"Sasuke-kun," Hanui greeted the clan heir, surprised to see him at their uncle's dango shop. From what she could remember, he'd never had a sweet tooth; she'd never even seen him eat candy in all the years she had known him.
Sasuke nodded to her and stepped aside so she could place her order with their uncle. Out of habit, Hanui scanned the menu mounted up on the wall, but she always ordered her usual: 3 dango sticks with a side of sweet cherry syrup and a cup of herbal tea. Her uncle smiled and wrote down her order, even though he had it memorized by now. He gestured for her to step aside and wait next to Sasuke as he began gathering ingredients. She nodded and moved so that she wouldn't be in the way of other customers wishing to enter the shop.
"It's rare to see you in the dango shop, Sasuke-kun," She teased gently, trying to prevent any awkward tension from forming between them. They were the only ones in the shop so early.
"Hn," Sasuke agreed with her, but did not elaborate any further on why he was there. He leaned against the wall of the shop with his arms crossed, holding his body in a relaxed state but still alert as a shinobi. Hanui rolled her eyes, used to his blunt responses.
"Are you here for Itachi-san then?" She pressed, stepping closer to her conversation-evasive cousin. She was careful not to invade his personal space too much, but she did want to make sure he didn't ignore her attempts at cordiality.
"Him and Izumi," Sasuke glanced down to her. Hanui smiled brightly and nodded her head in understanding.
"How nice of you," She nudged his arm and gave him a conspirator's look. "It did all start with dango for them, didn't it?"
Sasuke didn't respond, only looked backed to their uncle who was rolling the mochi balls carefully and with the well-practiced precision befitting his mastery. Sasuke had come to the dango shop on his way out to the training grounds, thinking to leave the sweet treat to cheer up Izumi and perhaps Itachi if she let him have any. Their rivalry for the last dango stick was notorious, and Sasuke had deliberately ordered an odd number of sticks to spark some levity to combat the sadness brought on by Izumi's menstruation.
Not deterred in the slightest at the break in conversation, Hanui nudged Sasuke's arm again and wagged her brow. "How do you think it will start for you? Tomatoes maybe?"
Sasuke blew air through his nose in a show of amusement and shook his head at her. The corners of his lips tipped up slightly, and Hanui counted that as a win.
"Not tomatoes then? Hmm," she tapped her finger against her lips in feigned critical thought. "How about a mutual dislike of sweets?"
"No. Probably a desire to never eat ramen again," He submitted, playing along with her jest.
"Ah, is that all Naruto-san eats still?" She giggled a bit at the blonde's notorious appetite. Sasuke's prolonged friendship with Naruto-san took some getting used to at first, with them being nearly opposites. But now it was almost expected to hear about them getting into a one-sided argument at Ichiraku that ended in the boisterous blonde challenging Sasuke-kun to some contest or another. "It's a very good thing the Kyuubi has so much chakra then; I'm not sure how else Naruto-san would survive with his unhealthy diet."
"Hn. At this point, his body would die of shock from eating a vegetable." Sasuke pushed off the wall to walk up to the counter. He accepted the To-Go container, placing enough money down for both his and Hanui's orders.
"I'll be sure to listen for the clan survey of women who like ramen and women who do not," Hanui smiled. She thanked Sasuke for his kindness and watched him walk out into the misty gray of mid-autumn in Konoha.
Sasuke backtracked through the compound to his brother and sister-in-law's home and rapped on the door, leaving the package on the porch where he knew one of them would pick it up. He made his way outside of the Uchiha compound and towards the training grounds reserved for jonin and ANBU members, eager to train away some of his restlessness from the ease of his guard duty assignment
Ino walked through the village, trying not to shiver against the misty weather. She cursed herself for not bringing a jacket or scarf when she left the house this morning, but she hadn't felt cold until after she was well on her way. She wouldn't be out long anyway; all she had to do was drop the scroll off at the hospital and then head to the flower shop for her shift. She always kept a go-bag stocked with a cloak or jacket at the shop just in case she was called away on a mission, so she didn't need to worry about being cold walking home after her shift.
As she walked, Ino thought of the scroll in her pocket, the information on mental health that Sakura had asked her about—generations worth of research and observation condensed down to simple inked characters on parchment. The information itself was not monumental; it was what someone wanted to do with the information that turned it into such a dangerous weapon. What was in this scroll could be used to train young shinobi to destroy the sanity of their opponent. Even without the Yamanaka kekkei genkai, they would be able to shatter the psyche beyond repair. And all of it would be justified under the guise of protecting the village—the same excuse Danzo used every time he recruited another Yamanaka to the T&I department. But in the hands of Sakura, it could save so many young shinobi.
She knew her best friend, but still it had been an ordeal for Ino to convince herself to take the scroll to Sakura, even after she had defended Sakura's reasoning for the request to her father and clan elders. Ino wondered if Shikaku was having the same moral struggle with releasing Nara medical information to Sakura; then again, he would have already factored the harm versus the benefits before agreeing to help.
Ino glanced up to make sure she wasn't going to run into anything and let her eyes fall back down to continue her thoughts. She looked back up quickly, sending her blonde hair fluttering with the sudden movement. She almost looked for an alleyway to duck behind, but that would have been much too cowardly of a move for her pride to handle. Instead, she tipped her chin up, pressed her shoulders back, and walked forward, meeting Shikamaru and Temari in the street.
"Temari, what are you doing here? I didn't know you were back in the village," Ino greeted with as bright a smile as she could manage. She could feel her cheeks twitching from the strain of holding the smile on her face, but she refused to appear as anything but unphased.
Temari and Shikamaru stopped and stepped over to Ino so they weren't blocking the entire street. Temari kept a straight face, but she could easily see the strain of the smile on Ino's lips and cheeks. She had to give it to the girl, mustering a smile that big to avoid showing that they had caught her off guard was no easy feat. Temari could feel Shikamaru shifting beside her, and she almost pitied him with how panic rolled off of him in waves…almost. Temari opened her mouth to respond.
"Uhhhh, we're checking out one of the hot springs," Shikamaru spoke up before the Sand kunoichi had a chance, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
Ino nodded slowly, while Temari side-eyed Shikamaru, fighting the smirk threatening to break out on her lips. It was like this idiot was trying to get himself killed.
"For Hinata and Naruto!" He threw in hastily, trying to recover. "Thought maybe it would be a nice honeymoon gift."
"That's a great idea," Ino forced out through her clenched smile. The words tasted like acid on her tongue, but she wouldn't show any emotion other than pure joy in front of the two of them. Who was she to care what they did in their private time? It didn't affect her at all. Not One Bit. She turned to Temari, brushing off her teammate and situationship partner; she still really didn't know how to think of Shikamaru. Lover felt too intimate, but friend-with-benefits felt too emotionless.
"Temari, are you in town for the jonin exams?" Ino dropped her smile but let the words fall out of her mouth in a well-practiced breezy tone. Anyone walking past would think they were acquaintances just catching up. And to be fair, Ino actually liked the tough and witty kunoichi.
"Yeah, I'm not an official proctor this year," Temari shifted her weight to one hip and continued, "but Gaara wanted me here early to evaluate some things for our training program. This knucklehead," she pointed to Shikamaru, "ran into me in the street and asked if I wouldn't mind giving a woman's opinion on the onsen, seeing as he's hopeless with us and all. Of course, I couldn't say no; a vacation on his dime is just what I need." Temari smirked, enjoying Shikamaru's obvious torment and embarrassment.
"I understand women just fine. I just want to make sure it's the right gift for them," Shikamaru grumbled, not that Ino was really paying much attention to his elaborations.
He had asked Temari of all people to go with him to a romantic onsen to see if it would make a great gift for newlyweds. Ino wasn't stupid. Shikamaru wouldn't have had the thought spur of the moment; he didn't just bump into Temari and ask her to go with him. Shikamaru would have been planning to inspect it all along and would have wanted a woman's opinion from the beginning. To top it off, a romantic onsen wasn't the place he would just take anyone. He would want to have a romantic connection with someone already to feel comfortable walking in and determining if it was romantic enough. He'd also want to see the honeymoon suite before reserving it. Knowing Shikamaru's obsession with planning, he'd spend the night in the honeymoon suite and order a romantic dinner just to make sure it was all perfect, especially if he was actually recommending it for Naruto and Hinata. No, Ino wasn't dumb. Shikamaru was planning to ask Temari to marry him today, and he didn't even have the decency to tell Ino that their thing was over with first.
Anger swirled in her gut and shame rose in her throat. Her fists clenched at her sides. She could feel hot tears of rage bubbling behind her eyes, but she'd be damned before she let either of them see that his actions had hurt her. Absolutely not! She was Yamanaka Ino. She didn't cry over any guy. She had the same standing as Shikamaru and wouldn't let him make her feel like she was worth any less. Wrapping her indignation around her like a shield, she stood straight and tall.
"Well this has been fun, but I was just passing through. I've got business to attend to. Hope you have a good stay, Temari." Ino gave a short wave and walked past them, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she went. She refused to acknowledge Shikamaru's presence since he seemed to be lacking in common curtesy.
Remembering where she was originally heading, Ino shifted gears and looped around in the next alley to begin walking towards the training grounds, hoping her target would be there.
"You are absolutely pathetic," Temari glanced over to Shikamaru after the blonde had disappeared through the bustling street.
"I know," Shikamaru's shoulders dropped in dejection. He wasn't sure what conclusion Ino had come to, but he'd seen the fire swirling in her crystal blue eyes and knew it wasn't anything good.
"If you don't hurry up and ask her; some other guy will," Temari taunted in a sing-song voice, nudging Shikamaru to start walking towards the onsen.
"You're not helping," he glared and grumbled at her.
"Of course I am! I'm telling you to get a move on it. And if you don't, well, I can't wait to see you wallowing in self-pity."
"Tch, troublesome woman, enjoying my misery."
"You can't best me at everything, slacker clown," Temari laughed. It was half amusing, half comforting to see the usually composed shinobi thrown off his game. He really couldn't be perfect at everything. But why Shikamaru thought he needed to make some grand gesture like taking Ino to an onsen to propose was beyond her. She'd seen how they interacted; Ino would say yes no matter where he popped the question. But Shikamaru was determined for everything to be perfect, hence why he'd asked her to come examine the place before he took Ino there.
Ino stomped through the village on her way to the training grounds, completely ignoring the way men, women, and children scrambled to get out of her way. Murder rolled off her in waves, but she kept her mind solely on the training grounds. For the sake of her temper, he had better be there and not make her traverse through this whole damn village to find him. or she was liable to kill him.
Ino heard the solid clang of a shuriken hitting the wooden target and stopped. As pissed as she was, she wasn't going to charge in on a shinobi training session and get her head taken off. She watched as Sasuke twisted his body in the air, striking another target meters away from the first one. He moved with the grace of a jungle cat—sleek and smooth with deadly accuracy. His shirt lay cast aside in the grass, showing off his impeccable physique glistening with sweat despite the temperature and time of the day. He must have been training for a while, Ino figured, and the scorch marks on the training grounds revealed the use of his fireball jutsu that had no doubt contributed to the sweat slipping down his chest and towards the waistband of his pants. If she wasn't in such a terrible mood, she would admire his attractive form, but right now, all she wanted to do was punch something.
Sasuke landed soundlessly on the ground and turned towards her, signaling that he was pausing his training session. Ino stomped over to him and shoved the scroll into his hand.
"Make sure Sakura gets it." Ino huffed, clearheaded enough even in her rage to not reveal what was in the scroll. Sasuke turned the scroll to see the official Yamanaka clan seal in the wax, then looked back to the kunoichi with a raised brow. Last he checked, he wasn't Ino's messenger.
"Why don't you give it to her directly?" Sasuke walked over to his shirt and pulled the fabric on, keeping the scroll in his hand instead of tossing it into his weapons pouch. He looked over to Ino who had walked after him, face contorted in a deep frown.
"Because I was looking for you," Anger seeped into her voice. Sasuke waited, curious but not at all invested in what he had to do with Ino's soured mood. Getting no real response, Ino continued feeling her anger simmering over with each word she spoke.
"Why is it taking you so long to break up with her? We all know you have no plans to marry her," Ino bit out. It made absolutely no sense why he wasted any time with Kanami. Was she ready to take her anger out on Sasuke for the similarities to her own situation? Sure. But it wasn't like she was asking an unwarranted question.
"I have other priorities," Sasuke responded, knowing the excuse was flimsy.
Ino nodded. "Right, cowardice then; Sakura told me you're still avoiding your own mother."
Sasuke scowled but remained silent. He was not avoiding his mother, only making sure to be more cautious around areas she frequented. His mother would want some grand admission that he and Sakura had been seeing each other and were in love and that he was putting the needs of the clan before his own. And that wasn't what was happening between them. It was sex. Plain and simple. Rough, dirty, good sex. Were they more comfortable with each other, of course. But that wasn't from any hidden feelings of love or desire. Their comfort and intimacy came from the years that they had worked together. The years they had bled together. The years they had held each other in their arms, trembling with fear, and pain, and rage. They had both held each other's lives in their hands. With Sakura, he didn't have to be anything else, anyone else; all he needed to be was himself.
Kanami was a completely different situation. She expected him to be some fantasy of a husband; some man she had been creating in her mind since she was a girl. Even when he had told her he would marry whoever his clan deemed worthy, he had seen the glint in her eyes that had bespoke her desire: that his clan would deem her worthy, that he would campaign for her. With ending their arrangement, he had no interest in dissecting every moment of their time together, of having to explain what he had been thinking and feeling as he knew she would want him to do. But Ino was right. Why drag it out any further? Why take any longer?
He'd face the impending explosion as he faced any other mission: with skill and strategy, but more importantly, head on.
But looking at the flaming expanse of her chakra, Ino hadn't come to talk about his own love life, for lack of a better term. Her question hadn't truly been about striking some sense of regret, shame, or morality in him. So he waited for her to share what was really troubling her.
Ino looked down and bit her trembling lip, trying so hard not to let her rage reveal her hurt. As much as her mind knew it was futile to hide from Sasuke's piercing eyes, her pride told her not to let her mask slip, to hold onto the anger as if it was the only thing keeping her from being washed away by her emotions. When she looked back up, Sasuke was glancing off towards the forest. To anyone else, it would look as if he were uncomfortable or bored. But she knew he was giving her as much privacy as he could with her interrupting his training session. Sasuke hadn't taken the scroll or his gear and left; he was giving her the opportunity to talk. She was thankful for that.
With her shoulders sagging and silent tears slipping down her cheeks, Ino clenched her fists and prayed that her voice wouldn't crack too badly. "Why didn't Shikamaru tell me that he's going marry Temari?"
Sasuke said nothing, only arched his perfect brow and looked at her, waiting for more of an explanation.
"I ran into them in the street when I was going to drop off the scroll for Sakura. Temari said Shikamaru had just ran into her and asked her to check out the onsen as a wedding present for Naruto and Hinata,' Ino nearly spat the words into the dust. More tears fell as her mind replayed the encounter again. How close they were standing, how they had angled their bodies towards each other, how their fingers were just a whisper away. All signs of their intimacy and comfort with each other. Had Shikamaru ever stood so close to her even after their years as teammates, and friends, and more than friends?
Ino would be happy for Shikamaru, finding true love and everything, but he didn't have to embarrass her by letting her find out that they were done after he'd already proposed to Temari. If she hadn't happened to bump into them, would he have let her find out from some random civilian or one of their old classmates? Would she have found out when the wedding invitation arrived at her door? Or better yet, would she have found out when he brought Temari to Naruto and Hinata's wedding with a brilliant ring on her finger?
"And that has you certain he's going to marry her?" Sasuke promted, preventing Ino from fully getting lost in her thoughts.
"Oh please. Shikamaru wouldn't just run into Temari and ask her. He would have already set everything up. Besides, he was practically bumbling like a fool while explaining where they were going. He was clearly hiding something, and the only logical conclusion is that he didn't think I would find out."
Sasuke nodded, conceding that point to the blonde, but that still didn't convince him Shikamaru was indefinitely going to ask Temari to marry him. If that were the case, Shikamaru would have told Ino first to avoid her wrath at finding out through the grapevine. If he had to bet, whatever Shikamaru was doing involved Ino.
"Shikamaru is a strategist. He doesn't make uncalculated moves."
"So what are you saying? You think that he's deliberately not saying anything to me? What sense would that make? To just string me along." Ino challenged, hearing the watery wavering she hated so much in her voice. If Shikamaru was just stringing her along to get as much as he could from her, she'd break his mind in two.
"No," Sasuke gave a small shake of his head. "He's not stringing you along. That wouldn't serve any tactical advantage. You're an unknown variable, and he can't figure you out."
Ino's eyes widened in shock then narrowed in skepticism, but she let Sasuke continue.
"Whatever he's doing, if he knew how you would respond, he would have already made the 15 moves he has in his head. That he hasn't done anything means he needs more data." Sasuke walked toward his bag, letting Ino think over his words. Ino watched as Sasuke placed her scroll into his bag and secured it.
"We've known each other our whole lives; Shikamaru knows me," Ino answered back with a cloud of uncertainty floating through her voice.
Sasuke picked up a few shuriken from his bag, ready to be done with the conversation and back to his training regimen before his muscles grew cold. "He doesn't know you as a romantic partner. Shikamaru doesn't take unknown risks."
As Sasuke walked back towards the training posts, Ino stepped forward, unwilling to let the conversation die at that. That wasn't a satisfying enough conclusion, and she refused to let herself go back to the flower shop and think about that fuckboy all day. She clenched her fist and called out. "His time is running out."
Sasuke paused in his steps and tilted his head back to Ino, looking into her cornflower blue eyes. He almost smirked, seeing some of the fire rising back. He hadn't spent much time with Ino personally, but Ino wasn't the type to cower in fear and dejection. From every time he encountered her, she was always bold and loud and confident. Sakura would have killed him if he didn't try to raise some of that back into her.
"Maybe it needs to. We can only account for so many things in life." He turned and walked back towards his target, shaking out the tightening muscles and getting back into form.
Ino nodded her head, knowing that Sasuke wasn't paying his full attention to her but was still listening none the less. "Sasuke, when you end your own shit, give the girl a little dignity. Don't go flaunting that new wife of yours so soon. And that," she looked to the scroll in his bag, "better make it to Sakura intact."
Sasuke nodded, releasing and handful of shuriken and letting his mind shift back to his training. Ino shook her head and headed towards the flower shop, feeling the chill of the air starting to return now that her blood was cooling with her temper.
Sasuke ran towards the post and leaped off of the top, twisting his body nimbly in the air and released a string of shuriken to wrap around the wood. The wires attached sung as they slipped over each other to wrap around the post, digging in as they would in human flesh. Sasuke held the wires in one hand and weaved the signs quickly with his other. He unleashed his Dragon Inferno jutsu on the poor post, scorching a wall of flames towards the wood that would destroy everything in its path.
Once the firewall disappeared, Sasuke frowned at the burnt remains of the wooden post. His single hand weaving was still too slow. Even if he wasn't able to use a jutsu so flashy on most of his assignments, the hand signs should have still been an almost invisible blur, and yet he'd still been able to count the milliseconds between each hand sign and the gathering of his chakra from his core. He'd gotten far too complacent on Hokage guard duty and had let his training slip.
He made a mental note to ask Shisui or Itachi to train with him, since they were the fastest active shinobi who would be able to see his hand signs. He could ask Kakashi, but he'd long surpassed his stamina, speed, and creativity with Chidori. Not that Kakashi couldn't be helpful in his training, but Sasuke needed the threat of an enemy who was faster than him, forcing him to weave his signs as quick as his life depended on it. Kakashi could test if his signs were visible, but he wouldn't be able to retaliate faster than Sasuke could gather his chakra. Maybe his father wouldn't mind bringing his Mangekyou out of retirement.
As he prepared for another round, a ferret bounded up his leg, around his torso, and settled on his shoulder, holding a summoning scroll in its mouth. Sasuke took the scroll from his father's summons and popped open the seal. He scratched the weasel on its head and read the instructions.
Having delivered its message, the ferret disappeared back to its world, leaving Sasuke to sigh at the second interruption to his training session. He walked over to his bag and tossed it over his shoulder, mentally reminding himself to stop by the hospital after his meeting with his father.
He weaved the sign and shushinned to the Uchiha compound.
"Good, you're both here," Fugaku placed a series of documents in 3 piles on the table as Itachi and Sasuke arrived at the door. They both slipped off their shoes, with Sasuke depositing his training gear in the corner, and walked over to the table. They sat on their usual cushions, waiting for their father to finish dividing the piles. Itachi had immediate flashbacks to the last time he'd sat at this table with piles of scrolls in front of him, and only barely managed to suppress his shiver; he was not eager to go through the likes of selecting Sasuke's marriage list again any time soon.
"What's your summon about, Father?" Sasuke picked up the first application on his pile and scanned over the information; it was a typical ninja rap sheet: summary of rank, mission completion records, skill ranks, special abilities, and clan affiliation if any.
"We've received this year's applications for the Police Academy. There are a surprising amount of non-Uchiha candidates this year."
"You think some have elected not to take the ANBU selection exams?" Itachi hypothesized. While it wasn't unusual for other shinobi not from the clan to be a part of the police force, it was by no means common. The 2nd Hokage had decreed that the police force was the domain of the Uchiha, and while that had come with the relocation of the clan to the outskirts where the station and jail had been built, the Uchiha were too proud to do any job less than excellent.
"It's not unlikely. Sasuke," Fugaku turned his attention to his youngest son, causing Sasuke to look up from the rap sheet he'd been reading and to his father. "You are now the heir to the clan. It will be your responsibility to learn the ins and outs of the police force as Itachi has learned them. I will still be acting chief, but you will now sit in on decisions of selection, policy, and protocol. You'll need intricate knowledge of how the system works to select the next police chief after me. Do you understand?"
Sasuke nodded to his father. It felt both strange and honoring to feel his father place so much trust in him. Growing up, he'd always been in Itachi's shadow, had been searching for any way to make his own mark. At first, he'd thought that he would become a part of the police force, since Itachi hadn't taken that path, but after meeting Naruto, he'd been driven by his rival and friend to become a member of ANBU.
"Alright, then. Sasuke, you have the applications for applicants seeking to enter the police force ranked chunin or above; keep in mind that we will need more female candidates to expand the sexual trauma and domestic violence units. Itachi, you're putting together the supportive security units for the upcoming exams. I'll be examining officers recommended for promotions."
Both sons nodded and got to work analyizing the scrolls placed in front of them.
The three men worked in comfortable quiet; none feeling the need to fill the space with unnecessary talking. The room was filled with the shuffling of papers, the scratching of brushes and ink wells, and the odd shift of clothing when they needed to change positions. They were all comfortable communicating only when necessary, and with the fewest words necessary, something Mikoto had constantly joked about when the boys still lived at home.
Sasuke was a third of the way through his pile as he examined an application from Fukuhara Kiraya, a kunoichi he remembered from his jonin exams. He hadn't paid much attention to her battles, but she was intelligent. Her stats read well enough, average in ninjutsu and genjutsu, which wouldn't be much of a disadvantage with the Uchiha being genjutsu and ninjutsu specialists; her taijutsu scores weren't impressive, but she had some sensory capabilities listed under specialists. Sasuke folded the corner of her application to find it more easily if he wanted to look back at her. If her taijutsu could be trained, she could round out a partner, but the most important thing would be her people skills. If she had some sensory ability, at least enough to recognize different chakra signatures, and she was good at making people feel comfortable with her, that would help in identifying perpetrators, especially in sexual trauma cases.
He picked up another application, scanning the specialties and, not seeing anything that would strengthen a weakness in the police force, placed the application in the reserved rejection pile. If they needed candidates by the end of his pile, then he'd look through the reserved rejection pile and pull from the best there. The next application surprised him quite a bit. Uchiha Hanui.
Hanui had entered the Academy a year after Sasuke and the rest of the Rookie 9. While they weren't particularly friends, he'd walked with her home at times when Naruto wasn't challenging him to some stupid after school fight. She was already an accomplished kunoichi with the Mangekyou Sharingan, earned from witnessing her younger sister's death on a mission to Waterfall. Her ability to delay her enemy's perception of pain would be more useful to advance her to ANBU or the Interrogation units, but she'd chosen the police force; it didn't necessarily make sense that she would leave that career to start over.
"Hanui submitted an application," He moved her application to the acceptance pile. Fugaku and Itachi shared a knowing glance then turned back to their piles. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at them, waiting for one of them to explain.
"She's moving up in the betting; she's only a year younger than you and you're familiar with her. Many think she has a good possibility of being on the scroll," Fugaku finally explained. Sasuke's lips turned down in a scowl. She couldn't seriously be easing her career on the off chance that she was even on the scroll, let alone that he would choose her. Not that he wouldn't seriously consider her if she was on the scroll, but since he'd made no attempts on courting any woman yet, it seemed stupid to him for her to take the route already.
"Is she?"
"She's strong and skilled. While I'm not pushing you to make a decision yet, it wouldn't kill you to at least open the scroll," Fugaku nagged with a smirk.
Sasuke was about to retort when a sharp chill went down his back. Fugaku and Itachi both looked up urgently and straightened, sensing the chakra signature filling the room.
"Back door," Itachi murmured, and Sasuke scrambled with an embarrassing lack of skill to get out from under the table before the door slammed open. He was too late.
"Oh no you don't, Uchiha Sasuke!" Mikoto walked in with a dark anger around her and set down her basket of fabric for sewing his future bride's uchiwas.
Fugaku and Itachi bit their lips, furiously trying not to laugh as Sasuke sank back into his seat. One sound would bring Mikoto's full wrath down on them as well.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me anything about you and Sakura!" She hissed, then turned to the other men. "And you two, you knew all this time. A house of traitors I tell you! Two of them from my own womb!" Mikoto place her hands on her hips, glaring at her youngest son waiting for some kind of explanation to the egregious front. After how many times she had mentioned that Sakura would make a good choice for Sasuke, for her whole family to keep secret that they were already involved—useless, all three of them!
"Kaa-san, it wasn't anything more than the physical; it still isn't." It required all of his dignity and pride for Sasuke not to whine to his mother. The tips of his ears were tinged red and his shoulders were hunched; he hated disappointing her, and he wanted to avoid this conversation at all costs.
"Just physical, I don't believe that for one second. Sakura has always been the only one who could ever convince you to go to the festivals. You don't go to festivals with someone you're only physically involved with."
"That's not the evidence you think it is, Kaa-san," Itachi grumbled quietly.
"You don't really want to have this conversation, Mikoto," Fugaku tried, taking pity on his youngest son. Though they sympathized with Sasuke, neither man rose their voices too loud to counteract Mikoto's righteous indignation. Her fury burned ice cold.
"Kaa-san… at the festivals…we were…" Sasuke wondered if his mother would drop the conversation if she knew that he enjoyed the festivals only because he and Sakura would sneak away from them. They had started off dry humping at the training grounds until they got brave enough to touch under their clothes. The first time he'd ever fingered a girl had been Sakura during the Lantern Festival. She'd come just when the fireworks went off like some sort of erotic fairytale, and he'd just barely managed to avoid jizzing all over his shorts. The first time Sakura had gone down on a guy had been him in the glades during the Winter Festival; his ass cheeks had been freezing, but her mouth had felt incredible.
His mother would definitely not want to hear about any of those escapades.
"You. Were. What?" Mikoto pressed. All 3 men look at her pointedly, Fugaku with a suggestive smirk on his face. He and Mikoto had had their fair share of clandestine meetings before the boys were born. Mikoto's face burned bright red as her eyes lit up with realization and horror. She would never unsee the thoughts flashing through her brain.
"U-CHI-HA...SA-SU-KE." Mikoto stressed every syllable of his name, trying to reign in her temper so she didn't destroy the house. She didn't want to imagine her precious baby corrupting innocent little Sakura-chan, or her corrupting him. "Don't tell me you used times of celebration for…for…that. I taught you better manners."
"Yes, Kaa-san," Sasuke looked up at the ceiling, hoping that whatever spirit was tormenting him would hurry up and be done with this humiliation. Itachi let out a snort of laughter, receiving an frigid glare from his mother as he tried to compose himself. Fugaku's smirk had yet to fall from his face. Mikoto turned her glare to him but he just shifted his eyes towards their bedroom and back to her. Her cheeks flared red , and she took in deep breaths to keep from strangling him over the table.
"In any case, you're going to be expected to make a few appearances at festivals with whomever you marry; you'd better at least look like you're enjoying it…without the actual enjoyment part." Mikoto threatened with a raise of her eyebrow.
"Of course Kaa-san," Sasuke nodded dutifully not mentioning that he would be doing everything in his power to be out of the village during festivals; he mentally added "hates large gatherings" to his list of requirements for a wife…right next to "hates ramen". Seeing his mother gearing up for another rant, Sasuke wished he would receive a mission summons to get him out of the lingering awkwardness in the room.
"Now as for you two; you aren't off the hook," Mikoto turned to give them a piece of her mind. Fugaku and Itachi sighed forlornly. How did they get dragged into Sasuke's sex life?
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