Chapter 3:
"I don't get it."
Hyuga Neji sighed in mock exasperation. He rested his weapon of choice against his shoulder, scrutinizing his gaze on the wooden base, which splintered helplessly under the force of his swing. A metal bat's integrity would have lasted longer.
"I'm sure I've mentioned this last time. I like good boys, but you've been taking payments from both sides like it's Christmas." He blew a breath of air, and his locks swayed gently. "Did I miss the memo? Is it Christmas already?"
The brunette glanced around, and everyone shook their heads vehemently.
"Ahh, I see. Not Christmas. Is it your birthday?" He looked down on the disfigured features of the young man cowering against the alley trash can. The man shook his head. Distraught. "Hmm, then I don't suppose you could tell me why you're dipping your fingers in both honey pots?"
His unoccupied hand slipped into his pocket to bum a smoke, but he kept it unlit between his lips. "People are so funny," Neji said nonchalantly. "So easily malleable to the will of others as long as they can pocket the bling bling, but that's so cliche, you know? Why can't we have some loyalty, huh? Is it really that hard?"
"Neji-san, will you please deal with him so we can go?" Naruto's chattering teeth echoed beside him.
Neji glanced at the blonde, who's entire body shook like a leaf. Was it really that cold outside? Sure, the winds were harsh, but it was nothing compared to the snowy days.
Pfft, what a baby. Literally. The kid was only eighteen.
At least he was loyal.
"Didn't Boss tell you to shadow me to learn the ropes?" Neji arched a brow.
"Yeah, but look at him! He looks like a rotten banana someone squished with their shoe! Can't we get the job done and head back?" Naruto pleaded.
"Sure thing," Neji responded. He hinged forward to detach his knife from his boot. Then, he handed it over to the boy. "Slit his throat, and we'll be good to go." Neji smiled at the blond, the smile not quite reaching his eyes.
Naruto stared wide-eyed and gulped. "Is that really necessary? Can't we just leave him out here? The cold would knock him out."
Ah, the boy was too soft. That'd be the end of him one day.
Neji sighed, retrieved the knife, and sauntered over to the half dead man. His gloved hand gripped onto the disgusting, oily tresses and yanked them backwards, and with one simple flick of his wrist the knife slashed across the man's jugular like a scalding knife through butter.
It was a horizontal and very straight line, Naruto noticed as he watched on the sidelines. It bled heavy, and it bled quick. And after the choking and gurgling noises, the body quieted down to nothing in a matter of seconds.
The brunette had done it so elegantly, so effortlessly, as if he was performing a mundane task such as doing the laundry or taking out the trash. When he was done, he stood and pulled out the handkerchief in his front pocket, wiped the trickle of blood off the blade in a single motion, and slid the knife back into its home.
"Shall we go then?" Neji chirped as he dusted off his pants.
The cleanup was quick and easy for traitors. Naruto knew as much. But this was the first time he saw Neji kill someone up close. And the simplicity of his execution coupled with the lack of human sympathy much less pity was truly a frightening sight. He made a mental note never to cross the man.
"How do you feel about takoyaki? I could totally go for a box of them right about now. Let's go! I know a great street vendor."
There was a bounce in Neji's step as he whistled through the cigarette perched between his lips and walked toward the main street.
There was definitely something not all there with that man, Naruto thought. Who talked about eating food right after maiming a human being? He took an idle glance at the men who were left behind to clean up the mess and noted they had already begun cocooning the body up in a black piece of tarp. So efficient. So robotic.
H.J.
Sasuke was sweating through his shirt, but the forecast didn't call for humid weather. If anything, it was rather chilly outside. The combustion of heat came from the anxiety within as he lingered outside the convenience door with fifteen minutes to spare before noon.
Of course, tardiness was out of the equation if he wanted to remain in one piece. Literally. In fact, there was no possible way Sasuke would have overslept and arrived late that day because he didn't sleep.
He laughed ironically.
Go figure.
He felt like a double agent on the brink of being discovered.
Finally, at exactly noon, he saw a black BMW turn around the corner and pull up alongside the curb where he stood. Reflexively, he jumped back when the passenger car door opened and a blonde scrambled out.
There was a scowl on the blonde's face as if he had been ushered out before he looked over his shoulder and spun around. When his gaze focused on Sasuke, the scowl was wiped clean from his features and replaced with a wide, oddly friendly grin.
Sasuke frowned.
"You must be our honored guest," he chirped.
His frown deepened.
"I'm Naruto: Member-In-Training."
Aside from his white shirt, his entire attire was black. Black tie, black trousers, black coat, and black loafers. It wasn't hard to guess what kind of daily activities he was a part of, especially since he knew who his boss was, but Sasuke asked anyway.
"Member of what?"
Naruto looked like was in the middle of spit-balling some things when Sasuke hit him with that question, causing him to freeze. The college student thought that he had asked a forbidden question or something, given the blank expression on the blonde's face. But then the man– no, boy, bursted into cacophonous laughter until he was panting with tears in his eyes.
"You're funny," the blonde shrieked in amusement. "Hey, Neji-san, did you hear what he just asked me?"
Naruto was looking into the car through the open door, and it was then that Sasuke noticed the brunette from the other day in the driver's seat.
"Adorable, ain't he?" Neji responded with a grin before he patted the passenger seat with his hand. "Hey, Princess. Come. Have a seat. Naruto, back seat."
Sasuke eyed the spot warily as if, at any moment, it might combust. Neji seemed to catch his uneasiness and grinned predatorily. "Don't worry. I don't bite unless you want me to."
Against his better judgment and against all survival instincts, he got in the car and shut the door behind him.
May he rest in peace.
Neji revved the engine and stepped on the gas before Naruto had both feet in the car, and the blonde let out a screech and a curse before he regained control and slammed the car door shut.
"Fuck! Stop doing that all the time."
Neji cackled, the sound akin to low chuckle with a dash of sadistic tendencies. Sasuke did his best to keep his expression neutral and took in the surrounding details instead.
The brunette next to him, once again, had an unlit cigarette between his lips, lips expertly swishing it around as if playing a game. He had thought it to be particularly odd since he noticed the recurrence and wondered if the man would ever light it.
As if sensing his gaze, the brunette turned in his direction, boldly driving on the open street without looking forward. Sasuke nearly died from the anxiety. A slow smile spread along those lips the longer Neji eyed him as if waiting for Sasuke to say something.
But Sasuke kept his mouth shut even though he wanted to scream at the man to look where he was driving. However, it was his big mouth that got him in this mess and he refused to do it again.
"HOLY FUCK, NEJI-SAN. YOU PSYCHO! Look at the goddamn road!" yelled Naruto from the back seat. "Every time I ask you to drive, you won't let me. And then you go and do some crazy ass shit like that. Do you even care for my life?!"
The smile instantly dropped from Neji's face as if it never existed, and he resettled his gaze on the road.
Silence ensued.
With each festering second, Sasuke's curiosity grew and grew until he decided there was no harm in asking it.
"Do you need a light?"
He kept one in his pocket because occasionally customers at the store would ask for a quick fuse.
Neji peered at him curiously before he waved it off. "Nah, I don't smoke," he said.
Sasuke thought that was the oddest thing he heard. "If you don't smoke, why do you always have that in your mouth?"
Neji perked up at this, sitting straighter in his seat. "Ooo, observant, are we?"
From behind them, Naruto chimed in. "He just wants to look cool," the blonde muttered.
Sasuke nearly laughed from surprise, but caught himself at the last minute.
"I used to smoke, but quit cold turkey a few months ago. My mouth gets bored is all."
Sasuke's brows furrowed. "But aren't you just playing with fire? If you used to smoke and you quit, having it right there makes it harder to control. You're not even distancing yourself away from it. Are you confident that you won't smoke again?"
Neji smirked. "Where's the fun in that?"
Sasuke found himself rolling his eyes. Honestly, these people….
"If you want to help out, you can give my mouth something else to—"
Neji's sentence stopped abruptly as he was presented with a watermelon-flavored lollipop.
"Here," Sasuke muttered. "You can have this instead. Replace it with that thing. These are much cheaper to buy than cigarettes anyway."
Sasuke eyed the brunette oddly as he remained unblinking before him, as if dazed that he was offered candy. Right before the boy thought he was going to reject it, Neji snagged it from his hand, spit the cigarette out from his lips, tugged off the wrapper, and popped the lollipop into his mouth.
"Sweet," he muttered. "Guess I just found myself a new dealer."
Sasuke ignored him and stared out the window at the passing trees.
A few minutes passed before Naruto's phone began going off. The blond answered so quickly Sasuke thought he was waiting for a call from a long lost lover.
"Yes. We're five minutes away," Sasuke heard Naruto mutter, voice suddenly serious and respectful. "No issues. Just a little delayed due to introductions…. Yes, I apologize."
The boy caught the look exchanged between Naruto and Neji and wondered what it meant.
When Naruto finally hung up, he got chatty. "Sooooo…." he began, seatbelt unbuckled as he leaned forward between the driver and passenger seats. Curiosity flooded his words like a tsunami. "How did you and Boss become friends?"
Sasuke looked at him like the blond was on crack. He cleared his throat before he spoke. "We're not friends," he clarified.
"Oh?" Neji piped in. "It's been never since Itachi-sama had a guest over."
"Is that where we're going?" he nearly yelled, feeling faint as his heartbeat quickened. "His house?" Flabbergasted. Sasuke was flabbergasted.
Neji laughed heartily, if not a little sadistically. "Where did you think we were going?"
Sasuke swallowed hard. "I… I thought we'd go to a gun range or something," he muttered.
Both Naruto and Neji laughed. "That's so cute of you!" Naruto said.
"See? Didn't I tell you?" Neji added. "Adorable."
The boy spluttered before a deep set scowl appeared on his countenance.
"But seriously, what did you do to make Boss like you so much? Tell us your secret!" Naruto said.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh, come on! He invited you over to his house. He must like you! Tell us how you met."
Sasuke frowned. "There's not much to it. He's a customer at the store I work at. Every day, he comes in and buys a drink. One night, he beat up some asshole who was causing trouble and left me a gun. He said guns are more effective. The end."
The car jerked to a stop, and Sasuke lurched forward slightly before he was caught by his seatbelt. He looked over at Neji who stepped on the brakes before he glanced out the window and noticed they were still in the middle of a residential street.
"What?" he asked, upon seeing the widened gaze of both occupants.
"You… He… wait, what?!"
Sasuke winced at how loud Naruto's voice was.
"You're saying he beat up someone in your store because they were causing trouble?" Neji asked slowly.
Sasuke eyed him weirdly. Was that so uncommon? He nodded.
The brunette continued, but spoke his next words at a sloth's pace as if he was struggling to comprehend the situation. "After he kicked that guy's ass, he left his gun for you to protect yourself?"
"Something like that," Sasuke muttered. For all he knew, it could have been a weapon used in some crime. "I didn't know how to use one and I told him he should take it back instead, but he said he'll teach me how to use it."
"Haaah, what? You told him?" Neji responded as if he had just heard that aliens were real. All of a sudden, the brunette's gaze was examining his fingers carefully as if searching for a missing digit or something more grotesque. "Are we talking about the same person? Did you somehow get someone else mixed up with Itachi-sama?" Neji asked, confusing Sasuke further.
"What do you mean?"
"Six-foot-three, long black hair, obsidian eyes, big guy who always wears a suit," Neji described. "You're saying he did all of that?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Nothing," Neji responded vaguely, continuing to drive. "Just doesn't really sound like him is all."
Huh?
"Would it sound more like him if I said he hunts people down?" Sasuke asked sarcastically.
An amused expression replaced Neji's surprised look. "Don't tell me you think Itachi-sama kills people," he said lightly.
"...Doesn't he?" Sasuke asked, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.
Neji quirked a brow. "He doesn't really kill people."
Sasuke released a breath he didn't know he was holding.
Neji continued. "He only makes them wish they were dead."
Sasuke choked on his spit. As if that's any better. No! In fact, that was ten times worse! WORSE.
"He does it without trying. He's like a prodigy of sorts at that. It's really admirable," Neji gushed as if he was talking about his favorite idol .
A sigh echoed from the back seat. "Neji-san, were you perhaps neglected or beaten as a child?"
A squawk of laughter filled the car. Neji looked positively amused.
"Actually, I watched my father get chopped up into bite sized pieces when I was five, and my mother gang-raped before she met the same end."
Sasuke's eyes were blown wide open along with Naruto's.
"...I'm sorry," he muttered, unsure of what else to say.
"Just kidding," Neji chimed, grinning cheekily, although Sasuke noticed it didn't quite reach his eyes.
The rest of the car ride was met with silence. When it finally pulled to a stop, Sasuke could not believe how happy he was to have arrived. He tried not to scramble out of the car, but ended up doing so anyway.
He caught sight of Itachi standing in front of the main entrance before he remembered who he was here to meet. The house behind him was enormous, painted vanilla white with a black rooftop and red curtains peeping out from the windows.
As soon as he stepped foot on the gravel, the man had locked his gaze on Sasuke, immediately seizing him up. A sense of dread filled his core, making his mouth dry and palms sweat. There was no look of recognition on Itachi's face, and Sasuke briefly wondered if the man had no stinking clue who he was. Why else would he look at him with such an annoyed expression, as if he was an uninvited stranger on his property?
Sasuke snuck a peek at Neji and Naruto who had hurried forward to greet Itachi, the expressions on their face clearly showing that they hadn't expected him. Was it so weird that this man was standing in front of his own house? Sasuke didn't understand what the big deal was.
"Come," Itachi commanded, looking directly at Sasuke and completely ignoring the "Itachi-sama" and head bows thrown his way.
Sasuke's spine jolted straight up, stiff as a board, and he forced his feet to move forward. He tried to maintain eye contact with the man whose gaze drilled into his head as if he was a target, but the longer he stared back, the harder it was to maintain his composure.
It became more and more awkward until Sasuke was standing right in front of the man while Neji and Naruto took their places behind Itachi, reminding the boy that these men were trained bodyguards of a gangster. He had absolutely no clue what to do, so he copied what Neji and Naruto had done, bowing his head and uttering a very shaky, "Itachi-sama."
When he lifted his head, Sasuke swore Itachi looked at him like he'd grown another head. The expression was so brief that the boy doubted it existed in the first place.
"Itachi," the man corrected.
"Huh?" A look of confusion remained steady on Sasuke's face.
"Itachi," the man repeated with an unreadable expression. "Not Itachi-sama."
Sasuke's brows furrowed, his head tilting slightly as if he was trying to process it. He glanced subtly at the two men behind Itachi. Naruto stared at him wide-eyed with his mouth agape, and Neji had a palm tightly sealed over his lips as his shoulders shook uncontrollably.
"...Itachi," he forced out, biting his tongue to prevent himself from uttering the latter part. The name sounded so foreign coming from him, but he tried not to dwell on it.
Fuck. What kind of situation was this? He didn't know whether to feel awkward or terrified.
"Lunch has been prepared. We will do target practice after."
Sasuke heard what the man had said, but at the same time he was still trying to wrap his brain around calling the boss by first name only without honorifics. When he got to processing Itachi's most recent statement, his eyes bugged out and his mouth ran dry.
Lunch? He swallowed hard. As if he had an appetite! Besides, if anything screamed "date," it would be having a meal together and doing a preferred activity.
"I…" he began, swallowing again. The man who had started toward the double doors glanced back at him with nonchalance, but paused, waiting for him to spit out his words. "I… I'm not that hungry," he mumbled, unable to handle the unreadable expression he was faced with. He looked anywhere, but at the tall, well-dressed man and instead found himself settling his eyes on Naruto, who was slashing his stiff palm back and forth against his neck with a wince on his face as if to say, "Don't! Cut it out, you idiot!"
The blonde immediately dropped his hand and stood ramrod straight when Itachi turned back, wiping his panicked expression clear off his countenance quicker than Sasuke had thought he was capable of. He tilted his head slightly, unsure what to make of that expression.
Itachi continued toward the main entrance, back facing Sasuke as if he had no doubt that the boy would follow him. Sasuke scrambled to catch up and when they finally crossed the threshold, the man abruptly stopped, causing the young ravenette to crash into his back with an 'oof.'
The sturdiness of the unmoving man coupled with the force of impact caused Sasuke to stumble backwards, but the stealthy man easily caught the boy with both hands, completely lifting Sasuke up with no effort whatsoever before placing him flat on his feet.
Face to face with Itachi, Sasuke heaved a small gasp, pushing himself back and away from the man's touch. An odd look flickered by Itachi's face, but Sasuke had absolutely no time to contemplate its meaning before it disappeared. The man seemed very adept at hiding his thoughts, the boy noticed.
Itachi seemed to ignore Sasuke's disapproval at their proximity. In fact, he took a step forward to regain the space lost between their bodies and leaned down to speak.
"You will eat," Itachi stated. "Practice after."
Did this man have any conversational skills? Sasuke wondered with furrowed brows. Each time Itachi opened his mouth, he only uttered a few words, as if he believed that, if the other party understood his meaning, that was good enough. He could clearly tell Itachi was good at giving commands since everything that came out of his mouth could be interpreted as such.
Vaguely, he wondered what the man was like as a kid. He wondered if he spoke the same way with others, if he had any friends that made him happy, or if he was often a lone wolf. It was near impossible to imagine Itachi as a sweet, smiling boy who laughed and played nicely with others.
Lost in thought, he nearly missed Itachi's next words. It was at the very last minute, when Sasuke stared at the man whose lips were moving, that he managed to string together and process those words.
"You're too thin."
Three little words have never made him feel so inexplicably torn.
Was he trying to boss Sasuke around like one of his minions or treat him kindly as a guest? Was Itachi judging him or making a case? Was this disapproval or concern?
Itachi had such a goddamn perfect poker face that Sasuke could not guess for the life of him what that man was thinking.