Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ For the Love of My Brother ❯ A Disconcerting Job ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3
9-12-06
A.N: Gomen about the late update, check out bottom authors notes for the many reasons.

~*~*~

That was a good work out, Itachi thought as he sat back against a tree at the edge of the grounds he and Sasuke used to spar in. Sasuke was sprawled belly down in the shade next to him. The run from the dreaded Fan-Girls had been a good warm-up. But the job interview had been frustrating.

The rich lord had been rather vague as to whether or not he was interested in hiring the Uchiha brothers. Itachi supposed that this was better than a flat out refusal, which is what all the other hopefuls had gotten, but the dithering was still frustrating. A mercenary couldn’t afford to hang around on a ‘maybe’. If another job was offered them, they’d have to take it.

The brothers had bills to pay, the innkeeper and his family might like the Uchiha brothers, but that liking wasn’t going to extend to free lodging. Similarly, food, clothing, weapons and medicines were not offered for free, some trade had to be made for these things, and money was the most commonly accepted return.

We may have a stash of money, but that’s not going to last forever, and I truly hesitate to dip into our savings in anything other than an emergency. Oh, wait, guild fees are due soon aren’t they? Crap.

Most occupations had a unifying guild that spanned the nations and the Mercenaries Guild was one of them. Joining the guild did a number of things and one of these was that the badge acted as a voucher that the member would act honestly. The number of jobs that the Uchiha brothers were offered after they had gotten their badges had increased dramatically.

If either brother screwed up in a less than honest way, the guild would pay for damages, then take it out on the hide of the screw-up. On the flip side, if the brothers were screwed over by an employer, all they needed to do was point this out to the guild, and they would be the ones repaid while the employer was left whimpering. If either brother was captured, the guild would ransom them, and if things truly went sour, the brothers could recoup for a few days at any guild head-quarters.

But to be given these things, they had to pay quarterly fees. Itachi thought it a fair trade since the guilds would also shelter them from Konoha’s wrath, so long as things remained as they were, with the Uchiha’s merely being runaways. The fact that the guild fees weren’t outrageous also helped.

Itachi and Sasuke were mercenaries with a good reputation, it was actually in the guild’s interest to keep the brothers safe. If customers saw that the guild supported such reputable individuals, the guild would look better as a consequence and would get more customers itself.

Itachi glanced over at his younger brother and noticed that Sasuke was dozing. Soldier reflex, get sleep when you can where you can. The elder Uchiha reentered his musings, waiting for one hour before sunset when he and Sasuke were due back at the mansion.

He kind of hoped that they’d get the job. Not only was it good pay, there was something a little off, not wrong per se, but… Itachi had a hard time resisting mysteries, sometimes to his grief. His love of mysteries was the reason he’d dug into the Uchiha clan’s past, and found out how dishonorable the clan was.

If what he’d found was just the occasional ‘bad egg’ that became the shame of the clan at that time, he wouldn’t have minded. All ancient noble clans had its dark stains, it was a given. But the frequency of those ‘bad eggs’, and the way the clan would cover it up and let the ‘bad egg’ continue being bad… Itachi wasn’t able to stomach that.

So he’d made the mistake of complaining about it to his father. He received that complaint well, I still have the scars. Itachi had been ten at the time and thus was spared from being punished further. But he had been completely disillusioned, and thus had started his drift away from the rest of the clan and his total hatred of the glory chasers. Not that he’d been able to show it, thanks to his emotionless conditioning only one person had even noticed that Itachi was discontent.

Well, to be more honest, two. But Sasuke had been too young to really understand what was wrong, aside from the fact that Itachi was unhappy, and that he, Sasuke, wanted to make him feel better.

Itachi rested his hand on his brother’s head for a moment, and smiled inwardly at the happy sigh that came from the action.

But the only adult /near-adult who had noticed that something was really wrong with Itachi was Shisui. I wish he hadn’t noticed, gods how I wish he’d been as blind as the rest. Shisui had asked time and again what was wrong with his younger friend and Itachi had hinted again and again that there was something wrong with the clan as a whole, but had never said it in so many words. His father had forbidden him from speaking about what he’d discovered.

Unfortunately, Shisui misinterpreted the hints; he thought that Itachi hated the clan, period. They still remained friends of a kind, but there was a rift between them that hurt terribly, especially for Itachi. He didn’t have a single other friend and only Sasuke to care for. The estrangement between him and Shisui was extremely painful to him.

It was perhaps even more unfortunate that the other Uchiha had seen that Itachi was hurting, because he kept coming back to try and understand why his slightly younger friend was so discontent with the clan. But this usually led to some kind of argument. The worst argument came a bit over two years after Itachi had delved into the clan record. It had happened on the night before Shisui and his team left for a high rank mission; another star to add to the clan banner.

It had been a horrible fight, with a great deal of emotional pain and terrible misunderstanding on both sides. Once again, Shisui couldn’t understand why Itachi wasn’t as proud of the clan as he was. And once again, Itachi was frustrated by the fact that his slightly older friend couldn’t get the hint that there was more going on than he could say.

They had finally parted after many harsh words, neither wanting to go further than they already had, but neither admitting error. At the time, Itachi was glad that his friend was going on a mission, it would give them both time to think about what was said and to cool their tempers. But a few days later he’d found out how wrong he was to be thankful for that mission.

Itachi squeezed his eyes shut and focused on regulating his breathing, even after all the years that had passed, this memory was still painful.

Shisui’s team had come back, horribly wounded, and dragging Shisui’s mangled body with them. The mission they had gone on had not only been high rank, but high risk. And Shisui had been fatally distracted.

Everyone, everyone but the very youngest in the Uchiha clan blamed Itachi squarely for Shisui’s death, after all if they hadn’t fought, Shisui the Mirage wouldn’t have been distracted. And he had been, the remaining members of the deceased’s team reported it. Shisui had been melancholy and unfocused, often lost so deep in thought that he was caught by surprise by his teammates many times. So the team pointed their fingers at Itachi as the cause, and the rest agreed in blaming him.

But no one blamed him more than he blamed himself. Even now, even now, seven years later, the memory of his death hurts this much. Itachi could clearly remember the funeral. It had been overcast all day, perfectly suiting the elder brother’s mood. Every adult had been shooting him poisonous looks for daring to attend, but Itachi had wanted to pay his respects to the young man he’d loved like an elder brother.

He had stayed after the service and after everyone else but Sasuke had left, loss and pain tearing him apart inside, but he being unable to shed a tear thanks to his conditioning-

-so Sasuke had cried for him, pressed against his leg the entire time, clinging to his hand.

The young ‘genius’ had just stood there staring at the headstone for the longest time, one thought finally coming clear as he stared. If he and I hadn’t fought, he’d have come back. Shisui would still be alive. It really is my fault he’s dead. I’m responsible.

I killed my best friend.

Something had snapped painfully inside his head, making him fall to his knees as the skies finally opened up into a downpour. He probably would have stayed there all night for the pain in head and heart if it hadn’t been for Sasuke. The youngster had started to beg his brother to come back inside and only the knowledge that the child wouldn’t leave him forced Itachi to his feet to lead his brother home.

He had barely made it home, a terrible fever had set in and his mother had sent him straight to bed exclaiming that it was no wonder that he’d gotten ill, staying out in the cold rain as he had. The greater wonder was that Sasuke wasn’t as ill. Itachi was bedridden for two days after that, tormented by the fever and horrible migraine headaches that seemed to come from right behind his eyes. On the third day he had risen, still with a throbbing head, but the pain was finally bearable.

Then he’d looked into his bedroom mirror and had stared in confusion and no little fear as his eyes reshaped themselves into a form he couldn’t recognize.

The phenomena had only lasted for a few brief seconds, but long enough for Itachi to realize that he wasn’t hallucinating. A little careful, secret research in the forbidden clan records reveled what had happened to him.

Mangekyuo Sharingan, a forbidden Sharingan technique that required that the user kill his best friend to unlock it. Because it had such a high price attached to it, it was insanely powerful with no real counter once eye contact had been made. With just a glance he could lock someone in a world of his own making for a few days and torture them until the enemy’s mind or body shut down. Commonly fatal, there were very few records of any kind of survivor. Most died instantly, and the rest died in the following days after being attacked with the Mangekyuo’s Tsukiyomi illusion world.

I didn’t want it then and I still don’t want it now, the price is still too damn high. After learning what he had gained by assuming responsibility and guilt for Shisui’s death, Itachi had seriously considered following his friend in penance. The Hokage’s council had ruled that Itachi was genuinely innocent of the accusation of murder. He had no way of knowing that Shisui would behave in so unprofessional a manner as to allow his personal life to affect his work performance. Few in the Uchiha clan agreed with the council and Itachi himself was one of them.

But he couldn’t kill himself, there was someone who needed him. Sasuke. It was ridiculous, but Sasuke was deemed tainted by his brother’s darkness and was shunned and ridiculed because of it. Itachi was not about to leave his precious little brother to face such hardship by himself, so he therefore had to live. But that didn’t mean he would permit himself to benefit from what Shisui’s death had given him. After deciding to live, he’d vowed to never use the Mangekyuo.

Fat lot of good that vow did. In the years that had followed the brothers’ escape from Konoha, various situations had forced Itachi to break that vow, but never for his own sake. But for Sasuke’s sake, yes, no vow, no guilt was so great that he would not over come or break it so that Sasuke could prosper.

His little brother had asked, once, what eye technique he had used. One cold glare was all it had taken for Sasuke to drop the subject. I should explain it to him soon though, he deserves to know and it’s been long enough. The pain is… more bearable now. But- not now.

Now, they had a secondary interview to get to. Itachi shook himself out of his memories and tapped Sasuke’s shoulder to wake him. His younger brother stretched like a cat before rising, yawning and blinking in a way that would have set the Fan-Girls to squealing. Itachi just snorted and set off for the mansion of their maybe-future-employer, letting Sasuke wake himself up on the walk there.

~*~*~

Sasuke stared up at the imposing edifice of the rich man’s mansion. Well, semi-imposing; the town was relatively small and while it straddled a few trade routes it was still only well-off instead of rich. Therefore, the houses were of modest size with the mansions being similarly modest.

So Sasuke was unimpressed by the building. What did impress him however was one tiny little fact: it was a rental. This guy is so rich he can rent a place like this. With that kind of money he can hire a small army, let alone a few measly guards. So why is he being so fussy over who he hires?

The younger brother knew his older brother had an idea, or three, but Itachi wasn’t sharing. The elder Uchiha had an annoying habit of forcing his little brother to figure things out for himself; so Sasuke was attempting to do that right now. But so far, he was coming up empty handed. He knew that there was something subtly not right about the whole situation, especially concerning the daughter, but he couldn’t tell what precisely it was. There was nothing wrong and certainly not evil, just… off.

Itachi had been pounding on the ornately decorated iron gate the entire time Sasuke was musing, three slams of his fist every two minutes. Finally, a harried and vastly irritated man-servant appeared and glared at them, demanding to know what the heck they were thinking, making such a ruckus.

Itachi responded with his not-glare and calmly stated that they had an appointment with the master an hour before sunset and that since it was ten minutes to that time, could they please be admitted to a place where they could await the master’s audience?

The servant gaped, paled at the not-glare and stammered an incoherent welcome and waved for the brothers to follow. I have got to learn how Nii-san does that, Sasuke thought, envious of his brother’s not-glare. It worked nearly every single time.

The Uchiha sibs were led to small reception office and were told to wait for a few minutes while the master was informed of their presence. Or at least, that was what Sasuke thought the man-servant said since the Uchiha didn’t understand stutter too well. A maid came in a whole thirty seconds later with a tea service, babbled at a patient Itachi and made calf-eyes at him. The older brother toned her out while Sasuke attempted to shoo her away. The not-glare wasn’t used because for some bizarre and annoying reason, it didn’t work on Fan-Girls. They just took it as an admiring stare and would then become even more annoying.

Finally, the man-servant reappeared, hysterically chased off the maid and introduced the rich man, who sat behind the small, functional desk that was in the room. Once the man-servant and the maid finally left, the master, Torimiya Hiroshino got down to business with only the barest of formalities.

As he had stated in the earlier interview, he needed a few reliable bodyguards to escort himself and his young, pretty daughter to some other, as yet unspecified village. Torimiya-san wasn’t expecting trouble, or so he said, but his demeanor revealed quite the opposite. The potential employer was expecting, dreading even, a lot of trouble. Which may be the reason he was being so fussy over who he was hiring.

Most of the guards-for-hire in the area were only basic muscle men, not even of Senior Genin level, which was Sasuke’s level. There were a few who had some basic shinobi skills, but they were rather pathetic as well. Sasuke only knew of one other person in the area who might have been of a higher level than himself, but that man didn’t have the Uchiha’s reputation and he wasn’t even close to being in Itachi’s league.

Which was making Torimiya-san rather nervous. Torimiya-san claimed that he wasn’t on any set schedule. His body language stated that he wanted to leave the area as soon as possible, as quietly as possible and to make as much distance as was humanly feasible. But this wasn’t adding up with anything else that was being revealed.

Torimiya-san wasn’t the kind of man to make enemies; he was a decent human being with a modest share in a prosperous spice trading business. He had been a resident in the area around Hidden Rain, but was of meek enough personality and habit to have not gained any attention. To clarify, he hadn’t made any enemies, nor to have raised any attention when he had moved. In point of fact, Torimiya-san was the kind of person who was born into the world without making a ripple, passed through life without a remark and passed out the same way without anyone really noticing.

He should not have been as nervous as he was; there was no logical reason for it. Which left the cause for this nervousness at his daughter’s doorstep.

Jessinina, when she had been introduced earlier, had at first seemed to be of the same mold as her father. She was a very quiet, shy and polite young thing, around Sasuke’s age. She had a quiet prettiness about her that wouldn’t turn any heads, but would leave the impression that she would go through life being admired for her subtle beauty. Her long hair, which had a tendency to fall around her face demurely, was a shade of black that seemed dark violet. Her eyes, when Sasuke finally saw them, were an intense shade of dark blue. She moved with a fluid grace, she had impeccable manners, although she had a forgivable fault of not putting herself forward. She was a perfect young lady of undeniable quality.

She had one of the highest chakra levels that Sasuke had ever encountered.

Her shyness could more accurately be read as fearful skittishness. Her manners were of a kind that were pounded into young ladies of breeding at a young age, the kind that the ladies in question didn’t dare deviate from least they be punished. Her fluid grace was the type that made your eye’s slide over her because there was nothing really of note. Her prettiness was unremarkable, and there was no ugliness there to be remarked or remembered either. She never put herself forward so you’d never look at her. She was trying to hide in plain sight. And if Sasuke wasn’t looking for anomalies, he wouldn’t have noticed that.

She was the reason that Torimiya-san was so nervous and wanted to leave. Sasuke was willing to bet a year’s worth of earnings on it. But why she had such a high chakra, or why she was so scared as to change her entire demeanor to one of invisibility, he couldn’t say. But he was willing to bet three years of earnings that his brother had a damned good idea.

~*~*~

I’m willing to bet a year’s worth of earnings that this dainty young lady here can no longer be classified as human. Itachi thought, slanting a glance out of the corner of his eye at Jessinina as she glided into the room to sit at her father’s side. And I’m almost willing to bet that these two aren’t even related by blood, or if so, very thinly. Torimiya-san’s features had a ‘type’ cast to them that spoke of a regional ethnicity. The Fire country ‘type’ tended to dark hair and eyes, the Wind country ‘type’ was paler hair and pale eyes. Torimiya-san’s ‘type’ was darkish brown hair and mid- to pale blue colored eyes. Subtly yet significantly different from Jessinina’s coloration.

Then there was the chakra level; Torimiya-san didn’t have one. Typical civilian. Jessinina’s level though… Itachi had sensed its like once, when he had observed the Yondaime’s isan, the Kyuubi’s Jinchuuriki. Jessinina’s power was the same yet wildly different from that. The Jinchuuriki from Konoha had had a sense of tightly restrained violence to him; Jessinina had a feel of calm serenity hidden inside her.

That feel of serenity is what had thrown him at first, but now, on second observation he pinned the feel of her as that of a Jinchuuriki. She just happened to have a surprisingly peaceful demon locked inside her. So after Torimiya-san finished restating his desire for a guard and the cover-story as to why, Itachi brought the conversation over to the real reason.

“You are less concerned of possible bandits than you are of Hunter-nin, is that not correct, Torimiya-sama?” Itachi stated calmly. Torimiya broke out in a fine sweat. “You are worried that someone may come for your ‘daughter’ with the desire to use her as a weapon.”

“Ho-how?” Torimiya stuttered, looking stunned. Jessinina looked torn between terror and resignation. Sasuke was giving him a ‘what the hell are you thinking?!?!’ look.

“I have felt a chakra similar to Jessinina-san’s once before,” he explained, ignoring Sasuke’s sharp look, “and one of the similarities between the two that stands out is that nothing really came of the high level. People were highly fearful of the one I saw in the past, but for no reason. He was a harmless little boy.” Torimiya looked much calmer now, “Your daughter here seems equally harmless, or should I say, un-inclined to harm?”

“Either would be accurate.” The other man said, pulling out a large handkerchief to mop at his face, “Jessi-chan wouldn’t harm a fly,” he beamed fondly at her, “but try explaining that to the (Mizukage or AmeKage). He wanted to use my sweet girl as a weapon of war. But the boy you’re referring to, would that be the child that the Kyuubi bijuu was sealed in?”

Itachi didn’t respond, but he was inwardly kicking himself for letting a clue like that slip.

“So you two really are Uchiha, aren’t you?” Torimiya said without getting a response.

“And your daughter is a Jinchuuriki.” The elder brother finally said. The two men locked eyes for a moment.

“Perhaps… we should start over.” Torimiya-san offered.

“I believe that would be wise.”

~*~*~

“Next time you want to kill me, just stab with a kunai instead of trying to give me a heart attack, would you please?” Sasuke yelled as they exited the mansion over two hours later. It was well into evening now, and the mutual interview was final over. The two brothers were heading back to their room, and Sasuke was ranting. “Gods! What the hell were you thinking? Or were you thinking at all?”

“Gomen ototo, I was acting on a hunch.” Itachi offered sheepishly. Not that anyone who didn’t know him well would notice that he was sheepish.

“No kidding!” The younger brother snapped stalking off ahead of his elder sib. The older Uchiha decided it would be best to let Sasuke steam for a bit and wait until he cooled off. This happened a little sooner than he thought. When they were a block away from the inn, Sasuke paused and half turned to look back at Itachi.

“So, uh, just what is a ‘Jinchuuriki’?” He asked. Itachi blinked.

“That’s right, I never told you that did I?” The elder Uchiha mused out loud, before waving for his brother to follow, “Come, we need to find a safer place to discuss this.” It was Sasuke’s turn to blink, but he followed obediently as Itachi made his way to the other edge of town. The wealthy section of the town was near one end, the inn the brothers were staying in was near the middle and the safe place that the two were going was near the river at the opposite end from the wealthy section.

The river that ran near the town had two branches that converged near it. There was the broad, slow branch that was excellent for trade barges, and a fast, rapids choked branch that came down from the mountains a few miles away. It was towards the rapids choked branch that the brothers headed. If you sat near those, you had to be very close to hear anything, so it was difficult to be spied on if you were as perceptive as the two Uchiha were.

“Well?” Sasuke prompted, calmer now that he was going to get answers. Itachi stared at the river for a moment, collecting his thoughts as he watched the moon rise over the distant mountains and high-light the spraying water.

“First off, you recall hearing about the Kyuubi fox demon that nearly destroyed Konoha, correct?”

“Ye-es,” the pre-teen answered, “The Yondaime killed it, right?”

“Wrong, the demon proved impossible to kill so it was sealed into a human infant.” Sasuke gaped, Itachi nodded and continued, “The infant became a Jinchuuriki, a human sacrifice, and the city was spared. But this only generated another problem. Historically, Jinchuuriki are heavily influence by the demons they harbor, and thus often become dangerously unstable. Further, because they do hold massively powerful demons, they can often wield the demon’s power. Do you see where I’m heading with this?”

“People thought that the kid who held the Kyuubi was going to go insane and kill them all with the Kyuubi’s power.” Sasuke concluded, “But he didn’t, and he hasn’t right? Or else we’d have heard about it.”

“Possibly, but the real reason that the infant hasn’t gone berserk is because it was the Yondaime who made the seal.” Itachi continued, “That man didn’t become Hokage for nothing, he was incredibly powerful and skilled. I had the good fortune to speak with him once and he was a truly brilliant man.” The elder brother’s eyes grew distant and wistful for a moment and Sasuke waited patiently for him to continue.

He did; “Have you ever heard of the Beast of Stone?”

Sasuke shivered a little, and not because of the cool night air. “Hai,”

“That was another Jinchuuriki. The Village of Stone wanted a strong weapon to use against Konoha, so they made a Jinchuuriki, only… they didn’t go about it the right way.” Itachi’s eyes were still distant, but now hard. “I only read accounts of the battle with the thing, but the accounts that the Yondaime wrote were the most descriptive. I am certain that his battle with the creature influenced him when he sealed the Kyuubi. He wouldn’t want to make something like the Beast of Stone.”

“So… Jessinina is one as well, a Jinchuuriki?” Sasuke asked quietly. Itachi glanced over at him and nodded.

“Yes, but one of the ‘good’ kind.” He answered, “Either the demon is well sealed or passive for some reason. I sensed no violence from her.”

“Neither did I,” the pre-teen agreed, “but, if that’s the case, then why is she being hunted? I don’t understand that.”

“Oh? Don’t you? Didn’t you feel her power?”

“Of course!” Sasuke growled indignantly, “But she doesn’t want to fight! It’s not like us, where we’re still getting stronger and actually fighting others. She’s no threat, so why not leave her alone?”

“Ah, but you see, her feelings are irrelevant since she is no longer human under a technical definition. She was made to be a weapon, only one of nine, that is her sole purpose in life and she is not permitted to deviate from it.” Itachi stated. Sasuke made a disgusted sound, making his brother’s lips twitch into a faint grin. “I agree, which is why I agreed to help.”

“Even though it means we have to escort them to the Fire Lands border?” Sasuke near-whined. He remembered what it was like at ‘home’ and he did not ever want to return there. He liked it out here, wandering with his brother; he didn’t want to go back, especially since Itachi wouldn’t be allowed to go with him. Itachi was a Nuke-nin, he had turned his back on his village, and had taken one of Konoha’s precious children with him. Itachi’s life was forfeit if he ever neared the Fire Lands.

“Yes, you heard the part where they are meeting with an escort at the border, didn’t you?”

“That’s not the part I’m worried about! You told him we’re Uchiha! I thought you said that we were never to reveal our clan name!”

Itachi closed his eyes and sighed while Sasuke tried not to squirm on his rock while he glared reproachfully at his brother. “It’s part of the ‘game’. I found out one of their secrets, and in turn gave them one of ours. Torimiya-san can now trust us, since we can’t betray him. If we reveal his daughter’s true nature, he’ll expose us and call the Hunters down on our heads.”

“What’s to keep him from doing that anyway?” The younger brother asked anxiously.

“Because he knows that we’d do the same in turn. If he were to betray us first, we would let the entire village know what Jessinina is and all eyes would be on her and her father. Remember, Jinchuuriki are historically unstable, it is impossibly rare for a kind-hearted one like her to exist. That’s why they want to go to Konoha in the first place; she’ll be tolerated there like she will not be elsewhere.”

“I still don’t like it.” Sasuke grumbled. Itachi rose and ruffled his hair.

“That makes two of us.” He said while he headed back towards town. “Come on, we need to get up early tomorrow. Your guard on your right side is pathetic.”

“Oi! What about your base-guard? It isn’t any better!” Sasuke cried out as he raced after his older brother.

“I have less worry about my feet than I do about your internal organs.”

~*~*~

A few scant miles away, two different beloved family members fretted about much the same topic. Not rear-guards or side-guards, but betrayal and trust, demons and Bloodlines. Torimiya Hiroshino paced the length of his sitting room and sweated; just because he held a counter-secret didn’t mean he trusted the people who knew his.

Jessinina, his niece and only remaining family, sat on a divan by the fire-place and watched her uncle and surrogate father.

“I trust them.” She said, the first words she had uttered all day. Her start in life hadn’t been the kindest, and silence on her part was just one of the symptoms of it. “There is much love between them. Those of evil heart would not have such love.”

“But how can we know?” Torimiya said, spinning to stare at his heart-daughter, “How can we know we can trust them? They betrayed the village that we want to go to, how can we trust them to deliver us there safely? How can we trust them to not betray you?!?”

Jessinina’s eye’s shifted, the pupils widening width-wise, becoming fey and inhuman. The Demon was going to speak now.

“Did not the elder accept my presence with amity?” The she-demon stated in deep, hollow tones. “Did he not guess, and merely react as a tactician given another facet of intelligence? Would he fear and hate my existence, he would not have allowed his treasured younger brother to remain in my presence. The younger was the reason that the elder betrayed the village of their birth. There was no other telling reason.”

Torimiya bowed his head a little fearfully. He’d seen the demon in her true form, once. It was when they were escaping the Hidden Village of Rain, the demon Hachibi, the Ocean Leviathan, had come forth to protect her host and her host’s family. While he loved his sweet, kind, gentle girl, he was terrified of the demon that lived inside her. So he bowed to her judgment.

“If you think that they will help us, I’ll trust you.” He said finally, “I still don’t like it though, I think that they know too much.”

“As do we,” the demon who called herself Jourmund said, “We know their clan name, and I am aware that you are aware of the fact that the Uchiha clan is most eager to reclaim their lost offspring. If these two make but one error, you need but mention their true names to an authority.” The Eight-tailed eel narrowed her borrowed eyes, “And if they become a true threat, I welcome them to deal with me.”

Torimiya stifled a shudder of horror as Jourmund retreated back into her host. He’d seen what the demon could do when she was enraged. The little that she left behind couldn’t be recognized as human… Which made him very grateful that she rarely felt the need to come out. Torimiya much preferred the company of his niece to that of the demon.

~*~*~

A.S.: #clears throat# Ah…. #bows down formally, head on the floor# I am so, so, so Sorry that it took this long for me to get the next chapter out. I know I said that I was going to try for monthly updates… but… well….. Let’s just say that my summer was more hectic than I thought it would be. First off, Fanime. My First Con, WOOT!!! Did anyone go there and see the girl with the griffon on her shoulder? That was me! Skandranon is coming again next year, and he’s going to be my summons and I’m going to be Shikamaru.

Ahem, continuing my list of excuses. Next was a two and half week trip to Yellowstone. I live in California. If anyone has been on a cross-country trip then you know that the headache starts way before you hit the road and lasts long after you get back home.

Next excuse, forty hour work weeks. My boss has gone insane. I opened up my availability and she pounced! I took my laptop with me so that I could work on my fics a little during lunch breaks… But, I’m the only person back in the aquatics section of my store, so I had, and have! a lot of work to do. I’d get home exhausted and would only want to veg out, neglecting my fics. Gomen.

Other excuse. My house got invaded. Just as I was getting used to my work schedule, my psycho east coast aunt uprooted her poor kids and relocated them onto the west coast, namely my house! It only lasted about a week until they moved into their own house, but may I be so bold as to claim that they sapped out the last of my energy? I will. The main problem was that I have five cats and my aunt has four dogs and she also has the attitude that cats are not worthy creatures. Namely, she hates them, so she didn’t really do anything when her dogs chased my cats. She also didn’t care when my sixteen year old cat vanished, just apologized and went about her business.

FOR-TUN-ATLY, my dad and I went looking for my kitty after the invasion left, and we found her. My ancient cat is alive and well if a little skinnier than she had been. I’m still baffled as to how that happened though; I live out in the country and stray small animals like cats are alternately known as coyote crunchies.

Last excuse; Itachi got an ego trip. My muses are my main characters, and Itachi is perhaps the most annoying. Naruto is a lot of fun, as is Heero. Sasuke does his emo-kid thing a lot, but that works for my angsty fics. Shikamaru is a lazy bum, but if I horse-whip him enough he comes up with some great plots. But Itachi! ARG!! The guy’s a hentai!

No, I’m serious! He’s the only real adult muse I have and he wants adult themes! AND he thinks that Shikamaru looks great nude and tied to his bed. I told you the guy’s a hentai! He’s got two stories he wants me to write and he hasn’t stopped poking the back of my head with the outlines since he wrote them up. It’s annoying like you would not believe, so I gave in and wrote out the first chapters. One’s posted on Fanfiction, the other on MediaMiner dot org, due to its heavily mature content. I like my fanfic account, I don’t want to lose due to lack of caution. Anyway, if you like weird pairings and you like yaoi, go check them out, “The Word ‘Traitor’” and “War and Slavery”. If you don’t like Yaoi, or you think Itachi or Shikamaru is soul-bonded to someone else, don’t bother. I won’t force anything on anybody, I’ll give all due warning in all my fics if I’m about to write something controversial.

Now that that’s over with, Ja ne until next time y’all!