By the way, 'Fumu' means to tread on. Sadistic little me… If you find this chapter a bit confusing… well, I have no one to blame but myself… Chapters like this will be re done eventually. My exams are all done! (dances)
I buttoned my Akatsuki coat to the very top, trying to cover as much of my face as I could. I put the traditional hat Kakuzu had given me on my head. The white strips of what appeared to be waxed paper or something similar covered my face effectively.
Though it had the downside of partially obscuring my vision. Inevitably I would have to learn to live with that soon enough.
Sasuke laughed, breaking my stream of thought. "You look funny in that!"
"Nonsense." I replied, grabbing his hand.
My back was much less painful today, but it was still far from fully healed.
I led Sasuke outside, which was where Kisame was waiting. He also wore a coat and hat. But he still had his Samehada with him. I thought this was a dead give away to his identity but I didn't say anything.
"Ready to go?" he asked as soon as he saw us.
"Yup!" Sasuke replied as he adjusted his backpack. I expected it would be full of homework when he got back.
He had started school midway through first term, so he had a lot of work to catch up on.
We began to descend the stairs, which lead down into the village itself. Of course, Leader wanted to flaunt his power, so the headquarters was built on much higher ground than the rest of the village.
But the now all the damage had ruined the effect.
It was now that I realised that I had never been into this town. At least not while I was conscious anyway. It was a good thing Kisame had decided to come; otherwise Sasuke and I would be very lost.
With Kisame on my right and Sasuke on my left we made our way down the stairs. It didn't take long for people to start staring, some even stopped in their tracks.
I wasn't sure if Sasuke wearing that bandanna around his arm was such a good idea after all. Kakuzu had said all of the extremists had been removed, but looks could be enough to hurt someone.
Uchiha were literal proof of that.
"See the stir we're creating? This is why you can't come with Sasuke all the time." Kisame muttered so no one else could hear.
I stayed silent as we turned into a narrower and quieter alleyway. There were balconies from the second story of people's houses and many crisscrossing washing lines over our heads.
The muddy ground was scattered with puddles, which were reflecting the rare sunlight. It had been quite sunny since Leader left; the people here were bound to have noticed the change. They were taking advantage of this rare sunlight anyway.
Suddenly there was a shout from above. It was a man holding a bucket. Presumably it was full of dirty water from the washing. "Oi! Sui 'sama'!" His voice was scornful.
He expressed his contempt in a stronger way by throwing the bucket of water, aiming for Kisame.
But Kisame ignored all of this and just kept walking. As the water was about to land on us, he manipulated it and sent it back at the thrower. It splashed at his feet, nothing too offensive, just a warning.
There was tension amongst the witnesses of this event. But I followed Kisame's lead; just ignore everyone's existence.
We came to a road, which was busy with horses and carts taking goods to various places in the town.
As we crossed I noticed traffic stopped for us rather than the other way around.
"A blessing to see you!" One woman called happily. She even waved.
Kisame acknowledged her kind words with a nod, never breaking his steady pace. We'd reached the Ninja Acadamy, it was closer than I'd imagined.
Still, the journey seemed to have taken much longer than it should have. I was already feeling more uncomfortable than I had ever been before.
I pushed the heavy wooden door open and let Sasuke lead me to the reception area. We soon came to it and Sasuke pushed at the heavy door. It looked more like a large glass window than a door. I could easily see the woman who worked at the main desk through it.
She looked quite startled by our presence, to say the least. "A-Akatsuki samas?" she stuttered out, bowing her head respectfully. But she kept a wary eye on us the whole time.
Realising that we weren't going to speak, Sasuke said, "Um, is Fumuku sensei here yet?"
"Oh, of course. You're the new student." She seemed to relax as though she had previously been expecting us to destroy something… or someone.
"Fumuku san's class is room four. Do you know where that is?" I got the feeling she was hoping he would say yes, just to get rid of us as soon as possible.
"Yes ma'am! I remember!" he assured before turning back to the door. He exited and Kisame and I followed.
"Thank you miss." I said before closing the door behind me. She seemed quite taken aback by my use of mannerisms. I'd actually said 'Miss' out of habit. That's how I used to address my own female teachers.
We went around yet another corner and found room four. The door was open and this Fumuku sensei was sitting at his desk, marking papers.
He quickly looked up, immediately noticing us.
He gave the familiar greeting of, "A-Akatsuki samas?" He was just as stunned as the office lady had been, "You're rather… early." He added.
I stepped forwards, "I wanted to… discuss a few things first." I noticed his face immediately deadpanned. What was he expecting, an interrogation?
"I wonder how much we can trust you…" I walked up to the desk and placed both of my hands on it, leaning forwards. "You see, I'm entrusting the education of my little brother to a stranger." Basically I'd just told him who I was. I could tell he already thought my brother was an Uchiha. "Quite frankly, I'm just not…" I deliberated, wondering what word I should use, "comfortable with that."
I leaned forward a little more; glad the uniform was covering my young features. He wouldn't have taken me seriously otherwise.
"I-I'm sure we can work s-something out." He managed.
"Good." I replied sharply, grabbing him by the front of his chunin vest. Impractical, but it served my purpose. I only wanted to scare him into submission after all.
"I believe there is a very fine line between 'hardening someone up' and abuse. Do not cross it. You will be hearing from me if you do." I left a moment of silence for good measure.
He nodded; starting to lean away, but I held him in place. "Y-yes sir."
I let him go and retreated into a normal stance. "We will discuss the work Sasuke has to make up for later."
I turned to my brother and bent over to say goodbye. It hurt me when he flinched away, but I should have expected it. Usually I would only ever use his full name when I was reprimanding him. Which of course never happened often.
Fumuku couldn't see what I was doing, so I kissed Sasuke on the forehead. "See you later Sasu chan." I whispered before leaving with Kisame.
We returned via a faster route, which included jumping from rooftop to rooftop before tackling the stairs. Once we were inside I entered my and Sasuke's room and removed the hat.
"Wow Itachi san, I think you had me quivering for a second there." Kisame said as he followed.
"Hn, I didn't even use the sharingan. Just vaguely hinting at the possibility of having it had him on his toes." I replied. I frisbeed the hat onto my futon. "But, did you see Sasuke's face?"
It had reminded me strongly of the one he had worn on 'that' night. At that time he thought I was going to kill him. Did he think I was going to turn on him now? Did I scare him that much?
Well that was about twice as long as I'd originally planned…