It had taken too long.
Itachi stopped and crouched on a three branch. He gazed at the village walls. He was far enough and the uncommon for the Fire country's fog made their usually plain colors blue-hued. The young AMBU closed his eyes briefly. The mission was a success. The weight of the scroll, which was safely situated in his back pocket, was a welcome reassurance that he had done the thing required. His taichou would be content. His clan would be pleased. His father would be proud.
The young boy slowly lifted his heavy eyes. He could feel his irises burning. Thoughts of blindness entered his mind, but went as quickly as they came. No Uchiha that he knew of had suffered blindness from the Sharingan. Still the irking pain was a little too sharp to ignore. Itachi looked down at his hands. He had hoped it would rain so he wouldn't enter the village covered in crimson.
The mission was a success. He tried to reassure himself. Stealing a scroll did not require a full AMBU team. A frown appeared on the boy's sullen face. An individual would complete the task quicker. Also, since stealth was mandatory for committing a crime against a supposed ally and someone who would not talk if caught was needed, he had been chosen for the harsh mission. Itachi had passed all his tests with flying colors, including torture endurance. He had long since lost his naivety and knew quite well that the peace the Leaf provided for his young ones was partly because of missions of which no record was kept.
The Mist and the Leaf were on very fragile terms, but when the Hokage said fetch, you fetch. The scroll was needed; you didn't need to know why. So, Itachi had received instructions from his taichou and had departed from his home two months ago. He was supposed to sneak into Mist and get out. But things never go the way they are supposed to. The boy stood and glanced behind. On the previous branch were two red prints his sandals had left. He had covered his tracks for most of the way but when he entered the boarders close to the village he did not bother. He wanted to go home. He wanted to be calm again.
He lept off the three and continued on his way. He wanted to make this go away. Countless missions completed. Countless bodies. The paranoia was natural for a shinobi. However, he felt like he had lost his purpose. He had started training since the day he could walk. It was expected of him. He continued on his way to become the perfect tool partly because he wanted to, though. Protect the village. Protect the innocent. But as he became one of the elite, Itachi realized that individuals seeking power was the drive for most decisions in Hidden Lead. Preaching codes of obedience and loyalty to their tools, expecting everything from warriors, from him.
He jumped over a rooftop and looked up to the Hokage Tower. What happened when a tool saw what was behind the sugar colored mantra they were drilling inside its head? What happened when you were supposed to kill innocent for something you didn't believe in anymore?
Itachi stood on the rooftop a second longer. He landed effortlessly on the street and headed for the woods. It was too early for anyone to be out and about. He headed for the outskirts of the village knowing there would be no one there. He couldn't report to the Hokage yet. He wasn't sure he could keep a straight face. He kept walking. The fog was lifting and the first colors of the day were beginning to show. All Itachi could see was red. Everywhere. He passed a bench, remembering how he'd snapped a rouge's neck and left the body under a similar one. He saw a three and recalled a time when his AMBU squad caught and assassinated a target, hanging him from a branch, making it look like suicide.
Dwelling on his past experiences, at first the young boy didn't notice a small figure kneeling beside the path. Itachi's eyes caught a movement as the little child tried to sink lower into the greenery. He stopped in his tracks giving the child before him his full attention. The outskirts of the village were not gardened since seldom someone took strolls there. The grass was quite tall and wild flowers bloomed freely everywhere. The place possessed a virginity of sorts, untamed beauty.
A top of pink hear was visible. Itachi frowned. Between pink bangs and blades of grass, a pair of intense jade eyes was fixated on him. It seemed his time to sort out his inner conflict was over. His frowned deepened. A child shouldn't be playing here so early without supervision. He extended his senses but the only presence of humans were few and miles away.
The child stood up with shaking knees. Itachi realized they had been staring at each other for good five minutes. Her legs must have gotten stiff. His musings were confirmed when she started rubbing her lower leg with one hand. He slowly raised his eyes to her other one and saw a flower bouquet. Well, it could be hardly called that. Some of the flowers were bent in half from the strong hold she had on them and there could be seen a few weeds in there. He looked at her face which was barely visible beneath her light hair, but it was clear that she had not moved her eyes away from him.
When she was done massaging her small leg she kneeled down again and resumed starring.
How… odd.
Itachi rarely was taken aback and this small creature that was so out of place and acted so differently from his little brother had managed to surprise him. Careful not to break his blank expression he crouched, so they were at eye level, albeit a few feet apart. The little girl then seemingly remembered herself and stood up, one hand still clutching the flowers and the other raised to her moth. Itachi stood as well and raised his brow at her odd antics.
"Forgive me, nii-san. I was rude," she said with a squeaky voice. "I've forgotten my manners!" Itachi stiffened at her sudden proclamation. He didn't dare blink, unsure if the girl would still be there if he did so. Maybe his ruthless existence had finally taken its toll on his sanity. He became more certain of this when the girl started trying to move her bangs out of her face with one hand. Her hair, however, kept falling out of her small gasp and dangling playfully in front of her concentrated features. Her small lips scowled and her eyes fixated on him once more. Suddenly, they lit up and an excited expression appeared on her small face. She ran the distance between them, took his hand in hers and shoved the flowers in it. Itachi, too curious about the girl, decided not to react. He feared that any gesture on his part would scare her off. After all, his reactions towards others were calculated and based from studies and information gathered.
She then took a small step back and held back her bangs with both hands, so as to not cover her face.
"My name is Sakura! It's nice to meet you, nii-san!" she said with a smile. Itachi however, didn't move and her enthusiasm turned into uncertainty. She did not let go of her hair though and continued to look up at him with wide jade eyes. "Uh, I'm sorry I hid before. It's just a habit I suppose." The young boy crooked his head sideways and lowered his heavy eyelashes. "A habit?" he asked quietly, finally finding his voice after weeks of silence. The little girl's face lit up with a smile again. "Uh-huh!' she nodded eagerly, delighted that the gentle boy in front of her spoke. "The other kids used to bully me, so when I came across anyone I tried to make myself smaller so they wouldn't notice me," her cheeks turned slightly pink at his as she gazed at him shyly.
Itachi smiled gently at the small one. Her peers must have targeted her because of her unusual hair, as did his for his uncommon abilities. "Why are you holding your hair back?" He asked carefully, debating whether this would offend Sakura. His concerns disappeared as she practically beamed at him. "My friend protected me from the meanies! She told me that if I hide my forehead, they'd just make fun of it more. So I decided, when meeting someone new, to show it off so they don't get scared off if they see it later." At this she dropped her hands, covering most of her face once more. She parted her hair in the centre and tucked each half behind her ears. She looked at him concerned. "Anou… you're not scared of it… are you, nii-san?"
Itachi, who was listening to her explanation with a peculiar fascination, raised his eyebrows almost unnoticeably. Her forehead? That's what she was bullied for? He examined her facial structure once more. Yes, it was slightly bigger that the average ones, but her big, dove eyes drew the attention away. Her small nose was turned upwards, a small cupid-bow hiding almost shyly beneath it. Small pink lips, with the lower one bigger that the upper, were pressed together in anticipation. The boy realized she was waiting for an answer. "No, I'm not scared" he hesitated after that, but seeing her smile with relief pulled his words from his mouth almost without him noticing "You have a lovely forehead."
At this, the girl practically jumped with joy, a smile that was barely containable decorated her features. The corners of his lips turned upwards in an almost shy demeanor. The girl's quiet happiness was contagious. "You have a lovely forehead too, nii-san!" Itachi blinked slowly, surprised by her unusual compliment. He let out a small chuckle and shook his head. What an odd interaction. Sakura's gaze traveled to the hand he was holding the flowers with. Her thin eyebrows knotted together in worry.
Itachi could fill a knot in his stomach forming. He remembered the blood on him. He had forgotten his previous worries in the presence of the little child. She'd realize what he was now, she'd run, she'd be afraid of him just like everyone else. Killerkillerkiller. His breath caught in his throat. He could feel his heart beating. He wanted to close his lids, to hide from her. She was pure. He was everything but. He was stripped of everything, his childhood, his emotions, his bonds, his very skin. She, this merry, happy little girl who was able to take away the enormous burden of his life, even for a few short minuets, was going to see him for what he was. Monster. He felt the shame and guilt overwhelm him like a wave of cold water.
"I'm sorry," he said almost too quietly to be heard. "It seems that I've stained your flowers." He lifted his hand and her gaze followed it. Her small hands took the flowers from him. This was it, she'd be on her way, his image in her memory stained, like the flowers. He lowered his eyes, his distress almost evident. He felt two small hands clutching the one he had held the bouquet with. His gaze snapped to her face. Concern shone brightly there as she examined his roughened palm. Itachi's first instinct was to pull away. No,no,no, don't let her see. He wanted to hide from her as he did from his little brother, his okasan, even in times from his otosan. However, her touch was so gentle and so filled with concern that he could not bring himself to pull away.
"Are you hurt?" she asked. Itachi shook his head. She went back to examining his hand; the flowers lay beside her, long forgotten. She looked at him with understanding and intelligence he had not noticed before. "But you are, aren't you, nii-san?" His eyes winded and he jerked back his hand violently, making her squeak and tumble back in the process. She bit her bottom lip and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" He stared down at her. How… No one saw through him. Yes, he had let down his guard a little but she looked at him as if he was transparent. And more importantly, she had not turned away in disgust. On the contrary, she was concerned.
Realizing his silence was distressing the young girl, he let out the breath he had been holding and composed himself. He crouched in front of her and brushed away the few runaway tears that were rolling down her cheeks. "I should be the one apologizing, I shouldn't have scared you." She looked up at him them a small smile making its way to the surface. "You don't scare me, nii-san." The gentleness in her voice never left it. "Do you want to be my friend?" Seeing the older boy frown with confusion she quickly explained "When Ino-chan met me, I was lonely too. But now I have her and things are better." She looked at him hopefully. "Maybe if I am your friend you won't be so sad," she turned her gaze upward "but I'm not as confident as Ino-chan, so you'll have to give me time to learn to be a good friend, ne?"
Itachi blinked. Sad? A shinobi was not sad. Shinobi did not feel. But this short conversation with the little girl reminded him what it was like to be seen, to be at ease and not look underneath every gesture for a hidden motive. She reminded him of summer days when he secretly took breaks from practicing his shuriken to go splash rocks in the river. Yes, the clan, the village had taken away everything he had. This would be his one loophole. This would be the one person he did not pretend with. He would leave his sanity and his humanity in her small pocket and hope she managed to keep it intact.
He looked at her a full smile forming on his lips then. Sakura's own reflected it momentarily. "Yes, Sakura –chan, I'd like to be your friend if you'll have me. She just beamed at him, her eyes shining with what was close to euphoria, afraid that if she said anything he'd change his mind. "Let's go back to the village." She nodded. He helped her get up and together they headed back, the flowers lay forgotten. The sun was now in the sky, casting light on the streets. Sakura looked at him, suddenly remembering something. "Anou... what is your name, nii-san?" Itachi, for a brief moment hesitated, but reasoned that if she had seen the blood on his hands and not run, the Uchiha name would mean little two a seven-year old. "Itachi," he said quietly, still not looking at her. "Nice to meet you, itachi-san." He heard her say, joy evident in her quiet voice. The older boy smiled.