Hi folks! Sorry for the delay in updating. I finally got a job at the hospital I wanted to work at (I'm a phlebotomist) and it's nightshift (2am-1030am) so I've been busy trying to get my sleeping schedule on some form of a decent track. So I haven't had a lot of time to write, seeing as now for some reason I can only sleep up to 5 hours at a time so I'm now sleeping twice a day. But I'll be back to my regular updating once I get all the kinks worked out. Until then, enjoy some cute Itachi and Sasori moments. Sorry for the short chapter as well!
Itachi closed his eyes. He couldn't focus on the characters in front of him anymore, they were blurry and seemed to be moving; plus, the back of his head was pounding from the eyestrain. He sat back, sighing. This was almost as bad as using the Mangekyou. It also didn't help he'd been tasked with this immediately following a mission where he'd been forced to use his Sharingan. The strain on his eyes was really starting to take a toll.
"Itachi?" He'd already felt Kisame's immense chakra come near before he heard his voice. He didn't bother opening his eyes, keeping his back to his partner.
"Hey, Kisame."
The taller man entered the room, coming to look over the Uchiha's shoulder at the pile of scrolls in front of him. "I brought some tea." He set the cup down and Itachi opened an eye. "How's the search going?"
"It's going well. I think I have an idea on how to undo the jutsu, but I still have some more uncovering to do." He picked up the mug and took a sip from it, finally turning to look at his companion, nodding his appreciation. "It shouldn't take more than a week."
"Aw, what a shame, I'm going to miss the big event." Kisame smirked. "I'm leaving later tonight to the Mist. I'll probably be gone around two weeks, maybe more."
"What a shame." Itachi let the ghost of a smile creep onto his face before taking another sip of tea.
"You shouldn't strain your eyes so much, Itachi. You don't want to ruin them too soon." With a final smirk, the more muscular of the two turned and walked out the door. Itachi closed his eyes again, finishing the rest of the tea in a few swallows before pushing away from his desk. He really did need to take a break, at least until he could see clearly again. Konan had already been by to tell him that Pein did not expected him to work continuously on the scroll. Kisame's concern had given him the final push to quit for a bit.
He ventured out into the living room, noticing how quiet and peaceful it seemed. He'd been stuck inside his room for far too long. With a content sigh, he sat down on one of the couches, leaning his head back.
"Oh, look, you're alive after all, hm," Deidara teased as he walked through the room on his way to the kitchen. "I'm not trying to sound like a broken record here, so I won't ask how the work's coming along. But…can you give me a time-"
"Maybe a week or so," Itachi interrupted, massaging his temples in an attempt to alleviate the pain coming from his eyes. "How's Sasori?"
Deidara studied the Sharingan-user, noticing how weary he was. "He's faring a lot better than you, it seems. He's down for a nap right now. I'm taking a break while I can. Hm."
Remembering some details he'd uncovered from the scroll, Itachi asked, "Has he talked about any childhood memories? It's no secret his parents were killed when he was young, but has he talked about anything other than that?"
"Well, actually, he still thinks his parents are alive," Deidara answered slowly. "He won't stop talking about them, he thinks they're still away on a mission, hm...why?"
Itachi ignored him as he processed this information. After a while, he stood up, determined to go back and continue analyzing the scroll. However, the sudden movement only gave him another pounding headache that had him collapsing back on the couch, clutching his head in pain.
"You Uchiha sure are stubborn, why don't you take it easy, hm?" Deidara smirked. "Whatever epiphany you've just had can wait until after you've recuperated a bit. We don't need another member out of commission."
Instead of arguing with the blond, Itachi decided, mostly because of how much pain he was in, that he would let Deidara's snide remarks go. He leaned his head back again, trying not to let the damned bomber see him so affected by a simple migraine.
The blond disappeared into the kitchen to make something to eat, still never really liking to be around Itachi for even short periods of time. He settled on making ramen and ate it slowly at the kitchen table, enjoying his free time while he could. It was disappointing that he couldn't take Sasori outside anymore – the whole reason he even performed the jutsu in the first place was for the impatient puppet to have some fun for once.
Ah, well. He'd find some other way to entertain the red head until they reversed the jutsu. Now that Itachi had a date set, Deidara didn't feel as stressed about the whole situation.
Sasori woke up shortly after Deidara finished eating, rubbing his eyes as he stumbled into the kitchen. The blond made him a bowl of ramen and set it in front of the groggy child. "Have a nice nap?"
Sasori nodded, perking up a bit at the sight of the ramen. "Yeah." He ate the soup noisily, spilling half of the broth onto his cloak by the time he'd finished eating. "I made a mess."
"Yeah you did, hm." Deidara pulled the cloak off the child, using it to soak up the ramen that the kid had also spilled on the table. Sasori giggled as he watched, swinging his legs. "What's so funny, huh?"
"My shirt's not a rag, silly." The red head hopped out of his chair and did a quick circle around Deidara before running into the living room. Deidara rolled his eyes, continuing his cleanup.
Sasori, upon seeing Itachi resting on the couch, climbed up onto it. "Are you sleeping?" he whispered, leaning in close to the raven's face.
"Just resting," Itachi half-whispered back, unmoving.
"Oh." Sasori sat back on the couch, thinking for a bit before leaning up against Itachi's side. "I want to rest, too. Even though I just took a nap."
"Okay." Itachi yawned.
The red head snuggled up against him. "When we're done with our resting, will you play a game with me?" Itachi opened an eye, looking down at the child. "Pleeease?"
Oh, what the hell. "Sure, why not?"
"Yay! We can-"
"But we have to finish resting first."
"Okay, okay," Sasori said quickly, closing his eyes. He heard Deidara come into the room.
"Sasori, I'm washing your cloak in the sink-"
"Shh! Deidara, can't you see we're trying to rest here?" The former puppet opened his eyes and pointed menacingly at his partner. "You have to be quiet."
Deidara held his hands up in mock surrender. "Oh, of course, hm. I'll just leave you to rest then." Whatever kept the brat busy.
"Good." Sasori pretended to rest for about five minutes before he became bored. "Itachi, are you ready to play now?"
Itachi took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. "Sure." He opened his eyes and sat forward, feeling his headache slowly waning. He was caught a little by surprise when Sasori jumped on his back.
"What do you want to play first? Do you know of any fun games to play?"
"Well, not off the top of my head, no."
"Hmm….well…" Sasori thought for a while, suddenly brightening. "I have one."
"Okay, let's have it-"
"You're it!" Sasori tapped the Uchiha's arm before running away laughing. Itachi sighed; he'd been thinking of playing a more quiet game. Oh well. He stood up off the couch, walking at a leisurely pace down the hall the kid had ran down. It didn't take long for Itachi to find him – Sasori giggled nonstop.
The raven snuck up behind Sasori, his skills as a shinobi really coming in handy. He placed his palm onto the kid's shoulder, effectively startling him. "You're it."
Sasori was over his shock in a second, tagging Itachi back immediately before taking off running again. "You're it!"
"What foul play," Itachi muttered before following the child, once again sneaking up behind him and tagging him. The raven was expecting the red head's next move, and quickly dodged it by jumping back. Sasori only continued running forward, and Itachi made a quick decision to move to the side before skirting around the boy. He smirked in victory as he ran back to the living room, using the couch as a sort of barrier between him and Sasori.
Naturally the child climbed up onto the couch rather than go around, as Itachi had expected. "No standing on the furniture!" the Uchiha yelled as a last ditch effort to get away, unable to help the wide smile forming on his face as Sasori lunged for him, giggling. Rather than evade the attack, Itachi caught the child in both arms, falling flat on the ground in spite of bracing himself. Sasori laughed out loud, bouncing on the Akatsuki member's chest.
"I win! I win!" He jumped into a standing position so Itachi could sit up.
"So you did," Itachi smiled, feeling somewhat good for the first time in a long time. "Do you want to play something different now?"
"Sure! What is there to play?"
Itachi led him to his room, sitting the boy down on the floor while he dug through the drawers of his side table until he finally found what he was looking for: A stack of playing cards. He spent the next hour teaching the child some of the basic card games and playing. Sasori chattered on about anything and everything as they played, and Itachi found that it was indeed true that the child still thought his parents were alive. He talked a lot about his "granny Chiyo" as well, but Itachi couldn't remember for the life of him ever hearing anything about the old woman before. He could only assume that perhaps Sasori had been raised by his grandmother after the death of his parents. He'd have to look into it later.
After a while, Sasori grew bored of the cards and complained of hunger. The pile of scrolls on Itachi's desk were glaring at him to continue his work, so he sent Sasori away to find Deidara and have the other Akatsuki member make something to eat. The child was more than willing to have an excuse to bug the blond, and skipped away merrily.
Headache completely gone, Itachi picked himself up off the floor, placing the stack of cards on his side table before sitting at the desk, ready to get back to business.
