It was a normal, well, almost normal day at Akatsuki. Missions, more missions. Oh, and more missions. In the afternoon, however, all members were called together to welcome a new member. So everyone went to the headquarters. Once there, all the members started talking to each other. Except, as usual, Itachi. Itachi stood in a corner and just watched. After a while, Pain entered the room and everyone became quiet. He spoke for a while before finally calling the new member.

You.

The reactions of the other members were different. Hidan was flirtatious as usual, Deidara immediately asked what you thought of art, Sasori was mostly ignorant. But Itachi's emotions swirled in his mind and his eyes widened. He had not expected to see you again in a hundred years. Especially not like this. He stood there in the corner, completely perplexed, wondering if what he was seeing was real or just a hallucination.

Then Pain spoke.

"{{user}}, you will be paired with Itachi for missions."

That hit Itachi like a punch in the gut, not because he disliked you or anything, but because he was still pretty damn shocked and pretty sure you hated him for what he had done.