I apologize for the wrong spelling/grammars, English is not my first language.
Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto owns Itachi and Yasunori Mitsunaga owns Lilliane. I do not own any of these characters...just this weird fic XD
Its been a week since the duel. Today was surprisingly peaceful again.
But a certain shinobi in the princess' household still cannot adapt to the peaceful environment. Ever since he's sworn to serve, he expected atleast 3 assassination attempts a day on the princess' life.
But noooo… nothing has ever happened. Everyone is carefree like their existence itself is nothing out of the ordinary.
He's surprised that Hime would still let Hiro go someplace far. Along with Riza who comes and goes whenever she wants. Theres Reiri, but shes a nocturnal creature. So even without the ladies, Hime still has Flandre by her side to protect her.
He's confident that she is able to take care of herself, especially with her ever present android around her. But one day, he finds out she went strolling through town, alone! He got a call from her that day from his cellphone that he really isn't fond of using, a text telling him to come pick her up from the train station and to bring an umbrella. Hes surprised when he found Flandre emerging from the basement, so whos with Hime? He stepped on the gas, full speed. He's not late, hes never late. But for some reason the princess decided to walk through the city and meet him halfway on the road. And that's how he found her there, dripping wet from the rain with her right arm still recuperating. She must be the most carefree person he's ever met. As if she's someone not engaged in a constant battle for life with her siblings.
Whats more, he found the traps set around the house easily. He figured Hiro must have made them because they look like they've been set by an amateur. Even a Genin could have made a better job. He asked the princess about this & was even more surprised when she said that they've been set by a merchant from the kingdom. His shinobi instincts were screaming, but as the Uchiha he is, he never let it show on his face. Maybe its just his upbringing, or paranoia.
But its basic rule from the Art of War.
You never let someone else make your weapons. Let alone set your traps for you. You never know when said traps would turn on you…
He told Hime this and how her cheeks turned red.
But as the princess she is, she quickly regained her composure & swiftly defended herself.
'' I have no choice. I just recently lost all my warriors that day. I escaped with what little I could take & moved here in haste. And the only one I had then is Hiro so… beggars cannot be picky.''
After that discussion, she let him reset the traps and added some of his 'tricks.' All the while accompanying him, watching him carefully and had him explain how this and that works. The shown results has improved much more. She asked him what exactly does he do for a living before this.
''Im a professional shinobi.'' Is the vague reply she got.
Either way, some simple mechanism greatly interested her and insisted that she set herself. Whereas he looked at her sceptically and said, ''You don't have to trouble yourself, Hime-sama.'' And then he was replied with a smart,
''Oh? If I don't learn to do it myself then wouldnt that be the same as letting someone else set my traps?''
What she replied was agreeable. He is pleased that she's not one of those arrogant nobles who think the world revolves around them and everything else is below them. Like the time when he was 8 years old and they had to escort a daimyo. That wasn't a pleasant mission. He remembered not even his longest time partner, Kisame, cant even retort something like this to him, so he allowed himself a little smile of approval. Because Uchihas don't blush.™
By that span of time, he has already learned enough about this world's technology and mechanics to do basic machine repair from Hime's car to other household objects. He is naturally curious and he had to admit, this world intrigued him. He used the ever convenient kage-bunshin technique as long as his chakra reserves can uphold.
The original made errands around the house, always close to the princess. The other 2 secretly goes around the city for his private research, studying everything there is to know.
...
He learned how to drive from Riza. Both the motorcycle and the truck. He got along well with her. Even with such rowdiness and unladylike behaviour. All barks and brawls and just full of energy. Very positive and cheerful. Traits that reminded him of a certain blond Uzumaki. Even when living for vengeance for her shamed brother, she didn't let the darkness consume her. He developed a soft spot for her because he can relate to her.
...
As for the vampire, he thought she's just like an Uchiha through and through, besides her appearance. Always formal and proper on the outside but conniving and with ulterior motives on the inside, he knows that Reiri would still want to have a taste of the princess' blood behind their thin veil of 'friendship'. He reminded her so much of himself. But that changed eventually since he's witnessed genuine concern on her.
...
As for Sawawa, he doesn't know if she's just too kind and caring or just… minding her own business, but with the things that 'visited' their house with some that she has seen, she dismisses it just like that. Some would go mad with what they have to fight and what happens to the house whenever that happens. So he doesn't know what to think of her. The kind ones are always hard to read.
Still, he's polite and friendly towards her.
He would sometimes eat with her, er-, she drags him along to eat with her at her favourite parfait shop. Both loved sweets so he indulged himself a little. Besides, the food is good enough to pass the standards of his taste. Whenever she is too busy cleaning the house as the only maid, he helps her out especially in the kitchen. He gets to relive his childhood hobby of splurge cooking.
Aaaaaand he would let her pick the style of clothing for him. Since he's not accustomed to the fashion of this world, he decided that a change of clothing would be a good idea. Since the last time he went through town wearing his Akatsuki cloak made him stick out like a sore thumb. Everyone noticed him, in both good ways and bad ways. With most of the bad stares & glares he got from the male population. A change of clothing is indeed a good idea.
He emerged from the clothing store wearing the ones Sawawa chose.
A white long sleeve, black pants and suspender, like those he sees working in offices. Complete with a red cravat in the collar like Sawawa's and Flandre's. A simple butler's outfit. Not too attention taking and comfortable to wear. But not enough to conceal his various kunais and shurikens, so he'll have to do something about that. As for the shoes, his sandals are worn beyond repair. Good thing some of this world's shoe outsole design is similar to the function of those sandals. He wore below-the-knee, black heavy duty boots with soles that transmits chakra from his feet well. Courtesy of Reiri, she came along too. Claiming it's an interesting event that she wouldn't want to miss.
He remembered the time he walked on water because the princess requested they fix the big pond at the back of the mansion for landscaping. Hime looked a bit surprised, Sherwood gaped, Riza gawked and exclaimed, Reiri had the look of pure shock like if a human has seen a ghost, & Hiro's eyes were as big as saucers with sparkles.
''I-Itachi-san…?''
''…''
''oi! Hime! Are you seeing this?!''
''…''
''Onee-sama, where did you get him!?''
''…''
''Uchiha-san? Can you teach me that? Can I learn that?''
''…''
''hmph… besides those 'shadow-clones' and walking on water…. What else can he do? I wouldn't be surprised if he started breathing fire.''
''…''
...
Anyway, they walked out the department store satisfied. The princess is generous enough to give them the salary they need to buy any personal belongings.
Though he felt like the stares he get from the female population increased and the glares from the men more intense… Ah well, it cant be helped. Blame the Uchiha charm.™
...
In the end, they all agreed that Sawawa remain innocent. Oblivious to the true identity of her housemates. It will break her heart if she were to learn the truth that her only brother has died a long time ago. Besides, Itachi believes that she is a sturdy foundation of keeping the 'normalcy' of the house, especially for Hiro's mental state, considering all the deaths the boy has been through.
...
At last but not the least, Hiro. Out of pure curiosity, he asked about him from the princess and her response improved the way he thinks about her.
''Hime-sama, Im curious as of why, you didn't have Hiro train for fighting. Or atleast have him practice to defend himself.''
''fufu… We have Riza for that. And now theres you. So im counting on you~''
''I am also quite surprised. That a princess like you, currently at war, would just let him go off on his own.''
''…hmm. At war? Don't say that. Id like to think Im not in a war. Im just someone in the side-lines who tries to survive...''
"…"
"Itachi, I allow you to have the liberty to say what you want to say. For I am a kind person.''
"I think youre too complacent… Hime-sama.''
''fufu… Quite a foolish thing to say.'' She leaned on the balcony's railing and faced him.
''Well, it is as you said. I am currently at war & knows not when the enemy will strike. But Hiro is still a child. Did you know that he died, saving me from a falling debris? I owe him my life. That sort of kindness is rare. And for that I am grateful. So how could I repay his kindness by pulling him deeper into my own problems? Ive already taken his fate and beyond, so why would I ruin anymore of his childhood?
The least I could do is let him keep his sense of normal life, even for just a bit longer…''
All in all, he approved of that quality of her. Someone who does not favour wars and unnecessary loss of life. Sharing the same outlook and principles, then they get along just fine.
...
Back to Hiro.
He always did have an affection for weak things. So now, he took this chance as to not repeat the same mistakes he had with his younger brother. Hiro has the same eyes that he's always seen in Sasuke. Eyes filled with admiration and longing for an elder brother's notice. The boy is constantly shy, so he approached him first.
After a round of 'training' with Riza, he offered his help. The boy was reluctant, since he thought that hed be beaten to a pulp like with Riza. So a gentle nudge and kind persuasion was all it took for the boy to agree. He'll have to adjust to meet the boy's slow pace though.
He obviously has no physical strength like with Riza.
No quick, evasive maneuvers like Reiri.
No sharp thinking or good observant skills like Sherwood.
But he does have the mindset of being Hime's shield is his sole purpose. But this only happens when the blood activated on him. Ah well… atleast he has a goal.
...
Instead of announcing his weaknesses like how Riza roughly tells him all the time. He made Hiro focus on the things where hes good at.
He started his training with him on Genin Level.
Thankfully the boy has his speed. So at the first week he had him run lapses around the estate after school. He also forbid Riza from using him as a punching bag. Sure Hiro has a great threshold for pain, based on what Hiro told him about his life's story ever since he met Hime. But blood warrior or not, everything has a breaking point. Contrary to popular belief, Itachi Uchiha actually cares.
He also became Hiro's replacement for Riza's 'sparring'. Whereas the red-haired is greatly displeased because no matter what she does, he always wins.
On the 5th day of the new addition in the mansion, the red-haired came barging in the private dining room and cried before Hime because he beat her at racing too. She cursed the day she taught him how to drive a motorcycle.
...
A day later, the princess insisted that Itachi, or a shadow-clone of him, accompany Sherwood in her exploration in Kusharo lake. A lake in the far, unexplored north. She explained beforehand that originally, this is the royal siblings fieldwork. This is a sanctioned activity from the kingdom itself, no royalty would directly attack them but its best to be more careful. Even more so if they unknowingly entered another realm.
On their quest to preserve the double-headed white snake, Gorg, Sherwood will definitely need the extra helping hand. The party included him, the little princess, her android and her panda blood warrior, Hiro too and his bespectacled friend, the one he remembered fainting. Good thing he's still alive and kicking. With his camera in his hand, this boy have most likely begged Hiro to get him to come along too for the 'scoop'. And lastly, theres also Reiri's coffin. The vampire wouldn't agree to be here, so they carried her coffin and moved out while she was asleep. She's a back-up plan, considering Itachi's shadow-clone wouldn't last for more than five hours.
They met two of the gillmen, a close family of the fishmen species based from his research. As a peaceful tribe that lives in the lake, they would be their guide throughout the exploration. With the view of the lake from afar, they saw a silhouette of a creature that might have been the Loch Ness monster. Their guides waved at it, and it waved back. They introduced it as Kusshi, a divine being and a friend of theirs. Two minutes later, their other guide sank in a quagmire to who knows how deep. He wasn't in the gillman's location that time so he wasn't able to save him. He asked the princess why this has to be done in the night and Sherwood shrugged and blandly replied "Kingdom's specific instructions."
He wondered if the young princess' most likely demise from this dangerous mission would be part of this 'kingdom's specific instructions.' Reiri should have woken by now, but he noticed that even for a vampire, she wakes up later in the night. Probably because she always spend time with the rest of the mansion's residents during the day.
"She probably doesn't want to be left out from her diurnal housemate's 'fun'" are Sherwood's reply to Hiro when he asked why their nocturnal friend haven't showed up yet.
...
Itachi watched Hiro's classmate with amusement. Turns out the kid doesn't want to be here anymore after seeing the terrifying, woodland dangers and 'things' Hiro would normally see. But one thumbs-up gesture from Francesca would instantly bring him back to his high spirits and continue video-recording their expedition with too much vigor. Too much because theyre attracting unwanted attention with the volume of his broadcasting. The young princess looked a bit irritated, but he doesn't mind. The sound might help Reiri's familiars pinpoint their location, it would for the enemy too though.
Itachi saw a bat flying near them, and a few minutes later Reiri has joined their group and pointed the direction of a cave theyre supposed to go. Their one guide left, the one named Screw, claimed that this is the first time hes seen a cave in this land. Great…
"What a useful guide you are…" Reiri muttered.
Hiro's classmate, Buchi, looked very intimidated with the vampire's presence. But one smile from her triggered his energy again. Hn… kids from this era are so domesticated, back in the shinobi world, kids his age would go train in the Forest of Death. Even so, this display will not thwart his pacifism.
After a long while, they reached an underground lake where the cave ends. He has an hour more to retain his clone.
While the group's attention is busy on the cute, two-headed albino snake on the ground, measuring not more than two feet long, the adult Gorgs surfaced from the water. The fully grown, giant snakes with heads as big as a truck. Half a dozen of them atleast. With their pale white color, the snakes reminded him of that Orochimaru again. And like the snakes, the legendary, nuke-nin is pale white because they live in a place where the light of the sun cannot reach. He grimaced at the thought. Francesca was about to shoot them but was halted by the young princess.
"Don't Francesca, they are endangered."
Too late. Itachi has already cut a snake's head off when one ate Screw, who was closer to the water than they are. Before their guide gets completely swallowed, he sliced it by the neck with a laser-Chidori, and the gillman fell to the water through the snake's dismembered flesh. The once placid lake became like that of a boiling water with numerous, slithering, giant snakes emerging. Looks like their presence disturbed the whole family, and now they have to flee for their lives. He cant get closer to the water now to check if Screw lived, princess Sherwood's safety is priority.
The two-headed snakes are fast on land as they are on water, and now several are closer to the group than him.
...
Francesca carried her liege in an arm and ran in a fast pace only an android can do. The two boys have to rely on adrenaline if they want to live, well atleast only Buchi. Hiro on the other hand, is an immortal but more importantly, he has improved from all that running lapses every day.
"Its black! Kamura-senpai's panties are black!"
… Now the kid is filming unnecessary things…
"Its white! I thought its just an elaborate costume!"
…Yes. The panda Ryu-Ryu is giving it his all to let you kids escape. He wont hold that snake's jaw for long…
"Its blue! Uchiha-san has blue lightning on his hands!"
…This kid really should focus on running now.
With this far distance from them, he had to rely on Hiro to convince his classmate and get him moving again, but now it looks like Hiro's the one being talked out of common-sense instead. He made a mental note to include assertiveness in Hiro's training.
Itachi hopped from one snake head and into the cave's high ceiling level. From there, the snakes cannot reach him and he too, doesn't really want to be the cause of the final extinction of these species. He watched as the two boys convince each other about their current, dire reality, instead of escaping. As they point to a Gorg about to consume them, an even bigger black snake bit the Gorg in one bite and swallowed it whole.
The whole thing surfaced from the water. Turns out its not a Gorg, but the Loch Ness monster-like they saw earlier. With Crawl, the one who sank in the quagmire, riding on top of the black monster's head. Looks like Kusshi is not a snake, but an enormous, turtle-like creature minus the shell. All the Gorgs fled back into the underground lake at Kusshi's dominating appearance.
The gillman Crawl, as he explained, that as he tried to find the bottom of the quagmire, it, lake Kusharro and this underground lake are all connected in the bottom. So that's how he got out and sent help with the divine being's. The other gillman emerged from the lake too, able and unharmed. Crawl basked in the young princess' praise of gratefulness and Screw was about to genuflect as thanks to his rescuer when the addressed man disappeared into a puff of smoke.
...
In the end, the shadow-clone has relayed the information to the original and Itachi has reported everything to the princess already when Hiro came back from the expedition, so there was little for him to report, just what happened after his clone has dispersed. No one from their group is harmed, all of them, including the gillmen and his classmate has safely returned home. Princess Sherwood requested the kingdom to dispatch observers for further supervision to the endangered monster species.
"And also, Screw thanks you Itachi-san, very much for saving his life. He said that if theres anything he can do to repay you, just call them and they'll be happy to help. And theres one thing more im confused about. Crawl said something to me as a message for you. He said that he translated for the black snake-, ehm, I mean, the divine being Kusshi.
Kusshi says that he appreciates the god Susano for gracing them with his presence."
A/N: ooh~~~~
what does this mean?
anyway, I updated! I cant believe im procrastinating huehueheheu