FTW, to the person who can answer this question:
Where in life did it ever mention that Itachi is fond of dango?
Thank you, for choosing to read this.
Hands.
After that afternoon, Itachi Uchiha was overcome with a bout of restlessness that nothing seemed able to combat. He was subject to pacing around the house, getting absolutely nothing accomplished when in fact, there was plenty to get done. When pacing around the house no longer sufficed to satisfy his restlessness, he walked around the complex, then the village. Even then he couldn't settle himself so he went to the training grounds to train. Of course, there wasn't much to do when training as he was already accomplished at one too many of his skills for self improvement.
Itachi practiced throwing his kunai. He'd always had some trouble hitting multiple targets while moving. It was a useful skill that allowed him to evade attacks while attacking, supposedly. Somehow, defeating an adversary was never as easy as throwing one well-aimed kunai. Still, developing skills was developing skills. Training had that mind-numbing effect Itachi desired. He needed that pointless repetitive action that would keep his thoughts in hiatus, even if for the shortest while.
Itachi got fed up by the time he threw his tenth set of kunai, each meeting its target, even the one in his blind spot. He walked away from the training site, noticing that Sasuke had somehow found him, and had been watching. Normally, he would have stopped and escorted Sasuke home, but he found that he really didn't want the strenuous task of having to pay attention and respond to everything his brother said. Itachi knew how much his brother hated not being heard and thus decided save Sasuke that frustration by not keeping his company.
"You know, it's strange that we are both Uchiha yet when we meet one another, it's never inside the complex," remarked Hisaki Uchiha when she met him in passing. Itachi noticed how much brighter she seemed compared to the last time they'd met. Her eyes were not bloodstained, her cheeks not stained with tears. She looked healthy, and had a subtle glow about her. He supposed that unlike himself, most people could hardly maintain a morose demeanour for extended periods of time.
"Yes," replied Itachi quietly. It wasn't really strange at all. Who was to say that two people who lived in the same village could only meet in a certain place within it? Perhaps she was subliminally pointing out they could find commonality in loose ties with the clan. This was not true by any means, for both of them. "I suppose it could be considered strange."
She stared at him for a second, as if trying to decipher the meaning behind his cryptic response. "So, what brings you to this side of the village?" she asked. As she did so, Hisaki rocked backwards and forwards on the balls of her feet. It was an idle movement. Perhaps she was keen to be rid of his company. "Making more offerings of broccoli to our deceased friends?" Her voice was pleasant but her tone was heavy with sarcasm.
It occurred to Itachi that perhaps she hadn't been so stupid as to have bought his prior lie. When the thought arrived to him, he realized that he'd been a bit foolish in honestly believing she had. She was an Uchiha, after all. Members of the Uchiha clan were practically genetically coded to be 'smarter than the average bear'.
"I was training," he informed her, glad to have a legitimate (and honest) reason this time. It felt strange, having to make excuses as to why he was in certain places. He shouldn't be subject to such things. Not when he was a member of the village and was therefore entitled be wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, no questions asked.
Perhaps Itachi had shown his displeasure through a slight frown because Hisaki continued to say, a bit defensively, "I was just wondering."
"What brings you here?" Itachi countered.
"I'm on my way to visit the memorial stone," Hisaki explained. As if to reiterate her point, she shuffled the bouquet of flowers she held in her arms. They were the same as the ones she'd brought the previous week.
Why was it that she could sound perfectly normal in giving her answers? Because she wasn't up to weird creepy things like following people around the village, Itachi answered himself. Innocent people never had to make up strange stories and explanations.
"Do you want to come with me?" asked Hisaki, looking up at him with her earnest dark eyes. Her eyes would have drawn him in had he not been so used to seeing the very pair of them on every member of the clan.
Itachi hesitated. To decline would have been rude. On the other hand, he wasn't sure he could handle the company of a crying girl in his restlessness. Watching girls cry was never a pleasant thing in any case.
As if she read his mind, Hisaki replied with a hint of dryness, "I won't cry this time, promise." Truthfully, Hisaki was not sure why she'd even offered let alone why she was trying to convince him all of a sudden. Now that she had, there was no helping it, so she held out a hand and to agree to come, all he had to do was take it.
Every week, the members of Akatsuki would enter their common dining area to find a vase filled with flowers on their dining table. The flowers were always the same, tea roses, in a delicate early bloom, their soft pink petals unfurling just enough to reveal the yellow inside.
The other members noticed and in their minds, they questioned but they never asked. Nor did they ever touch the flowers. Instead, they allowed the blossoms to remain on their dining table and silently reflected on their beauty when they had their meals.
That was the thing that allowed Itachi to be a little fonder of the people he was sharing life with. They were not regular people. Regular people would have asked, demanded and not relented until given confirmation and explanation that the reason behind the madness remained within their ideas of acceptability. Akatsuki accepted him, without need of reason. What he was, they didn't mind. What he'd done bore little consequence with them. In the time that he'd been there, he'd always been free to be himself.
They'd always let the roses be. Because of that, Itachi was sure she would have seen the good in them. And because he saw what she would have seen, he too came to recognize the good in these malevolent people.
Her skin was smooth and soft he had to resist his urge to run his fingers over her hands just to capture a better feel of her. Holding her hand was surprisingly sensual, and Itachi became acutely aware of how close they were walking and of how the floral scent of her perfume wafted to him in the soft breeze, and of the fact that he was blushing. When was the last time he had ever blushed? He couldn't remember, but it was certainly happening then, his cheeks burned and he snuck a peek at Hisaki to see if she'd noticed; she hadn't.
He ought not to feel as flustered at something as seemingly trivial as holding hands. Why was it that the act was as intimate as it was?
As they walked, their hands fell into place, fingers lacing through one another. The hands held each other in a loose relaxed grip though the owners of these hands were tense and hyper-aware and had hearts that were fluttering like hummingbirds. Hisaki caught his eye the next time he dared peek at her. She had the gaze of an angel, her dark eyes luring him in and not willing to let his gaze go. She was flushing too, her cheeks a delicate shade of pink that matched the ends of the rose petals. She smiled at him then giggled, recognizing his embarrassment and in a moment they were transformed into first-time lovers.
She didn't stop giggling and Itachi suspected that Hisaki might not have been giggling fully out of embarrassment. When he met her with a questioning look, she did something unprecedented. The grip on his hand suddenly tightened as Hisaki clasped her fingers against his hands. She pulled him towards her but he was so strong that she only ended up pulling herself closer to him. Their arm and shoulder made brief contact and in the moment when Itachi felt her brush against him, she leaned up towards his ear.
Foolishly, he thought she was about to kiss him, but she didn't. Her closeness and sweet smell overwhelmed him. She whispered a message into his ear, "I think that we have lots of sexual chemistry."
Itachi was sure that nothing short of a shocked, blank look registered on his face but it must have been comedic because Hisaki was prompted into another burst of giggles that progressed to laughter and died into a silent shaking of her shoulders. Though he was embarrassed, Itachi felt a bit happy too.
When they reached the memorial stone, their hands parted and Hisaki worked to lay down her flowers and light her incense. The warmth of her hand, now absent from him, made his hand feel strangely cold and empty. As a reflexive action, his fingers curled his hand into a fist and he watched Hisaki go about lighting the incense.
The smoke from the incense rose in fragile wisps, twisting and turning before getting whisked away in the breeze.
After she lit the incense, Hisaki stood up and walked back to stand beside Itachi. Though they stood nearly shoulder to shoulder, their hands didn't touch. The next hour or so was spent in silence, each lost in their respective thoughts. Restlessness captured him once again and Itachi felt the urge to move. He shifted his weight, shuffled his feet, and ran a hand through his hair. Her words echoed in his head, sexual chemistry. And for the first time in eighteen years, he wondered what sex felt like.
"Itachi," said Hisaki so softly she could have been whispering. He snapped out of his thoughts and willed himself not to blush again for fear it would betray his thoughts. She wouldn't have noticed even if he did, because she didn't look at him. "You're fidgeting," she pointed out.
"Sorry," he said, not even realizing that she'd noticed.
Hands touched his clenched fist. Both her hands had enclosed around his fist, her fingers met his and slowly but surely, she unfurled his fist. He watched her fingers move with a detached fascination. She smoothed his hand out and then held his hand in both of hers. He didn't know what she meant by it, so he stood for a moment, waiting for her to make another move. It seemed that Hisaki was at a loss for what to do next, so she stood there, holding his hand.
It was the appearance of Sasuke that ended their idleness. He had appeared by way of the training ground, having obviously gotten bored of doing whatever it was he had done after Itachi left. It was by chance that he spotted Itachi standing with Hisaki at the memorial stone. Neither was sure what he made of them, but Sasuke made no move to let them know either. Instead, he sauntered up to the two older kids, took each's hand in one of his and led them back to the village, declaring that he was hungry.
His hand was much smaller than hers; his entire hand could nearly fit on just her palm. His grip was a strong one. His strides drove him forward. He walked like he had somewhere to be. He was confident and sure of himself...unlike Itachi. She nearly giggled at the contrast between the two brothers.
Itachi, who was so skilled and so capable and so formidable, held her by the barest contact of their skin. He waited for her to act and bore silent witness to her antics. Sasuke on the other hand, was no less defenceless than she was. He was six, and he led her by her hand and didn't even turn around to see how she'd reacted to this. Perhaps he was shy, and trying to hide his flushing cheeks from her view. Perhaps he was starting to conjure embarrassment in his own impulsive actions and was now too self-conscious to face her.
"Sasuke, where are we going?" asked his brother. The tone in which he asked it was so soft and patient, so full of love and tolerance that Hisaki had to fight her urge to smile once again. Itachi was so quiet, so shy, and so tense and in his own way, innocent as well, and he still managed to play the role of an ideal older brother for Sasuke.
It had been hard to put Itachi from her mind since their previous meeting. Later, she found out that Itachi was rather well-known in their village. Every person she met had something good to say about him. She'd always known he was pretty brilliant, she just never knew how brilliant he really was. And then she couldn't help admiring him every time she noticed him in passing, not because of what he'd done, but because he seemed to be a genuinely good person.
"Home," said Sasuke resolutely. "We're going home, because I like home-cooked meals best. Haha-ue and chichi-ue are attending a meeting tonight so haha-ue said aniki would make dinner." After the long winded explanation, silence fell. During that silence, Itachi exchanged a glance with Hisaki and both were wondering the same thing.
"Are you inviting Hisaki-san for dinner too then?" asked Itachi in mild contemplation.
"Aniki, you looked like you were never going to leave that place if your girlfriend didn't come too," said Sasuke with exasperation. "So I'm taking her home!" Sasuke declared. "Where you can stare at her while you make me dinner… as long as you don't overcook the rice."
"She's not my girlfriend," said Itachi at the same moment Hisaki said, "He's not my boyfriend." They both blushed after speaking in unison and sneaking a furtive glance which the other caught because they both looked at the same time. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the two big kids and noted how weird big kids could be. He hoped out loud that he would never be like his older brother in this strange aspect. An awkward silence fell.
"If you're not aniki's girlfriend," said Sasuke once they'd reached the gates of the Uchiha complex. "Then you're not invited to dinner anymore."
"Sasuke, that's rude," said Itachi sternly. Sasuke bowed his head in regret of his words. Itachi turned to Hisaki, "You're welcome to come over for dinner, if you'd like."
Hisaki laughed at Sasuke's words, the boy, even when rude, was so irresistibly adorable. He was like Naruto, brash in words and actions, but lovable none the less. "Not tonight," she told Itachi, not because she didn't want to go, but because she didn't want him to invite her only on account of making up for Sasuke's lack of inhibition. "Thanks for the invitation, but maybe another time. Anyways, it was nice to have your company this afternoon."
"Yes, it was," agreed Itachi quickly.
"So I'll see you around?" asked Hisaki, smiling at him. Itachi nodded and they parted ways. As they walked in opposite directions, Hisaki heard Sasuke remark; "She was just scared to taste your cooking, and she's right to be. Can we go out to eat?" Laughing, Hisaki returned home.
"To be honest, I was hoping you would make such a huge show of your horrible cooking skills that your girlfriend would step in and end up making me dinner," confessed Sasuke sadly as he walked home with his hand in Itachi's. "She looks like the kind of girl who's good at cooking… no offense, Aniki."
"She's not my girlfriend," said Itachi again. "If you wanted Hisaki-san to cook you dinner, why did you retract your dinner invitation?"
"I didn't think she's really not your girlfriend, Aniki," said Sasuke. He looked at his brother thoughtfully but remained silent. Itachi watched his younger brother ponder in silence. Itachi wondered what had led to Sasuke believing Hisaki was her girlfriend. Though Sasuke held his hand now, the sensation for her hands still lingered and he wondered if she was angry that Sasuke had been so tactless and so rude. She had refused his dinner invitation after all.
Maybe she was distancing herself because she didn't want to be mistaken for his girlfriend. He didn't blame her. Being involved with him generally came with many implications the least of which was his occupation. Being a ninja meant you were more prone to death and lasting injury than most people, of course, Itachi had already beaten the odds at four years old.
"Sasuke, let's go out to eat," said Itachi, who decided he was really in no mood to cook, or consume his cooking, and felt it rather cruel to force Sasuke into it. Sasuke cheered to the empty street as he promptly turned around to lead the way to his favourite restaurant.
Sasuke is a little bit of a plotter this chapter, but logic would have it that he must have picked some skills of coercion form his brother. I like the younger Sasuke. He seems like he could have grown up to be really, really good.