It has almost been a year since every Akatsuki member met in Amekagure.

Ever since Itachi and I have been travelling and doing missions.

We went to Grass Country to hunt Missing-nin that tried to free their allies from the famous 'Blood Prison' in Grass. The large containment facility is actually a large castle called 'Hozuki Castle' which got its name from the hozuki plants around it.

We had a brief encounter with Missing-nin in Water Country and even took down a few of the rebels. The hunt itself went fairly easy as everyone of them would immediately surrender in hopes to not face the Horned Reapder...

We had an assassination mission in Hotsprings to kill corrupt officials. The whole mission was ordered by Gato, who in the short future would terrorize Wave Country.

Of course there were many other missions around bandit subjugations to killing Missing-nin.

Even though we have been killing for almost a year now and most of these kills went to me, my levels did not increase as much as I expected them to.

Name: Hinata Hyuga Level: 53 Health: 7150/8090 Mana: 0 Physical E:

5240/7390 Spiritual E:

4680/7820 Strength: 200 Constitution: 203 Dexterity: 342 Intelligence: 261 Wisdom: 256 Charisma: 133 Stat Points: 72 Talent Points: 1

"Are you hurt Hinata?"

Itachi somehow prefers calling me Hinata whenever we are alone even though I insist that he calls me by my fake name instead.

"Only some scratches. That last ninja just had to stick dozens of explosive notes on himself that I accidentally activated with my attack. Deidara would have been happy to see that explosion."

"Hn. I am sure he would have tried to take a photo of that moment."

Yes... that is another thing that changed. A few weeks after my talk about art with Sasori and Deidara, he bought himself a camera and started taking photographs of his own explosions.

'Explosions may be a fleeting thing, but with my photography I can try to capture that fleeting moment and hold onto it for eternity.'

Even Sasori seemed to be impressed by Deidara's new ideology and started thinking about new ways to express himself.

Some of his new puppets now try to convey certain stories.

There is one pair of puppets that he had killed during one of their hunts. These puppets were originally Hotspring shinobi that were captured by Missing-nin.

Both were a pair of twins that kept each other safe until they eventually died against the Missing-nin.

Before their death, they hugged and died in each other's arms.

Sasori took those two and turned them into one of his new puppets: Gemini.

Gemini is super disgusting to be honest, but the puppet is also really strong for some reason.

The puppet has two heads both equipped with mouths that can spew poison gas, four arms from which two are equipped with flamethrowers and the other two with a high-pressure water gun and two bodies stuck together which are filled with a highly flammable and sticky solution.

Gemini is also able to wield wind release from the older brother and lightning release from the younger sister.

Both Deidara and Sasori really like Gemini as it perfectly captures the last moment of two dying souls for eternity.

For weeks they have been working together to create a new level of puppets that combine fleeting moments and eternal beauty.

Deidara would lure their victims and Sasori would create a story for them to revolve around.

Their victims would then die exactly the way as their playwrights determined and to be honest some of these plays are really vicious.

Deidara and Sasori would constantly try to create fear, despair, love, hope and other emotions to get new material.

The only thing they still disagree on is that Deidara is trying to equip the puppets with explosions, while Sasori does not want to risk his puppets being destroyed.

I might have created a pair of monsters...

"Yeah...at least Sasori and Deidara are now combining their efforts, instead of constantly bickering between each other."

"Hn. Let's take a rest around that hill over ther-*cough*."

"Itachi?"

"*cough* I am fine. *cough*"

Is that blood?!

"Fine? Do you call coughing blood fine?"

"This blood has been on my hand the whole time."

"Don't you start lying to me Itachi. I clearly saw you coughing blood just now."

"Hn. *cough*"

"Fuck! What happened? Are you poisoned?"

"...no."

Oh god.

"So no poison then. Maybe your lung is pierced or something. Let me have a loo-"

"No Hinata."

Please don't be what I think it is.

"This has been going on for a few months now."

"...an illness then. Did you have someone check your body?"

"No. No one in Akatsuki is a skilled Medic-nin and there are not many occasions to search for one."

"You idiot! If you had mentioned something then we could have made a detour somewhere."

"Hn."

Fucking Itachi. He is not even looking guilty.

"You should know that I care about you."

Oh never mind. He just averted his eyes.

"Let me check your body with my Tenseigan."

I unbind my blindfold to get a better look with my Tenseigan.

Why am I using the Tenseigan instead of just looking for a Medic-nin? In the original story it is known that Itachi comes down with a terminal illness, which slowly kills him. It is unclear wether Itachi ever tried to heal himself or just ignored it and saw it as his punishment for killing his own clan. I just wanted to make sure that this illness is not a jutsu or something that he was hit with a few weeks ago.

As my Tenseigan can only see energy and not make out wether someone is ill or not, I can't tell what he contracted.

"Damn. Itachi."

"Hn. I am sorry."

"You should feel sorry. We have no idea what is affecting you, but what I do know is that your chakra levels decreased because of it. Your body is weakening and with it your physical energy. Itachi...you could have potentially doomed us both had you never mentioned a drop in your perfomance."

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Now that got him good.

"I am informing Pain of your status and we will look for a healer. The only skilled healer I know is one of the Legendary Sannin Tsunade. Do you know someone else we could go to?"

"No. I don't even think that Tsunade would heal me."

"She will. Trust me. I will make her heal you. Let me just contact Pain. Maybe he has information on other healers we could visit before we try to find Tsunade."

Fucking Itachi. I totally forgot about his illness after I assumed that he was fine. I had hoped that with my actions the past few years, I would have prevented Itachi from ever getting that illness.

----------------------------------------

We travelled from Wind Country to Rain Country and then to Fire Country.

During that time we had visited multiple healers and everyone would say the same damn thing.

'I have no idea what is killing him and the only one who might know what ails the young man is the legendary healer Tsunade.'

At least they gave Itachi medicine that supressed the symptoms and made it easier for him to function.

Pain was also clearly not amused by Itachi's behaviour and literally ordered us to find Tsunade to heal Itachi.

Well, I would also be angry, if my top subordinate is slowly dying and he wouldn't try to find a cure for it.

Anyway our search for Tsunade brought us to Fire Country and a village known for its gambling: Tanzaku Gai or Tanzaku Quarters.

This whole thing greatly reminds me of the original story, when Jiraya and Naruto look for Tsunade and find her here in Tanzaku Gai.

"I will question the people in one of the bars. Don't you move away from that spot Itachi."

"Hn."

Ok. So I am still slightly pissed, but I am just worried about him.

The bar is filled with drunken people and gambling idiots. That just made me realize that it is prime time for them as it is already close to midnight.

I make my way to one of the barmaids and have them serve me a beer to drink and sit down next to a familiar blonde woman.

I can't believe that I really met her...

True, we went from town to town to get information on her location, but I never expected to find her here in Tanzaku Gai in the first bar I visited.

I take a sip of my drink and am slightly disappointed by the taste. Alcohol is just not the same in the Naruto World.

"Are you Tsunade?"

She takes a sip of her sake and looks to me.

Her eyes widen for a moment as she saw my blindfold and then looks away again.

"What could a blind woman want from me?"

"I was looking for someone to heal my friend."

"Not yourself? I expected a blind woman to ask me to heal her sight."

"I don't think you could heal my eyes. (As they are not damaged.) Instead I am ready to pay you for taking a look at my friend."

"You do realize that you are asking a legendary shinobi for her services, don't you? My services are not cheap."

"How much do you want? 100.000 ryo? 500.000 ryo?"

"Tsk. The blind woman has money, but it is not enough. Let's see. I lost around 140.000 today, 201.000 yesterday, 50.000 the day before yesterday and another 110.000 before that day. Then there is of course an extra for asking me while I was drinking for another 100.000 and I am sure that you are ready to pay a little more for my future gambling. So how about 880.000 ryo?"

Greedy, old bitch.

"900.000 ryo, but you only get 200.000 if you can't heal him."

"600.000 ryo. You don't always have a top medic looking at someone."

"450.000 ryo and I pay for your expenses today."

"Deal. Meet me at the 'Stargazers Hotel' north from here in an hour."

"Got it. How much are your expenses?"

She starts grinning and says.

"150.000 ryo."

"...fuck you."

900.000 ryo. That is an amount you will have once you took down around 5-8 A-rank Missing-nin. Amassing that wealth takes me half a year to do as A-rank shinobi don't 'spawn' out of nowhere and 'drop' 150.000 ryo each.

Well what is wealth in relation to a healthy Itachi?

Itachi and I currently stand in front of Tsunade's room and knock on her door. The door opens and we are greeted by her apprentice, Shizune, and Tsunade's pet pig, Tonton.

"Yes?" "Oink?" So adorable~

Noticing my sudden lack of attention, Itachi answers Shizune.

"Tsunade should be expecting us."

"Ah right. Teacher said something about that. Come in."

We both enter the room and sit down on one of the present chairs, when Tsunade makes her appearance.

"So that is your friend? Missing-nin Itachi Uchiha? The guy who murdered most of his family?"

"Yes."

"Do you really think I would be helping someone like him?"

"Why shouldn't you? We are obviously paying you good money that you need and as far as I know the relations to your room shouldn't be a concern to you."

"Even if you are blind, I will no-"

"I am not trying to fight you. We are simply here to have him healed. You also don't need to play hard to get. I will double the money if you can manage to heal him."

"Fuck me. I wonder what that pervert would say, if he finds out that I healed one of Konoha's traitors."

"I am sure he would be happy to hear that as I am also able to tell you some information on Orochimaru."

Everyone in the room is giving me surprised looks. Well as surprised as you could count a slightly raised eyebrow from Itachi.

"You got yourself a deal then. Shizune have a look at Itachi, while the 'Horned Reaper' tells me all she knows about Orochimaru."

I expected her to also recognize me. Itachi and I made quite a name for ourselves in the last year.

"Orochimaru was part of an organisation called Akatsuki. He had some kind of fallout with them and lost one of his arms in the conflict. I have also heard that he utilized a technique to revive the dead. Some kind of revival technique that forces loved ones to fight each other."

Tsunade has been calmy analyzing me, until I mentioned the revival technique. I know that I am slightly changing from the original story, but there shouldn't be a lot of harm done by sharing that information.

"Revival technique?"

"All I know is that he uses them to fight his enemies and that the revived people lost their free will."

"...I see."

I guess hearing about a way to revive your loved ones and then being told that the technique is actually useless to you, would be disappointing.

"Anyway that is all I know about him and I am sure that information should be worth quite something."

"Hm. Shizune? How is he?"

Please be able to help him.

"I don't know what I should say. His body cells are slowly destroying themselves and I can't make out the cause of it. Maybe you should take a look at it Teacher."

"Hm. Let me see."

Itachi just calmly sits on his chair with closed eyes, while I am thinking of possible causes.

When could Itachi possibly have contracted that illness? Is it maybe something in his possession?

"This is troubling. Even if you gave me the best equipment to find the cause of his illness, I am sure that I couldn't find it as the cause is chakra related, which makes it harder to pinpoint the problem. Do you know how and when you contracted your illness."

"No."

"When did you start noticing changes?"

"A few weeks after the Uchiha Massacre."

What. That was two years ago!

"Hm. I have no way to cure you."

"You have to be kidding me..."

"But I know of a way to extend your life. I can give you medicine that will keep your coughing fits down and also strengthens your cells, but the true treatment are regular physical energy injections. If I had to make a guess then there are two possible causes for your illness.

One, you contracted a yet incurable illness from one of your enemies. The illness is slowly destroying your body via your chakra by having your cells converted into energy and use that energy to spread around your body. Mixing foreign energy chakra into your network might slow down the illness.

Two, the illness is a part of your chakra and possibly even genetic. In that case it is your chakra that is destroying you accidentally and repeatedly flushing out your chakra might solve your problem. At least should you lack chakra then it couldn't destroy your body.

Anyway both ways are exhausting and painful to you and the one doing the chakra injections.

In case one you will have to bear the pain of having your chakra mixed with foreign chakra that is normally volatile when injected into another being.

The other case will leave you permanently exhausted and tired and will probably make it impossible for you to continue with your duties as shinobi."

This is too absurd. Itachi's own chakra is killing himself? If that was caused by one of Itachi's enemies then I am glad that the Elemental Nations still house living beings. Imagine that illness spreading to everyone.

But you have to be kidding me. I can't imagine my own Qi destroying my own body.

"Anyway my treatment is only a theory and would require almost perfect chakra control from the one doing it."

"I can do it."

Of course I am going to do it.

"Well, if you are fine with me trying to help you Itachi."

"Hn. Thanks."

"Yeah yeah. Now get out of here and leave the money. You can leave me the 450.000 ryo as I couldn't cure him."

"Here and thanks for your help."

"Don't worry about it. You paid for it and I dare say with more than you should have."

"Hm~ Try not to waste all that cash with your gambling."

"Get out woman."

"See you, Tsunade. Bye Shizune and Tonton."

Itachi and I take our leave and get out of Tanzaku Gai to make camp a few kilometres away from it.

Before we start resting for the day I ask him an important question.

"Do you want me to help you Itachi?"

I know that he really wants to die and wouldn't that convenient illness be a great help for Sasuke?

"You don't want me to die don't you?"

"I already told you that you shouldn't die. You deserve better than being an unsung hero to everyone. You are a kind soul Itachi and really deserve a life vastly different from this one. A life in a world without unnecessary bloodshed. A life in a world of peace in which your only concern should be how you should be preparing today's dinner."

"Hn. If you truly th-"

"Itachi. I was asking for your own opinion not my own. Should you want to ignore a possible way to cure you then so be it. No matter how much it pains me to see my best buddy suffer, I will bear with it. Trust me I will be accompanying you until the day Sasuke kills you, if you want me to."

"Do you think you will be able to inject your chakra without damage to me?"

"Yes. You have seen some of my chakra exercise. Heck, I managed to recreate your Susanoo without the aid of a Mangekyo Sharingan. My chakra control is perfect. Or as close as it can get to being perfect."

"Then we will try the chakra injection."

"Thank you."

"Hn."

Somehow Itachi's smile seems so fake to me.

Is there something you are not telling me Itachi? What could you possibly want to keep away from me?

"Do you want to try it out right now?"

"Yes."

"Then take off your robe."

While Itachi takes of his Akatsuki robe, I unbind my blindfold to completely concentrate on the chakra flow inside of Itachi.

Something has been bothering me since the meeting with Tsunade. Why did I not find anything wrong with my eyes, when Tsunade clearly said that Itachi's chakra is killing him.

To my eyes his chakra look exactly like it always has been. No foreign objects or chakra inside of him and his chakra also does not seem to be infected with anything.

But now that Tsunade and Shizune mentioned it, I can see his cells slowly deteriorating and being sucked in by his chakra.

So it is really his own chakra destroying him, but why? Did I not find the problem earlier, because I have not been concentrating enough?

Should I convert my Qi into chakra or add Qi into his chakra system instead?

"Are you ready Itachi?"

"Hn."

I first try to slowly have chakra inserted into Itachi's body and use it to heal his cells.

The chakra enters his system and I can hear Itachi grunting. It must feel uncomfortable for a lot of foreign chakra to enter your system and especially chakra as dense as mine.

Anyway I try to concentrate again and move the chakra to his cells. His cells slowly repair themselves and everything seems to be working.

After an hour of non-stop concentration, mental fatigues takes over and I have to stop healing Itachi.

"How is it?"

"My chakra managed to help your cells regenerating, but I can also see that with this method we can merely keep up with the illness. If we have these session daily and I manage to heal you for at least 3 hours per day, then we can fight back against your illness. You wouldn't have to worry about your performance dropping."

That would make Itachi one of the strongest Shinobi alive.

"Maybe it could be even possible to find a way for my chakra to be a permanent part of your body. This way I would only have to recharge it instead of leading it to your wounded areas."

"Hn."

"Anyway I am exhausted and will sleep now. Sorry for having you keep watch tonight."

"Don't worry about it."

"Good night."

"Hn."

What is it that you are not telling me Itachi?