Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in it.
XV.
The first minutes were rather awkward. Itachi's presence truly did smother the original cordial atmosphere, as he previously predicted. Fortunately, it was restored soon enough and everyone developed something of a passive attitude toward Itachi. As if he wasn't there. Moreover, the two kotatsu tables, pasted one to another, were perfect squares and every single one of the attendants could sit next to their significant other.
That eased the conversations. Jakushi and Itachi happened to be on the two far ends but while Jakushi took part in most of the conversations, Itachi rarely even raised his eyes to the ones around him. She made an attempt to enforce herself a festive mood but everything broke down whenever she looked at him, more quiet and dreary than ever.
Her eyes stood there, on him, for a bit more. Was he thinking about his mother and father? Probably. That murderous sorrow that one couldn't hide or replace with anything was written all over his face and there wasn't a way or a path through which you can escape, save yourself from it. Jakushi had tried a lot of ways until she came to the realization not one helped. Sorrow had to be lived through, every horrible second of it.
"I plan... a game after the dinner," Sakura announced and bit her lip. "You're gonna love it."
"You need to make parties more often," Naruto remarked, more to himself and the other agreed.
Sakura's enthusiasm just gushed out throughout the whole day. The heart of the company.
"I'm not going to play," Itachi spoke and dragged the attention. He was looking at Sakura. "I'm sorry. Will it be a problem?"
"Of course not," Sakura replied, although with a bit of a delay. "But I was just about to say the participation is compulsory."
The silence that expanded like a bubble of vacuum every time Itachi reminded of himself occurred once again. As if his voice was most unusual and unexpected, presenting a surprising event.
"I'm convinced you'll be able to play without me. I hope that won't offend you."
Sakura slowly placed back her napkin on the table.
"Then you'll receive a punishment." She smiled lightly. "You will have to stay in the room and watch us play."
After a few seconds of thinking, he agreed with a nod and Sakura was happy with the developments. Jakushi silently thanked Sakura for the genius approach. If he was to sink into depression, at least it promised to be harder in the presence of everyone else.
The dinner was over in minutes. Jakushi helped Sakura cleaning up and setting the tables in order. She felt the urge to ask her friend what did she have in mind but Sakura refused to clear up anything before they get together and start. As they were nearly finished, though, Jakushi noticed that Itachi was missing.
"Sakura, I'll be right back." She warned and left the room to look for him. Under no circumstances was he to remain alone, he wasn't allowed to remain alone. The reasons why were far too many.
Wandering through the rooms, in the beginning, led her to the thought that he was probably not in the house. Not quite. It was logical to find him on a place in particular, actually, and she truly found him there. The engawa, with the view of the garden, enveloped the house in two sides and was long enough to have a place for a dozen people.
Itachi stood with his characteristic stillness but with her first step outside he felt her presence. Instead of breaking the silence, she just stopped next to him and her eyes observed the lifeless garden in front of them. She wished the scenery wasn't as cold and dark. Didn't help one much, in keeping his joy. Or whatever it was everyone forced themselves to feel so that they won't feel the rest of it. The house, the garden... they pulled you back into the past and that was the worst destination.
"Do you know what people usually do on this holiday?" He asked quietly.
Jakushi's heart sunk within her. Of course, she knew. But preferred to avoid the thought. The Rinne Festival wasn't only for giving away presents. It was for remembrance, for the ones forever lost.
"Today I heard..." He started again but paused, narrowing eyes, estimating if his voice would endure.
Jakushi looked at him, her eyes already blurred.
"I heard a boy talking with his father. He asked to climb over, on his father's shoulders. I thought... it's probably a nice feeling, to be carried. Why didn't I ever ask of my father such a thing?"
Jakushi averted her gaze and wiped her tears angrily. There was nothing she could do with the tears. They were just out of her power and will and she couldn't stop them.
The sigh that came out of Itachi was shattered in pieces. Jakushi let out a tortured chuckle, noticing how the pain threatened to crush down him too but he was apparently stronger than her. Of course, he was. Despite the fact that his pain was much greater.
"I hate this day." She whispered. "I hate it to the very bottom of my heart."
"I've got the feeling that... I have no right to feel this way." Itachi pondered. "As if it's not right for me to miss them. But I do miss them."
"They knew you loved them." Jakushi's voice was barely heard. "Every parent knows his children love him. Even if they haven't said it out loud."
"You're right but... still."
"Yes. It hurts. Trust me, I know."
The brief pause just felt like an anchor, clung to both of them. They sunk deeper and deeper with every passing second. She usually missed her mother and it hurt her not more than she expected. But sometimes the memory of her left her with no hope. A hot iron incised through her skin. She could neither breathe nor function. And her tears just fell and fell until the moment they were of no use. Until the moment she reminded herself that somehow, her father and brother needed her. Konoha needed her.
"We should go back," Itachi said to her quietly. "They must be waiting for us."
Jakushi tried to wipe away her tears again and nodded. But as she stepped toward the door, Itachi stopped her hesitatingly with hand. He pulled out a small box from his pocket and stepped to her.
"What is this?" She kept talking in the same barely discernable tone.
"A gift." He opened the box. "It was my mother's. I want you to have it."
The hairpin was traditional, onyx black through the length, with an adoration of three crimson roses at the end. Jakushi was fascinated, the pin was strikingly beautiful but she just couldn't express it. In fact, the tears streamed down her cheeks as she met his eyes and shook her head, certain that she's not able to speak.
"Take it. You don't need to wear it." Itachi closed the box and placed it in her hand.
"Thank you. I know what it means to you."
"Where are you, people?" Sakura showed up on the engawa and nailed in place, dumbfounded.
"We're coming." Jakushi put on her brightest smile and hid her hands behind her back. "We were just coming."
"Great." Sakura murmured, surely confused by the tears in Jakushi's eyes. "Everyone's waiting."
Jakushi exchanged glances with Itachi and both walked back to the dining room, following Sakura.
Sakura's game wasn't complicated at all. She told everyone to write something that can be enacted within the range of possibility, on small pieces of paper. The idea was that the notes were folded and gathered in one place. No one knew what he was about to draw. The text depended a lot on the person who wrote it. After the last piece of paper has been drawn, the order of the participants turned around, with new ideas.
If Sakura had any idea in how much trouble she got into with this game, she'd never ever suggest it again in her life, especially in this company. After a bit of minor violence, a bit of laughter and almost cross people, finally came her turn. But after five long minutes, she still stared at her note.
"She was pale two minutes ago, now she's flushed red. Someone check what the hell is written on that note." Temari folded hands.
"No!" Sakura pulled away sharply when Shikamaru decided Temari's words had to be executed as soon as possible. The reactions were reactions but the game needed to go on at least at some time and Sakura just didn't make a move.
She crumpled the note in her clenched fist.
"I know who wrote this."
"No!"
"Sakura!"
A few troubled voices screamed at once when she headed straight to Naruto with the idea of knocking him down with a single blow. Jakushi smirked at the mass panic, raised with the sight of Sakura's angered expression.
"What's your problem?" She narrowed eyes but Naruto was laughing out loud.
"It's just a game, a game you invented, at that. I had no idea it will be you!"
After a foursome couldn't handle her, Sasuke joined in and mastered the situation, allowing her to regain control once again. She exhaled sharply and pulled away from him, pacing back to the kitchen.
"Naruto, what did you write?" Hinata whispered in curiosity.
"We're about to find out." Ino bit her lower lip, following Sakura as she left the room.
Jakushi had leaned on one of the couches due to the lack of free space, she cared not for sitting anyway. The view was good enough from there too. She could observe everyone perfectly from her current angle. Including Itachi - the only one who acted up to standard, in a plausible manner and usual silence. He was standing in the corner of the room and played something like the grown-up, the one who was responsible the kids wouldn't hurt each other while playing.
Sakura returned with a glass, full of water and a thunderous expression on the face, whereat everyone became quickly silent. She neared Sasuke and sat next to him.
"I'll knockout him and he'll be laying in a hospital for a week because of this," Sakura mumbled, looking at Sasuke. "You can do whatever you want with him afterward."
Within the second Sakura poured out the glass over Sasuke the whole room burst into laughter. Jakushi saw Itachi covering his face with a hand and it only made her laugh more. Surely that was a bit too much of what he could handle, a band of empty-headed fools having fun in his house.
Sasuke and Sakura were frozen in their places in one long minute before Sasuke finally decided to face Naruto, soaked wet. Sakura slowly put the glass back on the table and also fixed her eyes upon him.
The laughter gradually faded until it became completely extinct and was replaced by pure terror.
"Sasuke, are you alright? Sakura?" Naruto asked carefully. "This is just a game."
"Run before it's too late." Shikamaru gave him a quiet hint, being the one closest to him.
Violet flames enveloped Sasuke as he stood up and Naruto jumped, hiding behind the couch.
"We'll bring down the house, stop it!"
"Sasuke, calm down." Shikamaru and Temari stood up too, suddenly worried about Sasuke's self-control. The history of it, missing, marked a worrying amount of cases.
"I'll deal with you tomorrow." Sasuke narrowed eyes, looking through the matter of the couch.
His flames disappeared, though, and he headed out of the room, probably to change his clothes.
Jakushi barely held her laughter. The game turned out so much fun.
"Is it safe?" Naruto's muffled voice washed away the tension and the laughter renewed. He returned to his seat and Hinata leaned on him, their faces meeting in a mutual expression of joy.
"Whose turn are we missing?"
"Temari. And Jakushi." Ino reminded.
"Oh, you can go without me." Jakushi intervened, gesturing with hand.
"You are not getting out." Sai sent a timid smile her way.
Temari sighed with exasperation and leaned to take a note from the table but with the reading of her note, she burst into laughter.
"Alright... I have to choose. Whether to hit the one on my right on the one on my left."
Jakushi bit her lip. The situation was pretty interesting. She was the one of the right, Shikamaru - on the left.
"Sorry, I cannot hit a girl, given the fact that you're a possibility, dear." Temari gifted Shikamaru with a warm smile before bashing him to the ground.
"They hit hard in Suna," Naruto remarked matter-of-factly, after observing the scene. "I didn't believe the rumors."
"Now you do." Shikamaru moaned, trying to crawl back to his place.
"It seems..." Sasuke returned and sat next to Sakura. "I missed a lot."
"We're going to start a new war because of you, Forehead." Ino scolded.
Jakushi reached for the last note on the table. She prayed it was about hitting someone. These were her favorite. But... she'd live through pinching or whatever of the weird things the group made up by now. She opened the note and remained still for a few seconds. Well... so far with hitting people.
"Ino, that's your handwriting, right?" Jakushi asked and raised the note up after a long silence and staring into it.
"Yes." Ino giggled. "Kiss the one closest to you."
"Typically Ino." Shikamaru shook his head disapprovingly.
"Shut up... As if your idea was genius. You're no fun." Ino attacked him right away.
"I agree," Sai added after her, as an echo.
"We can't be acting like children forever. The kiss trend died long ago. You're out of date. Also, Shikamaru's ideas are always genius." Temari joined in the fight.
Jakushi was pinned into her note. Closest? She definitely wasn't going to kiss Sakura or Temari. On the other side, Ino hadn't cleared up whether she's speaking metaphorically or not, right? There weren't many people close to her. Close... whom did she feel close? Her family was a family. Her team, too. Close but not closest. Closest pointed toward a singularity. It was time for her to pick a side.
"Ino, stop it." Sakura sighed.
"I thought that as my friend you'll protect my interests." Ino narrowed eyes. "Shikamaru is in a full sage mode again, lecturing me."
"Sorry." Temari shrugged. "I'm with him this time."
"Traitor."
Jakushi left the note on the table unnoticeably and raised her eyes. Itachi had his eyes fixed on her with a strictly defensive expression. Definitely against it. He surely assumed that he had no power over her, not over her decisions, neither her intentions.
Consequences.
Yes... the consequences could turn out horrible. She reached that conclusion after a thorough thinking. But she reached another one as well. That Itachi was worth it.
"Please! No quarrels or fighting." Sakura interfered, furrowing. After no one heard her, she turned to Sasuke with a judging tone. "This is your house. Aren't you gonna help me at least with something? Or you want it razed to the ground...
"The party was your idea. You're on your own."
Jakushi crossed the space between them quietly and felt his eyes on her. When she neared him a pace away, her eyes raised to meet his with a slight sadness. She wasn't sure what she was dooming herself or what she was dooming him to but that Sharingan was remarkable. Remarkable and unique.
The fact that it was permanently in his eyes was the real reason for her sadness. As if the world was permanently at war through these eyes. And the world wasn't only war. It offered a lot of things, some of them were... nice. She raised her hand to touch his face. A face that's seen much more battles that it should have.
"At least Sakura is on my side." Temari continued loudly.
"Come on, guys. Cut it off." Naruto was already laughing but made serious attempts to sound authoritative. "You're scaring Hinata to death. I suggest we go on with the game."
"He's right. We've gathered to have fun not fight." Sakura folded hands. "I too could beat Naruto's ass but I didn't because I'm civilized."
"Oh, shut up-" Ino snubbed her but her voice faded suddenly and everyone wondered what pacified her so quickly. There weren't many things in the world that could do that.
In fact, Ino was watching with downright astonishment at the other side of the room. In the few seconds of silence, Jakushi diligently performed her challenge and Itachi, on the other side, looked like he's been having the intentions of struggling, holding her hand in an attempt to stop her but had failed at it. Sakura was the one to react first, after a whole eternity in shock, coughing to get the attention.
Jakushi hoped her opinion was stated clearly enough. Despite using the game as an excuse, her kiss was a contract. She finally made peace. And took the responsibility for it. Because it seems that if you're with everyone, you're against Itachi and if you're with Itachi, you're against everyone.
"Can we continue with the game?" Strangely, the voice belonged to Sasuke.
Apparently, it had the needed impact because Itachi pulled away from Jakushi at the very second and their gazes parted from one another. Itachi was about to speak but Jakushi forestalled him.
"We'll go and fetch the desserts from the kitchen. You can continue."
After which she disappeared in the next room. Itachi too didn't remain under everyone's the piercing gazes and followed her silently.
"I think I wanna be part of the group I'm not going to play for the next game," Shikamaru announced, noticing how Temari slightly blushed at his words.
"Let them mind their own business." Ino's voice was unusually timid.
Her remark caused the meeting of Sakura and Sasuke's eyes. This time they held them for a little longer.
Jakushi pulled out the two floral plates with the sweets from the refrigerator and left them on the plot, her eyes pinned down to them. Then she reached back for the additional bowl of cookies she made with Sakura earlier but Itachi took it before her and mirrored her movements, placing it slowly next to the others.
"What?" Jakushi sighed. "Why are you looking at me like that? Don't tell me you didn't see it coming. You're an Uchiha, right?"
"I feared you might do it." Itachi skipped through her irony, his expression was angry. "I thought we agreed on something. You shouldn't have-"
He took a breath and exhaled sharply.
"Of course I should've." It was her turn to raise her voice, leaning on the plot.
"Very brave of you. It's not as great as you think it is."
"What's not as great, me being so close? Me being in love with you?"
The color from his usually pale face seemed to disappear, the reaction ascending with every word she spoke out. Jakushi felt the inconvenience within her. She felt as if inciting or rather forcing everything.
"You don't know what you're saying." Itachi regained his cold tone but it was too late to scare her.
"You won't stop me."
"I'll wait for the moment when you renounce me and when that happens, surely not after a long time, I'll be happy that you're gone, once and for all."
Jakushi trembled barely noticeable. There, his other weapon. Perhaps he thought she won't discern his strategy, he was actually quite transparent. The problem wasn't that he tried with cruelty so that she would burn herself and choose to walk away on her own. It was in the way he instinctively took a hostile position without assuming that she has been trained to withstand and endure. The pain was part of everything. And she agreed to endure everything.
"Go on." She folded hands. "You can even use physical force if you'd like."
"I can't leave you to this." He tried to put sense into her ridiculous behavior.
"You'll have to do it. Some will despise me, others humiliate me. I'm sure there will be some that will understand my decision."
Jakushi paused and lowered her voice with the realization of another thing.
"Someone might try to kill me."
"Then I might try to leave him alive."
She trembled again. It would've been a joke with anyone else. With him, she wasn't so sure. A dark flame burned within his eyes. And his tone was so categorical that she felt a tinge afraid. The last time he sounded so severe was when she had angered him back in that cave they spent a night in. That line didn't sound affectedly protective at all, it was hundred percent intimidating and as a whole, not a good idea, knowing how skilled he was in torture. So Jakushi couldn't afford to have it.
"Look... we'll protect each other. You..." Her hand slightly touched his, "won't kill anyone. No need. I'll be very happy-"
"You won't be happy with me."
"If you accept that I need to be with you." Jakushi finished slowly, as she had started but unexpectedly his eyes dimmed. She could swear her words caused some kind of a catastrophic state in him but it was a rather surprising reaction. Here it was, the essence.
Jakushi gave him an awry smile not really sure how they ended up like this. She stepped to him and was tempted to leave him in that condition for a little longer. She hated to confess it but the weaker he got, the stronger she became. And that unique phenomenon, Uchiha, dragged to the utter verge of an emotion that had a visible outcome meant she had won completely.
Itachi averted his head aside, disappointed in himself but her quiet chuckle, so close to his skin crawled underneath and hit its mark.
"You have no intentions of giving up on me." He announced sadly and let her hug him.
"Never."
"Don't use that word." For her surprise, he hugged her back, pressing her closer to himself. "You have no control over time. Or faith."
Jakushi's happiness was going to be full if it wasn't the blinding brilliance that flashed in front of her eyes for a split second. It was like a needle pricking. Brief but with slight pain. She pulled away from him a bit, in confusion. That wasn't the light from the lamp in the room, was it? What happened with her vision? Apparently, it was from her because she was the one to react.
"Is everything alright?" He asked quietly as their foreheads touched.
"You tell me." Jakushi chuckled, deciding that she'll turn her back on these intrusive thoughts.
She had become so paranoid that she couldn't even enjoy her moments of joy... She was positive it was her imagination. Since it was capable of many things.
"Perhaps not as much as I want to. But enough." Itachi admitted.
"The desserts!" She reminded, still chuckling. "I think everyone in the next room is terribly scared of us."
"You'll have to get used to it. It's like that with me."
A/N: Thanks a lot for reading! Thank a lot to the new ones that joined too! I appreciate your feedback and I'm always open to hearing an opinion and critique as well.
I'm currently having a hard time with updating because my exams started. So I'm sorry if the updates become infrequent or I disappear for more than a week, I promise I'll be back as soon as I can.
Hope you liked this one. A little comic relief from all the fuss. I finally got to unite these two, whew. Anyway, have a lovely day and until next time!