Author: This little idea hit me while I was going for a walk, and I mulled over it for a while. I was bad an used amnesia. Bad author! Bad author! Ah, well. This should be fun. Everything will be explained later in the story I promise.

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Neither does Itachi, for that matter. Mmm...Itachi...

He was breathing heavily, and looked, startled, at the young man in front of him.

'Those eyes...those eyes!' Where could he have possibly seen them before? Deep crimson with three black dots circling the pupil...what strange, exotic, and alluring eyes.

He knew, in the back of his mind somewhere, that he ought to be alarmed. The three people in front of him were obviously ninja, two men and a woman.

More practical matters hit him a moment afterwards.

"Hey! They were paying me! I do need money to survive, you know," he said reprovingly to the three ninja before him. The man with the eyes that drew him in sighed heavily.

"You know, we could arrest you along with these missing nin," he said softly, gesturing to the men tied up at his feet.

"But you know that I didn't know what they were. Unless you believe me to be guilty by association, in which that would be mean. I'm simply trying to make a living."

The man was about to reply when the woman's voice cut in.

"Sasuke, back off. He's not a ninja, so he probably was just acting as a guide for these men."

Sasuke looked over his shoulder, eyes narrowed. "How can you be certain, Sakura?"

The other man sighed and murmured, "So troublesome. C'mon, let's just get these guys back to where they belong."

Sakura and Sasuke looked over at Shikamaru, and Sakura went over to help him with the bodies of the shinobi. Sasuke, however, looked back at the indignant man as he muttered and went through the Shinobi's pockets, taking whatever money he could find as well as a few other goods he could possibly sell.

The man was fairly well-built, his movements fluid when calm, choppy now that he was angry. His skin was burned a deep tan, his hair a bleached blonde and his eyes a strange tawny shade. Sasuke thought he could make out faint marks on the man's cheeks, but they were most likely scars from whatever work he does beside guide missing nin into enemy territory. He turned away and walked over and helped prepare the men for transport, and the man who had been guiding the missing nin backed off, sullen. With a few hand seals and a word, the three ninja and their captives dissapeared in a puff of smoke, leaving a mildly annoyed man behind.

Kawao looked at the space where everyone had been before and didn't bother to suppress a small smirk. Running into ninja was always so lucrative...and very, very exciting. He slipped the money and goods he had taken from all present into his bag and turned right, and headed for a small town he knew was nearby to rest, trade some goods for money, and then head off to another major city. He was well known in most circles, from the highest to the lowest. He was a dependable guide, and knew the world over in the most intimate of ways. Hell, sometimes even ninja employed him. He wasn't about to be picky.

But those eyes...!

Kawao had been searching for something that he lost for many, many years now. He'd been searching since that day he had washed up on the shores of a lake, near a small fishing and trade village, with no memory and only a forehead protector as a link to his past. He had discovered, over the years, that he had a burning desire to prove himself, no matter what the task, and that the martial arts gave him pleasure like nothing else could. He had spent many sleepy years in the village he had ended up in before leaving, the desire to find what he had lost an unbearable weight in his chest. He had traveled the world, always searching, and never finding what he was looking for.

But those eyes...!

Those eyes had stirred something deep within him, a flicker of recognition. He smiled ferally, his eyes slipping more towards red than tawny. He had felt drawn to the owner of those eyes, and he wanted him without knowing why. But he would have him. He always found a way to capture even the most elusive of prey. And this would probably be a very enjoyable hunt, since the man he was after was a ninja.

---

Sakura and Sasuke made their report to Tsunade and relaxed only once they were out of the office and down the hall.

"Sasuke..."

Sasuke looked over at the pink-haired woman next to him.

"That man...from earlier...didn't he feel...strange?"

"As if I knew him? Yes, but..." Sasuke's eyebrows furrowed. "I've never met anyone like him before."

Silence fell between them and they nearly ran into their old teacher before stepping aside just in time, almost instinctively.

"Yo."

Sasuke merely nodded and Sakura gave Kakashi a small smile before they seperated, confusing the grey-haired Jounin. Who simply shrugged and made his way to Tsunade's office. He stepped in, slipping his Icha Icha Tactics into a pocket in his vest and looked at Tsunade.

"Kakashi. Sasuke and Sakura just gave me a report feature missing nin and a guide. He's the same one we employ from time to time, so he knows where our Hidden Village is, but I'm also guessing that he knows where the other villages are, as well as their defences. I hate to say it but..."

"He's become too dangerous."

"Sasuke also said that when pressed, he fought back with techniques most civilians wouldn't know. Is that simply a by-product of being employed by ninja? I don't think so."

"So you want me to gather information on him."

Tsunade nodded. "I can trust you to be discreet in ways that most others can't be."

Kakashi nodded slightly, and looked thoughtful as he left Tsunade's office.

"Oh, and Kakashi?"

Kakashi looked over his shoulder.

"I doubt I need to tell you this, but only information gathering. Nothing more."

Kakashi paused for a moment longer and nodded, closing the door to Tsunade's office behind him.

---

Kawao had strange dreams that night. He dreampt of red and blue light, of chirping, of snakes and frogs, intense pleasure and equally intense pain. He drempt of those eyes and felt the creature inside him shift, and murmured softly in his sleep, calming the savageness that he knew lay beneath the thin layer of normalcy he cloaked himself in. When he opened his eyes again, it was to find a name passing his lips, a name that he didn't hear, that he stopped in mid-breath. He sat up slowly and looked at the whirl on his stomach, the black noticable even against his heavily tanned skin. His mouth twisted up slightly as he thought back to the ninja he had seen. All of them had been fairly pale; he supposed that ninja had a fairly cushiony job if they could get away with being that pale. It seemed he, as a civilian, worked harder than ninja that trained for years. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and put them on the cold wooden floor of the inn he was staying at and stood. He pulled on his clothes, walked out the door, dropped off his payment and walked out into the early morning light. His eyes blazed red briefly and he took off at a sprint, his lips pulled back in an almost insane smile, enjoying the rush of power he felt every now and then from that which lived inside him, and only barely managed to keep himself from howling in delight as he dissapeared into the forest.

This was why he never settled anywhere. Because he couldn't bear to stay still; there were so many risks to take, so many adventures waiting...he would experience them all. And he would find those eyes again.

What had been the symbol on his forehead protector?

A Leaf.

Konoha then.

He had heard whispers that a ninja village might attack there, and followed his instincts to where he would find an excuse to go to Konoha. To find the owner of those eyes.

To find the one he, and the monster in, him desired.