Silver Lining – Chapter Three

It had been about a month now that Itachi took in the little girl Mara. In that time she'd legally become his daughter and Heir when the time came. They had also moved to their own home. Mara enjoyed it, especially having her own room. Though some nights she still crawled into Itachi's bed out of habit. He didn't mind though, his only issue was that he would wake up some nights from nightmares.

Being startled from it he moved the bed, but Mara stayed sound asleep as if nothing had happened. It was the same nightmare he had that first day they had met. Itachi ran his fingers through his hair and the thought to cut it short was running through his mind. It would be logical the summer season was soon approaching. As gently as possible Itachi got out of the bed so he could get ready for the day.

First he'd take a cold shower, waking up in a sweat was always the worst. After he dressed comfortably so as to meditate. When he walked back in to the room Mara was starting to stir in the bed. This signaled she was starting to wake up, it was like clock work now. She always joined him in meditation a moment or two after he started.

Once done Itachi would send Mara to dress for the day while he made a light breakfast. Mara came back out shortly still looking sleepy.

"Time to be awake sleepy head."

"Daddy?"

"Hmm,"

"Why can't grandma come here to watch me?"

"Well she needs to be at the main house in case a Clansmen needs something."

"But all of my things are here. Can't we just sometimes stay here?"

Itachi was taken aback for a moment after hearing Mara. He figured that at some point she may not want to always leave their home and she was too young to send to the Academy, if he even did that.

"Why don't I talk to her later, okay. For now let's finish breakfast so I can drop you off at the main house."

"Okay."

She dropped the subject and finished the food on her plate. Itachi was great full she wasn't a picky eater and pretty much ate everything in her line of sight. Honestly for a five year old he thought she would be pickier or give more push back on doing things. Yet that wasn't the case with Mara. She always said yes to the things Itachi asked her to do, like put her things away or pass him the dirty dishes so he could wash them. She also seemed to be a very happy child, despite what she had gone through not but a month before, she adapted to the new life she'd been given. Itachi had been fully prepared to adjust for her and what she needed of him, but they were able to sync with each other almost perfectly. He chalked it up to her still being very young and impressionable on the things to do. Mara did have her moments though, she still wanted to sleep in his bed most nights, or she would fight with him to leave his parents home especially if she was already asleep when he came to pick her up. She did not like been woken up, and unfortunately Itachi still had not learned his lesson on this.

After eating Mara sat in the living room with some of her toys while Itachi finished getting ready to head out for ANBU HQ. He still had a desk full of paperwork to get through plus missions to distribute for the end of the week. Though he hadn't taken any missions himself since that last one he felt bad about all the solo missions he had to assign. Those he typically completed on his own. Normally pulling two or three at a time, now he just sat in his office and went to the training room for a bit before heading home. Itachi was starting to feel antsy about being in the Village for so long. Maybe it was time he got Mara a proper nanny, someone who would devote all their time to her. Not that his mother or even his father minded having Mara around, they loved it and enjoyed every moment she was with them. On Wednesday's Fugaku would have her sit in on his weekly open meetings he held for all Clans men and their issues, if there were any, Mara enjoyed as did some of the Clans men. They came to see that their normally stone faced looking leader actual had a heart and was very sweet to his granddaughter openly. But he knew it would be hard to take away missions and leave her with them. They both had their own duties to the Clan and the Village. Honestly this was something he needed advice from his parents on.

"Okay,"

Itachi came down to Mara's level to speak with her before they went into his childhood home.

"I'm not going to work late today. So I'll be back in time for dinner. But there is something I want to tell you before we go in."

Mara nodded her head at him.

"My brother Sasuke is back in the Village and he does live here so today you get to meet him."

"Is he nice, like you?"

"Yes, he will be very nice. But what I want to talk to you about is that he is missing an arm. I don't want you to be scared to be around him because of it."

"Did he get hurt really bad?"

"He did, he was in a battle when it happened."

She didn't need to know the full details, though he was sure someday she would be brave enough to ask, if that day was not today. The girl just didn't seem to grasp the concept of fear and she voiced her opinion about things very openly. Itachi never stopped her from doing so, he figured this was her way of understanding and adjusting to new things. Maybe it was because she was surrounded by adults and not other children.

"I wont be scared, I promise."

"Alright, let's go in."

Itachi opened the front door and before the pair went any further they removed their shoes. Mara dropped her backpack just past the inside before running off to find Mikoto. It was Friday so she would have the full attention of both Itachi's parents. As he was making his way to the kitchen he knew his parents and child were in Sasuke came down the hall.

"Aniki."

"Hmm, ah Sasuke. How was your mission?"

"It was fine. Lasted longer than I wanted but successful. Naruto and I were going to come by later to see if you had anything for us."

"Okay, I probably have a few the two of you can choose from."

"Great. So I talked to mom."

"She told you whats going on."

"Yup."

Sasuke put his hand on Itachi's shoulder, from this the older brother was starting to notice Sasuke may be just a bit taller than him now.

"Not only are you a horrible brother and son, now you're a horrible father. You're worse than our own father. You're worse than Naruto's fa…"

"I get it, I get it. I had no choice for it to have been that way."

"Actually you did have a choice and you really can't use that excuse anymore. I've been hearing it since I was nine."

"I am trying to make up for my mistakes."

"I know, but do you have enough closets to keep the worst of them hidden."

"Only time will tell."

"For her sake I do hope the worst of them stay hidden."

Sasuke walked away and head to the kitchen with Itachi following behind. Upon entering the kitchen they saw that Mara was already seated next to their father and was being handed her second breakfast. Despite that Itachi had already fed her she would always ask for some of what Fugaku was eating that morning as well. Itachi had tried to reason with his parents that she was eating too much, but they did not listen. This was something Itachi already had notated to ask her doctor at her check-up appointment next week.

"Father, Mother."

Itachi greeted both of his parents before taking a seat on the other side of Fugaku. Sasuke took his seat next to his brother, at this point Mara had now noticed him.

"Hi,"

Came her little voice.

"Hello."

Sasuke replied to her.

"I'm Mara, are you daddy's brother."

"I am, my name is Sasuke. It's nice to meet you Mara."

"It's nice to meet you too."

Mara went back to eating her second helping of breakfast after confirming the new person at the table was the man her father had talked to her about. To her he seemed nice enough and was almost identical to Itachi.

Itachi did not stay too long at his parents home as he did need to go to work. And Sasuke left shortly after him. It was around noon when he sensed Sasuke and Naruto coming down the hall to his office. Their signatures were so familiar to him since even when he was estranged from the Village he kept a close eye on them both. Sasuke because he was his baby brother and Naruto because he knew who his parents were and knew there could be others who had this information as well.

"Itachi-Nii, Sasuke-teme says you have a daughter."

"It's good to see you too Naruto and yes I do have a daughter her name is Mara."

"Seriously we were gone for like three months and you go have a kid."

"I already had her as she is five years old."

"Um that math ain't mathing for me."

"She was kept a secret dumbass, I already told you that."

"Right, right. So where's her mom?"

"She has already passed, that is why I have brought Mara out into the open and to live with me."

"That's sad, sorry for asking."

"It's fine Naruto."

Itachi reached for the small stack of papers on his desk.

"These are the few mission I have set aside for you two. Is Sakura going to need any missions?"

"She is taking some time off."

This came from Sasuke in a end of discussion kind of tone. Since the two had officially come out as a couple Itachi noticed his little brother had become very protective of his pinked haired other half. He tried everything to prevent her from going on solo missions. And it wasn't because he didn't trust in her abilities, he truly did. He and Naruto experienced it first hand after healing from their fight during the war. She beat them both right back into the hospital. Itachi had been one of the few who agreed completely with her decision to do two boys were stupid to go so far as to practically fight each other to the death after already winning the war, there had been no point in it.

But Sasuke was in love, anyone could see that. Regardless of all his flaws Sakura still accepted him. Now she did not make it easy for Sasuke to gain her favor again, and the chase of having her only made him try even harder. For Naruto it was another story, Hinata had agreed to their relationship before he'd finished asking. Itachi was very happy the two boys found what gave them a reason to always come back home.

"I will put a few aside just in case. Have either of you heard of Yoite Sarutobi?"

Naruto had a dumbfounded look on his face but it was Sasuke who answered.

"That's Konohamaru's sister. She used to work at the Academy like three years ago as a Daycare teacher."

"How do you know that?"

Naruto asked.

"I listen when the kid talks. According to what Shino told us she quit after finding her fiancé and best friend screwing in her classroom."

"That's gross."

"Yea, and this chick is still a teacher at the Academy. Shino said all that happened to her was she got suspended without pay for a few months, while Yoite had her life ruined and quit. Her ex-fiancé is a Chuunin level who only takes C-ranked missions. How do you know her?"

"She and I had been classmates in the Academy. I ran into her at a café that has become one of Mara's favorite places to go."

"I didn't know she quit being a Shinobi too. Konohamaru said she inherited the Third Hokage's summoning. Also we'll take all of these Aniki."

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

"Captain,I have the mission reports for teams 3, 5 and 9."

The ANBU clad Shinobi walked in. He saw Naruto and Sasuke and bowed to them respectfully. Naruto nodded his head while Sasuke gave his own small bow. The Shinobi walked to Itachi's desk and handed him the scroll reports.

"Thank you Otter. Please let these teams know to stay on standby for the next week."

"Yes Sir."

The masked man left the room with a bow and closed the door behind him.

"We should get going too. Yoite's mom is one of mom's friends by the way. Come one Naruto."

As they walked out Naruto spoke/yelled at Sasuke.

"How do you know all of this?"

"You should really listen to when people talk aside from getting black out drunk."

Itachi could hear them grumbling all the way to the end of the hall. Deciding to take a break from look at paperwork, Itachi logged into his computer that held the Shinobi roster for the Village. Kakashi was adamant about upgrading their use of technology and trying to include it more within the everyday life of all the citizen of Konoha. He typed in Yoite's name in the search bar and wondered why he hadn't done this sooner. Her profile picture came to view. Her blue eyes and nice smile were pleasant to look at, though in the picture her hair was much shorter than it was now. She was ranked as a Specialty Jounin due to her ability to summon via contract. It listed what mission ranks she took on and how many of each. Almost every one of them had been successful. But he did notice she didn't take solo missions and the last time she took an A-ranked mission had been right before the war. Next to her status it said she was still active duty he also noticed the last mission she took was six months ago and it was D-ranked.

Looking at her picture from what he assumed was a few years ago compared to how she looked now, Itachi could not see why any man would cheat on her. This ex-fiancé of hers must have had brain damage or something to have caused him to cheat. Itachi didn't have the man's name so he couldn't look into him as well or the so called friend. He could call in Konohamaru in the guise of having a mission for him to get more information. But Itachi also didn't want to pry into someone's personal life when he hardly knew them. Yes they had been classmates but that was years ago an it was only for a few months. No, no he should stop where he was. The ANBU Commander was being very nosy at this point and if he kept going he might learn things he should not. So he turned off the computer and went back to doing paperwork.