The morning came all too quickly for the boy, the smell of bacon waking him. He cracked his eyes open and let out a groan, squeezing them back shut as the light from the window hit them. He could hear the TV droning on in the living room, supplemented by Izumi's humming and the sizzling of a frying pan and chopsticks.
He sighed. Might as well get up now.
As he swung his legs over the side, he glanced at the clock, only to see that it was half an hour earlier than he was supposed to wake up. At first, he was annoyed - why on earth had he woken up when he'd been tossing and turning for two hours the night before? But then, he realized that it wasn't bad - sure, his body was still fighting exhaustion from his activities, and his brain was a little fuzzy this morning, but at least he could snag a moment to talk to Izumi about Danzo.
With that thought in mind, he pushed himself off the edge of the mattress and his feet hit the floor, and he was up and rummaging through his clothes.
He found an old band tee that Itachi had given him, some indie band that broke up like ten years ago, and some gray skinny jeans to match. He dressed quickly, wincing when his thumbs brushed a nasty bruise on his hips. He brushed through his unruly hair, ignoring the stubborn cowlick, and exited, heading for the kitchen.
Izumi was just setting up the table when he entered. She smiled cheerfully to him, chirping, "Good morning! My boss gave me the morning off, so we get to hang out a little before you leave for school!"
He nodded, sitting down at the table. "Ah, I see."
"So, what's new?" She clasped her hands together, cocking her head to the side. "Any new friends? Tests? What about that neighbor girl you always sit with... oh, what's her name...? Haruka...?"
"Haruno Sakura?" He offered.
"YES! Haruno Sakura!" She snapped her fingers in realization. "How is she these days?"
Sasuke shrugged his shoulders loosely. "Her cousin's still creepy," he mumbled into his glass of juice.
"Is she taking care of herself?" Izumi prodded gently, scooping some bacon onto her plate. "I feel so awful for the poor girl... losing her mother, not being able to see her father..."
The boy kept silent, listening to her ramble.
"... and that reminds me, I made her some dango," Izumi sheepishly grinned. "It's not my best attempt, but... I thought, since I- since she loves sweets..."
"You can say Itachi," Sasuke bluntly replied.
Izumi's entire body flinched back into her chair, and her eyes widened, stunned. "I- I don't... I mean,"
"Doesn't hurt much anymore," he huffed, his mood souring as he stared at his eggs. He poked them with a chopstick until the yolk broke and seeped slowly onto the bacon.
"I... I know, Sasuke," Izumi's voice grew quiet, "but it still hurts me."
"It's not like you were his family," he thought snidely to himself. "It's not like you were his best friend or something. Itachi was my brother. Mine."
Then the guilt began to seep in, just like the yolk of the egg making his bacon soggy. "... 'm sorry," he mumbled. The many nights he lingered in the hall at night, hearing her sob to herself in her room flashed through his head, and he felt even shittier. Of course Izumi loved him too. It felt foolish to compare them both. "I miss him."
"No no, it's fine, Sasuke." She said, too quickly. She smiled at him, though it didn't reach her eyes. "I miss him too."
The atmosphere was heavy now, and Sasuke cringed at the silence that hung between them. So many unspoken words, too many unshared feelings. He almost wished that Izumi had just gone into work this morning. Anything would beat the awkward tension weighing them both down now.
He swallowed a mouthful of bacon that felt drier than he would've liked. It scraped his throat uncomfortably, and he had to cough into his sleeve before reaching for the juice again. After a couple of good swallows of the sour liquid, he began, "I heard something concerning yesterday that I think you should know."
"What's wrong? What happened?" She was alert in an instant, worried eyes searching his intensely. "Are you hurt?"
"It's not about me, and it's not about Sakura," he preemptively explained. "It's actually about Danzo Shimura."
Izumi's chopsticks clattered noisily onto her plate as she gaped at him. "Head Police Chief Shimura? Whatever's the matter with him?"
"I have the feeling that something bad is going to be happening to him," Sasuke explained. "I overheard some thugs talking about abducting him while I was out and about yesterday."
Slowly, Izumi reached down for her chopsticks. Her eyes narrowed in thought, her lips drawing into a tight line. As much as she hated the man for the things that went down under his watch, she had to admit that nobody wanted anything overtly horrible to happen to him.
Sasuke watched intently as she went through mental gymnastics for a few minutes. Her nose scrunched up, she closed her eyes for a few moments, she sighed, and finally, she looked back up at him.
"... thank you for bringing that to my attention, Sasuke," she said. "I'll... see what I can do."
"You can't actually do anything, can you," he thought flatly. He wanted to say it out loud, but she looked stressed enough as it was. Danzo Shimura was not a man you ever wanted to fuck around with on a regular basis, not even if it was a matter of life and death. The man's very presence was able to scare the shit out of hardened police veterans. Hell, even his own father had been wary in the man's presence, and Fugaku Uchiha was a stone-cold man on the best of days. Not to mention that he was scarred horribly and often resorted to keeping much of his visible skin bandaged tightly every time he was seen in public. He was viscerally disturbing to look at, although he didn't look outright inhuman. Of course, his mind was another matter entirely, but he didn't want to think about that right now. Even one of the best interrogators of the age, Inoichi Yamanaka, famous for his ability to crack open even the worst of the worst, couldn't get into Danzo's head, and if that didn't speak volumes about the kind of - Sasuke hesitated to call him - man that Danzo was, then he didn't know what would.
Sasuke chose to remain silent, stuffing his mouth with more toast and hoping that she wouldn't ask any more questions. At this point, he didn't really think that he could stomach the thought of the creepy, disfigured man for a moment more.
After breakfast was over with, Izumi handed him two handmade lunches: one for him, one for Sakura. He took a wild guess that Izumi had included some extras for Naruto in his, as it felt much heavier than the girl's. He got his stuff together, finished getting ready, got a hug from Izumi (and a kiss to the temple for luck), and left.
He bumped into Sakura on the way, who was more disheveled than usual. Her hair was caught in a messy ponytail, her eyes were heavy-lidded, her sweater hung off of one shoulder (exposing some of the red shirt underneath), and she looked... sick.
"Oh, hey Sasuke," she mumbled, her chin bumping into his shoulder as she caught up to him. "How was last night? Get any good leads...?"
He put his hand up to grasp her shoulder, pushing her up. His eyes followed her movements concernedly. "You don't look so good. What the hell happened to you last night?"
She snorted. "Fuckin' Sasori and the others had a party at eleven PM, and I feel fuckin' fantastic." She pointed to her eyes. "Look at these! Look at these dark circles! Lemme tell ya, I used more foundation than I think I've used in the past week trying to hide these, and these bastards still pop out!"
He shook his head slowly. "Relax. Nobody's gonna care."
"You're one to talk, Mister Valedictorian," she muttered angrily with a huff, folding her arms across her chest. "You don't have to live with a damned hitman for hire all the time. At least Izumi's nice."
At her words, he paused. He forcibly stopped her in place, grabbing her shoulders and turning her so that her body faced his. She let out an unhappy noise in response, but he ignored her, searching her clammy skin intently. As usual, her face was smooth and, aside from the bursts of acne that cropped up in several spots, it was totally bruise-free. Her neck was clear of any spots too, and although he was concerned, he wasn't about to go lifting her sweater to get a peek of her torso. One, she'd slap him for it, and two, he was raised to be a better person than that. He wouldn't stoop to someone like Kiba Inuzuka's level, dammit! What would his mother say?
"You done?" She flatly asked when he stepped away. "He doesn't hit me, if that's what you're wondering."
"You never know with a guy like that," he replied with a shrug, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Oh, by the way, Izumi packed you lunch."
Sakura's foot hesitated mid-stride but she caught herself before she tripped, raising her eyebrows at him. "Really?"
"She made dango, and if I had to guess, you got a PB&J." He gestured with his chin towards his backpack. "I'll hand it to you once we get to school."
"Hot damn, Izumi's a lifesaver," she chortled quietly. "I couldn't find much to pack for lunch today, so I was gonna go buy something, but... this is way better than mystery meat for lunch."
He silently agreed with a shudder. Anything was better than mystery meat, even Naruto's sodium-loaded Cup-O-Noodles with extra sauce.
The two made their way down to the bus stop, where they settled into their usual spots. Sakura reclined against the back of the metal bench, tilting her head down towards her chest and closing her eyes to get in a tiny nap.
Sasuke sat on the opposite end of the bench, pulling out a black notebook and flipping to an open page in the middle. He decided to write down all of the clues he came across.
" September 2, Tuesday:
-Warehouse on North End, near Blumhill's Clothing
-Roughly male voices, two or three of them
-Plan to take Danzo Shimura hostage?"
He underlined the third bullet point and let out a quiet hum. What had they meant by 'not a hard catch'? Danzo Shimura was one of, if not the, worst people Sasuke had ever met. Rumors spread all across the city, nay, the state, of the undercover operations that he'd been allegedly a part of. Plots to forcibly boot the governor out of office, hit jobs, drug smuggling... you name it, and there was probably an accusation that Shimura had done it. Luckily for the man, none of the accusations of him ever held much merit, as either they were silly smear campaigns, or the perpetrators of the rumor eventually denounced it as fake news. One had to wonder, though; of those who denounced their own rumors, what had made them do it?
Each one had gone live on the news denouncing their claims and admitting that they were at fault for any damage to Danzo's reputation. Each one, no matter the age nor gender, looked vaguely nervous about being on camera for the country to see. Every time Sasuke listened to an interview like that, he always wondered about the possibility that the denouncers had been forced to humble themselves like that.
He shook his head and shut the notebook, seeing the bus coming out of the corner of his eye. He nudged Sakura awake, slipped on the backpack, and stood. Sakura followed suit and rubbed at one of her tired eyes, stifling a yawn in the sleeve of her sweater. It must've been Sasori's, as he detected a faint whiff of men's cologne that he oftentimes picked up from the redhead. Luckily, this time she didn't stink of weed.
They boarded the bus with only minor heckling, and once they got moving, Sakura rested her head on his shoulder. Sasuke let her doze, ignoring her presence as he continued to contemplate the conversation he'd overheard the night before.
As soon as they got to school, they parted ways. Sasuke handed her the bagged lunch, and she'd taken it happily, walking off to her locker with more of a spring in her step than usual, despite her shaky appearance.
Naruto had walked up and slung an arm around his shoulder with a grin. "Hey-O, Sasuke! How's your morning, best buddy?"
Sasuke let out a breath from his nose. "What is it this time, Naruto?"
"Wha- hey now, aren't I your best friend?" The blond gasped in offense, placing a hand over his heart. "Can't I greet you first thing in the morning?"
"Usually when you call me 'Sasuke' and not 'Bastard' or something else, it means you want a favor," he bluntly replied, raising an eyebrow. "What do you want this time?"
To his credit, Naruto managed to look affronted for all of five seconds before sheepishly grinning at the black-haired boy, crossing his arms behind his head. "Eheheh... you see right through me, as always... I kinda need the notes for History, 'cause I forgot to study last night."
"Why don't you just write your own notes, loser?" Sasuke exasperatedly asked, rummaging through his backpack for the history notebook.
"I could, but you're so much more detailed than I am," Naruto defended. "And besides, I can't just ask Sakura-chan. She's scary when I forget."
"Sakura's not gonna throttle you that badly for asking to borrow her history notes," the boy replied with another sigh, handing the blond his notebook. "The last time I saw her punch someone was when Kiba tried to look down her shirt in gym last month. And he deserved it."
"Still, why her when I can ask you?" Naruto grinned appreciatively at him, clapping him on the back as soon as he zipped up the backpack again. "Thanks, dude! I'll have 'em back to you by lunch."
"Those are my only notes, so you'd better," he halfheartedly threatened, bumping Naruto's shoulder with his. "See you in English."