uchiha family chapter 2: family thoughts.
Itachi was tired. not the sleepy-tired, no, he was tired of his family. his mother, who never were able to be around him, because his father forced him to train, and never be like a 5-year-old.
Itachi had been training to be a shinobi ever since he was four, when he saw the war. he decided then, to protect konoha, so it never happened again, and so his new sibling, who was coming any day now, could live whitout war in his heart.
Itachi wanted to be a child. even if his goal was to protect people, he could still be a chind, no? wrong. he was an Uchiha, so he wasn't allowed to be a child. His father had beaten manners into him, and his mother tried to teach him nicely. It was always his father who won. Itachi didn't want to learn that way. he always came home with bruises, ans they were not from training, no, they were from other, trivial things, like speaking his mind, showing emotions, and playing in the dirt.
Mikoto, his mother, had always tried to help Itachi feel at ease, but because of the beatings, he had almost lost all emotion from his face. When his mother put on creme on some scratch he got, he didn't even wince. when she put ice on a bruice, he didn't react to the cold. it had happened that he had come home, bveeding because of a deep cut, and it wasn't from training.
he often heard his parents argue about him. she wanted to learn him slowly, so he could take it easy. His father wanted him to learn early, thus was beating him, for a speed-up adulthood. he also didn't always go to bed, but snuck out, just to train. it often happened he got caught, and mis mother had to tend to another injury, caused by her husband.
Itachi had often heard that he was to be clan leader when he grew up, but he already felt grown up. he didn't know what else to learn, except shinobi ways, of course. maybe it was about Sharingan? you only received it if your life was in danger, and emitions flowed. maybe that was why his father trained him so brutally; to make him hurt, and for him to gain sharingan earlier than anybody.
No. a father shouldn't think like that. but this was his father he thought about. Fugaku Uchiha, a brutal man, who also was an uchiha genius when he was younger. he maybe wanted Itachi to surpass him, and then, have him at his hands, so he wouldn't lose to his own son.
Itachi felt so tired, just by thinking, that he went down, and went to the kitchen, to see his mother if he could have a glass of water.
Mikoto uchiha stood in the kitchen, her normal place since she married into the uchiha clan. she was born from a clan very rare, that no-one knew about, except her poeple. It was a dangerous clan, which was the reason she was married to fugaku in the first place. a strong, powerful Woman like her, mett and marry another strong, and powerful man, and they were bound to have powerful sons. that's the elders' logic, at least. and Itachi was strong, but he was too young to be in real battle.
Mikoto sighed, and continued to wash the dishes from this afternoon, and continued to think about her two boys. her husband, whom she didn't really love, but respect. and her son, who was a man in a child's body. Itachi always was so cold, and stoic, and she knew Fugaku had to do with her son's behaviour. she didn't like the feeling he vibed off when coming close to her. It was a scary aura, and made her feel tense. she knew he had suffered from the war the year earlier, but she didn't know it changed him this much. he was like another person from the happy child he was when younger.
she sighed, and started washing another plate. when she was younger, in her teenage years, she had looked up to fugaku, admired him, but when she learned to know him, she noticed that he wasn't doing it because of good reasons. he was just expected to be that good. that changed her point of view of him, and she started first to feel sorry for him, but when he acted a very rude way to her once, she had known how he really was; a coldhearted,power-hungry man who was thinking he was the best in the world.
she sighed, and put the now clean plate on the side, and started on a cup.
her marriage into the uchiha clan was something she dreaded when she heard it. her aunt, who took care of her, since her mother was sick, and her father was on a five-year-long mission, had said she was going to marry the most powerful man in konoha, next to the hokage. she never knew it was the man she despised, and hated. and when she found out, she had run out on the temple, where the bethothal was held, and into the woods, and cried herself to sleep. she don't know what happened later, just that she woke up in the middle of the night in a room she never had been before. but she was so tired, she fell asleep again, whitout noticing someone had been in the room, and watched her.
then, two years later, she was expecting a child, and the elders wanted her to give birth to a healthy, but also powerful, and obedient child, so it would have the potential of leading the clan's future. Mikoto didn't know what to say, so she just agreed, silently asking her unborn child for forgiveness.
the birth had been the worst ten hours of pain she had ever been through, but the outcome made it worth it. the child, no, her child, was beautiful. he was a tiny baby, and didn't weight that much, but he was stil beautiful in her eyes. he wasn't screaming, but smiling, and she could have sworn she heard a little giggle from him.
When fugaku had come into the delivery room, he had just looked at the child, and nodded, and walked out. nothing more. not asked her how she felt, nothing of how he was happy to be a father, nothing.
Mikoto sighed, and put away the cup, when she heard footsteps coming from upstairs, on it's way down. judging by the sound, it was Itachi who came down since the stepr were loght, ands not heavy, like Fugaku's. but they walked the same way, so the only thing that changed their footsteps, was the sound, but it was the same type of walking.
Itachi came into the kitchen, and looked at his mother. Mikoto had her back turned to him, and pretend she didn't notice him. she heard him call out her name, and she turned around.
"what is it, Itachi"? she asked. he just stood there, looking her up and down. finally, he asked for a glass of water, and she happily gav him one. he gulped the water down slowly, while he sat at the table. she finished her dishes, and noticed Itachi had drunk the water, but didn't go away. he looked sad, and tired.
she walked over to him, and sat down beside him.
"Itachi, is something wrong"? she asked him. he looked up, and shook his head. she studied him. he had small eyebags, barely noticeable, but they were there. she stood up, and took his hand. she and he walked up, into his room, and she put him in the bed, and he didn't even change into hid pajama, he fell asleep imediatly. she smiled, kissed his forehead, and closed the door.
Fugaku was in the police office, going over some papers. at least, that's what everyone thouht, in the åolice station. but really, his thoguths were nothing close to work. it was about his son, and his wife.
Fugaku knew he should be nicer to Itachi, but he felt he just couldn't show that he really was a tender man. he, for some reason, felt something holding him back, and acting brutal, and like he didn't love neither his son, his wife, or the new child which was due very soon.
when Fugaku had seen Mikoto for the first time, he didn't know about her powers, or where she came from. actually, he didn't know a thing about her. that is, until he heard her name being said. apparently, she was from a powerful clan, almost equal to the uchiha. those words made him want to meet her, and know her a bit better, but she was five years younger than him, only 11 years, while he was 16.
it was the time he learned that he was expected to be married in a few years. the thought shocked him, and the thought of having children scared him. his own parents had died long before he became a genin, when he was 12. they had died of a mission, or rather, his father had died of a amission, and decided to drag Fugaku's mother with him to death. he had inhaled poison gas, and decided, he didn't want to die alone, so her had grabbed his wife, who were a meter away, and hold her close, so she also inhaled the gas.
Fugaku had taken it as murder, and thus, decided to become a police officer. but that had to wait until he became jonin. while he was a chuunin, his thought were on the woman, Mikoto Akuri. he had seen hr on missions, and never learned anything about her, but one day, he learned her surname, and got shicked. that clan wasn't even existing, as far as he knew. at least, he'd never heard of it.
when he finally met her, he put an angry face, and ated stern, and serious, and hoped that she could try to warm him up, just to get to know her. but it went the wrong way. instead of warming him up, she started despise him. she hated him,and he hadn't even known her very well.
a year later, he did something horrible, or rather, someone did something horrible to her, in his appearance. he heard news that they had found her, crying her eyes out, and whispered a death threat to an uchiha. only a few days later, they learned that "the uchiha" was Fugaku. but he didn't know anything, so people wondered if he went crazy.
she still thought it was him, but he don't know what had happened, neither did she tell him.
when they were bethothed, she had ran into a forest, and fallen asleep. Fugaku had grown worried, and searched for her. he found her, sleeping, and had carried her to his home, and let her sleep in his bed. he had watched he the entire night, and looked at her, to see how she looked like, and how she acted when she was asleep. surprisingly, he found out she talked in her sleep, but didn't listen, incase she spilled out some secrets, and he respected her privacy.
two years later, they had married, and another two years later, they had their first child. though Fugaku didn't show it, he had been worried when she had gone into labor, and when he heard they were safe, both her and his son, he was relieved.
when he had walked into the delivery room, he had seen his son, and fell in love with him. he fit perfectly in Mikoto's thin arms, and looking so tiny, so cute, so amazing, but he didn't show it. he just nodded, and walked out.
four years later, last year, the hell began. thre last time Fugaku saw his son acting like the child he is.
the war traumatized him. Mikoto had apparently tried to run to the security room, but Itachi had gotten lost, and walked the wrong way, straight into the battlefield. he saw a million of dead bodies, and not just ninjas, civilians, children, in their dead mothers' arms, and children his age, dying by the second, staring at him, looking like saying "help us".
Fugaku had at that moment decided to close Itachi's eyes, and came up from behing, and shielded his eyes. Itachi cried. he was scared, crying, looking away, trying to get the pictures out of his head, get the voices out, trying to get get the fear away.
and now, he was like an old man, in a chid's body. he saw the world with diferent eyes, the eyes of worry, of adults, of war.
Fugaku groaned, and decided he couldn't keep this up, he had a headache, and he couldn't focus on any paperwork. he decided to calm down, and tomorrow, continue the work, ad he turned to leave, and head home.
