wherever they could, and their sharp chips glowed like bronze in the light colors of the coming morning.
Half a minute later, Yugito landed some distance away. She was breathing heavily, and the skin of her face and hands was painfully red.
“Damn it… These handcuffs… I don't feel the power at all.”
Itachi looked at her sideways and cleared his throat. Jinchuuriki stood bent over with her palms on her knees. Obviously, the effect of the handcuffs on the current of energy caused her body to feel unwell.
“How is your chakra?” Itachi asked. He didn't really care. He was much more concerned about whether Yugito was able to move on her own, and if so, whether she had enough energy to defend herself in battle.
Yugito smeared him with disdain in her eyes.
“It's been better,” a spasm inside the channels of the chakra made her bend harder and grin. “Because of the shackles, the regeneration in my body is slowing down… It will take time before I recover completely.”
“Can you fight?”
“Only with sparrows.”
Itachi sighed. It did not seem she was faking it, but he had to be on guard just in case. Rare ninjas had hastened flaunting their weaknesses.
Far below, the valley was silvered by the early morning light. The rising sun in the east sent its rays from under thick ash clouds, and they gently touched the dark forest patches, squares of rice fields and the curved line of a stream.
From time to time, snow-white flecks flashed in the clouds. The clouds hit each other and generated lightning, but their collisions happened too far away from here. There were no thunderclaps, only the long-drawn rumble that always reigned at the mountain peaks.
“We'll go east,” Itachi tried to shout over the noise of the wind. Its strong gusts blew off the hat, and he had to hold it in hands. “We need food and shelter.”
Jinchuuriki straightened up, continuously looking at him. Itachi watched past her through the strands of gray hair that were lifted by wind from under the headband.
“Let's say I agree with you on the last part,” Yugito's voice reached him. “But why should we go east? I suggest we head north. It's much closer.”
“There are mountain ranges in the north. It will be difficult to hide there.”
“And in the east, there is a forest. I can't imagine how you would hide in the woods.”
Itachi involuntarily glanced at jinchuuriki. She was intently studying the landscape under the rocks and seemed to be talking quite seriously. Well, rocky terrain was common in the Land of Lightning. No wonder Yugito had no idea about living beneath the trees.
“Anyway, we should first get to the nearest settlement and lay low,” Itachi said. Jinchuuriki nodded silently. It was good that their opinions also were the same on this point. “Akatsuki has an informer with very good sensory abilities. He feels the chakra at great distances and moves inside the rocks. I haven't seen any trace of him since I came to the cave. And…”
“Itachi!” A deep growl sounded from somewhere above.
Itachi quickly looked up. Kisame was standing on one of the mountain ledges, just above them two. Samehada in his hand was half unwound, the hem of his open cloak fluttered behind his back, and shark teeth bared in a belligerent grin.
Kisame was going to attack.
“Stay where you are,” he snarled, swinging his sword. “An Exploding Wave at nine o'clock!”
The clawed fingers closed into a seal with lightning speed, but Itachi figured out much faster how the attack would go. The Water Release technique was pointed at Yugito; Kisame must have mistakenly assumed that Itachi had been chasing her all this time.
Alas, at this time she was much more valuable to him than to their ideas leader.
A huge wave covered the mountainside, crashing down with a force similar to a heavy cleaver’s strike. The nearby boulders split up. Yugito feverishly backed away, being defenseless under a direct hit. She only managed to put her head down, and Itachi had no choice but to rush across the water stream.
“ F ire Release: Great Fire Ball Technique!”
His throat tickled, and a giant cloud of fire burst out of it. Itachi managed to use the clan’s jutsu so skillfully that he no longer noticed the way he folded the seals. However, the chakra should be spended sparefully; now, its reserves inside him were not the same as before.
Clouds of smoke billowed into the air; the water shaft split in two, and a piercing hiss was heard from everywhere.
The two elements came together and riled up because of each other’s opposite nature. Flames cut through the water stream and faded out with a rustle, scattering the edges of the wave.
Kisame was carried back a little under the counterattack’s rush. Itachi was able to make the wall of water go around him and Yugito, hitting only the nearest rocks, and the remnants of it, rolling along the fiery sparks, rose up in a smoke screen. Itachi coughed again and with eyes tearing up made out the broad-shouldered silhouette of his partner in it.
When the smoke cleared a little, he saw that Kisame was standing on one of the peaks, from which Itachi was separated by a steep gorge.
“Itachi…” growled Kisame, leaning forward. The blade of Samehada stuck into the sand under his feet. “What does this mean, Itachi-san?”
Itachi was silent, staring impassively into his round eyes. It was a great moment to capture Kisame in genjutsu, but Itachi would like to bid farewell to his former partner honestly. So he waited. And he was thinking about how he would tell him everything without revealing the whole story.
He intuitively understood that involving Kisame in a new problem would not be worth it.
Kisame, meanwhile, straightened up to his full impressive height and clicked his teeth ominously.
“I suspected that your real plans were far from Pain’s ideas,” he said sternly, “but I never thought one day you would dare to defy him.”
“Plans have changed,” Itachi lowered his eyelids, then looked at his partner again. “It's a long story, and you shouldn't meddle. We've been working together for a long time, so... I think you can understand.”
“Sure. Sure, I can understand you, Itachi-san,” Kisame waved his sword. His lips curled into the same hideous grimace with which he always rushed enemies. “A renegade once is a renegade forever.”
With these words, he jumped forward and, flying over the gap, lifted Samehada over his head. Itachi barely managed to grab the kunai to parry his attack. One blade scratched the other, and thin sparks flashed in the air.
Itachi jumped back, with kunai holding the defense. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Yugito, who swerved to the side to not to get in their way and disappeared into a crevice between the rocks.
It was not good. If he let her out of his sight, he would lose more than even if he betrayed Akatsuki. His mind knew that Yugito was unlikely to escape now: the key to the handcuffs was still what would make her come back. However, Itachi didn't need any extra problems.
He should have quickly dealt with Kisame.
“I don't want to fight you,” Itachi said. “Let us handle this in a peaceful way.”
He did not remind the swordsman that he had no chance in this battle anyway. Itachi would have killed him with no hesitation, if only he hadn't remembered the bond that bound them both. He hoped for Kisame's loyalty. And he sincerely believed that he knew it himself - he just couldn't accept the loss of his partner and attacked rather because of desperation.
“Peacefully? The man who slaughtered his own clan wants to handle the thing in a peaceful way again!” Kisame even laughed, swinging once more. His hand drew a circle with the blade of Samehada and froze, pointing at Itachi. “You once taught me that anyone can achieve peace. Even someone like me might come to it one day. But if the peace for you is to change your ideals over and over again…” he slowly raised his eyes to his partner; there was a malevolent bitterness in them. “Then why should such a world exist at all?”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Itachi kept silent. What could he say in response?
Kisame was a stray. It was only after the acquaintance with him that Itachi realized: Kisame, just like he himself, had long forgotten how to trust people. It must be that somewhere deep in his soul Kisame also doubted that Pain's ways would lead them all to prosperity. Only work made them both believe in it, only work convinced them that there was a way out of the vicious circle, that even a fallen man was good for something... Now Itachi saw that in the eyes of the swordsman from Kiri he behaved treacherously; he ran away like the last brat and did not even consider him worthy of answers.
Kisame's indignation seemed justified. His words sounded sincere. And the best thing right now was probably just to let him act.
They went hand-to-hand once more. Kisame struck again and again, Itachi fought back. Without techniques, tricks and bluffing.
A fair fight between two nukenins.
Sometimes, they parted and, standing up against each other, exchanged sharp glances.
Itachi felt like he could almost read Kisame’s thoughts.
“My entire life has been one giant lie,” Kisame said.
He joined the organization a little later than Itachi, and just a bamboo strip would be enough to write down everything they knew about each other that time.
Not much had changed since then.
The first meeting, searching for the Nine-Tailed One, recruiting new people. Both understood that they had no right to trust - each of their missions was going to be the last, and life had weaned them from becoming attached to chance acquaintances.
“When we met, I realized that I was not the first to choose walking in the dark.”
Joint raids, splitting of rewards, endless traveling. Itachi always had a strategy, Kisame had a willingness to follow it. They ate dango, stayed in ryokans, and spent the nights under the open sky. They fought side by side and then reprimanded each other for behaving unwisely in battle again.
However, their philosophy was in some ways the same, otherwise there would never have been anything between them that distantly began to look like a rapport.
“I had someone to share the path with.”
They both wanted the one. Both were disappointed with the order of things in this world. And, nevertheless, they knew today's encounter in advance; not even thinking that fate would connect them together, they already foresaw how sooner or later they would disband. Peacefully or not, everyone imagined this scene in their own way.
“My expectations were not met again today.”
The principle of illusion was universal. If one understands its basics, they can create it without any techniques.
The illusion of the past that they had built together was crumbling before Itachi’s eyes. Memories flashed through his mind, and he suddenly realized that he would never see them again.
He wouldn’t see them, even if Kisame would let him go. Because he himself had just torn up their bond.
“The weak are meat, the strong eat, and the strong is the one who does not get off the destined way," Kisame flashed his eyes and stood ready. “What a pity, Itachi-san, that we part ways here. It's time to say goodbye.” A second of silence hung in the air, and immediately after a deep growl broke it. “So let's do it honorably.”
Samehada whistled through the air. Itachi jumped back at the last moment, but Kisame attacked him once more, raising the sword over his head again. Somewhere above, there was a deafening scrape, and Yugito's voice sounded.
“Watch out!”
Itachi raised his head: jinchuuriki stood several layers higher, next to the highest mountain peak. The moment he just looked in that direction this peak was struck by lightning.
The scrape repeated, was louder, turned into a crushing rumble, which sent a shudder through the ground and made the ears be laid. Rock fragments of rock flew down, a crack went along the ledges of cliffs and caused a landslide. The nukenins were covered by a hail of stones growing more and more every second, so being under a rockfall was very soon tantamount to death.
Kisame didn't seem to care; with Samehada on one shoulder, he moved towards Itachi in spurts, and small boulders bounced off the tarpaulin of his cloak.
“I got used to being part of someone else's plan,” Kisame growled and lunged, which Itachi managed to dodge. “You've always thought one step ahead, Itachi-san. And we still have secrets from each other.”
He wasn't lying: Itachi's plan went into force long before his partner occured. But if he could, he would certainly tell him all the details of this story. To his chagrin, Itachi had to take the side of the enemy in Kisame’s eyes - and thereby pointed to the goal that he really aspired to.
This goal did not exist. It was just that the renegade was essentially a loner, and Itachi was afraid Kisame knew it from the very beginning.
“It would be better if each of us kept these secrets to himself,” Itachi jumped back, evading between the crumbling stones. The situation became more complicated: now he not only had to dodge sword strikes, but also try not to be squished by a piece of rock.
Kisame bared his teeth and prepared to hit again. “Although I have a plan too, I'll do you a favor…”
At the same moment, a white bar of Samehada flashed in front of Itachi's eyes. Blue spikes with the remnants of band scraps tangled in them. Kisame took a swing, and the sword in his hands turned red. Itachi caught an air fluctuation to the side above - in vision of sharingan, objects were slowing down vastly, so he saw the attack line and almost overlooked the boulder that was rushing at them from the left.
Suddenly, Samehada's blade had changed its direction.
Too late. Even if Itachi turned around now and slided under the flying stone, Kisame would still stay exactly on its way. Why did he hesitate? As if he did not foreknow with a fishy sense that he was about to be smashed by a hundred kan lump.
But there was no time to think. Out of the corner of his eye, Itachi saw that Samehada struck the rock. A cloud of dust immediately rose into the air; like rotten wood, a huge boulder crumbled under the blade blow. Part of that boulder collapsed right behind them, split in half, and rumbled down the slope. Itachi thought he had lost his hearing: because of the crackle around, it instantly became as quiet as in a pastoral.
Hearing nothing but his own pulse, Itachi looked back, but saw only a rain of stones. He turned over in the air to avoid a bump and found himself in a dust curtain, through which he could not distinguish what happened to his partner. The endless flying boulders did not let the sand disperse. Finally, there were so many of them that the collapse developed into a blast wave.
This wave threw Itachi even further away. One by one, pushing off from the falling stones, he ran them up, then broke out of the rock stream and, making a somersault, landed on a platform not touched by the landslide.
The hearing has returned. When the boulders stopped falling and the rocks around did not shake anymore, Itachi with a sinking heart approached the edge and looked down. Kisame was nowhere to be seen. Itachi’s eyes did not deceive him - his old partner was dragged down along with the stones.
Tiny spots began to grow around on the sand underfoot. Itachi looked up - the sky was brightening on the horizon, and gloomy clouds were gathering darkness right above him.
Thunder rumbled. The air, saturated with the ash bitterness and steam rising from the salt water, burst into a roar. It became muggy as if before a tropical downpour. Itachi felt cold - the first drops of rain fell on his cheeks.
For some reason, he remembered the moment before the fall. Kisame didn't try to hit him. He just cut a stone that threatened his partner's life. Even after he realized he was betrayed, he still remained loyal to him.
Kisame was much more than an ordinary thug of a criminal gang. The only sad thing was that Itachi understood this too late.
It started to rain. Itachi felt the vibrations of the air on his back. Yugito's voice, barely audible through the noise of water, afterwards seemed so strange to him that he wished not to hear it at all.
“Nice. We can move on now.”
“Why?” Itachi turned to jinchuuriki. She raised her eyebrows in confusion.
“Why what?”
“Why did you do that?”
Even if she could not use the lightning release, he had no doubt that the stone peak had been hit due to her. If someone ever should be blamed for what happened to Kisame, it had to be Yugito.
She just shrugged her shoulders in response.
“To get rid of the chase.”
“He wouldn't have chased us.”
Yugito curled her lips mannerly.
“What a presumption. How can you be so sure?”
Itachi turned away and looked down again. A mountain with a cave on one side ended in a cleft that ran below its base. Now broken boulders rolled down there looked like a handful of reddish sand crumbs from above.
“You are so silent”. Yugito chuckled. “Has a cat got your tongue?”
Itachi exhaled slowly. The rain poured harder, and the water dust blurred the view of the gorge before his eyes.
“He was my partner. Just a word of mine - and he would have even forgotten he saw us here.”
“Just a word? So why didn't you say it?”
Itachi didn't answer. Indeed, why? Did he really think Kisame was able to understand him without any words?
“We still have secrets from each other.”
Information was more precious than his own life to Kisame. Itachi found this in the order of things, just like the fact that shrimps were his partner’s favorite food. He could eat them even raw, and if preparing tempura, also casually offered to try.
And then, he grinned with his sadistic smile; this smile still hung in front of Itachi's eyes.
“We have to get out of here”, jinchuuriki's impatient voice pulled him out of his thoughts; she wandered along the edge of the cliff and looked around uneasily. “An informer can still find us, and…”
“We need to go down,” Itachi cut her off.
Yugito turned around in perplexity.
“I was born in the mountains; landslides killed half of my brothers and sisters. No chance to survive after such a powerful rockfall.”
“It’s not about that.”
Itachi had no doubt that Kisame was still alive. He mentioned a plan, but Itachi didn't hear enough to know for sure what he meant. He absolutely needed to find it out.
Jinchuuriki frowned. After a couple of seconds, her swarthy face lit up with understanding.
“I think I got what you're talking about. The ‘Summoning the Soul’ ritual or… No, I guess you call it ‘water of the last moment’?” Posthumous ceremonies were called differently in each country. And the lucky one was the dead who earned honor of them. “Well, thy will, but be quick. I'll look for something useful beneath.”
She disappeared into the gorge first. Itachi picked up the kasa to protect himself from the wall of rain, and began to climb down the rocks after her. He had to move carefully on the flows of chakra - it was easy to slip on the wet stones.
Now he just couldn't leave the fallen boulders unseen. Kisame was definitely trying to convey something to him, and the sooner Itachi got closer to the crevice bottom, the more sure of this he became.
He had to find out what Kisame wanted to say. Information had higher value for him than money for Kakuzu, so Itachi should get it by any means, even if…
However, he tried not to think that his partner was no longer alive.
***
“...Silver grass... Remembered?”
“Yes, Grandma!”
“Three daikons... two bundles of bush clovers…”
“Noted!..”
“Oh, and I almost forgot: parsley and cloves for flavor... just make sure it doesn't rot! Otherwise it will be like last time…”
“All right, Grandma!”
“Well, it seems that was it…” Nekobaa sighed wearily and straightened out the creases of her red dress. She was sitting on pillows surrounded by cats, while Tamaki, standing in front of her with a bag, carefully scribbled the herbs names in a notebook in order not to forget them. Momo was impatiently strutting around her with a wicker basket on her back.
Suddenly, the noren at the entrance swayed, and Sasuke burst into the room.
“Dear Kannon-sama!” Nekobaa clasped her hands and clumsily got to her feet. “Sasuke, what's the rush?”
Passing by her and Tamaki like a hurricane, he drew a scroll purchased from them shortly after arrival out of his bosom, and hurriedly began to put materials into it.
“I got one thing to do,” he said without turning around.
Tamaki and Nekobaa exchanged glances.
“It's been so long, and you're still impatient,” exhaled the second. “Did you find anything at the temple?”
“There's no time to explain,” Sasuke straightened up. There was resolve in his eyes. “I'm leaving. At dawn.”
“At dawn?..” Tamaki echoed.
“Where are you going?” Nekobaa wrinkled her forehead.
“I have to find Itachi. As soon as possible.”
“So you are going to find Itachi then…” Nekobaa hung her head.
“Yes. I have to take revenge,” Sasuke returned to the scroll, but froze hearing a quiet muttering behind him.
“I remember what you two were like as kids… I can’t believe it’s come to this…” Nekobaa's raspy voice seemed to crack and drop. “To think that the Uchiha clan would be reduced to but two people, and they would end up fighting to the death. But Itachi…” Sasuke looked around. Tamaki was pityingly holding her grandmother’s hand. Nekobaa hunched, as if she had become smaller, and tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, always squinted because of tight eyelids.
Sasuke left the scroll and approached. He made up his mind a long time ago.
“Itachi you knew is gone,” he said harshly. “Now he's different, he's the enemy for all of us. I'm the only one who can stand up to him. And I will destroy him. By all means.”
Nekobaa sighed slowly, still leaning on Tamaki. Many people used to see her as just a shopkeeper with a temper and a sharp tongue, and rarely anyone could see behind her outer grumpiness a person who was able to empathize sincerely.
This is the fate of all those who once had to deal with the difficult path of shinobi.
Sasuke turned away and went back to the scroll. He had no extra time for laments, as well as for emotional support.
“I need weapons, medicine,… and a few other things,” he called over his shoulder. It had to get ready for a big fight.
The practical request brought Nekobaa to her senses. Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she demanded her granddaughter belligerently.
“Tamaki, why are you standing there? Did you hear what Sasuke-kun said? Get to the market quickly before it closes! Everything should be ready by morning.”
Tamaki firmly waved her hand with a notebook.
“Yes, Grandma!” and rushed to the exit. Momo, who was following her, hissed unfriendly again as she ran past Sasuke.
He barely noticed it. Bending over the scroll, he checked the consistency of its fillings. Books, pill jars, senbons and wire strings - that would not be enough for long, but he hoped that sufficient replenishment will arrive by the evening.
It was just incredible: while Sasuke was stuck in the temple, the morning of the next day came - and so much time was wasted, which he could already use for his search.
Speaking of searches.
Sasuke took out the remaining money from his pocket. They weren't much: just a wad and a handful of coins on top of it, but for Nekobaa and her cats, it would be definitely the same as a third part of wealth.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me, Elder Cat. I’ve come to repay my debts to you.” Sasuke handed the money to the old woman. She silently took them, putting them in her sleeve. “And one more thing… Do you have someone in mind who possesses good sensory abilities?”
Such a ninneko would be a great help for him on his way. Whether it would have found Itachi by scent or chakra did not matter. Originally, Sasuke was going to form a search squad before setting off, but before that, to test his strength and try to attack Orochimaru or Kabuto first. Now the situation had changed crucially, and he had to adapt to the circumstances.
There was no more time to prepare, so any opportunity that came up helped a lot.
“Mhm, I’ve heard of no one with sensory abilities…” Nekobaa squeaked thoughtfully. “But I have a friend who, apparently, knows well about smells. He is currently working at a local pharmacy, mixing medicines. Come with me. I'll introduce you.”
Sasuke nodded, and Nekobaa turned around and hobbled toward the exit.