Who are you?

Part 1

Due to exams I am unable to publish longer chapters for a while. For now, they will be around 1k, but when I'm done with the exams, it will become 2k and above.

Updates are every Saturday.(A day before or after if I'm unavailable)

There was an Akatsuki meeting. The leader wanted to meet Kisame and Itachi about an important assignment. They were all in the office. Konan was standing behind Pein, who was sitting behind his desk. Itachi and Kisame stood before the desk, waiting to be acknowledged.

Pein was finishing a document. It only took a minute or two. He finally put the document aside. "I called you here to discuss an important matter. As you both know, we still have a few years of preparations left before we can move to the next step."

"Itachi, as Orochimaru diagnosed, your disease is still in its early stages. You are to find a cure before it starts affecting your role in the organization. Kisame, this is your first long-term mission since you only joined us recently. You are to accompany Itachi and assist him in the task."

"For the time being, there is no time limit for the mission, but I will send you smaller missions when the occasion arises. You will leave Ame tomorrow. Dismissed." Pein said as he focused back on his work again.

Itachi and Kisame left the room with another bow.

They went to one of the common rooms to discuss their plans. No one else was around so it was perfect for a quiet discussion.

The room was large and mostly bare, save for a few couches and a coffee table in the middle. It was mainly used when they wanted to work together on a matter or they were bored of sitting alone in their rooms.

They were each nursing their own coffee mug. It was the evening, but they were exhausted from their previous mission. "You said you have a plan?" Itachi asked in his monotone voice.

Kisame took a deep breath and sighed. "It's a long story, but I may know someone who can help," Kisame said as he petted Samehada absentmindedly.

"Can or will?" Itachi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you really want to be picky?" Kisame asked with a sharp grin.

Miles away from Ame, a small girl was walking around a forest collecting herbs. She was humming a tune under her breath and holding a basket in one hand while eating an apple with the other.

She was wearing mesh undershorts with black shorts hidden by her Kimono top. It had a few kunais and shurikens oriented on it and a hood. The strange part was the cat's tail and ears attached to it. The outfit had a color gradient of orange, brown, and blue. (Author is shit at describing, but just think of Sayu's outfit from Genshin Impact but with cat ears and tail.)

She had a few pouches hanging from her belt and a kunai hostler tied to her thigh. She was also carrying a round cat head-shaped backpack on her back. It was her favorite outfit and one she wore often.

Her violet eyes shone with mischief. She was on a mission. She was going to take revenge on that stupid farmer who made fun of her outfit and called her unprofessional. She might be 8, but she was a professional doctor.

She just finished her first round of training under Tsunade Senju. Unfortunately, her age limited her chakra use and potential, so she had to return to her in a few years to continue her training. But that didn't mean that she wasn't a real doctor.

She was diligent in her self-studies. She specialized in natural remedies and healing, but it didn't imply that she couldn't heal with her chakra. It was quite the opposite. She had performed surgeries under supervision before and was proud of the results.

Tsunade complimented her genius. It was her preference that was different. In her opinion, healing every minor injury with chakra was not ethical. It puts too much strain on the receiver's body and might cause long-term damage.

She had read the articles before. That was why she was focusing on this task now. All around the elemental nations, there were exclusively local plants that could only be grown in certain climates and conditions. Even the maintenance of some of these plans required sensitive conditions.

Of course, as always, she found her solutions in seals. She was a seal master in training and had seals to ensure optimal conditions for her foraging founds. But today, her mission was not finding these plants but one of the more common ones.

Yesterday, as she was passing by a village, she found an injured shinobi. A Konoha ANBU, by the looks of it. The guy was in a rough shape. He was bleeding and had multiple broken bones. She tried to heal him as much as possible, but one of his wounds was infected, and she needed to find some herbs to make the medicine.

So she saw a farm just outside the village and approached the owner, explaining the situation. Old fart laughed at her, claiming boldly that there was no way she was a doctor. She wanted to break his nose but knew it would go against her professionalism.

So she settled for paying the old fart for a room in his house and made sure to set up security seals. She didn't need to do much for the guy just changing the bandages and checking on his condition.

It was early morning now, and the guy was stable enough to be left alone. She continued humming as she came across the last item on her list. There was a small clearing of it. She threw her apple core away and started collecting the leaves.

Her professional rule was to only take what was needed. So, she only took a few. She didn't want to hurt the natural habitat and risk plants going extinct because of her greed. She thanked the earth for helping her once more and quickly left back for the farm.