[A/N: Going for the expansive version! You might notice that the synopsis has been changed. I might write the short version and put it on my LiveJournal, since it actually has a definitive end. I kind of know where this version goes, but don't have an outline yet. Also, sorry for taking so long to update! There's a poll on my profile that will be important to a future story, so please take a look, okay?]
VII.
Trying to get several hundred children of all ages through the cafeteria in an orderly fashion was not an activity Itachi wanted to do every day. Unfortunately, since there was no sign that any of the adults would be reappearing anytime soon, he probably would have to.
By the time the Huans had enough food put together to start handing it out, it was well after two, and the crowd was beginning to become mutinous. Finally, however, it was time to eat, and Itachi and his assistants started sending the hungry masses in. The oldest children got to help the toddlers through first (the genin had already been assigned to feeding the infants) and then the rest of the children went by age to get their food. It was a nice sorting system, but implementing it was harder than Itachi had thought. It was like herding cats, or Kakashi, or something.
Finally, however, everyone had a plate with a sandwich and some carrot sticks or apple slices, and Itachi could relax a bit. Unfortunately, the peanut butter had been getting a bit thin towards the end, so he had something that was more like a 'jelly with just enough peanut butter to be called a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich'. He didn't really mind, though, the Huans had done an amazing job considering the circumstances.
Heading out of the noisy cafeteria, Itachi spotted Sasuke sitting by himself on the benches around the auditorium and went over to sit next to him. There was still a little peanut butter smeared on Sasuke's face, and Itachi used his napkin to wipe it off before taking a neat bite of his own sandwich.
Sasuke scooted over closer to his brother, resting his thankfully now clean face against Itachi's shirt. Itachi patted his head gently. "How are you?" he asked.
Sasuke shrugged. "Okay, I guess. When are you going to find Mama and Papa?"
Itachi's next bite of the sandwich was rather hard to get down. When, Sasuke had said, not even bothering to think that there was any possibility that his adored older brother might not be able to do something. Sighing, Itachi thought back on the events of the day and how things had changed so quickly; only hours before he had been planning to murder—there was no other word for it, however nicely Danzou phrased things—several dozen of these children and now he was painstakingly making arrangements for their care. Even if the adults were to reappear now, Itachi didn't think he would be able to go through with the original plan by this point. At least Danzou wasn't here to make things worse.
Itachi started to take another bite of the now tasteless sandwich and remembered that Sasuke was still waiting for an answer. "I don't know, Sasuke," he said. "There are a lot of things I need to help with here, remember?"
"That's right," Sasuke replied, looking thoughtful. "Hey, where are we going to sleep tonight? Are we going to sleep at the school? Like a sleepover or something?"
Itachi shuddered inwardly at the thought. If just getting the children fed had been that much of a hassle, trying to get them bedded down would be madness. "I'll…have to talk to Iruka about that," he said finally. "Why don't you go play with your friends?" he suggested, motioning towards the group still playing tag. Akimichi Chouji was It at the moment, trying valiantly—and currently failing—to catch Inuzuka Kiba.
"Because I want to stay here with you," Sasuke protested, putting his arms around Itachi's waist.
Itachi appreciated the sentiment. However, at the moment he didn't have the time to spare for his little brother, even though he wanted to. Not only was there the issue of sleeping arrangements but the children would also have to be fed tomorrow, and the day after that, and so forth. Just one late lunch had all but exhausted the stocks left at the school, and they might have to look after the children for months or more.
"Hey!"
Itachi glanced up at the shout to see Naruto standing on the roof of the auditorium looking down at them. Sasuke looked up as well and promptly put his tongue out at the other boy. "Stop that, Sasuke," Itachi said quickly. "Naruto, get down from there!"
Naruto obliged by jumping off the twelve-foot roof. Itachi couldn't disentangle himself from Sasuke in time to catch him and the boy landed with a thump on the grass in front of them. He didn't move for a few seconds and Sasuke's eyes went wide as he tugged on Itachi's shirt. "Hey, is he okay?" he whispered. From this little show of worry, perhaps it was not all animosity between his brother and the jinchuuriki, although Itachi still wasn't sure what to make of it.
"He's had worse mishaps than that getting away from ANBU after one of his pranks," Itachi said as he stood up and walked over to the little blond, "so I expect so, but…"
At this point Naruto's eyes opened and he sprang up in an attempt to tackle Itachi, who merely stepped about a foot to the side and let the boy land in the grass again. "And just what do you think you were doing?" Itachi asked in his most awesomer-than-thou ANBU tone, grabbing Naruto's collar as he got up again.
"Looking for Ayame-nee-chan!" Naruto proclaimed, rubbing futilely at a grass stain on his orange shirt.
"Well, she obviously wouldn't be up on the roof," Itachi said with forced calm. "She's probably inside the auditorium or in the cafeteria." He wasn't exactly sure who Ayame-nee-chan was, although he had a vague notion that Ichiraku had a daughter named Amiko or Ayame or some such , but that was where practically everyone was at the moment.
"Nuh-uh!" Naruto said, trying to pull his collar out of Itachi's grip and failing. "I looked, and she wasn't, so there!"
"Is Ayame-san missing?" Sasuke asked, walking over and grabbing onto Itachi's shirt again; it was going to be quite stretched out by the end of the day. "She helps out in the library sometimes. She's nice."
"Yeah, and she gives me free ramen!" Naruto added exuberantly. "Well, not in the library, but—"
"Who cares about ramen?" Sasuke retorted.
"Now, now," Itachi cut in before the two boys could get into an argument. "That's enough."
"I care about ramen, that's who!" Naruto yelled, and Itachi promptly promised himself that he would never have children. Ever.
"Yeah, well everybody except you—"
"That's. Enough." Itachi snapped, in a tone that could have S-rank missing-nin quaking in their toeless shoes. Here, it did nothing except make both boys glare at him briefly as they paused for breath. Itachi quickly filled the momentary silence in hopes of distracting them. "We were looking for Ayame-san, right?" he said, doing his best to smile encouragingly and forcing his grip on Naruto's collar to loosen slightly because strangling him really sounded too tempting right now. "Is that Ichiraku Ayame?"
"Yeah, and I've been looking all over for her and she isn't there and she wasn't at Ichiraku's either even though I was waiting for her so I don't know where she is and I thought if I got someplace high up I could see farther but I didn't see her but then I did see you and I thought since you were the in charge person you could—"
"Yes. I see," Itachi said, finally putting his hand over Naruto's mouth so he could get a word in. "All right, you come with us and we'll see if Iruka knows anything, and if he can't tell us where she is we'll look for her. At ground level," he added as an afterthought, so Naruto wouldn't get any ideas.
…
Iruka was not in his temporary office when Itachi got there, Naruto and Sasuke in tow. Thankfully, the two boys had somewhat gotten over whatever their problem was—seriously, why couldn't they get along?— in order to find Ichiraku Ayame. Itachi knew he had to keep them focused, however, or they would quickly get back into bickering again.
"Let's go look for Iruka-sensei in the auditorium," Itachi suggested, pulling Naruto away from the desk before he could make an avalanche of the files heaped on it. The blond pouted a little but obediently followed, and Sasuke was still clinging to Itachi's shirt and didn't seem to have any intentions of detaching himself for the time being. This was nice in some respects, as Naruto was quite enough to keep track of, but did have the side effect of slowing Itachi down a little.
When they got to the auditorium, it seemed even louder than it had earlier, and shouting could be heard even through the doors. Itachi frowned a little as he pushed the door open, ready to shove the two children out of the way and spring into action if such was required.
[A/N: Nothing for angst like Naruto being his bratty self! I just realized that we haven't even gotten through the first day yet…I'll try to get things moving faster soon.]
