Folded Hands, Chapter Twenty-Five

Pairings: Zabuza/Haku, possibly others later

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Notes:

The Yukitori clan is made-up.

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Itachi found the small town, the so-called White Town, later that night and he quickly located the local law office to check in with the man who had requested his temple's assistance.

His mission was two-pronged: research Haku's Bloodline Limit and, if necessary, kill the clan off. The thought made his blood boil. As a child, Itachi had once thought of killing the Uchiha clan, but he had dismissed this as an irresponsible wish, something that seemed desirable, but would not bring much actual pleasure.

He had hated his clan's oppressiveness, and he had hated how every clan in the village fought for dominance, trying to establish some kind of hierarchy. Human beings, Itachi reasoned, were all alone anyway after they left their mother's body. Clan relations, clan hierarchy, people in positions of authority…Itachi despised that false power. He despised family and clans and he wished sometimes that he could have been born ordinary, with no Sharingan, and no ear-catching, blood-freezing family name.

The only family member he cherished was Sasuke, and even then…

Itachi put on his forehead protector as a matter of formality. He removed all thoughts from his head but those of professionalism. He had come to White Town because of the mission that Godaime had given him, and he would complete it with all due speed so that he could return home, see Sasuke for a few minutes, and then leave again.

As Itachi opened the door to the law office, one of the men there stood out to him. He was taller, more muscular, and he had two other defining features: a bandaged lower face and shaved eyebrows.

Taking this surprise in stride, Itachi first walked up to him, and said, "Momochi Zabuza."

The water-nin turned to face him, and he glared as he recognized the other man's face. "What are you doing here?"

Itachi tried to ignore his lack of manners. "I was called here for a mission."

The officer that Zabuza had been waiting for joined him once again, and the man looked at Itachi's forehead protector and his face lit up. "Help from the Leaf! We were afraid that our call would go unanswered!"

Itachi nodded. "The Hokage changed her mind and decided to send me."

The officer looked fretful, and he glanced between them and sighed. "Well, Mr. Momochi, and Mr…"

"Uchiha."

"Yes, Mr. Uchiha. You see, the mission that Mr. Momochi has already accepted is the same as the one that we requested the Leaf send us help for. We can pay both of you, though, and it might be better to have more than one--"

"You want us to work together," Zabuza interrupted.

The officer clasped his hands together and smiled apologetically. "I must admit, that the Yukitori clan is VERY strong and that it would likely benefit you--"

"Alright," Itachi said. Without glancing at Zabuza, he said, "I have no problem with splitting the mission, as long as I can begin soon.".

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Years ago, Itachi would not have allowed that sort of thing. He had been raised to be proud, just as proud as his father, just as proud as all the men in every clan in the village. Itachi knew that there were few ninja alive that could kill him, and he doubted that a near-dead clan would be much of a challenge for him, especially if said clan was comprised of men and women who didn't understand the basics of chakra usage and ninjutsu. The people sounded like wild animals to Itachi; strong, but stupid, and easy to kill if the hunter used the correct methods.

Itachi had always known that he saw the world in the wrong way. His father had occasionally been disturbed by his behavior, and his thoughts, so he had learned to keep quiet and to only do what he was told and say what he was expected to say. The black thoughts never left him, though, and he often felt cold and hard inside, unable to sympathize with other people. Even now, as he stood next to Zabuza, and as he was surrounded by the people of the village, he felt completely alone.

This had changed when his parents had left him alone with Sasuke one night. His mother had dragged his father out of the house, and Itachi had heard them say something about going out with the other married couples from the clan, and his father had eventually agreed, leaving the twelve-year-old Itachi, already a successful ninja, already a Sharingan master, already a chuunin, to look after his five-year old brother.

Somehow, something melted inside of him when he was with Sasuke. It had been painful at first, and he had been confused when his little brother had started talking a few years earlier, because he suddenly felt afraid, and vulnerable, and he could not tear his eyes from his baby brother. Sasuke had not shown any potential by that time, and their mother babied him. His upbringing had been far different from Itachi's.

That night found Sasuke and Itachi working at the same table in their living room. Itachi had prepared tea for himself, the same kind as always; green, and dark. He had promised to buy Sasuke a snack from the local vendor if he did well on the primer their father had given Sasuke; his parents had never rewarded him like that, but his mother often made those kinds of promises to Sasuke, and that night Sasuke's face lit up the same way it did whenever their mother made that promise to him, and that stirring, warm feeling boiled inside Itachi's chest again, and he was suddenly not alone.

It was rather amazing, or so Itachi though. Itachi had one friend, a fellow Uchiha named Shusui, but the feeling that now coursed through Itachi when he was with his little brother was nothing like anything he'd felt when talking to Shisui, and he couldn't explain it. Sasuke was an enigma to him, and he realized that he liked that; he had always enjoyed finding puzzles he couldn't solve, and amazing enough he found himself living with one such puzzle, so he enjoyed his brain's inability to understand his reaction to Sasuke's presence.

"Big brother?" Sasuke asked him.

Itachi looked up from his mission report, and he saw that Sasuke's eyes were downcast, and he recognized the expression on his face. It seemed, for some reason, that Sasuke was shy around him, and he had known this for some time but he still could not explain it. This was a mystery, but it was not pleasant, like the general mystery of his brother; it bothered him. He took no pride in having power over a five-year-old.

"What is it?" he asked.

Sasuke's black eyes scanned Itachi's report, and he frowned. Itachi realized that Sasuke had not yet learned all of the characters that he wrote with; he wasn't even old enough to attend the academy yet, so the majority of his written vocabulary consisted of hiragana.

His little brother kept silent for another moment, then turned his primer to face Itachi. "Can you tell me what I'm supposed to know about this?"

The phrasing of the sentence bothered Itachi—he thought that Sasuke's grammar was better than that—and it dawned on him that Sasuke had said exactly what he meant.

Sasuke was ashamed of himself.

Itachi took the book and realized that it was not the primer he'd seen Sasuke working in a month ago; it was the book that second-year academy students used.

Itachi stared at the page for a moment, and he though of asking Sasuke if he had the wrong book, and then he remembered that he had read through all of the academy textbooks at Sasuke's age, and that their parents may have been pushing Sasuke to follow in his brother's footsteps. He wasn't sure, though, so he started to flip through the pages previous to the one Sasuke had been working on.

Sasuke watched in surprise as his silent brother read through all of his old answers, and read all of the 'wrong' comments and the x's that his father had put down over Sasuke's incorrect anwers, and he wanted to tell Itachi to stop looking, but he was terrified of his older brother, the strong, talented Itachi, so he watched in silent horror as his faults screamed themselves out in red ink to his old brother. When Itachi frownded and continued to flip through the book , Sasuke started to shake from nervousness. His father had been angry when he had graded many of those sections, and Sasuke had tried to study harder, but he couldn't measure up to his family's expectations, and he wasn't the next Itachi, but he couldn't complain about that.

Itachi set one pale hand with violent fingernails down on the book when he'd finished reading it, and looked at his brother. To his surprise, Sasuke was shaking badly and started to cry, and for some reason this affected him; he had seen many people cry before, and he had indeed been the cause many times, but now he panicked, and he couldn't do anything, so he stared at Sasuke and it happened then.

It broke, whatever it was that was inside him broke, and he felt some sort of pain. It was not Sasuke's pain; he was not empathetic. When the unnamable thing broke, his chest started to feel hot, and he said, "Sasuke."

His little brother covered his face with his hands, and Itachi stood up, walked around the table, and put his arms around Sasuke. Sasuke did not cry into his chest as he had expected him to; he had seen this before, situations in which someone would embrace a crying person, and the crying person most often turned to their companion and sought support. Sasuke tried to pull himself into a ball, and Itachi pulled Sasuke closer to him, realizing that he had nothing nice to say. He had never been in that situation before.

"Itachi…" Sasuke sobbed. "You looked! You're…you're so mean! Why did you look?"

Itachi tightned his arms around his brother, and said, "I'm sorry, Sasuke. I didn't know." He hugged Sasuke, who was unfamiliar with that kind of contact with anyone but his mother. Itachi turned his head to the side and looked at the book as Sasuke continued to cry.

"I'll teach it to you," he offered. Sasuke shook his head quickly.

Itachi pulled away from him and looked down at his little brother's miserable face. "Why not?"

"Dad--" Sasuke choked out, "—dad said I—I couldn't—disturb you…"

Itachi stared at him. He had never watched someone hold back tears before, and he found himself repeating, "Why not?"

"Because you're smarter than me."

That was not news to Itachi. As far as he knew, that was his relationship with everyone in the village; no one had told him otherwise, at least. So he narrowed his eyes and said, "Of course I am."

Sasuke started to sob again, and Itachi hugged him and whispered, "Sasuke, there isn't anyone in this village who's smarter than I am. Even Father."

His little brother quieted for a moment. "Even…Father?"

"Yes." This seemed to placate Sasuke, and Itachi inferred from this that their father had been hard on Sasuke, as hard as he had been on Itachi before he let Itachi have his independence when he'd mastered the Sharingan. "Yes, Sasuke, I'm much smarter than Father," he said.

Sasuke laughed, and Itachi let out the breath he'd been holding. "Really?"

Itachi pushed him away a little and smiled at him. It was the first smile that had graced his face for a long time, and he said, "Yes, of course, don't make me repeat myself."

His little brother crawled off his lap, and pulled the workbook back towards him. Itachi leaned over Sasuke and opened the book to the page he'd been on before, and he set his chin ever so lightly on the top of Sasuke's head as he re-read the question.

"So," Sasuke said, drying his eyes with his sleeve, "What am I supposed to do then?" he pointed to the question and picked up the pen he'd been using as Itachi explained it to him, and they worked question after question like that, only separating when their parents returned home. Itachi quickly returned to his spot and their father glanced at his sons sitting in the living room before walking over to them and looking over each of their shoulders. He simply nodded when he saw Itachi's report, and Itachi smiled to himself. His father hadn't realized that Itachi had only completed ten percent of the report.

Fugaku then looked over Sasuke's shoulder, and he nodded his approval again. As he left, though, he paused an looked at Sasuke's workbook, and Itachi watched as his little brother's shoulder stiffened and he sent a panicked look his way.

"You've shown improvement, Sasuke," Fugaku said. "I don't like the way you worded this part, though," he said, pointing to one of the answered Sasuke had copied.

Itachi had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. His little brother had copied what he'd said, to the word, and it wasn't good enough for his father. Itachi had never cared about that, though.

When their father left the room, Itachi began to write quickly, his elegant handwriting pouring out of the tip of his pen as if the ink was rushing to the place it had always known it belonged, as if it would have fallen just in that way without Itachi's effort, and he caught Sasuke smiling at him. When he turned his black eyes to Sasuke, though, his little brother shyly looked down and continued to work.

Their relationship had continued in this way for quite some time, with Sasuke seeking Itachi out for help when their father wasn't present, until Sasuke graduated from the academy. Their physical closeness had already ended by then, something Itachi knew came with age, so he began to show his affection by flicking his brother's forehead instead of through hugging him. The painful flicks also allowed Itachi to stop Sasuke from making mistakes without any words passing between the two of them, and Itachi knew that Sasuke could not distinguish the affectionate flicks from the warning ones.

Sasuke also stopped being his adorable little brother. He was popular at school, although, if Itachi had asked him, he would have learned that Sasuke did not have any actual friends. In fact, Sasuke had a slew of admirers, and one rival, but if anyone had asked Itachi he would have told them that Sasuke had many close friends, just like any normal teenager, because, when compared to his older brother Sasuke was just that: a normal teenager.

Despite their slight fallout, Itachi still cherished every second he could spend in his brother's presence, and he was quite sure that this feeling was mutual. There was still the matter of that burning in his chest, but Itachi knew better than to linger on that feeling.

He knew that he saw the world incorrectly in more than one way, so he tried to bury that burning and he turned all of his ambitions and desires into the wish to see Sasuke do well.

Though no one else knew it, Sasuke was Itachi's world, and Itachi would have done anything to help him, no matter how painful it may have been.

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What was important to him was getting this mission over with so that he could go back to the temple as quickly as possible. If his desires were fulfilled, he would be put in charge of Haku's Bloodline Limit training, and he would be allowed to do nothing else until the slave left the temple.

He eyed the young man's Master, who shrugged and told the official, "Whatever. I don't have any trouble splitting the mission."

Good, Itachi thought. I need to get back soon.

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They agreed to start the mission in three days. Once Zabuza had left him, Itachi found his own hotel room and changed quickly. It was summer, but snow had begun to fall, and Itachi needed to keep warm over the next few hours.

He exited the room soon afterward, and made the journey to the Yukitori clan property. Part of his mission involved watching the clan members, at least to a safe extent, so he used an invisibility jutsu and teleported himself to the inside of the compound.

The compound was full of small, run-down buildings. Most of these buildings were vacant, and Itachi found that there was very little noise in the compound. He traveled from building to building, wondering how many people could have still been alive.

A man dressed in navy crossed his path, but the clan member did not see or sense him, affirming Itachi's impression that these people were on the same level as wild animals. He continued walking in the direction the man had come from, and he found a building with lit-up windows.

Itachi looked in through one of the windows and he saw a family of five sitting around a fire. He made a note of the fact that every person in the room was over the age of twenty. The next house over was lit-up, too; he found a similar situation in this house.

Where are the children? He thought. Itachi walked around this house, and found that there were no other houses with lights on, before taking another look into the house.

This room was different; the sole occupant was a girl, a few years younger than Sasuke, with hair, eyes and skin the exact color of Haku's, and she seemed to be malnourished, at least at first inspection, for her abdomen was—

Itachi shook his head as he stepped back from the window. He made a note of the girl and her location before leaving the little compound.

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The days at the temple continued for Haku, and he realized, on his last morning with Team Seven, that he hadn't seen Sai for quite a while. The thought occurred to him as he jogged alongside Naruto on their morning run, and he spotted the tree Sai had been perched in when he had made that drawing of himself and Naruto.

Well, he thought, perhaps Sai became bored with insulting me.

His thoughts turned to the events that would occur that night, and he smiled to himself.

The day continued on; Sasuke worked with him, and Haku found that he had grown much more comfortable with taijutsu. Naruto and Sakura trained together that day, which pleased the scarred ninja greatly; he loved being allowed to pursue Sakura during their fight, though he let her win their fight. Sakura became somewhat enraged after a while, shouting at Naruto, "Just fight me for real, damn it!". Naruto responded by smiling smugly until his female teammate punched him in the face.

Sasuke's mood from the previous days had worn off, and Haku was glad for it. The black-haired ninja was completely focused on training him now, and he found himself enjoying their fight.

The day passed quite uneventfully until lunchtime. Naruto ran off first, and Sakura left quickly as well, saying that she had to do something for Tsunade. Haku continued his training with Sasuke until Sasuke threw him over his shoulder at one point, and Haku landed on his back. Instead of standing, he watched the clouds pass overhead and sighed.

Sasuke eyed him wearily. "I didn't break your back, did I?"

Haku sat up and shook his head. "No, I was just resting."

Sasuke sighed in relief. "It's quite, isn't it?" he asked. Haku nodded.

"Very peaceful."

To his surprise, Sasuke laid down next to him and put his arms behind his head, and Haku lay back down, staring at the clouds.

"Are you lonely?" Sasuke asked him.

There was no need to think about the question. "Yes."

"Do you miss your Master?"

Haku nodded. "It's embarrassing," he admitted, letting a slight blush grace his face.

"I know," Sasuke said. Haku turned to face him wondering if he was talking about Itachi, but Sasuke had sat up and his black eyes were focused on something else now.

Haku sat up too, and he found Sai standing in front of them, an evil grin playing on the effeminate ninja's lips.

"How long have you been here?" Sasuke growled at him, his face burning.

"So, you're lonely?" Sai asked Haku, his emotionless smile fighting to light up his blank face. "I wonder what that's like."

Haku could only stare at him. He wondered what Sai was thinking, what his next move would be. His mind raced, and he found several things Sai could say, but he wasn't sure of any of them, and they could have all been true, or all been false, and it would all be the same to Haku.

He continued to stare as Sai sat down in front of them. Sasuke had pulled himself up into a semi-squatting position, his hand on his thigh, ready to draw out a kunai or shuriken if need be.

Sai smiled straight at him, ignoring Sasuke. "What does that mean, really? Being lonely? Does it mean that you're the only person around? Because you're not…Sasuke is here…or can you be lonely with other people?"

Haku forced himself to calm down. Sai was inconsequential. When he left the temple, he would never have to see Sai again. Probably.

His eyes shot open in surprise when Sai touched his face and stared at him curiously, as if trying to memorize the look on his face. "I'm not very good at drawing faces. Do you know why?"

Haku's mouth went dry, but he forced himself to not flinch as Sai's hand lingered, and Sai's unblinking eyes bored into his, as if he could see him and dissect him like that; the entire analysis could be conducted through the eyes, all of the truth would come out, and he would be unraveled. So Haku forced his mask to his face, the mask his Master hated, and Sai pulled his hand away.

"Your expression is gone, Haku," Sai said softly. His smile didn't falter, but there was some kind of weird disappointment in his voice that Haku couldn't comprehend. "And here I thought you were going to help me learn about loneliness."

"I'm sorry," Haku said through his mask, "if I couldn't be of use to you, Sai."

"It can't be helped," Sai said. He laughed then, a childish laugh, but Haku's mask didn't falter, and Sai stood up, his shoulders shaking in mirth as Sasuke watched the strange exchange.

"It's funny, you know," Sai said when Haku made no indication that he cared about Sai's laughter, "that you would do that to yourself."

"Do what?" Haku asked softly.

Sai smiled, then wrapped his arms around himself as if he wanted to give himself a hug. "Pretend that you can't feel anything." Sai smiled wider, then he turned to Sasuke, who was waiting for him to make a move of some sort. "I thought there were only two kinds of people before I met you," Sai said to the side, speaking to Haku. "People like Sasuke, who can obviously feel emotions, even if they deny them." Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and Sai laughed again. "But there are other people, people like Itachi, who have honestly never felt anything, or if they have felt something, the feeling was very limited, and they may try to return to whatever caused it over and over."

"I think there are more than just two kinds of people in the world," Haku replied, not sure of what Sai was talking about but unable to bite back the words that came to him now, the same as before; the biting comments, the rudeness, the person he was used to being.

Sai contemplated this. "Well, it doesn't really matter, I guess," he said, opening his drawing pad.

This was what Sasuke had been waiting for. "Haku, go somewhere else," the Uchiha said as he stood and faced Sai.

Haku blinked at him. The mask had frozen itself on his face, and he found that he was not afraid of Sai, for some reason. "Why, Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned to him then, and he narrowed his eyes. "Go. He means business."

Sai waved a finger at him. "As much as I'd like to fight you, Sasuke, I've come here to fight Haku." He turned back to Haku and said, "Please stand, so we may begin."

Still numb, Haku pulled himself to his feet and faced Sai, smiling back at him.

"Haku!" Sasuke shouted at him. A look of worry had fallen across his face, and he stared at Haku and realized that something about him was gone, that Sai had gotten to him but instead of getting pissed or crying like most people, Haku had switched off something inside of himself and he looked like Sai now.

This seemed to please Sai. "Shall we begin?"

Sasuke stared at them helplessly as Sai's brush fell to the page.

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Naruto sat down next to his beloved Sakura at the lunch table, and he grinned as he looked over his tray. "The old lady's still serving the good stuff!" he said happily. Chouji seemed happy with the situation as well; his tray was loaded with desserts.

Ino scoffed when she sat down next to him. "Damn it all to hell, Chouji! You're going to get those twenty pounds back in no time!" The blonde young woman promptly stole three of Chouji's desserts and ran off with them.

Shikamaru glared at her back as he sat down next to Chouji, in the spot Ino usually sat. "Damned annoying girl," he said, "interfering in what's not her business."

Chouji smiled back at him. "I actually got a few extras because I hoped she'd eat them."

His lazy teammate stared at him as if he was insane, and excused himself from the table for a reason unknown to Chouji, who suddenly felt very alone without his best friend and his only female friend by him.

Hinata sat down next to Naruto, and he suddenly stood up, almost knocking the pale-eyed girl's tray down. "Someone's supposed to sit here!" he shouted, pointing at the seat.

She blushed and back away. "I s-s-sorry, N-Naruto…"

Naruto smacked his forehead. "That's not what I meant! You can sit here, but…" he frowned, and Hinata sat down again nervously as he remained standing. "…who is it…"

Shino stared at him as if he was the stupidest person ever born. He had recently returned from a mission with his father. "You're talking about Haku, right?"

The blonde young man clapped his hands together. "That's right! Come to think of it, where is he?" he asked Sakura.

She shrugged. "I haven't seen him since practice."

Naruto looked around at the other Chuunin sitting with him. "Have any of you guys seen Haku?"

His question was met with the shaking of many heads, and he frowned. Naruto thought of the possibilities, and his blue eyes widened suddenly as he came to one of the worse ones.

His former classmates stared as he ran from the dining hall without explanation.

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Iruka sighed as he walked around the temple halls. He pushed one of the doors leading to the training grounds in the center of the temple open with much more gusto than was required; he'd just had a kid sent to Shizune for stabbing himself in the foot with a kunai. The kid was fine, nothing a little healing technique and some pain reliever couldn't take care of, but Iruka knew he was going to catch a lot of shit over the next week and he found himself wondering how kids could be so STUPID.

He heard an odd sound then, and he looked at the lake in the center of the temple. Iruka's heartbeat quickened as he watched a training fight of some kind begin; he saw Sasuke, and the foreign student Haku, and one other person…

Iruka's heart stopped beating for a second, and he ran back into the temple to look for Danzou, or Tsunade, or both.

He knew the moment he saw Sai that this was no training fight.

Sai's primary role was that of an assassin.

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Notes:

For those of you who have not read the manga, Danzou is Sai's superior or something…not an original character. Not much spoilage here.

One more comment about OC's: Kiba's crush is not an original character. She is not a Mary Sue.