Inevitable
Chapter 20

"Lady Tsunade! Wejust got a letter from the Kazekage!" Shizune rushed in the Hokage'soffice, waving a yellow piece of paper.

"Alright, let mesee what he wants this time,"the blonde woman rolled her eyes, taking the letter. The assistant watched asthe older woman's expression turned from neutral to slightly worried with aslight tinge of relieved. "Amejisuto and Itachi are alright. Gaara hastalked with them a bit. They're on a mission to the land of waves toassassinate a rogue ninja, so thankfully they aren't part of the tailed beastcapture squads. At least, not yet."

"That's goodnews!" Shizune said, picking up Tonton, the Hokage's pet pig, and givingher a big hug.

"Ooink," thepig protested.

"Yamato!"Tsunade called. The wood-style user appeared before her in a flash; he wasguarding the door.

"Yes, Lady Hokage?"

"Go tell AmejisutoIshi’s mother and Itachi Uchiha’s parents that their children are alright andare just doing regular ninja missions with the Akatsuki for now," shedemanded.

"Of course."He disappeared.

"Since no harmseems to have come to them, it's probably safe to bet that they'll be going onmissions freely but are being watched by the other member of the Akatsuki. Weneed to work on a plan for getting them out," Tsunade turned serious,thinking hard. "Shizune!"

"Y-yes, Lady Tsunade?"

"Go get meShikamaru and Shikaku. I need their sharp minds immediately!"

"O-okTsunade," the assistant bowed and ran out of the room, almost forgettingto leave Tonton behind.

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Itachi opened his eyesdrowsily, still worn out from the day before. It was so much emotional traumato endure; even more than when his cousin got killed. He stared at the ceiling,wondering what would happen to him if his love died. Would he bother to go onliving? 'Well, either way, we can't lether die, now can we,' he thought.

He looked over. If hehadn't sensed her, the closeness of the Ishi would've startled him. The smallroom they rented was the last one available due to the others being taken byother tourists, which surprised him because he never imagined a town like thiswould be a place where people would want to vacation at. The room they got onlyhad one bed, but they were used to sleeping together. When they first gotcaptured, Amejisuto would be too sad and restless to sleep alone, and iteventually became a habit.

The Uchiha suddenlyremembered their mission and sat up quickly. "Ameji, you have to wake up,"he said softly.

"Huh?" shewoke up slowly. She went to rub the sleep out of her eyes but whimpered inpain.

"Somethingwrong?"

"My arms hurtalmost as bad as when they were dislocated," she groaned.

Itachi sighed."Try taking a bath in the hot springs. It might help relax yourmuscles," he suggested, wincing in empathy when the girl slowly got up,biting back a scream of pain as she gathered her torn clothes and put them in agarbage.

"Good thing youpacked a bunch of clothes that were ready for summoning," she smiled,going to the suitcase that he'd summoned the night before and picking out moreninja clothes. "By the way, how can you summon inanimate objects? Isn't ita jutsu only for animal contractors?"

"It's more of ateleportation technique. The fourth Hokage had the best and quickest, but heshared the main aspects of the jutsu with the village. Only a few ninja can useit, like weapon users such as Tenten, or some of the other ninja. You've usedit too, but I guess you thought there was a difference between sending thingsby teleportation and summoning them," he explained.

"Oh, I never knewthat. I guess you learn something every day," she jerked in pain as shealmost shrugged. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be painfully walking tothe hot springs."

"I'll come withyou. Well, at least till you have to separate. I think it's best to not put anyunnecessary strain on your arms," he took the clothes she picked out andopened the door. Amejisuto sighed and walked out of the room. Itachi locked thedoor and they were off to the baths.

"This time, it'sa public bath," Amejisuto joked, remembering her birthday mission.

"Not a unisexbath, right?"

"No. If it was, Iwouldn't be fine with going," they reached the doors to the baths.

"I might justtake one myself," Itachi said, feeling the comforting heat radiating fromthe doors. "Go straight to the room after. Don't talk to anyone, don'tlook at anyone, and please don't be captured by anyone," he instructed.

"I'm not a child!You don't need to tell me this again.But okay, I'll see you later," she took her clothes and walked off.

The Uchiha smiled andshook his head, walking into the men's bath. They both got cleaned, refreshedand relaxed. The girl’s arms didn't heal completely, but they didn't feel as sore.The pain that remained could be put aside in her mind, since it was nowbearable. She got back to the room and knocked on the door since Itachi had theonly key. Thankfully, he was already in the room and fully dressed.

"Let’s go getsome food and then we can get going. What do you want to eat?" he asked,tying his hair back in its usual style.

"How about somepork gyoza? I'm kinda craving that right now," she answered.

"Ok, I'll sendthe suitcase back and then we can eat," he grabbed the clothes she washolding and stuffed it with the cloaks, headbands and the rest of the spareclothes before writing down a new transportation formula (in case someone elsetried to summon it from the old one) and sent it back to their room in theAkatsuki hideout.

They were dressedcasually, as not to be immediately noticed as ninja by the enemy. Amejisuto hada loose purple top with sleeves that slid off of the shoulders and a long, blueskirt with black sandals and a black purse, and Itachi had a dark blue shirtand black pants with his normal ninja footwear. "Do I look tourist-yenough?" Ameji asked.

"Yes. What aboutme?" Itachi replied.

"It looks normal.At least you didn't wear bright red and yellow flower-printed clothes,"she giggled.

They hid smallerweapons in their clothes and left the room. They found a close restaurant andate while they discussed their plan. They had to use normal civilian talk todisguise the plan to kill so they wouldn't be found out.

"Once we reachour next destination, we should replace Usui. He probably didn't hear that we werecoming to visit yet, so let's surprise him," Itachi started.

"Do you think hewould be home alone? That would make things so much easier," Amejisutomunched on her gyoza.

"He's a prettypopular guy. He throws parties a lot but it would be easy replaceing him in thecrowd."

"I'll let youtalk to him first since he gets more relaxed around you, alright?"

"Alright, but ifhe starts talking about something uncomfortable, interrupt us."

"It would beweird if he started talking to me first. I get too caught up in ourconversations and scare him away. You wouldn't get a chance to talk," shesmiled.

Translation:

"When we get there, we haveto search as quickly as we can. I doubt he's expecting us."

"Do you think he has guards?That would be more difficult than necessary."

"He probably does, but itwould be easy to get through them."

"You should put him in agenjutsu or something first, alright?"

"Yes, but if he dispels it,attack."

"He would run if he saw methere too at first so I'll stick to the shadows. Otherwise, you wouldn't getthe chance to cast a genjutsu."

They quickly finishedoff their meal and left the area. "It's the next town over, right?"Amejisuto recalled.

"Yes, we willprobably be there in ten or so minutes. It would normally take us two if wewere running but we should stick with our civilian disguises," Itachiinformed, sighing slightly with impatience.

"Well if we mustact like civilians and walk normally," she inched closer to him and shylytook his hand. "We can at least act like a normal couple."

"We're acouple?" he asked, hoping for the more favorable answer.

"The whole pointof dating is to replace someone who has qualities you would want in a husband orwife, so since we are getting married anyway, technically we are dating rightnow." She looked down to try to hide her massive blush with her hair."And if anyone suspects anything at first, they'll see we're holdinghands. Ninja don't usually do that, especially on missions."

Itachi could feel hisface heat up slightly too. "That's some very interesting thinking. Goodplan," he squeezed her hand slightly. She smiled and squeezed back. Theywalked quietly to the next town, enjoying the sights and sounds of thedifferent land. It was no wonder the Land of Waves was a popular tourist place;it was beautiful!

They got to the townand immediately looked around for a huge house like the victims they killedyesterday told them.

Huge was anexaggeration.

Castle might've suitedit better.

"He definitelyhas security," Itachi sighed. "If he doesn't, he's an arrogantfool."

"Well let's hopehe's an arrogant fool because it's time to go kill him and we don't needdistractions."

"You go from theback, I'll take the front. Try to stay in the shadows as much as you can - Iwant the attention on me," Itachi instructed. "By the way, I wasthinking about something last night."

"What?"

"I think Ifigured out Pain's jutsu to contact everyone at once," Amejisuto looked athim oddly as he put his palm on her forehead. His eyes closed and he started toconcentrate. His palm started glowing slightly, and she felt his chakra seepinginto her.

"Did it work? Can you hear me?" His voice echoed through her mind.

"How are youdoing that?"

He pulled his handaway. "Just focus on gathering some chakra in your hand and imaginepushing it into my head," he instructed. She did as told and put her palmon his face.

"This is so cool!" she thought.

"Yah, but itunnecessarily drains chakra so we should only use it when it's an emergency,like if one of us is captured or almost killed. We shouldn't even make ourescape plans like that, since Lady Tsunade probably is planning a way for us toget out," he whispered the last part just in case someone from theAkatsuki (like Zetsu) was listening in. “I also don’t know if anyone else couldintercept it or not.”

"Ok. This is soawesome though," she squealed.

"We should finishour mission. I'll contact you later," he ran off to the front. Amejisutosmiled and walked sneakily to the back, watching out for guards. She ran in and hid behind walls, looking around cautiously as she movedthrough the house.

"He's probably upstairs,"she mumbled to herself. She was in a large foyer that had some pillars on thesides that she hid behind as she ran swiftly and silently through the mansion."Isn't this supposed to be the backof the place? Why is there a foyer?" There was a huge stairway in themiddle of the large room and she prayed that no one would see her as she ran upthem. Well, whoever she prayed to decided not to listen because the next thingshe knew, she was surrounded by three heavily muscled men.

"Who are you andwhat are you doing here?" one of them asked.

"I don't havetime for this," she sighed.

"Too bad. A punygirl like you won't stand a chance against us," another said.

"Brains beforebrawn," she winked playfully. 'Mightas well have a bit of fun. I haven't done this since being on missions withTeam Seven.'

"Are you implyingyou're smarter than us?" the last guy said.

"Oh much smarter.And prettier. And more talented," one of the guys screamed in rage andcharged at her. She performed a few hand seals and he was suddenly surroundedby ten shadow clones, who all took out kunai knives and started attacking himwith speed that the man couldn't follow.

Soon, he was lying ina pool of blood, dead. Amejisuto laughed slightly before gathering her clonesto attack the other two who weren't expecting a girl like her to be able totake down the toughest of them. They were caught off guard due to shock. In afew seconds, one other man joined the first and the brunette was left alone(she had dispelled her clones) with the last man. "How many other guardsare there?" she demanded.

"A-about twentyor so," he stuttered.

"Thank you,"she smiled before slicing his neck with the kunai. He fell to the ground withthe other guards and Ameji sighed. "Another few people dead by my hands...I wonder if killing them is the right thing to do. That first one though… Ugh,‘strong’ men and their fragile ego’s."

She faced a few moremen along the way, and the last one told her where Maku was hiding before shekilled him too. He was in the very top room, probably relying solely on his'strong' guards. She figured Itachi was already in there, and she ran to them,still cautious just in case another guard popped up.

The door was wide openand she could see that the man that looked exactly like the picture they gotfrom Pain was on the floor already. She was right when guessing the Uchiha wasalready there. Maku suddenly got up and smirked. Amejisuto hid behind the doorand peeked slightly into the room, making sure the target couldn't see her.

"You have someimpressive skills, Uchiha, but there's only one of you. If there were more,maybe you could defeat me," Maku chuckled evilly. The Ishi shrugged andrushed in at blinding speed, doing the same as she had done to the guards byslitting his throat. He was dead within three seconds, and the mission wasfinally over.

“I think arrogance isthe last thing that people need,” Ameji sighed. “I swear, I killed so manyguards that thought they could overpower me just because I’m not muscular inlike three seconds.”

“Yah, pride comesbefore a massive fall, but it’s the only thing people like this are good at,”Itachi agreed. “Let’s go back now. We only have a few days so we should hurry.”They left the mansion and started on their way back to the base where theywould be held captive once again.