Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters nor the cover image of Itachi! I do own my characters however!
The Anachronism
Chapter V: The Day He Caught Her Staring
Monday morning was clear and bright. Birds chirped happily in the trees and small animals scurried to and fro just beneath them. The sky was crystal blue, with only a few scattered puffs of white clouds passing through. Without the mask of thicker clouds, the sun's rays streamed down to the earth and through the glass of the dining hall window unblocked, acting as a spotlight for the drained blonde Nadeshiko as she sat with her head laid on the table. A plate with a hard-boiled egg and three French toast sticks sat untouched next to her head.
Suddenly, a tray of food crashed onto the table next to her head. Nadeshiko didn't move; she didn't have to. There were only a few possible, plausible guess to who would sit at the table unannounced. And, given the loud clatter she was making, there was really only one possibility.
"Morning Megumi," the blonde deadpanned, unmoving from her spot. In front of her, Megumi tossed a couple strawberries in her mouth.
"Good morning," Megumi responded, crossing her arms over her chest and sighing. "You're always so down on Mondays. It's such a beautiful day, lighten up a little!" The black haired woman reached out her hand and gingerly pinched her blonde friend's cheek, earning a high pitched yelp.
"Hey!" Nadeshiko cried. "Let go!" She attempted to pry off Megumi's fingers, but that only made her pinch harder.
"Not until I see a smile!" She sang sweetly. As the two fought over Nadeshiko's cheek, a slight figure silently approached them and cleared her throat. Megumi and Nadeshiko paused and turned to face her.
The girl had a similar build to Nadeshiko, short and slender; however, there was an air of maturity to her that was even beyond that of Megumi. Unlike the other two girls, her dark brown hair was cropped short with a thick fringe that just slightly touched the top of her thick-rimmed glasses. Outfitted in a large grey sweatshirt and plaid shorts, the girl looked as though she had just come from a study session in the library.
The brunette adjusted her glasses and Nadeshiko broke out into a smile. "Good morning, Haru!"
"Hello Nadeshiko, Megumi," Haruka – or Haru for short – smiled, setting down her tray next to Nadeshiko and sitting to her left. She scowled at Megumi. "I think that's long enough, Megumi. Nadeshiko's going to bruise if you keep pinching her cheek like that."
Megumi let out a faux-exasperated sigh and released her blonde friend's cheek. "Fine, fine. But only because I would never want to bruise up this cute face!"
Nadeshiko flushed and crossed her arms over her chest. I'm not cute! She had wanted to retort, but she knew that would only get her more teasing from her friend. Plus, she'd long accepted her genes. Or, she was at least trying to. The blonde looked back and forth between her friends, both of whom were her age, but appeared much older. Even Itachi, who couldn't have been that much older than her, made Nadeshiko look like she was still in high school. She pursed her lips. So stupid!
In front of her, Megumi loudly cleared her throat and made a choking sound before wiping her mouth delicately with a napkin. Nadeshiko and Haru looked at each other and then back to Megumi with a raised brow. Haru questioned, "Everything alright over there?"
"Just saw something disgusting," the black haired woman responded, continuing to pat her lip. Nadeshiko sat up in her chair and whipped her body around to peer out at the numerous other students behind them.
"What? What did you–"
"Idiot!" Megumi yelled, reaching over the table and grabbing Nadeshiko's shoulder to turn her around. "It's bad enough that he has full sight of me if he looks over here; the last thing I need is him seeing–"
"Who?!" Nadeshiko interrupted loudly, pulling against Megumi's hand to continue looking around. Had she rejected another guy? Broken up with one? Does she have a stalker?
Next to her, Haru's eyes scanned over a crowd of people, landing on one male in particular. "Ah."
"Ah?!" Nadeshiko cried, looking at her much quieter friend and following her gaze. "What are you two – oh. Oh."
Her cheeks heated and a knot formed deep in her stomach and she spun back around in her seat. Laying her head back on the table and closing her eyes, she nodded in agreement, "Yup. Something disgusting is right."
xXxXxXx
The Monday morning was clear and bright, but, unfortunately for Nadeshiko, she spent most of the light hours on Monday and Wednesday in different lectures and courses, with only a break around lunch time to remind her that, yes, the day would end soon. Luckily, or unluckily, today she had something to think about while her professors droned on about everything she had already read in her book late the night before.
The image of the boy with the girl in his lap, his lips on hers, entered Nadeshiko's mind. Her stomach lurched and her whole body flushed.
He wasn't just any boy.
It was Akito. Akito. The same Akito that only a short month ago was spending nights with her, was kissing her, was giggling with her.
Nadeshiko swallowed hard and turned to look out the window. There was nothing to see except for the towering oak trees and their crazy, intertwining branches snaking around them. Occasionally, a lone squirrel would rush through with an acorn bulging out of its cheeks. Other times, a group of small birds would flutter to a shaded area in the branches and chatter quietly to themselves. It looked so simple.
Continuing to stare out the window, head propped on her arm, the blonde couldn't help but wonder how her life seemed to become so much crazier in the last year. It was almost indistinguishable from the one she had been living only just eight months prior.
Now, she had an amnesiac, stoic man living in her apartment. Now, she's lost the first love of her life to a girl that looked like she modelled for Cecil McBee. Now, her sister–
Nadeshiko's mind reeled and she swallowed hard again. She ran a hand through her hair and the hand that had been twirling a pen between her fingers was now tapping said pen nervously, furiously. Images of an All-American girl with bright blonde hair and almond-shaped blue eyes appeared in her mind. Licking her chapped lips, Nadeshiko stared back at the girl, who smiled back sweetly.
At an instant, the image vanished, but not before Nadeshiko caught the panicked look in the girl's eyes.
"–shiko!" Nadeshiko's breath hitched. Unconsciously, she ran her free hand through her hand again. Sweat dampened her forehead.
"Nadeshiko! Nadeshiko, are you paying attention?"
The blonde blinked out of her trance and lifted her head. Just before her stood one of her professors, arms crossed over her chest and a cautious brow lifted as she stared at her student. "Everything alright over here?" All around them, other students had turned to stare.
"U-Um!" Nadeshiko's face flushed bright red and she lowered her head both out of respect and embarrassment. "M-My apologies, professor!" The tall woman's brows knit together as she looked apprehensively at her student; however, she merely turned on her heel and continued her lecture. Behind her, Nadeshiko peeked up from her spot, covering her still bright red face with the back of her hand.
I need to watch where I space out like that, she reprimanded herself, gnawing on her bottom lip. And I have to work on not letting my thoughts get my emotions all out of whack. I'm too much of an open book; I might end up worrying someone! She smiled softly and scratched the back of her head sheepishly, before dropping both her hand and smile. Her eyes drifted back out the window and, despite her new-found resolve to be attentive, found herself too distracted by her chaotic life.
The trees still blew gently in the breeze, and their branches still twined tightly like a complicated lattice. The lone squirrel was still carrying his nuts to who-knows-where, and the little blue birds still gossiped in their sing-song chirps. Beyond the confines of the classroom, everything continued to look simple, pure, and unchanged from the norm. Just as Nadeshiko considered internally lamenting again, her eyes drifted to the sidewalk to catch something that most certainly wasn't normal.
A tall, black haired man was strolling casually under the shade of the trees. The blonde squinted. It can't possibly be… As if on cue, the familiar man paused and turned around, staring straight at Nadeshiko with an even more familiar, unfazed and irrevocably stoic expression.
Nadeshiko choked on her saliva. Though she was on the second floor of the building, Itachi raised a brow at her.
"Something wrong, Nadeshiko?"
Without missing a beat or even facing the professor, Nadeshiko immediately stood and blurted, "I have to use the restroom! Please excuse me!"
As if caught off guard, the woman didn't immediately respond to the blonde until she was hurrying out of her classroom, her whole body aflame in a deep blush. "Okay, but please be quick!"
In record time, Nadeshiko flew down the stairs and burst out the back entrance of the academic building. To her surprise and relief, Itachi was still standing where he had been while she was in the classroom. Gasping for air, the blonde bent forward and gripped her thighs to catch her breath. Itachi looked with masked curiosity at the girl, noting how the people in this world seemed to be much less physically fit than those where he was from.
"What…" Nadeshiko breathed, looking up him finally with knit brows. "What…Where are you going? Why are you…I thought you wanted to read more or something?"
"I did," he responded. "However, I have not spent much time outside and thought I would take a walk."
Oh. Nadeshiko's face flushed a bit deeper and she ran a hand through her hand. She had been so set in taking care of him and making sure he was always accountable no matter what, that she had forgotten he was still an adult. Amnesiac, yes, but an adult nonetheless, and one who looked to be a bit older than she. And yet, here she was, getting flustered over him taking a walk and not being where she thought he'd be. For being out of her range of protection.
The blue-eyed blonde appeared in her mind again and she immediately squeezed her eyes shut. Itachi watched her silently, eyeing her stressed expression. When she'd returned to the library late last night, she'd worn a similar one. Somehow, the Uchiha could tell that her expression had nothing to do with him. It was an expression, though relatively foreign now, that he'd been familiar with himself at one point, long ago.
"Hey."
Nadeshiko's eyes snapped open and stared back into Itachi's coal black ones. "Huh? I'm sorry, was I spacing out? Did you say something?"
Although his conscious begged he wouldn't, Itachi asked the girl if she wanted to walk with him. Even she looked surprised; she blinked once and then knit her brows together, considering what he was offering. After a couple seconds of silence, the blonde smiled up at him and politely declined his offer, saying her professor would give her bad marks if she didn't return to class. And that, she had said then, was not something she would ever be able to forgive herself for. So, with a lighthearted chuckle, the little blonde waved cheerily at him before spinning around and bounding back into the building.
Once she was gone, Itachi did the same; he turned on his heel and continued down the shaded path under the trees. He breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of nature. How long had it been since the last time he could calmly walk through the woods as he was doing now?
He thought back to around ten years ago, when he was just an average preteen boy. Or, what his idea of average was. For some reason, he didn't think that any of what he grew up around would be considered average here. That being said, the Uchiha thought, pausing briefly. While this place has no apparent chakra signatures, no jutsu, or no shinobi, I cannot deny the similarities between my world and this one.
Despite all of his researching and reading the past two days, Itachi had yet to find one to help him discern why he ended up here. There was no apparent link connecting the two diametric places, and he highly doubted this was some form of "after-life". However, what he had learned was that the people here and the people where he was from, especially in Konoha, were impossibly alike. Despite lacking jutsu and chakra, they were so similar. When Nadeshiko and he had gone shopping, he noted that the girls were still overly attentive to their appearances and held similar concern toward boys. Likewise, the boys were still trying to impress the girls and continued to try to one-up each other however they could think to do it.
It was as if he were thrown into a world just like his own, except lacking in the one thing he never wanted, the one thing that made him stand out in the academy. The one thing that led him through a series of unfortunate events, to killing his family, to becoming a notorious criminal, to being the object of pure hatred to the one person he cared about most.
But, it was for all those reasons that he knew he didn't belong here. His hands were permanently stained; his misdeeds transcended his world to this one. He knew that, even if no one in this life knew what he'd done, that changed nothing. His mind flashed through his family – his mother, father, and Sasuke – before he thought briefly of the little blonde girl and her deeply pained expression moments ago. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
No, he resolved, continuing his walk deeper into the woods. The thing that differentiates between this world and mine, the wars and hatred and killing, it separates them more than the similarities could ever bring them together. I must continue researching; two days is not nearly enough time to have read everything I need to know. I will figure out what is going on.
But, whether he knew it then or not, the Uchiha shared a parallel with the little blonde girl, a similarity that made even the things that separated their worlds seem insignificant by comparison.
Updates! Woo!
I just wanted to take a minute to thank the wonderful commenters for their kind words and understanding of the situation. Your excitement for the update made me even more excited to get back into writing this story! And Benji, your comment honestly made me want to cry; I'm so glad that you really enjoy this story so far! And Neko, yours made me smile, so I thank you for that! Oh, and Vicious, I feel like from now on I'll be putting my work on a flash drive as well. I just started using OneDrive as well so hopefully this won't happen again in the future.
And as always, thank you to everyone who has favorited and followed this story as well! I'm so glad that you all are liking this story; that makes me so happy! If this is your first time reading this story, welcome, and please favorite, following, and/or review if you're enjoying this!
Hope you're all having a lovely August! Adieu!