Author's Note: Sorry, another story idea stirring in my brain for a while. This is in our world, I guess you could say. So, let me know what you think! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Warning: None, well, maybe language.
Word Count: 3,975
They sat in the cold, hospital waiting room doing just that. Waiting. The youngest boy in the room taps his foot against the floor anxiously. Itachi can feel his eyes darting over to him. Both of them hoping the same thing. Lie, this entire thing is a lie. Mikoto had no idea what she was talking about. She was wrong in her assumption. There's no way it could be him. There was no way it could be Itachi.
A nurse walks towards them, clipboard in hand. Everyone tenses up, watching as she draws nearer, but then she turns at the last moment and enters the nurses station right next to them. They all sinks into their seats, not quite relaxed.
Itachi didn't like it in the hospital. Why did he agree to have them do this? Ultimately, did it even matter? So much of Itachi's life has passed so far without knowing, why did it matter to know now? All it would ultimately do was take away something that Itachi spent much of his free time waiting for the next opportunity. The next chance to get his special fix.
But now, his world is shattering around him. What would he do if it ended up being true? What would he do if it turned out that Mikoto was right? Itachi wouldn't be able to stay with them, that's for sure.
Itachi came here often. It was just something that he would do when he wasn't working himself to the bone. Itachi often came with friends. The music was good and so was the food. And there was a lot of friendly people. Even if Itachi didn't end up going home with someone for the night, or slip away even for a few minutes for some good time, he would end up having a good night regardless of whether he got some or not.
It was a Thursday night, so there wasn't a lot of people there. Which only worked in Itachi's favor. He's not much for big crowds and being the center of attention. Itachi runs a hand through his long black hair, working out a tangle as he watches Deidara, Konan and Obito walk back over to them, holding drinks for the table. They set everyone's drinks in front of them before sitting down.
"Is Rin coming later?" Itachi asks Obito. The black haired man digs his phone out of his pocket and squints at it.
"Um yeah, she was getting off early from her shift at the hospital in about a half hour. She has to go home and change before she comes here," Obito says and drops his phone onto the table. He hesitates for a moment before reaching across the table to grab some fries from the fry basket they have sitting in the center of the table, stuffing them into his mouth and chewing. He hums happily.
"It's good that she's getting more field time. When is she going to be a full time nurse?" Itachi asks, leaning on his fist. His elbow on the table and dark hair sliding over his shoulder to settle on the wooden top.
Obito swallows and squints off across the dance floor. "Uh, I think... next month? Next week? Never? I have no idea. She told me, but I wasn't really paying attention..." he grins. "I love seeing her in that nurse's uniform."
Sasori looks over at Obito with a blank stare. "You are so in love with that girl, it's gross."
"Seriously," Hidan says, tossing back his drink, "many a chapters in Obito's life start out with 'Obito walked meekly into the room looking stupid and whipped'." That gives him a few snickers from the others at the table.
Kakuzu shakes his head, glaring across the table at the albino. "There is no way you thought that up on the fly."
Hidan stuck his tongue out at the green eyed man, before looking back to Obito. "Seriously, though, she's yankin' you around by your short hairs most of the time."
Konan and Itachi both scrunch their faces at that. Konan gives him a dry look with a soft, "nasty, Hidan, nasty" before turning back to her boyfriend, Yahiko. He kisses her cheek before looking to the red head next to him and the two grin at each other.
"Come on now, Hidan," Yahiko says sagely, "any sane man would know that so long as your woman is happy, there is no need to be strung along... by any soft of dragging around." He shakes his head and grins down at the girl under his arm.
Kisame, who's been watching a girl across the dance floor, finally climbs to his feet and with a little wave of farewell to his friends he makes his way over there. Hidan and Kakuzu, as they watch him go, make wolf noises. Itachi sips his coke thoughtfully, listening to Konan tell a story about the kids that she teaches at the community center different forms of origami.
"They're getting good," she says finally. "I'm really excited for them."
Itachi watched, throughout the night, as Rin showed up, and dragged Obito to the dance floor. Then Konan pulled Yahiko away to dance. Hidan and Kakuzu went to pick up girls at the bar and a girl came to pick up Nagato. Eventually Deidara and Sasori slipped away to be alone and Itachi settled for watching the moving bodies on the dance floor and looking around the dark room.
Itachi's eyes settle on a group of three high school students that walk in around ten. He purses his lips watching as they look around the room curiously. All of them are dressed casual but something about them gave Itachi the impression that they come from the better part of town. Their designer clothes and prim and proper stance.
The first one he noticed was the boy with the wild blond hair. He's spinning around the room with his eyes wide like saucers. He reaches out and clutches the other boy's arm, lips flying. He's saying something at rapid speed, but the music drowns it out. He's in skinny jeans, littered with artifical holes and a blue and orange t-shirt. His skin is tanned and he has strange scratches on both sides of his face. Three to be exact.
The girl in the group has long, light pink hair and vibrant green eyes. She's wearing a long black and red dress that hugs her form perfectly. It makes her pale skin look good. Her pink hair is pulled back into a long, loose braid hanging over her shoulder. Her make up is done up casually. She has long, hoop earrings dangling from her ears and she grab's the remaining boy's other hand, also looking around in awe.
The final boy, the tallest of the three, nearly dwarfing the small girl next to him, is a pale skinned, dark hair, dark eyed boy. Even from this distance, Itachi can tell he's an Uchiha. Those looks are hard to replicate. He's in dark wash jeans and gray tank top with a dark blue short sleeve button up. It's left open showing off his tall and lean body.
All three of them look around the room in fascination. Itachi shakes his head and turns back to look at the dance floor, eyes scanning fot the other Uchiha, spinning his long time girlfriend around in perfect sync with the music. His eyes flash over to Itachi and he makes a subtle sign for him and Rin to come over. He nods a gestures around as if to say, "After this song". Itachi nods and looks back over at the trio to see the tallest of them staring at him, dark eyes staring intently.
The dark haired boy stares at him as if he's trying to figure something out. Itachi leans forward onto the table, staring back at him, he reaches up under his neck to touch his necklace, twirling one of the three rings. The two stare at one another for a long moment before Itachi smiles charming, feeling pleasure wash over him when the boy looks away.
He turns his attention away to see that the song had ended and Rin and Obito were making their way back over to him. Both are sweating and winded. They drop into their seats. Obito sucks in a lungful of air and asks, "Whatcha want?"
Itachi nods over the Uchiha's shoulder to the three making their way over to a table not too far from them. Ten feet at the most. Obito turns to look, following his gaze. It lands on the table and he makes a noise of confusion before he turns back to Itachi with high eyebrows. "Nice eye."
Rin looks around. "What do you mean?"
"That boy over there at that table is an Uchiha," Itachi says. "Dark hair. He's with the blond boy and the pink haired girl."
Rin turns around in her seat and scans the room. Her eyes land on the table and she spins around, eyes wide. "Oh my god, that's the girl, Obito!"
She gets a blank stare in response. She shakes her head at him, eyes still wide. After a few long moments of silence, Obito finally says, "What girl are we talking about?"
"The pink haired girl," Rin says blandly.
Obito gives her a look. "I know that, but where do we know her from?"
"Not you, me," Rin says. Obito makes an 'oh' face, looking over at Itachi and shrugging as Rin continues, "My boss, Tsunade, that's her granddaughter and said to be the one to take over the hospital by the age of thirty-five." Rin's eyes are huge. "People at the hospital said she was nice, and had unmistakable pink hair. I didn't think they meant it literally. Her hair is pink!"
"I see that," Obito says. "So what does that mean for us?"
Rin bounces in her seat, a blush of excitement working it's way across her already flushed skin. "We should go talk to her. Or, maybe we shouldn't. What if she doesn't want people talking to her that know her grandmother? What if she's actually not all that nice? What if I get fired for talking to her? But if I don't, am I missing an opportunity to get in good with the boss?" Rin's forehead hits the table hard, making both Itachi and Obito flinch. "What do I do, Obito?"
The Uchiha shrugs. "I don't know. Go say hi, introduce yourself. If it looks like it might turn sour, leave."
Rin shakes her head. "I can't."
Obito gives her a look before sighing and turning back to Itachi. "Okay. So, have you spoken with that brother of mine?"
Itachi nods. "Yeah, he said he'll be there Friday. He just hasn't gotten around to RSVP-ing yet. But he said put him down. He'll be a little late, though."
Obito waves that off. "No, it's fine. Shisui was never one to be on top of things, you probably reminded him and he gave you that shit answer to hide his ignorance." Obito rolls pitch black eyes.
"Obito," Rin whines.
"Rin," Obito whines back, reaching out to ruffle her long brown hair. "Come one, just do it. I'll go with you if you want-"
"Yes!" Rin says, jumping up. She grabs Obito's arm and tugs him to his feet. Obito sends Itachi a begging look and the long haired man smiles back kindly. He nods and stands as well, much to the Uchiha's relief. He follows the tense girl over to their table and stands back so that she can speak.
Rin shifts nervously when all three pairs of eyes turn to her. She squeezes Obito's hand so tightly between his that he flinches, but he doesn't pull away. He's loyal like that. "Um," Rin says slowly. "A-Are you the granddaughter of Tsunade Senju?" She asks the girl. For a moment the girl looks curious, then she smiles friendly, standing up and offering a hand.
"I am. Sakura Haruno. And you are a patient of my grandmother's?" she asks. Rin barely has it in her right mind to reach out and shake the girl's hand.
She shakes her head slowly. "N-No. I'm one of the nurses at her hospital. Rin Nohara."
The girl-Sakura, very befitting considering her hair-shakes her hand firmly, not seeming to notice Rin's stutter or her shaking. Rin was so sweet, Itachi thought, and was easily intimidated. He just hoped this girl wouldn't turn out to be nasty. Studying her now, up close, she didn't seem malicious or to be pulling Rin along. She was just genuinely friendly.
Or so Itachi hoped.
"It's nice to meet you, Rin, how long have you been working for my grandmother?" Sakura asks, sitting down.
"A few months," Rin admits. "Almost half a year. I'm interning right now so I'm nothing important but I'm really honored to have been accepted into her program." Sakura nods in understanding.
"Grandma's a little scary isn't she?" Sakura laughs at Rin's spastically shaking head, Itachi wondered if it was going to fly off her shoulders, but she stopped before it could. Sakura waves her politeness away. "Don't let her scare you, though, she is nice. A little hard to get along with, but once she sees that you are genuine and hard working, you'll be fine."
Rin nods, relaxing a little. Obito finally pries his hand from hers and wiggles his fingers, closing it into a fist and opening it again.
"That sounds like someone we know," the blond says, grinning to the dark haired Uchiha on the girl's other side, that Itachi didn't notice was staring at him intently. But, as per usual with Uchiha, he doesn't miss a beat.
"Sure does," he says in a low voices, eyes still locked on Itachi's. The long haired man has to wonder if his glasses glinted the light, or if he could see Itachi's strange gray eyes.
"I'm Naruto Namikaze, by the way," the blond says, giving a little wave. His smile is toothy and very friendly. Ah, so he's the son of the Hokage. Itachi knew he looked familiar.
"Sasuke Uchiha," the dark haired boy says, finally pulling his eyes away from Itachi to Obito. "Cousin."
Obito nods. "Yeah, hey, Sasuke. For those of you who don't know; I'm Obito Uchiha."
Naruto looks at Sasuke curiously. Sasuke gives him a level look. "His dad is my dad's brother. We're closely related but he's twelve years older than us. Thirty this year?" Sasuke says. Obito nods.
"Friday, actually."
Sasuke nods. "Yes, I remember. My parents want to drop in before your friends show up to give you their gift. They said something about four-forty or four-fifty, if I recall. Mom said they'll be quick."
Obito smiles. "Let Auntie Mikoto know that she doesn't have to do that. Everyone is welcome. They can stay as long as they like."
Sasuke adjusts in his seat, nodding slowly. "Sure." His eyes slide past his cousin to Itachi, dark eyes endless. "And who are you?"
The corner of Itachi's mouth quirks. He wants to know his name. Interesting. Either he was raised very properly, or he's curious about him. Time to see. Itachi shakes his head. "Just a friend of Obito's." A muscle in the young Uchiha's forehead twitches and Itachi smiles pleasantly. He touches Obito's shoulder, getting the older man to look at him. "I'm going to head out. I'll see you at your party Friday."
"Okay, see you," Obito says.
"Bye!" Rin waves, then decides to step away to give Itachi a hug. She kisses his cheek before pulling back and smiling lightly. "Drive home safe."
"I will," Itachi says softly, eyes flickering over the clearly annoyed younger Uchiha. Itachi nods respectfully. "Young master." He turns on his heel and stalks toward the door, only stopping to drop some money onto his table to pay for his portion of the food and drink, before leaving. He doesn't turn to look back to be sure, but he can feel the young Uchiha's gaze on his back.
Itachi has no wish to deal with children who are unsure of their sexuality. It was clear from the way the young boy watched him that he was interested in Itachi, but also a little nervous. He's not sure if a man is really what he wants and Itachi doesn't much like playing around, especially with kids. Although, luckily for Itachi, if this Sasuke does express in showing up to the party and perusing him, then maybe he'll play with the cute kid for a while.
Itachi shakes his head, running a hand through the long, thin locks. Obito would be annoyed with Itachi if he was playing around with his under-aged cousin. But then again, Obito knows Itachi. He's too... alluring for his own good. Itachi is very aware of his affect on people. The girls swoon over his long eyelashes and deep voice and the boy love his tall and skinny build and effeminate features.
Once Friday rolls around, Itachi meets up with his best friend, Shisui, Obito's little brother, only three years older than Itachi, and the two head to Obito and Rin's house. Itachi sits quietly in the passenger seat as Shisui blabbers on and on from one topic to another, not really noticing the other's lack of participation in the conversation, but that was just them. They are thick as thieves, have been for a long time now. Since Itachi was thirteen and Obito was sixteen.
"He's going to do it tonight," Shisui says, pulling Itachi from his thoughts. He was staring blankly at the clock on the radio, 7:54, it said. They were way late. Obito is going to kill Shisui.
"What did you say?" Itachi says, looking over at his best friend.
Shisui grins, glancing over at Itachi for a moment before turning his attention back to the road. "I said, he's going to ask Rin to marry him tonight. He showed me the ring. It's beautiful."
Itachi smiles. "That's good for him. He's been in love with her forever and they've been dating for five years now. It's about time, if you ask me."
Shisui nods. "My mom and dad have been praying for this their entire lives."
Itachi looks out the window, tilting his head slightly. "Isn't it strange we've been friends for so long and I've never met your parents?" Shisui makes a scoffing noise at that, looking over at Itachi for just a moment before turning his eyes back to the road.
"I've never met your parents either, Itachi," Shisui says, smiling.
Itachi closes his eyes, reaching up to pull his glasses off and then rub his face, tiredly."That makes two of us. I was abandon so long ago, I don't remember their faces or even their voices. All I remember is the tune of a lullaby my mother used to sing to me. I guess. Over the years, it's been getting harder to really remember what it was like." Itachi lets out a long winded sigh. "How much is true memory? How much is just made up in my own mind?"
"Oh yeah," Shisui says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sorry man. You were born in the Land of Rain, right?"
"During the war between Konoha and Ame," Itachi says. "At least, that's where I remembering being at the end of the war, kami... over ten years ago. I was ten when the war ended."
"Thirteen," Shisui murmurs. "Then where did you go again?"
"Suna for two years, then I was sent here because of the education," Itachi says, wiping the fingerprints from the lens before slipping it back on. "Thankfully." The two young men smile at each other. Shisui reaches out and flicks some of Itachi's long hair before turning back to the road.
"I don't get along with my old man all that well," Shisui admits, "He never approves of my friends, so I just never bothered bringing you around. Obito and I like people that he can't stand and he constantly talks bad about them. So I've begun hiding my friends from them long ago. If they're there today, I'll introduce you if it means so much to you." The two sit in silence the rest of the way to Obito and Rin's house. There is a ton of cars parked out front.
Itachi finally turns to Shisui after the older man turns his car off. "If you are that against it, don't worry. It's not like it matters to me much whether I'm liked or not by them." He shrugs and opens the door and steps out of the car. The air is cool against his face. It feels nice as opposed to how warm it's been for the last couple of weeks.
Shisui falls into step next to Itachi as the two make it back the chattering people on the yard and into the air conditioned house. They are greeted at the door by Rin. She's wearing a long sun dress. She pulls Shisui into her arms immediately, kissing his cheek. He picks her up and spins her around before letting her down. She giggles, pulling away.
"Oh, Rin, love of my life, what would Obito say about our not-so-secret love affair?" Shisui jokes.
Rin shakes her head and slaps his chest. "He'd kill you."
Shisui nods, looking upset. "Yeah, and I'm his baby brother. What a colossal asshole." He keeps that upset look for a moment longer, before grinning broadly. Rin shakes her head again before turning to Itachi.
"I'm so glad that you're here, Itachi." She hugs him close too.
"Sorry we're late," Itachi murmurs, hugging her back.
Rin waves his words away. "Don't worry about it, Itachi. I know it was all of Shisui's fault," she says in her feather soft voice, winking at Shisui's grunt. "Just come in and enjoy the party. Obito is in the back with Sasuke."
With that she turns and walks away, deeper into the house, leaving the two behind to follow. Shisui scratches his messy black hair, tilting his head. "Sasuke's here?" he asks to no one. Then he realizes Itachi staring back at him and he explains, "I don't think I've ever seen Sasuke express any sort of attention to family. I mean, yeah, he and I are cool and he like Obito more than me anyway, but still... it's weird." He shrugs.
Itachi feels a smile tug at the corner of his mouth as he makes his way into the house, feeling a shiver of pleasure create goosebumps along his arms. "I think I know what he's here for," he murmurs to no one. He heads toward the back of the house, wondering just how hard to get he's going to be playing with the young and confused Uchiha boy.