Second meeting, part two

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man has a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. ~Colossians 3:13

Sasuke returned soon after that day. He found out Yukimura was starting his ninja classes at the academy soon. He walked through the metal back door, this time without being attacked by flying nephews.

Mayuri was in the living room cleaning her instruments. A large koto was laid out on the ground as she tuned it after polishing.

"Welcome back, Sasuke-san." She made a habit out of saying that when he came to although it was awkward the first couple of times because he never replied.

Sasuke looked around. "Where's Yuki?" It was strange that Sasuke hasn't been ambushed yet by Yuki.

"Oh, he's at the usual grounds practicing," Mayuri said as she ran a cotton cloth down the strings one by one with a special resin which the room always smelled like. She looked up at him and said, "He's overly excited about school starting. Will you go fetch him for me? I'll start preparing dinner."

She put the koto back into its case carefully upright next to the shelf of smaller instruments and stood up to head to the kitchen. As she passed Sasuke he felt so big next to her. While standing, her head only reached up to his shoulders and his shoulders were nearly twice as wide as hers. It was just a little unbelievable that a girl as tiny as she had captured his brother's heart and got him to marry her.

"Sure," Sasuke said and threw his hood back on. He always went out with his hood and his dark cape. He couldn't risk anyone seeing him.

He walked quickly, although to him it was a leisurely pace that sometimes made him feel anxious inside. To him, there were only two speeds. An incredibly fast pace that made people think the wind was blowing by, or not moving at all. Any other pace else was just wasting time.

Soon he could hear the grunts and punching in intense training. He watched from behind a large tree as Yuki went this way and that, fighting an invisible target in his own choreography of a fight.

He came out of the shadows quietly to see if Yuki would notice him at all.

"Oh, hello Uncle," Yuki greeted him, stopping in mid air. "What are you doing here?" he asked with a large smile as he landed and jogged toward Sasuke. As he came up he wrapped his arms around his uncle's waist giving off a feeling like a puppy greeting its master.

Sasuke couldn't help but think it was cute although he wasn't used to such affection. If you took one look at Yuki, you would think he was Mayuri's daughter with his long lashes as long as feather dusters. His girlish face and his silky hair only added on to that fact.

"Your mother sent me to fetch you," he told Yuki. "She's making dinner."

"Oh, I can't go back home now," Yuki said out of breath and covered in sweat. "I just warmed up."

Sasuke smiled a little at the boy's persistence.

"Uncle, can you fight me?" he asked with a large smile and expectant heart.

"What?"

"Fight me for real, please," he said. "I mean you always train me by just telling me what to do, like hold a fist this way or kick that way, or how to throw a shuriken and a kunai. Can't we spar for once? I think I'm ready," he said with confidence.

This boy, Sasuke ranted in his head. "Yuki," he said in a mature voice, his tone already taking on one of letting a kid down easy.

"Please, please, please, please, please," he said with his large puppy eyes, "with a cherry on top."

Sasuke let out a long heavy sigh, which meant he was reluctant in agreeing. But he did anyways and said, "Fine, but if I win you're going back home right away."

"Fine," the boy said and backed a few paces away and got in a stance. He counted one, two, and three and charged forward as fast as he can.

Sasuke gave him a handy cap by not moving from where he stood, not using either of his legs except to stand, and with only his left hand. He didn't even think about activating his Sharingan. He evaded the boy's attack without even needing to block and after a five minute toy with him he finally caught the boy's fist and tossed him as gently as possible on the grass besides him.

"I win," he declared, not exceptionally proud about beating his seven year old nephew. But he still declared it just to finish the mission given by Mayuri to bring him home.

"Fine, I'll go home now," Yuki moaned as he crawled off the grass and rubbed his back. He took a few staggering steps and Sasuke caught him and lifted him off his feet and onto his shoulders.

Yuki was surprised by how tall it made him feel than that what his uncle was doing. He was always looking up at his uncle like he was a skyscraper but never thought it would look this high from there.

Sasuke brought Yuki back without much talk between the two as he marveled how high he felt. Sasuke set him down at the door since the two of them wouldn't fit in the house. He himself barely fit under the low ceiling. Yuki opened the door and ran through to tell Mayuri about how cool it was fighting Sasuke.

Mayuri was chopping vegetables when Yuki ran towards her and jumped up to hug her all of a sudden and raised the hand with the kitchen knife up, afraid that it would hurt someone.

"So you fought someone real this time," she said at the table when they were finally eating.

"Yea, it's so much cooler than fighting air," he said matter-of-factly.

"Well, I suppose you'll be doing a lot of sparring now that you're starting ninja tactics at the academy."

Yuki smiled and didn't say anything for the rest of dinner. When Mayuri was washing the dishes, he was still quiet and watched both Mayuri and Sasuke with unblinking eyes. Finally his opportune moment came. Sasuke was sitting at the side of the table he always sat at, opposite the empty spot reserved for Yuki's father reading something Yuki never had a chance to look at and Mayuri returned to her room to sleep earlier since she's had a busy day.

It was the moment Yuki has waited for, but he was nervous to ask, but there was no other time or anyone else to ask his particular question. He eyed Sasuke a few times like he always did when he was nervous.

Sasuke put the little memo book he was reading into the pack behind at his belt. He was never without it, and no one knows what was in it. He asked his little nephew, "What is it?" He knew perfectly well that Yuki was itching to say something.

Yuki faced the table and played with his fingers. "Was my father a bad man?" he asked quietly as if he was guilty for some horrible crime.

"Why do you think that?" Sasuke asked him, surprised.

Yuki bit his lower lip. He didn't want to say anything bad about his father even if he didn't know him. "Because he left mother and made her cry while thinking of him," he said quietly. Mayuri was only in her room, he didn't want her to hear him talking about his father, especially when he called him a bad man. "Was he a bad person?"

"No," Sasuke answered, "no he wasn't. Your father was a wonderful man." Sasuke looked away from the boy. He couldn't face him. Not that man's son. "Your father, my brother was a mystery. The people of this world think that he was a heartless killer who killed his own family and joined an organization after power and control. People would curse his name even if he did them no wrong. But for all the curses in the world, he just wanted to protect and that was all he ever did. Protect those whom he cared for, more than anything else in the world. He insured my safety and made me strong. But at the end I betrayed him."

Sasuke shut his eyes tight. Why was he doing this? Why was he telling Yukimura all this? It would be better for all three of them if he didn't know the truth. He incessantly bit his lip but the words came pouring out. All he could do was keep the emotions bottled up, but even they felt like they were going to burst out of him. He felt like an erupting volcano that had been sleeping for far too long.

"He did everything he could to prevent war and unnecessary deaths all at his own sacrifice and our family's. But he could not kill me. Yet… but…" Sasuke gripped the hard cloth of his trousers and his jaw tightened. The truth was pounding at his head. "I killed him, Yuki," he confessed, "I killed your father and I killed his mission, his purpose, his reasons. I'm the one that destroyed him. I'm the reason you are fatherless and the reason your mother cries. It's all my fault."

Sasuke bit his lip until blood ran down the corner and rolled down. Both hands were in fists until his nails dug through his tough skin. Not a muscle in his body moved, everything in him was waiting. As if he was shackled in chains in a tiny cage where you couldn't even raise your head, waiting for retribution and he would gladly accept it. Because it was what he deserved.

Yuki sat with his legs folded under his thighs and his hands on his knees with his head bowed. It seemed like hours as the two just sat even though they were for only a few minutes. Rain started pelting down on the roof. But the rhythmic sound didn't calm anyone's hearts.

Yuki finally lifted his head and looked up at the big dark person he loved. Sasuke hid his face and Yuki could feel how tense he was. He didn't know what to say. He didn't want to see the person he admired looking like this.

Then his warm feeling started to form in his gut. He remembered it clearly. It was quiet, soft, and gentle just like his mother but not quite like her. It was protective and like a teacher. He closed his eyes and saw the feeling. It looked like a blob of light to him with seven different colors and it touched his head gently. Yuki didn't understand what it was or what it was doing but he trusted it.

"Uncle didn't betray us," Yuki said slowly and surely. "And Father didn't die."

Sasuke looked over at Yuki. What kind of nonsense was the boy spouting? But Yuki continued.

"Father is living in me," he said. "He's in my blood, and he's living in Mother's heart. And he's also living in Uncle's heart."

Sasuke lost his grip on control. The restraints he put on himself, the chains he shackled on himself. They all just fell apart. He realized then, they had no foundation. Nothing really ever held him. The little world of his self created prison cell fell away and there was just forgiveness.

The tears came out and they didn't stop. It was as if all the tears he's held in himself since he was seven came out all at once. His eyes felt like they were going to flow out with them.

His head fell low and almost touched the small table. His body melted and all the stress enveloped inside disappeared. His body felt light as if an ocean of water was lifted off of him.

He felt a pair of little hands hug his head and comb through his hair. He cried and he cried and he cried all throughout the night until there were no more tears to cry. Yuki had fallen asleep on his head and Sasuke soon fell asleep himself.

Mayuri stood with her back facing the thin paper of her sliding door. She didn't need to see to know what was happening. She closed her eyes and a smile covered her genteel face and she said in barely a whisper, "This is what you want right, Itachi?"

Then next morning Sasuke's eyes were swollen like they were stung by a hundred bees, but he didn't feel tired nor burdened that morning. After the rain a glorious morning followed. He was on his way out the back door again when he asked Yuki, "What made you say those things last night?"

Yuki acted like nothing has changed at all. Everything was normal and prefect to him. He shrugged and answered, "Father told me."