-xXXXx-
Mother Nature was not as kind the next morning as the day before. As the light bled into the city, the clouds painted themselves across the sky and brought with them not the question of 'will it rain,' but more like 'when?'
The team was currently standing at the gates of the Capital, waiting for the ambassador and Kakashi to arrive. Itachi was enjoying the cool air and in a much better mood thanks to the three hours of sleep when he surprisingly slept like the dead, therefore Shisui was in a good mood and became more talkative. Standing off to the side, though, Gio was silently pouting. He felt cheated because the next two days were supposed to be completely sunny, and now he had to spend the next week or so under constant cloud-cover (he had been around rain long enough to tell that this storm, when it started, would not let up anytime soon and that it was moving in the direction they were travelling). Shisui noticed something was bothering him and asked about it, but Gio just shook his head and stood straighter when he saw his captain and the ambassador approaching.
The ambassador was the epitome of a stereotypical politician from the capital. Round from stuffing his face with food paid for by the peoples' taxes, a holier-than-thou look about him, decorated with extravagent clothes. Gio hated him already. Though it wasn't a personal issue (he was sure he would hate any other politician), he knew what it was like to be poor enough to where fifteen percent of your family's income completely screwed you over and took away your food for the next week. And here were people like this guy, more worried about what he's going to wear to tonight's party than selling himself for the night so he and his mother can have a meal for once, and hoping so much that the drunk man three times his age who keeps looking at him doesn't have any kind of STD's.
Gio forced himself to not scowl at the man as he approached on his horse and Kakashi gave a slightly confused look at Gio's tense posture. Itachi and Shisui stood at attention as Kakashi cleared his throat.
"This is Ambassador Kanto, as I'm sure you know," he introduced. Kanto gave a smug smile as if he thought everyone should know his name. Gio twitched. Kakashi faced Kanto and gestured to the team. "Ambassador Kanto, this is Katsumi Gio, Uchiha Shisui, and Uchiha Itachi. We will be escorting you to Amegakure."
"Uchiha Itachi, huh?" Kanto mused, stroking his beard. Shisui saw the corner of Itachi's mouth barely twitch down at the immediate scrutiny. "I'm glad Konohagakure is so concerned for my well being that they would send their precious prodigè." He gave Itachi another appraising look, much to the teen's discomfort. "... Even as injured as he is."
"You have my word that my injuries will not affect my performance, Kanto-sama," Itachi stated lowly, and both Shisui and Gio heard the distaste in his voice. Gio refrained from grinning.
"See that they don't," Kanto said dismissively, as if now bored with the conversation. Shisui furrowed his eyebrows at Kanto's behavior, but Kakashi glanced at him and Shisui shut up.
"All politicians are like that," Gio muttered to Shisui when Kanto's attention was on Kakashi again.
"He's an ass," Shisui muttered back.
Itachi rolled his eyes at them. "Behave."
"Yessir," Gio drawled.
"We're leaving," Kakashi said pointedly, and the three turned to look at him. Kanto examined his nails. "We'll travel until lunch time, and then continue on until dinner. It will take three days for us to reach the border, and then one more day to reach Amegakure." Kakashi paused here, and from what Gio could tell it looked like he was trying to repress a sigh as he glanced at the expensive-looking cloth draped over Kanto and his horse. "We'll need to watch out for more bandits, as well."
"They always seem to go after the rich ones," Kanto sighed. "Sometimes it's surprising how they can always tell a politician from a normal man."
It's your gods damn clothes, you fat fuck, Gio seethed internally with a light scowl. How the hell do you expect us to get there without any confrontation when you're wearing fucking sewn gold?
Is he that dense? Shisui wondered incredulously.
Itachi pinched their hands discreetly and they recomposed their expressions.
"I'll lead the way until we get the border," Kakashi went on. "Itachi and Gio will follow on either side of Kanto-sama and Shisui will take up the rear in the trees to keep an eye out." The copy-cat nin fixed his gaze on a certain red-head, wordlessly telling him to not act recklessly. Gio frowned.
A unanimous, "Hai."
"...Then let's mosey!" Kakashi said rather cheerfully, ruining the almost serious effect the situation had as he smiled behind his mask.
"...Seriously?" Shisui asked.
"He's odd," Itachi explained.
"And proud of it," Kakashi retorted smugly. "I bet you can't look as good with hair like mine."
"But aren't you, like, thirty-something?" Gio wondered aloud.
"I'm twenty-two!" Kakashi sputtered indignantly.
"Are we going?" Itachi asked pointedly. Gio apparently felt like being in a sudden friendly mood and swung an arm over his shoulder with a grin. "...Do you enjoy your organs fully functioning?
Kanto was chortling at them, which earned him quite a few cold looks. (Not that he noticed, of course.)
-xXx-
By some miraculous reason, they did not encounter any bandits in the first few hours. They were, however, annoyed by the fact that they were expected to stop for a few hours when lunch rolled around.
"I understand stopping for lunch," Gio muttered quietly into his canteen, sitting with Shisui and Itachi in a small circle a few yards away from Kanto and Kakashi, who were chatting. Gio pursed his lips in annoyance. "But three damn hours?"
"He's not used to how we shinobi operate," Itachi muttered in Kanto's defence, managing to eat his small lunch perfectly fine with one hand. His other arm was still in it's sling, slender fingers idly messing with the hem of his shirt, though the splint had been taken off as Gio had healed it quite a bit the previous night before any of them had gone to bed.
Shisui shrugged his indifference, mouth full of rice.
"True, but even civilians can't eat for three hours straight..." Gio's gaze was drawn to the flash of skin shown as Itachi fiddled with his shirt. With the rim of his canteen still pressed to his lips, Gio thoughtfully chewed the inside of his cheek as he watched the younger Uchiha. His legs were folded neatly under him and the small bento sat on his knees. Another flash of skin, and Gio watched his fingers roll up the hem of his shirt a few times before unrolling it. Itachi seemed to not even realize what he was doing and continued eating. Though he wasn't showing much skin, the peek that Gio got was enough to see a glimpse of an angular hip. The pale skin almost made the red-head want to run his hands over it to see if it was as soft as it looked. His gaze travelled to Itachi's other arm, watching the repeated process of raising and lowering as the young Uchiha ate. His arms were just as pale as his hips and again Gio refrained from reaching out and touching him. His wrist was thin, but not unnaturally so, and his fingers were long. He moved with such fluidness that made even the simple task of eating look graceful on him.
Shisui's eyes looked up at how Gio's sentence had trailed off, and he saw the red-head watching his cousin. Shisui's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he looked to Itachi. The long-haired Uchiha was silently chewing whatever he had raised to his mouth, eyes closed and unaware to the scrutiny he was receiving.
Shisui's eyes shifted back to Gio and he unconsciously narrowed them. He felt a spike of some dark emotion, surprising him, but the surprise wasn't able to stop him before he barked out Gio's name.
"Katsumi."
Gio's eye slowly slid to him as Itachi opened his eyes to look at him in surprise at the hostility in his voice. Shisui felt himself almost glaring at the red-head, navy eyes meeting emerald.
Gio seemed to read his eyes for a moment, before a small smirk graced his lips. He moved the canteen in a way that Itachi couldn't see his lips before mouthing, 'Jealous?'
The effect was instant. Shisui jerked back, eyes widening in shock as if someone had slapped him. Gio's smirk widened, and Itachi glanced between the two confusedly.
"Shisui?" the younger Uchiha asked.
Shisui eyes flickered to his cousin, catching the subtle changes in his expression that showed he was beginning to get concerned. He moved his gaze back to Gio, and couldn't help but smirk at what he saw.
His gaze lowered back to his food, raising his chopsticks to his mouth again after saying a pointed, "Your water," just as a splattering sound reached their ears.
Gio looked down to see that he had poured his water on himself, right on his crotch area.
"Fuck!" he said eloquently.
Itachi's mouth had tilted up slightly. Shisui's shoulders were shaking with controlled laughter. Kakashi and Kanto looked over just as Gio stood up and was swiping at the spot as if trying to brush off dirt.
"Katsumi?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah?" the red-head asked, turning slightly to look at him. The copycat nin raised an eyebrow at him.
"Couldn't wait to get to a bush?" he asked dryly.
Gio flushed. Shisui was laughing out loud now, and Itachi had soft chuckles escaping him.
"That's not it!" Gio complained. "I spilled my water!"
"Uh-huh," Kakashi replied noncommitedly, turning back to his lunch.
"It's true!" Gio huffed.
Shisui's mirth had been restrained to snickers and he looked at Itachi just as the younger Uchiha looked at him, his shoulders shaking slightly from his silent laughing and a smile on his face. His onyx eyes were shining with something Shisui hadn't seen in them since before the murders and the answering smile that bloomed on his own face made Itachi's smile grow.
He looks... He cut that sentence off before he could even begin to wonder what he had just almost thought.
...beautiful?
"Alright," Kakashi called, standing up. Itachi's eyes were drawn to their leader, not catching how Shisui's face changed from amusement to shock. Kakashi looked them over, raising an eyebrow at Shisui's expression. "We'll go, now."
"Already?" Kanto exclaimed in surprise.
"Kanto-sama," Kakashi began, looking to the man who had been eating what looked to be very expensive food. "We've been here for an hour and a half. I understand that you aren't used to this kind of schedule, but we are on a time limit and we usually do not spend even an hour for lunch."
Kanto seemed to ponder this before sighing and nodding. Gio was internally whooping. Externally he was still pouting, of course.
Itachi had put the remains of his lunch back in his bag, and then turned to his cousin, who hadn't moved. He frowned at the dark contemplating look on his face as Gio walked over to Kakashi and tried to save his dignity by arguing.
"Shisui?"
Shisui snapped out of whatever daze he was in, blinking at Itachi as if was surprised he was there. He noticed the others behind Itachi.
"Oh, we're leaving," he mumbled, seemingly not all there yet. He started packing his things. Itachi frowned again.
"Shisui, tell me what's on your mind," he told the older Uchiha as he stood.
Shisui stood as well, "It's nothing."
Itachi pursed his lips, unhappy about being brushed off like that. Why is he... "Shisui, what's wrong?"
"Me," the other Uchiha mumbled lowly, but Itachi's ears picked it up.
"You?" he asked sharply. Shisui cursed under his breath and walked past him. "Shisui," Itachi demanded, reaching out with his good hand and grabbing his arm.
Both paused at the sudden warmth that jolted through their bodies. Itachi blinked in surprise and almost pulled his hand back, but the feeling was so pleasant that he left it.
"What...?" he murmured in confusion.
"I don't know yet," Shisui replied to his earlier question, and Itachi felt for some reason disappointed that Shisui didn't seem to notice the warmth. His cousin wasn't looking at him. "Just let me think, okay?"
Itachi's lips pursed, unhappy that Shisui wouldn't talk to him. "Fine," he said, and only Shisui would have been able to pick out the reluctance in his voice, had he been listening. Itachi let go of his arm, frowning as Shisui walked off towards the rest of the group. He looked down at his hand, curling his fingers as he wondered what the warmth was. He didn't see Shisui lightly rubbing the spot where Itachi grabbed him as his cousin wondered the same thing.
-xXx-
"Why are they pouting?" Gio mock-whispered up ahead to Kakashi, loud enough that Itachi heard. The Uchiha glared at him. "Ooh, scary."
"I'm not sure," Kakashi stage-whispered back, loud enough this time that even Shisui heard. The Uchiha behind them cocked his head to the side in confusion. "But isn't it cute when they try to look mad?" Itachi turn his glare to him, seeing as he was the only one who was angered at all (Shisui was just brooding), and the older Uchiha raised an eyebrow. Kanto had actually fallen asleep on the horse, and was slumped forward on it, snoring obnoxiously loudly. Itachi's brow twitched in annoyance when the ambassador let loose a loud snore right in his ear and took a noticable step the other way. Gio snickered at him.
"It's probably just an Uchiha thing," Kakashi sighed, not even trying to whisper now. There hadn't been any conversation between the cousins for the last five hours, and though Itachi was usually quiet, most of the time Shisui was easily able to goad him into conversing. Also, the tense atmosphere was starting to tick him off. "Always so pissy." A kunai flew past him and cut a few strands of hair, thunking into the ground in front of him.
"I wonder what that was," Shisui mused innocently from above them. Itachi's mouth twitched in amusement, then fixed into a frown as if remembering he was upset with Shisui.
"Well it's dangerous to just leave it there," Kakashi said aloud, picking it up and casually throwing it over his shoulder. "Someone could get hurt." Shisui yelped as he dodged to the side to avoid getting cut.
"Ass," he accused.
"Don't start what you can't finish," the silver-haired nin stated smugly.
"Seriously, though, make up or something," Gio complained. He frowned at the two Uchiha. "It's so quiet and I can only talk to Hatake here for so long." He looked at the masked-nin. "No offense, of course."
"None taken," Kakashi called back lightly with a smile. "I can only talk to myself for so long, too."
Gio inched away from him warily. "Right..."
"Why is everyone crazy?" Shisui muttered.
"It must be a rule," Itachi surprisingly spoke up. "All the strong shinobi are bat-shit insane."
"Here, here!" Gio laughed.
"You're not insane," Shisui replied, grinning at Itachi. His cousin looked back at him and he smiled in apology for his earlier actions. Itachi smiled softly in his own apology.
"I wonder," he mused, turning back to look where he was going.
Shisui made a face and Gio laughed.
And then suddenly Itachi's back stiffened slightly, Shisui being the only one to notice it. He was instantly on alert, moving to the more shaded part of the trees along the path and activating his Sharingan. He scanned to treeline, looking for the telltale glow of chakra. He saw it, about twenty-four meters ahead on the left of the trail. He took out a senbon, thinner than most and therefore not easily seen unless up close, and threw it over Kakashi's left shoulder. Kakashi didn't react to the signal as expected and continued on as if nothing was wrong. Gio watched the road, aware of the assasin.
Shisui didn't even have to make a handsign to flicker beside the enemy shinobi. By the time the shinobi had turned to look at who had caught him, he was trapped in Shisui's gaze and it was too late.
"Don't you think you should give up?" the Uchiha murmured, staring the man in the eyes as he weaved his genjutsu using his words alone. In his hand he held a kunai, held in such a way that it would be easy to slit the man's throat.
"You're an Uchiha," the man breathed in shock, eyes widening.
"I am," Shisui confirmed quietly. He quickly felt the area for any more chakra signals before returning his attention to the man in front of him. "And there is another Uchiha down there, as well as two Anbu. You know you won't stand a chance." The man hadn't heard of him, that was for sure, because he didn't seem to be aware that Shisui was using his persuasive ability on him. Shisui gestured down below them to his team. "Give yourself up. We might not kill you that way."
The man nodded dumbly, before slowly standing and leaping down to the ground, taking a breath before he walked out into the road with his hands held up in surrender.
"That's convenient," Shisui heard Gio comment as the man was instantly tied up. He smirked as he scanned the forest for any more chakra signatures before deeming the area safe and turning his attention to his team.
"Who sent you?" Kakashi demanded, holding a kunai up to the man's throat. The enemy was nervous, that was much, and he looked up at Shisui, seeing nothing but twin glowing orbs of red in the shadows.
Shisui dipped his head in a nod, adding another layer to the persuasion, and the man turned to Kakashi and spilled his guts.
He was a rogue nin from a village on the edge of the fire country. He claimed to have been on a mission for his village when he suddenly blacked out and found himself near the capital with knowledge that he had a new mission, to assassinate the ambassador.
"Shisui?" Kakashi asked when he was done explaining.
"He was in a genjutsu," the Uchiha explained. "My persuasion knocked it out of place. He shouldn't feel the need to carry out his mission anymore."
"Please," the man begged, eyes wide and face pale. "I didn't know I..."
"You don't know who placed the genjutsu?" Shisui asked. The man shook his head.
"...I say he's relatively innocent," Shisui stated, leaping down to look the man in the eye. "Kakashi?"
"You're going with what he thinks?" Gio asked Kakashi incredulously, motioning to Shisui, who frowned at him.
"You obviously haven't worked with Shisui," Kakashi stated. "He can easily claim to be the best genjutsu user in the entire Fire Country, maybe even in all the Great Countries."
"I wouldn't go that far," Shisui muttered modestly. Itachi raised an eyebrow at him, clearly agreeing with Kakashi.
"What I'm saying is, Shisui convinced this guy to tell the truth with genjutsu, and Shisui's good enough that we know he is being completely honest."
Gio raised an eyebrow in distaste at the shinobi. "I say we kill him before he runs and tells his boss." The man paled considerably.
"Katsumi," Shisui began. "Shut up."
Gio raised an eyebrow. "Bite me."
"Katsumi," Shisui started again, this time looking at him with Sharingan. "Shut up."
And Gio found himself looking away, muttering, "Fine."
"Shisui," Itachi protested with a light glare. Gio widened his eyes when he realized what Shisui had done.
"You little shit!" he accused, scowling at the smirking Uchiha.
"Believe me, now?" Shisui asked smugly.
"Shisui," Itachi pressed.
"Both of you stop," Kakashi commanded, glaring at each. "Shisui, don't use Sharingan on your teammates. Gio, trust your teammates a little more, would you?"
They both frowned, looking away from each other. Itachi let out a barely noticable sigh.
"Sorry," Shisui muttered.
"Same here," Gio sighed.
"Good," Kakashi stated. "Shisui, tell this guy to go home and forget this ever happened."
Gio didn't protest this time as Shisui looked back at the man.
"Hold on, gotta take off the previous layers," Shisui muttered, staring into frightened brown eyes. He imagined it in his head; a stack of several strips of paper with writing on them, and then himself peeling off a layer and letting it turn to ash in his fingers. He removed the 'surrender' layer and replaced it with 'flee.' The layers with 'honesty' and 'submit' stayed and he added 'forget.' For safety measures he added 'immune' in case this nin was caught in another genjutsu and attacked them again.
"Layers?" Gio asked in confusion.
"Shisui's genjutsu is an onion," Kakashi replied dryly.
"Kakashi," Shisui glared at him, finished with the persuasion. He cut the ropes binding the man. "Go." The man quickly left and none of them spared him a second glance.
"I don't like to make one big genjutsu," Shisui explained, deactivating his Sharingan. "I can make several smaller ones faster. It makes it easier to change something in it without digging through the whole thing to find the one command. It's like comparing a bento to stew or something." Gio raised an eyebrow at him. Shisui frowned. "What?"
"Interesting metaphores," he pointed out with a chuckle.
Shisui pouted. "The visualization helps me weave the illusions. Sue me."
Kanto snorted suddenly, jerking up on the horse and looking around wildly. "What'd I miss?"
"Nothing at all," Gio replied, scathingly sarcastic. Kakashi rolled his eyes but didn't correct him. Kanto didn't notice the hostility directed at him and yawned.
It's easier, Shisui agreed mentally.
Itachi just shook his head.
-xXx-
They travelled for a few more hours before coming to a town and deciding to stay the night. Kanto wanted only the best hotel, which required them to spend extra money as well to stay in the pricy hotel. Which had Gio spitting fire, of course.
"Calm down," Kakashi sighed again before reaching up and forcefully pulling Gio to sit down on the bed. "The Hokage set aside money for this kind of situation, so you won't end up with a hole in your wallet 'as big as that fatass' as you so eloquently put it."
Gio blinked at him. "Oh, okay." And then he promptly threw himself back and fell asleep.
"Yep, insane." Shisui stated from the couch, one leg dangling over Itachi's because he felt like annoying the poor boy. Itachi was ignoring him in favor of attempting to meditate.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow down at the lightly snoring red-head. "I guess he's not taking first watch..."
"Not it!" Shisui quickly called.
"Not it," Itachi quietly replied, proving that he was listening the whole time. The poor masked-nin groaned.
"Since when do you play 'not it?'" he asked Itachi defeatedly. Itachi raised an eyebrow at him.
"Since I had a shitload of cousins and realized 'not it' could save me a lot of trouble." He shrugged and closed his eyes again. "Didn't you and other shinobi in your age group play 'not it' to see who would be the new genin teachers...?"
"Little brats need to learn to respect their elders..." Kakashi muttered, reminded of an orange ball of hyperness that pranked whoever got within twenty feet.
"So you are old?" Shisui asked impishly.
"I'll cut you," Kakashi stated bluntly. Itachi lightly smirked at them before grabbing Shisui's knee and pressing his thumb into a certain spot.
"Ow, ow, ow!" Shisui quickly removed his leg from his cousin's vicinity and Itachi stood up. "Abusive!"
"I'm going to bed," he stated plainly before leaving to go to the room he shared with Shisui.
"He'll wake up if I come in there later," Shisui muttered, rubbing his knee. He stood as well, giving a half-hearted wave to Kakashi. "Night."
"See you tomorrow," Kakashi replied, already opening his pouch on the bedside table to bring out a familiar orange book.
Shisui snorted at him, "Perv." Kakashi gave a noncommital wave, his visible eye glue to the page as Shisui closed and locked the door behind him.
When Shisui walked into his and Itachi's room, the younger Uchiha was already laying down, the lights off. Shisui walked over to the bed and kicked off his sandals, rolling over the blankets as he decided it was too hot for them.
"Night," he murmured.
"Goodnight," was the quiet reply. Then it was silent, and Shisui focused on relaxing enough to fall asleep, knowing he would be woken in a few hours to take his shift.
And it only seemed like a few hours when Gio stumbled into the room, shaking him awake and mumbling something like 'your turn.' By then even Itachi was awake and glaring at Gio with red eyes. The red-head said something else about a 'possessed bitch' before leaving the room the same way he came.
"Go back to sleep," Shisui muttered, stifling a yawn as he sat himself up and forced himself awake.
"Hn," Itachi grumbled, turning his face into his pillow. Shisui heaved a sigh and took to observing what he could see of the room in order to stay awake. It had only been a few minutes (and Shisui began counting how many times Kanto choked in his sleep from snoring too hard; he got to twelve) before Itachi shifted next to him, letting Shisui know he was still awake.
"Shisui," the younger Uchiha mumbled, and said person glanced down at him.
"Yea?"
"Earlier today," Itachi quietly began, "During lunch..." Shisui winced, actually hoping Itachi would have forgotten about that until he had gotten his thoughts into a straighter order. "Did I...do something?" Shisui's eyebrows furrowed as he looked down at his cousin.
"No," he immediately replied, confused. "Why would you think that?"
"I thought you were mad at me," Itachi admitted.
"I wasn't," Shisui stated, wincing as he remembered how he had brushed Itachi off. "I'm sorry I made you think that. I was...kind of confused."
"About what?" Itachi asked softly, almost as if he were falling asleep again. Shisui looked down at him to see half-closed eyes blinking up at him. He brought his knees up with a sigh and rested his arms on them, looking up at the ceiling. He had no clue whether or not he should tell Itachi. Yes, he was nervous, because he knew it would make him the shame of the entire clan. He knew it would make Itachi uncomfortable around him, and that was the last thing Shisui wanted.
"You're gonna hate me," Shisui admitted, feeling his heart racing. Itachi frowned at him before sitting up to look at him.
"Nothing you could do would make me hate you," he stated seriously, trying to catch his eyes. Shisui avoided his gaze, opting to just close his eyes instead.
"I'll be the laughing stock of the clan," Shisui laughed bitterly.
Itachi frowned. "I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."
Shisui looked at him then, seeing the honesty in his eyes, before letting out a huge breath.
"I think I might be gay," he quickly stated before he could give himself any more time to doubt. He kept his gaze away from Itachi's face, not wanting to see the disgust he knew would flash across it. And then Itachi would tell him how he was messed up, that he was a joke, and would get up and leave him here to rot.
"...That's all?"
Shisui whipped his head to face him so fast his neck popped a few times. "'That's all?'" he repeated with unbelieving eyes. "What do you mean, 'that's all?'" Itachi rose an eyebrow.
"I don't see anything wrong with it," Itachi replied honestly. "Gender shouldn't affect who you love. I don't care if you're straight or not, Shisui. It's not like it changes you as a person." Shisui was gaping, eyes wide. Itachi's brow rose higher. "You didn't think I was going to throw a fit or something, did you?"
"You mean you're not disgusted?" Shisui asked hopefully. "You don't think I'm a joke?" Itachi's brow furrowed together, then.
"I could never," he responded sincerely.
Shisui's shoulders dropped, relieved, and he let out a shaky breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Thank you," he smiled at Itachi. "Thank you." He was surprised when he felt his eyes water slightly at how strong the relief in him was. Itachi didn't hate him. He wasn't going to shun him.
Itachi tilted his head at the reaction from his cousin. "...That really scared you, didn't it?" he asked quietly. Unable to speak in fear of his voice breaking, Shisui merely nodded as he continued to tremble.
His eyes widened when he felt a smaller form press against his and arms wrap loosely around his shoulders.
"Thank you for trusting me," Itachi murmured into his hair. "I won't push you away." Shisui smiled, feeling his eyes water even more.
"You are gonna make me cry, though," he croaked. He felt, rather than heard, a chuckle reverberate through Itachi's chest.
"You can let it out, you know," Itachi told him. "I won't think any less of you."
"Way to use my own words against me," Shisui muttered with a smile. But he never liked crying, so he reached up and brushed his eyes so that the tears wouldn't fall. He didn't push Itachi away though, because like fucking hell was he gonna reject a hug from him, especially when Itachi was the one to initiate it!
Though, Itachi seemed to be falling asleep on him, so Shisui laughed and made him lay down. He made to run his fingers through his hair out of habit, but stopped just inches from his head before pulling back with a frown, figuring it would make him uncomfortable.
"Shisui," Itachi muttered almost angrily. The older Uchiha looked down in surprise to see him scowling into the pillow with his eyes closed. "I told you that you don't and won't make me uncomfortable, now pet my goddamn hair."
Shisui laughed outright and conceded, knowing he would never get a request like that again. He had forgotten that a sleepy Itachi is a pissed Itachi.
He knew he was lucky that Itachi didn't ask about who he might like.
-xXx-
The next two days of travelling went perfectly fine, despite the fact that it started raining the second day and both Gio and Kanto complained constantly (which only spurred Gio to complain more because someone as 'evil' as Kanto was agreeing with him). Soon they were close to the border between the Rain and Fire Countries, where they would have to be even more careful of ambushes and where Gio knew God and His angel were waiting for them to arrive.
-xXXXx-
I'm so sorry about my hiatus... I don't think I've ever had this long of a break... But yea, I had my reasons, but they're personal so I won't say. I guess I can just say I'm lucky I don't have to make up a Mangekyou design for Shisui. (Thank you, Kishimoto!) By the way, did you know Itachi is fucking badass in the new chapter? Or in any chapter, really. Can you tell he's my favorite character, yet? xD
So, yea, I'm playing with the idea of getting the other Akatsuki members in this story... After this whole Ame mission and a time skip, maybe, but at least you know you'll get Pein and Konan, right?
Review or chibi!Gio will cry. He is mine, btw, but I'm totally going to admit I based his appearance off of Genesis from Crisis Core... So yea, review? :D *whispers: chibi!Gio! Now!*
Chibi!Gio: *cute little puppy dog face* Pwease review? :3
Tbc!