Genin Days (X).

Like any other good shinobi who didn't know where exactly he was, Itachi didn't give any outward sign that he was awake when he woke up. Instead, he let his senses feel out the area.

The closest and only presence he could feel was right beside him, and he instantly recognized it as Anko's. Deciding that he was in friendly company, he opened his eyes and sat up. Anko sat pretty close to his right, and a small, smokeless fire was to their left. He nodded approvingly at that. As it apparently wasn't night yet (or not anymore? How long had he been unconscious?) the light of the fire didn't give them away, and as Anko had made sure that it was smokeless, they wouldn't be spotted from far away.

"Itachi!" Anko exclaimed, cutting his thoughts short. "You're finally awake! I don't have any medical knowledge, so I wasn't able to do more than give you a superficial check. I was afraid you might have some internal injuries or something when you didn't wake up."

"I thi-" he started to speak before a coughing fit forced him to stop talking.

For one unreasonable moment, he actually feared Fate had caught up with him and that this was his illness acting up, but he calmed down quickly when he realized that this was impossible.

"Hey, take it slowly, you hear me? You just woke up! Here, drink some water. It's from a nearby river and I've already filtered and boiled it, so it should be fine."

He nodded thankfully before accepting the water, drinking it directly from the stone Anko pushed into his hands. It seemed she had taken some big rock and carved into it until it could serve as a bowl.

After he finished his drink he tried speaking again, this time with more success than before. "I should I'm fine. I don't feel too bad, at least not considering the situation. How long have I been out of it?"

Anko nodded, fortunately accepting that without questioning him. "I'm not sure how long we have been unconscious, but I woke up around 12 hours ago. Considering I didn't start to feel hungry until maybe an hour ago, I don't think we were out cold for very long. Maybe a handful of hours. And before you ask: no, I don't know where we are for sure, but I have a pretty good guess. You should be able to find it our pretty fast too."

Anko was right, he didn't feel too hungry either. Probably more than her, though, seeing that he had used much more chakra in the fight against Taro. Apropos Taro...

"Congratulations on killing Taro and his subordinates. At least we don't need to worry about them searching for us anymore."

She shook her head. "You're the one who tricked and distracted him with your crows -this half-formed crow clone of yours looked badass, by the way- so it was just as much your work as it was mine."

"Only 'just as much'?" he asked in a slightly teasing tone, one brow raised.

Anko huffed. "Yes, only 'just as much'. After all, I can't go around and say I was saved by a midget like you, can I now?"

He smiled slightly at that before he became serious again and looked around once more. They were on a small clearing with their backs to a big tree and dense fog surrounded them, making it impossible to look farther than the line of trees that marked the border of the clearing.

Yes, Anko had been right. He was pretty sure he knew where they were, and he didn't like it one bit. This... "We're in the Land of Water."

She grimly nodded back. "Looks like it."

That wasn't good at all. Taro's attack had obviously swept them into the sea, and from there, they must have drifted in the water until they reached land. Honestly, they must have had such incredibly good luck that they hadn't drowned, it was hard to believe. And the fact that he had been so close to dying again... that was terrifying. He pushed that thought aside for now, deciding that he could muse about that later.

"As you said, at least we don't need to worry about people searching for us. It's not unlikely that the patron of the orphanage asked for shinobi to look into all these kidnappings, so Kirigakure will probably assume that their people got killed by the team sent to deal with it. There will be no manhunt for us. And, just in case, I sent some of my snakes in the surrounding area to scout for us," Anko said.

"True," he agreed, "but that doesn't mean that there will be no search groups at all. It would be careless not to search the area after your shinobi got killed in such close proximity to your border."

"But we should have a day or two until that happens."

"That's not wrong, but..." He hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should proceed with telling her about the current situation in the Land of Water, before deciding that it was much more important that Anko was informed of it so she could prepare herself than it was to conceal that he knew stuff he shouldn't be aware of.

"We also need to worry about the internal problems the country is currently facing."

"'Internal problems'? First of all, what problems, and more importantly, how do you know about them?" Anko asked, crossing her arms in front of her.

"My father is the Clan Head of one of Konoha's four noble clans, so he gets more information than most. He decided to inform me of what he knew about the current affairs of the Land of Water as soon as he heard that this mission would bring me so close to its border."

That was a rather believable lie, considering Anko could hardly go to his father and ask about its accuracy. The only person she could possibly mention it to was the Hokage, and he would go along with it to protect Itachi's secret.

"Alright, and what exactly did he tell you?"

"The country seems to be on the brink of a civil war," he started to explain. "One in which the Mizukage and the people loyal to him fight against every single person with a Kekkei Genkai and their supporter."

"Wait, what?!" Anko exclaimed. "Why would they do that? Kekkei Genkai users are one if not the most powerful addition to a village's fighting power. Killing them off would cripple themselves!"

"Nobody knows exactly why the Mizukage acts as he does," -of course there were some very few exceptions who knew about Madara's involvement, but he could hardly mention that- "but many of his supporters blame people with bloodline limits for all their hardships and even war itself. They think they can achieve peace for their country if there are no 'filthy bloodline limits' left. Obviously there are quite a lot of people who are not okay with this senseless genocide or the way the Mizukage leads his village in general, and these rebels are probably planning to overthrow the current government right as we speak. With the country being in such an unstable state, both sides likely have their people patrol the area. And this is, obviously, bad for us."

After being silent for a few minutes, Anko summarized the situation pretty precisely. "Wow, this is so fucked up."

.....

They were on the road -jumping from tree to tree didn't seem like a good idea if you were this deep in enemy territory- for about two hours now. They had departed from the clearing Itachi had woken up on as soon as the sun went down and started to head west. No matter where exactly they were, as long as they walked in that direction they should come to the westernmost coast and from there they could run over the water until they reached the shore. From there, it was just a small way till they reached home. Unfortunately, it wasn't an option to search for the rest of their team as it was standard procedure to return to the village to get some real search parties if Genin were lost in active duty.

Explaining that to his parents later would be fun, he was sure. And Shisui and Izumi as well. At least Sasuke was too young to be immediately be informed about him being missing, that wouldn't happen as long as nobody turned up or the search for them went futile for too several weeks.

Both Anko and he had summoned their respective animals to scout the area and warn them if someone was closing up on them, but thanks to the dense mists his hopes of them succeeding in that were slim. The fact that it was night wasn't improved their chances either. The only way they could notice anyone in that mist was if said person wasn't actively hiding themselves. At least he had some experience with the Soundless Murder Technique through his acquaintance with Kisame, though of how much use that would be to him remained to be seen.

The loud croaking of a crow cut through the silence of the night.

"Anko," he whispered.

"I know."

They instantly moved closer together, making it look like he was too weak to walk and as if Anko was helping him move forward. They were looking like civilians already thanks to their short time at the orphanage, and their clothes appeared pretty shabby from all the things they had needed to endure in the last 24 hours, so they probably looked like every other pair of orphaned children currently wandering the country. If the people approaching them were the Mizukage's men, they would possibly try to kidnap them too, and then their act might allow them to get the enemy by surprise and kill them before it came to a fight at all. If they weren't part of the Mizukage's party, they would hopefully just ignore them.

Two men wearing ANBU masks appeared a dozen metres in front of them.

"Alright," the left started to speak almost immediately. "We know you are not from here, but you are obviously not sent by the Mizukage. I will give you guys the chance to explain yourself right now and it dependents on your answer what will happen afterward. So, start talking: who are you and why are you here?"

That wasn't what he had been expecting, and it made him unsure of how to act. Knowing that not answering immediately would have negative consequences, he planned to give himself some more time to think and opened his mouth to say something, only to be deprived of the opportunity when Anko started to speak before he got the chance.

"We're shinobi of Konohagakure and we stranded here, wherever 'here' actually is, by accident. In fact, we're currently on our way home."

Alright, he could work with that. Frankly, he would most likely have told them the truth too after some deliberating, but he preferred to think things through more thoroughly before acting. And given what the 'ANBU' had said, it was pretty likely that they were rebels, which also explained why they weren't attacked the very instant they met. It seemed that this way of proceeding was indeed the best.

The two people opposite of them didn't visibly react, but there was surprise and skepticism in his voice when the same ANBU from before spoke up again. "Shinobi of Konohagakure? And what proof do you have of that? I don't see a forehead protector with Konoha's symbol on it, or even a forehead protector at all."

"We could demonstrate a technique that nobody but a shinobi of Konoha would be able to use" he decided to join the conversation before things could escalate. "I think you're aware of Orochimaru?" he asked, and the way they tensed after only hearing his name was proof enough to answer that. "My teammate is his former student, and just like him, she made a contract with snaked. A contract that is only found in Konoha. With your consent, she could summon a snake for you?"

It was a bit of a gamble considering that it would be careless of them to allow an unknown shinobi to use a Jutsu, but it was currently their best bet.

"That doesn't seem like a good idea," the man replied, his hands slowly reaching for a weapon. "Maybe it would be better-"

"I should add that I already sent a message home through my crow summons. If something happens to us, our village will know who is responsible, and I'm sure you know what would happen if you kill the Uchiha heir" -he pointed at himself- "and his teammate."

Again, it wasn't necessarily the best way of action to announce his identity and simultaneously threaten them, but the two of them gave him the vibe of being very inexperienced and nervous themselves. This strategy might work, and if not... he was confident they could take them in a fight.

"Alright," it was the other person who spoke this time. "Show us the technique."

Anko didn't hesitate, probably having come to the same conclusion as he, and made the necessary hand seals as slowly as she could before summoning a little brown snake.

Both people looked at each other for a few seconds, foolishly ignoring Anko and him, before both nodded and the man who had spoken first started talking again. "Alright, I think that's more than enough proof. Under these circumstances, we offer our aid in leading you home, as long as you come with us."