Inevitable

"For today's training exercise, you will follow Kakashi around for an hour without being detected. Every time he notices you is another 'hour' in my genjutsu after," Itachi instructed. Amejisuto nodded and took off, concealing her chakra once she saw her ex-leader. He went into a book store and came out a few minutes later with yet another book from the Icha-Icha series. Next, he went to the store, buying a few bags of groceries that went to waste when he dropped them and ran over to a poster.

"ICHA-ICHA TACTICS IS BEING MADE INTO A MOVIE!" he yelled happily, skipping oddly down the streets to his house, forgetting about the food he had bought. The Ishi hid in the trees as she followed the silver-haired Jonin across the town, stopping at his house. "Hey Ameji, what are you doing up there?" he asked, looking quizzingly up at her. She silently cursed. She had been distracted by a squirrel.

"Well, you caught me,” she mumbled, hopping out of the tree. "Thanks a lot, Kakashi. I have to spend an hour in Itachi's genjutsu now."

Kakashi smirked. "I bet he'll find a reason to excuse you from that punishment, or at least give you the least horrible jutsu he has stored."

"True, he has never really punished me and I've been his student for over three months," she agreed.

"And I have a pretty good idea of why," the copy-nin winked. Or blinked. It was hard to tell when his headband was always covering his transplanted sharingan eye.

"I probably know what you're thinking, and don't even go there. There is no way that someone like him likes me like that. Sakura and my cousin already teased me about that."

"Is it too much pressure? Too awkward to think about?"

"No, nothing like that," the Ishi sighed, hoping he would take the hint and stop intruding on her personal thoughts.

"Don't you like him?" she felt like she was being smothered in questions, making her uncomfortable.

"I..."

"Or are you scared of what might happen if he ever actually said it?"

"..."

"So I see you got caught," Itachi interrupted, coming into the clearing from the forest and saving his student from curling up in a ball and trying to hide from the probing questions. He noticed her uneasiness and glared at Kakashi. "What did you say to her?"

"Oh nothing, just trying to dig into her mind," the Jonin shrugged half-heartedly before walking off.

"Are you alright?" Itachi looked down at Amejisuto.

"Yah, but I feel like I was just interrogated by Ibiki," she murmured.

"Well, since you're not at your best in the mental state, I won't use my jutsu-"

"No, please do it. I got caught. If it was a real mission, my punishment might be death," she pleaded. The ANBU member sighed in defeat. He was hoping he would never have to use such a jutsu on her. He activated his sharingan. "Look into my eyes," he ordered, regretting even considering using the tsukuyomi as a punishment. She gazed into his eyes, got trapped in the jutsu, whimpered, and collapsed after a second.

Inside the jutsu, the sky turned red and the scenery was different shades of black and white. She was tied up to a pole and people she didn't know were surrounding her, asking terrible questions and trying to dig into her mind, making her feel exposed and unprotected. She was tempted to cry out for Itachi and was shocked when she realised that she came to rely on him too much in the past three months.

Sure, she knew he would probably be there for her for a while, but what about when the training was over? Would she be lost without him? Had she gotten too used to relying on him to be by her side? The people kept taunting her and she couldn't move. An hour of it was terrible. She wanted to cry but found that she had no tears. 'This wouldn't be as bad as getting killed or physical torture,' she thought to keep her sanity as stable as she could.

The genjutsu world faded away to black. Her eyes flickered open and her room came in focus, and so did the man who sent her into the jutsu. He was sitting over her while she was tucked in her bed. "Was it too much?” he looked very concerned.

"I pity those who get caught in worse ones and for more than an hour," she chuckled weakly.

"It's only an illusion. In reality, it's only one second before you collapse. Some people get trapped for several hours," he informed.

"Well you Uchihas are famous for genjutsu, so I'm not too surprised. How long have I been out?"

"Only about twenty minutes. This one time, I was sparring with Sasuke and trapped him in there for over a day. It took him almost a week to wake up," Itachi shook his head, disappointed in himself for being so harsh. There were a few minutes of silence before the Ishi spoke.

"So is there any more training today?"

"No, your mind and body need to rest. You're not used to that jutsu, and it takes time to recover," Itachi got up and Amejisuto slid out of the bed, wobbling slightly. The raven held out his arm and stabilised her. She clutched onto his arm, feeling like a helpless child who was still learning to walk. They managed to get to the back garden for some peace and quiet. And tea.

"Itachi, why are you just sitting around? You've been slacking off on your duties as a sensei," Fugaku interrupted their rest time.

"I'm sorry, Lord Fugaku, it's my fault. I'll get back to learning right away," Amejisuto tried to get up but fell over. The Uchiha leader looked slightly worried, which was unusual due to his normally-stoic composure.

"It was her first time in the tsukuyomi," his son explained.

"How long did you put her in for?"

"Only an hour."

"And this was her fist time? Itachi, training doesn't do much without punishment when something goes wrong," Fugaku said in a disappointed tone. "You're being too nice."

"Kurenai-sensei doesn't punish her students much either," Amejisuto defended. "And Kiba, Hinata and Shino have turned into great ninja." She crawled back on the porch weakly.

"Yes, well the Uchiha techniques of teaching are different."

"Yes, father, but she has to rest today. Her chakra drained quite a bit from trying to escape the genjutsu," Itachi stated. His father nodded and grunted before walking off. The younger Uchiha turned to his student. "Now, consider these first three months as just a warm up. You’ve mastered the jutsu you showed me when you first got here; you're ready to take on some high level Uchiha jutsu."

The brunette smiled and clenched her face in determination. "Give me all ya got!"

"Don't get too hot-blooded," Itachi smirked. "You don't want to end up like Lee and Guy-sensei."

"Ew! I'd rather go in the tsukuyomi than be like them. Their brows are so huge and fuzzy they're almost alive!!"

They both laughed and kept sipping tea while enjoying the silence and beauty of the garden.

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"There's nowhere left to run, two-tails," Hidan smirked in victory. A blonde woman with long hair in a braid was backed into a corner, panting from running and fighting for so long. Her blue clothes matched the liquid that started to cover her as she transformed into a blue two-tailed leopard.

"You will never capture me! I will fight and win for Kirigakure!" She growled.

"Don't count on it," Kakuzu stepped out of the shadows of the sewer they were in, releasing a bunch of wires and effectively restraining the girl. Hidan stepped forward and cut her shallowly with his scythe, licking her blood off of his weapon. His skin turned black with white shadows, like a discolored skeleton, and he drew a triangle out of his own blood, stepping in the middle. The two-tails cloak was gone, leaving a frustrated blonde back in human form.

The albino stabbed himself in the gut, making the woman cry out and lean over in pain. Whatever the Jashinist did to himself, she would get the same injury. He kept adding cuts and blows until she was half dead and couldn't move before releasing his jutsu and becoming bored again. "I want to sacrifice her. It's been a while," he whined, knowing he couldn’t have her.

"We need her alive for the extraction and she will be dead after. You can stay behind and find a suitable candidate, but make sure to not spend any money on anything," Kakuzu said, picking up the jinchuriki and carrying her over his shoulder. "Pain won't be happy if you're late though, so hurry up."

They left the sewer and split up. The immortal man went into the city to find someone to sacrifice for his god, Jashin, and the old money-obsessed man went straight to the hideout. Once he got there, he found most of the members gathered in the main meeting room. "Where's Hidan?" ‘Tobi’ chirped.

"He's doing a stupid ritual for his stupid god again, right?" Kisame snickered.

"It's a good thing he can't die, otherwise I would've killed him by now," Kakuzu grumbled.

"Well he can be informed of this when he gets here," Pain said. "I have an announcement about the plan to capture Itachi Uchiha." He paused for dramatic effect but ended up getting lost in thought. Konan nudged him after a while, making him straighten up. "I will let Zetsu explain what he has learned first."

The odd plant-man came out of the ground dramatically while the other members stayed unimpressed. He did that all the time, making them wonder if he even had legs. The dark half spoke first. "Itachi Uchiha is kind, wise, and a prodigy, making him one of the most powerful ninja in history due to his already advanced clan. He is also the next leader of the Uchihas, so he is respected and admired. He is also one whose disappearance would make a huge impact due to these factors.

Ever since he joined ANBU at eleven years of age, I had been ordered to observe him and find out his weaknesses. At first I thought it would be his clan or his title, but he views his village a home, rather than just his clan, unlike other Uchihas, meaning if his clan was murdered, he would still stay.

I then thought his weakness would be his brother, Sasuke, who adored him so much, but if something happened to Sasuke, his whole clan would chip in in helping. I got frustrated and almost gave up on my mission, but then I noticed something odd. There were two people who weren't his superiors that he couldn't say 'no' to. His cherished brother and his current apprentice, Amejisuto Ishi."

"I thought that she had only just asked him to be her sensei. They had a history?" Hidan asked.

"Whoa! When did you get here, yeah?" Deidara asked.

"Oh, right when the plant freak stated talking. I couldn't find any good candidates in that town."

"Anyways, please continue Zetsu," Konan said. White Zetsu spoke next.

"Amejisuto and Sasuke were friends in pre-school and the academy. Since they hung out a lot, Itachi was usually there to supervise. I watched as Itachi stopped being a chaperone and started spending time with them and not just because of his brother, whom he could never say no to ever since he was born. I noticed that whenever the young Ishi would ask something of him, he did it, even if it was something that made him look ridiculous, ranging from piggy-back rides to taking her and Sasuke for snacks.

Over time, they all separated. She was assigned to Team Four, Sasuke was in Team Seven, and Itachi spent his time doing month-long missions. He even started to distance himself from Sasuke, always making excuses when he asked Itachi to teach him new things, but on the rare occasions that Amejisuto still asked him for something, he wouldn't hesitate to say yes. I recently realised that he has loved her for almost ten years, and is currently in love with her. Unfortunately, it's affecting her training, though he's been called out on being too nice, so he is probably going to train her harder."

Pain stepped forward. "So basically, she is his greatest weakness. Itachi would rather the village be destroyed than anything to happen to her. Our plan is to wait until she is unguarded and weak after an intense training session and capture her. She will be held here as our prisoner and the only way to keep her safe would be for him to join the Akatsuki."