DADDY LEFT US part 6
Reading guide
Italic - thoughts
'Normal speech'
"Quoted speech, words etc."
Naruto walked towards Itachi and placed the small blue box in Itachi's shirt pocket.
'Uchiha-san, I think you misplaced this in the flowers. Thank you for the flowers.' He said and walked out of the room leaving Itachi who was frozen on the spot.
The bang of the door shattered the ice on him; and that's when it hit him mercilessly, that Naruto had just refused the car and just when he was just making progress with him a few minutes ago. He felt rage well up in him; he tried calming himself by rubbing his temples and pacing about in his office; that didn't work. He pushed all the papers and books on his desk onto the floor; making the office a mess.
He sat in his desk chair and he placed his head in his hands with his elbows resting on the desk. He didn't know what to do; was he doing it the wrong way? He just wanted Naruto to be happy, to give him the life he never had. Was it so wrong to want Naruto to be his alone? More over, was it wrong to show that he loved him and would give anything to please him? Hence the car?
What am I doing wrong? How can I show him that I love him? If I could take everything back, I would, if I would go back in time just once, I would go back to that time that I had hurt him. Is this how it feels like not to be wanted? I have everything I could wish for in this world. So then why does it feel like I have nothing without Naruto? Should I just let him be? I have never felt so empty in my life.
Itachi felt despair grip his hollow heart, or was it anger? He didn't know what to feel; sure he had anticipated the possibility of Naruto refusing the car. But that didn't mean that he heart was ready for the rejection. It hurt.
He called for Deidara and grabbed his briefcase and his suit jacket and walked out of the mansion into the limo waiting outside; he was going to make his fortnight visits to the Uchiha businesses. Hopefully that would take his mind off Naruto until dinner.
Deidara had left the office with Naruto and nothing was said about the car or the flowers. Deidara had explained more about the day's plan to Naruto. One of the day's plans was for Naruto to go clothes shopping for the next day's party.
'Why do I have to go clothes shopping?' Naruto had complained.
'Because the clothes are for you and the kids for the party being held here tomorrow. This party is for only close people and Uchiha employees. Now let's go to introduce you to Ino-kun who is in charge of wardrobe. She went to Europe and she just came back yesterday.'
'Are you coming too?' asked Naruto hopefully. Naruto had become used to Deidara easily; maybe because he was the first person he had met when he first came in the mansion. Besides that, Deidara had become someone Naruto could shield himself with from Itachi. And Deidara seemed to understand him somehow.
'No I have to do some work, I kind of slack off this week and I don't wanna work during the weekend instead of enjoying the party and sleeping in the next day. Well more over, Itachi will kill me if he finds out I haven't finished my paper work. So no complaining and go put those flowers away and get ready.' He shooed him away.
'Fine. But I don't have clothes to change into.'
'Don't worry, there are clothes on your bed, and that reminds me, your things are going to be collected today from your apartment. When you finish come and find me in the living room.'
Naruto walked away with his mind and heart racing; Itachi had said he loves him. and he got him a car.
which I can't drive. thought Naruto.
But was it just to get him under his craws then dispose of him when he gets in too deep? Could he trust Itachi? Naruto shook his head vigorously; he didn't want to entertain that thought.
Sasuke clung to the wall of the hallway corner, with all the things that had happened in the Itachi's office, he had completely forgotten that his assistant came too; well it was more like his assistant dragged him into his own car and was driven here.
What had really happened was, Sasuke had opened the door of his mansion to go to his car for his journey to his brother's place when he was greeted by his assistant Neji, who was leaning on his car in a pose that said "you wanna piece of me"
'Get off my car.' Sasuke had demanded
'Morning Sasuke.' Neji had greeted him; unfazed by the command.
'I heard you are going to your brother's place. So I came to be your driver.'
'I don't need you. I already have a chauffeur' Sasuke dismissed him.
'Come let me take that bag for you, as for your chauffeur, he is a little busy, I sent him to the shop for me.' He grabbed Sasuke's bag and put it in the boot of the car. He opened the passenger's door and pushed Sasuke in the car. Before Sasuke could do anything he started the car.
'You. Stop the car now. And how did you get my car keys.'
'Oh, I got them from your driver. So just relax and let me do the driving'
Sasuke couldn't argue anymore but he made a note to kill him when they get back to work. So all he had to do while at his brother's house was to avoid the bastard as much as possible. This guy annoyed the hell out of him. Now here he was hiding like an idiot in the corners. Neji passed by and Sasuke let out the breath he didn't even realise he had been holding.
'Who are these guys, Ino-kun?' Naruto was really nervous; two men in black were sitting across from him and Ino in the limo.
'Naruto-kun, don't be rude, the guy with black hair is Sai-kun, you know, even if he were to take off his dark shades, it wouldn't make a difference. I mean as the guy has a blank face no matter the situation. Anyway, and the blue haired scary guy is Kisame, bad bad temper.' She whispered the last part and laughed.
Tsk "don't be rude" she said. Naruto thought.
What Ino and Naruto didn't know about Sai was that he was Itachi's own assassin; what ever needed to be "taken care" of Itachi would just call Sai on it. And Sai would take care of it swiftly. on the outside; to eveyone, he was one of Itachi's bodyguards.
'oh yeah, you don't know much about Tokyo and its shopping areas, okay here is the plan, we are going to the Ginza, Tokyo's Fifth Avenue, it's the best, and the most sophisticated and not forgetting glamorous shopping district in Japan. Besides having designer boutiques, it also features the city's highest concentration of art galleries; including woodblock prints. It also has department stores like the venerable Wako, as well as specialty stores selling jewellery, shoes, and even Japanese sweets. But we are looking for evening wear, and mabye some sweets for Fuyu-chan and Natsu-chan.'
Naruto just stared out the window of the limo at the streets. He was glad he was dragged into going shopping. Well she had said that he needed to be there for his clothes, and the twins' clothes; anyway, he needed to get away from Itachi.... while he drifted off into his own world, Ino carried on her introductions of the best shopping areas they were going to.
'…we are also going to this other one and this one is a must-see or a must-shop for fashionistas, it's the Omotesando Dori; a tree-shaded boulevard that's a Mecca for those searching for the latest. The newest though is Omotesando Hills, a posh shopping centre designed by legendary architect Tadao Ando, And last but not least is Aoyama; home to Japanese designer shops like Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, and Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons.' She ranted on and on…
The limo driver came around and opened the door for Naruto before he even realised that they had stopped. He came out and a few seconds later, Sai and Kisame were besides him. Instead of feeling safe Naruto felt frightened of them. They had gone through the shops with Sai sticking to Naruto and the Kisame to Ino; they were so hard to ignore. And they were attracting unwanted attention.
'Ah… Ino-kun, don't you feel a bit uncomfortable with them shadowing you everywhere?' whispered Naruto
'Don't be silly, you'll get used to them, you won't even know they are there.' Ino said cheerily.
'Now let's go collect Uchiha-san's suit.' She said.
After they were done shopping they headed back to the mansion.
So with Deidara gone with Itachi, Naruto was left in the hands of Sasuke and Ino. More like in the hands of Ino, since Sasuke was busy avoiding Neji who was around Naruto.
Naruto, Ino, Sasuke and the two bodyguards were sitting in the lounge when Neji walked in the room with the twins and Kakashi and Iruka.
'There you are Sasuke.' He greeted with an unusual cheerfulness, which made Sasuke wince from shivers running thought out his body from it. Then he decided to ignore him and walked out the room; he didn't even notice the kids hanging onto each of Neji's arms. Rude much.
All the people in the room already knew each other, so Naruto was the only one that needed the introductions.
The table which could accommodate sixteen people was set. That was one of the tables in the mansion; there were other tables, larger than this one. So everyone sat in their chairs ready for the meal to be served.
Itachi sat in the high chair and kept glancing at Naruto who sat to his right and next to him sat Fuyu then Natsu. Across from Naruto sat Sasuke who looked as uncomfortable as Naruto was. The only difference was that Naruto was uncomfortable from sitting next to Itachi and Sasuke was uncomfortable from sitting next to Neji who was doing god knows what to Sasuke with his hand under the table.
Sai sat next to Neji, and he looked like he didn't even want to be there; next to him sat Kisame who looked like he was waiting for something exciting to happen. Sakura, who had joined the group later in the day, sat next Kisame across from Ino who was giving her evils equalling her's.
Ino and Sakura's rivalry was… well the Uchiha brothers' fault? Not quite; but it was because they worked for the Uchiha brothers. They would argue on who worked for the better Uchiha brother, whose boss was the most handsome or something like my boss is better because he is the main president, And so on. And they would go on and on about it until the insults would transit to their bodily features.
Across from Kisame sat Deidara who was busy having a conversation on random topics with Natsu. Iruka who sat next to Ino was bent on killing Kakashi with just a glare, and Kakashi who sat next to Sakura without his book but with dark shades that were a little more acceptable to be worn indoors than earlier ones, seemed to enjoy Iruka's death glares. There were other guests who were supposed to join them that night but they couldn't make it.
'Hey Sasuke, you haven't met Fuyu-chan and Natsu-chan properly. Well Natsu-chan, introduce yourself to uncle Sasu.' Said Neji wanting to press more of "his" Sasuke's buttons. He smirked; the day will come when he will call him "his" without any hesitation. Neji was graced with an anticipated glare from Sasuke.
Sasuke still didn't understand why Neji made it his hobby to torture him at every chance found.
'Hello Uncle Sasu, my name is Natsu-chan-'
'Um… Natsu-chan' interrupted Naruto.
'Papa! You are not supposed to interrupt people when talking' scolded Natsu.
'uhuh' agreed Fuyu.
'I know, and that makes you good boys for remembering that, but this is very, very important.' Naruto explained himself.
'Okay.' Natsu replied happily. glowing that his papa had called him a good boy.
'Right. You are not supposed to say my name is "Natsu-chan" when introducing yourself. Okay. Just Natsu is perfect. so you say, my name is Natsu. okay' Naruto corrected him.
'Can I still say Fuyu-chan?' Natsu asked unsurely.
'Yes. You can. So start from the beginning.' Said Naruto.
'Okay. My name is Natsu,' he paused for confirmation from his papa. Naruto nodded and Natsu carried on his introductions. Itachi felt warm at how Naruto handled the kids.
'And this is Fuyu-chan. My brother' he said proudly. 'We are five years old. And papa says we look the same and we look like Daddy. we have long hair like Daddy too.' He giggled. And everyone on the table laughed. Kisame snickered as if he knew something.
But truth be told, they really did look the same.
How does Naruto tell the difference? indeed, they are like mini Itachis with blue eyes with both sides; the cheerful side and the stoic side. It's like going back in time. Thought Sasuke; that made him snicker discretely; he had never seen Itachi's younger days, their age difference didn't allow it.
Neji noticed the snicker and wondered what was going on in Sasuke's head; hopefully something to do with him… and when will Sasuke take him seriously? Did he even realise that Neji had cut all ties with his family for him?
'Aww, they are so cute, I wish they were mine' cried out Ino. 'But why do they look so much like Uchiha-san?' she asked suddenly. With that, everyone froze in anticipation for anyone to explain, with the exception of Sasuke who had already been filled in on the twins' story. Naruto and Deidara were frozen with fear; that Itachi would find out about the twins.
'Coincidence?' asked Deidara laughing nervously. Oh no. I can't hide anything from Itachi. He is going to see through my lies if I try to say something. Panicked Deidara.
Oh no, oh no, oh no, was a mantra in Naruto's head.
'It's a coincidence.' Was the firm reply from Itachi. His tone said "don't ask anymore or you are dead" and everyone understood that without a problem. Cutting all questions anyone wanted to ask about the twins.
'Phew' Naruto breathed in relief. No one noticed it but Itachi had noticed it clearly. Did Naruto not want him to know that much?
The next day, everyone had been busy preparing for that evening's party. However, Itachi had buried himself in his office the whole day. Despite his brother's efforts to drag him out; Sasuke had even tried sending the twins to distract Itachi from work so he would stop working. Sadly the twins came back a few minutes later with Ino.
'Ino-kun, why do you have the kids?' asked an annoyed Sasuke.
'Well, because I was called to go get them by Itachi-san.' She replied with atone that said "isn't it obvious?"
'Well you should have left them there.'
'And get fired? no, thank you very much. I love my job. And speaking of job, don't distract me anymore, don't you know I am in charge of everyone's clothing for this evening? Well not you and Neji-san anyway, because you have Sakura for that.' Sasuke didn't even get to say anything when,
'Oh, that reminds me you two are coming with me. You need to try on your little cute suits.' She giggled and took Fuyu and Natsu by theirs hands and walked away from Sasuke. Natsu called out "bye uncle Sasu" to whom Sasuke just waved his hand; he was confused on what had just happened; Ino was yelling at him one minute and the next thing he knew was that she was giggling with the twins, what a change of moods. Moreover, that had distracted him from reacting to the nickname.
Women. He thought
Damn Neji for telling the twins to call him Uncle Sasu; well he liked the Uncle part, not the Sasu part; that was what Neji Used to call him in high school. it was more like Sasu-chan.
Like the first Uchiha party Naruto had been to, the hall was filled with old people and young ladies whom were drooling over the young men who didn't even show interest in them. Everyone wore their most expensive suits/dress, jewellery; it was more like a dress contest than just a rich party, well that's why it's a rich party.
Naruto wore a white suit with a blue shirt minus a white tie which was supposed to be worn but Ino had said that it would ruin the hot picture that he painted. Matching the suit were white shoes. Naruto didn't want to think about the amount of zeros there were on the price tag.
The twins wore the same coloured suits with different shirts. Ino's doing too. when they were doing the shopping, she had said that she was finding it difficult to tell the twins apart. so she got them different coloured shirts. Fuyu had a light blue shirt and Natsu a dark blue shirt. They both wore black ties and shoes matching their black suits.
Ino got herself a long black halter neck dress with a knee high slit. but Naruto didn't pay much attention to the details. However, it was a beautiful dress; it hugged all her curves nicely, making Naruto wonder if she had a boyfriend.
As for Itachi, even though he wore a suit like everyone else, he stood out; you could tell he was the owner of the party and the mansion. Itachi wore the opposite of Naruto, with the exception of the red shirt. Just like Naruto he did wear a tie the black tie that came with his custom made suit and that was completed with black shoes. Usually tied up hair was loose. Naruto understood why the ladies even some old men were finding it hard to breathe; Itach was breath taking.
To stop himself from thinking about how hot Itachi looked, Naruto occupied himself with keeping the twins away from the sweets' table. Apparently, the sweets he and Ino had brought from town for them were not enough.
Sasuke sat on one of the one sitter sofas in the lounge area of the Mansion's hall. Much to his displeasure, Neji sat across from him; pointedly flirting with him. Sasuke thanked the gap in between, which was occupied by a coffee table; and much to Neji's disappointment.
Neji's mind was playing different scenarios about what he could do with Sasuke in the suit; he had seen Sasuke a million times over in a suit, but he just could never get tired of the image; more like he wished he could put that suit on and off Sasuke's body himself. Sasuke wore a dark blue suit and tie and a white shirt. His black slick shoes were a must to finish off his look. His hair didn't change it's usual style, but that didn't ruin his sophistication.
Sasuke was feeling annoyed. He couldn't help glancing at Neji's body now and then. Neji wore a cream suit with a cream tie. Even the shoes were cream, with the exception of the shirt which was brown. His dark brown hair was let down; Sasuke felt like running his fingers through it; to feel what it felt like between his fingers. He shook his head at what he had just been thinking about and quickly, he put on his annoyed expression on his face.
Itachi stood on the staircase, the music stopped and everyone automatically became silent and faced him. Sasuke and Neji realising the silence and walked back into the hall.
'I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you all, my adopted sons.' He began. He looked towards Naruto who was holding the twins' hands and he felt nervous.
'Go.' Ino said to Naruto and Naruto led the twins to Itachi. He stood below the stars and the twins went on to Itachi.
'Meet Natsu-chan' he pulled Natsu closer to him on his right.
'And meet Fuyu-chan.' and he pulled Fuyu closer to him on his left.
'when I finish the adoption process and sort out some, other things, they will be my heirs.' He said. that is if Naruto accepts to be with me. he thought.
The crowd had mixed reactions to the twins; the young ladies felt their chance of bearing Uchiha heirs slip away. And the others were wondering why they looked like Itachi; was there any chance that they were Itachi's real kids. if they were, what of their mother?
Itachi lay on his back on the bed. The lights were off in the room; he had left the hall halfway through the party; that was as soon as he had introduced the twins; he couldn't stay in there with Naruto in there; clearly avoiding him. And the ladies surrounding him swooning over him and Naruto looked happier with them than he was with him. Naruto was supposed to be his alone; how many times was he supposed to say that before Naruto really became his alone?
What am I doing wrong dammit?
There was a knock on the door.
'It's open' he answered shortly. He didn't really care who it was.
'I'm coming in then.' Deidara's voice warned.
Deidara walked into the dark room and searched for the light switch. He didn't know whether to feel sorry for his friend or rage; what Itachi had done to Naruto was unforgivable, but Itachi had been miserable the whole day. But it was up to Naruto to decide.
However Deidara had just remembered the incident that had almost ruined Itachi for life; the incident he was very much certain that it had played a big part in what Itachi had done to Naruto. That incident had influenced Itachi's lack of trust in people…
'Itachi-kun, the media has gotten wind about the twins and they want to know more about the twins. So what to do? Are you going to talk to them?' he asked unsurely.
'Just call a conference for them, tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock' Itachi said dismissively, like it was an everyday thing; well it was, that was the reason why he chose working from home.
The media conference had taken place at the mansion's frontyard and Itachi had answered all the questions concerning the twins honestly, even the silliest of them.
However, there was one question that Itachi hadn't expected to be asked; and that question was:
'Uchiha-san is it true that you have a lover and this lover is living with you?' asked one of the reporters.
That question came as shock. However it wasn't that hard to answer. Right? It was a question with an answer that would simply be a "yes" or a "no". If that was so, why wasn't the answer coming out of his mouth?
Well, that was because Naruto was standing right next to him with the twins on each side of him, just like a family. But what was their relationship? Would you call it lovers? Itachi didn't care what the media would say, however he didn't feel the same about what Naruto say; would Naruto be happy to be introduced to the media that he was Itachi's lover? which he wasn't yet. Or would it be the opposite? Itachi was torn; the always so confident Uchiha Itachi when ever faced with the media was at a loss. His confident posture became stiff. And all the reporters readied their recorders, cameras, microphones, notepads and pens, then as if everything came to a stand still Itachi spoke. Heavily.
' No.' the words pierced him like they were not his own; he felt like an arrow was being twisted into his heart cruelly and everything became distant to him as if he was imprison in his own world of darkness with not a single soul.
As the reporters fired on their questions about the matter, he turned away and walked away into the mansion with heavy feet; he didn't even look back to see Naruto's reaction to his answer.
Maybe I should let Naruto go before it too late. Be it cowardly or not. But there is so much one can take. but my love for Naruto is not that limited. he thought.
The media was not impressed with the answer. However, they had found their new headline; the headline about Itachi's reaction about the "lover" issue.
As for Naruto, without thinking about it he run after Itachi; he didn't like the pained and hopeless expression that Itachi had on.
And it's my entire fault. Where is the vicious Uchiha that everyone knows?
In any circumstances Itachi would have avoided the reporters' "lover" question swiftly; but here he was… totally out of the character that Naruto had known him by so far. Even though he didn't know all of the Uchiha's character, Naruto was sure that, that was not Uchiha Itachi just now.
He caught up with Itachi just when he was about to open the door to his office. And the unexpected happened:
'Naruto, go on a date with me.' Itachi said with an expression that gave nothing away.
TBC