A/N all the waaaaaay at the bottom ! Till then enjoy !
Disclaimer: I do not own naruto not the characters !
Chapter 2- Irritants & Loss
A few minutes into their pace towards the festival, Sasuke was already deciding what type of skewered food they'd be feasting on.
"Did you not already eat dinner at home Sasuke?" Itachi inquired, amused.
"But nii-san, Kiba told me all about the-"
"Roasted tomatoes?"He guessed casually.
"Yes! And the-"
"Rice balls?" Itachi's eyebrows quirked and did that little thing that made Sasuke giggle.
"Yes, yes!" Glossy black eyes widened and sparkled at Itachi. The older Uchiha held back a chuckle.
"Is that right?"
"Yup!"
"Well then we'll have to practice extra hard tomorrow, right Sasuke?" Asked Itachi expectantly.
"Ok!" Sasuke said, delightfully sealing the deal.
The Lantern festival was held out in the open on one of the vast training grounds. Dozens of different colored tents were organized into several rows, each one offering something different like water balloon games, ramen, fruit crêpes and even roasted tomatoes . The most beautiful thing about it though, were the various types of lanterns that were strung throughout the festival and hung above the walkways. Iridescent, rainbow and lanterns of all colors weaved through the tops of the tents creating geometrical shapes if one were to see it from up above or far away. Even though the center of the festival was mournful to some, uplifting chatter filled the air, creating an aura of encouragement and unity for the people of Konoha. As the two brothers slowly arrived hand in hand, a mans spontaneous voice called out to Itachi over the crowd. A gray haired man was spotted next to a food, lazily waving at the Uchiha siblings.
"Nii-san, whose that?" Sasuke whispered curiously.
"A sensei." Itachi tersely replied.
"Is he a good sensei?"
Itachi paused. "...Yes."
Saying anything other than yes would've stumped Sasuke. Kakashi wasn't a bad man, he was just to put plainly, weird. But the man had upheld a great sense of leadership and keenness on their ANBU missions they completed together, regardless of his usual laid back facade. He pulled his younger brother along with him towards the masked man and patted him along to go buy a roasted tomato, to which Sasuke happily obliged to with a nod.
"Yo, Itachi-kun." Kakashi greeted as the dark haired boy beside him crossed his arms and flattened his back against the tent, keeping away from the crowds flow. Random people always found ways to accidentally "bump" into him and despite the high chances of it happening in such a populated area he took all measures to avoid it.
"Hello sensei." He replied, keeping a close on Sasuke who stood in a line with some of his little classmates.
"Are you enjoying the night, Itachi-kun?"
The subtle strings of sympathy were weaved into Kakashi's small talk and were not gone unnoticed by Itachi, who was appreciative of it, to some degree.
He solemnly peered up into the night sky searching for some satisfaction, but his attention wandered back to a cheery Sasuke who was trying a little too hard to nab a goldfish prize. A pang struck in his heart, he and Shisui uses to do that as children too. Kakashi's question was suddenly irritating, his heart wasn't quite ready to be opened by someone yet. "Sasuke seems delighted enough."
"And Sasuke's delight makes you feel delighted as well?"
Itachi did nothing to hide his frown as he assessed where this conversation was headed. Whatever Kakashi was trying to get at made him uncomfortable, but that was a feeling he would never show, even as giggling girls slid by him, catching glimpses of the Uchiha genius then running off to fangirl to their friends. Itachi began to ignore his surroundings. If he had it his way, he would filter out all the annoying girls, no, annoying people in general from the citizens of Konoha. At this moment, he might have included Kakashi. One would be surprised by the things that made Itachi uncomfortable, and looming admirers combined with fancy talk were two of many.
"Your getting quite philosophical sensei."
"Hm, just philosophical enough to say that another child of Sasuke's age is per se, not feeling as a delighted as he may be this fine night."
Itachi's thoughts momentarily processed, then failed. The most puzzled look Kakashi has ever seen on Itachi slowly washed over the younger shinobi's face. This 'most puzzled look' turned out to be just a furrow of the brow and a blank stare.
The gray haired man slipped his hand into his green vest and pulled out a pocket sized book with such comical glib, that it made Itachi's demeanor fall, unamused as he read the cover.
"Another one of your books?"
"Page 23, line 6." He tapped the cover referring to the book. "This ones a poetry version. A few word replacements here and there, and you could almost make any phrase sound poetic."
Itachi shrunk from the glee in the mans voice and refrained from an unnecessary comment. With an inward sigh he said, "I don't understand what you mean."
"Hm, it seems as though tonight will be an eventful eventful one." Kakashi spoke nonchalantly. "Especially for a certain classmate of Sasuke's."
He caught on. "A child?"
"The Hyuga heiress to be precise."
Itachi's eyebrows furrowed, this time in concentration as he sharpened his senses. On their way to the festival, something hadn't felt right to him. The stale night air itself was full of uniquely potent chakra which unnerved him, but he had ignored it, just wanting to get Sasuke to the festival. As for the girl, he had heard gossip about the Hyuga heiress coming from his ANBU team. The disappointment to her own clan. A weak, small girl who was unlikely to amount to anything. Such spreading information meant nothing to Itachi, even if sources were reliable, he believed that you had to see something in order to believe it. How the Hyuga heiress was involved in this scouting he was called out to, was what he wanted to know.
"I suspected you were going to flat out ignore my request, to be honest."
"If it was a request from only you sensei, perhaps I would have declined, due to your lack of punctuality and irresponsibility of time. But denying a request directly from the Hokage is would be a fools choice."
Kakashi sheepishly accepted the insults and took the full blow, shrugging his shoulders. "Ouch..."
Yes, Uchiha Itachi would have rather laid alone in the dark back at the his household, undisturbed by odd sensei's and large compounds, nonetheless the day before the Hokage had privately spoke to him after an ANBU mission, asking that he be a scout at Konoha's lantern festival, while his mothers suggestion was a last push. His thoughts at that moment were wondering as to why, but questioning the Hokage was out of the question.
"Can you guess where the chakra flow is coming from, Itachi-kun?"
"Is it necessary for me to know?" Itachi wanted to ask as he peering at the taller, older shinobi.
This was a question that would have been asked, but he gathered all the factors leading up to know, an heiress, a request from the Hokage, vastly different chakra lingering in the air out of place... Leaked chakra only occurred if the user had little to no control over it, Itachi knew this much. Chakra being released so freely could cause a trail which was a moderate issue unless the person was being chased after, but in the worst occasion, free flowing chakra would equal out to wasted chakra and therefore could leave the owner disarmed and vulnerable, while leading to an catastrophe of a charge explosion. Misplaced chakra was like a time bomb just waiting to be set off.
"Hmmm, you'd wonder." Kakashi yawned, slowly.
Itachi froze, a sense that something was about to go down gave him shivers, but which he easily dismissed. A palm to the face was really tempting at the moment. All of a sudden two jumpy Hyuga maids rushed by in a mess, creating wind that brushed Itachi's raven strands against his face.
'...How out of place. Hyuga never attended such parties. Wait...' An abrupt click in his mind occurred, sense suddenly became understandable. He cursed himself for having such delaying and unsharp thoughts. The toll of Shisui's death was getting to him. That wasn't good. Being in such an unstable right of mind was not good.
"...You'd wonder why the Hyuga heiress would be wandering around forbiddingly at such as festival, and wonder why there hasn't been a soul out there who has tried to capture her."
A breach in the peaceful air caused the two shinobi to snap their attentions to silent chaos drifting from the core of the nearby forests.
"That's our queue. Follow me, Itachi-kun."
A/N: Oh my it's been about a year since I wrote the first chapter ! I even fixed up and added to the first chapter lmao. I'm sorry to disappoint my followers ;v; yeah I said I would include some ItaHina interaction in this super short chapter BUT i promise all the good stuff is in the next one ! :3 Kakashi and Itachi to the rescue !
I wanted Kakashi to be that person Itachi could go to once in a while and maybe coughthematchmakercough LOL who knows . Just an FYI even I was puzzled when I wrote Kakashi's semi poetic dialogue haha !
And I have to just say this; a week after writing the first chapter last year I had started writing the second chapter and forgot about for, yup, over 90 days and when I went to check back it was gone. Gone. And that just discouraged me I was done ,thus the latest update ever. I somehow found some strength to write this short second chapter and I have ideas for future chapters but I can't promise that they'll come out fast. School is a priority and my spring break is about to come to an end. D:
Anyways I hope you enjoyed this chapter with the cute Uchiha bro's, roasted tomatoes, and a dork Kakashi, reviews are always so appreciated . Any ideas or tips are appreciated too, and I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes/confusion !
Have a good day.~ Oh and happy Easter ! This is posted on Easter heheh.
