** Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto characters!
I am so sorry this is late, REALLY LATE! Usually I come up with some bizarre idea but the writing fairy didn't visit so you're stuck with a sequel to ch 8. Contentment: aka Ch 9. Thorough Explanations (a chapter I'm kinda iffy on…)
A special thanks to all of you that have reviewed, I really do appreciate them.
Well thanks for taking the time to read this chapter… So on ward! Mustsleep Z.z ***
Thorough Explanations
Itachi let out a light groan as he moved one foot out from under the blanket only to notice that the floor was cold. Sighing, the man rose. One quick glance at the outside door revealed darkness, the sun had yet to rise. If there was one thing that Itachi wasn't, it was a morning person. Most nights he stayed up into the early morning hours due to reading, training, or writing his mission reports. He blamed his mind; it never wished to sleep.
So why was he, after getting only two hours of sleep, up so early? Three explanations could possibly answer the question as to why the man would rise before the sun. The most prominent one was the fact that he had made plans, which consisted of training with some of the more tolerable people in his life at the moment. Usually the man was classified under the word most 'interesting person' but due to some recent incidents he had become one of the most tolerable. Of course, the man was still the most interesting person because the word 'interesting' was better suited for Itachi's elder cousin than anything else. Knowing Shisui would come and wake him up, in a very awkward and un-Uchiha like manor, Itachi had no choice but to rise quickly and leave.
The second reason was logical but not necessarily as worrisome as a mischievous Shisui. His darling, little brother was still upset about the small incident during the autumn festival. Yes, maybe he over did it just a tad bit. Well, maybe more than just a tad. His brother had rarely met his gaze and when he did he glared; not noticing the way it wounded his older brother. The blond loud mouth snarled at each of his passings but self-preservation kept the boy from trying to start a fight. The tiny petite female… She had stomped into the Uchiha training grounds demanding an explanation while slapping him across the face. Well, tried to slap him across the face. To say that she had been upset about the log would have been an understatement. Obviously Itachi was not surprised at her outbreak; he knew underneath the cloy outer layer rested a choleric young woman.
Quietly, the Uchiha heir dressed for training; not wanting anyone to notice he had awakened. This brought across number three, perhaps the most annoying of them all. Having Mikoto following him all day was starting to become… dare he say it… troublesome. For some reason she seemed to think he had actually 'fallen' for Sasuke's teammate. The thought was utterly ridiculous. She was his little brother's friend, several years his younger. Besides, it was just a peck on the forehead.
He was now starting to regret it. The action had given him nothing but trouble since his amusement had died down. At least he now understood Shisui better. No one seemed to be able to take an Uchiha's play; it was no wonder the man was so misunderstood.
Softly, Itachi made his way outside and then padded his way along the wooden porch to his brother's quarters. He drifted his way in after sliding the door open in silence. The stern expression softened as the ANBU operative looked down upon his little brother. Letting out a rare smile, Itachi drifted closer to the steadily breathing body. The boy still couldn't sense his presence, but he was still a genin; he had time to grow up.
Kneeling, Itachi brushed away hair that had fallen over the boy's face. A quick peck on the forehead and Itachi stood, beginning to back away from the sleeping form.
"Sleep well, little brother," Itachi murmured turning.
A form stood in the doorway. Problem number three…
The woman stepped back, allowing him to step out. He sighed mentally, before he shut the door without making a sound.
Surprisingly, the woman just held out a small cup which was full of a steaming liquid. Leaning against the wall Mikoto smiled as she watched her son drink the tea.
"I think I understand it now…" She murmured after they had stood in peaceful silence for several minutes.
Itachi lowered the cup. "Understand what?"
Mikoto smiled gently, not in her usual mischievous smirk. The woman shook her head, not answering his question. Quietly, she took the empty glass from his hands.
"You best meet up with Shisui."
Itachi nodded his head, glad to get away from the lady who, for the past week, had bombarded him with questions.
"Oh."
Itachi stopped in his tracks and turned back to the woman.
"I would keep the playing with him to a minimum." The mischievous smirk was back. "His odd sense of humor is starting to rub off on you."
Itachi gave a quiet chuckle, thankful to know his mother had finally caught on.
Her hand reached up and touched his shoulder. "But…" she barely whispered, drawing herself upward towards his ear. "I wouldn't mind you being with Sakura…"With that she gave him a quick peck on the forehead, just like he had done to his brother, before leaving.
Itachi watched her retreating form before remembering he had someplace to be, namely; problem one.
Mikoto set the glass in the kitchen sink before filling the kettle with more water. Smiling, the woman portrayed how happy she was by humming. Her son was falling for Sakura; he just didn't know it yet. Soon everything would be in place and she would no longer have to care for the old geezers. But for now she needed to speak with Sasuke. Itachi had finally broken down a wall in showing emotion to someone outside of the Uchiha family and being punished by his brother would be a sure way of it never happening again.
The kettle bubbled; not whistled because having a whistling kettle in a house full of shinobi was a sure way to get killed. She pulled out two cups and then poured green tea into them. Closing her eyes she could hear a door sliding open. Mikoto smirked; her skills were still up to par.
"Good morning." Mikoto addressed her youngest son as she placed two cups on the table.
Sasuke gave a dazed look while rubbing his eyes.
"Take a seat and come sit with your mother." Inwardly Mikoto grinned, it was sad how often she played the mother card but it never failed to work.
Sasuke only nodded his mind too fuzzy to really make sense of the world around him. He followed her orders, taking the seat across from her.
Mikoto waited patiently for the boy to pick up the cup and take a drink. Then she smiled, now was the opportune moment to break the comfortable silence. "There's something I would like to talk to you about."
Sasuke choked on the hot liquid in his mouth; no good ever came from those words. Now he fully awake and giving her his undivided attention.
"What exactly happened between you and your brother?" She, of course, already knew; she had forced Itachi to spill all of the details, which made her slightly anxious about how well ANBU were trained now-and-days.
Sasuke's eyebrows bunched together in anger and the hand gripping the cup tightened its hold.
"Sasuke." Mikoto tilted her head to the side expecting an answer.
"He gave Sakura a kiss."Sasuke growled.
Mikoto faked surprise, "A kiss?"
Sasuke nodded while grinding his teeth together.
"Right. On. The. Lips?" The mother asked, her mouth open with an 'oh', as she led the boy to the mouse trap with cheese.
Sasuke blinked and then blinked again, then shivered. Suddenly the thought occurred to him that what his brother had done probably wasn't as bad as the visual images he now had.
"No. It was on the forehead."
Mikoto closed her mouth, hiding a smile. "Like the ones Itachi and I give you?" Mikoto reinforced her point by leaning over and kissing Sasuke on the forehead right where Itachi had earlier in the morning.
"Ah…" Sasuke trailed off his eyes narrowing in confusion.
Mikoto wanted to sigh in exasperation, why were her children so dense when it came to social encounters. They definitely were their father's sons… No doubt his genes ran deep in them both.
"Hmm," Mikoto murmured; pursing her lips as she pretended to be in thought. "It's almost as though he's treating her like another Uchiha…" She trailed off hoping her son would get the point.
"Oh…" Sasuke paused. His eyes widened in surprise as her explanation finally sunk in, and then a strange glint crossed the dark orbs.
Mikoto wanted to giggle. Her little boy was now jealous of his pink haired teammate because of a peck on the forehead.
The wind whipped at Itachi's hair, causing some of the raven strands to slip from the low ponytail. Paying no heed to the loose wisps of black, Itachi continued on with his quick pace to the training grounds. His mouth in a firm line; he was running late and he hated being late.
It seemed that Shisui wasn't the only one desiring a spare, Itachi noted with a frown as he got closer to the designated meeting area. The way his elder cousin's chakra, which was normally in check, was flaring in an alarming rate meant only one thing; someone was giving him trouble. There was no use in the Uchiha prodigy to quicken his pace; because he knew that most of the time his elder cousin brought it upon himself. Not only that, but the abnormal Uchiha usually could take care at himself. But Itachi was curious; usually Shisui was a rather mellow character and it took some effort to grate on his nerves; not that Itachi ever had.
Dark onyx eyes scanned the open field eventually resting upon the three figures. Shisui stood facing two other men, of whom Itachi could easily identify by the back of their heads. Itachi's eyes narrowed in calculation. He could leave, letting his cousin take the blunt blow of their anger which would allow Itachi to escape unscathed, or he could stay and confront the problem before it got out of hand.
Shisui's chakra flared once again as the spiky haired man snarled something to the two men that was too low for Itachi to hear. By now Itachi could see Shisui was seriously upset; his elder cousin had subconsciously begun to pull back his upper lip allowing his white teeth to show. The man was so distracted that he hadn't even noticed Itachi had entered the field.
Knowing it was probably best to intersect before it got worse; Itachi cleared his throat, which gained him the attention of the three men.
"Kakashi, Genma," Itachi nodded to each of the men as he said their name, "What do I owe the pleasure?"
The copy-nin's one eyes narrowed dangerously, it seemed Shisui wasn't the only one upset. In fact, it was quiet clear the copy-nin was angry by the way he was no longer slouching but standing up straight.
Itachi raised an eyes brow in question which seemed to anger the senbon user as the metal piece in his mouth began to go from side to side.
"You over stepped your boundaries." Kakashi's voiced trailed out in a bored tone before Genma could open his mouth to speak.
It would seem the entire world couldn't take a joke, Itachi thought with a mental sigh. The only amusing thing about the entire situation was the irony. The irony was the fact that the two biggest perverts in the village (excluding the toad sannin) were the ones to give him a lesson in boundaries.
"Haha," Shisui spouted sarcastically, "Itachi over stepping boundaries sounds like a load of bull to me."Immediately Itachi realized Shisui was more than just a little upset. "Now, get out of here before I call the guards."
"Sorry, not this time Shi," Genma sighed casting a sorrowful expression to his long time drinking buddy.
This only made the normally calm Uchiha more irritated. "No one," His voice snarled," threatens my baby cousin. Got. It." The body-flicker poked Genma in the chest in warning.
It clicked for Itachi; he had forgotten about Shisui's protective side, it had been a long time since he'd seen it and only then it had been once. At age eleven he had gone before the council and it had been the first time he had ever heard his elder cousin yell in anger as he defended Itachi from the elders.
Itachi cleared his throat. The memory of Shisui holding a kunai to his great grandfather's throat was etched in his mind; it was time to stop it before things got out of hand. "I'm sure this is just a big misunderstanding. I highly doubt these two plan on seriously injuring me." Itachi murmured, treading carefully as he spoke to his angry cousin.
Of course, reading the killing intent aura around the usual lazy copy-nin and cat-calling anbu operative; there was no doubt they planned to do more than just injure the prodigy.
"Well, maybe you should inform me of this misunderstanding…" the grey haired man growled out, clearly not amused.
The genius's mind began to turn; trying to find a way out of the situation. The copy-nin would be a difficult fight, not to mention expensive for the compound, and being aided by Genma clearly was a situation that a sane person knew better to be in. Something then clicked in the back of Itachi's mind about the conversation he had over tea. Silently, Itachi thanked his mother.
"I've clearly been hanging around Shisui for too long…"
The said man raised an eyebrow in suspicion, irritated that Itachi was trying to pull something off on him. It took two seconds before the senbon user got the implication.
The man burst into laughter removing the piece of metal in his mouth as he clapped the young male on the back. "Clearly!" The man laughed so hard tears began to form in his eyes, the killing intent vanishing into thin air. The anbu operative then proceeded to grab Kakashi, who hadn't gotten it, by his green vest to drag him away.
"Come one," the senbon user snickered, "we're not needed." Genma burst into laughter again as though the whole situation was the best joke in the world.
Slowly, Kakashi followed Genma off the field while giving Itachi one last glare in warning.
"Oh," Genma called out catching the two Uchiha's attention. "Shisui stop rubbing off on people, you're going to give me an ulcer!" He began to then chuckle something along the lines of 'thought I was going to have to fight an anbu captain' which ended in relief filled laughter.
As the sounds of Genma's outburst trailed outside of the Uchiha compound gates Shisui turned his narrow slitted gaze to his younger cousin. Red tints informed Itachi that Shisui was still, indeed, upset.
"Now darling, baby cousin," Shisui's voice, creeping with spitfire sarcasm, began. "What exactly did you get into?"
Itachi gave a loud vocalized sigh, knowing the man before him would not rest before he got a thorough explanation.
The kiss on the forehead almost wasn't worth it… Actually, the thought of doing it again would never have crossed Itachi's mind had the young female not tasted like strawberries.
Then another thought occurred to Itachi…
Hadn't the girl kissed him before?
Itachi's lips twitched at all the trouble he had suffered …
Stupid double standards…
