Author's Note:
The following chapter contains instances of emotional, physical, and verbal abuse. I'm sorry, and thank you.
- Rii
Chapter 46 - Trumpet Flower
Sasuke's flight from Kakashi's presence had been a swift and a panicked and a furious one.
If she was with him.
How dare she.
He flung open the door to his house and didn't bother taking off his shoes. His wife was in the kitchen.
(But she was not the only one in the house.)
"WHERE IS NADESHIKO."
He didn't even need to touch her to make her turn around and face him, immediately. "Sasuke, what's the matter-"
"Just answer my damn question, woman! WHERE IS SHE?"
"Sasuke, calm down! She's home, she just got-"
"GET HER DOWN HERE."
"I'm already here, Father."
And there she was, standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Her eyes—her awful, awful eyes—were empty.
She knew what was coming.
(And she ought to have.)
Sasuke locked eyes with her and he had his hand twisted into the fabric of her blouse's collar in an instant.
(He hated how she was taller than him.)
"Is it true, that you've been with Yakata?" he said.
She didn't say anything.
"Sasuke, honestly, what's going on?" Ino was quickly approaching from behind.
Sasuke's fingers tightened around the green fabric. "ANSWER ME. HAVE YOU BEEN WITH HIM OR NOT?"
"Sasuke!" His wife was only barely screaming.
"…I have been. He's been assisting me at the flower shop for the past few days."
She wasn't looking at him. Her voice was low, monotonous, and quiet, and it set him further on edge.
"WHO GAVE YOU PERMISSION."
Ino's hands were on his shoulders. "Sasuke, it's my fault, please, stop this, Yakata-kun asked about the flower shop and I've been letting him go with-"
He whipped his head back as he shook her off his shoulders, his eyes blazing. "YOU STAY OUT OF THIS."
Her hands snapped to her chin, fingers touching trembling fingers.
Sasuke reached for Nadeshiko's collar again, and he pulled her towards himself with both fists clenched more tightly than before.
Her face did not lose, not for a moment, its heavy calmness.
(Just more proof, Sasuke thought to himself, his anger strengthening his hands and his voice, just more proof that you didn't turn out right.)
"I refuse to let you near him ever again." His voice was very, very quiet. "You are, from this point onward, not permitted to even speak with him. Do you understand me?"
She didn't say anything, eyes focused just slightly beyond his feet.
He pulled, and grabbed, and lifted, and shoved her against the doorframe. There would probably be a bruise. Good.
"I ASKED YOU, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?"
Her head hung low, now, her hair flowing long and disgustingly over his arms. It covered her eyes.
"I WILL NOT HAVE YOU CORRUPT HIM! NOT! HIM!"
Ino was somewhere in the room trying, with weak arms, to pull them apart.
Nadeshiko's arms hadn't even moved to support her weight when Sasuke had reached to shove her into the wall. Like a doll. Like a mannequin.
"Sa-Sa-Sa-Sasuke-san, wh-wh-what are you doing?"
And Yakata was in the hallway, having exited the bathroom. His hands were still slightly wet and his eyebrows were raised high with fear.
What a scene the boy must have witnessed.
Sasuke, his guardian, the one who should have been protecting him, with his polluted hands curled into the shirt of a dark and a contaminative force, the hands of a wife resting on his. It could have been a woodcut, a painting, a cautionary tale.
But it undid itself. Sasuke let go of Nadeshiko. Ino let go of Sasuke.
But Yakata did not let go of his own hands.
"I was—issuing a warning to… Nadeshiko, Yakata. She's not to be around you any more."
His breathing was even.
Yakata's wasn't. "Wh-what? Why? Did I, did I, did I do something wrong? Oh I'm, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I'm-"
"The only one at fault here, Yakata, is her. For allowing this to continue for so long."
Nadeshiko leaned against the wall, staring at an oblivion between her feet. Ino had hands on her, in a claiming sense, in a protective sense.
"I believe that your time in the flower shop is detrimental and distracts from your training, Yakata. And I don't want her or ANYONE ELSE encouraging this."
His eyes were on his wife, on the girl. One and the same.
(Ino was right. It was partially her fault. How fortunate that he had a wife that owned up to her mistakes sometimes.)
"There are much better ways for you to be spending your time while you're in my home, and-"
"…b-but I, I like the flower shop."
Yakata's voice was so small, and yet it cut through everything.
"A-and, I, I, I don't think that… that Nadeshiko is… is corrupting me… How would she be… how would she be… Did, did, did she do something wrong…?"
His eyes were so much like.
Her eyes were.
"Did, did I do something wrong? Because I, I, I didn't know that… I didn't know that I was, I was doing anything wrong, I'm so sorry…!"
"Yakata-kun, you've done nothing wrong-" Ino's voice was cut apart by Sasuke's words, like knives.
"A flower shop is an unbecoming place to spend your time."
"…but I, I, I, I… like flowers." There was sincerity in his voice, like poison. "I, I like helping at the shop, I, I like helping. It feels… it feels good, Sasuke-san. And, and Inoichi-san appreciates my help a lot, too, he, he told me…"
It pained Sasuke to have to wait but he couldn't dare interrupt the boy. "No excuse. There are better things for you to do."
"…no, there aren't. There's… there's n-nothing to do when we're not… training…" He had his fingers pulled into each other and they wouldn't stop moving. "P-please, Sasuke-san, I, I, I don't… I don't have anything else, I want to be there…!"
Why did he have to have those eyes?
"…I also don't want you near Nadeshiko. I told you before, Yakata, she is not someone I want you to be around."
Nadeshiko remained doll-silent, doll-still.
"But, but why? Sasuke-san, what, what did she do wrong? Why, why are you, why are you mad at her? Why can't I… why can't I be around her? I mean, she's, Nadeshiko, she's been nothing but nice to me! She makes me feel…" Yakata swallowed, loudly. His eyes were beginning to shine with tears. "I like her a lot! Why are you so mad at her? Why are you h-hurting her? What did she do wrong?"
Yakata's voice began sounding more and more like a living memory, less and less like a broken record.
Sasuke's heart burned and tugged and clawed against the inside of his ribcage, screaming out the answer.
Everything, everything, EVERYTHING.
But his mouth, normally so free in releasing his words, shut its gates and hoarded the flood of screaming high inside his chest.
Ino spoke, as if in surrogate. "Sasuke, honey, please, let's just… stay on the subject." She left Nadeshiko. "Yakata-kun's been very happy working at the flower shop, I've noticed. It gives him something good to do, it gives him purpose." She reached for him with soiled arms. "His happiness has nothing to do with…"
Sasuke glared at her. He could still speak through his eyes.
There was anger and sadness and, most desirably, fear in her wordless reply.
And Sasuke breathed in deeply, loosening his throat. He had his eyes fiercely narrowed.
Why, why, why.
"I, I, I just… please let me keep working at the shop with Nadeshiko-san, Sasuke-san. Please. St-stop, stop hurting her. She's, she's nice to me. Even if you're mad at her, you shouldn't hurt her…"
And suddenly he was five again, suddenly he was the one being scolded, suddenly he was clenching his fists and feeling all those old frustrations thawing and mixing with the oily, fiery anger of the present.
"You can… you can get mad at me, if you want, instead of her. It's okay, I, I won't care, it, it, it's my fault anyways... Just don't… hurt her."
("Hate me, little brother.")
(Was that what desperation was supposed to look like, when not tarnished by years of corruption, years of repressed emotions?)
"Fine, just… fine. Is that how it's going to be? Fine. Go ahead. Waste your talent. See if I care. Go ahead and let it rot."
He had to get out of that house.
And he did.
It took Ino a very long time for her to apologize to Yakata, long after Sasuke had left some hyper-expectation of earshot. She approached the boy, cautiously, as if hot steam surrounded him. "Yakata-kun, I'm… I'm so sorry you had to see that, Sasuke must have been… having a bad day…"
Nadeshiko had removed herself from the wall. She moved past them without even touching them.
Yakata followed her, even though she was too fast for him.
Ino called out after him, but he only barely heard.
If he didn't run, if he didn't run she'd disappear, she'd be gone forever, he just knew, he just knew.
And just before the door to her bedroom closed, he reached out and he took her hand in his. "Nadeshiko!"
She did not pull, but she kept the rest of her body far from him. Her face was turned away.
"Nadeshiko are you, are you hurt? What happened? Why was, why was Sasuke-san so angry at you? What's wrong?"
"…I'm sorry, Yakata-kun. You don't deserve this."
And then her hand slipped out of his and the door closed in his face.
Yakata tried the door handle. It was locked.
He tried again. His breathing quickened. "Nadeshiko! Nadeshiko! Please, don't…!"
He wanted to cry.
"Just tell me what happened! Is it my fault? Is it, is it my… I'm, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, just please, tell me…!"
He leaned forward and pressed his head against the wood of the door and quick, sobbing breaths filled him to the stomach.
"I didn't, I don't, I didn't mean to get you in trouble, I'm so sorry…!"
He fell to his knees. The wood against his head was neither cold nor warm.
His mind drowned in memories, in the things that Nadeshiko, that Sasuke had said.
Someone was coming up the stairs.
Yakata tried closing his mouth and swallowing. He wiped his eyes against his forearm.
"Hey, hey, don't get so upset. It's not really your fault."
It wasn't Ino. It was a male voice.
He looked up, wiping his eyes again. And in removing the tears and the blur he saw that it was Takeru. There was a look of detached concern on his face. His hands were in his pockets.
"N-not my fault…?"
"No, no, of course not," Takeru replied. He spoke like Ino did. "Father's not mad at you at all. And it's certainly not your fault for him getting so mad at Nadeshiko."
Yakata sniffed, deeply. He wiped his eyes against his forearm again.
Takeru continued. "Honestly, I'm surprised that this hasn't happened more, since you've arrived. Then again, what with everyone so busy these days…"
"Wh-what do you mean…?"
And there Takeru's face softened. He took his hands out of his pockets and knelt down to eye level with Yakata, his arms on his knees. "Father and Nadeshiko are just always at each other's throats. It's usually not so bad, when she's out of the house. She disgusts him, you know."
The feeling in Yakata's gut was like a village boy's fist. "D-d-disgusts him…? Why?"
Takeru's eyes, small and black, lowered. "It's… a long story."
"But what, what, what happened? What's, why is that?"
Takeru just shifted his shoulders and looked at Nadeshiko's door. "Maybe you should talk to her about it sometime. Because Father does not bring it up. And, well. I don't think it's really my place to say anything, myself…"
"B-but I don't, but she's not allowed to, to talk to me any more…"
"Oh, I don't think that will stop her. If she wants to say something she'll say it. No matter what my father says."
Somehow, this wasn't a comfort to Yakata.
And somehow, Takeru seemed to notice this. He took an arm off of his knees and put his hand on Yakata's back. "I'm just going to leave you with a little warning, Yakata-kun: I'd be careful around her, if I were you. She could hurt you, and something tells me you'd hardly deserve it if she did."
"H-hurt me? But she'd, she'd never…"
Nadeshiko couldn't hurt anyone. Her hands were too gentle.
(But Yatsu in the park. But she hadn't even touched him.)
(And what Ino had said afterwards. "She didn't do anything to you, did she?")
But Takeru wasn't saying anything, and his face held an expression that couldn't have been anything but pity.
("I'm sorry, Yakata-kun. You don't deserve this.")
("I WILL NOT LET YOU CORRUPT HIM!")
It felt like the world was crumbling around his and Takeru's feet. Yakata buried his face in his hands and curled up into himself.
He still had Takeru's hand on his back. "Hey, hey, I didn't say that she was going to hurt you. I just said that she could. She can't hurt you if you aren't near her, you know."
But the morning had been one of beautiful flowers and gentle words and.
Everything had been okay.
But when Sasuke came home, when Sasuke came home…
(Was it really that fragile, this happiness? Like a glass dream.)
(He'd cracked it.)
(It had been too good to be true.)
(Yakata ruined everything he touched.)
("Witch-boy.")
Yakata began crying again, and his sobs were hard and wet and anguished.
Even with Takeru's hand on his back, he felt more alone than he had in a very, very long time.
"Go get some sleep. It'll make you feel better," Takeru said, when he finally left. "My father will be calmed down by the time you wake up, most likely."
Yakata didn't want to leave Nadeshiko's door.
(Not a single sound had come out of her room, since she had closed it.)
("She can't hurt you if you aren't near her, you know.")
But she would never.
(But why would Takeru say…?)
But she was his friend.
("She didn't do anything to you, did she?")
He went back to Hajime's room and hid himself underneath the blankets as the sky grew darker and darker.
And tried not to think about it.
He was woken up by a knock on the door, and Ino's voice behind it. "Yakata-kun, I… brought you some dinner. Everyone else has eaten. Sasuke… told me to get you but I didn't want to wake you up."
He blinked, sleepily. His head hurt. He dug his head into the pillow, eyes half-closed and dry.
Ino continued. "Sasuke said… he's taking the night off from training tonight. So rest as much as you want, okay…?"
Yakata didn't say anything.
"You can leave the dishes downstairs when you're done. I'll wash them."
He listened to Ino's footsteps down the hallway, down the stairs, gone.
The blankets were still warm from body heat, and the air felt cold when Yakata left the bed. He rubbed his eyes and opened the door. Meat, soup, rice, a glass of water, chopsticks, all left on a tray for him.
In looking down the hallway at the space where Ino had walked, Yakata saw another tray left in front of Nadeshiko's door. The same food, minus the meat.
He almost wanted to wait for her to open that door, to get her own food, so he could…
…but she wasn't allowed to talk to him, so it wasn't like anything would have happened.
(The things that Takeru had said, about her hurting him, rested quietly at the back of his mind, processed from his sleep.)
(The only person that could hurt him here was himself.)
(And his inability to do anything right.)
He took his food and set it on Hajime's desk and quietly and quickly began to eat.
(Trying not to look at the dried gift by the photograph, trying not to look at the narcissus in a vase that Nadeshiko had lent him. It had not wilted.)
The tray was gone from in front of Nadeshiko's door by the time he went downstairs to put his dishes away. He heard the television in the closed living room, heading down the hallway, but the house felt otherwise completely and utterly empty.
He went back to bed. His eyelids were heavy and the sheets were warm.
When he woke up and went downstairs, Ino was cleaning up from what was evidently a very small lunch. "Oh, Yakata-kun… Did you just wake up?" He nodded, rubbing his eye. "You were asleep for the longest time. You must be hungry. What can I make for you?"
He shrugged, and sat down at the table. Ino began taking things out of the fridge.
There was a clock on the wall above the sink, and he saw that it was just past one.
"Nadeshiko-san's not, not home right now, is she," he said.
Ino paused, a knife in her hand. "…no, she left early in the morning, to go to the shop."
"Without me."
Ino sighed. "Yakata-kun, please try not to feel so bad about… what happened." She began slathering butter onto a slice of bread. "None of this is your fault."
It was.
He didn't say anything.
"…but, for your sake—even if you really want to go—I think you should avoid working at the shop and just stay home. For now, I mean." She tore a leaf of lettuce. "It'll make things easier for… you."
Yakata wondered if it was possible to want to do something and not-want to do something so badly at the same time.
"…okay, Ino-san. I'll, I'll stay home today. It… it's what I should have done in the, the first place…"
Ino was quiet. She finished the sandwich, cut it in half, and put it in front of him, but she didn't leave immediately.
He looked at the sandwich, at her, and he saw that same pity on her face that he'd seen on Takeru's, the night before.
"Yakata-kun, this really isn't your fault. If anything, it's… mine. I knew that… Sasuke probably wouldn't be happy if he found out where you were spending your time, so I should have…"
"St-stopped me? Before I even, I even left, right?"
"…no, I should have done a better job at… protecting you. Keeping him from finding out."
Yakata lowered his eyes. Ino's kindness felt twisted and strange.
"We'll figure something out, eventually. I don't think it's fair to keep you from something you… like so much."
Yakata almost liked Nadeshiko more than the flowers.
"But let's lay low for now, okay? Now eat your lunch, you must be hungry…"
"…thanks, Ino-san…"
He ate the sandwich, but he didn't taste it.
The day was long and it was empty. It felt like waiting.
Yakata tried to read, but he couldn't concentrate.
He wasn't allowed to take a walk.
And when he went to go try watching the television, he ended up falling asleep on the couch to the sounds of a soap opera romance.
Ino woke him up and offered to have him help make dinner. It was the closest thing to fun he had all day.
Sasuke's face was narrow and tight while they were eating. He didn't say much.
Nadeshiko wasn't even there.
And Takeru kept looking sideways at Yakata, quietly, with unreadable little eyes.
And after dinner Sasuke pulled Yakata aside and said, "You're learning the Uchiha fireball technique tonight. Get your shoes on, we're leaving to train."
He couldn't say no. He couldn't mess things up when people told him what to do.
(Unless he messed them up in the doing.)
(He still felt he was at fault.)
Sasuke taught him how to gather his chakra in his chest and blow it out through his mouth. There was an eagerness and a passion in the way he went about the lesson, that night. Yakata had never before seen it in him.
And he got angry when, try after try after try, the most Yakata could ever produce was a fireball the size of his fist.
"You can do this, Yakata! Try harder! More chakra, more control! Turn it into fire!"
"I, I'm trying!"
"Try harder!"
So Yakata did. The skin on his upper arms was starting to hurt, especially when he touched them
There was very little progress made.
Sasuke gave up midway through the night. "We're done. We'll continue tomorrow. We're going home."
Yakata went with him, apologizing.
Sasuke didn't tell him that it was okay, that it wasn't his fault.
When he bathed that night, Yakata's arms burned with the fire he had tried so desperately to create, and his face stung.
Nadeshiko still wasn't home.
She was gone in the morning, too. Ino didn't say anything about it. Yakata didn't ask.
He passed the day, somehow. He practiced concentrating his chakra. He figured that maybe it would help.
Yakata made some progress that night, with Sasuke. The fireball grew just that little bit larger.
(And with it, so did the pain on his arms, his face, his hands, now.)
His chest ached.
Sasuke didn't acknowledge any of this, just pushing him onward, harder.
"It shouldn't be this hard for you. It took me a week to learn when I was eight. You can do better."
Yakata quietly bandaged his hands, his arms.
In the morning, (another, a third morning without Nadeshiko), Ino soothed the pain for him and put bandages on his singed cheeks, and made him breakfast.
Yakata didn't feel like reading.
(He didn't want to enter Nadeshiko's room, despite the wonderful oasis of books she herself owned.)
He couldn't bring himself to fall asleep, even in front of the television.
(His arms still hurt to touch, even with Ino's help.)
He tried exploring the house but he got as far as the second drawer on Hajime's bureau before giving up, feeling like he was prying in places that ought not to be pried into.
And when they were cleaning the lunch they had made together, the winding ache in is heart grew too great to hold in, and he grabbed onto Ino's sleeve.
"Ino-san, can you, can, can you please just… take me to the shop for a few minutes today, please…" He couldn't even bring himself to look at her. "I have nothing to do and I, I can't, I can't stand it. I'll even, I'll even stay away from Nadeshiko, I won't even say hello to her, just let me go, please, we don't have to tell…"
(Oh, what Ino would have given to just shatter everything holding her back to hug that boy and give him what he wanted.)
(From an argument, the night that Sasuke found out: "Do not let him leave the house. Do not let him leave the house! If he's been out—and I'll know if he's been out, Ino—then I'm going to have to lock him up in Hajime's room unless I'm with him. You wouldn't like that, would you? And you tell me you did it because you felt sorry for him. Sorry for him!")
(And this was after all the words Sasuke had given her about how stupid she was and how careless she was for even allowing this all to happen.)
(And everything else Sasuke had said to her, and her sick uncertainty, the irrational fears sometimes that there really was Itachi's mind hiding behind those eyes.)
(Even though the boy was really, truly, and honestly growing on her.)
"I'm… sorry, Yakata-kun. I don't think we're… safe yet."
And Yakata just fixed his eyes on the sink and said, "Oh. I'm, I'm sorry, I, I, I, I shouldn't have asked…"
"…it's all right," she said, and twisted the tap to rinse off the plate she was washing.
Yakata spent the rest of the day in Hajime's room. Meditating. Concentrating chakra.
("There are much better ways for you to be spending your time while you're in my home.")
(Maybe things would be better if he actually listened more.)
(He'd told himself this many times, even before coming to Sasuke's house.)
There was a break in the monotony when Ino suddenly stopped her work in peeling potatoes—Yakata was peeling carrots beside her—and a great wide smile broke on her face.
"Yakata-kun, go into the pantry and get two more carrots and one more potato, once you're done there," she said.
"Wh-why is that?"
"Hajime's coming around for dinner tonight, we want to make sure there's enough curry for him."
(His smile, given form by his quiet admiration of that wordless communication, was a small comfort for her heart, but it was enough.)
Hajime arrived early, before his father and the rest of his siblings. "Lemme set the table, Mom. Before Karai," he said, after giving his mother a kiss on the cheek.
"Well you're cheerful." Ino's smile was curled and curious as Hajime reached up for the plates.
"I've had a good week," he replied.
"Apparently!"
"I'll, um, I'll help too if you, if you want."
Hajime suddenly seemed to notice Yakata's presence, and he blinked a few times. "Oh. Hi there. How's my room treating you?"
"Oh, it's." And suddenly Yakata was bowing. "Th-thank you for letting me stay there! I, I, I really appreciate it!"
This Hajime seemed so different from the one that Yakata had first met. He smiled warmly and genuinely. He didn't look as tired. "It's no big deal. Here, you hold the plates. I'll get the water glasses too."
There was a slight pause in the conversation as they set the table together. "Dad working you hard?"
"Huh?"
"The bandages."
Yakata's hands were careful as he put down the next plate. "O-oh, um, I'm, I'm just only a little bit, um. Hurt."
"You must be a tough kid."
Yakata's head lowered. His cheeks hurt from his mouth stretching into what he hoped wasn't a smile. "I don't think so, not really…"
"Hajime, dear, you never did tell me why you decided to come home tonight," Ino said, from the stove.
"Karai suggested it. Thought it'd be nice for me to poke my head in. We figured Dad would approve."
Ino paused, stirring the curry thoughtfully. "Well I'll be sure to thank her when she comes home for giving you the idea, Hajime. It's very nice of both of you."
"Eh. I guess," Hajime said.
It was strange, how in exchanges like this, even in just hearing them, Yakata found himself just that little bit more at ease with things.
("No, you're just very careful in choosing your words.")
But when Sasuke got home—maybe even before then, in how Hajime so carefully pulled Karai off of him when she herself returned—his quiet enthusiasm had dampened and been replaced by a feeling of lukewarm distance.
And when Sasuke asked him why he was home, he gave a different answer. "The team got an assignment recently. A live one, eastern coast, causing a lot of trouble. We leave tomorrow."
"Oh, a live one?" Karai said. "As in, someone new?"
"We might have a legitimate first-generation curse seal on our hands," Hajime replied. "It's very exciting." And Yakata saw, for a moment, his eyes grow warm as he addressed his little sister.
"And what does this have to do with anything?" Sasuke said.
Gone. "I thought it would be nice to spend one last night at home before we leave. I've been gone for so long, anyways. Figured I owe you guys that much, since I know you prefer me being home, Dad."
"I do," Sasuke said, though his posture was not terribly stiff. "And where have you been staying lately, anyways?"
"Jimichi's house."
"Ah. Your medic."
"Yeah, he let me sleep on his couch once I explained what was going on. It's been fun."
"Fun."
"Yeah. Though I do like being home, it's nice to take a break sometimes. Plus I think that Yakata-kun needs the space more than me."
"Well aren't you generous," Takeru said, before taking a bite of rice.
"That is very generous of you, Hajime," Sasuke said.
Inou laughed and tried to make it look like he was sneezing. Takeru sourly took another bite of rice.
"I do want you home for good soon, though," Sasuke continued. "There is such a thing as being too generous, you know."
"The guest's needs come before our own though, Father."
Inou shoved a spoonful of curry into his mouth to keep from betraying another reaction.
"Family is what is ultimately the most important, Hajime. Yakata won't be here forever."
"Mm. So you want me back once Yakata-kun's gone home?"
"Before then, if possible. If your medic's couch is good enough for you then our couch at home should be good enough too. You've been gone far too long."
Hajime paused. His eyes half-closed in thought.
"How about this, Dad. I'll come by for dinner again after the mission and make an effort at least once a week until Yakata-kun returns home."
"…and you can't be home full-time why?"
"Because Jimichi's couch is really comfortable."
Inou had his lips pressed very, very tightly over his spoon. Karai began to giggle, and even Yakata had to laugh, a little. Mainly it was because of Hajime's voice, dull and monotonous, and the sincerity he somehow managed to convey with it.
"…fine. Just make an effort."
"Sure thing, Dad. It's the least I can do. Sorry for being out so much."
"Hm." Sasuke went back to his food.
Even though Nadeshiko wasn't there, Yakata found himself not feeling bad much at all. His chest felt warm.
A seed of negotiation was beginning to grow, an idea.
And when he and Sasuke had left to go training that evening, he said, "Sasuke-san, can I, can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"Is there, um. Is there any way for me to, to go back to the flower shop?"
An uncomfortable pause. "I'd rather you didn't."
"B-because it's distracting, right?"
"It is. You should be-"
"I don't, um. I don't think it's that distracting."
Sasuke looked at him. His face was slightly, but not angrily frozen. "And why do you say that."
"Because, well. Before you, you found out about what I was… doing, I was making good progress, right…?"
"…I suppose."
"And I've." Yakata swallowed, and his courage was heavy as it went down his throat. "I've actually been practicing a little on my own time, honest. I, I, I just want to, um. To go back. For a little while. I can hardly… hardly stand it otherwise… I have n-nothing else to do…"
No response from Sasuke.
"…I promise, I won't, I won't even try to say hello to Nadeshiko while I'm there. I promise."
Yakata said, hoping maybe it'd be a lie.
No response from Sasuke.
Yakata breathed deeply. "Sasuke-san, please…"
"I understand if you're a little bored, Yakata, but you're here to train. Not play with flowers." He continued onward, further into the training grounds. "Come on."
Yakata didn't move. "I, I am training! But I… I want to do other things too!"
His heart was beating hard and terrifyingly fast in his ears.
Sasuke stopped walking. Back facing Yakata.
"Just… you said I was, I was making progress, right?"
"…you're taking to this new technique slowly. We have to spend more time on it. Now let's drop the issue, we're wasting enough time as it is."
Enormous air filled Yakata's lungs. "Then when I learn the technique, will you, will you let me go? I'll, I'll try my hardest, I promise!"
Sasuke finally, finally turned around. "You mean to say you want me to let you go back to that… flower shop once you perfect this technique?"
Yakata nodded, heavily, strongly. "I'll try my, my very hardest. I won't w-waste any more time."
And Sasuke—of all things—smiled. But it was a challenging smile. "I suppose that's fair. If it'll motivate you on further, well. The faster you learn this, the better."
"I promise, I'll learn it really… really quickly!" Yakata said. "But it's, it's okay, right?"
"We'll see."
Oh, to restrain that smile on Yakata's face.
He had never thrown himself so hard into his training.
His chakra bloomed and burst and popped and crackled in his chest.
(The faster he learned the faster he would.)
Sasuke watched on, yelling, spurring him forward, a hot and a burning sun.
(He had to learn it, he had to learn this.)
His arms in their bandages were barely singed. He smelled like sunburn and fire and sweat.
(Every breath brought him closer to.)
Bigger, bigger, bigger.
Time wore on.
(Every second brought him closer to.)
It was later than they'd ever stayed out training.
(Every second away from.)
Sasuke said, once, that maybe they should take a break.
Yakata said no.
And so they continued.
(He had to.)
Yakata breathed in deeply and deeply and every breath was a wish.
(He'd soon be there. Back where he.)
And out.
(Belonged.)
The fireball illuminated Sasuke's face with reds and oranges and Yakata's uneasy triumph.
And Yakata stood, knees weak, head hollow and dizzy, gasping for air. Everything felt like it was on glorious fire.
"Was that… was that… what it's supposed to… look like?" he said, almost laughing.
Sasuke wasn't smiling. What was on his face was something resembling disbelief, or disappointment.
"O-okay, I'll try again! I'll try again, it'll be better this time…!"
(One more, he wouldn't mess up this time.)
Breathe in, deeply.
"Yakata…!"
And out.
And for six blindingly glorious seconds, night turned into day.
The effort brought Yakata to his knees.
Almost.
Sasuke caught him. His hands on Yakata's back were surprisingly gentle. "That was more than enough. You didn't have to do that."
The air felt so cold as Yakata just half-sat, half-stood there, gasping for it.
"I did… a good job…?"
"It was amazing. I knew you had it in you."
The praise entered his heart like cool water and he grinned with his chin falling toward his chest.
He'd done amazing.
"So I can… I can… go now…? To the shop…?"
The pause seemed to last for a horrible forever and Yakata's breaths began to slow as his worry increased. He closed his eyes.
"…not tonight, you need to rest after all that hard work."
Yakata looked up. Sasuke wasn't smiling, wasn't looking at him, but he didn't seem… angry. Or even remotely unhappy.
"Oh, oh, I, I understand, that's fine!" He tried standing up. His knees buckled, and Sasuke had to catch him again.
"Careful. Let's go home. You've burned some of your hair."
"Oh, I'm, I'm sorry…"
There, Sasuke laughed. "Just take a bath. Come on."
He gave Yakata an arm, a shoulder to lean on, and they slowly began on their way back.
"You know, Yakata."
"Mm?"
"That technique you just learned. In the old days, when the clan was… bigger, you weren't considered a member of the clan until you learned it."
("That's my boy.")
(The words did not belong to Yakata, however. Yakata wasn't his boy.)
(Takeru was.)
"…so I'm pretty proud of you, Yakata. You learned it… well, even quicker than I did. Then again, you are older…"
Yakata looked up with a raw, awkward smile on his face. "You, you mean it?"
"Yes."
He glanced sideways, his smile closing slightly. "Um, um, Sasuke-san? So… so how fast did, um. My… my father learn it?"
Sasuke searched his memory.
(And all he could find was Yakata.)
(And a memory of a fire-spitting girl that had learned it near-instantly.)
(He kept his mind on Yakata.)
"I don't know. But I'm sure you… did better than him."
"…really?"
"Well, I don't know. But let's say you did. He'd be proud of you too."
(And for reasons that Sasuke couldn't quite fathom, Yakata's closeness to him no longer felt so awkward, nor so full of obligation. His grip became just that little bit tighter.)
"So, um. That, that, that rule, does it, does it still apply?"
(Every one of his children had learned the technique.)
(Inou was the last one to learn it. In his weakness it had taken him almost a full year to even barely touch Yakata's performance.)
"I suppose it does. You are your… father's son, after all."
(Maybe the corruption hadn't settled in after all.)
(Especially considering the unfitting motivation for all of this wonderful growth.)
But Yakata was smiling. A proven Uchiha.
They reached the gate. Yakata let go of him. "I think I can… I can make it the rest of the way, Sasuke-san."
"Mm. Go take a bath. Rest. You deserve it."
"Thanks, Sasuke-san." Yakata walked, almost limping, to the front door, and he opened it. "Um. And. Um." He lingered in the foyer. His toes played against the heel of his shoes, almost slipping them off. "How soon until I, I can, um. G-go to the flower shop?"
(That dirty motivation.)
(…it was still a motivation.)
"…I'll talk to my wife about letting her take you tomorrow."
The smile Sasuke received was the warmest he'd gotten yet that day. It almost unnerved him.
(Itachi had never smiled that warmly.)
(Until the day he'd died.)
(But he took a quiet, twisted comfort in the fact that such a weak desire had unleashed so much latent power. Progress was progress.)
"You deserve it," he said again.
"Th-thank you, Sasuke-san," Yakata said, and he left to go take a bath.
Sasuke told Ino the news while Yakata was occupied, quietly and quickly and without any other, superfluous emotions.
"Why the change of heart?" she said. She was reading, on their bed, in her pajamas.
(Training had gone long, that night. He was surprised that she was still awake.)
(Truthfully, though, she couldn't have let herself sleep peacefully until they had returned.)
(For the boy's sake.)
"He proved himself to me. Nothing more. I'm going to bed," he said. He walked toward the closet.
"Sasuke, you smell like a bonfire."
"It's not that bad. I'll take a bath in the morning."
She returned to her book and kept her eyes firmly away from him as he took off his shirt and threw it in the hamper, and put on his pajama pants, leaving his chest bare. It was a warm night.
(There was nothing to see. It wasn't like Sasuke would let her enjoy his admittedly well-kept body, anyways.)
"At least let me keep the light on."
"That's fair," he said, and he got under the blankets, not even saying goodnight.
Ino, feeling generous, only read for a few more pages before turning in, herself. She couldn't bring herself to feel spiteful.
Though she couldn't help but wonder how Yakata had managed to turn Sasuke's opinion around so strongly.
Not after that night.