Genin Days (XII).

They had to wait for nearly 8 hours during which Itachi thankful noted that they were indeed treated more like guests rather than prisoners before Mei finally came to talk to them.

Unfortunately, he had to spend this time alone with a foul-tempered Anko, and their guard of course, which was everything but comfortable. "It was a stupid idea to come here!" she was ranting. "They have no reason to let us go. And you just went along with it! Are you so eager to die when you're just six years old?"

"Technically," he said. "I would die as a seven-year-old, seeing that my birthday had been several days ago."

Of course, that hadn't been the right answer either.

"What?! When? And why didn't you say anything?" she demanded, sounding at least more surprised and offended now than angry.

"On the second day after we arrived at the orphanage. And I saw no reason to tell anyone because we were on a mission, which has priority."

"But you could have told us anyway! We need to celebrate later. You know, if we survive this and all. Oh, what do you say about-"

"As interesting as this conversation seems to be, I'm afraid I must interrupt it," another voice mercifully stopped Anko before she could go on about what plans she had for his birthday party.

Not that he planned to have one in the first place, but Anko was the kind of person that didn't understand the meaning of 'no'.

"Terumi-sama," he said while turning around. "How can we help you?"

"Oh, you already did," she answered with a smile. "The information about your mission was surprisingly helpful. We compared the numbers, and it seems there was an increase in assassinations of our supporters in the villages where also an increasing number of orphan children were reported the weeks prior. While no definite proof, this together with the information you provided us with draws a clear picture. These things must be connected."

"Should you tell us that?" Anko asked. "Isn't this some kind of secret you should keep away from us so that we can't tell anyone about it?"

Terumi scoffed. "After Ito-san's comment when you were still in our presence, I sincerely doubt you couldn't have come to the same conclusion on your own. Be it as it is, we need to do something about it. All the children need to be grouped somewhere before they can force them to obey and spy for the Mizukage, and the most logical choice would be their headquarter on this island that is located on the west-coast. As thanks for your help in exposing this trickery, we will aid you in returning home. Tomorrow, our people will gather and destroy the headquarter and free the children. We will take you with us until a certain point from which we will then depart from each other and you will make the rest of the way on your own."

"That's great! Thank you ver-" Anko started before Itachi interrupted her.

"I want to help."

"What?!" two identical exclamations were heard, and Itachi couldn't help but be a little bit smug that he managed to break the till now perfectly calm facade of the future Mizukage.

"Itachi, you can't be-"

"Uchiha-san, I don't see why-"

Surprisingly, both became silent when he raised his hand.

"Our mission was it to save the children that were kidnapped. Under normal circumstances, this would be impossible now. We would be forced to retreat. If we join you, on the other hand, success is very likely. Besides," -he quickly continued when he saw both young women open their mouths- "as a user of a Kekkei Genkai myself, I find the philosophy of the Mizukage and his followers disgusting and offensive. I will gladly take this chance to harm his cause."

There was a moment of silence before, unexpectedly, Mei spoke up first. "I can understand your reasoning, especially the second one considering I'm a Kekkei Genkai user as well, but I don't think that this is enough to allow you to accompany us. Besides, your presence alone is unlikely to change the course of the battle. "

"Besides," Anko added, astonishingly calm, "you would need to explain to the Hokage why exactly you chose to risk your life to aid some foreign shinobi, even if their goal wasn't to harm Konoha. No, wait; you could actually argue that aiding rebels in overthrowing their current Kage is equal to harming Konoha as it worsens its relationship with the official government of another Great Ninja Country. And, just on a side note, I don't necessarily want to be the one who explains to your father, the head of the KMPF, why his son died under my watch."

Itachi gave them a small smile.

"My safety won't be in danger, so you don't need to worry about that. And you're right, Terumi-sama, that my fighting strength will not be a deciding factor in the battle itself, but I can give you something else: I can almost guarantee the safety of all the children."

....

While not necessarily easy, he had been able to persuade both women to let him help after he explained how exactly he planned to do so.

This was rather fortunate as it helped his long-term plans immensely. He was pretty sure that Mei Terumi wouldn't forget about this day and its events any time soon, at any rate.

His plan was simple but effective: First, he would create a Crow Clone to sneak into their hideout. Considering that the ability to use a summons' contract for a technique like this was almost unheard of and impossible to use for anyone who hadn't a contract with either the crows or the snakes, nobody would bat an eye because of a murder of crows. Then he would sneak to where the children were kept and hide them under a Genjutsu that made everyone who came looking for them think they had vanished. Sure, a high-ranking Shinobi would look right through it, but he doubted such a Shinobi would be on watch duty for mere children.

So it was in the early hours of dawn that led to a flock of crows circling overhead the small hideout that had its back on the coast. It was pretty obvious that this base wasn't a very significant one, which wasn't a surprise if you took its location into account. The island it was positioned on wasn't only one of the smallest islands of the Land of Water, it also hadn't any notable resources. There had never been any great population on it either, be it a shinobi or civilian one. All in all, there were probably less than 1000 inhabitants on this piece of dirt. Its only use was as a warning system in case some country invaded them from the west, in which case this island would be used to slow the enemy down while the other islands prepared for the real fight.

The base was rather small, only three or four times as big as the rebels' camp had been. Even so, much of the space was nothing but empty ground. There were only three buildings; the first appeared to be a tavern of kinds if the music he could hear was anything to go by and was located close to the ocean. The second one was rather indescribable, having no special feature to talk about and thus gave no outwardly clue what it's purpose might be. The third building was also the only construction that looked like someone bothered to keep it in shape. It was a rather big tower, having at least five times the height of the 'tavern', and was build from robust-looking stone.

The entire area was surrounded by a 20 metres high wall which was built from the same stone as the tower. While he doubted that it could hold against some really powerful technique like the ones that at least should be able to use, it looked durable enough. Its main purpose was probably to slow enemies down anyway, so there was no need to be almost indestructible like the wall that surrounded Konoha. He could see people patrolling on it at regular intervals, too.

He wondered for a moment where all the inhabitants, which couldn't number more than 200, were sleeping and living, but the logical guess would be that the buildings continued underground.

In all honesty, it was kind of insulting to call this base a 'headquarter'. This entire complex wasn't build to resists a siege, but to serve as a lookout for possible invaders. Once they were under attack, they would be barely more than pigs in a slaughterhouse.

But alas, that wasn't his problem. Quite the opposite, actually.

Itachi thought a moment about where the children might be before deciding that the most likely location would be either the second building or the underground beneath it. The fact that this building was one of the two buildings that had guards, the other being the best-conditioned building that probably was the heart of this base, was more than enough to come to that conclusion. It also helped that both guards looked bored out of their minds, obviously not expecting to do anything anytime soon.

Deciding to proceed, he followed up on his plan and flew down. The left guard, who had been enjoying his meal for this evening, gave a surprised shout when his food was stolen out of his hand when he was just about to bite into it. His fellow guard laughed for a second before he realized that other crows were rummaging through his bag in a search for more food.

Neither they nor the amused onlookers from afar noticed how a few crows flew through the previously closed door, shutting it behind them afterwards. Naturally, with a wall and a door between them, nobody noticed either how said crows formed a body once they were alone in the room.