When I heard the knock on the door, the last person I expected it to be was him. Though we had never met it was clear as day who he was...
My hand was on the door nob. Like any other day I assumed it would another villager. I pulled it open then looked up at my visitor. It was no villager, some one much more dangerous. His angry expression said all it needed to the set off the alarms in my head. I don't know if it was a reflex or what, but my sharingan activated. The moment he saw my eyes, his anger faded to shock then was quickly replaced by confusion. In an instant he stepped forward, his long fingers wrapping around my throat. All of his anger returning at full force.
"Who are you?" He growled.
I struggled against his grip, gasping for air. I wish could have gotten the words out. "I..."
"Mommy?" A small voice called.
"Mama, who is he?" Another asked.
"Uh...Sasuke, I think you need to see this." A white haired man said, staring down at the children.
"Suigetsu. Not now." Sasuke said, his grip tightening on my throat.
"I get that your busy and all. Normally I wouldn't bother to stop you. But I really think you should take a look at this." Suigetsu argued, squatting down next to my three boys while looking them over . Sasuke sighed and turned around. All of the anger that he was harboring towards me seemed to have dissipated in an instant. There standing in front of him was three young children. Two looking around the age of four, one appearing to be only two, all spitting images of his older brother that died by his own hand. Sasuke's hand dropped from my throat as he took a step closer to the children. My body crumpled to the floor as I took steady deep breaths. Right in front of the boys he fell to his knees. His hands trembled as he lifted his fingers to their faces.
"Otosan?" One of them said looking into Sasuke's eyes as he touched their faces. Tears welled up in his eyes and threatened to spill over. For a moment all he saw was a young Itachi. The way he remembered him when they were young. Before he sacrificed everything to protect the village.
"This guy isn't Otosan." The other said lifting his fingers to Sasuke's face and tracing marks matching Itachi's on him. "Otosan has lines here." Sasuke turned this attention to the second boy. His features mirrored the first. Twins.
"But look," the first continued to argue passing the youngest child to Suigetsu. "If we do this." He finished hiding Sasuke's mouth with his hands. "It's Otosan, only with a different hairstyle." The second boy stepped forward and began rearranging Sasuke's hair. When he had it pulled back in a low ponytail, he peeked around to see his brothers reaction.
"He looks like Otosan, but so do we. Oni-chan, is she your mama too?" He asked pointing to me now, still sitting on the ground. The one holding his hair, Hikaru the first born twin, looked back at me then leaned over Sasuke's shoulder to look at his face. Yukine, the younger of the twins, lean round him to look at me, waiting for my response. Sasuke took the youngest child, Nanase, from Suigetsu and looked him over.
"Hikaru... Yukine..." I call out to the twins. "That man, he's..." I couldn't find the words to say. I still didn't know how to tell them about Itachi's passing. Itachi rarely came home. In fact, Hikaru and Yukine had just turned two the last time they had seen him, I'm surprised they remembered the lines of Itachi's face. I knew the man in front of me was the one who took his life. Yet, I couldn't hate him. I knew what Itachi went though to protect him. I knew that dying by Sasuke's hand was his wish. I knew Itachi was ill. I knew he was suffering just striving to live for the day Sasuke would free him from it all. Tears welled up in my eyes. "That man..."
"Otosan is home." Sasuke said pulling the twins into a hug after handing Nanase back to his friend. My eyes widened in surprise of his words. What is he thinking? "Take your brother and go play. I need to talk with Okasan about adult things." He told them, ruffling their hair.
"Hai!" They said in unison, smiling from ear to ear as Suigetsu handed the youngest to them. When the door closed behind them, Sasuke turned back to me reaching out his hand. I placed mine in his, letting him pull me to my feet. Once I had my balance, he threw it off again by pulling me into an embrace. I stood in his arms, wide eyed and confused.
"I'm sorry." He murmured, resting his forehead on my shoulder, letting the tears he had been holding back over flow.
"You've been taveling for a long time, please take a seat while I make some tea." I tell him, secretly handing him a handkerchief before stepping away. I assumed he was trying to hide this momentary breakdown from his friend.
I sighed, pulling the hot kettle from the stove. "He is exactly how you said he would be, Itachi." I thought as I dunked the tea bags into the boiling water. After setting it on a tray with a few cups I made my way back to the living room. Both Sasuke and his friend were sitting on the sofa, only Sasuke was fixated on the window were he could see the kids playing at the park.
I knelt down on the opposing side of the table and poured tea for Sasuke and the man he called Suigetsu. As I began to peel and slice fruit for them, he spoke again, asking the same question he had before, only now in a much more gentle tone.
"Who are you?" He asked, picking up his cup and fixating his gaze on me.
"My name is Katsuki. As you may have already guessed, I am...was a member of the hidden leaf's Uchiha clan." I explained while working my knife around an apple.
"How did you survive?" He asked, clearly knowing the answer. I sliced the peeled fruit and set it on a plate before removing the tops of strawberries.
"A week before Itachi carried out the mission he asked me to carry out a task for him. At the time I knew nothing of the mission that was bestowed upon him. The day of the task came and I left the down. It was a three day trip to my destination and back. Of course when I came back, there was nothing to come back to. Itachi had carried out his mission and disappeared. So I figured I would disappear also. There was no point in me staying where I clearly wasn't welcome. I packed the few things I could carry and left. I was wandering through a forest when night fell. It was then Itachi appeared before me and guided me to this small village. He told me 'This is your home now, as long as you stay here I'll be able to protect you.' as we stood outside of this small apartment. Of course I stayed, even after he told me about the mission he carried out. Somewhere along the way I fell in love with him. We got married, well exchanged promise rings almost six years ago. We weren't able to actually get married. With him being considered a rogue shinobi it would have been hazardous. There couldn't be a paper trail." I explained. "Not only did he protect the Leaf's future, but he also thought about the future of his clan. By joining the Akatsuki he was able to relay vital information to Konoha. Telling them when and where their next attacks would be. Even when playing the role of a villain he was still true to the Leaf."
"I'm sure I know the answer to this already, but the three children..." Suigetsu began.
"My sons are all I have left of Itachi. Hikaru and Yukine are twins. They just turned four a few months ago. Hikaru is six minutes older. He is rambunctious and a little ball of energy. It's impossible to get him to slow down even for a minute. Yukine is the younger twin. He is a little more laid back then Hikaru, but has just as much energy. Nanase is two, will be three in almost five months." I answered.
"So you have been raising three children on your own." Sasuke asked, I simply nodded as I pushed the plate of fruit closer to them.
"I also have a question for you." I say not daring to look up. I could feel Sasuke's gaze on me. "Why did you tell them that their father was home?"
"They are my responsibility now." He said looking back out the window. My head snapped up.
"I-I don't understand." I stammer.
"I'm the reason you're raising them alone. I'm the reason they don't have a father." He said looking me dead in the eyes. "I intend to take responsibilty and play the role of their father. Itachi gave me a piece of paper with this adress on it right before his reanimated body dissipated. His last words were 'Don't let them suffer.' Naturally I thought he meant for me to put you out of your misery. Now I see that he wanted me to help you so that you don't suffer." He explained. I stared at him, words would not come to me. Was he being serious? "He trusted me with this final secret, I intend to protect it the way he had me."
The loud bang of the door slamming open scared me, pulling me from my dumbfoundedness. Before I could even register what was going on Sasuke had jumped up and was cradling Yukine in his arms. Hikaru came through the door with Nanase on his back. Yukine's loud cries echoed through my ears.
"Hikaru, what happened?" I asked kneeling infront of Yukine and Sasuke.
"Yukine jumped off the swing and landed on a sharp rock. It cut his leg pretty bad." Hikaru explained, close to tears. "Is he going to be okay? It's my fault, Mama. I dared him to, I never thought he would." Tears began falling from his eyes.
"Calm down, everything will be okay." I told Hikaru, pulling him into a hug. I smoothed down Hikaru's hair with my finger tips as I tried to calm him down while watching Sasuke pull the rock out of Yukine's leg. Yukine's screams grew louder. I covered Hikaru's ears and turned him away before he could see all of the blood. Suigetsu handed him a bottle of water and rag from his pack. After he poured he water over the wound, rinsing the blood away to better asses the damage, he dabbed the wound clean.
"That's a pretty deep cut." Sasuke said covering it with the rag again. "Suigetsu, give me a gauze pad and something to wrap round it. We need to keep pressure on it for the bleeding to stop." Suigetsu pulled a backpack from next to the couch and began to dig through it.
"Here's the gauze, I can't find anything to wrap around it." Suigetsu told him, still digging in the bag. Sasuke tore the gauze pack open with his teeth as he opened a small canister of salve. After smudging a generous amount of the salve onto the gauze, he quickly pulled away the blood soaked rag and placed the gauze over the cut.
"The salve will take the pain away." He told Yukine as he hicced and wiped away his tears.
"It's not hurting as bad now." Yukine said with a shaky voice.
"I'm almost done." Sasuke said taking the hem of his shirt in his hands and taring a strip off to wrap around the gauze. "There we go." He said finishing the knot.
"You're not going to kiss it?" Yukine asked looking up at Sasuke with blood shot eyes. "Mommy always kisses it." He said looking down at the bandage. With out hesitation Sasuke brought his lips down a kissed Yukine's leg. "Mommy, you too." He pointed to it. I nodded and kissed his leg. "Now it feels double better." He claimed, still sitting in Sasuke's lap.
"Go get cleaned up, it's almost time for dinner." I told Hikaru and Yukine as I took Nanase from Suigetsu.
"I want to return to the Hidden Leaf." Sasuke said, getting to his feet while watching the boys walk down a hallway.
"We can go now if you want." Suigetsu said pointing to the door.
"Katsuki, I was talking to you." Sasuke corrected.
"Then go. You don't need my approval." I say as I place Nanase in a play pen, then head to the kitchen.
"I want you and the children to come with me." I turned to look at him upon hearing what he said.
"Just because they welcome you, doesn't mean they will welcome me the same way." I say turning away from him.
"I'll make sure they will. Trust me." He tried to reassure me. I continued into the kitchen to set the table, thinking about his words. "We can make it there in a half day. Plus I know someone who can look at Yukine's leg. I treated it with what I had on hand, there's no telling how much damage was done to the muscle."
"Not with the children. There's no way we'd make it there in a half day." I tell him.
"We'll carry them. We'll leave early in the morning, we should be able to make it to the village a little after noon."
"How will I explain the children? Even if they know the truth about Itachi we won't be easily accepted. Just knowing that's Itachi's blood flows through their veins will make people look down on them." I whisper, making sure the kids couldn't hear as they enter the room.
"I'll tell them that they are my own." He says nonchalantly.
"Sasuke, you are eighteen years old. No one is going to believe that you have three kids. Let alone two four year olds." As soon as I got the words out of my mouth Sasuke grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the kitchen and around the corner. He pushed his fingers though my long brown hair, pinning my small frame to the wall with his body. Suigetsu casually walked away pretending not to see, then entered the kitchen.
"Why wouldn't they believe it? Whether I'm fourteen or eighteen, I'm still a man. I still have urges. Who says that while I was out I didn't satisfy those urges?" He asked leaning in closer.
"Okay, let's say you did act upon those urges. You did so multiple times with the same woman?" I asked trying to bore a hole in his story.
"Yes, because I knew she wouldn't say anything."
"Then wouldn't she have been scared of you?" I continue to try.
"Not if she were special. Maybe she was the only one I could be gentle with. Maybe it was because I trusted her." He tries to reason. I grunt in frusration and slip away from him. "Don't get me wrong, I don't intend to be lovey-dovey with you. But I can act as well as anyone. I'll do whatever it takes to redeem the Uchiha name. Those three will become great shinobi." He says.
"They aren't you kids to be deciding that for." I spit back at him before leaving him standing alone.
Revised, Edited and Updated. 3.18.2015
© Nanashima Nanase 2015