A/N - Yes, chapter two. Sorry this took so long. I'll also be updating Thieves and Ninjas, but I'm sort of stuck on The Definition of Freedom, so that one won't be updated any time soon. Plus, I got a job, so I'll be working a lot. Just have some patience with me, okay?
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto. If I did, Sakura would have bitch-slapped Sasuke AGES ago...
WARNING: Spoilers from Naruto chapter 396 onward! I'd say I was going to twist Itachi's character, but after 402 or so, and everything, I'm not even sure what his character really is anymore, y'know? Anyway, heaven forbid, he going to have a big (for him) expressional reaction in this chapter, folks! So be prepared.
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Ch. 2 - What The Hell...?
--
Itachi came awake in a hospital bed in an empty room painted a white so glaringly clean, his eyes began to throb just looking at it. For the first time in years, he was aware of absolutely no pain in his body. He could breathe normally, his eyes didn't throb from anything but the walls, and his bones didn't ache.
Also, the bed was actually quite comfortable. After nearly eight years of sleeping on bare, rocky ground, and rough, insect patrolled tree branches, this was down right soft. He resisted the urge to sink back down into the pillows and go back to sleep. Now was not the time. He began to take stock of his surroundings.
He wasn't strapped to a torture table, and he wasn't in pain.
Already established that.
He was alive. He made a mental note to teach his little brother how to really kill once he knew where he was. If Sasuke couldn't do that simple job, he'd never get anywhere.
He lifted each arm, one at a time, and tested all of the ranges of movement. He was a little sore, but his arms were fine. Next he tested the dexterity of his upper half, twisting this way and that. Nothing wrong there.
Then, he threw off the hospital issue starched sheets and blanket, and swung his feet down to the floor. He recoiled slightly when the bare skin of his soles hit the icy linoleum. He grit his teeth and put them down. He slowly stood, testing how much of his weight they could take. His ankles wobbled a little, but his legs held up. He began to stretch, first one leg, then the other. He was a little shaky, but other than that, he'd been better than he had in a long time.
He looked around and saw there was a covered tray of food and a pile of folded clothing on the small table near the blinds covered window.
He picked up the folded shirt, and noticed it was black, with a familiar high collar. He turned it around and stared mutely at the Uchiha clan symbol on the back. There was only one place he could be. He strode to the window, shirt still in his hand, and yanked the blinds up. Light streamed in, momentarily blinding him, and then clearing to present him with a view of the Hokage monument and the Hokage tower, piercing the sky above the streets and building of Konohagakure.
He was home.
-
He was just finishing getting dressed when the sound of sharp, high-heeled steps approached his room. The door swung imperiously open and bounced off of the wall with a crash. He looked up from buttoning his pants to be confronted with the golden-brown stare of the fifth Hokage. She held an old, leather bound book that was severely dog-eared, and aged, and was flanked by two ANBU operatives, one male and one female.
"Sit!", she barked at him, pointing to one of the chairs at the table he was standing next to. He sat wordlessly, knowing what came next:
The accusations, the screaming, the pointing, and then his sentence of death. That was how this village worked, even if it spouted nonsense of being peaceful. The point was:
It could sometimes be a load of fucking hypocrisy.
The Hokage seated herself in the chair directly across from him, and placed the book on the table between them. The two ANBU placed themselves at her back, and assumed the rest position, their legs shoulder length apart, their bodies relaxed, and their hands loosely inter-locked behind their backs.
Itachi fought the urge to frown when he saw the female didn't conform to the ANBU dress code. Instead of steel arm guards and gloves, she wore belted on sleeves a little like his brother had worn back in his first genin days, only these were gray and belled at the bottom, giving little shape.
It was as she shifted a little that he noticed the press of a container against the inside of the sleeves.
Ah.
She carried something in there, and it was probably to disguise whatever special use she was on the battle field.
She was smart. (A/N - Remember this compliment. He won't be saying or thinking it often, 'cause he's arrogant like that...)
Tsunade folded her arms and leaned them on the table, just staring at him. He gazed back at her levelly. She sighed after a while, and then addressed him.
"Uchiha Itachi."
He said nothing and continued to meet her gaze without a flinch. She rubbed a hand over her face wearily before gesturing to the book.
"Do you know what that is?"
"No."
Indeed, he'd never seen that book before. What was it, and why the hell did she want to know if he recognized it?
Tsunade glanced back at the female ANBU. The woman nodded soundlessly.
...The hell...?
The Hokage sighed again, then unfolded her arms, and interlaced her fingers before her face.
"Here's the problem, Uchiha. I have two sources that tell me you killed your clan under direct orders from the Sandaime and the Elder Council themselves. That would normally be enough to let you off on a year's probation before allowing you to return to active duty."
He raised his eyebrows at her. Was she finally so drunk she couldn't do her job?
"Excuse me, Hokage-sama?"
She rolled her eyes at him.
"You heard me, Uchiha. The problem is, the elders and Danzo won't admit it, and the word of one ANBU operative holds only so much sway. The key to your freedom is in that book, which has been hidden in a secret drawer in my desk for what looks like at least six years."
"What does this have to do with my freedom?", he asked politely.
"It's the confirmed diary of the Third Hokage himself."
He raised one eyebrow in a way that said: 'SO?'
She frowned at his expression.
"We need to do this fast, before the Elders get wind of this."
She suddenly pulled a piece of paper and a pen out of her over robe, and set them on the table. She pushed he paper toward him, and he bent forward a bit to read it.
It basically said that he agreed to a probation period of one year, and that he would return to active duty status after that. He also agreed to stay with in all boundaries set during his probation, he would not inform Akatsuki to any information he might become privy to while in Konoha, and he agreed to no longer go after one Uzumaki Naruto, Kyuubi container and knuckled-headed ninja extraordinaire. There were no vicious loopholes, no talk of torture, and no mention of execution.
He looked up at the Hokage.
"What is this?"
What he really meant was 'Are you a fucking idiot?'
She smiled in a sweet, and yet highly disturbing, fashion that showed entirely too many teeth for comfort.
"Did you honestly think that I would pass up the chance to bring a powerful Uchiha back onto our side? You're far too good to let go of, Uchiha, and executing you would be such a waste."
She propped her chin on one hand and regarded him with a lazy, honey-colored gaze.
"Don't you agree?"
He was silent for a long time. Singing this paper would, for all intents and purposes, make him a citizen of Konoha again.
And why not?
Then he paused.
What did he have to go back to?
An empty Uchiha district, and the scorn of the people. Or did he? He looked up, and met Tsunade look for look.
"One condition.", he said.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Name it."
He allowed himself a small smile.
"You go public with the story. All of it. Diminish the Elders influence, and give me all the Uchiha property and fortune."
Tsunade nodded her head.
"Done."
"I wasn't finished. One last ultimatum."
Tsunade stilled, on guard.
"No forced marriage proposals. I will be free to marry who I want, when I want, or never, if that's what it comes to."
The room was silent as Tsunade stared at him with hard eyes. Then they softened.
"Consider it done."
She offered him the pen.
"Now sign before the Elders show up."
He took the pen, and at the bottom of that paper, signed his name in flowing script:
UCHIHA ITACHI
-
Itachi now stood at the entrance to the Uchiha district, with the pack he'd carried when with the Akatsuki, and his weapon pouches, the two ANBU at his back. Tsunade had said they were merely a formality until he got to the Uchiha district. He looked at them over his shoulder.
"I'm at the Uchiha Compound. You may leave now."
The female ANBU let out a giggle, as both she and the male relaxed into more comfortable stances. Itachi studied the male for a moment. There was something about his easy stance and the dancing black eyes behind his eagle mask that called to his memory.
"And why would we do that?", she asked, with another giggle as she reached up to undo the tie on her wolf mask, and pulled it away. The male did the same, but Itachi paid him no mind. The woman had his whole attention.
Her reddish-black eyes twinkled from behind a few strands of her long black hair, and her full lips were curved in a bright smile.
He stared in slight surprise.
"Mioko."
She laughed, and bounced over to throw her arms around him, forcing him back a few steps with her weight.
"Sempai! Welcome home! We've missed you so much!"
He became acutely aware of a pair of firm mounds pressed to his chest, and the delicious curve of her hip under his hand when he reached out to steady her against him.
Firmly, he pushed her off of him before his thought process could continue any farther down that road.
"We?", he asked. Mioko giggled. Then she jerked her chin over her shoulder.
Itachi followed that path, to the male ANBU, who'd just lowered his mask. Itachi's bag hit the ground with a muffled 'Thump' as his world turned upside-down, and his perfect control on his expressions flew out the window as his jaw dropped and his eyes widened.
It wasn't possible...
"Shisui..."
-
"Ha ha ha! You should've seen you're face, Itachi!! Kami, I love cameras!! Ha ha ha ha!!"
Itachi was sitting at a tea shop table in one of Konoha's bustling market places, sitting across from a person he knew for a fact should be dead. And sitting next to someone who was very soft, and smelled very nice.
Sage, and other herbs jumbled around his nose.
Once more, he put a stop to anywhere his thought might go with that.
(A/N - Anyone who complains about this: STUFF IT. Itachi is a guy, too. Guys think about that stuff. Just because he doesn't show it...doesn't mean he doesn't think it. And I'm playing that up. That's going to be important later in the story. And it's to show he's not some ice cold, flaccid, unarrousable rock. Good God...is arrousable even a word...? Anyway, I hope you get it now.)
Said someone kicked Shisui under the table hard enough to shut him up.
"Shi-kun, SHHH! We're good, but we can't take the whole of Konoha if they decide to attack our charge."
Shisui 'hmph'-ed, but shut his mouth and picked up his tea cup. Itachi turned to Miho.
"Three words. What. The. Hell."
She stared.
"You swore? You never swear!"
He picked up his tea and took a sip, no giving her a response.
She picked up her own and grumbled under her breath about snotty Uchihas and about how much fun sticking a kunai up their asses to dislodge the sticks would be.
He looked at her out of the corner of his eyes with a small smirk. He was gratified to see her smirk back.
So she'd learned to play while he was away, had she?
He remembered a time that hadn't been so.
-
"Sempai!! Do you enjoy silence, or are you doing this to annoy me?"
He didn't answer, just smirked.
His reward was her irritated snarl, and the thunk of her kunai as she hurled them with a vicious force at the practice dummy on the field.
"Jerk.", she mumbled under her breath. And instantly, a rock stung her behind. She spun around with a hiss.
He simply continued to lean back against the tree with his eyes closed.
A kunai blade struck the tree a little to the right of his head. He smirked just because it was so much fun to piss her off.
"You missed.", he drawled arrogantly.
"Son-of-a-"
He was across the field before she could finish.
He clamped a hand down on her mouth, then slung her over his shoulder, and carried her to the stream bank before unceremoniously dumping her into the icy water.
She came up snarling, shrieking, and very, very wet. He smirked down at her.
"Ladies shouldn't curse, Miho."
"Then go find a damn lady, if that's what you want, you ass!", she shrieked as she clambered up the bank, bent forward and using her hands as well as her legs. He placed his foot on her head and pushed lightly, sending her rolling back into the stream.
What he didn't expect was for her to grab his ankle and drag him with her...
That water had been really cold.
-
He smirked at the memory.
He felt her nudge his ribs with a pointy elbow, and he turned to look down at her.
"Are you thinking about the time you dropped me in the river?"
His head tilted slightly to the right.
Now, how had she known that?
She covered her mouth as she giggled.
"It was just a guess, Sempai, but I'm sure I guessed right!"
"Hn."
SMACK!
His cheek stung like hell as he closed his eyes and counted to thirty before opening them, and pinning her with a deep glare.
She met him level for level, and pointed a dangerous pair of chopsticks straight at his face.
"You ever sound like your pain in the ass brother again, and I'll do far more than slap you. You are not an emo, and I will not allow you to act like one."
He stared, all anger forgotten.
"Emo? Sasuke?"
She gave him a dead pan look.
"I believe the appropriate response is 'DUH'."
He narrowed his eyes at her, and she rolled hers.
"Hey, you weren't here when he was a Genin. The kid was an ice-cold little snot. Otherwise known as an emo."
He resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he picked up his tea, took a sip, then picked up a stick of dango, and bit into it.
Women.
-
He stood in is old room after ten years.
Somehow, it was almost nostalgic.
The dust was at least two inches thick on everything in the house, but the loud THUMP that echoed through the empty compound when Miho found a couple of buckets, mops, and sponges locked away in his mother's old cleaning closet, was deafening.
She looked extremely pleased with herself.
And immediately got work,.
He protested when he found her in the kitchen.
"You don't have to do that..."
She looked at him with raised eyebrow as she dumped water into a bucket via the rusty sink.
"Sempai, I have to live here too, as a public 'guard' so that everyone thinks you're actually under freakin' probation. That means I have to be within two hundred yards of you at all time. So, obviously I'd like the place where I live to be clean."
He took the filled bucket from her.
"You're not a maid."
She started to fill the second bucket.
"Yeah, but I'm not a free-loader, and I'm sure as hell not going to sleep in a dust-covered bed tonight. I'm going to need that water if you want clean sheets too."
Her movements were slightly sharp and jerky, as if she were angry about something.
He grabbed her wrist as she began to lift to next bucket.
"I can do it."
She exploded at him.
"Not nearly as well as I can!! How often in the last eight years have you slept on an actual bed? Don't answer that, because I can! Exactly eleven times!"
He released her wrist in shock. She kept going.
"And how many of those beds did you have to either clean the sheets or make the bed? None!! So obviously me, with kunoichi classes in housekeeping, living on my own for two years, and keeping house for Ibiki-chichiue and Kyoko-ka-chan six years before that, can do it much better. Now let me be!!"
(A/N - I'm sure you're all asking why she's so crabby. That'll be explained a little later.)
He stepped back, put the bucket down, turned on heel, and left the room in a silent wave of anger.
Why was she being so difficult? He just felt uncomfortable with having her clean his house.
He wasn't in the mood for her to get so comfortable. He'd forgotten how good she was at adapting.
Couldn't she be even slightly uneasy with the memory of how he'd slaughtered his clan in these very rooms? Or was she that insensitive?
-
"Y'know...He was only being a gentleman."
"Shut up, Shisui!"
Shisui straightened from where he'd been leaning against the door jamb of the kitchen, and walked toward his angry friend. Using his hands as leverage, he lifted himself onto the counter next to Mioko, and sat there.
There was silence for a time.
"Why are you so mad? You're never like this..."
She sighed and paused in her ruthless scrubbing of the rusty sink and looked at him apologetically.
"You know how I am. I don't want him thinking I'm still the weak little girl he left behind. And I hate to free-load."
Shisui smiled a little, then reached over and ruffled her hair. She swatted his hand away with a laugh.
(A/N - There. Now you know. Thing is, she's going to living there for a year, and she doesn't want to free-load or be a burden, but the main thing is that she thinks Itachi is insinuating that she's too weak, and can't do it. She thinks he still sees her as she was before he left eight years ago. Follow?)
"You should try and remember that he doesn't really know us anymore, Miho. He's got to re-learn all the things he used to know. We don't all have the luxury of having people's memories to pull from like you!"
He tugged a long strand of her bangs, and she sighed, ducking her head and hiding her eyes.
"I know. It's just hard to know what he used to think, and try to work out what he thinks now. Sometimes it hurts more than helps."
Shisui made a face by sticking his thumbs in his ears and fanning his fingers out while crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue.
"Booga Booga!"
She burst out laughing, much to his delight. When she finally stopped laughing, she hugged him lightly and turned toward the door where Itachi had disappeared.
"Thanks, Shi-kun! You're the best!", she called over her shoulder as she went through it.
The door closed behind her, and Shisui's grin slipped off of his face like the flow of oil across water. His expression was now mournful and full of longing.
He sighed and then buried his face in his hands in anguish.
"I'm such a fucking masochist..."
-
"Sempai?"
He didn't move his head from where he sat on the room of his parent's home. Footsteps slowly and cautiously approached him over the wooden roof.
He could smell her, because the wind blew at both of their backs, bringing the scent of sage to his sensitive nose.
"May I sit?"
He shrugged.
She gracefully lowered herself into a sitting position at his side, and he saw her loosen her pony-tail out of the corner of his eye. Her long hair sprang free to trace the wind, and reach out toward to sunset, glistening like a glossy raven's wing. With a sigh, she turned to look at him, and he prepared to be icy and angry toward her.
He wasn't expecting the sheepish and apologetic look on her face.
...
"Pretty sunset, huh?"
He didn't say anything. Honestly, he would prefer she left, but that would be impolite. And he'd been drilled to be always polite since almost the day he could talk.
"Are you mad at me?"
Was it her he was mad at?
Or someone else...like himself...and for what?
Would he take it out on her?
"No."
She looked startled.
"Should I be?"
Her answer was instantaneous.
"Yes."
A smile tugged at the corner of both their lips. They found switching monosyllabic roles entertaining.
"I'm sorry."
That was her.
"Why?"
He was curious.
"Because I thought you were saying I was too weak, and that you were insinuating that I was just a burden, and that helping out wouldn't change that."
She was fidgeting with her fingers like she had in that forest glade so long ago.
"Are you a burden?"
She laughed bitterly.
"I don't think so, but after how I acted, I'm not so sure."
"I am."
"Are you really?"
Her gaze was all knowing and it pierced all of his carefully constructed barriers, before tearing them to the ground. Too late, he realized.
She was under his guard and under his skin.
He wasn't sure how to answer, so he remained silent.
-
Good Kami, she wanted to smack herself!!
What a stupid question to ask! And yet...
She felt with solid certainty, the thrum of un-sureness that vibrated from him, and into her.
What was going on? Of all the people she'd saved and brought back from the very precipice of death, why was he the only one she was able to feel and read emotions with?
How could she feel them, knowing they weren't her own, and not go right ahead and admit herself to Konoha's mental asylum before she did something stupid?
She reached out her hand, and ran her index finger along the scar-like crease underneath his eyes.
A spark of surprise went through him, and she had to hold back a smirk. Really, knowing his emotions made this just too easy.
"We should heal your eyes. I can do that, you know."
He just gazed at her, before lifting a hand and catching her wrist in it. He slowly lowered it from his face, and she did her best to hide the hurt she felt at the obvious rejection. It wasn't as if she didn't deserve it, after all.
"Miho...how did you bring me back? I was dead."
She resisted the sigh that rose up in her throat. That question would have come along sooner or later, even if she did prefer later.
"It's a long story...", she began.
He motioned around them, at the stillness and silence.
"We have time."
So they did...
She actually did sigh this time.
-
He watched as her face turned inward in discomfort and unhappiness.
"I honestly don't know how I can do it. All I really know is that I can do it..."
she shifted a little, but he remained quiet and kept his gaze trained on her face.
"What I do...I bring people back...not from death, but from the very edge of it. I call back your soul, using my chakra..."
His eyebrows rose, and she gave him a sad smile.
"I know it sounds weird, but that's the way it is."
He motioned for her to continue, and she made an unhappy face.
"All of your bodily functions could be down; your heart could stop and you could be declared medically dead, but as long as there's even a shred of your soul, or whatever it is because I'm not sure, but soul's the best word for it, I can catch it with my chakra, and drag it back into your body. That's exactly what I did with you."
(A/N - I know you're all goin 'What the Hell??', but this is what she does. She drags the soul back into the body via chakra.)
"I can't save everyone. Some people have been medically dead far too long, and the soul isn't there anymore, or the wounds are too great to heal, like they bled out, or were hit some where that severed the spinal column, or were blown to itsy-bitsy, less than bite-sized chunks."
He almost wrinkled his nose at the disgusting thought of a happy Deidara standing over a pile of oozing, bloody guts he'd just created with his so called 'art'.
"But, with you, and Shi-kun, your bodies were dead, but both of your souls were still there, and I could feel it. I brought back Shi-kun on accident, and I should tell you that bringing someone back has side effects..."
There was a long period of silence, and then she looked him straight in the eye with the look of someone so jaded and old, he had to do a quick once over of her body to be sure he wasn't talking to an old biddy.
"When I bring someone back...I see their memories. All of them, from the time they were born up until the time they need my attention. So I know all about the Uchiha story, and what you thought and felt through it. I felt Shi-kun's feelings as you drowned him, and Genma's feelings at loosing the only woman he's ever loved, and that's what made him a playboy. I see all of it, and there isn't a thought or feeling I don't see or feel. And I can pull it all up at need."
She placed her face in her hands, and her shoulders slumped like she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"But sometimes, there are memories and experiences I don't want to see. They'll even pop up when I least want them. It's so tiring to bring someone back, but then to carry their memories? It's exhausting, and I just feel...so old..."
(A/N - I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting bored with the scene, and if this shit keeps going on as it is, we'll hit ten thousand words by the end of the chapter. I don't know about you guys, again, but I think that's just a tad bit long. So, I'm going to cut this kinda short. Besides, now that you know how it's done, we don't need to keep discussing it. On we go...)
He hesitated for a moment before reaching out a hand and putting it on her head, ruffling her hair. She looked up at him with overly bright eyes, and he made the kind decision to ignore that. She swatted at his hand.
"Stop that!", she snapped.
"Sempai, I'm almost twenty years old, I've had some boyfriends, and I know I've had more kisses in my lifetime than you have. Don't pat my hair like I'm a child."
He frowned, and that earned a smirk from her.
"Yeah, yeah. You may have been my first kiss, but you sure as hell weren't the last."
"I was your first?"
She bit her lip at the overstep information she'd given him, and he could have sworn she was blushing, but with his bad eyes, he couldn't tell. To be sure, he lifted a hand and placed it against her cheek, meaning it as a purely platonic gesture. What he wasn't expecting was the burst of heat that danced across her skin as he touched her.
OR the answering thrum of heat that rolled through his veins in response.
She took his wrist in her hand and pulled it away, but unlike his similar gesture, she kept hold of his wrist, keeping it somewhere near her stomach.
"You really shouldn't do that...", was all she murmured in a soft, dark tone that was entirely un-platonic.
Then she dropped his hand, and smiled at him in a harmless way with an un-reddened face. The sun had long since set.
"We should go in, it's getting cold, and we need to go out for dinner."
With that, she stood and offered him her hand.
"Time to go, Itachi-sempai."
Her took her hand and stood. It wasn't until much later, as he was eating in the secluded corner of a shady restaurant that he realized that she'd said his name for the first time since they'd reunited.
-
The next morning was perhaps the strangest in his life so far.
First of all, he woke in his room in the Uchiha compound, with light streaming into his room via his window. It was like a mix of déjà vu and nostalgia.
Next was when Shisui burst through his door, yelling a greeting as he jumped onto him and began to try to tickle him. He'd been suitably surprised and didn't think to get out of the bed, but instead wriggled around, and ended up wrestling with his annoying cousin. Which resulted in lots of yelling and laughing by Shisui.
Which woke Mioko, which led to the third component in his strange morning.
He saw her with her hair truly down, mussed from sleep, as she leaned against his door frame in nothing a large green and blue stripped T-shirt, and what looked like black panties, as Shisui jumped out of bed, grabbed her, and pulled her into the fray. She joined the 'Tickle Itachi' plan enthusiastically, and he found himself not only tumbling with his cousin, but with a very warm, very soft female body as well.
One who knew exactly where all of his most sensitive places were, and used that knowledge to full advantage.
Which led to the smallest of laughs leaving his lips, and freezing both of his assailants, who stared at him before cheering and redoubling their efforts.
Which led to tiring all three of them, and they ended up all jumbled together on Itachi's futon, Shisui on the bottom, his head at the bottom edge of the futon, and Miho on top, her feet on Shisui's head, and her head resting comfortably on his chest, one hand playing with his shirt as he ran a hand over her hair.
(A/N - I'm sure this is another of those 'What the hell?!' moments for you, but I'm trying to drive the point of just how romantic their relationship really is to you guys. Most of the story is about making them both mentally admit to it, and then act on it. And I've obviously set up sexual tension, but what's a good story without it, honestly?")
When the finally got up, it was almost noon, and they settled for going out to eat.
Again.
As they walked through the village, Itachi became aware of lots of pointing fingers and whispered comments being directed at him. He supposed he should have seen it coming.
What made it strange started with the loud "Oi, Uchiha-bastard!!"
He turned his head, and he registered a blonde, orange, and black blur streaking toward him. He heard the soft 'Shiick' of weapons leaving holsters as Shisui and Mioko prepared to defend him, if needed.
Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage, skidded to a stop no more than two inches from him and glared up t him. He gazed back levelly. The demon container jabbed a finger up close to his nose.
"I have one question!"
"Oh, this had better be good, Uzumaki...", he heard Shisui mutter.
"Is the story that you were ordered to murder the Uchiha clan true? Yes, or no!"
He raised a single eyebrow at the boy with enough idiocy to rival Shisui's.
"Yes."
"And that you agreed to leave me alone?"
"That's two questions, you moron."
That cynical tone was Mioko.
Black eyes met blue as he answered.
"Yes."
Naruto blinked, and lowered his accusing finger.
"So...wait. You're a good guy now?"
He was tempted to point out that being 'good' was all relevant to perspective, and in the shinobi world, such a word had no meaning and the only people who spouted it were either Grade A hypocrites, or S-class optimistic idiots. He could not refrain, however, from a small dig.
"I believe the appropriate response would be 'Duh'."
Turns out sarcasm pushed Naruto's buttons. He exploded and yelled about Uchihas being sarcastic ass-holes who needed to be bitch-slapped.
A black-gloved fist came down with cracking force on his head, ending his tirade.
The pink-haired terror had arrived, and as she began to yell and shake him, scolding him about teasing dogs that would bite back, or some such nonsense. With a smirk, he reached out and took one of her hands.
She froze, surprise evident in her green eyes. He pressed a single kiss to the back of her hand, and bowed.
"I apologize for my idiot brother, and how he foolishly let you out of his grasp. Hopefully he'll come around. It would be such a shame if he were to loose you."
Then he straightened, turned, and began walking again. Mioko and Shisui fell in beside him as they headed for breakfast.
She elbowed him, fake pouting.
"You didn't kiss my hand when you came back. Thanks for letting me know how special I am, Sempai."
His hand became a blur as he swung it around her waist and pulled her to him, hip to hip. Her face was inches from his as he asked her with a smirk on his face:
"Would you like me to make it up to you, Miho?"
She turned the deepest color red he'd ever seen, and shoved against his chest. When he didn't loosen fast enough for her taste, she braced her knee and lower leg against his thigh, and pushed. She was free of his arms and two feet away before she smiled.
"That's okay, Sempai. I'd prefer that you actually mean it first."
"Are you guys...flirting??"
Shisui's mouth couldn't have been slacker. Mioko pulled a camera out of her kunai pouch and snapped a quick picture. She laughed, turned and kept walking.
"Maybe!", she called over her shoulder as the moved to join her.
Strange morning indeed.
But he found he didn't mind at all.
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E/N - WOOOW. Over 6,000 words. Crap, that's my longest yet. Anyway, this was obviously the transtionary chapter. Itachi can be in Konoha without being hunted, we learn a little about his relationships with Shisui and Mioko (Yes, I know it's fluffy, but I felt it was deserved.)
Next chapter will get things moving. The Elders will come in, as well as Danzo, and there will be a ton of petty arguing on their side.
Also, we're going to take a quick jump over to see Sasuke. After all, I think that was mentioned in the summary.
Anyway, I'm really pleased with this chapter, and how Itachi's character in shaping up. But I'm sure a few of you don't.
If you don't, well I'm sorry. Review (politely), and maybe make some suggestions. I promise to think about them.
So remember boys and girls, Reviews Love.
Please show it.