Our Obsession

"You should be," Tsunade said the moment she entered the room, both hands on her hips. She stared at them with all seriousness. "Do you not understand that there are people out there who want you dead?" She could tell he did, but nonethless both of them were idiots. Wasn't Shikamaru meant to watch him? Where the hell did he go? Kakashi crossed his arms and remained innocent in demeanor. "He wasn't alone, but I suppose he was seperated from Shikamaru st some point," He said as though he had read her thoughts. The Sannin thinned her lips and stared hard at the replacement, clearly wanting him to add more.

"Hollows?" Tsunade repeated with obvious tension. Her most talented assassin came to stand beside her and whispered something. In that moment, Shizune entered and scurried over to where the replacement stood. She smiled at him and took the piglet, then watched the other two with a worried demeanor."There's a lot going on," She mused, then turned a bit and directed her attention towards Ichigo. "She wouldn't care as much otherwise. We're all not safe, really, since our enemies believe Lady Tsunade is still missing." Normally she would never discuss this with a child, but he was on the same boat as Naruto. So long as he remained here, Akatsuki might come for him. She shuddered. No one dared say the name outloud, but she could barely stand to do so in her mind. Once the hushed conversation came to an end, Kakashi rested a worried hand on Ichigo's shoulder, smiled, then dissapeared through the open window.
"Ugh. He couldn't take the stairs?" Tsunade mumbled with some humor. She motioned to the teen and lead him down the hall to his room.

Tsunade awakened to the sound of scratching on her window. What the hell? She bolted upright in bed, blonde tangled hair loose around her face. Her eyes narrowed. "Tonton, stop it!" She shouted at the piglet, who continued to claw at the glass. In one smooth motion, she threw back the sheets and came to stand beside her bejeweled pet. She peered out.... and saw nothing. For some reason, this was a morning ritual. What was out there, she had no idea. It was probably nothing important. The Sannin sighed and cradled the piglet in her arms, opened the door and let her out. She cleaned herself up and dressed, applied make-up and did her hair.
Tsunade strode out into the hall, answered all the guards who wanted to know how many assassination attempts she didn't deal with last night with an eye roll, and came to a halt outside Ichigo's door. She knocked. "Mornin', kid. You still alive?"

Tsunade planted boths hands on her hips and frowned. "Yeah, me too. We're all restless these days," She admitted with a small sigh. Especially with Gaara outa comission, She added to herself. It was really, ridiculously unfortunate that Sunagakure was weak when they already had enemies at their front door. Not only did she need to worry about them, but she had to support her allies at the same time. It was a complete mess.
Tsunade smiled a bit and stepped aside, then motioned down the hall. "The washroom is that way, second door on the right. I'll send send Shizune to check on you when you're done." With that, she sauntered off towards the staircase and shouted for her assistant to make her something edible.

"Ichigo!" Shizune panted as she raced up the staircase. She came to a stop in front of him and tried to catch her breath, then smiled. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Without waiting for an answer she motioned towards the direction in which she'd came and lead him down to the dining room. She shouted orders to the servants, cried out in horror at the sight of Tonton running around with one of her mistress' slippers, and chased after him. The moment she snatched her into her arms, she smacked into something - or someone,  on their way in. She squealed in embarrassment and released her hostage on impact.
"Oh man, what did we miss?"
Shizune stared up at the man's face as he braced her shoulders with both hands. He laughed, which accentuated the bandage across his nose.
"Kotetsu! You scared me," She sighed, then smiled awkwardly and nodded to his partner. "You two are early." The other man made a face and checked the time, shot a murderous glance at Kotetsu, and breathed out in annoyance. "Sorry, we-"
"Who's he?" Kotetsu cut across once he noticed the unfamiliar ginger in the room.
Shizune gasped and palmed herself in the face, then motioned to him. "He's, um... well Naruto's replacement," She introduced with uncertainty. The two men echanged knowing looks, then smiled at him. The quieter one held out his hand. "Hey. I'm Izumo Kamizuki, and this idiot is Kotetsu Hagane." Kotetsu rolled his eyes at him, mumbling to himself. "Yeah. What he said. We're the Hokage's errand-boys," He snorted, which earned him a dissaproving look from the other adults in the room.
One of the servants came out and announced that breakfast was ready. Kotetsu's eyes lit up. Shizune noticed and sighed heavily. "Well, since you're here, you might as well have something to eat," She suggested. Izumo opened his mouth to argue, but an elbow to the ribs shut him up.

"Wow. Your hair shoulda given me a clue," Kotetsu teased with a playful smile, both hands in his pockets. His partner shook his head and sighed, then watched as Shizune ran off at the sound of her mistress' voice. He smiled somewhat at Ichigo and motioned towards the guest dining room. "More yours than ours," He pointed out, then strode towards it with Kotestsu close at his heels. Both of them sat down and said hello to one of the ANBU guarding the room. "It's hard get used to 'em," Izumo commented in a hushed tone, "Hell, sometimes I don' feel comfortable with Kakashi around." Kotetsu nodded his agreement and waited until the servants set down their food and retreated before leaning towards Ichigo. He shot a glance at the guards, then whispered, "Yeah. No one trusts them after what Itachi-"
Both ANBU snapped their heads around and tensed at the name. Izumo smacked a hand over his mouth to shut him up, hissing his dissaproval. "Idiot! Watch what you say!" He pleaded, an almost desperate terror in his normally solemn eyes.

Kotetsu bit his lip, had a silent, fierce arguement with his more cautious partner, and evidently won from the wary glance Izumo cast at the two guards. He knew it was a touchy subject for them. I wasn't so much that others didn't trust the ANBU - they did now more than ever since their performance against Itachi and Kisame - but there were rumors that suggested they had something to do with the Uchiha Massacre. But the 3rd Hokage was sure to blame any suspicions on the corrupted ROOT branch.
Kotetsu leaned closer to Ichigo, all seriousness in his face. "He wiped out his entire clan," He whispered in a bitter, ominous tone. "Every one of them... except his little brother, Sasuke." Izumo shook his head and seemed almost saddened at the name. It still bothered him that he'd let him leave the village without questioning his motives. Plus Naruto had once blamed them for it, and that wasn't much help. He sighed and watched the replacement with a small smile, not even aknowledging his food. "Yeah, it killed the poor kid. He ran away about a month ago to get revenge. I mean he's brilliant, trained right under Kakashi, but I don' think he can handle his brother," Izumo mused out loud, then to himself mumbled the words, "He's dead." His damn teacher couldn't take on an Akatsuki without nearing death, so what the hell made him think he could do it? Kotetsu nodded with too much emphasis and whistled in absolute agreement. Four Jonin combined couldn't beat Itachi, with or without Kakashi's Sharingan - and that was pretty bad. "So  Itachi bailed out and signed up for this secret organization - which isn't much of a secret since we know about it," He commented in a matter-of-fact tone, then shrugged.
 "Anyway, it's called," - He hesitated - "Akatsuki."
Had the ANBU not been wearing masks, he was sure he'd die from a death glare. No one mentioned them. Ever. Only those directly under the Hokage even knew the name. But every single person in the village had heard of the terrible things they'd done, and matched it up with the one member known to them: Itachi Uchiha.