I Want You For Myself (Sasuke/Itachi Romance)

32. The Hunt For Toyonashi

I woke up to the sound of Kisame's nagging voice as he shook my shoulder to wake up. "Get up kid, we need to leave. We've got work to do."

The morning to me seemed like a fast blur. I don't even remember how I managed to get dressed with Kisame's constant prodding. He seemed impatient today. Or more like irritated to be on babysitting duty today. Even with Kisame, when I was out on the streets with him scouring for information on our target, I was chained to his side by a chakra binding thread. 

Despite the blurry morning, one detail was clear to me, and that was that Itachi was no where to be seen this morning having left before I even woke up. Almost as if he was trying to avoid me. That notion stung for some reason. Not to mention, the embarrassment I felt.

I cried in front of him. I showed him weakness. For some reason I was anxious to see if his impression of me would change. Would he treat me differently because of my little breakdown last night? It's not like I meant to. He just happened to be the one to coax it out of me with his stupid questions and observations!

"It seems...you haven't healed entirely," he said.

"Stupid Uchiha," I muttered out loud, not realizing I had the most crossed expression on my pink face, my wolf ears twitching in annoyance

"Hm, you seem angry today," Kisame commented, but not interested enough to press further on the reason why. 

We walked through the dirt streets of the town of Genwo, both dressed in commoner's clothing in order not to stand out. It was kind of humorous because, whether Kisame wore the Akatsuki cloak or not, he very much still stood out. Especially since he still had his monstrous sword on his back. You could see the villagers of the town glance at him uneasily as we weaved our away through the crowds.

"You see that shop there?" Kisame nodded in the direction of a well hidden shop that was easy to miss unless you knew what you were looking for. "We'll be going in there to see what one of our informants may know. You shouldn't say a word. I just want you to watch."

"Ok, got it. Why are we looking for this Toyonashi person anyways?" Itachi had told me the bare amount of information for this mission without really explaining to me what this person had done or what my role would be.

Kisame sighed, hating to have to explain to me details I should've already known.

"From what I've gathered, Toyonashi is no longer an ally of ours. I've never seen the guy, but he used to be one of our top gatherers of weapons and even sometimes intelligence information. Recently he came across a katana that could harvest and withstand the force of lightening. You see, normal weapons break, melt, or warp underneath that kind of power, but not this one. We paid him to retrieve it for us, but we caught wind that he serves someone new. You ever heard of the name Orochimaru?"

My whole body stiffened at the mention of a name I seemed to have forgotten ages ago. I remembered my encounters with him vividly though, when I and my team barely escaped him alive in the Forest of Death during the Chunin exams. He was the one who poisoned Sasuke's mind into thinking the only way he could become stronger was to leave everything behind and come to him.

Kisame took my stunned silence as a yes and continued, "Well it seems Orochimaru has Toyonashi under his control. I don't know what he offered him, but it sure as hell better have been worth the death sentence he received the moment he betrayed us."

"So we're going to kill him?" I raised my eyebrows, getting the jist of where this was going. For some reason, my heart jumped a bit in excitement. Could you blame me? I just wanted some action during this mission.

We began approaching the store entrance. 

"Whoa, whoa, no 'we'...Just me, and while I'd love to kill something, there's no killing until we find that katana. We're here to bring him back to the Leader and he'll decide what we do with him. Honestly, if he's here, it's better if you stay out of the way." 

"Hold on, do you think I'm useless or something?" I glared at him my black wolf ears flattening back and my eyes shifting to a dark shade of orange.

"Look, nothing personal, but if you get hurt on my watch, Itachi isn't going to be too happy," Kisame shrugged reaching to open the shop door, "Now shut up!"

I opened my mouth to protest, but quickly shut it as he yanked me by the chakra cuff to follow him in quickly and close the door. The store was dimly lit, and there were two very well built men standing near the door and one very meek looking man, maybe in his 40's, standing at the register to the left side. Aside from those 3, there was also a dark-haired woman, wearing a hooded black cloak, perusing the weapons on display.

The store displayed many various types of weapons behind glass casings, ranging from every day common weapons, to some I've never seen until now. I gushed quietly at the site of some rather gorgeous looking swords, feeling sad I still didn't get my sword back from Itachi's possession. Obviously no one seems to trust me yet.

Kisame immediately made his way to the cash register, towing me along with him. The man at the register continued to smile, his eyes damn near completely closed when he did so. He seemed unfazed by the tall land shark approaching him.

"Welcome, how can I help you today?"

"Let's cut the pleasantries. I'm going to get straight to the point. I'm searching for Toyonashi. Word is he's been sneaking around this side of town carrying a lightening katana with him. My lightening katana. I was hoping you could tell me if he was still around or if you had any clue where he was headed to next?"

"He, huh?" The man chuckled, obviously finding something amusing. "Well. Do you know the theory of equal exchange my friend?" continued the cashier, still grinning politely.

It took Kisame only a moment to realize that the man was clearly asking for something in exchange for this type of information. Kisame grinned, flashing his intimidating shark-like grin at the man.

"Oh-ho, equal exchange huh? How about...," Kisame reached over the counter that separated him from the man, roughly grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and picking him up off the ground a few inches, "...In exchange, I let you keep your life? Does that sound like a good deal?"

I immediately became defensive, pressing my back to Kisame's back as he was turned away dealing with the shop owner. The two men posted at the door, whom I assumed were the shop's muscle, started to close in on us. None of them looked too pleased either, both brandishing their swords at Kisame and I.

I glanced at the female shopper that seemed to be totally out of place in this type of situation. "You may want to get out of here lady. No reason for you to get caught in the middle of this."

Surprisingly, she seemed very calm, the corners of her purple lips turning up in a small smile. With one nod, she bowed her head, covering her face with her hood and turning to leave the store.

Now it was just me and these muscle men. They were large, definitely built for the job, but I've killed dozens of men like them. They posed no real threat, but there was something off about this moment. I glanced back at Kisame and the man. The man, despite the fact he was being held up by his throat, still kept a strange grin on his face.

"Very well," the dark-haired man choked, motioning for his goons to back off, "I'll tell you where Toyonashi will be tonight."

Both his men, lowered their weapons the same time Kisame lowered their boss back down to the floor. The grinning man cleared his throat, rubbing his neck as it obviously ached from Kisame's grip.

Kisame's wide, sharp-toothed grin spread across his face, "Alright, that's what I like to hear."

Over the next few minutes, the man told us exactly what we wanted to know, possibly figuring his life was more valuable than some wanted thief. Tonight, Toyonashi would attempt to leave the town at the eastern docks, on a boat transporting goods to the towns across the grand lake. A day later, and we would've let him slip from our grasp.

Tonight would be the night we would catch our target. All that was left to do was tell Itachi what we had learned and we could end this hunt.