I do not own Naruto~
They were in the underground room again, but this time it was not Itachi and Shisui who were the subject of the meeting. It was the newly arrested clan member who stood in front of Fugaku, his imp mask tied around his waist.
"I told you to watch her," Fugaku hissed. "Not stalk her and break into her house. Do you know what the police force is going through to keep ANBU from getting their hands on you for impersonating them? I'm tempted to let my son kill you right now."
"Even if he didn't impersonate ANBU, I'd kill him anyways," Itachi stated in a hard voice, his glare piercing the man like a million daggers. He then directed his gaze to his father. "This is ridiculous, and frankly, stupid. A civilian wouldn't help us, even if she is extremely sensitive to chakra. We would lose more shinobi protecting her then finding the council ourselves. We have sensors, already."
"Yes, but we don't have time to wait around for our sensors to locate them," Fugaku stated, turning to his son. "We're better finding them in one try."
"What makes you think she'll help us, anyways?" Itachi fired back. "In case you haven't noticed, most of the entire clan doesn't like her, so she doesn't trust all of us." Fugaku smiled. It made Itachi's and Shisui's flesh crawl.
"She'll help us because you'll talk her into it," he stated. Itachi blinked in surprise. "She trusts you more than any of the other members. You'll convince her."
"I will not," Itachi hissed.
"Well then she's of no use to us," he sniffed, turning back to the imp mask man. "So we shouldn't have to deal with her taking up space." Itachi narrowed his eyes.
"What about Sasuke, then?" he challenged. "He can't help us. Are you going to kill him, too?" Fugaku glared.
"That's irrelevant."
"Oh, so you're just being a selective moron with a God-complex?" Fugaku glanced at an officer who had Hiyuki beside him, who was tugging away from him to try and go to her brother. He then looked pointedly at Shisui.
Shisui grabbed Itachi's shoulder and yanked him back, something that any other Uchiha wouldn't have even dreamt of doing.
"Sorry," Shisui muttered. Itachi just pressed his lips together and glared at his father. It wasn't his cousin's fault.
"Luckily ANBU doesn't know your name," Fugaku stated, turning back to the impostor. "Or the girl and her mother, for that matter. This time you're getting a warning, and I'm assigning someone else to watch her."
"You're letting him off with a warning?" Itachi stated, trying to gain better control of his emotions. He felt that his mask was breaking bit by bit every day, now, but had no clue why.
"We could still use him." Fugaku glanced at his son. "We're going to need all the shinobi we can get." Itachi said nothing and pressed his lips together again.
He would just have to kill him anyways.
Ayano opened the front door to her house.
"I'm off!" she shouted back to her mother.
"Be careful!" Mari replied. Ayano shut the door and set a pace for the clearing behind the fence she had been to before. She wasn't afraid of being stalked anymore, because the culprit was now behind bars, and she felt like a humongous weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
It was one of those summer days where there were only a few clouds in the sky, and the sun shone down brightly. The air was warm, but there were still cool breezes that made it feel even better. It was a perfect day to just lounge around outside. Uruchi had given her the day off when she heard what had happened, and Ayano was going to do something fun with it instead of what some other people would do, just sleep all day and not even think of going outside.
She walked along the back of the fence until she found a loose plank that had been thrown aside carelessly. She squeezed through it, making sure none of the snacks in her purse were damaged. She paused and peered into the forest. She was pretty sure that it was just a straight walk to the clearing, so she set on getting there. She had to walk quite a bit, and was about to give up and turn around, when she finally saw a break in the trees and hurried to it with a grin. She sighed when the sun hit her, letting her arms spread wide beside her. She looked around for a place to sit and noticed a figure laying down on the grass across the field, half under the shade of a tree. Curious, she walked towards it, and widened her eyes when she was close enough to recognize the person.
Itachi slept peacefully on the grass, his face shaded by the tree while he rest of his body was warmed by the sun.
It surprised her. Something was in his expression when he was asleep that wasn't there whenever he was awake. She realized that he actually looked content and relaxed, compared to how he was always trying to hide his emotions around anyone in public.
She sat beside him, staring at his face. She had never seen him so relaxed. The wind played with his hair around his face, blowing the silky locks lightly. His breath was slow and even, proving he was asleep. His arms were folded behind his head, acting as a pillow.
A leaf fluttered down and landed on his nose. His face twitched slightly, and she reached forward to move the leaf.
His hand was wrapped around her wrist, stopping her hand, and she looked up at his face in surprise to see him staring down at her through half-lidded eyes, his other arm still folded behind his head. With her wrist still in his grasp, his other hand picked up the leaf and her peered at it, as if mildly fascinated by it. He let it flutter away with the next breeze.
"What are you doing here?" he asked calmly, letting go of her wrist and returning to the position he was previously in.
"The weather's good today," she said, turning back forward and setting her purse down beside her. "I thought I'd relax in it for a bit." He 'hmm'ed, seeming perfectly fine with going back to sleep. She was silent, letting him.
"Shisui's trying to find you," he told her, which caused her to look at him. "He wants to thank you." He opened her eyes to watch her expression, and the corner of his mouth twitched when he saw her confused expression. "You defended his sister, even if you were about to get hurt."
"Oh," she replied. She looked back towards the field. "Anyone would've done it," she shrugged.
"Not anyone," Itachi replied, closing his eyes again. "The guy was a ninja. He was pretty weak, though, but he could have hurt you." He tensed up when he said this, she had no clue why, but she tried to lighten the mood so she could see that expression on his face again.
"Are you implying I'm weak?" she fired back, crossing her arms and pouting. He chuckled and relaxed.
"Not in the slightest." He then frowned slightly, opening his eyes to look at the branches above them.
"What?" Ayano asked. He sighed and shook his head.
"It's nothing. Work is just bothering me." She rose an eyebrow.
"Something bad happened?" she guessed. He sighed again.
"It's something they want me to do," he said, closing his eyes.
"If you don't want to do it, then don't do it," she shrugged.
"It's not that simple," he told her. "They want me to talk someone into doing something, but if I don't, then...nevermind." He rolled away from her, and she frowned. He was more depressed now than he was earlier. A sudden idea popped into her head, and she dug around in her purse for the tupperware.
"Dango?" she offered, pulling out two sticks and resisting the urge to laugh when his shoulders twitched. He rolled back over and sat up, with a small smile playing on his lips.
"Did you plan to have a picnic?" he asked, taking one of the sticks. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," she replied. "And I just wanted to bring a few snacks, seeing as how I didn't know how long I was going to be. I'm glad I brought extra now." She grinned at him and he let out a huff of amusement before biting half of one of the dango, gazing out into the field. She smiled. He had that peaceful look in his eye now.
Which was suddenly replaced by a flicker of annoyance, which surprised her.
"Hello, cousin," he called out. Shisui walked out into the field, looking at Ayano in surprise.
Ayano couldn't help but feel a twinge of annoyance as well.
"There you are!" he exclaimed as he started making his way towards them. "Kami, you're a hard person to find. Sometimes I think you try to avoid me." She chuckled sheepishly.
"Well, that was the situation until about last night," she admitted. He stopped in the middle of the field and placed a hand over his heart in a mock pantomime.
"Oh, how you wound me," he half-sighed, half-yelled.
Ayano laughed.
"But I'm just a civilian, I can't hurt a fly, from the way you two talk about me."
He muttered something that sounded along the lines of 'you have no idea,' but she disregarded it. Itachi stiffened.
"I never got to thank you," he stated when he finally reached them, smiling down at Ayano. She smiled back.
"No problem," she replied, which made him scoff. "What, then, you're welcome?" He grinned and sat beside her.
"Hiyuki was going on and on and on about seeing you again," he told her. "You're like her role model, now." She laughed.
"She's cute," she told him. "You should bring her with you, sometimes." He smiled then, and for some reason it made her blush.
"What time is it?" she asked, looking away from him to try and find a change of subject. "Do one of you have a watch?"
"Around three," Itachi replied. She looked at him. He was laying back down on the grass with his eyes closed. But he wasn't relaxed. The skewer from the dango was sticking up from out of the ground beside his hand.
"I have to go," she said, standing up. "My Mom will be mad if I'm not home for lunch."
"Already?" Shisui whined. "I just got here. Oh well. Need someone to walk you?"
"You don't have to," she objected, but Shisui stood up anyways. "Well, okay then..." She looked at Itachi. "See you later?"
"Yea," he mumbled, looking like he was about to go back to sleep. She grabbed her purse and started back towards the compound, with Shisui following her. They made small talk along the way, mainly whining about how the fence was too tall and it was like a mile till the actual gate in the fence. The decided they were going to take down a few boards and make their own gate, and they laughed at how Shisui would have to arrest both him and her for 'defacing public property.' When they got to her door, she turned to him.
"See you later?" he asked. And there was that smile again. The one that was too friendly, that made her blush.
"See you later," she offered back, smiling back at him. She left first, shutting the door behind him.
Her mother was in the kitchen cooking, and she set her purse down on one of the chairs and tried to sneak past Mari. She walked up the stairs and to her room, where she shut the door and leaned against it. It may have not been directed at her before this, but she knew what a smile like that meant. She let out a shaky breath.
Oh my God.
1: Lol, people who thought the imp guy was Madara after the last chapter: Do you really think he'd let himself get his ass beat by a thirteen year old? xD
2: OMG DOUBLE LINE WONT GO AWAY xD (the one up there! *points up* Sorry, I'm hyper xD)
3: *gasp* Shisui likes Ayano!
4: dam, this chapter sucked. T.T ItachixAyano moment, tho!
Okay, now that I'm done with my random little list of hyper-induced comments on this chapter, review and I'll give you dango!