Thanks for those who reviewed! I didn't quite like the previous chapter, either, but it's basically a lead-up to this one. Truths revealed! At least some of them. And I'm sorry for the long wait, but school work is escalating, and a long with that is homework. And the craziness of everything else in my life.
I'm very sorry for the long wait, again.
I realize that the amazing-ness of my writing style has diminished since Blissful Ignorance…I'm trying my best to get that back, so please hold on, you guys!
Chapter Four: French Onion Soup
After Itachi cleans up a final table, he heaves a noisy sigh. The restaurant had closed up an hour ago, but most of the workers kindly left him finish up their work. He does not especially mind. Sasuke hasn't left his room since yesterday, and he finally gets to beat some information out of that pink-haired girl that hired him. Itachi wipes his brow and puts the last chair up. "Do all your workers usually do this to the new guy?" he asks Sakura.
Sakura's face visibly heats up once one word escapes the Uchiha's lips. Itachi is indifferent to this – it's a reaction that is uncomfortably and unnaturally common to him. "Well," she mumbles, clearly scrambling with all of the words that are at her disposal. "Not usually." She takes the blue apron off and folds it neatly; just to get her hands distracted and busy. Sakura apprehensively takes a look around the empty restaurant. "I can handle the rest. You can go home now."
He forces a smile on his fatigued face. She's not getting rid of him that easily. "Tell me," he says as he leans against a table rather haphazardly. "How do you know about the Uchiha?" Itachi enjoys the sight of the color draining from the girl's face as much as he takes pleasure in seeing red flags of embarrassment appear on her cheeks. Maybe it's just in his blood that he's…just a tad bit sadistic.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sakura replies quickly, making the disappointing move of avoiding Itachi's gaze.
She's not used to be interrogated, Itachi observes with a smirk. "Should I take your word for it?" he asks. His trained eyes bore harshly into her wandering, emerald ones. Sakura turns her back on him and makes a movement with her head. Uchiha Itachi isn't sure if she simply shook her head or nodded. He shifts his weight off of the table and leaves the girl there, to ponder over her actions. Maybe the nuisance can be of good use to him and his brother – who knows?
"I'm telling you, its case twenty-three…! No, don't you dare pick that case, woman! Crap, you guys suck," Naruto mumbles, staring intently at a television set that is not his. Uchiha Sasuke rolls his eyes and prods at the blonde's back with his finger. The slight touch sends shivers down Naruto's spine, but of course he does not say that aloud. "What? I'm trying to watch TV, here." He turns back to the screen, watching as the contestant picks out a case.
Sasuke pinches the blonde's forearm callously. "Go watch Deal or No Deal in your own apartment," he deadpans. This is what happens when you take a mid-day nap with your apartment door unlocked. Why was it unlocked in the first place? Sasuke ponders irritably. "Get your ass off the couch, moron!" he yells, his thoughts like dry twigs being tossed into a fire. "I swear if I see your face here again, I'm going to murder you." He crosses his arms when Naruto ignores him.
"Who's going to murder who?" the door opens and shuts. Both teenagers look up and see Uchiha Itachi entering the room and conversation.
"Nobody," Sasuke mumbles. Then he adds, louder, "Itachi, get him out of here!" He points an accusing finger at the idle, blonde drone. Naruto shakes his head at Itachi, meaning 'Please let me stay!' The oldest man allows a smile to grace his features. Naruto is acting like a second, younger brother, he realizes. His smile widens when he thinks of one of the only way Naruto can get himself into the Uchiha family. (Sasuke's going to murder him later.)
Itachi strides deeper into the room. "What's the harm of it?" he inquires unceremoniously. Sasuke's eyes widen angrily. Naruto sits back in the couch, satisfied with his victory. Despite Itachi's threat, he seems to have won him over in an unnamed battle. "Why Deal or No Deal?" he asks as Sasuke sits on the couch next to Naruto, defeated.
"Because," the Uzumaki explains with a wide smile that matches his father's. "It's a game of luck." At the word 'luck' Sasuke's eyes dart to Itachi's. The older brother shrugs it off as nothing. Naruto adds, not noticing the brothers' secret sign language, "The models are hot." He turns around, only to see Sasuke whispering,
"He's a complete doofus."
Itachi only holds an amused smile.
The female on the television bravely says, "Case twenty-three." The model holding the case makes a dramatic pause. Naruto sits at the edge of the couch, repeating, "I'm telling you, woman, that's the million dollar case!" Sasuke rubs his temples, but his eyes are focused on the screen. Itachi simply wishes to laugh at their rare luck when the audience and the contestant groan.
"Well, what do you know," Itachi murmurs softly his amusement fading rapidly. His eyes are on his younger brother, who just can't seem to take it in. And meanwhile, Naruto is on his feet and screaming at the TV,
"I told you so!"
Finally, Sasuke manages to usher the intruder, Uzumaki Naruto, out of his apartment before slamming the door shut and then giving Itachi an incredulous, wide-eyed stare. His elder brother disregards this and shuts off the television and goes to the kitchen, presumably to prepare a snack or so. "Don't ignore me," Sasuke yells, livid. "You bastard – you're such a hypocrite and a liar," he accuses, raising his volume to catch his indifferent brother's attention.
"Hypocrite?" Itachi repeats, abnormally charmed. "What gives you the right to point the finger me?" He takes out a slice of bread and places it inside the toaster. Then he pivots to face his seething baby brother.
"I you just told that idiot blonde that he can hang around me more often because I'm 'painfully anti-social.'" Sasuke slams his hand against the wall when Itachi pays more attention to the laboring toaster than him. "You're the one who told me in the first place that I shouldn't make any ties with anybody!" Itachi looks at his brother over his shoulder as Sasuke angry tirade goes on. "And now the person you actually want me to bond with is this stupid dolt who doesn't know when to give up!"
The bread pops up and the toaster cools down. Itachi seizes the slice and innocently takes a bite out of it. After he swallows, he responds, "He'll be our rabbit's foot." After taking another mouthful of carbohydrates, he adds with a smirk, "He's perfect for you."
Sasuke stands there, dumbstruck for one second. Eventually he deems Itachi too irritating to communicate with any further. He stomps out of the room, yet again, without uttering another syllable, preoccupied with last sentence that left his brother's lips.
Inuzuka Kiba uneasily pets his dog, Akamaru, as he relays this information to his best friend. "Sorry, but I can't hang out with that Sasuke guy," he confesses a bit too nonchalantly for Naruto's tastes. He anxiously glances at his friend, to check for any signs of disapproval. What he sees is an unreservedly bewildered and heated expression that did not fit his normally jovial and carefree disposition.
"Why not?" Naruto demands ruthlessly.
Kiba sighs and explains in a small voice, "My parents said so. Don't make that face, Naruto; I know I don't usually listen to my parents. But they sounded seriously serious and I actually believed them, especially with what Sakura said the other day. You know, about that curse. My parents actually said it was true, and they looked real mad and worried when I told them." He looks at his friend with a concerned expression. "I mean, don't you remember, back in, like, second grade? We kept hearing weird stuff on the news about a family named Uchiha, but nobody would explain it to us."
"I don't remember," the Uzumaki points out obdurately.
"Yeah, well you don't remember what happens a second ago half the time," Kiba insults seriously. Naruto shakes his head and murmurs curses under his breath. "Man, why do you care so much, anyway? So what if our parents won't let us be friends with this one guy?" He pats his dogs head while saying, "I mean, we lose an opportunity to make a new friend, and we get to keep our lives while we're at it. Don't that seem fair?"
Naruto leans back on the bench and watches a cloud that looked like a humongous bird float past. "It's not fair to Sasuke," is his response. Kiba sighs again and stands up, telling his dog to stand up too. "Where are you going?" Naruto inquires, taken aback by the sudden movement.
"I've got to go finish my walk," Kiba says as he begins walking past. Akamaru whimpers at the blonde, but, as always he follows his master. "I hope you'll think this through right, Uzumaki!" Kiba yells over his shoulder before Akamaru breaks into a jog, dragging the teenage boy with him. Naruto observes them, each one half of a whole, and then stands up to advance towards the opposite direction.
He never gets tired of the odd looks that he receives whenever he does not join the queue for Eucharist. He knows that he could partake in the religious feast, but he also knows that he can't. The female cantor begins to sing a familiar hymn, and many in the congregation join in. He, however, sits in the back of the church in peaceful silence, remembering the days when he would sing along, too.
Once the mass is over, Itachi remains seated as all the parishioners around him begin to file out of the church, speaking in low whispers and bowing in the presence of the altar. He waits in the wooden seat until the church is completely empty, save the altar servers who are dutifully blowing out the candles and shutting the windows. The priest bustles in and cleans up the rest, along with several ushers. Itachi waits until he is the only one there.
He's not quite sure why he keeps returning to this sanctuary. With a life like his, he knows that he ought to believe that no omniscient being would allow such things to happen to him. Even Sasuke once questioned him about it. Itachi had no answer, because he does not know why the church seems like a place of comfort (because it was meant to be, right?).
The Uchiha were never especially religious. They were the type of family that had religion as an option, not a necessity (the type that goes to mass only Christmas or Easter or Palm Sunday). They all received their sacraments without protest, but never deemed them to be anything special. But Itachi knows better than anybody that the Uchiha have many sins to share with the world. He sighs and leans back against the pew, hating the creaking sound it makes against the tranquil silence. Sasuke always hated going to church, he remembers with a small smile.
How could Itachi blame him? In fact, Itachi recalls Sasuke saying that "God apparently hates us, so why should I worship him?"
The tiny smile disappears as Itachi also thinks of his favorite psalm – psalm 22. My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?
Those specific words never failed to intrigue Uchiha Itachi. He stands up and leaves the church, his thoughts trailing behind him like a bride's wedding gown, weighing him down while changing his life.
"Welcome to the Haruno Diner." Itachi says as casually as possible while eyeing his customer cautiously. The white haired man sits alone at the table, without even looking at the menu that has been neatly set before him. His lazy eye is locked directly at Itachi's with odd resolve. "May I start you off with something to drink?"
Kakashi shakes his head.
Itachi's eyebrow twitches along with the corners of his mouth, which is in an inflexible smile. If you're going to be here, then eat something. "Then something to eat?" he pushes on, trying to be a good waiter and not give in to the thoughts seething dangerously in his head. "Our soup of the day is French onion soup," Itachi offers stiffly. He heaves a sigh, giving up the waiter act. "What," he growls in a low voice, completely different than his 'nice' voice, "do you want?"
"I was going to say French onion soup, but if you insist," Kakashi says, sitting up. "I'd like to know why you and your brother are back at Konoha." He folds a napkin in his hand and then unfolds it when Itachi remains silent. "No answer? You do know that Konoha exiled the Uchiha. I don't know how you got back in but you can't stay. And if you want to stay, you must have a death wish." He stops talking. Itachi can see a smile through the unusual mask that covers his face.
The Uchiha opens his mouth to say something until Sakura yells at him to stop conversing with the customers and get a move on. "I'll get back to you," Itachi says in a low voice. He sucks in a breath and turns to a family who are waiting patiently for their waiter.
When he does get back to Kakashi, however, he isn't there. Itachi deciphers the short conversation in his head, and makes the tough decision. He works until his shift is up and hastily drives back home. So, he thinks bitterly, maybe Konoha wasn't as safe as I thought it was.
"Do you have a life? At all?" Sasuke challenges heatedly when he finds the same certain blonde standing at his door again. Uzumaki Naruto smiles sheepishly, finding no answer to the question. The brunette rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, resolute. There is no way in hell that he's going to let him step inside this apartment ever again.
Naruto looks into Sasuke's unyielding eyes with his own blue ones. "I want to talk to you," is all he can manage to say. Sasuke cocks his head questioningly. Naruto answers, "Seriously. I need to talk to you." (Want to need in a few seconds?) He does not wait for an answer – instead, Naruto slips into the room the same way he did last time, in-between Sasuke and the doorway. "It's about your curse," he coughs out.
Naruto receives the reaction he was anticipating. Sasuke rolls his eyes and sits down onto the couch, already tired of talking about the same thing over and over again. "What about our curse?" he asks loudly and exaggeratedly.
"I want to help."
"No." came the blunt reply. "A million times, no. An incompetent fool like you wouldn't help. You would just make things worse."
"There has to be something I can do! My dad was the previous Hokage! Maybe I can pull some strings!"
Sasuke's eyes are focused on the television screen, not even looking at Naruto. "Someone like you," he explains slowly, "can only help by leaving us alone." He waits for the words to sink in, and then resumes, his voice testing. "Why would you want to help us anyway? Because you're bored? Because you want your life to be a little more thrilling? Because you think that it's just some game?" He shakes his head and says no more.
"I know it's not a game!" Naruto declares doggedly. "I have my own reasons for getting involved."
Sasuke says, "I'd like to hear it."
"I can't just ignore someone who needs my help-"
"How heroic."
"-and I don't want you to move away."
"Those were vague answers, Uzumaki," Sasuke points out candidly. His patience is already running out. He finally takes a look at the persistent blonde, only to confirm that there was something he was hiding. He doesn't ask, however – Sasuke believes that everyone has their secrets, and that one shouldn't stick their noses where it shouldn't belong.
"I know they're vague," Naruto says defensively.
Sasuke rolls his eyes and rests his head on a pillow. The blonde is giving him a migraine. "So," he says tiredly, "you're saying that you know that your reasons are useless, yet you insist anyway?" He scowls. "You really are an idiot. Now get out. I don't feel like talking to anybody, much less you." He shuts his eyes, intending to take a nap. And if Uzumaki Naruto is still in his apartment when he wakes, he plans on bashing the dumbass inside the toilet.
Naruto thinks as hard as his brain allows him. Should he tell Sasuke about his father? Should he tell Sasuke that he doesn't want him to move just yet?
"Sasuke, the reason I want to help you is because-"
He is unintentionally interrupted by a slamming of the door. Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's big brother, storms into the room with a face that expresses mixed emotions. He does not pay any attention to the shocked blonde. Instead, Itachi commands, "Sasuke, get your stuff packed. We're leaving Konoha." He marches out of the room and into his own room, presumably to get packed himself.
Naruto begins to wonder why his good luck never kicks in when he really wants it to. "Wait, what?" he exclaims loudly. He shoots the brunette, who is still sitting on the couch, a puzzled look. "You're moving!?" he yells, pointing at Sasuke with an accusing finger. "Why didn't you tell me? Why so suddenly? You guys just moved in!" The blonde cannot help but think you made me gay for nothing?
"Idiot," Sasuke replies irritably. "I didn't know until now, either." He stands to go to his room. Sasuke had just finished packing this morning – it's just his bad luck that his older brother has horrible timing. He knows that he ought to be pleased that he's leaving Konoha, the unwelcoming hometown. Oddly, the mere thought of stepping foot out of the small country's boundaries drains that heartwarming, nostalgic feeling out of him.
Sasuke wonders when he became as contradicting as his brother.
"Why are you moving?" Naruto demands, marching (uninvited) into Itachi's room. The older man makes no movement to acknowledge Uzumaki's existence. He speedily yet neatly takes all of his clothing and puts them into a bag, without uttering a single syllable. "Why the hell are you moving?" Naruto repeats, frustrated.
Itachi sighs as he zippers the bag shut. "Because," he explains softly, "it really is too dangerous here. I was wrong to try and come back, even if it was for Sasuke's sake." He begins to place articles of apparel into a second luggage bag. "You're angry at me?" he says, still without even looking at Naruto. "I'm sorry, but this is necessary."
Naruto glares at the older brother and rushes into Sasuke's room. The younger boy had messily finished packing – to Naruto, it seems as if he's in a rush to get out of here. Rage and dejection rise in the blonde's chest, but he pushes that away. "You're just going to leave, aren't you?" he says stridently. He can feel his voice breaking. Naruto's only met Sasuke for a few days, and he already feels as if he's losing his best friend.
Sasuke silently nods as a reply. The brunette checks the room one last time, to see if he left anything behind. Somewhere, deep in Naruto's mind, he wishes that Sasuke would leave something behind. It can be anything – anything more than a memory that can fade as the clock continues to tick. Sasuke picks up his two bags (apparently, he doesn't carry much around) and makes his way out of the room. He quietly shoves his way past Naruto.
By the time Sasuke left his own room, Itachi finished packing. The older brother advances into the room and nods at his younger brother. There is no reaction from Sasuke.
"So, you're just going to run away?" Naruto bellows, his back to the two brothers. He anticipates silence as their response, but one of them actually speaks.
It is Itachi. "We're not running away. We're trying to live for another day."
"But you're just going to give in, that's it?"
Sasuke's hands clench the handles of his bags. What should he do?
"Quit trying to preach me with your childish ideals. If we stay, it's like one man choosing to fight against an army of ten thousand men," Itachi responds briskly. "Come on, Sasuke, let's go."
Naruto opens his mouth to say something, but Sasuke unpredictably beats him to it. "Two men, brother," he corrects forcefully and brusquely. He releases the bags from his hands, savoring the noisy thump it makes on the floor. Sasuke looks his brother straight in the eye as he declares, "I want to stay." Naruto gawks him as Sasuke repeats it, just to show that he is firm in his decision. "I want to stay."
"You want to stay," Itachi repeats under his breath, as if he is having difficulty comprehending it. He shuts his eyes and says, "Are you sure? You're the one who wanted to leave in the first place."
"And you're the one who wanted to stay in the first place," Sasuke argues doggedly. He pauses, to see if his brother will respond, but when he doesn't he harshly adds, "You can leave if you really want to."
At that, Itachi narrows his eyes. "I was planning on leaving for your own good."
"I do recall you saying," Sasuke says pointedly, "that you were staying for my own good. You're as ambiguous as ever, Itachi." Sasuke does not wait for his elder brother to answer. He picks up his bags and brings them back into his room, cursing himself for making such a decision too late. Now he has to unpack – again.
Naruto glances at Itachi, to see his reaction. Instead, his eyes meet a blank, impassive face, all except for a single sentence that seems to be written all over him. I knew it. Itachi raises his eyebrow and takes his bags inside. The Uzumaki follows him, only to see that Itachi hadn't really packed at all.
"So now what?"
Itachi glowers at Naruto, who dared to ask the question. Sasuke's eyes fall to the ground. Even he has to admit that he doesn't know what's next. So much for his decision. Now that they're staying, he and his brother is the foolish two-man battalion. Itachi shakes his head, disillusioned, when he reads his younger brother's expression.
"Now we until we become next," Itachi answers when his baby brother doesn't utter a word. "Next in line to fall to the ninth circle of hell, along with the infamous Judas Iscariot."
Sasuke mutters, "You exaggerate too much."
Itachi smirks, as he says, sourly, "How so?"
"Who in the world did we betray? What wrong has our family done?" Sasuke queries sharply and petulantly. Never before had he attempted to interrogate his brother – his childish and naïve disposition led him to believing that his family had truly fallen to 'bad luck.' There's something more behind this, he thinks, and my brother knows what it is.
"I'd like to know, that, too," Naruto chimes in, not wanting to be left out. "I did tell you that I'd help, Sasuke," he also reminds the raven haired boy. The response is an exasperated snort from Sasuke and an amused 'huh' from Itachi.
Says Itachi to Naruto: "I understand why you want to help. But I just can't let anyone know about our…family secrets." Family secrets, Sasuke thinks, enraged. More like your secrets, as usual. "Besides," Itachi continues, a bit too nonchalant, "you do know what happens to those who really get involved, don't you?"
Naruto does not hesitate to nod. And though he does not confess where he got such information, Itachi is temporarily satisfied (besides, he has an idea already). Itachi begins to pace around the room while he says calmly, "The incidents are as follows: our uncle, the first victim, left to return books from the library along with his son. Both of them never returned, nor were their bodies found.
Sasuke speaks, his voice much more solemn that Itachi. "My teacher, who used to be my father's best friend, was driving home from school. His car exploded – there was oil on the ground, and no one could figure out who, exactly, put the oil there."
"Our cousin's girlfriend died when she just went out to walk her dog. The dog died, as well. Our godparents died, too. So did the rest of our clan, and many of its close relations," Itachi finishes, closing the conversation before he drags Sasuke into an emotional breakdown. "Do you really think you'll live when nobody else did?"
Naruto ignores the question. "It sounds more like," he says, mind racing. "You're being targeted."
Itachi sits down, traces of a smile on his tired face. "Well, well," he says, looking at the blonde with disbelief. "At least someone's got something right."
Chapter Four end.
Finally, I finished. I'm so very sorry for the long wait, but I suffered a little bit of writer's block. Thanks for waiting, and please review, as always!
