up, up, up
083. snapshot
"E-Excuse me, Sasuke-kun's brother…" Itachi looked down to see a little girl, no older than his younger brother. "Can you help me get that kite down?"
He glanced up at the pink kite hidden in the leaves of the tree above him. Without much thought, he walked up the tree with chakra carefully laced on the bottom of his feet until he reached it. Plucking the kite from its spot, he turned around and walked back down, handing it to the gaping girl.
"Y-You can walk up trees!" she exclaimed, clearly surprised.
He raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I can."
"Can you teach me? Then I can always get my kites!"
At her age, she should already be training to enter the academy, he mused. Unless she was just a mere civilian and her parents never told her about shinobi.
"It's not something I can just teach," he explained patiently, the way he did with Sasuke. The girl seemed to tear up a little.
"But I want to know how…"
"If you want to climb up trees, go learn to be a shinobi." A faint smile graced his lips as he knelt down and ruffled her hair a little. Her bright eyes were obscured by her bangs; it really was a waste to have them hidden. "Then, when you've learned, you can show me."
The girl beamed. "Thanks, Sasuke-kun's brother! I'll be the greatest kunoichi in the world, and then I'll climb the highest tree ever!"
His expression softened, and he wished he could smile brightly like the way she did. "I'll wait for that day."
x
The night of the Uchiha massacre, he was a little disappointed, knowing that he wouldn't see that pink-haired girl walk up a tree.
x
The first thought that crossed his mind was how she matured.
Her bangs weren't messy anymore. They didn't cover those bright eyes—those bright eyes that sparkled with fear at the very sight of him. He even noticed how her forehead was strangely out of proportion. Was that natural?
Throughout the fight, he did not make contact with her at all. He ignored the disappointment.
(Somehow, everything that had to do with her made him disappointed. He didn't know why.)
x
She killed Sasori, he heard.
He smirked. Obviously, she could do more than climb trees, now.
x
"I hate you," she seethed. "I hate you."
"Most people feel that way about me," he told her, voice lilting. He liked the way such simple words could make her furious. The little girl he saved the kite for was no longer there. It would be a surprise if she even remembered that encounter.
"What you did to Sasuke…" With a heel to the ground, the earth fissured.
With a blur, he appeared behind her. When she looked back at him with a scowl, he pulled her into a genjutsu.
One made specially for her.
x
Itachi didn't remember things in long scenes. He remembered them in moments. In snapshots.
It wasn't what happened that was important. It was the second and the moment that shaped him into who he was—what he was today.
He remembered the moment she promised to show him when she could walk up a tree. He remembered how he felt when he heard how she had matured. He remembered how he felt when he saw the results of that maturation.
He remembered the moment he kissed this mature woman who could walk up trees, smash boulders with a flick of the finger, rip muscles and break bones at one brush of her hand. When he pulled away from her, the genjutsu had melted away, but she didn't seem to notice.
She fell to the ground, sobbing.
Just like that little girl who couldn't walk up trees.
There was that disappointment again.
x
Eventually, she would be able to look at him and smile. Although it'd be a melancholy smile, it'd still be a smile.
Those would be the moments he'd take care to remember the most—for when he finally went blind, his mind would be a camera, and behind his eyelids, he would see the snapshots of their relationship, from beginning to end and beyond and beyond and beyond that.
A/N: You see, I'd update more often if I didn't forget this had to be updated. It's not my fault. Really.
I actually think this one's kind of weird. Sorry.