DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto – and you can all be thankful for that.
Oh, and if you were reading Once I had a Sister before this November (2013) I've been redoing the first few chapters. They're much better now and I apologise for making you read the other ones beforehand. This is also one of them, because I thought it needed some redoing as well.
There are a few Japanese expressions here – trust me, I do my best to make sure they fit into context.
Lines mean change of scene. Three dots mean a change of time in the same scene/day/event.
Please enjoy and R&R!
Once I had a Sister
Chapter 4
In which people start acting weird and friendships are struck
To Naruto especially, Haruna was away for a long time. At first her missions started out taking only a day or so and she would either be at the school gates waiting for him at the end of the day or leaving him lunch in the mornings if she came back late. But as the weeks went by, try as she might, Haruna was put on call for solo-missions perpetually, and her missions ended up spanning days, weeks, fortnights.
Well that was stupid of me, the ninja reflected as she bandaged another cut from a flukey shuriken. They weren't joking when they said they were putting me on call 24/7…
To make up for it however, Haruna always made sure she brought something back for her little brother. Candies from Suna, t-shirts from Inaho, the works. Naruto slowly began to accustom to the fact that while he'd wait ages for the next visit from neechan, every mission meant a little souvenir/toy/some-unheard-of-junk-food-from-the-far-corners-of-the-earth at the end of it for him. It wasn't the best, but they could cope. Naruto's sheer happiness every time Haruna clambered through the window to visit was well worth all the night-treks she'd make to complete her missions in half the time.
But presents or no, it was fairly obvious even to Naruto that ANBU Wolf's mission call rate was, well, intense.
"Ne, Haru-ne, is your boss angry with you or something?" he asked some weeks later, after another exceptionally long mission had brought a very tired (but no less upbeat) Haruna back to his apartment. "Don't you ever get a weekend off nowadays?"
The answer came in the form of a light snore; Haruna had dozed off at the table beside him. The little boy coughed politely (after all, he knew very well how hard it was to stay awake, thanks to the Academy ) but when Haruna didn't stir for another full ten minutes, Naruto took matters of leaving sleep to night-time into his own hands. Carefully, he selected a pocky stick from the box open on the table and consequently prodded the kunoichi awake.
His ANBU sister had her hand to the kunai at her leg in the space of a heartbeat. When she realised that she wasn't in a life and death situation and that Naruto was staring at her, her shoulders slumped in a mixture of relief and silent apology.
"Nee…chan?"
Said neechan smiled apologetically (real smooth Haruna…) and stifled another yawn. "I'm sorry Naruto, what were you saying?"
"Oh nothing… I mean, do you get holidays in the ANBU?"
Holidays… That word didn't exist in any of her superiors' dictionaries. "I do get days off," the kunoichi informed, then changed her tone as she continued, "but it's actually pretty busy lately so it's pretty rare. Sorry." On the chair opposite to her there was a smudge of melted chocolate on her little brother's cheek and she took out a handkerchief to wipe it. (Because big sisters did so) Pushing her urge to nap aside at least while she was around Naruto, Haruna asked what had often crossed her mind while she was away.
Did or did he not have any friends?
With a laugh that was too loud, the six year old interlaced his fingers behind his sunny head and asked if that question included the pot plant on his windowsill and his bed. And if not – Haru-ne looked genuinely concerned about the subject – well, lots of the kids laughed around him and the stuff he did. (He had long gotten the hint that the correct preposition was 'at' but who on earth ever told anyone else that) That was close enough, wasn't it?
Nope. Not by a long shot. –Wow it wasn't that bad was it?
"It's alright if you don't have hordes of friends, all you need is a few people you can trust okay?" She told him, giving him just the first of many important know-hows of life. (The sooner he learnt it the better.) "Try giving it another shot though"
"Well yeah dattebayo! I've got you and Teuchi jii-san and Ayame already!"
Haruna laughed, tiredly. "Okay little man. But your next friend should really be someone around your age…"
Unable to fend sleep off any longer, the ANBU kunoichi closed her eyes and was asleep within seconds. Naruto trotted off to close the curtains – on his tippy-toes - and while he waited for his ramen to cook, fetched a blanket from the bed and wrapped it carefully around his big sister's shoulders.
.
There were set limits to the amount of attention a person could handle. When it seemed the hundredth pair of eyes that morning zoned in on ANBU Wolf, she remembered just why she often opted to stay away from the other shinobi in the ranks. Especially now that news of her council summons recently had spread like wildfire. The common response to her recent action with the jinchuuriki was fairly obvious.
"Wolf. What the f*** are you doing with the Uzumaki?"
(Note: Shinobi rank and curse word frequency were directly proportionate to each other in the world of the ninja. Unless you were a person who just didn't like to swear – like her – or Uchiha Itachi, conversations of this type were natural occurances.)
Haruna stopped her conversation with Itachi long enough to pop her bubblegum in reply to the muscled ANBU who'd asked. Pop. "Good to see you too, Raiga." she answered unfazed since she'd learnt from experience that it was the best way to get people off your case. Her colleague repeated his question – using the same expletive twice in the same sentence - and Wolf was sorely tempted to give a well-structured argument for the Uzumaki's sake when she stopped herself in time. If her commanding superiors hated what she was doing that badly; so would the rest of the shinobi underneath them.
"Are you lonely or something? ANBU life got to you yet?"
The brunette didn't have time for this and told the guy so. "Hey man, if it makes you feel any better, I'm the one keeping an eye on the kid and not you. Happy?"
"No." A near-mocking chuckle. "It still looks weird, Wolf."
"Really?" she retorted coolly. "Then it looks like we have something in common."
If Itachi hadn't stood up at this point, trouble would have ensued and Haruna would have had the opportunity to exhibit the skills she had honed from the missions over the past few weeks. While Itachi was only thirteen – fourteen in two months to be correct – and his teammate his senior by some three years, on levels of maturity it was the other way round. Uninclined to having others fight her battles for her (and the fact that Raiga had no reply to her comment, hah) Haruna sighed and looked away. It wasn't as if she had expected anyone to agree with her in the first place.
Raiga went off too and the activity more or less resumed as it had been in the room, weird looks included. The brunette reached into her pocket and took out another bubble-gum packet, chewing the gum with extra vigour.
Itachi sat down thoughtfully, incident already forgotten in his mind. He'd been pensive for the past three months and today, the first time seeing his teammate in that same amount of time, was no different. All those clan meetings, council meetings and more recently, the private ones he would have at the deepest hours of the night with the village elders. all of them centred around one thing – the clan. The clan, the clan, the clan…
"… So how are things with you and your little brother?"
It took him a second to realise someone was talking to him. "Sasuke's doing very well, thank you. He will make the Uchiha proud someday." His eyes brightened remembering how Sasuke had been first in his class yesterday. Itachi always smiled with his eyes. "And you?"
An offhand wave answered the inquiry. And speaking of the Uchiha… "Hey Itachi. Is there something going on with your clan?" Itachi straightened immediately as she continued, "because the police office is almost always closed - and you know the stuff I do on night watches – when I'd rather report unruly civilian behaviour to them." Itachi was the only Uchiha in the ANBU ranks; the rest of them typically formed the police force. Whenever there were civilians going against the rules –not that it was ever as bad as what ninja could do against other ninja – during ANBU Wolf's night watches, they were the ones she had to give reports to. Lately –for some reason she was still in the dark about – it seemed the entire police force was pre-occupied with other things. It was purely out of curiosity that Haruna mentioned it however it was inwardly alarming for the raven-haired youth opposite her.
"I apologise for your trouble," the Uchiha replied, telling himself to remain calm. "I'll ask about it at the meeting tonight."
"You have another clan meeting? Whoa."
Itachi shrugged his shoulders slightly. He didn't know how to explain the fact that those meetings had taken over his life for the past few months and that today was the first time he'd been able to go out of the compound without another of his clan accompanying him.
.
The scarred chuunin whistled softly to himself as he walked up the steps to his classroom. As a teacher, the man rose with the sun from Monday to Friday, in order to be in class and preparing long before his students had even left their homes. Iruka, who had only just begun to teach on his own –he'd only been an assistant until last summer, and was only just assigned homeroom classes - was still the only one who came this early to prepare his classes. All his colleagues pegged him as an ultra-dedicated newbie, but really Iruka came to class this early because he liked the peace and quiet.
The peace and quiet had waned ever so slightly lately, since it only took catching a glimpse of the desk at the far end of the room to start another round of meditation on his life, his past actions and why he felt a twinge of pity for the Uzumaki sometimes.
Iruka still remembered the night when he first found that he was to be Naruto's homeroom teacher. He'd been unable to sleep, staring at the wall instead. Six years had not dulled the memories of blood, shattered glass and burning skies. He still wondered why the Hokage had arranged things this way when he was really nothing but a novice teacher. Iruka wondered about a lot of things.
Lately, his thoughts had centred a lot more on Naruto and the ANBU accompanying him, pushing other concerns like lunchtime duties and marking aside for the time being. Iruka hadn't seen Haruna for the past seven years. They did know each other (on an acquaintence level only) as kids from the orphanage. If the brunette then had been trying to be inconspicuous, she failed miserably – it was during Iruka's time at school when the Academy introduced lunch time duty for their teachers, thanks to a few… misunderstandings - but she disappeared soon after from the classes all of a sudden and he hadn't given it much thought since then.
And now here he was, a teacher, while that dark-haired girl was in the ANBU. And has Naruto under her wing too…
No matter how many times he thought over it, it still didn't add up. Why did Haruna care? Did she have any idea how weird it looked? How was she taking care of him? Did Naruto's new guardian know about his schooling or did she plan to supervise him out of school hours? And how had she been all these years anyway? He had so many questions to ask her…
Iruka worried his bottom lip between his teeth and decided he'd get some answers. Today was as good as any.
And well, he'd be lying if he said he didn't want to see her again.
.
.
.
"Soooo… it wasn't a date?"
Haruna rolled her eyes from behind the blanket she was shaking out. Naruto had been sitting on the bed, arms folded and eyeing her suspiciously since she'd come in to tuck him in. If this was what she got for accepting Iruka's invitation for a chat that afternoon… "Nope. For the last time Naruto, it was not a date. Sorry to burst your little fantastical bubble. We sat on a couch and just talked. Mostly about you. Really Naruto…"
"But isn't that what you do on a -"
"Naruto." She glared, as if daring him to question her any further. "We had hot chocolate. That doesn't make it a date."
Huffing out of annoyance –after all he had seen it with his own eyes; his elder sister and his young homeroom teacher beside her – Naruto flopped on his back and continued. "So what did you do then? And my stomach still hurts, Haru-ne!"
"I already told you – talked about you and what you act like in school. And sheesh, that's because you had to ask if I was going to start dating your homeroom teacher right in front of him." Maybe she'd rammed him a bit too forcefully for that idea. And maybe Irukas' bright red face after Naruto's furious whispers made her laugh a little too loudly. She thought it best not to mention that their conversation had steered into childhood stories and random topics.
At the mention of his school life, Narutos' questioning expression quickly switched to dismay. Homeroom wasn't even something you studied for, but Naruto had a feeling that homeroom teachers knew the most about their students than the subject teachers. After all, it was Iruka-sensei who gave out test scores or passed on messages –in his case, threats of detention and cleaning tasks as punishment – on behalf of his other senseis. As if reading his mind Haruna smiled and told him not to worry, Iruka had been polite and said some very nice things about him. Like the fact that he had a perfect attendance record.
"I think I smiled so widely I scared the people beside us." His elder sister confided to him, cheeks aglow with pride. "But I'm proud of you, Naruto. It's hard to come to school sometimes and that took serious guts." A fist-bump followed this, and Naruto, suspicions pushed aside, shrugged embarrassedly.
"Ne, ne, are you gonna be hanging out with him more often then?"
"Who? Iruka?"
Naruto nodded – looking a trifle fearful of what her answer would be.
Oh gawd, did he have to say hanging out?
"Weell… Only if you give me reason to." She winked.
.
"You look sick," Haruna told her teammate when she bumped into him coincidentally on her way back from another mission. A solo one again since Itachi had still been unavailable. "Is that why you've been away?"
The words hit him with a jolt. He certainly felt sick, but like always the boy hoped it did not show. He had to maintain his expressionless façade. "No," he replied, reminding himself not to utter the forbidden words that so many things rested on. "I have just been occupied lately."
"Ah." His teammate nodded. "Clan stuff?"
"Mmm." Itachi left his answer as a noncommittal one. He could no longer afford to keep let others in close enough to be able to piece together what had been hushed behind the stone walls of his home. If only you knew what the clan was planning...
Their last mission as a team together had already passed. He was no longer just one of the ANBU but a double agent for the village and his clan.
The ANBU…. The place he thought he would have been able to get his own freedom, his own independence under the Hokage's orders alone. The place that had taught him the skills the clan wanted him to use on the village. If only they knew. If only he could tell them. If only someone would ask.
"Please excuse me; I have a clan meeting to attend." It sounded as if he actually wanted to go, go back to meetings and the elders and his father and listen like good boy to their plans. He hated himself for that.
Confused behind her nonchalant expression, Haruna said nothing as she watched her teammate walk away.
.
When he received his spelling test back with a big fat cross on it that day, Naruto made up his six year old mind that a change was expedient. So, when the rest of the class swarmed out the doors and into the fresh air outside, the little blonde stayed at his desk, hoping that maybe if he stared at the writing long enough it might make sense for him.
It wasn't that Naruto couldn't read... he was just, well, had a vague understanding of the act of recognising and making sense of characters on a page, to put it simply. Being a kid who every kindergarten teacher had refused to be within a 10 metre radius of, the blonde's education had been minimal. He only hid his shaky reading ability fairly well underneath his loud and boisterous antics.
In the farthest corner of the now-empty classroom, a little girl in a cream coloured jacket sat. Hyuuga Hinata could have only been a mouse, turtle or teeny-tiny seahorse in her past life. Not because she wasn't widely known –after all, one only needed to glimpse her on the street to surmise that she was of the prestigious Hyuuga clan – but because if anyone asked, one only needed to give a long list of the synonyms of shy, and eternally polite, to describe her. This at the same time also meant she was the complete antithesis of the blonde class clown.
Ah, but opposites did attract.
He might only know her name, but the boy had been pulled in class repeatedly enough for everyone to know that he was utterly fearless. While everyone else sighed at his interruptions (or rejoiced, depending on what was being disturbed) Hinata couldn't help but be drawn to the way Naruto refused to back down. Even when the sensei was glaring at him with enough strength to burn a hole in the back wall. And besides, he sat in the seat next to her.
Poring over books wasn't something Naruto could persevere at for more than four pages at the most. He gave up on a page with slightly more writing than usual and when he looked back to stretch his neck after that strenuous mental exercise, the cream of Hinata's jacket caught his eye. "Huh? Hinata? You're here?"
Hinata, who had since been sitting at her desk in silence, let out a cornered squeak. Horror of horrors; she would have to speak.
Naruto stared for a long moment at the lavender-eyed girl before asking, not unkindly, "What are you doing here?"
Blushing to the roots of her twilight blue hair, Hinata managed to whisper that she did not know. She usually ate lunch alone in the class, as far away from the rest of the other kids as possible –Naruto on the other hand, was always the first to bolt out the doorway.
"Oh… okay." The whiskered boy turned back to his book for a second before turning around again and asking off-handedly, "Uhh, do you get this?"
This in itself was such an unexpected request that the Hyuuga heiress forgot her chronic bashfulness for a second. What? "…get what, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto pointed to the short paragraph on the page, the one with the strange kanji everyone else in the class seemed to be able to read with ease. Hinata ran her eyes over it quickly and wondered briefly if anyone could possibly not understand the simple piece. Being in a class comprised mostly of six and seven year olds; none of the textbooks contained any complex kanji.
"Y-yes," she whispered uncertainly, wondering if it was the wrong answer to say. "D-do you want me to read it out for you," she offered, since the whole scenario reminded her of the evenings with Hanabi and helping her with her homework. "- if, if that's all right with you Naruto."
It was the only thing she could come up with but even so Naruto looked at her like she'd discovered the secret to ramen. She didn't know that was the first time anyone had offered to do the same for him.
"You sure? 'Coz well YEAH dattebayo!"
"Uh-um s-sure..."
Strangely enough, Hinata did. At first, Naruto had to practically press his cheek against Hinata's just to hear her whisper, but her voice grew clearer as Naruto's blue eyes brightened with every word she said.
When the bell rang like the undoing of a spell and the rest of the students came filing in for the last lesson before homeroom, both Naruto and Hinata quickly sidled back into their places without a word. School, it seemed, had brightened just a little.
.
Itachi was putting his shoes on at the door when he turned at the sound of his mother behind him.
"Are you going to see Shisui?" she asked.
"Hai, Okasan. I'll be quick about it."
"Okay…" Uchiha Mikoto watched her son mutely. Itachi has always been a solemn child, lonely and isolated from the others. She had been against his early graduation from the Academy, arguing with the rest of the Uchiha council that Itachi was just a boy, he needed to interact with other children his age. Ever since he joined the ANBU, he no longer sat at the dinner table with them and the affectionate hugs between them had grown rare.
If Itachi had been spending the time with his ANBU partner instead, Uchiha Mikoto wouldn't have minded. The different personality that brazen girl exhibited would do her son much more good than the wary, complacent dispositions of the clan and village elders. But since Itachi was duty bound to attend the tense conferences, Mikoto's heart had grown heavy with the knowledge that her precious son was drifting further and further away from the family and from her. The only times she'd see that guarded expression fade was when he was around Sasuke.
"Ne, Itachi-kun," Mikoto said, watching the adolescent dolefully as she leaned on the doorframe. "You are doing alright with the ANBU position aren't you?"
"Hai, Okasan."
"You don't mind having to attend all those meetings every day?"
"No, Okasan."
Mikoto sighed silently "You know you don't have to go if you don't want to, right?"
"I don't mind, Okasan."
"Itachi…" Where had he gone, the little boy who'd stand beside her diligently as she cooked in the kitchen or insist to carry the laundry basket for her? The very same boy, her eldest, had been forced to grow up so quickly that if not for the care and respect he never failed in giving to her, she would have pronounced her little Itachi gone. It took all of Mikoto's self-restraint to keep from swooping in and gathering the child up in her arms.
Her conversation with her youngest son earlier had only validated her fears.
…
"Mama" Sasuke had asked her that evening during dinner, which Itachi and his father had been absent from. "Why doesn't Itachi-nii have friends?"
Mikoto had stopped, surprised that her youngets had caught on with the fears that had been accumulating for some time. "What do you mean, Sasuke? Of course your brother has friends."
Sasuke shook his head. "Everyone is mean to him," he explained. "Nobody wants to talk to him when we go out except for me."
Of course. Children Itachi's age were afraid of him and the adults he surpassed grew to hate him.
Mikoto had gently brushed a strand of hair from her youngest child's face before promising him that she would talk about it with Itachi…
…
Now, instead of thoughtful and quiet, the object of Sasuke's concern only looked sad and tired. Mikoto ached inside because she understood why, and gave Itachi a smile that hopefully hid the liquid in her eyes. "You'll tell me if you're feeling bad about anything, right, Itachi? Promise me."
After a pause, Itachi's shoulders relaxed as he nodded. Hesitant at first, Mikoto gently pressed her firstborn towards her for a hug and said the magic words, hoping despite herself that her matured son was still able to believe in them. "Aishiteru Itachi, you know that right?"
From the depths of his mother's inky tresses, Itachi's felt his heart ache as well. The safety of those familiar arms around him was enough to balm the anxious burden of distrust and secrecy he had long been toiling under. He had forgotten the last time he'd felt safe enough to drop the defences he had built around himself. "I do, Okasan," he replied, his strained voice exposing more of his longing than anything else. At least... at least his mother would always understand. At least she wouldn't leave him, of her own accord. At the very least, she would be as constant as the sun... so long as he didn't pull away. His eyes were smarting at the thought and what it had hinted; he clung tighter to the safety of the embrace and swallowed the lump in his throat.
"I do, Okasan," Itachi repeated. "I love you too."
.
Duty to the clan, first and foremost-
As a Konoha shinobi you possess the will of Fire –
The floor beneath him began swimming, colours clashed in a fuzzy blur. He blinked, his eyes fixed respectfully on the floor in front of the village elders. As he listened, his jaw clenched, and hands unconsciously curled into fists at the summons.
"We have no choice but to act now then. Time has run out."
"Then we have no choice. One life or the rest of Konoha.'"
All of the assembled rested aged eyes on the ninja in their midst, the one who had already grown up too fast and will grow up even more after this.
"Uchiha Itachi." Danzou asked after a heavy pause. "Would you give yourself up for the sake of the village? Annihilate your clan, if need be?"
Do it for the clan –
You exist to protect the Village of Konoha…
"Can you do it, Itachi? Or will you sacrifice the rest of the village?"
He didn't know. His mind in turmoil, Itachi didn't want to have to choose between the lesser of two evils. Again, just as he had felt when Father had told him the plans of the clan he felt trapped. Suffocated. Surrounded.
Quiet, sadly, the Hokage asked the boy – just a boy but the ways of the world never see that – kneeling in front of them. "Can you make the decision, Itachi?"
And with his heart in his throat, the scarlet eyed youth nodded.
.
.
.
Perhaps it was a good thing Raiga (that egotistical, self-centred jerk!) had confronted her again today. ANBU Wolf had then been ordered by her commander to apologise to the Hokage for her "unruly" actions and pitiful lack of self-control towards her colleague.
If she hadn't, she'd never have heard what she had just heard.
Silently, stealthily, Haruna watched as Itachi stood up and walked away, his pale face betraying the disquiet within.
She followed.
.
.
.
AUTHORS NOTE:
Omg guys this is the first time I've ever ended on a cliffhanger. Wow.
I still find it weird to think Itachi was only practically thirteen at the time of the massacre. Like, whoa. Is that even normal? For future reference, Haruna/ANBU Wolf is older than Itachi – but then again, Itachi is so mature, it's hardly surprising that it seems like he isn't.
Please R&R and continue to support the Once I had a Sister series. Any constructive feedback will be appreciated, but flaming isn't exactly necessary.
And "Haru-ne" is meant to be the big sister nickname for this OC. I really hope ANBU Wolf doesn't come across as a Mary Sue. Please no.
Alatariele C.
-in collab. with NoeticSky