Hello everyone! I am so happy about the feedback I got last chapter! Therefore this chapter is dedicated to: LostLonelyLies and Kyid! Thank you both of you for reviewing my first chapter. I was so happy when I saw two reviews! I know you will think that two reviews is nothing much to be so psyched about, but believe me, even a single word in a review makes me break down the room with happiness!
LostLonelyLies: Thank you! Even if it was a single word ;)
Kyid: Patience, my grasshopper XD The plot will unfold every chapter. If I write it down, it won't be much of a surprise right! And yes, it was quite only the start, so naturally my mind won't respond and I wrote a short chapter Xp Thank you for your long and considerate review :D
Whoa, they weren't kidding when I was told that Masuta's house had unusual pottery on the front door… The first thing my eyes saw when I stepped onto his porch was a pot, followed by another one, and eventually my eyes traced a string of pottery, models and sculptures commendable for only a museum or an academic institute. I had a bit of trouble skipping over the many things on my way in, but Itachi easily avoided them, and gracefully stepped in. I pouted again.
This kid here seemed to be naturally gifted to the point where he could even walk through this battlefield with his eyes closed! You ask about me? Well I was stumbling around the apparently delicate figurines and broke two of them. The rest of the way, I followed the path that Itachi had carved, and I luckily made it without any more flouting around.
Deceptively, Itachi had already knocked on the wooden door while I was stumbling my way to the entrance, and as I dusted myself off and rose my gaze, I was met by a warm hazel scrutiny, one that reminded me of honey and melted my heart. To whoever they belonged to, the person had probably the most unreliable warm eyes ever. I blinked in confusion, also in an attempt to tear my eyes away from the stranger's eyes.
I thankfully succeeded in my try to rip my gaze away. Then I forced myself to see anywhere but his eyes. I observed a winkled old face, something equivalent of a dried apricot. The person had thin lips and even thinner, wispy hair. I could tell it was a male, because he was quite tall, and his hair was relatively short compared to other Shinobi. I think my eyes traitorously blinked again.
Was this my sensei? Why the heck did his name not correspond with his looks? This person definitely did not seem the type to beat jutsus into you…Then?
"Not very nimble on your feet, are you, dear girl?" He asked in a voice that matched his gentle looks. Soft and soothing. Man, if this was my teacher, then I was in for truckloads of mild and calm training. And he doesn't even know me and he called me 'dear girl'. Yes, I was in good hands.
"Ohayo," I said quickly, wondering what honorific I should use to address this person with. While I fought with my conscious, examining all the prefixes I knew of to request a stranger with, the man chuckled in soprano notes, making me gulp and shudder. According to my knowledge, a person who was being sweet with you will eventually turn around and fire. I deliberated if this dude fell into those untrustworthy sorts.
"You don't have to look so irresolute, lass." He alleged. Oh, we will know that only as time passes.
"Ohayo, sensei." Itachi implied, in those soft, respectful tones again, and my eyes widened even if I had tried to stop it. Itachi just called him sensei! So I was right. I should learn how to trust my first instincts more. My life will automatically switch from unpredictable to oh-I know-everything!
Wait a second…
Sensei? Itachi? My living compass was studying with my new teacher? But from the information I had observed, the Uchiha clan kept to themselves and well… they were quite anti-social really. They would teach their students within their unwavering gaze, but here stood an Uchiha, greeting a person I would not trust, away from his clan! Wow…
"Sensei." I quickly copied Itachi, making the man erupt in light and quiet chortles again. I held my body stiff and contained, unsaid fear reflecting in my eyes. I had simply remembered that I had broken two of his sculptures which who knows how long he had spent making, or how much money he had spent on. We had just met and I seemed to be getting on his bad side already.
"I see you are worried about doing away with those pretty pottery, hmm?"
Bless Kami. I was certainly going to be reprimanded for this! I could feel my heart jump in my chest as I bit my lip, waiting for an opportunity to apologize. His honey like stare seemed to lose their warm touch, and I felt my soul convulse with silent terror. Yes, the turn around and fire part was unfolding before my very eyes now.
He revolved on his spot, using his cane (which I was unobservant enough to not notice), and began to stalk away, with an uncanny, springy gait to his step. I noticed an opening and grabbed at it, ready to explode into a string of explanations. If I want to say sorry, I had to say it now.
"I-I-I…am so-"I began hastily, fidgeting with my shirt hard enough to tear it. But Kurosawa Masuta did not give me a chance to say one thing as he abruptly moved fast enough for my eyes to miss his actions, and the next thing I was aware of, was a long brown object flying at my face. I inadvertently pulled my brows together, tacit annoyance overpowering my will to maintain a straight face.
I could feel my defence instincts take over as I jut out the heel of my hand in a fraught attempt at distracting the path of the pole anywhere else other than me. A stabbing sensation filled my arm, and I heaved a sigh of relief at finding myself intact and not speared through. The momentum of that throw, which I felt because my bone had been hit with it, was strong enough to pierce me! Was this guy trying to take my life?
"Sensei!" retaliated, with unseen irritation, registering the crack of a lot more pottery breaking behind me a second too late. Was this teacher out of mind? Or was he a teacher at all? In the past few moments, he tried to eradicate me from the face of this earth, just because I broke a couple of his preciously stupid models! I made a mental note to kick every model I came across on my path out. But my list of questions only seemed to elongate.
Why would a clan as famed and honoured as the Uchiha allow a dunderhead like him teach an obviously talented descendant like Itachi?
Well my questions had to be saved for later, since the person who was sadly my teacher (who I will call Numb Brain from now on), was chuckling. Yes he was quietly tittering his way into the house, not once looking back to see if I was still alive! I suddenly found myself thinking over the fact: how many children had…died under his tutelage? How long was I going to last? I did not want the answers to these questions right now.
As a wall of the house hid him from view, I sighed in reprieved liberation, swiftly spun around to face Itachi and extended a finder towards Masuta's, I mean Numb Brain's general direction. I was breathing heavily, trying to contain my voice, so when I spoke, the minimum amount of nippiness would leak into my speech.
Did it work? Nah...
"He just tried to assassinate me!" I all but screamed, all the breathing I had done before hand, suddenly melting into nothing, resulting in me gasping and my voice unnaturally pitched and teetering on the very edge of blowing up. I forced air into my lungs, allowing oxygen to be absorbed, as I told myself repeatedly I was still alive.
"He didn't."
How amazing, my new friend and future classmate, also disagreed with me! My life was so full of injustices, you could see the stretch marks! I dangerously narrowed my eyes at Uchiha Itachi.
"He was only testing you."
Okay, so it was a true fact I was bursting with unanswered questions right now. But this strange turn of events had led me to one and a very validated and rational question.
Huh?
Hey! It was up to my standards you know! I also do not really care about the backbiting folks who only wanted an opening to disgrace me. I merely believed that they were only people who admired me for me, and could not reach up to my status, and thus they resort to viciousness.
But being frank enough, my status right now was that of a small girl, with a weak figure, and a quick, imprudent reflex, that might just get me killed, or mauled about and killed, or blown to bits and killed. A cold shudder ran down my spine thinking of all the creative ways I had precipitously thought of, ways that could take my life.
"Analysing?" I asked with a hint of faintness tracing my voice. If you couldn't already tell, I was kind of afraid of witnessing heaven for myself. Yes, I was bone chillingly petrified of death.
"He is a quite multitasking Shinobi. He prefers to find out the weakness and strength of his students as soon as possible. That is the reason he sets up those pots and pans right at his door," Itachi began, with a cool and collected atmosphere around him, which I could never, ever, decipher.
"I can already say that you did not spare a glance to the ceiling." I could see his hair shake with the oscillating movement of his head. I could bear the heaving of my chest now, the meagre amount of energy in me fuelling my respiration. Even if I was a kid, I was not stupid enough to stop breathing when my long awaited questions are answered. You could place a bet that I could be stupider.
"Um, yeah…the celling was not of much interest to me hehe…" I faltered, rubbing the back of my neck guiltily. If I knew one thing, there was something of importance on the ceiling I had ignored. But the ground was so beautifully littered, that maintaining my balance there had taken up all my attention.
"It is not a question of interest."
I knew it.
"The roof was covered with oil, too. The roof and the surrounding walls. That way you will surely lose your grip if you try to use the surroundings to your aid. That leaves skipping over the models as the only option. And you saw how well he had scattered them on every inch." If anyone could explain in a way I (specifically) could understand, it was this Uchiha.
"How does that help him with analysis?" I enquired, yet again. I was curious by nature as a fact, and I would not hesitate to spend valuable time to try and drown a fish.
This time, he gave in to sighing with quite the noiseless fury. I found myself thinking if Uchiha were a violent pack.
"He judges you by how many pots you break, and the amount of time you required." His tenor was still clam, but the sentence he had just said…it clicked a piece and rung a bell at the same time.
"So I broke two pots as soon as I entered, does that qualify me for-"
"Intensive training."
So looks like Numb Brain had finally decided that his little private, giggling haven was boring enough that we aspiring Shinobi could entertain him. Not like his dysfunctional nervous system would appreciate my lame attempts at sarcasm.
I had to bite my lip and tongue to hold myself.
"Sensei," Itachi inaugurated the initiation of what I would identify as a long, boring and shocking report.
…
"Please, come on here, and take a seat!"
I was still on the lookout for danger, as I approached the familiar low lying tables, which could be found in any Japanese house. For all that I knew, something absurd and absolutely intellect blemishing could just snap out from the recesses I could not see and eeegh… I have undeniably no idea what it could be. My first impression about this master was very faulty and you cannot blame me for that.
I forced my feet one in front of the other, trying my best to save the tiny amount of dignity I had left, as I marched my way to the promising tea on the table. As surprising as it was, Masuta had prepared tea, and set up an atmosphere good enough for an exalted visitor, rather than two three year olds who had come to his place seeking training, as the academy wont tutor children below six years of age.
I now had my knees comfortably digging into a cushion too big for my petite physique. The tea which was sitting, steaming and assuring was now only an arm's length away from me. However, the person who called himself teacher, and tries to hurt his student a minute after, was sitting, in all his bristly hair, and robed glory, smiling at me in a way I could only describe as scary.
I hastily reached for the bowl like teacup, hoping that a warm drink would ease my worries, and optimistically change my opinion of sensei, before I actually gave up training because he was so unpredictable.
But…
As soon as my hand reached out for the edge of the edge of the bowl, a hard and almost invisible thing caught me on my wrist, and although it didn't exactly hurt, it stung a bit. If it was not for the sunlight pouring in from the large window which reflected off its surface, I would have never been able to tell myself what hit me. I hate living in fear, and sensei was making my life a living hell itself.
"You don't think before you act," Sensei spoke again this time, his voice was crisp and clear. But the words he spoke seemed to burst bubbles of fury within me. He indirectly implied I had quick reflexes, doing without thinking. But if you extend that theory to sensei, he did more things than me without pondering them over first. I now thought of him as the kind who preached without following his standards himself.
"You have swift reactions to movement in your surroundings, but how you use that feature will draw a pattern of life or death." I very visibly gulped. "You are ignorant of your most proximate circles, and that is a weak point you will have to neutralize. On a completely different hand, you are probably the most inept and heavy footed individual I have come across. You have ninja potential, but you don't know how to unravel it."
Hey I had already said that this meeting was going to be strange and shocking, but the information he was giving me now, simply spat at me that I had raw talent that would lead me into vulnerability. I was happy with the news that I had 'ninja potential', the one purpose I had come to fulfil was actually not only a dream now, because I could see my near future as serious and severe training to control that unprocessed aptitude of mine.
"But there a few things about you that are not fully negative."
Okay, so at least he was capable of seeing my strong points too and wouldn't only try to dig for weak spots. I made it a mental reminder to not let him find any. But at the moment I was listening with strained ears at what sensei had to say, since I was under the impression he hated me.
"You are a polite individual, albeit clumsy with your words too, it leads people to think that you are rude, when you really just have problems at saying what is on your mind," Satisfactory, there was someone who understood me, my struggle when it came to words. I wish I could speak like Itachi, have a vocabulary as wide as his, and also be born with that kind of genius flair.
Masuta, despite his snappiness, was aware of the genuine me.
"And not to mention, your reflexes are quite impressive, though you should have deflected the cane with your foot and not your hand." So the baton throwing episode was also a test. I should have figured that out long ago, but my mind works painfully slow. To mask my hopeless understanding, I only shook my head slowly, pretending I got every word he said.
"Child let your sensei tell you one thing, follow your instincts more. Learn to trust your sense of impulses, and translate them. Don't act on them quickly, if you had actually considered your situation when I threw my cane at you, you would have found that deflecting it with your foot would have been more effective and less painful." Sigh, I know, sensei… I have told myself many a times to follow my animalistic sense before, but I usually come to the wrong conclusion…
"That doesn't work for me," I blurted out before turning the words over in my head. Yep, the speak without thinking part is here. But to my intense surprise, I heard the tittering laughter which had infuriated me a few moments ago, and I turned my eyes to my sensei, who I now had a better impression of. It was good knowing I won't die in training.
My eyes followed the side to side movement of his finger as he shook it, still chuckling.
"I think you meant, 'I have tried what you have suggested, but my mind always tells me the wrong thing,' right?" I stared at my reflection in the teacup, moving my head in a 'yes'. This was maybe, the only person who knew me before even talking to me for a long time. Either he was telepathic, or really perceptive.
"Think before you speak child, think once."
…
"You know, it doesn't make much sense. Why do you study with him, when your clan can teach you?" My curiosity will get me killed one day, no doubt. But as I walked down the street with Itachi, I couldn't help pelting him with questions, and he answered every one of them without getting annoyed. If someone vaulted me with questions like I do to other people, I would be already fed up by now.
The things I had found out on our little walk:
Masuta had participated in the Third Shinobi World War. He was a specialist in Genjutsu, and this was why Itachi was studying with him. But it was only half a reason and I could tell that.
Also, Itachi was the heir to the Uchiha clan, born to Uchiha Fugaku. This was by far, the most interesting thing I had found out about my new friend.
Yes, Itachi was the first connection I had made after Kaa-chan and Hokage-sama, in the span of the two months I had spent in Konoha. To summarize it all, he was way respectful to me. I would greet people with a fist bump, but he would bow. My speech was a decrepit wreck, his seemed to be written and memorised beforehand.
It annoyed me sometimes, how easily everything just came to him, while I had to struggle with meditation even. I could be sitting there cross-legged, when a blade of grass would capture my attention. I don't know why that kind of rapt attention to my surroundings just does not happen when I train or need attention on all sides.
However, Itachi had looked at me with this kind of face, which I interpreted as annoyed with questions, but he answered my latest inquiry anyhow. I swear he is a pro at not getting annoyed.
"He is a Genjutsu specialist, my clan uses their Dojutsu for illusionary techniques, but I don't have my Sharingan yet." I wondered why, and how you awaken a Sharingan again, but I told myself to keep my mouth shut and if I do, the answer will come with time.
"Also, Tou-sama has left Konoha for a mission and won't be returning until next month. He was the one who usually trained me, and in his absence, I had agreed to accept training from a person who had war experience. It is quite benefitting really." He said, and I perked my ears to hear over the crowd droning. Ugh, damn useless noises. I would be better off if I could talk at a quiet and peaceful place.
Right to my left, I saw the glimpse of a park, and I took off running towards it, forgetting about my company. When I did remember, I embarrassedly rubbed the back of my neck and smiled at him, and he smiled back. I was kind of happy that the phrase 'smiles are contagious' was true, because every time I grinned at him, I was rewarded with a smirk that reminded me he was a person and a living machine programmed to speak like a person from the past.
Even though Itachi won't show it, he was curious about me too, I could tell from the occasional question or two he shot towards me. It was flattering he wanted to know about a person who had ended up at his hometown, because if I was in Itachi's place, I would have immediately shunned all contacts of this sort. I really had to admire his ability at making friends.
I was sitting on the topmost rung of the ladder, while Itachi occupied the swing. It was till the early wisps of evening thanks to our class getting dismissed earlier than usual, or so Itachi told me.
"Do you have any siblings?" I asked yet again.
"No." He sounded sad, frankly speaking.
"Um, your family are Shinobi?"
"Yes."
"Really! Your mom too?"
"She was a Jonin, though she has given up the job."
"How long have you been studying with Kurosawa-san?"
"A week and a half."
"What did you learn?"
"Mostly Genjutsu, a good amount of Taijutsu."
If he wanted to know about me, he had to begin asking soon, because I was running out of questions. That, and I had though he was interested, but now he was only answering questions. Huh, breathing Wikipedia…
I had nothing more to ask now, so I sat there with my lips held together, so I would not spout weird things at him. I was still waiting for him to ask something, because I was surely losing my patience. You see, I am not used to keeping quiet for long periods of time, I have to keep saying something.
"You are from Konoha?"
Yes! He now asks something!"
"Nah…"
"Then which village are you from?"
"No idea."
"Where are your parents?"
"No idea. I was adopted by Hamasaki Ayase, though my could-have-been- father passed away in war." Yes, this was the real truth. Ayase's one half of a family was taken away by war, and her other half of a family died before seeing life.
"Who were your real parents?"
"No idea."
"Don't you ever wonder?"
"Not really."
Then he fell silent. To be honest I was kind of worried I said something I shouldn't have when he stopped his questions. But then I realised he was contemplating my answer. But it was the truth. I did not know who my real parents were, and I never felt the need to wonder. I don't know the pain of losing someone close to you, but the way Itachi was acting, I could say he was thinking hard.
I simply stayed silent until he talked again. It was after a while though.
"Mizasai-san, what are your opinions on war?" His voice was small, and I could think of a legitimate enough reason for this.
"War is bad!" I squawked before framing a sentence in my head. I should really begin implementing Masuta's idea of 'think before speaking' in my life.
Then I looked at Itachi whose eyes had taken on the size of saucers. What? War was bad, it took innocent lives, just for the sake of countries and power. If people knew how to keep their noses to themselves, war would never happen. The world would be a peaceful place.
"War is indeed bad…"
Hearing the Uchiha Itachi use baby language was amusing.
Then I strained to look through the light curtain of hair to Itachi's face. When I did, I was quite surprised at seeing the pain flitting across his face. So this is what 'war' had done to him. Itachi was not an ordinary kid. He knew how to sympathize, and he could comprehend other's pain. That is why the useless fighting…it had him thinking for Kami knows how long. And it was slowly turning him into a pacifist.
"Itachi, what is your favourite food?"
If you are reading this, feel free to roll your eyes. But, I really needed a happy topic to lighten the mood, and favourite food was the first thing that jumped into my brain. I reminded myself to think before saying anything. Again.
He gave me a sceptical look, but graced me with a reaction nonetheless.
"Dangos."
Hah! I knew there was something in common between us! After all I could not be the complete opposite of him!
"Mine too!" I said with evident happiness in my voice.
I knew that silence would befall us again, but I did not know it would be this soon. We suddenly had nothing to talk about, and it was getting awkward.
I knew that if I said anything, I would embarrass myself. So I got down to framing a sentence in my head.
In the middle of my mental English lesson, I felt a light thud noise, signifying that someone was beside me.
I whipped my eyes to my right, and Itachi stood there. I raised an eyebrow.
"Tomorrow, six thirty. Be at sensei's house."
Oh sure I will.
There! A nice and long chapter. Next chapter will have some action in it, since it will have the training part :)
Tell me how I did!
-Cy
