Masked Koi: Chapter 5. "Uchiha"
On December 31, the Uchiha clan had gained two more members. Although it would be years until they would perform the jutsu that would solidify their name to their person, the Uchiha nonetheless celebrated and congratulated the mother. This mother was Uchiha Mikoto, a woman quite influential in the female population. She owned a line of fashionable kimono that in the market, did fabulously well. She declined to ever state this, but she earned more money than her husband did, by practically sitting at home.
At her home, she raised her two twin boys as her eldest son went off to train and to the Academy. Her assistant designers and tailors often came by her home to discuss the designs and fabric and costs for this. In the Academy, Mikoto had placed highest in mathematics grades in her graduating class and third in overall history of the Academy. Her black eyes were sharp and keen to notice any difference in costs or any other financial issue from the previous year or current year and immediately voiced these concerns.
Their main focus was to get the cost down to make it more affordable for the women of Konoha, seeing how they either didn't work because they were housewives or they didn't make enough to buy the more expensive kimono.
Years passed quietly and peacefully. Mikoto had managed to confirm a deal with multiple merchants across the Land of Fire and a few in foreign lands. Itachi was aware his mother had such a business but was ordered to keep quiet. This was because Mikoto wanted to die with one secret even though all the kimono had her name printed on it. Her life had seemed plain and she wanted to have something interesting besides being the Uchiha patriarch's wife, so she decided to have that as her secret.
It had been two years since Nishiki had started teaching the young Namikaze. Over the first year or so, she'd gone over taijutsu. Recently, she'd gone over ninjutsu with the boy and taught him a few simple jutsu, consisting of the henge, bunshin, kawarimi, and a few others along with one E-Ranked Wind Release technique.
"I'm home…" Naruto muttered under his breath. He looked up at Nishiki, who patted his head lightly before disappearing. Naruto closed the door silently and sat in his room, smiling as he thought of all the things he'd accomplished. He glanced at his mother's photo and felt something hurt in his chest.
Naruto shook this off and walked into the kitchen, hungry. His frame was thin but muscular. He saw a bowl of rice covered with saran wrap and fish from the previous night. He didn't bother reheating either of them so he simply ate them cold. He normally ate his food cold because by the time he'd get tired of waiting for his father to eat with him, the food was cold. Warm food was a symbol of lost hope so cold food was the alternative.
As the six-year-old placed his bowl into the sink, he heard cries from his aunt's room. They were soft cries, cries he could dismiss as his aunt simply going crazy. He wouldn't put it past the woman; she was already somewhat insane. She was harsh towards him for a reason he roughly summed up to the fact he was Kushina's son. Naruto could only say 'oh well' because he didn't identify, as Minato's son because he was so rare that Naruto barely knew the man he apparently shared half of his genes with. Kushina was the only other option, literally. Plus, Naruto's looks matched hers so Naruto simply accepted it.
And Naruto accepted as well that his aunt might just be really crazy.
Two months ago, Itachi had fallen ill. His condition had deteriorated until he was forced to leave the shinobi ranks, making ANBU squad leader just a week before his diagnosis. He'd hidden his illness well; no one but Shisui knew he was ill. Then again, Shisui knew everything and that wasn't just because he was one of the Hokage's personal guards.
Itachi lay in his room, either reading or sleeping. Sometimes he got up to try to keep his muscles he'd worked for his entire life from atrophying, but he could only be up for so long until his coughs would force him down and he'd sleep. Eventually, he became an insomniac as his body began to get weaker and weaker. He knew his muscle memory was still there, though. It was strange because he thought that he'd lose his muscle memory as he lost his muscle mass, but it didn't seem to be the case. Perhaps, his muscles didn't want to forget all the hard work he'd put into being a shinobi…just to please his father.
Itachi frowned. He didn't quite understand his father's ways of using him up until he was unable to be used. Of course, he was glad that his father wasn't trying to show him off as if he were some kind of status symbol, a child who had been the youngest ANBU to ever. A child who at four had entered a war and survived and 'had no scars'. That was a lie; Itachi was a pacifist. Even his own mother could see that.
But Itachi wished he were still being used because his two younger siblings were forced to undergo rigorous training with Fugaku. He wanted them to enjoy their childhood for just one more day, just one more hour, just one more minute. Itachi loved his siblings with all his heart and his heart hurt as he lay in his room, unable to do much of anything but hope they didn't fracture a bone because their father was hasty to get another status symbol.
Outside, in the large and open areas of the Uchiha compound were training grounds. They were private, only for those who were either Uchiha or were brought there by an Uchiha to train. There, a man with a deep scowl and a greedy glint in his eyes stood, watching his two youngest sons spar against one another.
It was always the same; the two were equally matched. Fugaku didn't seem to understand that something like that was likely; they were twins. Neither one of them could seem to gain the upper hand against the other. They were currently on their hands and knees, panting hard. They shared a look of misery; they hated the way their father was so harsh with them. He would push them and push them until they nearly broke and repeated the process over and over. They hated the way their father always got his way: the two were skilled.
The two boys knew many of their clan Fire Release techniques and were good at taijutsu. As for genjutsu, Fugaku had said for them to wait until they were able to use their sharingan to dive into the depths of genjutsu. The two knew how to cast a genjutsu and knew an E-Rank genjutsu, but that was about it. Fugaku wasn't about to leave an area completely untouched, after all.
In the meantime, the two were drilled in the Uchiha's history and ninja tool manipulations. These included ninja wire, senbon, shuriken, and kunai. Kunai was something they excelled at, being forced to train and get better through hot summer nights and freezing dawns. Shuriken was something else they could use, but not as well as kunai. Next was ninja wire, something they experimented on when their father had thrown them into a small area of dense foliage and dangerous animals a few months ago.
Today, a few hours earlier, they'd learned ninja wire manipulation with kunai strung onto it. The boys' aims only somewhat better than a novice because their anger had bubbled up a bit more. Fugaku sensed this, but pinned it up to the boys' 'competitive' rivalry.
But they didn't have such a thing. They clung upon one another, wishing their father would simply stop. At first, learning shinobi things seemed cool and fun, but as the work became harder and sometimes painful, the fun was replaced with misery. They didn't hate their father, they simply felt that their father was simply too harsh and…too obsessed with something.
Fugaku crossed his arms, looking at the two six-year-olds. They slowly rose to their feet and just as they were doing so, a few snowflakes began to fall.
"Fugaku!" Mikoto called out. "There's someone who wants to see you."
Fugaku nodded and set off towards the house, leaving the two behind.
The two sat on the ground, quickly cooling due to the snowflakes, and caught their breath. Two sets of black eyes met and a silent conversation was held between the two Uchiha boys. It wasn't very hard to decide their next move: they were going to ditch training.
Their faces still stung. No, stung wasn't the word. Perhaps…felt as if set ablaze. Their faces still felt as if they were set on fire and the hand that had struck them down was still raised in a sign of aggression.
Another blow was coming.
The two boys turned away, not wanting to see the impact, the site and source of their pain. They didn't want to see the gleam of pure anger in their father's eyes, an anger fueled by something they didn't know. But that something was regret and the feeling that everything that had transpired was his fault. But the father wasn't about to admit this, to acknowledge that if he simply forgave himself he'd be able to prevent himself from striking the two children he poured his hopes into once more, or see his errors.
A hand caught his wrist. The father froze and saw a figure deathly pale but staring at him with eyes burning a deep crimson. Fugaku scowled. Itachi kept his poker face and crunched on something in his mouth, unafraid to stare into his father's eyes, challenging, daring him to fight back, to fight a son who had delivered on his every demand up until the day he couldn't.
"Leave them alone," Itachi said. "They're just children. What could they have possibly done to earn that?" Itachi glanced at the tears that flowed out of the boys' eyes and way they shook with pain and tried to make themselves small and unnoticeable.
"They simply left the training grounds. I'd just started teaching them something new and they knew they had to stay and practice until I deemed their skills good enough," Fugaku snarled, tugging his wrist away from his son's iron grip. Itachi seethed and replied, "They're just children. They should be allowed to enjoy their childhood."
"They're nearly seven. That is certainly old enough to graduate to become a Genin," Fugaku shot back.
"But does that give you the right to rob them of their freedom? If you think they're old enough to become Genin, aren't they old enough to make their own choices and decide what they want?" Itachi replied smoothly and softly, his voice betraying the way he felt and the way his eyes glinted with anger that compounded upon itself. Fugaku almost feared his son. Almost.
The two twin Uchiha boys crept away as their father and older brother continued to argue. They walked outside and sat on the dock where their father had drilled multiple Fire Release techniques into their repertoire. They were silent, simply enjoying one another's company. They always did, seeing how their brother was bedridden, their mother was busy with something, no matter what the hour, and their father was either training them or at the Police Headquarters. They knew of their brother's friend, Shisui, but they didn't necessarily know him well. But Shisui was always busy as well.
The two only had one another to rely on. They always had each other's back and shared secrets, which honestly were just shared knowledge; they were always together and some would say inseparable. It wasn't that they were so close they couldn't be apart; it was that they had no one else.
It was of small comfort, though. They were powerless to stop the fits of anger that would bubble up with no warning from their father. Their father was a Jounin-level shinobi and the two were just, perhaps, clinging onto the edge of low Genin. Perhaps lower?
Mikoto sensed a tense atmosphere in another part of the house. She looked up from her desk, messy and unorganized with hundreds of papers, ranging from current cotton rates to charts of certain colors and styles. She got up and stepped out of her office, locking it behind her. She walked to where she supposed her husband to be and opened the door a crack to look at him.
"What, Mikoto?" Fugaku asked, his voice sounding dejected.
Mikoto entered and sat down on her knees and looked at him, worried. "What happened?"
"The twins decided to blatantly disobey their orders and left training to wander about the village. I disciplined them, but Itachi stopped me before I could continue. That boy, I don't understand him," Fugaku sighed. "We got into an argument and he's decided he wants nothing to do with me."
"This is about Itachi, isn't it? Aren't you glad Tsunade-sama came and healed him and gave him medicine?" Mikoto asked, giving a tight smile. "Perhaps, in a year or so, he'll be able to reenter into the shinobi ranks or ANBU." Mikoto said, touching his shoulder, trying to reassure and calm him.
"…" Fugaku didn't have much of a response.
Morning arrived swiftly within a few hours. Itachi's younger siblings awoke when the rays of sunlight hit their faces. It was unusual for them to wake up without anything to wake them up; Fugaku normally threatened them with two hundred laps around the lake or simply dragged them out of bed.
They exchanged a worried look and quickly dressed. They even ran a comb through their tussled strange hairstyle.
A small laugh woke them up from their trance of worry. Two pairs of black eyes met with their brother's black ones and they looked away. Itachi didn't know if they were too humble or afraid of him or were simply distant. Itachi decided to pin it up to the last option. He'd been bedridden for two months, after all.
"Good morning, Nii-san," the two of them chimed with no inflection in their voice.
Itachi sighed. "You two don't remember what today is?"
The shook their heads, ashamed. Should we? Itachi supplied an answer, "Your birthday."
Their eyes widened and their cheeks reddened. Itachi suppressed another laugh and patted their heads. They were clearly out of their comfort zone; they hadn't been shown open affection in a long, long time. Their mother was an exception, often holding them tightly, but she was busier and busier and rarer and rarer. Their father was simply a slave driver, ruthless. Itachi had become nothing but an entity in their house, unable to protect them from the wrath of their father.
But, perhaps now they'd be able to rebuild the bonds that Itachi's illness had ripped apart.
"As a Chuunin and ANBU, I was able to receive large sums of money from missions. They were extremely dangerous but I was able to complete them with a perfect track record. So, I'll treat you two to anything you'd like today," Itachi smiled. "Kaa-san and Tou-san are still asleep, so let's go out before they wake up. When we come back, Kaa-san will have a cake and dinner ready so I can't treat you to a lot of sweets before we come home."
A smile spread across their faces and for once, they acted as seven-year-olds do; smiling and being carefree.
Mikiko loved her child. She considered her child to be a thousand times better than Minato's, seeing how he was partly her child.
Mikiko had hated Kushina, seeing the red-haired woman as scum not worthy of living. There were many reasons for this. When Minato was engaged, he spent all his time and money with the woman, whom Mikiko already thought was rather ugly. Minato also kept talking and talking about the woman to his sister, saying how skilled she was at fuuinjutsu and how she had the nicest hair and so on. Mikiko had wanted to tell him about the newest kimono from Kiri and their competitor in Konoha, the Konoha version being cheap. Mikiko considered things to be of the best quality when they were the most expensive and instantly hated the Konoha version, especially when Kushina was wearing one on her wedding day.
The kimono that Kushina wore was a custom one, the order put in months in advance. Mikiko was forced to be one of the bridesmaids and hated the maid of honor, a woman whose name was horrifying similar to her own: Mikoto. The kimono was actually quite stunning but Mikiko refused to acknowledge something like that; it was cheap and being worn not by her, but the woman that had stolen Minato's time.
Then, a few years later, Minato exclaimed that she was to be an aunt soon. Upon reading it, Mikiko burned the letter and stared hatefully at the ashes. When Minato sent out a letter saying that Kushina had died, Mikiko kept the letter with glee, seeing that now that the woman was gone, Minato would be able to spend more time with her and indulging her expensive tastes.
However, that plan did not come to fruition either. Minato held on to his late wife's memory with grief and rarely came home at a reasonable hour. He lit incense in the morning for Kushina, every morning. When he'd leave, Mikiko would throw the incense out into the garden and bury it.
Mikiko often felt eyes on her as she buried the incense and would turn around with a sneer as she saw who it was. It was Kushina's son, a boy who resembled her in every way except being quiet and never smiled.
In truth, Kushina had never had ill will against Minato's sister, seeing her as an interesting woman with money they could spend together and laugh together as their children grew up. Kushina saw a happy and peaceful future ahead for her new family, but it was not to be. Kushina was simply too naïve and optimistic to see that Mikiko truly hated her, and was jealous of her.
Mikiko had tried to erase every image, every memory of the woman who had stolen her brother from her. She'd tried to burn photos of the woman, had stolen her jewelry, and thrown away kimono she'd owned. But for some reason, the kimono always reappeared in the closet she'd found them in.
Now, she suspected the ANBU with silver hair that regarded Naruto not as a worthless Uzumaki, but as 'Naruto-sama'. Mikiko could not fathom such a thing, even if the ANBU was simply following orders. And, those were the Hokage's orders. Minato's orders.
Didn't Minato dislike his son? Didn't Minato stay at the Hokage tower because he didn't want to see Kushina's memory? That's what Mikiko pondered every day. Why had Minato administered those orders if he stayed away from the house and didn't even spare his son a glance?
Mikiko sighed and tended to her baby. She smiled as her baby's blue eyes stared up at hers and she cooed at the small Namikaze in her arms. My child will grow up to be stronger than that excuse for a son that Kushina decided to give Minato. My child will be smarter, faster, stronger, and prettier than Kushina or Naruto. No matter what!
"Dango?" one of them asked.
"What's that?" the other asked.
Itachi smiled. "It's my favorite. Since you two haven't tried it before, let's go and try it. I'm sure you'll like it."
A plate of dango came along with three cups of tea for the three Uchiha. Itachi paid for it and the waitress disappeared to help new customers. Itachi watched as they stared at the confectionery topped with sweet and salty sauce. Itachi sipped thoughtfully as they chewed. They suddenly turned green and spat it out into a napkin. Pale, they stared up miserably at their older brother, who was suppressing a smile.
"You didn't like it?" Itachi asked.
"No," they said simply, as if it were obvious. And it was. Itachi smiled.
"I'm sorry. Well, here," Itachi produced a box of Pocky from his pocket. They took it and opened it carefully, as to make sure that the box itself would still be nice looking. The package containing the chocolate cream covered biscuits was opened carefully as well. Little hands, a bit rough and scarred from training and training (something Itachi lowered his eyes at; he blamed himself and his illness), reached in and grabbed a stick.
It was quickly devoured. Itachi blinked in shock; the sticks were gone. So fast…
They smiled cheekily at him. Itachi sighed and led them around Konoha. He bought them some books they wanted, picture books that dragged Itachi momentarily in the land of nostalgia, and some other things.
"I want more," they said in unison. Itachi raised a brow. "Pocky?"
"Yeah," they nodded, as if it were obvious. They smiled after that. Itachi put a hand in his pocket and saw that he still had plenty of money; being an ANBU had its perks. The three Uchiha went into a convenience store and Itachi bought two more boxes. They were about to break into them, but Itachi stopped them.
"Don't eat it now. Eat it tomorrow. If Kaa-san finds out that I bought you more sweets, she'll get mad. Plus, I'm sure she's made something for you two," Itachi warned. "Put them in your pockets."
They looked rather crestfallen, but Itachi cheered them up with presents he'd bought earlier as they were fingering through the rows of books in many shops. The two raised their brows at the presents, not seeing the purpose of it.
The present Itachi gave them was a necklace. The boys had taken quite some time in the shops, skimming the books before they were bought so Itachi was able to use a senbon to etch their names into the necklaces, on the back of the small pendant.
The necklaces weren't simply jewelry. They were plain in design, consisting of a metal cord as the lace part and the pendant being a sphere with wood on the back. The part that faced outwards glowed slightly with a blue substance.
"This can be filled with chakra. There is already chakra inside, my chakra. Tomorrow I'll show you how to use it, if you get up early enough so tonight, after dinner, you should go to bed right after. Don't read the books you'd bought," Itachi said.
They grinned and latched themselves onto the teen. Itachi flinched at first, not expecting them to be so clingy, but he patted their heads and walked home.
As they walked home, a cold wind blew and Itachi couldn't help but feel worry in his chest. He gripped his brothers' hands in his tightly and frowned. No, don't be stupid.
Of course, it was cold. Of course, snow was falling faster and faster. But, did he care? Not at all. Konoha was his original home after all and he loved winter because the trees would lose their leaves and be bare. The branches would become brittle and break. Just like everyone in this village ought to. The animals were nowhere to be seen. Well, the animals were simply better at hiding from the snow and cold than the shinobi within Konoha's walls. The soft second-rate shinobi who killed her.
The walk to the Hokage's house wasn't very far from where his very temporary apartment was.
His green eyes glinted as they didn't sense anyone watching him. He saw the seals all around the house but disregarded them; he wasn't a Jounin for nothing. He quickly slipped past them and arrived in the room he'd wished to be in.
A woman slept soundly. She was never trained in the shinobi arts, or she never really retained the information. He wasn't sure, and didn't care. He smirked; there was only one thing good about her. It was her connection directly to the head of Konoha, the Hokage. It was that she had a nice body, a very nice body, and wasn't very bright, and even less so under the influence of alcohol.
He noticed a small body staring at him with blue eyes in a crib. He picked up the small person, not even a year old. The baby's eyes closed, as if calmed. The man frowned. He felt nothing for the baby, even if it was his. He knew that the baby would turn out to look nothing like him, which may make it easier to use her in the future.
A voice from his past echoed a warning. Using those close to you will only make your demise even more pitiful than it already it is for us shinobi. The man closed his eyes and silenced the voice in his head. He hated hearing that voice, the voice that reminded him of his nightmarish childhood.
The baby began to cry suddenly. The man picked her up and tried to soothe her, not because he cared but because he didn't want to have the woman to wake up. It was useless; the woman did wake up. She screamed upon seeing him and his white vest and tattooed arm.
"Why…why are you here?! Get out!" Mikiko shouted.
"Shut up, you'll wake the other one," the man snapped. Then the woman recognized him. She looked extremely apologetic and began to push back her blonde hair and smooth out the knots and puckered her lips just a little. Seiseki found it a bit revolting. If Koi were here, she'd show you just how revolting you are.
Mikiko felt herself choke up. "Seiseki…don't be so cruel! Don't you love her?"
Seiseki laughed. "Are you stupid?" Then his laughter died down to turn into a murderous scowl. "The only thing you're good for is your looks and your connection to that bastard of a Hokage. I can't believe it had to be someone as stupid as you, but I suppose the pretty ones are the stupid ones."
Mikiko shouted again and threw herself at him. Seiseki sidestepped easily and yawned. He placed the baby back in its crib. Mikiko began shouting unintelligible words, fear in her eyes. Seiseki hated that. He backhanded her, disgusted by the display she exemplified.
"Mikiko-obasan…who is this?" a small voice asked. Mikiko's eyes widened.
"Help me! He's going to kill me!" Mikiko cried out.
Seiseki sighed. "You're not worth killing.
Seiseki gave a small mock wave and disappeared. As soon as he was gone, Mikiko began to berate Kushina's son for not protecting her. Naruto stood there and took the hits, not seeing any other way. Kaa-san, I wish you were here.