Chapter 29 - Paper Cut

It took three days for Yakata's blood test results to come back.

Sakura waited until the results came in before writing a word to Karin. They were three days of awful anxiety and sleepless nights.

She did not see Sasuke out with Yakata much at all after that first day, interestingly enough. Rather, Sasuke spent most of the days with his student, Go'on, the boy with the big eyes, the one who had caused such an upset in the preliminaries. They were training for the chuunin exams, naturally. His other students, the girl and Kyou, she saw here and there, doing small chores about the city. Somehow, she was not surprised.

She didn't know where the Itachi-boy - Yakata - was, nor where he was being kept during the day, if Sasuke was out at the time. His and Ino's house, she assumed. Was that where they were doing their training, at night?

She tried to stay optimistic, despite the stories she had heard, despite the things that sometimes squirmed out of conversations with Ino that she desperately, understandably tried to keep under wraps, and denied to Sakura not seconds after speaking them.

Sakura's phone call on that first evening didn't go much of anywhere. Ino had told her, annoyedly, that she was fine ("Why do you keep asking that? You're so nosy sometimes, Sakura, honestly…") and that the family was still getting used to Yakata. But they were all adapting well.

"He already knows where everything's kept in the kitchen. Always wanting to help…" And Ino's voice had trailed off there, in a tone that suggested distaste. Sakura could practically hear her lip curling. "Training with Sasuke's going… well for him, too."

(What Ino didn't tell Sakura was that Yakata had bruises on his knuckles already.)

And Sakura said that okay, well, as long as things were going all right and that was more or less where the conversation ended, Ino hanging up after a brief, catty, critical farewell.

It was true, however, that Yakata was adjusting well. Sasuke had gone back to training Go'on the day after his arrival in their home, yes, but he devoted the evenings to the boy, taking him to the family training ground and teaching him the basics.

(This afforded Inou and Karai a shockingly large amount of freedom. He was no longer drilling them on their training techniques in the evening, no longer even interrogating them at mealtimes about it. Ino wished she could be happier.)

(But Takeru was finding himself ignored at breakfasts and dinners, the only times he tended to see his father those days. And it did not please him in the least.)

(Ino noticed. Sasuke didn't.)

It was not only an education in the ninja arts that Yakata was receiving; he was learning about his family, as well. His real family.

"That's your father," Sasuke had said, pointing to Itachi. They were sitting together with a framed photograph on the floor in his and Ino's bedroom, having finished their training for the day, and eaten their dinner. The dishes were done. Ino was in the living room, watching television, the children all elsewhere.

(Ino had many pictures of her children in scrapbooks and frames, but there was otherwise very little photographic documentation of the clan, especially prior to the massacre. Uchihas found little use for cameras. Understandably.)

Yakata had tilted his head slightly, looking at the picture. Two young boys were in it, with a man, and a woman. They were all dressed in black; painted on the wall behind him was that same red-and-white emblem, the one he had seen over the gate. "That's… that's him?" he said.

"Yes, that's him. And that's me, right beside him." Itachi was ten, in the photograph, Yakata's age; Sasuke was five.

"Wow. He… he looks just… like me," Yakata said. His voice was hushed, and the features on his face seemed to slow down as he took in every detail.

"Yeah, he really does," Sasuke replied. "You can imagine why I was so surprised when I first saw you." He closed his mouth, laughing slightly through his nose.

"Yeah, I bet…" Yakata began turning his head the other way. A strange, small smile began to grow on his face. "And, and that little kid next to him, that's… that's really you?"

"Sure is."

"You… you look a lot different now," Yakata said. He began to giggle.

"Well, of course I look different, I'm not a kid anymore," Sasuke said, with a half-felt roll of the eyes. He was smiling a little, now.

"Right, o-of course…" said Yakata.

(He wanted to say that he thought Sasuke looked a lot happier as a kid, but he felt that it wouldn't be the right thing to do.)

"And, and… and those people are your… parents?" he asked, pointing to them, the man, the woman.

"Yes, your… grandparents." Sasuke sounded like he was about to cough, but he didn't.

"Wha-what were their… names?"

"My mother was named Mikoto. And… Fugaku, that's my father." Sasuke didn't point at them as he said their names, haltingly.

"Mikoto and Fugaku… Um, what were… what were they like?" Yakata asked.

Sasuke thought on it for a while. "My father, Fugaku… was head of the clan," he said. "He was… strict. But he had… a lot of responsibilities, so of course he'd be a little…"

"…a little what?" Yakata said, quietly.

"…tense," Sasuke decided on. He cleared his throat a little. "And my mother was a very good woman. She would have liked you, I think."

The strange little smile returned to Yakata's face. "You… you really think so?"

(Even though his mother had told Sasuke that whenever she and his father were alone together, all they talked about was him. And, even all those years later, Sasuke still remembered that she had told him this, that she had told him that they talked about Sasuke, not Itachi, their…)

"Yes," Sasuke replied, "I think she would have liked you very much."

(Yakata was an innocent, after all.)

"Gosh…" said Yakata. He fidgeted a little where he sat. "Say, um. Sasuke-san?"

"Mm?"

"Did, did, did you, um. Did you know my mother at all…?"

Sasuke's face grew stony. "I'm afraid I didn't know her. I didn't recognize her name in... any of my brother's letters."

"Oh…" Yakata looked downward, back at the photo.

(Sasuke hadn't let him see the letters. "There are things in them not fit for children's eyes." Yakata supposed that was fair.)

He suddenly snapped to Sasuke. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, um. P-put you on the spot or anything…"

"No, no, don't apologize," Sasuke said. There was an artificial, attempted sort of comfort in his voice. "You didn't know that I didn't know."

"Sure…" Yakata looked at the photograph again, his mouth pressed tightly, sheepishly.

The expression made Sasuke surprisingly uncomfortable. He pushed the photograph towards Yakata, and began to get up off the floor. "Here, you can keep this if you want to," he said. "Put it in Hajime's room or something."

"Gosh, you, you mean it…?" Yakata said.

"I have no real use for it, so why not?" Sasuke said. "I'm also going to bed now. You should think about it, yourself." He was completely standing by then.

"Oh, sure…"

"So, goodnight?"

"Yeah. Goodnight, Sasuke-san."

Yakata ended up putting the photograph on the desk, next to the flower arrangement that had mysteriously appeared there the evening after his arrival into the Uchiha house, accompanied by a book: "Ghost Stories from the Land of Water," by someone named Mizuno Kurunari. He had no idea where either of them had come from, so he asked Karai about it when she came home later that evening, when they were setting the table together.

"Oh, those must be from Nadeshiko…" she had replied. "She likes doing things like that, making flower arrangements."

And Yakata smiled at that and said, quietly, during dinner: "Thank you for the flowers, Nadeshiko-san, and the book."

"What flowers," Sasuke replied, glaring.

Takeru smirked.

Nadeshiko kept her eyes on her food.

Yakata stammered something that sounded like nothing.

But after dinner, when Yakata was helping Ino clean the dishes, she brushed past him and he heard a bare whisper of a voice.

"You're welcome."

It made him smile, and he turned around to look at her but she was already gone by the time he did.

Nadeshiko was like a ghost in the house to him, always flitting out of sight, remaining silent and composed at dinner, the only time he ever saw her clearly. She was, Yakata figured, like a spider, or a wild animal. A phrase that his mama had told him came to mind: "They're more scared of you than you are of them."

Though Yakata had no idea why Nadeshiko would be afraid of him - especially with the gifts she had given him.

(Though the book of ghost stories she had given him had been truly something frightening—but he doubted she had intended to actually scare him.)

Then again, he had no idea why Sasuke didn't like her, either. The Uchiha house was just full of mysteries.

He did plan on writing to his mama, eventually. But by the third night his hands were too weak from his training with Sasuke to even hold a pen with enough strength to keep the hiragana readable. Sasuke had him punching things, and throwing things, and he was understanding how to do it, and Sasuke was telling him what a good job he was doing, but it was still tough for him to learn. His legs ached from learning how to jump high.

But there was more kindness about. Ino had gotten him a fork and a spoon after he found he was having a difficult time with the chopsticks, which proved to be a bit of an improvement, especially given how embarrassing it had been to have them clattering to the table surface all the time.

Takeru had scoffed, once, but only once; Sasuke had scolded him about it, slightly.

Well, it wasn't much of a scold. It was just one word: "Takeru."

But the tone said everything. It left Yakata rather speechless.

(And, in all honesty, it surprised everyone else, but for vastly different reasons.)

(Especially Takeru.)

It was on that fourth afternoon that the test results came in, and because Sakura was far too busy to see him herself, she had an intern seek Sasuke out to give him a note.

It said: "100% match." Nothing else.

Sasuke took the note and crumpled it in his fist. "Tell her I said thanks," he told the intern, who nodded, gasping for breath, before dashing back to the hospital.

In the evening, privately, Sasuke told Yakata that it had been confirmed. "Itachi was really your father," he said.

Yakata was rather without words, but he nodded and smiled. His hands still shook too badly when he held a pen to be of any use, so he promised himself to write to his mother as soon as they had healed, to tell her the news.

(Sasuke didn't bother telling Ino. Her hysterics from a few nights previous were still fresh in his mind, enough to make him scowl when he thought about it.)

Sakura, meanwhile, was compiling another package for Karin, with new samples and the results and a very befuddled letter. What do you think this means about Taki Kiine, then? she had written, near the bottom.

Karin, as it happened, wrote two replies.

One was sent to Sakura, admitting that she was as perplexed as Sakura was, and was worried besides. There was another promise of further archive-searching, this time for anything to do with Itachi, and a request for any information about Taki Kiine's and Yakata's physical conditions.

The other was sent to Sasuke. It was much shorter.

You brought him to Konoha? What were you thinking?

Sakura sent blood samples, blood test results. Mentioned Itachi. What did you tell her?

What did you tell Yakata?

Found my cells in Yakata's too. Clear link. Worrisome.

Reply quickly by hawk.

- Karin

Sasuke stashed the letter away, told Ino it was none of her business what the letter was about, and replied to it once he was alone.

He wrote his reply on the back of Karin's letter.

Yakata wanted to come to Konoha with me. I'm training him as a ninja. His request. He's very talented.

Technically, none of it was a lie.

He doesn't know he's Itachi. I told Sakura, however. I figured you'd both benefit from further research. We're in this together, aren't we?

Well, they were, weren't they?

You should be grateful to me, you know.

He left it unsigned, and sent it back to her in the morning with a messenger hawk, as per her request.

Her reply came the next evening.

Yakata is not Itachi.

What else did you tell Sakura? Did you tell her about Ooda?

Don't tell me to be grateful.

Sasuke's reply was only three sentences long.

I haven't told anyone about Ooda. Don't worry.

PS: Are your cells in Ooda's blood too?

Her reply, written in shaky lettering a few days later:

They are.

Sasuke did not tell Sakura any of this.

Naruto, as it happened, was writing a message of his own.

It was for the Taki clan, and Kiine, and he had it sent out after reading it over once, twice, three times; giving it to Andou to read and edit; rewriting it, reading it again; giving it to Andou again, and then finally feeling pleased enough, convinced enough that it was all a good idea.

He sent it away with the fastest hawk he could hire, and received two replies a few days later.

Kiine, it turned out, had had a very, very busy week.