Itachi is a really good cook, putting my skills to shame with ease. Heck, I think he would probably feel right at home in the large Akimichi kitchen with Natsumi. He moves through the kitchen with a grace and ease, reminding me of a ballet, I have a feeling he probably has that same grace when fighting, but right now, I just appreciate it as a fellow cook.

He clearly isn't used to cooking with others, though, if his occasional, just barely perceptible widening of his eyes when he sees the rest of us trying to help is any indication. I have a little experience since Ami will occasionally lend a tentative helping hand in the kitchen, or when I help Natsumi, but I generally I cook alone in this life too. In my other life it was the opposite. Cooking was a social event. When I cooked it was ALWAYS with my family, we'd play music really loud that would almost drown out the timers and sing along on our favourite songs. We'd argue over ingredients, I always wanted to add chocolate to EVERYTHING and sometime my brothers would team up with me to turn things like oatmeal cookies into chocolate chip cookies instead.

The kitchen in the house is excellent, with the same wood as everywhere else, but it is more modern than most of the house. You wouldn't know it, though, with most of the utilities like the fridge and things tucked away and hidden by traditional displays.

"Tomatoes. Tomatoes are good." Sasuke instructs with a sage-like nod putting a large basket of them on the counter. That is a lot of tomatoes.

"Sasuke, can you come to help me with the eggs?" Itachi asks, and Sasuke stops his surprisingly not one-sided argument with Izumi over which is better, tomatoes or sweet peppers. I watch, amused at the cute scene of Itachi guiding Sasuke's hands through the motions of cracking eggs. It's surprising, like a heart-stopping, jaw-dropping kind of surprising, how… well INNOCENT Sasuke appears, and well is.

It makes sense. No one is just one thing, the somewhat aloof display he puts on in public is clearly not everything to the boy who seems perfectly content in his older brother's company. He's tiny, a seven-year-old child with two loving parents (even if one is aloof at the best of times) and a bit of a crush on his older brother (one that, from what I can see, challenges Izumi's own crush on Itachi.).

"Hey, Itachi-chan? How many vegetables do you think we'll need?" Izumi asks from where she is cutting vegetables. I myself and operating the stove, it's a gas stove, as though this clan needs more fire, then again leaving the six-year-old with an open flame might be considered more responsible than leaving them with a knife. Then again, Sasuke and I were throwing knives for part of the afternoon. I stir the slowly sizzling ingredients in the stove in-front of me adding seasonings here or there.

Cooking Proficiency Level has risenx1

Cooking Proficiency Level 94

Ability to cook food using different tools and ingredients. Taste improves per level, nutritional bonus 0.1% per level. Current nutritional bonus 9.4%.

"Not much more. I'm going to start on the soups." Itachi informs her, and we get into a bit of a rhythm, the four of us, though we are cooking WAY too much food. I try not to get depressed looking at the scene of the three Uchiha just… well, just being people, not an avenger, not a sacrifice for peace, and not a villain that should be a hero. Just people. No matter what happens, I'll try to remember this.

"You hungry?" I hear Sasuke ask, and I shake my head, shaking off my musings. Sometimes I wish that I hadn't been able to remember the story, but then again, knowledge is power.

"Ya, starving," I reply with a slightly forced a smile, Sasuke tilts his head, but either doesn't notice or chooses to ignore the strained expression.

"Itachi-Nii is an amazing cook. He's even better than Kaasan." Sasuke informs me, and I blink a few times. Ok… so he is not ignoring my expression apparently, because even though he hasn't been as aloof as usual, he hasn't actually tried to make real conversation with me.

"I bet. I think I know someone who is a better cook, though." I tease lightly, thinking of Natsumi and her excellent meals of high restaurant quality, just like Itachi.

"Nu-uh!" Sasuke refutes back sharply, his face showing he is serious. Yes, he really does idealize Itachi, doesn't he? "No one's better than Itachi-nii. He's amazing." He states as though it were an irrefutable fact.

"Your right…" I say slowly, and he smirks triumphantly and looks ready to go over to said big brother when I continue. "Itachi is amazing… but that doesn't mean he's the best at EVERYTHING." I tell the boy who looks at me as though I have just committed blasphemy.

"No, everyone always says…" Sasuke begins to say, sounding a little frustrated, but I'm not sure if that is with me, himself, or this 'everyone.'

"No one is good at everything, certainly not the best. We all have talents Sasuke-san. Your brother has a lot of talent, and so do you, but everyone has something their good at." I tell him, not sure why I am monologuing here, he's seven years old (or close to it) he probably doesn't even understand really what it is I am trying to explain. Looking at Sasuke, though, I may need to give him more credit. His eyes are showing a mind deep in thought, but he doesn't challenge my words.

"Dinner's ready." Itachi says, taking out a lobster from the oven. I hold back a bit of a laugh. The great Itachi Uchiha wears a slightly frilly apron and two large fluffy oven mitts. There may be nothing wrong with the look, but there is something slightly funny about it given his whole youngest Anbu ever thing (if you don't count ROOT, which I don't).

The food tastes nice, but the dinner is different. I think I am beginning to see just how other the clans really are. Not just in architecture and demeanour but in customs too. We are all shinobi. We all have that basic culture, our shinobi way of life. However, each clan has a way of life that is a little different from the others. The dinner tastes really lovely, and though there is some light conversation, it's not the more expressive kind at the Akimichi compound. It could just be the difference between families, or maybe because I'm here, but I feel it is noteworthy.

As dinner wraps up and it gets dark, I know I'll be headed home soon.

POV Itachi Uchiha

Life is precious.

At the end of the day, life? Well, life is all we have. It is the actual currency of the world. A life is made, and a life is lost. Balance, as tentative as it is, balance is key.

Peace is key.

There is no greater horror than war.

I've seen many things even though I haven't been alive all that long in the greater scheme of things. I have taken many lives, but I like to think that it is for this balance, this peace. Sasuke, my little brother, he is my peace.

I can still remember my first kill. I was so young, too young for the battlefield, and too naive, wishing to save the life of the man who would try to kill me. I killed him on instinct, far faster and easier than any of my attempts to help him. I didn't want to be GOOD at killing. But I was, and I am.

My dream…

I don't think I have dreams anymore.

But I want, I want to change the world. A part of me wants to one day join my idols and be Hokage, be the person who could, for once, be the shield instead of the sword. I know I can't be. The village wouldn't ever let an Uchiha be Hokage, not the way things are going.

But peace is so fragile, and little things have to be sacrificed for the greater good, to save more lives, and to protect the village.

Tonight though? Tonight I don't need to think about that. I don't need to think about the orders that have become so familiar of 'no survivors' I don't need to think about the blades being drawn and the sides being made, or the fact that I do not know if I could do it, if I could choose between the village and my family.

No, I DON'T need to think about that. Otousan and Okaasan are away. I can just focus on the only other thing besides killing that I am good at, being a big brother.

"Sasuke, let's sleep outside tonight, alright?" I say as Izumi and Sayori leave. Izumi is walking the girl home. I'm glad Izumi came… still, something tells me that there is more to that girl than meets the eye. Perhaps that's just because she managed actually to engage Sasuke. He needs friends. He'll need them more than ever, especially if Shisui and I fail.

"Really?" Sasuke asks, glee shining in his eyes. Yes, just a little longer. I'm not ready for tonight to end yet, either. I lay down the two bedrolls on the porch, and all I know for sure is that

I would give ANYTHING to protect Sasuke.