Chapter EIGHT:
I didn't sleep. Of course I didn't. He was back after four years without a word as to how, or why, who would sleep? My brother was back. I was overjoyed and angry, scared and suspicious.
He wasn't the same, my brother the one who travelled through the village in pajamas, my brother, the one who was an outright smooth talker. It was his job. He was a negotiator. He dealt with outer and inner affairs within the village since he was a kid and did extremely well for himself. He carved a name for himself when he was ten. Imagine, a ten year old sent to negotiate and doing well, it was incredible, yet it was his strong suit. Then one day he just disappeared, left.
He had been recently negotiating with an internal affair within the village, that was all I knew, but he was so tense and aggravated I wanted to help. That's why I made the sword, the sword he broke.
Seeing as I wasn't even a Genin I would no doubt have enough time to fix it. It was in awful shape, dull beaten, scratched and broken. I told him to be careful with it, I mean sure it was going into battle but he could have at least tried to sharpen it once in a while. It was almost reassuring to see one of my best pieces in ruin. It was a little ray of hope that a little bit of my semi-irresponsible brother was still in there being a complete moron.
Yet now he was cold and detached. Maybe he was tired. However, the brother I had known would not have been so affected from a lack of sleep.
When the morning came I tugged on a grey tank top and some black leggings to find the source of a smell that had erupted through the house. The dreaded scent of instant ramen. When I reached the kitchen my brother was awake with the boy beside him and Kat was in the kitchen. I was surprised I hadn't heard them earlier. I sat down opposite my brother. He was still being quiet. Finally I turned to his student, Satoru .
"So where are you from?"
"My mother."
At a better time in a better place I would have laughed. No, I was miles away from laughing at this situation. I crossed my arms and glanced back over at my brother. He was staring at the table lost in some sad memory. I was about to point out that it was morning, he was still in my house, and he hadn't explained himself when Kat came in and slid instant ramen cups in front of us.
My brother stared at the meal before him, and to my contentment didn't say a word, neither did the boy. They ate their food with such alacrity you would have thought them starved for months. Kat and I didn't touch are food, not yet. I turned towards her.
"Did you hear them come in last night?"
"Who wouldn't," she replied.
I had been yelling a lot, I was surprised Kat hadn't checked out the situation for herself, or maybe she was much stealthier then I had known and was secretly within the room the whole time. The thought was a good distraction from the mountainous source of displeasure sitting on the opposite side of the table.
They finished the meal and silence consumed our group.
"So why the hell did you leave us," I spat.
My brother looked up at me then gazed back at the table, as if somewhere on the wooden surface he would find a way to answer my question.
"The Uchiha's," He said slowly.
"What? Sasuke's family?"
"The Uchiha's," Kat repeated, "You mean the ones with the Sharingan?"
"Yes," My brother said.
I turned towards Kat, "Technically we're related to them, not closely enough for anyone to suspect a Sharingan to awaken, but we are. Your dad, our uncle, he was a special case with his Sharingan, but the keekai genkai has really become extinct in this branch."
"Yeah," Kat said as she too looked down at the table with a tensed expression.
"But what do they have to do with it," I asked.
My brother took in a deep breath and looked into the kitchen, eyes averted from my view.
"They were plotting to overthrow the Leaf four years ago. We had to put a stop to it. The Elders placed an ANBU member, Itachi Uchiha, in charge of executing his whole entire family for the sake of the village's safety."
I covered my mouth, "That's horrible."
It was almost identical to Kat's story, but her brother had been operating outside of and mission as far as I knew. He had just lost it. Then again Kat did seem to leave out parts in her story. I wouldn't want to talk about it either if I was her.
How could the village do that? Just like that, one snap and they kill their own citizens. Was there really no other way?
"The Third Hokage was against it. He hired me to negotiate with the Elders themselves and change their mind, to find peace, to establish a friendship once again."
"But you didn't succeed."
My brother nodded, "On the night that Itachi was finally ordered to kill all the Uchiha, I left the village out of shame that I could not save them. That's why I left, sister."
It was both an honorable and moronic thing to do. He had tried to save others, it was something I was proud of for him, but leaving the village because of one failure was so pointless. I would have stayed in the village; I would have launched some sort of reform against that corruption.
"Why though, what would leaving accomplish," I asked.
My brother turned back towards me, but this time the apathetic expression in his eyes was gone, and there, inside of that large overgrown man, was my brother, sad, upset, and angry at himself. He was always too hard on himself. Then again, if I had failed in a mission like that I would have been…distraught to say the least.
"I had to gain some sort of power. I had to better myself so nothing like that would happen again."
"Did it work," I asked.
He shrugged. How damn reassuring.
"So what, you go out into the woods, village's permission I hope, and bring back some random kid and no confidence?"
"I'm an orphan," Satoru said suddenly, "He saved me from the streets."
"Okay, so…why though, you don't pity others brother, besides you're usually all for advancement via individual determination, right? So why?"
"He showed promise," my brother said cryptically.
I could tell by the way he watched my reaction that one of the biggest reasons he picked up that boy was out of guilt for leaving me. We were the same age, the same height, same obnoxious wit, he was a replacement me for a lonely man. I didn't know whether to be disgusted or feel pity for him, I leaned more towards disgust.
"If you wanted a little sibling you could have just come home!"
"Why are you living off of instant ramen, and why is mother in that awful grave plot," he interrupted.
It came out of nowhere I practically leaped a few feet into the air at his perceptiveness.
"We're poor," I sighed, "Kat can't transfer her ninja status because the Hokage doesn't think she's loyal and I didn't pass the last exam because I couldn't work with my team."
I told him everything that had happened. I told him every detail of the test and my teammates, every bit, even the blood on the couch pillows that we still hadn't dealt with. He watched nodding every once and a while. When I was done he stared at me.
"I'm still a Chunin I can get us money."
"It won't be enough for four people," I stated.
He looked around the table at all of us, each in turn then stood up, the chair behind him skidding across the ground. He started to leave the room.
"Where are you going," I shouted after him.
"To test myself."
