Just Hanging Out:
When we go to Sasuke's place Kiba and Sakura had just pulled up. There was also another car in the drive way.
"What is he doing here?"
Sasuke muttered as he parked the car right behind Itachi's. Naruto and I got out of the car first and headed to the door. Knowing Itachi was here there was a huge possibility that the door wasn't even locked and we could walk right in. Sakura was the brave one to open the door and like I thought it wasn't locked. Very cautiously we entered the house not knowing what to expect.
We heard noise coming from the kitchen so we headed that way.
"Itachi, why are you here?"
Said man was standing there with his four year old son sitting in the crock of his arm while he picked at the food in Itachi's other hand. The kid didn't even notice we had walked in because there was food in front of his face.
"I was hungry."
His answer was very honest.
"Anna didn't leave food already made for you the heat up?"
"Well you see that's one of the problems. The other is that last week I told her we should have another kid, she laughed in my face and told me very seriously no. Since then she has been working really late at the studio getting ready for her new clothes line to launch. I kind of think she's mad at me, and not leaving food is punishment."
"Oh really, you do realize the main reason why she married you is because you got her pregnant in the first place."
"Uh, yeah I kind of had that thought. But after four years, almost five now, I would have assumed she had gotten over that. Anyways I'm going to go sit at the table so I will hopefully be able to eat some of this food before Kenji eats it all."
At this he looked to his son who was about to shove more food in his mouth. He smiled and spoke.
"Sorry daddy,"
I had to admit the kid was a little cute, considering his dad was completely off his rocker most of the time. Kenji was pretty normal, hell even Anna was more normal then Itachi.
"Whatever, Sakura will you order some pizza. And tell them to put it on Itachi's tab."
"Really Sasuke, don't you think I have enough expenses with Kenji."
"Consider this a trial run for when Anna does decide to give you another kid."
"That's not funny."
We walked to the media room in the back of the house while Sakura got everyone's order for what type of pizzas to get. Once we were behind a closed door Sasuke let out a chuckle.
"Don't tell Itachi but Anna's already pregnant."
"Seriously? I thought she was pretty against having another one."
"Oh she is. But my brother can do some pretty dumb shit when he's drunk. He threw away her birth control. And before she could get more, he went out to get trashed with his buddies again and got her pregnant."
"Damn, now I feel even worse for Anna."
'Fuck that's really got to suck,' I thought after I said it.
"Shit you should have heard her telling my mom. She was cursing Itachi in every language she knows."
"Uh, how many is that again?"
Naruto had asked while scratching the back of his head trying to think.
"She's up to fifteen right now."
"Are you serious? Last time I saw her it was only five."
"Anna is really smart, just not smart enough to get away from Itachi."
Sakura came into the conversation. She was done putting in our order for pizza and now sat beside Sasuke. If I remembered correctly Anna had graduated top of her class in High school and College. With Itachi and his best friend Kisame right at her heels in terms of GPA level. Neither of them would challenge her for that number one rank, only knowing it would mean their demise.
"How long does she intend to hide it from him?"
"It's been three months and my brother is still clueless. I'm going to text her so she knows Itachi is here with Kenji. If not she'll freak out because they aren't at home where they should be."
About an hour later we heard a small voice calling down the hall.
"Sasuke-Nii, Sasuke-Nii."
The little voice got closer and there was banging on the door.
"Sasuke-Nii, lemme in. Open door, lemme in."
Sakura got up and opened the door only to have Kenji wrap his arms around her legs.
"Pick me up Pinkie. Up, up, up."
As he held onto her he bounce on his toes. Sakura groaned at the nick-name but picked him up anyways.
"Where's your dad?"
She asked him.
"Wit his friends."
"What are you talking about Kenji?"
Sasuke asked this question with a raised eyebrow.
'Would Itachi seriously leave his kid here and go out with his friends?'
I thought as I got up to and followed Sasuke out the door. The other three stayed in the room with Kenji. As Sasuke and I got closer to the front of the house we heard voices.
"So maybe he didn't leave."
I looked to Sasuke and he just shrugged. I was a little nervous to see what we were walking into, knowing who Itachi was and now that he was in a band. We had never met any of his friends, the only ones we knew were Anna, who is his wife, and Kisame, who was his best friend.
"Hey Uchiha where'd that kid of yours go, hmm."
"Uh, he was just here."
"Nice Itachi, Anna's going to kill you if he walked out the door."
"Okay, okay I'll go find him. He couldn't have gotten far?"
"Its fine Nii-San, Kenji is in the media room with the others."
"Oh, Sasuke. What a good little brother you are?"
"Are you already drunk?"
"I might be. They might be too."
The adult Uchiha brother gestured to his friends. I noticed one with blonde hair, he almost looked like a girl, was holding a nearly empty bottle of alcohol.
"Hey Uchiha are we going to play something or not, hmm. I thought that was why you called us over here, hmm."
"What are they talking about?"
I asked Sasuke.
"I think they might be drunk enough to play music."
Itachi sat in his chair quietly, like he was thinking about something. Soon enough that sinister smirk came to his lips and he chuckled.
"You're right, my dad still has our old instruments down stairs in the basement."
"Now you're talking Uchiha. Let's get this party fucking started."
"Hidan watch your language. If Anna heard Kenji say that word we would all be dead."
The guy who assumed was Hidan had white slicked back hair and his button down shirt was half open.
"Fuck you Kakuzo I'll say whatever the fuck I want. The kid knows not to repeat anything I say."
Kakuzo must be the man the man next to him he had the lower half of his face covered, almost like our Hatake-Sensei.
'I wander if their related.'
I thought to myself.
"So let's get to it Itachi."
"Hey kid, you guys want to see what a real band looks like, hmm?"
"Go get the rest of the guys Shikamaru. I'm going to help the drunks set up."
"Yeah,"
Walking back to the others I was very intrigued to see what they could do especially if they were drunk.
"Hey guys, so it looks like Itachi called some of his friends over and yeah they are drunk. And they are going down to the basement where Fugaku-San has their instruments so they can play some music."
"What Itachi-Nii is going to sing? Oh man this is going to be good. What are we waiting for guys let's go watch."
Naruto jumped from his seat and over the couch just to land right in front of me.
'Too close, way too close.'
Unconsciously I leaned into him, the good thing was no one noticed and Naruto still had that goofy smile on his face. I regained myself and moved away.
"You coming Shika."
I heard is voice and realize everyone was already out of the room except for Kenji, who was pulling at my pant leg.
"I wanna go see daddy."
Itachi really did have a cute kid, even if he had red hair like his mother. Because his hair was also curly both parents kept it short and looked like popcorn on top of his head. If you look past the red hair, the kid looked exactly like Itachi.
"Yeah come on kid."
I picked him up, and just like any other time he pulled at my hair and let out a giggle.
"It looks funny."
When we got to the basement the guys were almost done getting the equipment set up.
"Daddy, daddy."
I put the kid down and he ran to Itachi, I could tell the older man was still fairly drunk because he was teetering from foot to foot. But he found the balance to come down to Kenji's level and give him a smile.
'Is this what growing up looks like? Having a family and a career.'
When I thought about it Itachi was lucky. He had a beautiful successful wife and a cute kid. He had a job with the Japanese Military as a weapons technician. He was also a computer genius, so the man really did need the job of being our manager. He did this for fun and evidently he made music for fun too.
"Test, test. 1, 2, 1, 2. Alright looks like everything works okay. You ready Itachi?"
"Yeah, let's do that song I wrote a few days ago."
"Nii-San I didn't know you were writing music again."
"I get bored when Anna works all day and Kenji just wants to sleep."
"Uchiha are we doing this or not, hmm."
"Yeah, yeah."
The drums came in first, played by Kakuzo, next came the guitars, Kisame and Hidan. With the bass as a low under tone, Diedara.
I wanted to save you
Give breath that escaped you
But you stayed down
Kisame & Diedara-(stayed down)
To resuscitate you
Breath my breath back into you
You stayed out
Kisame & Diedara-(stayed out)
I wanted to shake you
To scream to awaken you
You stayed down
Kisame & Diedara-(stayed out)
In your slumber you saw everything
Everything but me
Why must we stop?
Why must we stop now?
Why must you crush our glow?
Don't you know that heaven is slow?
Don't remake our heaven
I wanted to save us
Wept words that escaped us
But you stayed out
(You shut them out)
I fell down to face you
To find you were wakeful
And you'd forced me out, I'm nothing now
In your slumber you saved everything
Everything but me
Why must we stop?
Why must we stop now?
Why must you crush our glow?
Don't you know that heaven is slow?
Don't remake our heaven
Why must we stop?
Why must we stop now?
Why must you crush our glow?
Don't you know that heaven is slow?
Don't erase our heaven.
The song was awesome and in that moment I was able to understand that Itachi really was human with human feelings. I had heard from Sasuke that a few years ago their older cousin Shisui had gone into a coma just recently they pulled the plug on his life support. And right now he was living day by day with minimal brain function. The song spoke the feelings that Itachi had a hard time expressing out in the open. It made me see his differently now. It made me realize why he was so closed off sometimes, why he took every moment seriously.
They played a few songs, but the last song they played was just as intense and heart felt as the first one.
Drop like the needle
Today I felt it drain (felt it drain)
I'll climb back up to you
On ladders of the rain (of the rain)
Break them down, shake their frail beliefs
I'll show them, show them a believer
Three hundred thousand amps
And I'm your warm receiver
When they kill the lights
You'll remain my conductor
And if they dare to drain your life
I'll become your conductor
Don't cut the connection
Bleed into black clouds
And I will lick them clean
Turn to a tourniquet
And cinch yourself to me
Strike down now, shake their frail beliefs
And make them newborn believers
Three hundred thousand amps
And I'm your warm receiver
When they kill the lights
You'll remain my conductor
And if they dare to drain your life
I'll become your conductor
When they kill the lights
You'll remain my conductor
You'll remain my conductor
You'll remain my conductor
About thirty minutes later we were in front of Itachi's house after kicking out his still very drunk friends. I drove Itachi's car with him lying in the backseat giggling like a school girl. Sasuke would have drove his car but Itachi had a thing for manual vehicles and Sasuke didn't know how to drive it. The only good thing to come from this was that Naruto offered to go with me because I didn't really know where Itachi lived.
The music was playing so we weren't sitting in awkward silence listening to the adult in the back make a fool of himself. We both got out of the car and just my luck Itachi was lying towards me which meant I had to attempt to drag him out before Naruto could get a hold of him and help me walk him to the front door. Sasuke was holding Kenji who looked to be asleep.
At the door I saw a person waiting for us. Long legs, curvy body, and long red hair. If I wasn't into guys, I would fascinate about Itachi's wife. Anna wasn't Japanese, she had been a military brat and of Irish descent. Her family transferred to Japan when she was in middle school, even after living here for so long she still had an Irish accent.
"What the hell happened?"
She asked as she took her son from Sasuke.
"Well I had a group of friends over so we left Itachi and Kenji to themselves in the kitchen, while we went to chill out in the media room. After we watched a movie Kenji came in saying something about Itachi being with his friends. I thought he had left but when I went to go check he and his group were sitting around the table drunk."
"Was anyone hurt?"
"No but Itachi was saying something about Madara asking him to bring back together his band. And I think he might have texted him saying he'd do it."
"He did what?"
"Hey Anna-Chan can we come in, Nii-San is pretty heavy."
"Fine, put him on the couch I'm going to go lay Kenji down."
We put him down on the couch and it was as if he knew what to do because he spread himself out on the cushions so he could sleep. Anna came back and she still didn't look too happy about the situation.
"You really need to tell him Anna, I think he's serious about it this time. He's been writing music again and it sounds damn good."
"I know, I found some songs he's been writing. I knew this would happen, and to be honest I wouldn't mind him going on tour with his band."
"Really?"
The three of us said at the same time.
"The man doesn't let me sleep, it's like he always has energy lately."
'That's gross and we didn't need to know that.'
"Look if him starting up his band again and going on tour is going to let me sleep then he can. I really don't want to explain to my four year old what the weird noise he hears coming from our bedroom is."
"Are you sure Anna? He really wasn't all there the first time to help you, wouldn't it be better if he was around."
"Its fine Sasuke, I can handle this. Besides I have your mom and my mom and my sisters so everything will be okay."
Anna came from a big family she had three sisters and five brothers. So there was no doubt she had plenty of help to prepare for a new baby.
"I do how ever have a stipulation for letting him start his band again."
'This can't be good. In the time I've known these people, I have come to find that all Uchiha's had a reason for what they did. And that trait had been passed to Anna even though she was only married into the family.'
"Your band has to wear my new clothes line. And perform at the fashion show on opening night."
"Anna-Chan I don't think…"
I didn't get to finish what I was going to say because Sasuke stepped in.
"Okay."
"What?"
"The kinds of people who buy Anna's clothes are most likely our own fans Shikamaru. She sells to the punk, goth, rock types of people."
"Alright, but nothing too shiny or with studs or spikes."
"Done. Bring your band to my studio in two weeks so I can have all of you custom fitted for clothes that will be presented in two months at my fashion show."
We left Itachi and Anna's house and Sasuke dropped Naruto and I off at my place. It was pretty late and needless to say I was still grounded. But I used the excuse that the three of us were working on a project for school so my parents didn't care what time we got back. Just so long as we didn't make any noise while moving around the house. Today was eventful and eye opening on many levels. And I was more excited for what was to come in the near future.
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Alright I know I said I would update for "Not Alone", but I was just totally feeling my Shikamaru story and had to write it. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. –itachiluv89
Songs: No Resurrection and The Conductor by AFI