A/N: And the meeting of Itachi continues! With fun and excitement. Hope you all enjoyed your Labor day weekend. I did not. I spent it picking up limbs and hauling fallen trees away. Ouch.
I do not own any of the Naruto characters.
Chapter title taken from the childhood rhyme:
"All around the cobbler's bench
The monkey chased the weasel
The monkey though 'twas all in fun
POP goes the weasel!"
It's an eccentric AU!
Chapter Twenty: Pop Goes the Weasel
August 13
Itachi watched as the young man's eyebrows rose, before settling. Itachi was a little surprised--Genma was much younger than he had expected. He looked about the same age as Kaika, Itachi's cousin, who was only just nineteen. Itachi kept his face blank as the Genma reached a conclusion and spoke around the senbon between his teeth.
"An Uchiha, huh? Well. That's unexpected. How old are you, brat?"
"Brat?!" Itachi thought, startled and annoyed. "Eight."
"Wagh, you're kidding me!" wailed one of the older kids. Itachi half-turned. "Eight? And graduated? Can they do that?" It was the taller boy, brown-skinned with dark eyes and a broad scar across his face. He was dressed a little shabbily, and he talked very loudly. "How long were you at the Academy?"
"A year," Itachi answered, after a moment. He could afford to give that away.
"A year." Genma repeated. He looked at Itachi, and beneath his heavy lids, his pale eyes were sharp.
"Flying fish, that's crazy!" the brown boy exclaimed. "Are you really only eight?"
"Brat, shut it," Genma ordered, voice sharpening a notch. He glared briefly at the older boys, then looked at Itachi carefully. He smiled a little. "Those are your team-mates. Umino Iruka, the loud one, and Gekkou Hayate. C'mere and sit down, brats."
As the two complied, Itachi took a moment to look at the one named Hayate. The boy was slight, with dark eyes and dark hair. He moved with a loose-limbed kind of grace, a direct contrast to Iruka, who walked with the compact stalk of a predator. Itachi averted his gaze: that stalk made him nervous. Instead, he looked to the young teacher, who was leaning lazily against the tree. Itachi doubted he was all that relaxed: he was Tokubetsu Jounin, what for all he was so young. The two older boys sat in the shade, Iruka dropping down gracelessly, Hayate folding himself neatly beside the other boy. Immediately, Iruka started poking Hayate in the ribs. Hayate looked mournfully at Iruka and sighed a tiny sigh. Iruka grinned and kept poking. Hayate rolled his eyes and ignored him, looking up solemnly at Itachi.
"Have a seat, Itachi," Genma ordered, but lightly. "And tell us a bit about yourself. What can you do?"
Itachi did not sit. He was very aware that standing, he was a little above eye-level with the young man. Sitting would make him seem smaller. "What any Academy graduate can do," he answered, blandly. "I passed with full marks."
"Hmm. Well, that remains to be seen." Genma smirked. "Not a talkative kid, eh? I don't think I could stand two like Iruka."
"You say that like I'm a bad thing," Iruka protested, smiling.
"You are," Hayate sighed, softly.
Genma snorted, and looked back at Itachi with a heavy-lidded, unreadable look. "Either talk or get ready to spar, brat. Your choice."
Itachi wondered if it was a test. After a moment, he decided it probably was not. He nodded, carefully. "Taijutsu only?" That was what Genma had most likely meant, but Itachi wanted it to be clear. Most people were dreadfully imprecise when they talked. It was very annoying.
"Hai." Genma switched his senbon from one side of his mouth to the other. "Hayate, you spar with him."
"Why not me?" Iruka demanded, head snapping up.
"Because you only got your stitches out yesterday," Genma snapped, giving Iruka an annoyed scowl. "Brat."
Iruka subsided with a matching scowl. Hayate sighed a little and stood. He moved out into sun and started stretching, with only a brief glance at Itachi. Itachi wondered what the older boy was thinking--it was surprisingly hard to tell. He moved out and started the limbering warm-up stretches as well.
Hayate finished first, and waited quietly until Itachi settled into a stance. The older boy regarded him with dark umber eyes, nodded, and slipped smoothly into an attack routine. Itachi blocked the first few blows with wariness, then contempt. Hayate's strikes were measured, and the older boy's face was completely unreadable. Itachi did not like the idea that he was being underestimated. He knew the standard patterns well enough to improvise from any point he chose--and he did so now. From an easy block he slid into an aggressive offensive. Hayate seemed startled and missed the first chance to block, but right before the blow landed on his flank he dodged in a spectacularly boneless-looking manner. After that, he guarded well and fast--he took a rather passive defense, which annoyed Itachi.
He could not quite break Hayate's guard, and changed tactics. Fast footwork had been the undoing of many of his older opponents at the Academy, and because he was so small and light, Itachi could be very quick. He pressed his turn of speed now, and to his great satisfaction, slipped a single strike under Hayate's guard. His fist drummed up against the older boy's ribs with a satisfying impact. Hayate huffed only a very little, and dropped back instead of counter-attacking.
And then he coughed, startling Itachi badly. It was a loud, barking cough that rattled nastily in the older boy's throat. Hayate coughed about twice, hacked and spat. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, and breathing carefully through both mouth and nose, turned back to Itachi.
"Whoa, whoa." Genma was sitting bolt upright, leaning forward on one fisted hand. "Hayate, come back and sit down. Iruka, you get up there."
Hayate stepped down with a nod, still breathing carefully. He walked slowly back to the shade of the tree. Iruka bounced to his feet with a whoop, but as he passed, Hayate snagged his tanktop. He leaned over and hissed something in Iruka's brown ear before releasing the other boy. Iruka watched Hayate sit, then bounded out into the sunlight. He tumbled into the first series of stretches, all vibrant eager energy. Itachi raised an eyebrow. A match with Iruka was going to be rather tougher, he suspected.
From the first strike, which Iruka blocked solidly, Itachi knew this was going to be tricky. Iruka did not seem to have the reservations Hayate had. It was a good trade of offense and defense. Iruka's strikes were less measured than Hayate's: blocking them made Itachi's arms sting. He was sure some were going to bruise. He was fast and more agile than Iruka...but Iruka had height, weight, and power all in his favor. The outcome was already decided. Itachi was still taken utterly aback when Iruka's flat-palmed strike broke through his defenses and sent him tumbling to the ground. He hit hard and rolled right over, sitting up and gasping for breath.
Iruka looked just as aghast. "Oh. Um. Ooops?" he said, blinking. His eyes caught the sunlight as he tilted his head--Itachi caught a brief flash of blue. "You okay? I didn't mean to hit you that hard..."
Itachi grit his teeth. He knew he was small, but he was not weak. He wished they would stop looking at him--treating him--like he was. "I'm fine," he answered, stiffly, as he got back to his feet and dusted himself off. "Owowowow...that's gonna bruise, ow..." he thought, rolling his right shoulder. It was partially numb, mostly stinging, and did not really want to work. Iruka hit hard. Itachi eyed him carefully.
He had heard about Iruka before. Fugaku often came home with files or problems from work. He would complain to the ever-patient Mikoto about his day, and what cases he had worked, what arrests he had made. Itachi had heard Iruka's name before, even seen the boy once when he had visited Fugaku at the police station. Itachi had heard from his father that Iruka was a reckless brat, low-brow trash, an utterly unrepentant rascal. But Iruka looked a little worried, and frowned at Itachi.
"Okay, if you say so," he said, tone clearly disbelieving, as he bounced on his toes.
"I do," Itachi snapped back. He did not want condescension from Iruka, of all people.
"Oi, break it up." Genma was on his feet, and sauntering over. "Lemme look at that shoulder, brat." Itachi thought about protesting, but Genma was his new teacher. He submitted to Genma's broad, hot hands feeling his shoulder over. It was definitely going to bruise. "Tch, Iruka." Genma stood back, and shook his head. "Whew. It's getting hot. We'll make today a short one, to celebrate our new brat, huh?" He grinned, eyes heavy-lidded. "Standard scroll-search, twenty minutes. Use five of 'em to brief Itachi. And good luck."
With a grin that dropped a notch into "dangerous," Genma stepped back...and vanished, in a quiet ruffle of leaves and a fine wisp of smoke.
Itachi looked up at his new team-mates. Hayate and Iruka traded glances--exasperated, resigned--and groaned.
"Scroll-search" meant that Genma had hidden a scroll somewhere on training ground three, and was likely guarding it. Hayate, Iruka and Itachi were to find the scroll, grab it, and make it to the gates of the training ground, all without getting caught by Genma. Iruka cheerfully reported that their earlier team had done it...all of once. Itachi felt a distinct sense of foreboding. Iruka looked at him and Hayate carefully.
"Huh. I think our best bet this time is to pass the scroll off to Hayate. He's really fast," he added to Itachi. "You and I will do our best to distract Genma. We'll do tree-ground search, can you tree-walk yet, Itachi? Anyway, when we find it, Hayate'll run it off, and when he gives the signal--bird whistle, 'kay? When he signals, we'll break and run, too. I'm rear-guard. Let's go!"
The first tree they searched was the great oak at the gate. Hayate went up into the branches, but declared nothing. He dropped out of the tree easily, and the trio headed for the little stand of trees at the back of the training ground, single file, Hayate leading, Iruka trailing. Hayate moved at a long-limbed trot, but Itachi found he could keep pace easily enough. As soon as they entered the trees, Hayate took to the branches, but Iruka and Itachi stayed on the ground. Itachi felt a little nervous, with Iruka prowling behind him. He kept catching glimpses of the older boy in his peripheral vision and it unnerved him.
Though Hayate was in the trees, Itachi spotted the scroll first. It was poised in the crook of a narrow pine branch. The tree was slender--it was short and young, but the first branch was still a good eight feet up. Hayate crouched in the nearest tree--an older maple, and shook his head at them. Iruka scowled up at the sapling, then nodded to Itachi.
Itachi measured the distance. No jumping. He stepped back once, then again, coiling, pressing chakra. It was too high for him to make it walking. He took a running start, holding his breath like he wasn't supposed to. He did not quite make it all the way up to the branch: he had to hook a hand over it and pull. He kicked hard to keep his momentum going, and rolled himself over the branch, free hand grabbing the scroll as he went over. He stuck to the tree once more when he was over, a quick slap of a sandal to keep his fall controlled. He dropped the last four feet and landed in a heavy crouch.
He looked up to catch Iruka grinning at him, bright and cocky and pleased. A glance further up showed Hayate was smiling, soft and surprisingly warm. Itachi glanced down at the scroll in his hand. It was blank, a little water-marked, tied together with rough twine. He looked back up at Hayate, and pitched the scroll up into the air. It spun, caught a ray of sunlight, and with a snatch that blurred in Itachi's eyes, Hayate had it. He smirked at them, and stood on his branch.
Something hit the ground behind Itachi. He jumped forward, startled. Iruka's narrow brown hand closed on his upper arm, and with a pull that nearly wrenched Itachi's already-bruised right shoulder, the older boy snatched him forward. Itachi staggered forward, and whirled as soon as he got his balance back. Genma and Iruka were fighting, trading blows at a goodly pace. Iruka was blocking more than he was attacking, and he looked grim. Genma was smirking, and obviously not fighting seriously. He still had that senbon between his teeth--it glittered as the two sparred under the dappled shade.
Itachi saw an opening, and lunged into it, a high kick that thudded against Genma's flak vest. Genma snapped an arm out, and Itachi ducked under it, rolling with the motion. He dropped into a crouch and spun, snapping out his other foot into the back of Genma's knees. Genma folded over, made a strike of Iruka's swing wide as he went back, and turned the fall into a very neat handless flip. He darted at Itachi, who flung himself upright and into a guarding stance, suddenly frightened. Genma was so much larger and stronger and smirking because he knew it. Itachi dodged the first strike rather than block, leaping aside to the right...and right into Iruka. They went down in a tumbling heap, Itachi with the breath knocked out of him by the impact.
Itachi coughed and gasped and finally managed a breath. He realized Iruka had him by the shoulders, holding him up. Genma was chuckling, trying to hide a smirk with an upraised hand. He stood hipshot before them.
"Nice try. Right up until you forgot you had a partner, Itachi." Genma shook his head, but he was grinning. "A very good try. So good, in fact, I'll call it a day. Well done, brats."
"Thanks, we think," Iruka snorted.
Itachi shrugged off Iruka's hands and sat upright. He did not need help. But oh, his shoulder was going to be so sore...!
A/N: I'm not sure if Genma's being clever or lax in his teaching methods here. I'm sure he'd say clever, but he's definitely biased on that. Anyway! Next chapter: We learn exactly what is the price you pay when you graduate the genuis early. Genma despairs.
FOUR REVIEWS! A great and wonderful thanks to all who reviewed last chapter: KawaiiIruka, Ryo Yuriko, Ally Plz, and InARealPickle!
(Welcome back from your hospital stay, Ryo Yuriko! Hope you are feeling much better!)
BURNING DEADFALL IS ON IT'S LAST CHAPTER! DON'T MISS THE EPIC ENDING! (As the editor, I know exactly what happens. You should all go find out.)
For those of who who are interested in a few statistics! Yes, this is my attempt to guilt-trip more of you into reviewing. Feel free to skip if you never intend to help me. Reviews and critical feedback help me improve as a writer. I am desperately trying to improve. Please help me make this story better. Tell me what you liked, any errors, or even any suggestions for missions or further character developments. Thank you.
Seventeen (17) people have this story on alert. Seven (7) of these review regularly, and kudos to them! Of these seven, only four (4) reviewed the last chapter.
Eight (8) people have this story on their favs list. One (1) of those is a regular reviewer.
Last chapter (ch. 19) had only four (4) reviews, but eighty-nine (89) hits.
THANK YOU!