Chapter Two
As the suspicious Konoha guards inspected yet again both his travel documents and the letter from Sarutobi-sama, Dumbledore was forced the repress the urge to shift from foot to foot and generally fidget with nerves. Reminding himself yet again of the importance of his mission in Konoha, Albus just about managed to suppress a sigh of relief when his papers were returned to him with what he guessed to be a nod of approval.
This was why he avoided visiting the Hidden Countries except when absolutely necessary – the obsessive security to what seemed like the point of paranoia.
Just when Dumbledore thought that he was finally going to be allowed entrance into Konoha, a figure jumped down from the roof of what appeared to be a five story apartment building and approached the gates, scowl of authority set firmly in place.
"Who is this and what is his business in Konoha?"
Dumbledore sighed – somehow he knew that this new arrival was talking about him. The paranoia of the guards seemed excessive, even for the Hidden Countries and their spines seemed to snap to attention with the arrival of this tall dark-haired stranger, who, despite appearing to be only as old as the seventh years back at Hogwarts, was obviously a figure of some considerable authority.
This authority became even more obvious when the shorter guard answered, studiously avoiding the newcomer's eyes, concentrating instead on an indeterminate point somewhere above his left shoulder,
"He has documents saying that his name is one Dumbledore Albus and a letter of invitation from Hokage-sama to discuss a confidential matter, Itachi-sama."
Albus had to force himself to keep eye contact with this Itachi, who raked his eyes over him with what appeared to be contempt, but on further examination could be seen to be a thorough examination of Dumbledore's abilities, ending with the decision to proceed with caution.
There was still some degree of contempt present, but Albus could not for the life of him work out why – it certainly couldn't be his robes, which, in neon orange and candy pink, his tailor had assured him were the height of fashion. But then again, these ninjas did dress strangely, this Itachi fellow for example, he couldn't have been much over seventeen, but he was wearing what appeared to be leather trousers and a top that had more holes in it than there was material – it reminded him of a set of robes Aberforth had once worn when they were younger, he had claimed they were made of what he called fishnet – Albus had burnt them and replaced them with a sensible set of lime green ones instead.
Just when he though that he would have to produce his papers yet again, Dumbledore was filled with relief when Itachi nodded, seemingly having made up his mind about something,
"Very well, I will escort him to Hokage-sama, return to your duty."
The guards seemed to deflate with relief when Itachi turned away from them to beckon Dumbledore to follow him – at least that was what Dumbledore presumed to slight tilt of the young man's head to signify. Hoping that he was not about to have sharp weapons shoved into tender places, he followed after the young man, forced at times to trot in order to keep up.
Just as they had almost reached the tower which Dumbledore vaguely remembered as being the office of the Hokage, a loud yell almost deafened him,
"Aniki you're back."
Following this yell, two flying balls of energy, one blue and one orange, flew out of nowhere and collided with Itachi's chest. Somehow Itachi managed to turn quickly enough to catch both bundles, which revealed themselves to be two eleven year old boys, one blond and one with dark blue hair. As far as Albus could tell, it had been the blue-haired bundle who had deafened the entire street, most of whom had returned to what they had been doing previously, apparently perfectly used to the odd spectacle. The blonde was speaking now, equally loudly and twice as fast,
"You've been gone ages and ages and ages and ages."
There was a faintly accusatory note to the blonde's tone and the two boys exchanged glances as they were set down on the ground both the older boy, whose expression seemed vaguely amused. The blonde then continued to speak, blithely unaware of the glares his companion was sending him, the other boy having seemed to have now noticed Dumbledore's presence, something the blonde seemed perfectly content to ignore for the moment,
"You have to come right now!"
Itachi arched an eyebrow, as if to say 'I do, do I?' – though how he could say this with just one eyebrow was really quite remarkable. The blonde continued blithely ignoring the enigmatic eyebrow,
"Yes, you do! 'Cos you've been gone ages and niisan's been getting really worried and upset about something and you weren't here and he's locked himself in his room and won't come out and won't eat anything – I even offered him my ramen and he didn't want anything…"
The blonde's increasingly hysterical diatribe was cut off when the other boy clamped a hand firmly over his mouth, stopping him mid-flow,
"You can't say all that here, don't you see that niisan's doing something importa – oww, what was that for Naruto-baka?"
The reason for this last comment was obvious as the dark haired boy was forced to pull his hand away from his companion's mouth, blood dripping from his palm, which showed the clear indents of sharp teeth, pressed hard into flesh. Smiling smugly and absently licking the blood from his lips, Naruto spoke again,
"I had to do it, because your hand smells, Sasuke-teme."
"Does not"
"Does too."
"Does not."
"Does too times infinity. Sides, Itachi-nii shouldn't even be working right now, he's just finished a mission and he's on down-time for the next fortnight, same as niisan, I checked."
Seeming to accept this explanation, Sasuke seemed to forget the previous argument the two had been sharing and nodded, implicitly joining forces with the blonde. The two then turned matching pouts and puppy-dog eyes on Itachi, who sighed and rolled his eyes at the two of them. Then the dark haired teen turned to Dumbledore and inclined his head slightly in a facsimile of a bow,
"My apologies, Dumbledore-san, but my brothers are, for once, right. I trust that you will be able to make the rest of your journey to Hokage-sama's office without any problems."
The threat of 'or else' was as equally implied in this statement as the 'for the moment, I trust you' and Dumbledore wondered how two such different ideas could be conveyed in such a short and simple comment.
Before Albus even had the opportunity to reply to either the comment itself or the implied statements within it, the two boys had each grabbed one of the teen's hands and were determinedly dragging him away – Itachi allowed them to do so with a vaguely amused expression on his face, though every so often, he would somehow manage to trip one of them up.
TBC.
Another short chapter. I'm sorry the chapters for this story are so short, but at least this way I stand more of a chance of being able to update regularly. Life is just totally crazy at the moment, I am writing this in a college room in Oxford, while I'm up for interview. That should just give you an idea of how insane my life is at the moment.
Hope you like my presentation of Itachi/Naruto/Sasuke interaction (the relationship between Itachi and Naruto/Sasuke will be purely on a sibling level, but I may do yaoi Naruto/Sasuke later on, because I love this pairing) I hope my Itachi is realistic, he's kind of based on how Itachi acted in the flashbacks to Sasuke's childhood – stoic and quiet but still very much a caring big brother – that's why I'm totally unable to but the whole Uchiha massacre story (Orochimaru was so obviously involved) or maybe I just like Itachi-kun too much.
Harry/Hideaki should finally appear in the next chapter and the nature of the relationship between him and Itachi-chan should be revealed…
BTW, what did you think of my slightly feral!Naruto?