Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything aside from a few OCs.
Warnings: same as in previous chapters. SPOILERS for Naruto and Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler!
Zeref (Guest):
Okay, I fixed Kagura's attack—you were right about that, I guess I just didn't notice. About Yukino, however…while we already knew that Yukino had Libra from the carnival chapter (and from watching or reading the series), Yukino only interacted with Romeo during that chapter, and not only does he probably not recognize her, but I doubt it came up, so it's still new information for them. Don't go breaking the fourth wall. ;)
Enjoy!
In the stands, two middle-aged women watched as the Fairy Tail dominated the competition.
"Charlotte chose her guild well." The woman with long, straight plum-red hair said approvingly, hazel eyes unadorned by the large, thick glasses that she used to wear during her time as a maid in the Phantomhive household.
"Oh, yes!" Lady Elizabeth Midford, agreed cheerfully, her long blonde hair bouncing slightly. "I'm a bit disappointed that she hasn't had the chance to participate yet…but hopefully she won't be chosen for one of the battle rounds. They seem rather dangerous and intense."
"Says one of the premier swordswomen in England." Mey-Rin said dryly, looking at her employer, who flushed slightly at the praise. The noblewoman might not look like it, but she was very talented with a blade.
And 'intense' was an understatement when the blonde had cause to draw the two rapiers she carried with her at all times.
"Don't worry." The former assassin and mercenary continued. "We've taught her well."
Elizabeth, known to Mey-Rin as Lizzy, smiled softly. "Yes…she'll be fine."
She made a mental note to find a good time for them to visit with her daughter.
Sasuke stared at his older brother in shock.
He hadn't realized that Itachi knew he was here, or if he had, that he would come to talk to him during the gap between the battle rounds and the second event.
But looking into his brother's eyes, he sensed that there was something off.
His suspicions were confirmed at the words that came out of his brother's mouth.
"I don't really know who you are." Itachi said bluntly. "I lost my memories some time ago. But I was told by a comrade of mine, whose unique brand of magic is so accurate that he can practically hear people's thoughts, that you have a connection of some kind to me."
Sasuke stared at him, mouth slightly open.
"I…I don't really know what to say." Sasuke admitted. "It—everything's rather complicated. And there's a lot that you'll be better off not knowing. My name is Sasuke, though."
Itachi hummed, acknowledging the point. "You look a lot like me. Why is that?"
He winced slightly. "Are you sure you want to know?"
Itachi hesitated uncharacteristically. "…did I sire you?"
Sasuke's mouth dropped open in shock. "Of course not! We're not even six years apart!"
His brother's eyes lit up. "So you know how old I am?"
"Twenty-eight." Sasuke replied automatically. "Last December."
Itachi's lips quirked slightly. "That was rather quick. You must know—must have known me well."
"Not exactly…" Sasuke hedged. "I did, but then we spent a rather long time apart, and during the subsequent times we met…well, they weren't exactly suitable for catching up."
His brother frowned slightly, contemplating what he had just been told. He was far too intelligent not to have realized by now who Sasuke was to him.
What had separated him from his younger brother?
"Our parents?" he asked.
Sasuke's lips quirked at the acknowledgement of their own blood connection. "They've been dead for over a decade."
"How?" Itachi urged.
That was one of the most difficult questions Sasuke had ever been asked.
"Circumstances…" he sighed. "The entirety of our clan was massacred when I was seven ('I would have been about thirteen.' Itachi realized), besides us and one other person, who is now dead. The one behind it is also dead, a traitor to Konoha, the village we grew up in. Apparently a majority of our clan was plotting to overthrow the Kage, our leader, at the time, and the traitor decided to overstep his authority and order their deaths without approval. The one who had been assigned to kill them all was heavily blackmailed into doing so, and was unable to go against the order unless the person wanted the person who…they cared about the most…to be killed in our clan's place."
Sasuke was careful not to say or hint at it, but Itachi made the logical leap when he saw the raw emotion in his younger brother's eyes, and realized the truth.
The man who had committed the act, even if he was just following orders…was him. Because they had threatened the very boy telling him the story.
When he was barely a teenager.
Maybe Sasuke was right. Maybe he shouldn't try to remember.
"Right." Itachi forcibly held back the vomit that was threatening to make an appearance. "And the man who had been blackmailed?"
Sasuke frowned. He hadn't specified which gender the person who had massacred their clan was.
Then again, Itachi had been praised as a genius and a prodigy. It made sense that he would put at least some of the story together.
"The man wasn't able to stay in Konoha, because…someone witnessed him doing it." Sasuke answered, a slightly blank look in his eyes. "He became a missing-nin, leaving Konoha, and eventually joined a group called the Akatsuki, who were led by that surviving relative I mentioned earlier. He'd gone off the deep end a long time ago, and wanted to unite the world under a Genjutsu—a world-wide illusion—to create peace."
Itachi frowned. "It's not peace if it's only an illusion."
"No." Sasuke agreed. "That's why he stopped him. Of course, he was also trying to kill Na—um, a group of nine individuals who possessed the power to make his goal a reality."
"You had a personal stake." Itachi gave him a tiny smile. "The blonde?"
Sasuke flushed slightly, grunting slightly in agreement.
"Do I need to take him aside and have a little talk with him?" Itachi asked, smile turning into a slight smirk.
Sasuke stared at his brother carefully.
Itachi, making a joke?
…That guild he'd joined, Fairy Tail, had apparently been good for him, if he was starting to show emotion again. He'd thought that that part of his brother had been lost because of what he'd been forced to do.
Then again…maybe it had.
Was Itachi only acting like this because he had lost his memory?
Even if he had figured out that he was the man Sasuke had talked about, knowing it was not the same as remembering it.
Sasuke gave a mental sigh.
He couldn't in good conscious ask Itachi to return with him now, could he? Not when he didn't even have his memory, and much less when he was doing better than Sasuke had seen him even before that horrible night.
"So…" he said awkwardly. "A mage guild, huh?"
Itachi seemed to read the change in mood, and the resignation in Sasuke's eyes.
"Yes. One of them found me unconscious in a forest and brought me back to the guild." He said slowly. "One of them knows a form of magic that includes healing. Apparently I had some sort of chronic illness or disease."
He was careful not to give out the young healer's name, a habit from his years as a ninja. Never give out more information than was necessary, especially when it could be used against you—or in this case Wendy—at some point.
Not that he thought these ninja would give them trouble, if Sasuke's partner was their leader. The blonde had been introduced at the beginning of the Games, along with the other important 'ambassadors,' and the blonde didn't seem the type to start a war without reason.
"Your eyes." Sasuke said immediately, showing his Sharingan by instinct and brining Itachi out of his thoughts. "They used to bleed when you used your dōjutsu for too long."
Itachi nodded, accepting the explanation, since he hadn't known what had caused it. Maybe the tear troughs under his eyes had been created by the 'blood tears.' "As far as I know that is no longer an issue."
"Good." Sasuke said quietly. "That…I don't know what was wrong, but that wasn't normal."
After that, the two awkwardly spoke for another twenty minutes or so as Itachi asked a few questions, and Sasuke asked a few about life in Fiore in return.
Itachi learned that his parents' names were Fugaku and Mikoto, and that he had had a rather strained relationship with the former, not liking that the man had more or less ignored Sasuke and instead focused solely on Itachi, and that both he and Sasuke were much closer to their mother, who had been kind and understanding, as well as talented, strong, and had loved her children unconditionally.
And yet she had still been one of his victims.
…It was a hard pill to swallow.
Other than that, Itachi had been close to one other person—their cousin, Shisui. He hadn't been one of Itachi's victims, but there was a possibility that he might have been if he hadn't committed suicide right in front of him shortly before then. That event, not being able to stop him and therefore blaming himself for Shisui's death, had given Itachi an evolved form of the Uchiha dōjutsu called the Mangekyo Sharingan, far more powerful than the usual form, and one that Sasuke curiously had as well.
He knew better than to ask how he had gotten it, not knowing that it was because Sasuke had blamed himself for Itachi's supposed death.
It was all so convoluted.
Once they had said their awkward goodbyes, complete with promises to stay in contact and for Sasuke to send books and scrolls over to Itachi, the two stepped away from each other, and the older of the two began to head out.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he saw his brother pause for a moment in the doorway.
"Did I…do you know if I…" Itachi trailed off before trying again. "Did I have a lover?"
There. The question he'd been trying to build up the…courage (?) to ask.
Sasuke's dark eyes softened ever so softly. "No, I'm relatively certain you didn't. No kids, either, as far as I'm aware."
Itachi nodded awkwardly. "Well…if any do turn up, send them my way. If that's the case, I'm sure I'll have a lot to make up for."
Sasuke smirked. "I'll be sure to do that."
The thought of Itachi as a father chilled Itachi himself to the bone, but Sasuke had a feeling that he would make a good one. When the time came, at least.
He'd certainly been a good older brother up until the massacre, being Sasuke's absolute favorite person in the world even if Sasuke had had mixed feelings because of their father's blatant favoritism.
*Meanwhile*
"Er, mom…" Ryder began, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "We…well, Jack, Toothless, and I kind of have to get back…"
"Back?" Valka wondered with an odd look in her eyes. "Back to where? Berk? Nonsense. You and Toothless will be killed."
"No, not Berk." Jack shook his head, turning to the woman who was just as small and petite as he was. "We're members of a magic guild in the kingdom of Fiore."
Had that really not come up earlier?
Guess they'd been sidetracked by the discovery that Ryder and Valka were related.
"We were in Fiore when you…" Ryder trailed off. "Picked us up."
Valka winced slightly. "Kidnapped, you mean."
"Yeah." Jack admitted, shrugging as his boyfriend gave him a slight glare.
Why sugarcoat it? It's not like Valka had known it was Ryder—or Hiccup—behind that mask, and it's not like she had a right to take people captive whenever she felt like it, much less just because one of them was riding a wyvern and she was curious.
Then again, living away from human civilization for the last twenty years probably had something to do with that.
"But…" Valka said quietly. "You could stay here. I-if you want…"
Ryder gave Jack and Toothless a helpless look, and Jack took the hint.
"Well, they have no idea where we are, and we were patrolling when you took us." Jack explained. "So if absolutely nothing else we need to go back to tell them that we're alright, otherwise I'm sure they'll track us down. And you wanted to keep this place a secret, right?"
Valka nodded firmly.
The thought of so many people in the Bewilderbeast's nest didn't settle too well with her.
"In fact…" Ryder realized, biting his lip worriedly. "They've probably already started looking for us. I think Raven mentioned a tracking spell…"
Jack and Valka's eyes widened.
"We need to get back." Jack agreed, before turning to Valka. "You're welcome to come with us, but…well, the Hairy Hooligan tribe is participating in the Games. Losing pretty badly, too, from what we saw one day one."
Ryder rolled his eyes at the vindictive pleasure in his boyfriend's eyes before glancing at his mom. "It's your decision."
Valka looked straight at him with eyes the same shade as his own. "Cloudjumper and I will come."
The Stormcutter wyvern reared up behind her, wings flapping rapidly in agreement.
'After all,' Valka thought to herself darkly. 'I need to beat some sense into Stoick. Trying to kill our son because he dares to see things differently…will he try to kill me as well when he realizes why I stayed away?'
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