Dreams to Reality

by Livia-Sobriquet

Fifteen-year-old Emily is a self-proclaimed anime nerd who's obsessed with Naruto. But when she sees a boy who looks a lot like Sasuke, her life is changed forever. Could the Naruto world actually be real? ItachixOC, rated M for later chapters.

2. Chapter 2

p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Chapter 2: Damn Your Eyes/span/p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emDamn your eyes for taking my breath away/em/span/p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emMakin' me want to stay/em/span/p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emDamn your eyes for gettin' my hopes up high/em/span/p
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; text-align: center; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"em- Damn Your Eyes by Etta James/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I tried to let it go and just focus on school, but I couldn't shake the idea that the emNaruto/em world might be real. I saw the kid twice a week, every time on my way home after choir practice, walking the same stretch of sidewalk. His hands were always in his pockets, his glossy spiky hair always sticking out and up in the back. He never looked particularly happy: he always had a bit of a scowl on his class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Over the course of a month of studying him, he only wore simple clothes: jeans or joggers with a T-shirt and usually sneakers, his whole outfit only in various shades of blue or gray or black. His shirt was always unadorned, no Uchiha crest to be seen./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"But./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"That hairstyle./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"It. Had. To. Be. A. Coincidence./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"…Right?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"After seeing him eight times and studying him the best I could from the bus window, I needed to know if my suspicions were true. On a whim, I stood up when the bus came to a halt, and rushed off, pausing the Ariana Grande album I was listening to, and slipping my headphones into my bag./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I knew it was silly — emNaruto /emisn't real./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"My breath caught in my throat when I saw the kid walking in my class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emWhat do I do/em? I thought in a panic. I hadn't planned this far ahead./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I gripped the straps of my backpack nervously and tried to walk nonchalantly towards him. Now that I was closer to him, I got a better look. He wasn't tall, he was a bit taller than me (not like that's saying much). He had large, dark emotionless almond-shaped eyes under thin eyebrows, a delicate nose, and a frowning class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"But damn if he wasn't the most gorgeous human I've ever seen./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I've never been much of a Sasuke fangirl, but emDAMN/em./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"If it was even Sasuke./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I felt my cheeks heat as I got closer to him. He was looking at me (probably because I was staring unabashedly at him)./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Like… it emcan't/em be him./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Can it?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"The hair is seriously too much effort for a cosplayer or a fan to do twice a week (at least) just to go for a walk, right? So what if —/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Sasuke?" I blurted out, immediately cursing myself for a lack of a filter. Am I anem idiot/em?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""How do you know my name?" said the kid, frowning even more, and sounding emweirdly/em similar to Sasuke's English voice actor. Deep for a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old, and devoid of emotion, other than maybe wariness. Unlike anyone I've ever met./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Wait, I'm right?" I said, surprised. "You're emactually/em Sasuke?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Yes."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Uchiha Sasuke?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Yeah I am, how do you know me?" He started to sound pissed off. "Who the hell are you?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emOH…MY…GOD…..!/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emThat's not a common name at all…span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Oh, uh, I'm Emily. Emily Rowe."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I mentally cursed myself for sounding so awkward. Why did I sound like I was trying to introduce myself as James Bond or something?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"So-called "Sasuke" had his hands on his hips. "So what do you want?" he asked flatly./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Huh?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He rolled his eyes. "Why are you stalking me?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I blinked, confused./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""You've been past here twice a week for the past month, staring at me from the bus," he answered. He sounded bored. "What do you want?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I froze. He emnoticed /emthat?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Wait… what if he's emactually/em the real Sasuke? No regular person notices things like that, especially not a normal teenage boy…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Hey! Where are you going?" I cried. He had turned down the street we stood at and had started walking away. "Wait!" I yelled, dashing after him. He ignored me and kept walking. "You said you wanted to know how I knew you, don't you want to listen?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""You're annoying me," he replied class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"That sure sounds like Sasuke./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Every degree of sense I had told me not to keep following him, but my legs just kept moving. I emhad/em to determine if it was actually him. I emneeded/em to know, just for my own peace of mind. If the world of emNaruto/em is real…!/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I followed "Sasuke" down the street as it curved around a bend. I wondered if he was just walking aimlessly to see how long it would take to shake me off. Well, I wouldn't give up that easily…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I used to ride around the neighbourhood on my bike as a kid and remembered I liked coming to this part: the houses were bigger and more interesting to look at, and the cars were nicer and shinier. Not like my parents are struggling, but these people here are on a different emlevel/em./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He stopped at a house just around the bend. It looked more or less the same as the other houses on the street and had two BMWs, a silver sedan and a navy SUV. There was a neatly manicured lawn with a Japanese-style garden: a few Japanese maples, some small shrubs interspersed with stones and a mini pond./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He started walking up the class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I ran after him./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I stood awkwardly on the front porch. emWhat am I /emdoingem? /emI thought, but there was no going back now. He looks like Sasuke, sounds like Sasuke, claims to be Sasuke… I just had to know if there were real ninjas…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I didn't know what following him home would actually accomplish. I guess maybe I figured he'd get annoyed enough at me to shunshin away or, I don't know, do some other ninjutsu to prove that my theory's right…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Sasuke" unlocked the door and walked in. He just left the door open, so I slipped inside and closed it behind me and locked it. It was a normal house, albeit quite large…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Holy crap./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod…!/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"A large red and white paper fan hung on the wall./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"The Uchiha crest…!/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"There was no mistaking it./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I was in the Uchiha house./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emI CAN'T EVEN…!/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I almost squealed in excitement./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Sasuke was already in the hallway, so I slipped off my shoes and backpack and ran after him and caught up with him as he entered a emgorgeous/em, spotless minimalist kitchen. All the countertops were sleek white marble or quartz and there was a rice cooker and a stack of bowls sitting neatly on the otherwise empty kitchen island. The cabinets were a light wood, and there was a matching table and chairs. It was very stark, almost sterile, but not completely uninviting./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"A tanned man with chin-length straight brown hair wearing a well-tailored suit was sitting at the head of the table reading the newspaper. A woman with long, glossy, straight black hair was chopping vegetables at the counter, wearing a gray short sleeve knee-length A-line dress. Both looked up when I rushed into the room to catch up to Sasuke./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Oh my God, how are you alive?" I blurted and then immediately covered my mouth in Oh my God, Emily, you can't just ask people how they're alive/em, I thought, thinking of that scene in emMean Girls/em where Gretchen tells Karen she can't ask people why they're white./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Fugaku and Mikoto, Sasuke's emparents/em (emWhat? How?/em) narrowed their eyes slightly, but didn't move./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Sasuke turned to me and asked suspiciously, "How would you know they were dead before?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I sighed. It was a coincidence that there was a boy who looked like Sasuke on my route home from school. There was no way it was a coincidence that his parents looked exactly like Fugaku and Mikoto…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I shrugged. "How long do you have?" I asked slowly. "This might take a while to explain."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"None of them answered, so I awkwardly shifted and said, "Okay, um, well, there's this manga called emNaruto" /em— Sasuke bristled next to me — "that was adapted into an anime. And, uh…you're all…um…characters in it?" I paused. "I know that sounds super far-fetched and unbelievable, like, I know it's just fictional, right? But, I mean, he" — I gestured to Sasuke — "looks so much like this character Sasuke in the show, so when I saw him I was like… I mean, I had to just talk to him, I figured he was just a talented cosplayer or something…" I stopped. I was rambling. Okay, Emily, let's get to the point./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I opened my mouth to figure out how to continue when I heard the door open and shut behind us. A low voice said, "emTadaima/em." I'm class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I froze./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I knew that class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"But that wouldn't make sense at all…it emcouldn't/em be…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"It was./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"The same glossy black hair parted down the centre, but unlike Sasuke's, it was tied back in a low ponytail. Large almond-shaped dark eyes under thin dark eyebrows, a small nose, pronounced tear troughs, and a delicate mouth./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I hadn't thought I would meet anyone as otherworldly beautiful as Sasuke until Uchiha Itachi walked up to class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"My entire face burned and I couldn't move./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emIs this a genjutsu or is he just /emthat emhot?/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Itachi?" I breathed in disbelief./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He gave me a polite smile (I thought I would just die on the spot, it's not fair how attractive these people are) and said, "Hello, are you a friend of Sasuke's?" His voice sounded a lot like his English voice actor. Almost emvelvety/em./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emStop drooling, Emily!/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Before I could respond, Sasuke yelled, "No, she isn't! She just followed me home!"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi shrugged, nodded to his parents, and left the room./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I snapped out of it — maybe because those intense eyes weren't looking at me. "Hold on!" I called to his retreating back. He was tall, taller than I expected, with a slim, athletic build and broad shoulders. Built for speed. And strength. He wore a plain black long sleeve crew neck shirt and slim fit dark wash jeans. "How are you emhere/em just, like, casually living with your very-much-alive parents, when you're supposed to be a missing-nin with your name in the Konoha Bingo Book?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi froze and turned around. The movement was graceful, almost like a dancer's. "You know much more than you should," he said. He didn't sound mad, he sounded…intrigued? It was hard to tell. "Why don't we all sit down at the table and you can tell us more," he suggested, pointing towards it./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Sasuke grumbled something, but sat at the end of the table, across from Fugaku. Mikoto sat down on one side and Itachi sat next to her. I took a seat across from the two of them. As if on cue, their eyes flashed almost in unison, andspan class="Apple-converted-space" /spandark orbs bled into glowing scarlet./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Oh my God, the Sharingan!" I blurted in class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Four pairs of red eyes, all staring at class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"It was emreal/em./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"It was beautiful, but class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"A cold, tingling sensation crawled down my spine and my pulse quickened. What was I emdoing/em here? Just waltzing into a stranger's home like that? Am I emstupid/em?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi spoke again, carefully watching me. "Let's start with who you are and how you know so much about us," he said calmly and politely. There was no emotion on his face, which I guess could bode any way for class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I figured the best course of action for me right now was to just do as he asks. Based on what I know about the four of them, he and Mikoto are least likely to react impulsively (or violently) towards me, so I trusted them the most. Fugaku doesn't seem the type unless I pose some kind of threat, but Sasuke looked like he's just itching to yell or attack in some way./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I was really counting on Itachi's pacifist nature to keep me safe./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I looked at Itachi, staring into his eyes, then realized my mistake. "Aw, emshit,/em" I whispered, "I looked directly at his Sharingan!" I thought back. "Wait a second, he pointed at the table earlier, he could've…" I bit my lip. "Am I under a genjutsu?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Not yet," Sasuke replied menacingly, "Now, talk!"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I looked down at the table, speaking to the grains in the wood. It was too distracting tp look at this ridiculously good-looking family all staring at me./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Ok, so, um hi, I'm Emily Rowe. I live in the neighbourhood and kept seeing Sasuke on my way home from school. As I mentioned to everyone else, there's this manga and anime called emNaruto/em…"span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"They let me talk, uninterrupted, for what felt like an hour. I explained the rough plot and explained where Sasuke fit in to the story. When I got to his backstory, I delicately glossed over the Uchiha Massacre and completely avoided talking about Itachi's real motives behind it. Sasuke was glaring daggers at Itachi any chance he could get, so I'm guessing no one bothered to tell Sasuke what really happened that night./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I didn't want to open that can of worms right now, especially considering how violent and erratic Sasuke became when he found out the truth about Itachi (granted, it was under completely different circumstances, but still)./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"No one interrupted me, so I kept class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I just started rambling about the history of the Uchiha clan and the Sharingan, Kaguya, Hagoromo, Indra, and Asura. I talked about Madara and the Curse of Hatred and the nature of the Uchiha clan, and the relationship of various Hokages with the class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I blabbed on and on about the secrets of the Mangekyō Sharingan, such as instructions on how to obtain it, and its ability to control the tailed beasts, and then segued into the the Nine Tails' attack on the village and how the Uchihas were forced to relocate to the outskirts, and how that led to the Uchihas to plan the coup, putting Itachi right in the middle of things as an ANBU captain and an class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Then I quickly doubled back and, trying to show that I can be trusted (or at least that I'm not an enemy), added that I know that the Uchihas weren't behind the Nine Tails' attack on the village because they were completely loyal and dedicated to Konoha./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Then I went on a tangent and started talking about Naruto, the character (the person?) and that I know that he's Minato and Kushina's son, and started talking about Naruto and Sasuke's school experience together./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I looked up. The Uchihas were all still watching me, Sharingan still activated. Their expressions were impassive./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I noticed it was getting dark outside. How long had I been here?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I stood up and excused myself to make a call./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Who says you can leave?" demanded Sasuke sharply./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I turned to him, frowning. "I need to let my parents know why I'm not home," I retorted. "It's much later than I usually get home and I don't want them to think I've been, like, I dunno, kidnapped or something."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I glanced at the others and neither of them made a move to block me, so I just quickly walked to the front hall to grab my phone. I glanced at the screen. No missed calls, but a text from my brother, Jake, asking where I was. I had been at the Uchihas' for over two hours./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Now that I was away from their piercing stares, I noticed how sweaty and clammy I was. I dialled home and my mom picked up. "Honey, where are you?" she asked./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""I, uh, I'm at a friend's house," I lied quickly. "We've got that math test coming up and someone from my class asked if I could help her review the material."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Oh, that's so nice of you! Will you be home for dinner?" My mom seemed to buy it. I thought it was a terrible excuse but oh well, not gonna question it./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Um…" I looked towards the kitchen. I doubt they'd let me just walk straight out, and I wasn't willing to test it. I bit my lip. "I don't know," I replied honestly. "It's a big test coming up so there's a lot to go over. Don't wait for me, I'll eat something when I get home if I'm hungry." If I make it out of here alive, more like./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I hung up and put my phone in my pocket, thinking I could always dial 911 if they kept me here against my —/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Who am I kidding? These are emninjas/em. One of them is a former black ops. Another was the head of the ninja police. They could each single-handedly destroy me with their hands behind their backs./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emOkay, /emthinkem, Emily!/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I need to show that I'm loyal to them, or at the very least, I can follow orders. They're more likely to let me go if I just do what they say, right? I've told them what I know, so what else do they need out of me?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I walked into the kitchen, and the Uchihas were talking in quiet Japanese, sounding similar to their Japanese voice actors. They looked up at me, and Sasuke said in English, "They're deciding whether to kill you or not."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I couldn't tell if he was serious or not, and his parents and brother weren't helpful with their blank stares./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"A shiver went down my spine again./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"It was starting to weird me out how much these people emdon't/em emote. It's one thing to see it in a cartoon, but it's another to see it on real faces. It's kinda scary./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I sat back down and tried to change the subject./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""So, um…" emLet's go for respectful but curious and get them talking,/em I thought. "Fugaku-san? Mikoto-san?" That did it. They both turned to me in surprise. I guess they didn't expect me to know their names? "Um…I don't know how to ask this delicately, but uh, I'm assuming you were brought back to life? How, uh… well, emhow/em? And when?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Fugaku answered. His arms were crossed over his chest and he sounded like he was giving a military report — straight to the point with no embellishments. "Mikoto and I were revived last year to prevent Sasuke from turning rogue against the Leaf. Sasuke had encountered Itachi shortly before and became reckless and erratic."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I looked from one brother to another. Itachi seemed calm and unbothered, though avoided looking at his father, and Sasuke's entire posture stiffened and his jaw was clenched. His arms were shaking slightly like he was clenching his fists tightly under the class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Fugaku continued. "Sasuke's sensei, Hatake Kakashi, attempted to take Sasuke under his wing, but could not get through to him. He was distracted and insubordinate."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Sasuke looked emlivid/em./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I bit my lip, but no one else seemed concerned./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Kakashi reported his concerns to the Leaf Elders and ANBU agents found him trying to illegally leave the village and apprehended him. He was taken to the council where he was given a choice: remain in the village and be under constant watch" — I wondered if it had anything to do with the curse mark from Orochimaru — "essentially under house arrest outside of missions; leave the village forever and be known as a criminal" — i.e. the path he takes in emNaruto/em — "or, leave the village until the council sees fit, but revive myself and his mother to watch him./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""As you can see, Sasuke chose the last option. A forbidden jutsu was used on criminals about to be put to death, taking their chakra to reanimate myself and my wife. Foolish though it might have been, Sasuke is not a threat to himself or others."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Sasuke's eyes flashed in anger./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I've seen what Sasuke can do when he's pissed off. Why was no one doing emanything/em?span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Then I remembered what happened when Itachi and Sasuke saw each other for the first time after the Uchiha Massacre. Itachi broke Sasuke's wrist, beat him to a pulp, and broke his mind by torturing him with the Tsukuyomi./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi could handle it. Maybe that's why he didn't seem bothered? He looked like he didn't even notice Sasuke's little temper tantrum in the corner, though I'm sure he was aware of what was going on in his brother's mind…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Mikoto took over, watching Sasuke closely. It was insane how much both her sons resembled her. "We left the village shortly after being reanimated and decided to relocate to North America to start fresh. We thought a new environment would be healthy for Sasuke's… class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""We had almost crossed from the Fire Country into mainland Japan" —/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Wait, emwhat/em? But I let her continue instead of interrupting./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"— "when we ran into Itachi." Mikoto smiled at her oldest son, who just gave her a blank look. "We invited him to move with us, and he agreed."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"My heart went out to him. That must've been awful, having to kill your parents, then finding out they've been brought back to life, and having them invite you to live with them again?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emOh, Itachi…You poor thing…/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Of course he would say class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Though…what about the Akatsuki? I couldn't bring that up in front of his parents, I didn't want to ruin things with their family dynamic, which were strained as ever between the brothers. I imagine the invitation to live with their parents didn't go over too well with Sasuke./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Nice," I said, one eye on Sasuke, who looked about to explode. Time to change the subject. "So, how'd you all learn perfect, unaccented English in Konoha?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"To my surprise, Sasuke immediately replied. He was probably eager for the distraction. "All ninja have to be fluent in English and Japanese, but many know a third language as well. We have diction classes at the Ninja Academy, though most people start learning English at home from the time they learn to speak."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I thought about that. "That makes sense," I said. "I guess fluency in multiple languages without an accent, is a huge asset in espionage."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Hn" was Sasuke's response./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Silence fell./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"The Uchihas just stared at me./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I was no closer to getting out of here, and I had walked right back into the lion's den. What am I supposed to do? How long would I be stuck here? As eminsanely cool/em as it was to be hanging out in the Uchihas' kitchen with them, they're emintimidating/em. I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my back. I'm terrified just by them emstaring/em at me!/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I definitely stuck my nose in the wrong family's business. The fact that I got a hint of their dirty laundry, plus all the dirt I have on their past…would they even let me emgo/em?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I bit my lip. I had to continue with my plan. Show I'm loyal and not a threat and that I can be compliant. So far they hadn't hurt me or even put me under a genjutsu (that I know of, anyway)./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Um…" I looked out the window. It was almost night time. "I should probably get going soon…" I'm not sure if it was just me or if all their Sharingans flashed menacingly. "But I emswear/em I won't tell emanyone/em about" — I gestured wildly towards all of them — "everything we talked about and what I know about you guys! And besides, no one would believe me anyways, if I even did tell anyone — which I won't! — so don't worry about that! I'll keep my mouth shut!"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""We might not be the only ninja you ever encounter," Itachi quietly pointed out. "Now that you have found us so easily, who can say what might happen if you run into someone who would immediately kill you for knowing too much?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I was stunned and couldn't find the words./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Would someone actually do that?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Would emthey/em decide to do that toem me/em?/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""We could wipe her memory of us and everything in this emNaruto /emmanga," Mikoto suggested./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""She would just re-learn everything about us if she has any manga volumes," Sasuke replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "Though she would just think we're fictional characters, so there wouldn't be much harm done."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emAnd let me forget that you guys are all /emrealem?! /emI thought angrily. emWould you actually take this all away from me?/em I mentally pleaded with them not to. emNaruto/em means too much to me to be told it's all real and then lose that…/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Are there any other ninjas here, or, like, outside of the ninja world?" I asked, thinking quickly. Maybe I could convince them that if the level of threat was low, they could let me go without messing around with my class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""There aren't, to my knowledge," replied Fugaku. "Though that doesn't mean there won't be in the future."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""So…" I said slowly. "Uh…what do you plan to, like…emdo /emwith me? Are you…keeping me as your prisoner?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"The Uchihas all emsmiled/em./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Well, Sasuke smirked and Itachi gave sorta a half-smile, but all four of them looked amused. That's the most emotion I've seen collectively from them since I walked class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I should get a medal or something for getting through to them./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi stood up. "Come on, I'll drive you home."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emWait, they're actually letting me go?/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I didn't want to push my luck, so I just nodded mutely. "Um, nice meeting you all!" I said awkwardly. "Thanks for having me!" and then I followed Itachi outside. He unlocked the BMW sedan and we got in./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"It had that new car smell, but it smelled expensive. I rested my backpack on my lap, not wanting to risk getting the leather seats dirty./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi closed his door and the questions immediately started tumbling out of my mouth./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Okay, what's really going on with you and the Akatsuki?" I demanded. "How come you're remeally/em living here? Did you tell Sasuke what really happened emthat night/em? Oh, hold on!" I interrupted myself, realizing something. "How are you able to drive? Doesn't the Mangekyō Sharingan cause blindness?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi studied me silently. I noticed his Sharingan was off. Wordlessly, he pulled out a pair of black plastic frame rectangular glasses and put them on./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Ohem. /emI didn't expect that./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He still looks damn good with glasses. That studious kind of type. Which…I guess he kinda is./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Is this your car?" I asked./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""My father's."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He started the car. The radio was off. Fugaku doesn't strike me as a music guy, so that made sense./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Where am I taking you?" he asked./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I gave him my address and directions./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"He nodded. "I am still employed by the Akatsuki," Itachi said calmly, backing out of the driveway. "However, the organization has put their efforts on hold due to financial constraints. Too many hired mercenaries have been killed on support missions and it has begun to bankrupt operations. They halted their plans to focus on earning enough money to sustain itself, but even that had to be put on hold temporarily. I was dismissed for the time being."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""How come you're telling me all this?" I asked. "And why didn't you erase my memory back there? What do you plan to do with me?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"His eyes flicked to mine briefly before returning to the road. "Your information could be useful," he answered simply. "There was no real reason to erase your memories. You aren't a significant threat."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""You're too generous," I muttered sarcastically./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""And no, I have not told Sasuke the motives behind my actions."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""What is emwrong /emwith you?" I exclaimed. I squeaked and covered my mouth. emWhat is wrong with /emmeem? /emI lowered my hands. "Sorry, that was rude," I apologized./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Again, Itachi's lips twitched into an almost-smile. "It's a little difficult to have a conversation with someone who watched you slaughter your entire clan," he replied dryly./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I'm shocked he's talking about it. I didn't want to actually emsay /emit, you know, to not be rude and bring up all that old trauma./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Stop the car," I demanded./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Excuse me?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""I'm going back. I'm gonna tell Sasuke everything."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""I can't let you do that."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Why?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""It would break him to learn the truth."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Itachi." He briefly glanced at me again, then back at the road. I couldn't believe I was actually having a conversation with emUchiha Fricking Itachi/em. "There's something else you need to know."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Of all the characters in emNaruto/em, there aren't many I'd be able to have emthis/em kind of conversation with. I didn't know how it was going to affect him later, but I knew he would take it calmly now./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I told him that he dies in emNaruto/em, and then emexactly what happens/em when Sasuke wakes up and is told the truth by Obito —/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""emObito/em?" repeated Itachi. He sounded surprised. I've spent a minute with him in the car and I've gotten all these different emotions out of him. I should get a medal or something./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Oh. Yeah." I genuinely forgot that he didn't know. "That guy you call Madara? That's actually Obito."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi's eyebrows furrowed just the slightest bit. He blinked. "So he didn't actually die." He was silent, probably trying to figure out how Obito survived./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I helped him out by summarizing it for him. "Hatake Kakashi was about to be crushed by rocks. Obito pushed him out of the way and took the hit instead. He was rescued by White Zetsu — don't ask, not important right now — anyways, the real Madara ordered the white half of Zetsu before they fused to rescue Obito. He fixed him up with Senju Hashirama's cells — I know, it's crazy, just bear with me," I added because Itachi's brows furrowed again. "Anyways Madara eventually corrupted and manipulated Obito to follow his plan to 'save' the world — whatever not important now./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Anyhoo," I went on, waving my hand impatiently. "Your plan didn't work in emNaruto/em. Sasuke was emlivid/em when he found out the reason why you were forced to…" I waved my hand vaguely, "You know. The…Uchiha Downfall." I paused awkwardly, though Itachi didn't seem phased. "Sasuke decided to destroy the Leaf."/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""And did he succeed?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Well, he was kinda sidetracked by the Fourth Great Ninja War and Ōtsutsuki Kaguya being resurrected…"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Itachi's eyebrows raised a fraction of a millimetre./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""He ends up being a good guy, but he does a lot of damage before then," I added./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""I see," Itachi said again./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""So," I went on, "emplease/em let me tell Sasuke now so we can get that out of the way?"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Not yet," Itachi answered./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;""Dude!" I exclaimed. emI just called Itachi 'dude', what the heck is wrong with me?/em He glanced at me again. "He needs to know —"/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I blinked. I was on my doorstep./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emHow —?/em/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"Fugaku's BMW was nowhere to be seen./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"A chill went down my back./span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"emI think he put me under a /emgenjutsuem! /emI class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 9px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"I groaned and let myself in./span/p