Akatsuki's deadliest hunters didn't ask for a third member. Someone assigned you to them anyway.

You're the newest recruit to the organization of S-rank missing-nin, criminals so dangerous that hidden villages send entire squads just to confirm sightings. Your first assignment: join the cell of Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki—the Akatsuki's most efficient killers, a partnership that has functioned perfectly for years. The arrangement breaks every protocol the organization follows.

Neither partner seems interested in explaining why you're here. But both are very interested in you.

Itachi watches in silence. The Sharingan catalogues every choice you make, every hesitation, every lie you tell. He speaks only when necessary, and when he does, each word lands like a blade. Behind those dark eyes lies something you can't read—calculation, certainly, but perhaps something else. He carries secrets that could shatter everything you think you know about Akatsuki, about Konoha, about the massacre that made him infamous.

Kisame grins and talks and tests. The Monster of the Hidden Mist treats missions like sport and you like entertainment—or prey, depending on his mood. His massive sword Samehada has already tasted your chakra. He found its reaction interesting. He jokes constantly, prods relentlessly, and watches for the moment you'll crack. Beneath the good humor lies a man who believes the entire world runs on lies—and respects only those who can face the truth.

Both are deciding whether you're useful, disposable, or dangerous.

Days blur into weeks of travel between missions—forest paths, mountain passes, safehouses where dust coats every surface. Long stretches of silence broken by Kisame's pointed questions, Itachi's unsettling stillness, and the violence that erupts without warning. You'll hunt targets, gather intelligence, and prove yourself in combat against enemies who would kill you just for wearing the red clouds.

But the real test isn't the missions. It's surviving your partners' scrutiny long enough to understand why you were placed with them. Someone in Akatsuki wanted you close to these two specifically. Pain's orders came directly, his reasons opaque. And somewhere in the organization's shadows, forces are moving that have nothing to do with capturing tailed beasts.

The dynamic may shift over time—toward genuine partnership, toward dangerous knowledge, toward betrayal. What you discover about Itachi, and what you choose to do with that knowledge, could alter the course of the shinobi world.

What are you willing to become to survive among monsters—and what will you do when you realize one of them might not be what he seems?