Well Enjoy! And leave review! You don't know how happy they make me.
CH15
A week passed. A week in which Tobirama had Anko look after Sasuke instead off letting him go to the academy. The boy was stubborn but so was Tobirama and he would not let the boy anywhere until the boy snapped and talked. It was evening when Anko returned with Sasuke in tow. The day had passed hanging at the Dango shop in which Anko's insane personality and question answer games ensued. The questions ranged from which body type Sasuke preferred to which method of killing did he think was most effective. Not giving an answer invited Anko to give an in depth opinion of her own and truth be told Sasuke was sick of her pestering and nearly puked at her description of a well-rounded male specimen. When evening came Anko grudgingly delivered her cute tag along to Tobirama's apartment.
"Sasukkeee and I had a ton fun together!" She gushed receiving no reaction from the impassive face which eyed the scowling boy and his overzealous teammate.
"I'm sure you did…." The door was opened a tad wider to allow the boy entry.
"Thanks for this." He cut Anko off, hinting that this was really not the night he wanted visitors. Anko seemed to have already decided that she had enough fun for a day as her face grew serious.
"Anytime, the kids no problem at all." Tobirama closed the door sighing as he studied the young Uchiha who walked slowly into his room. He didn't like Motayaki so he settled for boiling noodles instead.
"Dinners in an hour." He called from the kitchen as he fumbled with the pot and cracking the eggs into a bowl then proceeded to grating cheese. He wasn't a spectacular cook but he could manage a few basic dishes. He sighed as he wondered why he ever agreed to care for the kid. He knew next to nothing in raising kids let alone a depressed and perhaps even a suicidal one.
When dinner was finished the boy surprised him by not taking the bowl to his room and slamming it shut but perhaps he was too young or to well raised for such ridiculous outbursts. But truth be told everything the boy did had a sharpness to it. From when he snapped the sticks apart to the way he jabbed at his omlette eggs.
Tobirama sighed. "Is it good?" He really needed to go get a book about kids this age. Maybe when his feet would allow him more than a few steps free of the jarring pain he was experiencing every few minutes while simply sitting he would go to a bookstore for one.
"No."
"Do you want to talk?"
"No?"
"How was your day?"
The question seemed to snap something inside the kid as he jumped up. "How was my day? It was FINE! I ONLY HAD TO LISTEN TO THE CRAZY JONIN YAP ABOUT WHAT A REAL MAN SHOULD LOOK LIKE UNDER HIS SHIRT WHILE BIENG FORCE FED SOME STUPID SWEETS ON A STICK WHICH NEARLY MADE HOLES IN MY ESOPHEGUS BECAUSE I REFUSED TO EAT ANY! MY DAY WAS GREAT HOW WAS YOUR DAY?"
The kid suddenly took a deep breath and deflated jabbing at his still mostly full plate. Tobirama stared slightly taken aback at the statement. Perhaps he would need to have a word with Anko about appropriate topics for children. But Anko had accomplished what he needed her to the boy was speaking his mind after all, it took a week but the method was paying off. Albeit not this was the topic he wanted but it was a start. He sighed.
"If you promise to stay inside I won't need to have my teammate looking after you."
"I don't need a babysitter!"
"You are only eight, you do."
"Why do you care anyway?" The boy snapped the black eyes bore into his own accusingly. "It's not like you were ever friendly with my clan they hated you! So why do you care so damn much?"
"Because." He tackled for the right words, closing his eyes briefly, and settled for the ones he had wanted to hear when he had found out his own parents had died. "Because no one should have to lose their parents at such a young age. Or see them killed for that matter. Especially not by their own brother." He added as an afterthought. It sounded cliché but that was the best he could offer without that book on children he so badly needed.
"Why?" Sasuke suddenly whispered his eyes meeting Tobirama's once more as if begging for an answer. "It's cause I'm weak isn't it? It's cause I'm not worthy of his time?"
"He left me alive are you saying I'm weak?"
"He meant to kill you!"
"Perhaps he was saving you because needed something from you…" Many thoughts crossed his mind since that fateful day. He had tried to understand why Itachi had done what he did. Why he left his younger brother alive yet the only logical explanation that he came up with still made no sense at all. The only concrete thought was that Itachi either would take Sasuke's eyes or Sasuke would take Itachi's.
The eyes narrowed in suspicion and confusion. "What?"
Tobirama sighed realizing what he would say wasn't going to be easy. But it was better he know now then find out later from a more violent source. "Your sharingan."
Shock and then more confusion flitted over the boy's face. "Why?"
"As far as I understand when an Uchiha uses their eyes for prolonged periods of time like your brother eventually the eyes begin to fail and the Uchiha begins losing their eyesight. To amend that the Uchiha need to replace the eyes with a close relative."
A frown tugged at Sasuke's lips. "How would he know that I will have a sharingan? Why not simply take fathers?"
Tobirama's eyes narrowed at the logic. Why indeed? He could have simply taken Fugaku's eyes if that was what he left Sasuke for. But, the boy required an answer so he would give him one. Better to let him live in a false security then beat himself over unanswered questions like Tobirama had when the details of his parents deaths were not given to him.
"In his current state he does not need a transplant, why leave your father alive when he could leave someone younger?"
"So it is because I'm WEAK!" Eyes flashed at him in anger.
"Now, you are the younger son of Uchiha Fugaku. Your brother knew that pure blood runs through your veins. He will underestimate you because of your age knowing that eventually you will unlock the eye he will come after you."
The boy jumped up. "Then help me activate my eyes! I want to kill him NOW!"
Tobirama raised a hand motioning for the boy to sit. "He will give you time. For many it takes years just to awaken the eye but for a prodigy like you the time will be more than enough."
"No it won't be!"
"Did your brother say anything to you before he left?"
""He said I wasn't worth killing. To hate him and fear him and come when I am strong enough to KILL Him." The words were said quietly but full of lethal hate."
"If you heed his words you will live a life of misery. A life he would want you to live so that your eyes would get stronger. In your anger you would be blinded and he would defeat you easily. He will come for you one day. When that day comes I give you my word as the head of the Senju clan that you will be ready. But before then you must remember that hate consumes and blinds you are the last of the Uchiha. Why not leave a legacy worth remembering?" Tobirama had to admit that was a pretty damn good speech. But hey he wasn't captain in the Anbu simply for being the head of a clan.
The eyes narrowed and then widened back. The face lost its passion and hate deflating into a strange calm and acceptance. The rest of their dinner passed in silence. Sasuke left to his room after emptying his plate. Tobirama let out another sigh as he washed the plates allowing the water to sooth away his illogical worries. Around ten he turned the light off and checked the room with the Uchiha who was already in bed. He appeared to be sleeping. As Tobirama turned to go the eyes flashed open.
"Tobirama?" His eyes met the boy's and Tobirama's hand hovered over the door that he was about to close.
"Yes?"
"Can you make more noodles tomorrow?"
"I thought you said they were bad."
"I lied."
A smile appeared on Tobirama's face without him realizing it. He gave a curt nod and closed the door walking to his own bed. Perhaps….perhaps he wouldn't need that book after all.
