Inevitable
Chapter 21

"Pain, we'vecompleted the mission," Itachi reported.

"Good. I'llnotify you when you get a new mission. Now for your chakra-"

"If it isn't toomuch to ask, could you let me and Amejisuto keep some of our chakra so I cancontinue teaching her?"

"Oh yes, you are Ishi's mentor," Pain sighed."Alright, but only half of your chakra. If you try to escape, I willcommand everyone to attack and kill the girl." Itachi nodded and bowedbefore the leader put his hand on him and sucked out his chakra. "Now callher here."

"She's sleeping, Sir.We've travelled without any breaks for the past two days and she isn't used to goingfor that long without resting."

"Fine, I'll go toher myself," Pain walked out of the room with Itachi following closebehind, silently trying to come up with a way to kill someone with the rinneganif he hurt Amejisuto. They got to the room where the brunette was sprawledacross the bed, looking as if she had been knocked out.

The leader of theAkatsuki stretched out his arm and lightly touched the sleeping girl's head,taking slightly less than half her chakra (since she had so much). Itachi watchedlike a guard dog, glaring at the pierced leader until he left the room. He satdown on the bed and ran his fingers through the Ishi's soft hair. She stirredslightly, making him stop, and she rolled onto her side, whimpered a bit andthen fell silent again.

'How can someone so seemingly fragile kill abunch of people so quickly?' hewondered before getting up, taking off his cloak and changing into comfortableclothes that he slept in. ‘Then again, Idon’t look that dangerous either.’ He climbed under the blanket and pulled thegirl close to him, wrapping his arm protectively around her before letting theexhaustion from the sprint back to the base catch up to him.

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"Hey bastard, weshould get some ramen!" Naruto grinned, holding his arms up. "Theglorious Ichiraku’s awaits our return!"

"No, moron. Wehave to report to Lady Tsunade before we do anything," Sasuke rolled hiseyes. "You were prepared to wait another week until you could go to yourprecious Ichiraku’s, so you can wait another ten minutes."

"You do know thatonly one of us has to report to Lady Tsunade, right?" Sakura reminded them,smiling. They had officially become a couple on the mission, and she was gladto see that nothing had changed other than the title.

"That'sright!" Kakashi smiled. "And I am not the right person to do it. Ipromised my friend I would take care of her walrus when I got back. Seeya!" he ran off, leaving the other ninja groaning.

"How the hell couldsomeone get a walrus here? And be able to keepit?!" the rosette yelled after him.

"Sometimes I feellike he's the annoying genin of theteam," Sasuke mumbled.

"What? Makin funof me or somethin?" Naruto challenged, getting in his face.

"You guys, pleasedon't start a fight in the middle of the entrance. There are people around whocould get hurt and them I'm the onewho would have to heal them," Sakura narrowed her eyes. "I'll goreport to Lady Tsunade. You guys can do whatever," she left to the Hokagetower, leaving the boys behind.

The blond turned tohis boyfriend. "So…. Wanna buy me some ramen?"

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"Lady Tsunade,we're back," Sakura knocked on the door to the Hokage's office.

"Come in,Sakura."

The pinkette enteredthe room and could instantly tell that something was wrong. "Did somethinghappen while we were gone?"

"No, I'm juststressed out from all this paperwork. Shizune won't give me any sakeeither," Tsunade half-lied. "Anyways, it's nice to see you so soon. Itake it your mission went well?"

"Yes. There endedup being an assassination attempt on the king but we stopped it. They had thenerve to try to kill us with blow darts! What kind of wimpy strategy isthat?!"

The Hokage listenedintently to the Team Seven mission report, but she couldn't help but wonderabout the Uchiha family spreading the word that Itachi and Amejisuto had joinedthe Akatsuki. Sasuke was smart enough to be able to figure something was wrongand poor Mikoto would probably crack under the pressure of her son asking wherethe two really were. Sasuke wouldtell Naruto, and Naruto would tell the whole village, over-react and try torescue them himself. That would be terrible due to the main purpose of theAkatsuki being to take the tailed beasts from the jinchuriki.

"But in the end,Sasuke ended up chidori-ing their asses and they all died, so we couldn't bringback the leader like you requested," Sakura finished.

"That’s alright.Thank you, you are dismissed," Tsunade said. She somehow managed to heareverything the younger woman had said even in her little world of worries.

"Lady Tsunade,"Shizune walked into the office. "Sai has been going around asking peopleif he could have their daughters."

Sakura sighed,clenching her fists. She looked ahead with fire in her eyes as she ran out ofthe room. "I'm going to kill him! He's such an idiot!"

"We don't have toworry about him for much longer," the Hokage smirked.

"Uh... We shouldworry that he might die," the assistant said.

"It's alright, wecan count on Sakura to patch him up. If she doesn't... Well… Even though hedoesn't know better, it might be a good thing for him to learn his lesson."

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"Father, mother,I'm back," Sasuke called as he entered his home. He had been with Narutofor the past hour and had (reluctantly) bought him over forty bowls of ramen.It was a good thing that the mission they were on had great pay, otherwise hewould probably be broke by now.

"Welcome home,"Mikoto ran to the entrance and hugged her son. "Your father is in ameeting right now and won't be back till later."

"Is Ameji around?I wanna talk to her about something that happened on my mission," he saidwith slight excitement.

Mikoto's gaze turnedslightly sad. "No, she and your brother are out on a… Mission… Of theirown."

"When will theybe back?" Sasuke asked, slightly suspicious. Usually when they were on amission, his mother didn't seem so withdrawn. "Or are they not coming backat all?"

"Oh, no they willcome back. It's just that no one knows how long the mission will take. Not eventhe Hokage," she mumbled the last part.

"What kind ofmission is it?"

"Well, you couldsay that it's like a spying mission from the inside. If you ever see themoutside of the village, don't blow their cover, all right?"

"Understood, mother,"Sasuke nodded. "So, do you want to hear about my mission?"

The mood was instantlylighter as Mikoto made a small snack of various vegetables, including abouteight different types of tomatoes which her son greedily snatched up while hetold her about the three weeks that he was gone.

While he wasexplaining what happened and how he pretty much killed all the assassins, hemade a small plan to get more details of Itachi and Amejisuto's mission, if iteven was one at all. The Uchiha womansaw the mischievous gleam in his eye and instantly got worried, wondering whohe would try to pry information from first.

Yes, she knew him wellenough to notice he was planning something. He was her son after all.

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"Aah, anothermeal mooched," Naruto patted his stomach, happy that he still had everypenny of his earnings from the mission, unlike Sasuke. He walked down crowdedstreets towards his home, greeting people as he walked. He reached theapartment and opened the door, expecting nothing but his furniture, some dustand the faint smell of ramen to greet him.

"Hey Naruto, longtime no see," an old man with long white hair greeted, sitting on theblond’s couch and eating some of his precious ramen.

"Pervy Sage!"Naruto cried with mixed excitement and shock. "You're back from yourtrip!"

"Way to state theobvious," Jiraiya chuckled. "I got a lot of… research in while I was out." The kitsune shook his head andsighed, knowing not to even bother lecturing the man about his peeping habit.The sannin held out the ramen. "Want some?"

"No, I just got aton of bowls of ramen at Ichiraku's," he yawned. "And I'm kindatired. I'm going to sleep soon. Haven't got a good rest since we left theking's castle," he joked slightly.

"Aw, so youwouldn't have enough energy for a quick match?" Naruto's eyes sparkled inexcitement, and the toad sage smirked, knowing he had caught his student's attention.

"Let's go, PervySage! I've wanted to prove that I've surpassed you for a long time!"

"Alright, let mefinish this ramen and we can head to the training grounds," Jiraiyaslurped down the last of the noodles, vegetables and broth before clasping hishands together in a seal. "The training grounds in Mount Myōboku, of course," hevanished with a poof of smoke.

"Notfair!" The blond performed a few hand seals and disappeared too,teleporting himself to the mountain of powerful creatures.

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"Nngh...Itachi?" Amejisuto mumbled sleepily. He didn't answer, instead his hold onher tightened, making her notice he had his arms snugly wrapped around hertorso and his head was nestled into her shoulder. This wasn't the first timeshe woke up like this, but it wasn't often that it happened. "Itachi," she whispered, trying tonudge him a bit.

"Hn?"He mumbled.

"Whendid we get back?"

"Yesterday.Go back to sleep, you sound tired still," he said, making her realise thatshe did feel exhausted.

"Mkay,"she yawned. "Let me roll over."

Heopened his arms, allowing her to move. She turned over and moved down a bit,putting her arms up slightly and snuggling up to him. "Ok, continuehugging me." He wrapped his arms around her again and buried his face inher hair, kissing the top of her head.

"Goodnightagain," he smiled. His response was her pressing closer and nuzzling hisarm and then falling asleep. "Aah, I love you," he mumbled beforedrifting off once more.