Swordsmen Of The Mist (IV)

Izumi dropped her head onto the table in front of her with an audible thud, for once completely uncaring of what the other guests at the tea house might think of her. "What are the odds that I return from my mission on the very same day he leaves for his..."

Rather than consoling her, Shisui just chuckled. "This is hardly the first time something like this has happened, right? I thought you would be used to it by now."

Her head snapped back up. "Well, I'm not!" Just because not having as much time to meet her friends as she would have liked had become somewhat of the norm over years didn't mean she must like it, after all. "Besides, you only say that because you were here to see him off! Were it you who missed him instead of me, you would grumble about it for days!"

"I wouldn't!"

That 'argument' would have probably gotten out of hand as it so often did with the two of them, dragging their conversations regularly out for hours at a time, but fortunately, a waitress chose that moment to arrive with their orders.

"Anyway," Shisui continued more calmly once the woman had left as he took a sip from his tea. "If you want to stop missing him -and me as well, by the way- this often, you should hurry and try to get promoted. Jōnin don't necessarily have less missions than Chūnin, but at least you would qualify to join us on more of them than you do now."

She sighed. "I asked the Sandaime to let me participate in the Jōnin Exams, but he thinks I'm not ready yet. I guess I could try to get enough recommendations from other Jōnin, but considering the Hokage has the final say regardless, that would probably not work either."

It had honestly been stupid of her to even ask. Izumi was confident enough to call herself fairly talented, sure. She wasn't a prodigy like Itachi or Shisui, but she was still far above the average skill level of most shinobi. After all, becoming a Chūnin at an age at which people usually just graduated from the academy was an impressive feat, especially during peace times like these. However, Jōnin were the elite of the elite. Even if you were talented, you usually couldn't become one without a lot of experience.

"Well, at least I'm here now, so I don't see what you have to complain about."

She good-naturally rolled her eyes. "Keep telling yourself that if it makes you happy."

His surprised stuttering that followed was enough to completely jolt herself out of her bad mood.

After that, their conversation continued in a more light-hearted manner as they talked about the most recent gossip -Might Guy had apparent started to cry about his 'eternal rival' leaving him behind without even saying goodbye after he had a few too many drinks- and rumours that were swirling around the village like the one that claimed Asuma Sarutobi would return to the village soon.

It was nice and definitively a welcome respite from her last mission. That was the eighth clean-up mission at the northern border in a month; you would think the bandits in the area would have realized by now that they couldn't expect much success there and move on, but alas, they kept coming back.

It almost made her miss the days when all she ever did was painting fences and hunt a stupid cat. Almost.

However, there was something strange about Shisui. Izumi couldn't put her finger on it, but he seemed somehow more… agitated than usual. More nervous. It took all the restraint she could muster to not pester him about what was going on in his head, but even then her thoughts continuously returned to his weird behaviour.

Weren't she worried it could be something serious, she would probably found it kinda adorable.

"By the way," Shisui said without quite meeting her eyes. "Did you get an invitation to Takijami's birthday too?"

Izumi blinked at that unexpected topic and needed a second before she could reply. "I actually did, yes. Kaa-san was really surprised. We apparently didn't even get invitations to it back when my father was still alive."

Takijami was probably their clan's most influential non-shinobi. He had held a high position in Konoha's Merchant Guild for over a decade now, and more recently, in the wake of the purge of the civilian leadership that happened after it came out that many of them had allied with the member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja that had tried to overthrow Konoha, he had risen even higher. In fact, he had become its Head just a few short months ago.

Only the most important and influential members of their clan were invited to that man's birthday party which obviously meant Izumi's family had never been there before. That made the fact that she was actually invited this year completely unexpected.

Her mother theorized that it had something to do with the higher-ups finally acknowledging her talent, though her friendship with Itachi and Shisui probably helped as well.

"Great!" Shisui exclaimed maybe a tad too loudly with a wide grin as he briefly met her eye before quickly looking elsewhere once again. "So the old geezer finally realized that you're really talented, huh? Certainly took him long enough!"

She snorted. "I can't say I really care about what he thinks about me, but it's nice to be acknowledged, I guess."

"Anyway," Shisui continued, and Izumi thought she could see his cheeks growing red. "I thought we could go there together?"

The question left her completely speechless. Was that what had made him act so strangely all day?

Although she didn't really know what she was going to say herself quite yet, Izumi opened her mouth to reply only for Shisui to continue without looking at her at an ever-increasing pace.

"These kinds of events are always pretty boring, so I thought it would be more interesting if you went with someone you like, y'know? To have some fun and stuff. And at least we would have someone with whom we could laugh at all the pompous people that are usually there, right? Time flies when you have fun, so the entire thing would at least be over in an instant instead of stretching for-"

"Shisui," she interrupted him with a small smile, ignoring the heat she could feel creeping up her own face. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"W-well, I guess I do? Though we can go just as friends too if-"

"I would love to!" she blurted out. "Going there with you, I mean."

Going by the honest surprise on his face, he obviously hadn't expected her to say yes.

"Really?" He shook his head. "No, I mean- that's great!"

"Yeah."

They looked at each other in silence for a few moments, neither of them knowing how to continue from there.

Fortunately, Shisui found his voice first.

"So," he said slowly. "The party is on Friday at eight in the evening. I guess I will be at your house, ehm, a quarter to eight, then?"

"Maybe make that half past seven instead," she said a bit uncertainly. "You know, so we don't need rush or anything."

"Sure," he immediately agreed. "That makes sense."

"Great."

"Yeah."

Although the atmosphere was rather awkward, Izumi couldn't stop the smile that was spreading on her face, and considering Shisui did too, she assumed he felt the same. Honestly, she would have never expected him to ask her on a date. Like, seriously? Shisui? For all that a lot of girls found him handsome and even had approached him in the past, she didn't think he ever went out with any of them.

And now he had asked her on a date.

Izumi couldn't help it; she laughed.

Many other guys might have been offended by that, thinking that she laughed about them, but Shisui understood her. She didn't need to explain what was so funny first for him to get it, and in fact, his laughter soon joined in with hers.

______

It took Itachi and his team nine days, but now they had almost reached their destination.

After the initial bad start between them and Zabuza, he and Kakashi had been surprised to see that the swordsman was both courteous and cooperative. Or something close to it, at least. That didn't mean that he agreed with everything they said or that he didn't argue, of course, but if you ignored his gruff personality and dark humour, he was almost friendly.

As Itachi had dealt with Kisame for many years, he could handle Zabuza's comments with ease. Kakashi lacked such experience, but he had apparently handled enough eccentric and unpleasant people himself to not be bothered by Zabuza either, meaning there was no problem from his front as well. Thus, the journey was unexpectedly stress-free. Furthermore, Zabuza had also been willing to share some of his insight into his former colleagues, so Itachi could call the last few days even productive!

Itachi wondered if part of the reason he was so cooperative stemmed from his little demonstration right to the beginning of their journey when he and Kakashi had caught up with him.

He had assumed that Zabuza was similar to Kisame in that he only respected strength and had acted accordingly to that. There were no atrocities to his name in this timeline, but he still regained the memories of his past and thus could call upon the emotions he had felt during the time.

Itachi was the first to admit that he hadn't been in a healthy state of mind during, after, and even shortly before the Uchiha Massacre. His mind and heart had been plunged into darkness, madness even, and only the macabre thought of one day dying at his own brother's hand had kept him going. There were lots of shinobi who were a bit mad regardless of name or rank. It was almost normal in their profession. However, what truly mattered was how you dealt with it.

Itachi hadn't dealt with it at all. At least not at first, and certainly not for the first few years after the massacre.

He had once read a line from a famous poet that was said to have lived only shortly after the Sage of Six Paths: 'Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.'

Itachi had become a monster. While his original intentions might arguably have been good, whatever that might mean in this world of theirs, there was no arguing that the acts of kinslaying and mass murder were evil. He had not only looked into the abyss but jumped into it head-first.

He had eventually pulled himself out of it, but the memories remained, and a man like Zabuza could see its signs when they weren't carefully hidden.

Apparently, it had been enough to convince him of working with rather than against them.

Anyway, back to the present.

While their journey so far had indeed gone unexpectedly well, that wasn't to say that everything was perfect. In fact, even with the welcome advantage of improved cooperation between the three of them, the situation was actually rather grim.

The problem was that the aid they had been supposed to meet yesterday hadn't arrived yet.

It wasn't completely unreasonable to assume that they were simply late. After all, there could be all kinds of delays for a group of shinobi that were travelling all the way from the Land of Water this deep into the continent. What was unreasonable, however, was that neither Itachi's crows nor Kakashi's dogs were able to find any trace of them. Even when their team decided to stay at the designated meeting place for a day to wait for them while also giving the summons more time for their search, they weren't able to find anything.

The only fight their group had so far happened the day after that when Kakashi and he proposed to return in reaction to this development while Zabuza insisted on continuing with just the three of them. Unfortunately, the man stubbornly resisted any logic and even claimed that he would go on by himself if necessary, leaving the two of them no choice but to continue the journey as well.

Unlikable as he might be, he was their comrade for the duration of the mission. Kakashi and Itachi both were unwilling to leave him behind.

Besides, there was also the fact Kirigakure might take badly to them leaving the last of the Seven Swordsmen behind by himself, especially if it got him killed. It didn't matter that they were theoretically in the right or that Zabuza was the one who acted stupid and reckless; if he died, they would be blamed.

All they could do was to follow him while also sending one of Itachi's crows back to Konoha with a message to inform the Hokage about this development.

"I smell blood and rotten flesh."

Pulled back to reality by Kakashi's voice, Itachi turned towards his fellow Konoha-nin. "From where?"

"North-west," he said while nodding in the relevant direction before furrowing his brows. "I don't think it's fresh, but I can't be sure."

Zabuza snorted. "Well, isn't that a useful ability? Seems like we already got a lead!"

"This might be-"

The swordsman didn't let him finish. "A trap, I know. I'm not stupid, and that lanky bastard Kushimaru always loved these funny little traps of his. It's still a lead, though, and if this is really their work, it happened much more recent than anything else we know of. This would be our freshest lead and it would be stupid to ignore it, am I right?"

Itachi and Kakashi looked at each other before the latter decided to speak.

"You are, yes. However, while it's great that all of us realise the potential danger, it would still be prudent to talk about how we will proceed if this is indeed a trap."

Zabuza didn't look as if he agreed, but unexpectedly, he swallowed his complaints down.

"Fair enough," he said. "I guess it would be pretty embarrassing to die by one of that idiot's traps." He crossed his muscular arms in front of his chest. "Alright, what do you suggest?"