Changes

Chapter Three

The Unexpected News

After almost two weeks since they met each other, Uchiha Itachi and Hayashibara Tsumi were definitely the best of friends. One day, Itachi's father had approached Itachi and Tsumi as they were playing outside the Uchiha residence.

"Itachi, can you come over for a bit?" he asked his son.

"Sure father!" Itachi walked over to his father, who had sat down on a bench. Itachi sat down beside him and wondered what he was going to say.

"Remember how I said that I was going to enroll you into the Ninja Academy?" his father said.

"Yes."

"Well, I already enrolled you, and you're going to start your classes in one week's time."

"Yay!" Itachi was definitely happy, and he looked over at Tsumi and smiled. She returned the smile, and approached him.

"Say, do you know if Hokage-sama enrolled me too?" Tsumi asked Itachi's father.

"I...don't know," he said. Tsumi's smile quickly faded into a frown. Itachi put his arm around her, and tried to cheer her up.

"Don't worry Tsumi! You can ask Hokage-sama when you get back tonight! I'm sure that he enrolled you – you'll make a great shinobi."

"Thanks Itachi." Tsumi managed to smile.

Itachi's father watched the pair and smiled to himself. Watching his son and his best friend lightened his day. 'Reminds me of myself when I was younger...sort of.'

At the end of the day, Itachi and his father walked Tsumi back to the Hokage's place. The Hokage was already waiting for them at the door. Tsumi ran right up to him.

"Hokage-sama, did you enroll me into the Ninja Academy?" she asked him at once. You could tell from the look in her eye that she really wanted to go. The Hokage smiled.

"Yes, Tsumi, I did enroll you into the Ninja Academy."

Tsumi jumped up and down with happiness and went to tell Itachi the great news. When he found out, he was quite happy himself because now his best friend would be in the same class as him.

Itachi's father and the Third smiled at each other. "Do you think we should tell them the news now?" the Third whispered.

"Sure, why not?" Itachi's father whispered back. He cleared his throat and looked up. Itachi and Tsumi stopped cheering, laughing, and talking, and they looked up and looked at Itachi's father.

"Yes father?" Itachi asked.

"So...you two are really close friends, right?"

"Yes..." Itachi and Tsumi were wondering why his father was asking such a question when it was so obvious to the world!

"Well, Itachi, how would you like it if your mother and I adopted Tsumi into our family?"

Itachi's face lit up in an instant. At the time, it seemed like the best present that he could possibly ask for.

"Definitely!" Itachi cried as Tsumi stood there in tears of happiness.

"Thank you!" she said as her tears kept pouring out uncontrollably, and she ran up and hugged Itachi's father.

Itachi, who also seemed terribly happy, ran up and hugged his father as well. 'This has got to be the happiest moment of my life...'

"Though it's only temporary until we can find Tsumi's real family," their father added, but Itachi and Tsumi didn't seem to have heard since they were so happy and excited.

The Third watched them with a smile across his face. "Good-bye Tsumi! I hope you find happiness with your new family," he said.

Tsumi stopped him before he turned around to return to his home. "Thanks for your hospitality."

"You're certainly welcome," he replied, and walked off to his home.

"So, father, is this the business that you've been working on with Hokage-sama?" Itachi seemed to have read his father's mind.

"Yes, Itachi, that's what we were doing. We wanted to keep it a surprise for later, but since this was such an occasion, I thought that I should break the news sooner than expected."

"Umm…what about my stuff?" Tsumi asked.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, we moved you into an empty room already."

"Which empty room?" Itachi wondered.

"The room that Hokage-sama and I were in when you were eavesdropping on us. It used to be a guestroom, but we really didn't need one so we renovated it." Itachi's father looked down at Tsumi and smiled. "You can call me father if you want to."

"Sure, father!" Tsumi smiled back, and Itachi as lost in his own dream world...

"Umm, Itachi, home is that way," His father pointed in the direction opposite to the one that Itachi was walking in.

"Huh? Oh." He was obviously clueless.

"So from now on," his father continued, "you're officially Uchiha Tsumi; you have two brothers, and parents."

"Yes father!" Tsumi said again.

'I hope this doesn't ruin their friendship,' their father thought. 'Or their love for each other. I just hope that I did the right thing before things become chaotic...'

The next morning…

Tsumi was awake before dawn. She was up making breakfast for the rest of her family. She sighed.

Tsumi

I felt myself let out a sigh. 'Now that I'm in the same family as Itachi, I'll have to stop loving Itachi the way that I did before, now that we're siblings...' I guess there was a good and bad thing about this adoption.

I finished making breakfast, and I cleaned up. As if on cue, mother and father walked lazily into the dining room and gasped.

"Ts-tsumi, did you make this all by yourself?" mother gasped.

"Yes mother. When I was living alone, I learned to cook for myself before Hokage-sama found me."

"Oh...well, let's see how good it is!" father sat down and was about to try the food until someone was heard thudding down the hall. We all looked at the door to see baby Sasuke crawling into the room.

'Wow, this kid learns amazingly fast,' father seemed to be thinking as Sasuke was trying to climb up into his highchair.

I walked over and picked him up and placed him into his highchair, earning a pout from him. He obviously didn't like the idea of always having people doing things for him, but it was rather dangerous for him to attempt climbing up into his chair in his small little form.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang that erupted through the house.

"Itachi! Is that you?" father yelled. He got up from his chair and went to see what was going on. "I'll come back and try your food after I'm done," he said to me and I nodded.

Mother, however, didn't even bother to go check to see what the huge racket was, so she took several bites into her food – scrambled eggs, a nicely cooked bagel, and well stirred coffee. She looked up at me.

"Tsumi...this is delicious!" she exclaimed. I smiled, feeling very happy that mother was proud of my cooking, even though I was only six years old and it was still dangerous for me to be cooking food.

Father walked back into the room. "So, what was the big deal?" mother asked him.

"Oh, nothing much, Itachi just fell off his bed and then a few scrolls fell onto his head." He chuckled.

I gasped. "Is he ok?" I asked anxiously. I still didn't want anything to happen to my Itachi, even though he was my brother now.

"Oh, don't worry Tsumi, Itachi's a hard-headed kid; he'll be perfectly fine," mother said.

Either way, I just went to check on Itachi anyway. I walked down the hall to his room. "Itachi, are you ok?" I called from outside his door. I didn't hear a reply, or anything going on in the room, so I opened the door to see if he was ok.

What I saw was a different Itachi than I normally saw and knew. This Itachi was sitting at his desks with earplugs in his ears, reading scrolls, reference books, and taking notes on stuff he read. The room was entirely messy with papers, garbage, etc. I walked up to him.

"Itachi?" He didn't seem to have heard me. "Itachi?" I said slightly louder. He still had no reaction. I pulled out his earplugs. "Itachi?" I yelled into his ear, and he screamed, not having known that I was beside him.

"Ts-tsumi? W-what are you d-doing in h-here?" He sounded slightly shaken up from the loud noises in his ear.

"Are you ok?" I asked him anxiously.

"Yeah, why?"

"What was that loud bang earlier?"

"Oh, I just fell out of my bed and a few heavy scrolls hit me in the head, that's all."

"What?" I gasped. "Are you ok? Does it hurt? Where did they land on you?"

"Honestly, I'm fine Tsumi!" He sounded annoyed.

"Oh. Sorry." I started to blush a bit. "This isn't the normal cute Itachi that I know..." I gasped. I didn't think I actually said that out loud!

"What do you mean by 'the normal cute Itachi that I know'?" he asked me.

"Umm...well, you room's messy, unlike the last time I was over for that sleepover..."

"Oh, I just cleaned my room up before you came."

"And usually you wouldn't have earplugs in your ears to block out noise," I continued.

"Well, that's because you usually don't see me studying."

"And…umm…you also aren't that mean and cold to me," I said to conclude. Itachi remained silent.

"That's because the Itachi that you knew wasn't the normal Itachi before I met you. When I was first introduced to you, I was shy and felt emotion for the first time in my life. But you see, before this friendship with you, I was always into my shinobi studies, never letting anyone get close to me. However, now that we're siblings and I don't have to wake up and leave the house every morning, I don't see a need to pay any attention to the rest of the people in the house, which I never really did, anyway..." His answer shocked me.

"Itachi...I had no idea!" I sobbed and instantly found the familiar spot on his shoulder. However, he pushed me off.

"Can you leave me alone for the next while? I'm busy preparing for the Ninja Academy," he growled at me. I was taken aback by that.

"S-s-sorry," I whispered and left the room, noticing that my cooking apron was still on. I went to my new room to change into some better clothes. I decided that I was going to get some better clothes with some money that Hokage-sama had left me.

I walked back to the kitchen to see that mother was washing the dishes from the breakfast that I made, and father was cleaning up after the tiny mess that Sasuke had made. 'Wow, he really does learn fast, that kid...' I thought. Last time I came over, he was still slapping food all over his tiny face, but now he's getting more accurate and is getting his spoon into his mouth.

"I'm going out," I called as I slipped my sandals on.

"Tsumi, hold up a sec!" mother called. She caught up with me as I was just about to walk out the door. "Here, take this," she said and she handed me the key to the house, and a little pouch of money. "Itachi gets an allowance too, so I figured that you should get one as well. Thanks for breakfast!" she said and she smiled at me.

"You're welcome," I replied and I walked out the door.

I walked down the street, feeling lonely. Usually, I'd be walking with Itachi, and I was getting used to it. I walked into a clothing store, and looked around for that outfit that Itachi said would look good on me when we were there last time. I finally found it, and it was on sale, so I thought that I should by it anyway, since I needed a few more selections of clothes. I smiled as I took the outfit off the rack. It was a black t-shirt that said "Forever Dreaming" on it in teal lettering. There were kapris that went with it that were teal with a black design at the bottoms. I brought it to the front desk, and I was just about to pay for it until I felt someone behind me.

"I'll pay for it." I looked up to see father smiling down on me. "That was a delicious breakfast you made," he said. "Your mother thought that you'd need some more clothes, so she sent me out after you.

"Oh." So father paid for my clothes, and when we left the store, there was an impatient Itachi leaning against a tree with his arms folded across his chest, tapping his foot.

"Itachi!" I exclaimed.

"He knew that you'd be here," father informed me.

I ran over to him. "We can go home now," I said to him.

"Why? I thought you wanted to go and buy more clothes," he replied.

"Well, you have to study, don't you? Besides, I think I should start to study a bit too...classes start next week." I smiled. He returned it.

"We'd better get going then," he said as he grabbed my hand and we started running home.

I smiled to myself. 'Now this is the real Itachi that I know...'

TBC