Itachi, 13, was lurking among the leaves, numbness shivering up and down his spine from the long waiting. His senses were painfully sharp, swallowing all the visional patches of the darkness and the brakeless roar of silence. Invisible animals – or kobolds – fidgeted around him, some sleepily, some nervously, stealing forwards to hunt down tonight's dinner. Some of them were only his imagination, he guessed. It had been ages since he had been waiting here for something to move in the house he was observing through an opening in the thick foliage. As soon as something moved, he was to run and help at disarming the evil. But nothing moved and he wondered if his partner was already dead.
His muscles tensed on their own as he sensed a presence. If asked, he could not have answered at what exactly told him about its existence. Fighters were like this – they sensed.
He listened to the silence louder than ever, trying to take even, slow breaths; still he heard his own heartbeats so loud in his head that he was afraid it could be heard miles away.
Nothing stirred. Not left, not right, not behind, not below.
Then a shadow stretched out next to him.
Inhaling sharply was a hard task due to the palm pressing onto his mouth.
"Done." said the misty voice somewhere close to his ear.
Kicking the man or breaking at least three of his fingers could have gone with too much noise, so he just tore the hand off his face.
"You did the entire job?" he breathed in disbelief and maybe a bit sulking.
"Yes. Shall we go home now, captain?"
The Uchiha would have loved to retort the scarecrow, but he waved and they stole out of the large garden.
On their way home, sunflowers and a sea of moonlight surrounded their route they chose in the huge field – they avoided the road, it could have been dangerous to meet anyone on such a secret mission.
Finding it alright to raise their voices again, Itachi decided to keep his damn pride and tell the scarecrow off for never going with the plan.
"Why the hell do we discuss it before if you always violate the orders?" he interrogated without any preliminary notes, his voice colorless but flexible as always.
"Maa, I'm sorry." Kakashi's tone was full of smile as in most cases. "Though always is a bit sharp, isn't it? There are times when you come up with something quite performable."
Itachi looked like he always looked even while he wanted to tear off heads and eat them.
"For your information, those previous discussions are to make everyone agree and see the point. If you don't see it, why do you agree?"
Kakashi scratched his head humming; their swords clattered quietly at every step.
"You see, I'm not always fit for a plan; there are people who just act on their first--"
"Bullshit, I don't need subordinates who hold me for a fool, Kakashi-san."
Indeed, Kakashi was excellent at planning ahead.
"Sorry, captain."
A leaf of sunflower brushed against Itachi's bare shoulder, and he thought that this voice was used to say his name aloud. At times.
"So where's the limit between the mission and civil life?" he asked, his look not meeting the scarecrow who turned towards him, probably smiling.
"Perhaps the uniform decides."