2. Patience, Michael Jackson, Thoughts

After the caravan had left the airport, they waited for the two-seated motorcycles to arrive. They were ordered at last minute, so it was going to be another twenty minutes or so until they arrived. Everyone's bags and suitcases had already been taken to be driven over to Sakura's mansion.

During the wait, Tiashi made calls to tell her sister about her staying at the house longer because she would be staying with the group, and that she would pay her for her time. Sakura, Hinata, and Naruto were figuring out a way to explain to Hinata's family that she wouldn't be coming home. It wasn't like she could just tell them she was moving there—they'd want to visit and ask for pictures. It'd be suspicious if she sent pictures and twenty years later she still looked like she did a year after she got out of high school. Faking everyone's death was out of the question before it was even inquestion. Kiba was already giving rules to Suki and answering all of her questions to the best of his ability. He was forced to reiterate everything because they didn't get to finish when they were in the mountains and anything that Orochimaru might have told her would just be completely wrong anyway. Sasuke had the sense that Kiba was becoming infatuated with the older woman. What man had that much patience?

"Well someone seemse a little down. Perhaps there is a reason for your sulking?" Sasuke rolled his eyes at his brother's comment as Itachi came and sat down next to him on a stone bench. It was only since he had been reunited with his brother a little less than a year ago that they had really started to reconnect. Sasuke suspected it was Itachi desperately trying to make up for all of the lost time. Before, back when Sasuke was still in high school, Itachi had always been so distant with him. He was never around; he never wanted to talk, even if Sasuke felt that he needed to talk to his only living relative left. For a long time, Sasuke had deeply and honestly believed that Itachi was into drugs and anything of the sort. Even now, Sasuke wasn't entirely sure what had been going on back then, but he didn't want to know yet. For the time being, he liked how things were between him and his brother.

"I'm not sulking."

"Then what are you doing?"

" . . . "

"My point exactly, little brother. What's on your mind?" he asked softly. Sasuke shrugged, running a hand through his hair.

"Exhausted. Relieved, maybe."

"Care to explain?"

By this time, the brothers had lowered their voices to the point where they were the only ones that could hear each other. An attempt at a private conversation. Such a thing was rare when everyone around you had super-hearing.

"Being under the cautious watch of Orochimaru . . . high school fangirls would have been much more tolerable," he said. Itachi winced.

"That bad?"

"You have no idea. I had to be cautious of everything because he believed that this 'curse mark' thing had seriously changed me—who I was. I had to think about what I said, what I did, and how I reacted to everything," he said in a rush. He didn't know why, but whenever he talked with his older brother, his walls came down, and he opened up. It was strange, but in a way it felt good to talk freely without the having to be guarded.

"Did the mark change you at all?" Itachi asked. He personally didn't think so, but he had quickly learned that his little brother had become a master at deceivery. Even he had trouble reading him at times.

"I think the only thing it really did was fuel my already-burning hatred for Orochimaru. I've always been disgusted with people who think that they can imitate Michael Jackson." Itachi laughed, giving Sasuke a quick one-armed hug around the shoulders.

"Good to have you back, kid," he said, still chuckling. Sasuke scowled slightly.

"I ain't no 'kid'," he mumbled.

"Yeah, and you ain't ghetto, either, or as Aunt Magnolia would say—"

"Juh-hetto," they said in unison, remembering the fond childhood memory. There was a short, comfortable silence surrounding the two. Sasuke took everything in at once. The sounds from far away distances, everything he was able to see with his sharpened vision. Like people in the airport down the road talking. Or the several different hues of brown and gold in the hair of the dog across the street. Somehow, everything just seemed more vibrant and alive with his heightened senses that came with being a vampire. He looked at Sakura, taking in more details than he did when they first met or when they were in the park almost a year ago. He realized now that her hair wasn't just pink, but there were individual strands of light read and pale blond in her hair as well. Her skin had an unearthly glow to it that made her seem much more . . . alive than ever. When he listened to her talk, he wouldn't say that her voice sounded like bells (because really, bells could be annoying after a while, and her voice was never annoying). Rather, her voice had a strange smoothness to it when she talked. It was very calming (but only when she was calm). Sasuke wondered if she was human, and he was human, and they had dated in high school and his parents were still alive then, would they approve? That thought alone led him to several other thoughts.

"I wonder . . ."

"Hm?"

"Sometimes . . . I wonder what they would say. Mom and Dad, if they knew about what we have become and what our lives now consist of. Do you think that they would be okay with it?" Sasuke asked softly. He didn't exactly expect and answer, though he received on anyway.

"I honestly don't know. But whatever they would have thought, I have no doubt in my mind that they'd still love and accept us without second thoughts or shame," Itachi replied truthfully. "Well, for you. Don't know what they'd say about me and sex before marriage."

"Now there's something I can't answer," Sasuke said. Itachi gave him a confused look.

"Excuse me?"

"About what they'd think about you sleeping with Tiashi—you just said it."

'Can you hear me now?'

"Yes!"

Itachi jumped up, pointing a finger at Sasuke. "Okay, now that just isn't even fair!" The others stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at the brothers. "He just read my thoughts!"

A collective groan was then heard.

Yeah, it's a strange place to stop. You would not believe how much I didn't like this chapter when I was reading over it just now. I had to go back and change dialouge because somehow, I'd managed to make Itachi start sounding like some weird version on Ino. I know, I know. I'm not sure either.

So, Thanksgiving was nice. Didn't do much. We ate a dead bird . . .