Itachi responded instantly to something behind him, whirling around with the scissors he'd been using to snip stitches now held defensively in his hand. Half-way through the turn Itachi recognized that it was Shisui. The aggressiveness went out of the mood and Itachi took the blow to the forehead, falling back on his butt.

"I'm not picking at them. I'm taking them out." Itachi held up his hand, half the stitches out on a long curving cut from the knuckle of his pointer finger down almost to his wrist. The edges of the wound had pulled open just a little, but not much. Itachi had only taken out the stitches that kept his thumb from moving freely.