Konoha-Suna Union High School

AU: Itachi-OC and Sasori-OC

Chapter 9: Painful Decisions

Sasori had no idea what he was getting himself into when he asked Raven for an interrogation lesson to help him with nonviolent methods. He had asked for her help several weeks ago and now it was a couple weeks after the winter formal, and since he got his most recent grade report in the class, he realized that he had to get to work on his understanding and methods to improve his grade. So after school one day, they went over to the art room in the school and got to work. He had no idea it would involve him being tied to a chair. His hands were securely tied behind him to each of the back legs of the chair, his legs to the front legs of the chair, and even his waist was tied to the back of the chair.

She just stared down at him with her arms crossed, not even blinking with an emotionless, unreadable expression. After several seconds of silence, the intense gaze directed at him was making him uncomfortable, but for some reason he also found this situation oddly arousing. He wished his ankles weren't tied to the chair legs so he could put his legs together, he felt like he was put into a vulnerable position. He knew being made vulnerable was probably the point.

Still silent, he began to wonder if she was going to say anything. "Now what?" he asked but was hushed.

"You're not allowed to talk yet," she said, expression not changing.

"But I thought the point of this was to make the prisoner talk?" he said.

"If you keep talking, you'll have to be gagged," she said and he zipped his lips.

The seconds ticked by as the second hand clicking on the clock behind him and her tapping foot matched perfectly. He was beginning to feel like he was under a real interrogation, like he has done something wrong, but this was only a mock lesson. This went on for five whole minutes exactly, but to him it felt like nearly an hour.

"Uncomfortable yet?" she asked.

"Huh? Kinda," he said. Then she finally moved, and began circling him. He watched her movements closely, preparing for whatever might be coming next. He knew it wouldn't be painful, as that was not the point of this exercise. Even as she walked, each tap of her heals matched the second hand behind him. As she circled behind him and out of view, her steps went silent. When she came back into his range of vision, her footsteps returned as well. It was bazaar.

Raven circled once again, and her footsteps disappeared again as well, but this time her hand brushed against the back of his neck causing him to shiver. He turned his head to catch sight of her through the corner of his eye, but she had turned and came back around from the side she disappeared on, seemingly appearing in front of him when he turned his head back.

"Learn anything?" she asked.

"Be really sneaky?" he asked.

"I'm sneaky because I specialize in stealth. Anything else?" she urged.

"…Creepy can be affective, get inside my head in any way possible," he answered, being careful not to mention anything along the lines of the suggestiveness to his maybe-girlfriend.

Raven chuckled softly before looking up at the clock behind him. "Guess we should get going," she said so she began to untie him. When that was done, they gathered their things and left. "I have to meet up with Suki soon, so I'll see you tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said and drew her in for a quick hug. "Later," he said with a wave as he went the opposite direction to the main the entrance of the school to leave.

As Sasori descended the stairs outside, he caught sight of Itachi sitting on the bottom steps of the other stairway coming off the same entrance. Sasori debated whether to talk to him or not, the guy seemed to be pretty lost in thought. All Sasori was going to do anyway was go home and take a cold shower and then do his homework. Since Sasori didn't particularly want to do that anyway, he decided he would talk to his friend.

"…Hey," Sasori greeted, jolting Itachi out of his thoughts and making him look up at the red-head.

"…Hey," Itachi said. "What's up?"

Sasori shook his head. "Why are you sitting out here?"

Itachi looked down before answering. "I don't want to go home just yet."

"Something happen?" Not that Sasori really cared, but this behavior what certainly unusual for the young Uchiha.

Itachi shook his head. "Not really, nothing new at least, just the same old… everything."

Sasori nodded and sat on the steps too, in case his friend wanted to talk, even as an excuse to stick around school a little longer. "Sasuke being a prick?"

Itachi chuckled slightly. "Always, but that's not the problem this time."

"Alright, so what's up?" Sasori asked while leaning back, resting his elbows on a cold step behind him and directing his attention at the sky where gray clouds moved lazily.

Itachi sighed, deciding that it may be worth getting some of his problems off his chest. Sasori was least likely to say anything about it, tell others, or make fun of him in some way. "I have several obligations that require my attention. My mother wants to spend time with me, she also has been wanting to do stuff as a family because we haven't in a while and it might be good for Sasuke to have better family memories while he's still young."

"Makes sense, what else?" Sasori said, urging his friend to take a load off. He had nowhere important to be anyway.

"My girlfriend needs my attention too, I mean come on, we're dating so I should be spending at least some time with her, and she's been wanting to hang out and do stuff with me, but I just haven't had the time. I haven't even had the time to talk to her on the phone and I think she's starting to wonder if something else might be up," Itachi explained.

"I'm sure Suki is willing to wait for you since you're just busy," Sasori reassured him.

"Sasuke needs his training and also needs my attention, but my father keeps making me do things around the house, and still hounds me and Sasuke to train more when he's already given us other tasks. And whenever I have a free moment, my mom asks me to run an errand for her. If I'm already doing something, sometimes she'll say never mind, but usually asks if I have a minute, and it's not like I can say no without getting reamed by my father for being disrespectful and saying that I should do as my mother asks since she doesn't ask for much." Itachi thought for a moment, thinking he was sharing too much with Sasori, but the red-head was studying the sky and half-listening. Sasori had heard most of this stuff before, but it usually wasn't happening all at the same time. "So with everyone needing me around and doing things either with them or for them, the homework and studying is getting kind of heavy with the only time to do it is at night when everyone goes to bed."

"I could tell you haven't been sleeping much," Sasori stated while briefly glancing at Itachi. "You starting to crack under the stress and pressure of your obligations?"

Itachi sighed. "I'm holding up, for now," he admitted. "Just needed a short break," he added and Sasori nodded but didn't move, somehow knowing there was much more for Itachi to say. Deciding that he had said this much, he might as well get the rest off his chest while there's someone to listen, even it is a little uninterestedly. Though uninterested seemed to be preferred at the moment since he really wasn't looking for suggestions. "So you know that my father wants me to join the police squad after I graduate, right?"

Sasori nodded. "Yeah."

"So even though that's what I'm expected to do, my father still wants me to be taking mission and gain more valid experience," Itachi said and noticed his friend's eyebrow raise for a moment. "Yeah, but with everything else, he hasn't given me enough time to do that either. Not that I need more valid experience, everyone on the squad are my cousins and uncles, they remember what I can do." Itachi stopped and looked over at Sasori, making sure he was not irritating his friend with his complaining or making him fall asleep. Neither seemed to be happening. "You guys also want to hang out, but when I've been busy, I know you guys think it's Suki taking up all my time when it's not, and she seems to think you guys and Sasuke take up all my time. Not to mention that I've got my own training to keep up on, and I have to get through the first stages of my senior project before the end of the term and I haven't done much of it yet. On top of it all, I think I might be getting a cold and I have a paper due at the end of the week." Itachi huffed at the end, finally satisfied that he had said most of what was weighing on his mind.

Sasori seemed to understand that. "That's rough," he said. "Going to be moving out soon? I remember you mentioning something a while back."

"I want to, and when I get the chance I've been researching it, but there isn't much in my price range without taking on paid mission nearly every weekend starting now and until the end of the year, which I can't do anyway because of school and all the other stuff," he said. "What about you? Finding anything?"

Sasori thought for a moment. "Same as you, not finding anything I can pay for right now, but my grandma is hardly around half the time anyway, so it's not always so bad. I've found that I can just hide out at Raven's place when I need to sometimes," he said.

"There's an idea, move in with Raven after graduation," Itachi chuckled.

Sasori understood it was a joke and chuckled too. "Sure, and you can just move in with Suki, but then we'd be neighbors and I'm not sure if I'd be cool with that."

Itachi laughed. "Can guys even move in with girls?" he questioned.

Sasori shrugged. "May not be traditional, but really no reason not to," he said. "Which makes me wonder, how do they pay their rent?"

"They probably get help from family and do missions during breaks," Itachi said. "That, or they have enough from inheritance to make the payments," he added.

"Yeah, probably something like that," Sasori agreed and was reminded on his own inheritance from his parents which he hasn't touched.

They were silent for a minute longer until they each spotted few shady looking teens passing by on the sidewalk in front of the school. Itachi and Sasori recognized them as a part of the gang that they would rather see gone.

"Another thing," Itachi started. "Our job of keeping creeps like them away from our turf," he stated.

"That's right," Sasori said, keeping his eye on the guys that obviously didn't know their place and treading area they have been kicked out of many times before. "Think they're looking for a rematch?" he asked.

"For them to come all the way to the high school, probably, they haven't been around in months," Itachi said. "Not that I mind right now, I could go for a good fight." Itachi blinked slowly, activating his Sharingan and reading the chakra of the other guys. "Yeah, they intend to fight, but they haven't spotted us quite yet."

"I'll send a message to the others, who is still here?" Sasori said, readying the jutsu.

"…Just Deidara and Kisame, they're together in the gym," Itachi said before releasing some of the stress on his eyes.

Sasori nodded and activated the jutsu, sending a short message to their friends. The brief flash from Sasori's jutsu made the other guys aware of their presence on the left stairway of the school entrance. "Itachi, I know you're under a lot of stress right now, but remember, do not make the first strike," he reminded as the other guys approached them. Since they are still on school grounds, starting a fight could get them in a lot of trouble, and if they try to use ninjutsu, the teachers will sense it and come to investigate right away, which is something they want to avoid.

"Well, isn't it our old friends," said a guy with white hair tied back into a low ponytail and wearing round glasses, a cocky smirk planted on his face, as well as his companions. One being a somewhat buff guy with brown hair in a high ponytail and wearing a shirt with a large spider on the front. The other guy was tall and thin, with somewhat longish white hair and sickly pale skin and eyes. Their names were Kabuto, Kidomaru, and Kimimaro. They were a part of Orochimaru's private institute for the students he personally selected. It was known to be a shady place. The man used to work as the science teacher in KS, a time when he paid a little more attention to Itachi than he was comfortable with, but he left a few years ago, though he wasn't gone.

"Why are you here?" Itachi demanded, standing and his eyes flashed in warning.

"Looks like the Uchiha prodigy is a little on edge today," Kabuto said, the other two just nodded. "Whoever said we needed a reason to be here, we could just be passing through," he said and pushed up his glasses.

"Too bad that's not the reason," Sasori said standing. "Where's the rest of your group, as well as your leader? There's a deal that we do not enter each others domains."

Kabuto chuckled. "Always were observant weren't you? To answer your question, the boss got busted, doing time behind bars now, and I say deal's off."

"I see, so the others didn't agree to your plan of trying to confront us and are hiding like the weaklings you are," Itachi said coolly.

Kabuto glared. "You better watch it Uchiha, you've got something to lose," he warned. "I would imagine that your little brother wouldn't be much of a match for us all by himself."

Itachi stepped forward, pushing up his sleeves and getting ready to punch in the guy's face, but he was halted by Sasori's arm coming up in front on him. Itachi looked questioningly at Sasori, who silently shook his head.

"And I heard you've got yourself a little girlfriend, Uchiha. Wouldn't want something to happen to her either, would you?" he taunted.

Itachi cracked his knuckles. Somebody better strike first, otherwise he won't be able to hold back much longer. The others better get here quickly too. "You lay a finger on her, and I'll make sure you regret living," Itachi threatened.

"Fine, fine," he smirked and then turned his attention on Sasori who didn't even blink.

"If they're just here to trash talk us, we might as well stop wasting time and get going," Sasori said and began to turn to walk away.

"But what about yours?" Kabuto started and Sasori halted.

"My what?" Sasori glared, looking back at him over his shoulder. Itachi hoped this would be Sasori's breaking point and they could kick these guys asses into next week quickly. Sasori's an impatient guy after all.

"Wouldn't want your little girlfriend to come across trouble, would you?" he taunted.

"She's not really my girlfriend," Sasori muttered, knowing that wasn't quite a lie, they weren't exactly official, and they hadn't discussed it either.

Kabuto laughed and turned to the other two. "Hear that, guess that means she's up for grabs," he said and Sasori glared darkly. "What do you think guys? Think if she didn't go for puppet-freak, that she'd go for a smart guy like me?" he asked them. "Of course, if she refuses, we can always resort to other means," he smirked.

However his cocky smirk was quickly wiped from his face as Sasori punched him upward in the chin and sent him flying back. Kidomaru and Kimimaro quickly went to his side as he shuffled to try to get back up while holding his face. "Just get them!" he demanded and the other two turned to attack.

Itachi ducked under one attack from Kimimaro and then got him in the ribs right before Kabuto caught a lucky blow to the side of Itachi's face, making him stumble slightly. Itachi glared at him, and then reactivated his Sharingan. Now he was serious, and greatly looked forward to the pain he was going to deal to these morons, even if it had to be without ninjutsu.

Kidomaru tried to attack Sasori, but being prepared, Sasori ducked and then kicked the guy's legs out from under him, and then landed a blow to his nose, causing blood to instantly spatter from the area and got onto Sasori's sleeve. Even with his painfully broken nose, the guy still lunged and managed to get Sasori just under his right eye. It appeared Kidomaru's arm had a greater reach. Sasori kneed him in the gut, and watched satisfactorily as he tumbled over in pain. Though Sasori did not waste much time in aiding his friend.

Itachi would admit that he was toying with them a little, just kicking, jumping, punching, and blocking for the joy of it. He caught sight of Sasori giving a signal with a simple wave of his hand and then nodded to the red-head, who then used a charka string to catch their ankles and force them to stop without falling. Itachi used that moment to grab their foreheads and send them spiraling into genjutsu. He didn't even waste his good, more powerful genjutsu on these guys, and when they caught in the genjutsu, both Itachi and Sasori kicked one of them in the side of the head and watched them fall and bleed for a few moments.

"Done already?" Deidara asked as he and Kisame ran up to them.

"Thought they would have been tougher than that, or at least stronger than last time," Sasori said.

Kabuto groaned as he sat up and the others did the same shortly after. As soon as they looked up and found they were now outnumbered and even more outmatched, they wisely took their leave.

"This isn't the end of this!" Kabuto shouted at them. Deidara flipped them the middle finger as they fled.

"Guess we came all the way over here for nothing," Kisame chuckled.

"Sounds like Orochimaru was caught," Sasori said. "We'll have to keep an eye out for anyone from Sound sneaking over here again."

"As long as that creep stays behind bars this time," Itachi started. "We probably won't have to worry about those guys."

"Yeah, just knowing that all of us are still here will keep them away after this, humph," Deidara added.

"We should get out of here before any teachers show up," Sasori said and they agreed and dispersed.

It wasn't until the next day at school that anyone suspected anything, though it wasn't from who they were expecting.

"You have a bruise on your cheek," Suki said as she eyed Itachi's face closely. "How did that happen?"

"Training with Sasuke," Itachi lied.

"He actually got you?" she questioned.

"He's been getting better," Itachi shrugged and then noticed Raven looking at him blankly as she studied him. She knew he was lying, though she didn't know what really happened. When she had seen Sasori's face too, her suspicions increased.

"What happened there?" Raven asked Sasori and pointed at his face to the bruise just under his eye.

"What? Oh this?" Sasori asked as he reached up to touch it. He had forgotten to wash his jacket to get the blood off his sleeve and she saw it as it came into view. "…I fell out of bed last night, no big deal."

Raven's heart fell slightly as she heard that. Not only did he just lie, but he just lied badly and expected her, a stealth and interrogation focused student, to believe that. How stupid did he think she was? "…Oh," she said shortly, accepting his bogus answer for now since class would start soon.

It wasn't until lunch that Suki asked what Raven thought about it while in the ladies room. "Do you think something else happened to the guys yesterday?" Suki asked.

"Yeah," Raven said.

"Good, so it wasn't just me," Suki sighed. "But… they lied?"

"Pretty sure, both of them," Raven agreed. "…But I think I'm going to let this one go," she said.

"What? You're not going to try to find out what really happened?" Suki asked. She, for one, was very concerned and wanted to know.

"All I know is that they must have some reason for hiding what happened, if that reason is valid, we shouldn't pry and trust them," she said. If she hadn't been thinking about it all day, she would have been trying to find out right now. "So until something happens again, I'll let this one go."

"You think it'll happen again?" Suki asked.

"I hope not," Raven said before they moved to leave the restroom.

"I know, I bruise easily," Sasori said as Deidara tried to poke at it while sniggering at the red-head. Sasori quickly swatted Deidara away as the girls sat back down.

"You need to toughen up your skin my man," Deidara said. "What kind of ninja bruises easily?"

Sasori rolled his eyes at the younger man, he really didn't want to be talking about his bruise from yesterday in front of Raven and Suki. "I'm working on it," Sasori gritted. "And besides, I'm a long distance fighter like you, I'm usually not prone to injury," he added. Deidara just shrugged and continued eating his lunch.

"How do you plan to prevent bruising?" Raven asked quietly, since they were sitting next to each other.

Sasori smirked. "I have the most brilliant plan, if you want, you should come to my workshop with me after school today and I'll show you," he said.

Raven nodded slowly. "Sure," she said. There was something about what he said and the way he was saying it that made her worry. She just hoped it wasn't something dangerous.

By the time the last period of the day came around, Raven was itching to know what was going on. She had noticed strange things about the group of guys she was hanging out with since Suki started seeing Itachi and she became friends with Sasori.

Itachi and Sasori had each felt Raven's eyes on them at some point during the class. Itachi found her emotionless gaze a bit unnerving. He could tell she had suspected something since that morning. Since it appeared she and Suki were going to be sticking around for the foreseeable future, it was probably time to reveal some secrets before someone gets hurt, and the girls get involved in something like Kabuto threatened yesterday.

After class, Itachi stopped Sasori at his locker to tell him this. Sasori had nodded grimly in understanding. "I agree, it might be dangerous later for them," Sasori said. "As soon as we get the okay from Pain, we'll fill them in, I'm don't like lying anyway," he said.

"I'm glad you agree, I will talk to him soon, see you Monday," Itachi said and waved goodbye before heading over to his own locker.

"Are you ready to go?" Raven asked from nearby.

Sasori adjusted the strap of his book bag and faced her. "Yeah, let's go."

The walk was rather quiet. He knew she wasn't exactly talkative, but she had been quiet all day, like she was avoiding talking to him. He was aware what he said this morning that probably the worst lie any of them could come up with, but he froze and couldn't think of anything else. He wouldn't blame her for not believing him, or even for being upset that he lied, and poorly. The guys were right, he was a horrible liar.

When they got to his workshop, Raven saw some of the puppets he had been working on either hanging up or in parts laying out on the tables. She looked at them as he walked across the room to spin the dial of a combination lock to one of the storage closets.

"These are the new battle puppets for your project, right?" Raven asked.

Sasori looked over his shoulder and nodded. "Yeah," he answered.

"You should make them scarier," she said.

"Scarier?"

"Yeah, like with more eyes, teeth, or arms or something," she said.

"Maybe I will, but this is what I wanted to show you," he said and opened the closet.

"It's… you?" Raven asked. Why was she looking at another Sasori? One with lifeless eyes and an empty heart. She tore her eyes away from it quickly to keep herself from looking at it much longer and looked at Sasori.

"Isn't it great!" Sasori smirked, not reading Raven's shock correctly. "Once it's done, I will transfer myself to it and become immortal! I will never get hurt, tired, hungry, or old. I will be walking, living art that will remain eternal… true art," Sasori made a fist as he spoke, filled with an artist's passion for his work. When he looked at Raven his face fell, seeing her look of shock, confusion, and something else, perhaps it was anger, maybe sorrow. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's… wrong," she muttered.

"Huh?" he said and looked back at the puppet before looking back at her. "What do you mean, it looks exactly like me, it's perfect," he defended. He even gave it a nice, clean pair of pants and shoes.

"No, your plan, it's just… wrong," she breathed. "Have you really been considering this?"

He was taken aback by this. He thought she would like it and that she shared his view of true art. "Of course, I've been working on this for weeks, it's perfect," he said again.

"No, Sasori, it's not," she tried and looked away.

"Why not?" he glared.

"Don't you know that the meaning of art changes over time no matter what, it's subjective to the viewer and artist no matter what," she said. "Preserving your young form will not keep you the way you are now, you will change, and so will the art."

"But I can be immortal," he said.

"Do you really want to be? To be exactly the same while everything, everyone around you changes and dies?" she questioned and his eyes widened slightly before he looked away briefly. "You will change too, and those changes with tarnish that so called immortality."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Sasori glared.

Raven glared back, that hurt. "You're not so different from Deidara after all. Coming to twisted views of what art really is," she said. Raven didn't want to witness a forever frozen in time Sasori, she wanted to see him grow, mature, and create a real meaning in his life, as a true artist. Not be a piece of art to be subjected to the subjective views of the world, and watching the forever changing world until he become an empty shell, just as empty as the lifeless puppet.

"Don't you see? This is true art, Raven, I will be eternal!" Sasori argued, not understanding why she wasn't agreeing with him. "This is my plan to be a part of eternal art, I've worked so hard on this, and I'm not turning back now!" he glared.

Raven glared and pursed her lips together for a moment while she thought about it. "Okay then," she said. "Guess that means it's over between us, I don't want to see any part of this tarnished piece of work that's forever in denial anyway," she said and began to turn to leave.

He gritted his teeth as his heart sunk into his stomach. "Fine, leave," he told her and turned away from her so he didn't have to watch her walk away. "I don't want to be with someone that doesn't accept me for who I am anyway," he muttered lowly.

That was just the problem, a puppet is not who Sasori is. He's an artist, not art. Raven wasn't going to try to stop him if it was really what he wanted to do, she knew she couldn't anyway, even if he is being rash and selfish, but if she stopped him by force to keep him from making his bad decision, he would resent her for it. So she left, closing the door of the workshop slowly, so only the soft slick of the heavy door indicated that she was gone.

Sasori stared at the puppet of his likeness for several seconds before dropping his head into the palm of his hand, realizing that he didn't really think things through. He didn't know what he wanted to do. He knew he didn't want to be old forever, and if he were to live forever, getting old, mentally at least, would still be inevitable, and he certainly didn't want to become old and crazy, like his grandmother. Maybe he did want to grow, with her, with Raven.

Sasori looked back up at puppet, never so conflicted in his life. He didn't know what to do anymore.

The door of his workshop opened again and Sasori whipped around, hoping Raven returned. Instead, he saw Chiyo coming in so he closed and locked the storage door casually before she would see anything.

"That girl you've been smitten with was just leaving," Chiyo said.

"I know," Sasori said calmly, still facing the storage closet as he spun the dial of the combination lock, and making sure it was secure.

"She looked very upset, though she was trying to hide her face," Chiyo said. "Did you make her cry? Sasori, you should know better than to make a woman cry."

"I know," Sasori said, feeling even worse now.

"Did something happen?" she asked him seriously, the casual tone of her kidding around completely gone.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said.

"I think we should have a serious talk, Sasori," she started calmly. "Sit down." Sasori looked at her, weighing his options, before sitting down and waiting for her to start, since he was going to refuse to talk. "Puppets are interesting pieces of art, aren't they?" she said, looking around at the ones he was working on recently. "Too bad a puppet has no warmth or heart or friendship to offer us," she stated sadly, remembering a time when Sasori was much younger and tried to replace his parents with puppets of their likeness. "Have you ever wondered how you might live the happiest, Sasori?" Sasori only shook his head, in truth he had not considered happiness. It looked like she was going to give him a long lecture, telling him about what she had learned over the course of her long life.

Suki had called Itachi twice and left a message once after she got home from school that day. She was hoping he might have time to do something with her over the weekend, but he had yet to answer her calls or return her message today. She didn't worry about it, Itachi was a busy guy after all, and he seemed to manage his time well. Once he was able to call her back, he would. Until then she would make herself some dinner.

Itachi had several things to do when he got home. He multitasked most of it by writing a study guide and a paper at the kitchen table while talking with his mother and spending a little time with her before she left to run a quick errand before she started dinner. Then he studied the study guide and proof read the paper while training Sasuke. Then he replaced a window pane that was cracked by a stray kunai that Sasuke used to change the direction of a kunai already in the air. Itachi was quite satisfied with himself, he was making pretty good time today, Sasuke even helped with the window so that made it go faster.

However, when their father got home, they were each given an earful about the window, even though it was repaired and refinished right away. It appeared that their father had a bad day at work and brought that foul mood home with him. After ordering Sasuke to go do his homework, he told Itachi that he found him a mission for him to go on over the weekend.

"Father, I do not need help finding missions," Itachi tried.

"I already got you assigned to it, you're going with whoever they assign to be your partner," Fugaku said. "And if you don't need my help, why have you not had a mission in over a month?"

"I've been busy, Father," Itachi explained.

"With what? I know your schoolwork doesn't take up every minute of your time," Fugaku said. Itachi was dumbfounded for a moment. His father didn't seem to realize that he was the one giving so much to do. "You spend too much time with your friends, your little girlfriend too," he added before noticing the fading bruise on Itachi's cheek. "How did you get that?" he questioned.

"It was an accident, it happened yesterday," Itachi explained.

"You were in a fight, weren't you?" Fugaku question and Itachi didn't answer. "Proof that you have been slacking off, Itachi," he said. "You will go on the mission this weekend, I will call the school Monday morning so you will be dismissed from class, you're going to miss Monday."

Itachi sighed. "Yes, Father," he agreed to the mission, though he didn't agree with anything else the man was saying.

"And you need to refocus your time, Itachi, right now," Fugaku stated harshly.

"How so?" Itachi asked, not liking where this was going.

Suki had just finished her dinner when the phone rang, so she put her dishes in the sink and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Suki, it's me," Itachi said quietly.

"Hey, what's up?" she asked casually. "Did you get my message?"

"No I did not," he said. "But we have to talk."

"About what?" she asked. "Are you okay? You're really quiet."

"I'm fine… look, it's not that I don't like you, but I just don't have time for a girlfriend, and I have decided what's really important," Itachi said.

Suki was confused. Was he breaking up with her, and over the phone? "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I have a future to lay the foundation for and I have too many distractions in my life to keep track of, before we go any further…" he paused for a couple seconds.

"Itachi?" Suki breathed.

Itachi sighed, this was hard. "We can't talk or hang out anymore beside at school, so we can't date anymore either," he said. "I have other things I need to focus on, and you are too much of a distraction that is slowing me down and holding me back," he added.

"Oh okay," she said sadly though she still didn't understand. She thought she was giving him all the space he needed so he could manage his time and juggle everything in his life. She did understand one thing, he was breaking up with her, and there wasn't really anything she could say or do about it to convince him that what he said wasn't true. The fact that he said it, maybe she really was a distraction and he's just too nice of a guy to have told her sooner. "I guess this is it then?"

"Yeah," he breathed. "Good bye," he said.

"…Bye," she said and hung up. That hurt more than she thought it would. Though she was sure that was just an excuse to not be her boyfriend anymore. Using his obligations to make it easier. He hadn't been taking her calls for a while now, and they weren't hanging out as much besides at school. She guessed she should have picked up on the clues earlier. He just wasn't interested in her anymore and he had better things to do.

Itachi had hung up the phone, and looked at his father who was standing nearby to make sure Itachi would break it off with the distraction of a girlfriend. Fugaku's Sharingan was ready to punish Itachi if he went against his will.

Itachi knew he could easily take down his father, but also knew the cost would be too great, and in the process of doing such a thing, he would lose Suki anyway since he would either be sentenced to life in prison, death, or exiled. Instead, Itachi simply glared at his father, his own Sharingan flashed with the brief thought of violence against his father, and then he stomped to his room, passing Sasuke on the way who looked at his older brother with concern.


A/N: A lot was addressed in this chapter. The Akatsuki, Orochimaru, Sasori's wanting to be a puppet, and Itachi's heavy obligations, among a few miscellaneous things. Don't you hate it when someone keeps hounding you to do stuff at home and it makes you feel like a slave since you'll get in trouble if you try to say no? I'm sure most do. Will Sasori go through with his plan? Will Itachi snap under pressure? And who will Itachi go with on the mission? Stay tuned to find out.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter.