Weeping Samurai | Uchiha Itachi [Editing]

Chapter 8: Reality

Shiro's face was scrunched up in anger, rage even, before she stormed off into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.

“Oi,” Kisame chuckled, crossing his arms across his chiseled chest. “She's going to be a handful isn't she, Itachi-san?”

“You're only making it worse for her,” Itachi said from one of the two beds. “And she's right when she says her insanity isn't her fault.”

“Why are we even making her tag along?” Kisame growled as he went and plopped down on the second bed. “Surely it really isn't for the reason you proposed to her. What was it...? Protecting our bodies while we're extracting the Bijuu, right?”

Itachi just grunted in agreement.

“That was just a simple excuse for bringing her along,” Itachi murmured as he shed his thick Akatsuki cloak and tossed it to the side. “Leader-sama actually gave us a mission to escort her safely to him in the Land of Rain.”

“Wouldn't we be passing right by it if we continue on to the Land of Rice Paddies?” Kisame scoffed as he too took off his cloak. “What an inconvenience.”

“Didn't you read the mission papers Konan-san gave us?” Itachi sighed in exasperation. “It said specifically to bring her to the Land of Rain at whatever cost. Seeing that her face is in every Bingo Book there is out there, even though she is not a ninja, I had to take extreme precautions in making the deal with her. If I had told her we were escorting her to the leader of the Akatsuki, she certainly wouldn't have come along with us.”

“You could have just set her under your genjutsu,” the larger shinobi muttered as he yawned. “Don't you always do that?”

“She was under my genjutsu,” Itachi murmured simply. “She tried swiping at us, and she even caught my sleeve with Raiha.”

“She tried attacking us?” Kisame laughed. “What a foolish little girl.”

“Little girl,” Itachi muttered darkly. “She's twenty-one.”

“Twenty-one?!” Kisame bellowed a little too loudly.

Itachi just shook his head, leaning back onto the bed.

“You really don't read the mission papers, do you?”

Kisame's lip twitched as he growled at his partner, flickering his beady eyes up to stare at the ceiling.

“When's Deidara and Sasori going to capture the Ichibi already?” he scoffed. “I hear they're going to start as soon as possible.”

“So you don't bother to read the papers for your own mission,” Itachi said, smirking, “but you manage to poke your own nose into other people's tasks?”

“Urusai!” the large shinobi boomed.

“What are you up to now?” Shiro muttered as she walked out of the bathroom, a thick cloud of white steam emerging with her from the door.

“Akatsuki matters,” Kisame rolled his eyes as he sighed. “You're lucky you don't get to deal with all of this stuff, Musei-san.”

“Please.” Shiro tightened the ribbon on her waist as she blinked at the ninja swordsman. “Call me by my first name.”

“So you prefer “Shiro-chan,” eh?” Kisame chuckled teasingly. “How cute.”

Shiro averted her eyes, her character completely turning one-eighty from when she had just threatened him.

“It's been such a long time since I've heard my own name,” Shiro breathed, blinking her narrowed black eyes. “All I ever hear now is that name.”