Inevitable

"Lady Tsunade! We just got a letter from the Kazekage!" Shizune rushed in the Hokage's office, waving a yellow piece of paper.

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

"That's good news!" Shizune said, picking up Tonton, the Hokage's pet pig, and giving her a big hug.

"Ooink," the pig protested.

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

"Yes, Lady Hokage?"

"Go tell Amejisuto Ishi’s mother and Itachi Uchiha’s parents that their children are alright and are just doing regular ninja missions with the Akatsuki for now," she demanded.

"Of course." He disappeared.

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

"Y-yes, Lady Tsunade?"

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

"O-ok Tsunade," the assistant bowed and ran out of the room, almost forgetting to leave Tonton behind.

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Itachi opened his eyes drowsily, still worn out from the day before. It was so much emotional trauma to 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 on living? 'Well, either way, we can't let her die, now can we,' he thought.

He looked over. If he hadn't sensed her, the closeness of the Ishi would've startled him. The small room they rented was the last one available due to the others being taken by other tourists, which surprised him because he never imagined a town like this would be a place where people would want to vacation at. The room they got only had one bed, but they were used to sleeping together. When they first got captured, Amejisuto would be too sad and restless to sleep alone, and it eventually became a habit.

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

"Huh?" she woke up slowly. She went to rub the sleep out of her eyes but whimpered in pain.

"Something wrong?"

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

Itachi sighed. "Try taking a bath in the hot springs. It might help relax your muscles," 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 a garbage.

"Good thing you packed 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 more ninja clothes. "By the way, how can you summon inanimate objects? Isn't it a jutsu only for animal contractors?"

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

"Oh, I never knew that. I guess you learn something every day," she jerked in pain as she almost shrugged. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be painfully walking to the hot springs."

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

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

"Not a unisex bath, right?"

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

"I might just take one myself," Itachi said, feeling the comforting heat radiating from the doors. "Go straight to the room after. Don't talk to anyone, don't look 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 and shook his head, walking into the men's bath. They both got cleaned, refreshed and 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 now bearable. She got back to the room and knocked on the door since Itachi had the only key. Thankfully, he was already in the room and fully dressed.

"Let’s go get some 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 some pork gyoza? I'm kinda craving that right now," she answered.

"Ok, I'll send the suitcase back and then we can eat," he grabbed the clothes she was holding and stuffed it with the cloaks, headbands and the rest of the spare clothes before writing down a new transportation formula (in case someone else tried to summon it from the old one) and sent it back to their room in the Akatsuki hideout.

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

"Yes. What about me?" Itachi replied.

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

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

"Once we reach our next destination, we should find Usui. He probably didn't hear that we were coming to visit yet, so let's surprise him," Itachi started.

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

"He's a pretty popular guy. He throws parties a lot but it would be easy finding him in the crowd."

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

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

"It would be weird if he started talking to me first. I get too caught up in our conversations and scare him away. You wouldn't get a chance to talk," she smiled.

Translation:

"When we get there, we have to 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 it would be easy to get through them."

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

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

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

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

"Yes, we will probably be there in ten or so minutes. It would normally take us two if we were running but we should stick with our civilian disguises," Itachi informed, sighing slightly with impatience.

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

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

"The whole point of dating is to find someone who has qualities you would want in a husband or wife, so since we are getting married anyway, technically we are dating right now." 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 holding hands. Ninja don't usually do that, especially on missions."

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

They got to the town and immediately looked around for a huge house like the victims they killed yesterday told them.

Huge was an exaggeration.

Castle might've suited it better.

"He definitely has security," Itachi sighed. "If he doesn't, he's an arrogant fool."

"Well let's hope he's an arrogant fool because it's time to go kill him and we don't need distractions."

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

"What?"

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

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

"How are you doing that?"

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

"This is so cool!" she thought.

"Yah, but it unnecessarily 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 our escape plans like that, since Lady Tsunade probably is planning a way for us to get out," he whispered the last part just in case someone from the Akatsuki (like Zetsu) was listening in. “I also don’t know if anyone else could intercept it or not.”

"Ok. This is so awesome though," she squealed.

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

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

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

"I don't have time for this," she sighed.

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

"Brains before brawn," she winked playfully. 'Might as well have a bit of fun. I haven't done this since being on missions with Team Seven.'

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

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

Soon, he was lying in a pool of blood, dead. Amejisuto laughed slightly before gathering her clones to attack the other two who weren't expecting a girl like her to be able to take down the toughest of them. They were caught off guard due to shock. In a few 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 guards are there?" she demanded.

"A-about twenty or so," he stuttered.

"Thank you," she smiled before slicing his neck with the kunai. He fell to the ground with the 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 more men along the way, and the last one told her where Maku was hiding before she killed 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 open and she could see that the man that looked exactly like the picture they got from Pain was on the floor already. She was right when guessing the Uchiha was already there. Maku suddenly got up and smirked. Amejisuto hid behind the door and peeked slightly into the room, making sure the target couldn't see her.

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

“I think arrogance is the last thing that people need,” Ameji sighed. “I swear, I killed so many guards that thought they could overpower me just because I’m not muscular in like three seconds.”

“Yah, pride comes before 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 they would be held captive once again.