Book One: The Era of Change

Chapter Twenty-Four: Itachi's Return

Third pov

With Akiko and Aoi gone with Naruto on the Tsunade retrieval mission, there were only three members of Team Two left at the usual meeting place in the Dango Shop.

Strangely enough, it wasn't Kaoru who had called the meeting today - rather it was Shiori who had pleaded the two to please be in their usual spot by 10:00 am.

"Why did you want to meet today, Shiori?" Kaoru asked, chewing on her mochi. 

"There's something bad happening today..." Shiori replied unhelpfully, sipping at her tea.

"Real informative," Leiko muttered.

That something turned out to be people. Two people actually, walking into the humble shop in quite flashy attire.

They both donned a black cloak with red clouds and wore a over sized straw hat. Above that, one of them towered over your average man considerably and carried a massive thing on his back, wrapped in bandages. If you squinted, maybe you'd see the slight blue tinge to his skin.

The other one, on first glance would have been difficult to discern the gender of. However, if one took their time to inspect the seemingly less interesting character of the duo, you'd find sharp, red eyes, staring piercingly at whoever was bold enough to make eye contact. 

And at this point, one would simple conclude - they're both fucking crazy people who have weird birth defects. 

Which wasn't entirely incorrect, considering Hoshigaki Kisame had blue skin on top of the usual sharp teeth many Kirigakure shinobi were born with and Uchiha Itachi, like most other Uchiha - was slightly unhinged. And being cray-cray was definitely the worse of two vices (the other being blue skin and sharp teeth) when you considered how dangerous these people were.

Shiori glanced at them the moment they entered the shop, eyes set on the shorter one of the two. Grinning, an interesting but stupid idea popped into her head.

"I don't like the look on your face," Leiko commented.

"What about it?"

"It means you're gonna do something stupid. And you don't do stupid things."

"Nonsense. I do stupid things all the time. And I'm still alive," Shiori had a shrewd smirk on her face

"Hmm? What are you doing?" Kaoru asked.

"Just saying hi to a someone I know," she said looking towards the two new customers.

"Is that a good idea?" Leiko raised an eyebrow, knowing who they were.

"Probably not, but I'm bored," Shiori replied walking towards the duo's booth.

"Who are they?" Kaoru-sensei raised an eyebrow.

"Someone you definitely want to keep an eye on," Leiko said surely.

Sliding into the seat opposite them she gave them a casual greeting, "Yo."

The bulkier of the two raised his head slightly so you could see his beady eyes and the slightly tint of the skin, "Who are you?"

Shiori hummed, "Ask your partner."

Itachi's eye shot up.

"Hey, cuz," Shiori said lazily as if she wasn't talking to an international criminal.

"Who is she?" Kisame nudged his partner.

"I don't know her," Itachi replied emotionlessly.

Shiori put a hand to her heart in mock hurt, "How could you wound me so?" she asked dramatically. 

"You would know your own cousin wouldn't you? Your best friend's sister?" Shiori egged on.