Chapter 7: Old Friends and Enemies
…
I wasn't really sure what to expect from the Academy. The opening ceremony was nice. Fugaku reluctantly attended and stood at the back while the Hokage gave a speech about the importance of learning and growing into fine shinobi. Afterwards, the teachers lined up and started calling out the names of the students in their classes one by one. With each name called, I grew more and more nervous. What if they put Sasuke and me in different classes? But my fears were for nothing as one of the chunin called out "Uchiha Kiyo…Uchiha Sasuke…Uzumaki Naruto… "
I let out a quiet breath of relief and smiled at Naruto as we approached the group together. He smiled back, a little hesitant. I still wasn't sure if we could be friends, but surely it wouldn't be suspicious if I was cordial. If the Hokage wanted to keep the Uchiha away from Naruto, he wouldn't put us in the same class, right? Right.
The chunin who had called us was a robust man with a goatee named Funeno Daikoku. He led us into his classroom, and I sat near the back with Sasuke on one side and Naruto on the other. This wasn't totally surprising since most of the other children radiated a thinly veiled aura of apprehension and mistrust when Naruto passed them by. I was, I noticed, the only person who had actually smiled at him.
Once we'd completed the introductions, we were given an aptitude test to measure our academic strengths and weaknesses. I blazed through it easily because most questions were things like 'Circle the kunai' and '2+4=?' but there were outliers such as 'color the light bulb filament chartreuse' which seemed designed to identify geniuses and cheaters. After finishing, I turned my paper over and peeked at Sasuke who was doing well and at Naruto who was…not. His paper was almost completely blank, and his eyes were roving over the words, desperately looking for something. I realized with a jolt that he still couldn't read.
A quick glance around the room showed that he wasn't the only one either. The clan-born children seemed to be doing fine, but the civilian children tended to look nervous. There were a few notable exceptions, of course, like Sakura, who had already finished and was sitting quietly with her hands folded on her piece of paper and Shikamaru, who was sleeping on a blank test. Eventually Naruto started to guess wildly, obviously hoping to get something right by accident. When Daikoku came around to collect the papers, he smiled at mine and Sasuke's and frowned at Naruto's, making no comment.
When recess was called, a few of the kids near us began whispering, wondering if Sasuke and I were as skilled as they'd heard because we were Uchiha. Unfortunately, this did nothing to help Sasuke's inferiority complex. Living up to one person's expectations was one thing. Living up to the expectations of an entire village? I could understand why he wanted to spend recess practicing with shuriken.
The afternoon was dedicated to taijutsu classes which consisted of a lot of stretching, exercising, and punching padded posts. My stamina put me at the bottom of the class. Most of the other children could run circles around me on the track. Literally in the case of Naruto and Kiba.
It didn't help when my asthma flared up yet again, and Daikoku put me on the bench while everyone else continued exercising. This, at least, allowed me to observe the others. I noticed plenty of poor form, lopsided stances, and general apathy. To my dismay, Naruto fell near the very bottom of the class in just about everything except stamina. That boy was a never-ending font of energy. I got tired just watching him. Eventually Daikoku dismissed us for the day, and we all headed home.
Dinner turned out to be surprisingly tense. Itachi looked oddly blank, and when Fugaku made vague allusions to 'how things went', he responded with an equally generic 'they went well' which seemed to be enough. Before bed, I made sure to give him a long hug.
ANBU was no place for a child.
I just wished that someone—anyone—else felt that way too.
There was no celebration commemorating Itachi's new position, and Itachi never spoke about it. He simply added the standard ANBU vest, arm guards, leg guards, and sword to his daily outfit. I knew he would be fine. He was Itachi, after all. But I still felt a little anxious about his new role. There was no way out for him. He would do his duty to the clan and to the village no matter the cost to himself, no matter how much it hurt his pacifistic heart. He would do it for those he cared about.
He would do this and more.
But he was still just a child.
…
One day a week, the class was divided into kunoichi class and shinobi class. A big part of being a ninja was being able to infiltrate foreign places and hide in plain sight. Kunoichi tended to be disguised as performers, maids, and noble ladies. So kunoichi lessons were like a ninja-themed home economics class. Shinobi, on the other hand, tended to be disguised as day laborers to explain their often very noticeable muscles. According to Sasuke, shinobi classes revolved around trades like construction, sales, and general contract work.
This time away from Sasuke was a prime opportunity for me to make friends, but I hesitated. It was tempting, especially with the girls whose names and fates I already knew. Ino was bold. Sakura was sweet. Hinata was shy. I thought it might be nice to have a friend. But, as always, the looming massacre hung over my head. As much as I wanted to reach out, I didn't want any of them to miss me when I was gone. So I remained polite but distant, ever wary of getting too close.
Kunoichi classes were taught by a kunoichi named Suzu-sensei and usually ended about an hour earlier than the shinobi classes. Apparently the boys had a midday break so that they weren't working outside during the hottest part of the day, and they had to make up the time in the afternoon. While all the other girls ran home, I found a grassy spot under a tree to wait for Sasuke. I had just cracked open a book when I felt chakra approaching. Familiar chakra. It sent a bolt of panic through my heart. I looked up to see the genin, the same genin who had beaten me up a year and a half ago. I was on my feet in an instant, but he closed the distance before I could escape. He snatched at my hair, pulling me toward him with a twisted smirk.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Uchiha-brat," he said. "I haven't seen you around the park at all, but my little brother said he saw you on the school playground yesterday. You didn't even look at him. He was so heartbroken, you know?"
I stopped struggling as every movement was met by a vicious tug on my hair. From this angle I could see a cluster of mismatched objects hanging from his sash. Among the trinkets was a pale blue, frayed, and stained ribbon matching the one tied neatly in my hair.
Trophies, I realized.
I felt heat rising in my cheeks and clenched my fists. How dare he? How dare he?
I tried to push him away, but he sidestepped and wrenched my head sideways, pulling out stands of hair and making my neck pop alarmingly. I cried out in pain, but the park was empty. There was no one to hear.
"You know, my ribbon's getting a little worn out," he said thoughtfully. "But look! Yours still looks pretty good. What do you say you hand it over?"
"Hey!"
Startled, the genin released me, but the shout was only a teacher calling out to someone else in the distance. Still, it was the momentary distraction I needed. I flew through the hand signs for the Blind Spot genjutsu and darted out of his line of sight before sprinting full tilt back home.
When I arrived, I retreated up into my room before Mikoto could see me and fixed my hair. Thankfully I had no injuries this time, and sending a bit of healing chakra to my scalp eased the pain. When Sasuke came home later that night, he complained about me not waiting for him. He said he looked all over the park before realizing I wasn't there.
"Sorry, Nii-chan," I mumbled, unable to meet his eyes. Sasuke would have put up a much better fight. "I…wasn't feeling well."
"Well, I guess it's okay," he said, placing his hand on my forehead to check my temperature and frowning with worry. "It's still kinda cold out. So don't do anything that'll make you sick."
"Yeah…sorry," I said. I felt guilty for worrying him. But what else could I say?
I dragged my feet to school the next day, but nothing happened. I spent the entire morning stuck to Sasuke's side like we were doing some bizarre variation of the leaf-sticking chakra control exercise. He noticed the odd clinginess, but he didn't push the issue when I said it was nothing. At lunch I tried to find the genin's younger brother, but with a couple hundred kids running around and no idea what he looked like now, I didn't have much luck.
I made it through most of the next week without incident. I couldn't be sure, but I thought that the genin wanted to wait until I was alone. When he'd first attacked Naruto and me, we'd been in a deserted park, and he'd attacked me again when I was alone after school. If the genin's brother really was watching us while we played, he had to know that Sasuke would protect me. Sasuke, even at this age, was about as skilled as a genin. He would have no trouble when getting into a real fight.
Me? Not so much.
It was a little strange to think of a small child as being a credible threat to an actual ninja, but Itachi had proven that age didn't factor into skill or lethality. He'd made his first kill at four. Assuming that 'young' was the same as 'weak' was a good way to die.
During the next kunoichi class I was a nervous wreck. I should have felt more shame in hiding behind a six-year-old, but I wasn't sure what else to do. I thought about asking a teacher, but word would get back to my parents. And my clan. I couldn't let that happen.
As I'd predicted, the genin was waiting for me after kunoichi class, but I saw him first as I lingered in the doorway. It gave me time to run through the hand signs, and I managed to slip away using the Blind Spot genjutsu, leaving him waiting with an anticipatory smirk. The next week, he was there with a scowl, but now that I knew where to look, I did it again. On the third week, I didn't even see him in the yard, but I cast the genjutsu in a wide net and slipped away just in case he was hiding. By the fourth week, I was sure that I'd won, that he'd grown bored of trying to catch me.
I stepped out into the open and darted toward the gate. I was nearly there when the genin popped out of hiding, snagging my arm and slamming me against the tree.
"Gotcha, Uchiha-brat," he said.
He didn't knock me unconscious this time, but he nearly managed to pull out my ribbon. Thankfully, I'd tied it with a knot that was not easily undone, and he had to abandon his attempt when Suzu-sensei rounded a corner. The genin vanished as though he'd never been there at all. I asked Suzu-sensei if I could wait inside for my brother, but she told me that she had a shift at the Hokage tower and couldn't leave me inside unattended.
The next week, I thought about asking Ino and Sakura if they wanted to hang out after class so that I wouldn't be alone, but I couldn't risk putting anyone else in danger. The trophies on the genin's sash indicated that I was not his only target, and there was no way I was dragging a couple of children into danger. Still, I tried to hide amidst the other girls, using safety in numbers as we hurried home. But the genin didn't have any problems following me, and there were plenty of secluded areas between the Academy and the Uchiha district where he could ambush me. I wasn't strong enough to hold the Blind Spot technique for the entire journey, and I only felt safe when I'd made it home.
It seemed like there was no escape from this.
It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling.
If there was one positive thing about my situation, though, it was that my genjutsu mastery was growing in leaps and bounds. The genin caught on to my genjutsu trick by the fifth week, but my control and focus frequently allowed me to escape even when he fought against my illusion. I was also getting much better at sensing him and could sweep my surroundings to locate his chakra signature in seconds. Once I'd located him, I could put him under genjutsu without him realizing it. I only needed thirty seconds or so to escape from the schoolyard.
It worked most of the time.
Unfortunately, the stress gave me a particularly virulent flu and a stomach ulcer that knocked me flat on my back for two straight months, a small blessing as it meant that I didn't have to deal with the genin. I didn't even try to mask my symptoms this time, though I knew I couldn't hide under my covers forever.
Back at home, Itachi would vanish on missions, sometimes for a day and sometimes for a week or more at a time. I could always tell when he'd taken an out-of-village mission because his face was strangely blank when he returned home, as if he'd been suppressing his emotions and hadn't quite remembered to turn them back on again. In the beginning, all it would take was a shouted "Onii-chan!" to make him smile, but as time wore on, I began to notice a change. It was subtle, but Itachi smiled less and less. His eyes didn't light up the way they usually did when he looked at Sasuke and me. Instead there was a quiet melancholy and blank emptiness where the light used to be. It was worrying, especially because he had only been in ANBU for a few months.
Itachi was gone for his twelfth birthday, but when he returned I had a whole pile of dango waiting for him along with a medical kit I'd put together with the help of the clinic workers. It was vanishingly rare for him to be injured, and at this point it took nothing less than an entire team of ANBU to put a scratch on him. But I still felt better knowing that he had medical supplies on hand if he needed them.
Sasuke's birthday was a little trickier. He was turning seven, so this was his last birthday before the massacre. I spent a few weeks going over what I should give him. It had to be something practical that he would need after everyone else had been killed. But I didn't want it to seem like a lame gift to a kid. For instance socks might be useful, but no seven-year-old appreciated unwrapping socks on their birthday.
What Sasuke would need most after the massacre was something to remember us by. It took a bit of pleading with Mikoto, but I received access to a clan camera. Cameras were a little strange in this world. They were big, bulky things like something out of the Victorian era. Considering how secretive ninja were, I supposed it was to be expected that small, lightweight, easily concealable cameras hadn't been invented yet. But I carted the camera around for days taking pictures of our entire clan around the grounds, all of them smiling and some holding up banners that said 'Happy Birthday Sasuke'. I then managed to get a whole family picture of us, Itachi included, and went to put them together in a small photo album.
On his birthday, Sasuke appreciated the album, but he was more eager to play with the new giant shuriken Mikoto had gotten him. I didn't mind. The shuriken would help protect him in a fight, and I thought Sasuke would appreciate the album more when he was older.
My birthday came with a huge stack of books from everyone. Most of them were medical texts from Fugaku and Mikoto with slightly grim reminders to work hard and listen to Asumi-Obaa-chan. Itachi gave me a book on barrier seals. And Sasuke gave me the latest Kumi Kunoichi novel that had only come out last month.
"She's a little old for that, don't you think?" Fugaku said. "Your sister needs to focus on her studies and put away childish things like this."
Sasuke's face fell, and he flushed red with embarrassment.
"But I love Kumi Kunoichi," I said. True, the story lines were childish and the writing wasn't exactly award-winning, but the stories were fun and upbeat. "I promise I won't fall behind on my studies, Tou-chan."
"Hmm, well I suppose it's alright then," he admitted, glancing between the bland text books and the colorful cover of the chapter book. I nudged Sasuke who gave me a sidelong look.
"I really like it, Nii-chan," I whispered. "Thank you."
Sasuke's lips quirked into a small smile, and he nodded.
Unfortunately, happy times couldn't last forever. After returning to class, Sasuke began eyeing me suspiciously when I paused in the door at lunch, habitually scanning the schoolyard for the genin. Tomorrow was kunoichi class, and the genin had caught me last week. I'd hoped that my two month classroom hiatus would deter him, but apparently someone had let him know of my return to school.
"Is something wrong?" Sasuke asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"I'm fine," I said. "I was just looking for a good place to sit."
"Right," he said. Sasuke was still at that age where kids tended to believe what they were told. It made things easier. We sat down and unpacked our food. "You know, you can tell me if there's something wrong, Kiyo-chan."
Or not.
"There's nothing wrong, really," I said, smiling to alleviate his worried frown. There was nothing Sasuke could do. As good as he was, there was no way I was going to ask my seven-year-old brother to help me against an actual ninja. If there ever came a time when I was willing to put a child in danger just to save myself, that would be a good indication that I no longer deserved to live. "Would you like my tomato?"
Sasuke took my tomato wordlessly, and we sat together until the bell rang. Early the next morning, Itachi returned from a mission. As usual, he seemed cold and disinterested, though when I cuddled up to his side, he allowed it.
"You're not wearing your ribbon," he observed with slightly narrowed eyes.
"It's in my room," I said. The genin hadn't taken it, but I didn't want to risk losing another one. I'd stopped wearing it on kunoichi class days, but so far no one had noticed the change.
"I see," said Itachi. "Do you want to talk about it?"
He might not have known what 'it' was, but with the way I was clinging to his middle, it was pretty clear that something was wrong.
"I'm fine," I said.
Really, my problems were nothing compared to his.
Itachi didn't look convinced, but Mikoto called us inside for breakfast before he could ask more. The day passed both very quickly and very slowly. But the afternoon arrived soon enough, and I stood in the alcove as the other girls raced home. I reached out with my chakra sense, scanning the genin's usual hiding places. I couldn't sense him, so he was probably waiting to ambush me along the way home like he'd done last week.
If I sprinted to the market two streets over, I would have enough chakra to use the Blind Spot technique in the isolated areas on the way home. Unfortunately, halfway across the schoolyard, I felt the sickeningly familiar chakra, and the genin leaped down from a tree. Had he learned how to suppress his chakra? I didn't have time to dodge as he reached for me, throwing my arms up for what little protection they would offer.
"Hey, Uchiha-brat, you didn't even try to hide this time," he mocked as I staggered to a halt.
I braced for his painful touch.
But it never came.
Cautiously, I peeked out from between my arms to see the genin's hand inches away from my face. His wrist was caught by another hand. My eyes traced upwards from the hand to the gray bracer to the gray ANBU vest, and finally to Itachi's face, his eyes narrowed in quiet threat. The genin half-turned with a scowl to see who had interrupted him.
Itachi was only twelve years old and several inches shorter than the genin, but the other boy still took notice of at Itachi's attire, his full ANBU garb sans the mask and the long-handled blade slung across his back. If I hadn't been nearly sick with anxiety, the speed with which his face went from smug superiority to 'oh, shit' would have been funny. Itachi, his eyes red with the Sharingan, took a long moment to stare down the genin before slowly lowering his gaze to the boy's sash, to where my old, tattered ribbon was still on display. Then his eyes flicked up, and his grip on the boy's wrist visibly tightened. The air was thick with Intent, not quite Killing Intent, but not far from it either. Itachi reached up with his other hand and pulled my ribbon free from the boy's sash.
"You will never lay your hands on my little sister again," he said.
He spoke softly, evenly, as if stating that the sky was blue or that the sun would rise in the east.
The genin looked ready to wet his pants.
"I-I…" the boy stuttered, but he was silenced with another look. Itachi held him for a moment longer before releasing him.
"Run."
And run he did…screaming all the way.
Itachi, eyes still red and narrowed, watched him flee, and I knew that this wasn't over. But for now Itachi only considered my old ribbon before slipping it into his pocket. That was fine with me. The ribbon was old and stained and ruined. But I was happy (so, so happy) that the genin didn't have it anymore. I sniffed, and Itachi knelt beside me. From another pocket, he pulled out my other ribbon, the one I'd left in my room that morning. Without a word, he turned me around and carefully ran his fingers through my hair, pulling back my fringe and tying the ribbon into bow.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.
Why indeed?
Itachi was twelve years old. He was a child, and yet he had never been a child, had never been allowed to be a child. He'd killed at an age when most children played hide-and-seek. He'd borne the responsibilities of being the clan heir, the link between the Uchiha and the village, and the clan prodigy. And now he was a double agent for the village that would order his family massacred. He and Shisui were still trying to prevent the coup. They still believed they had a chance.
I thought that Itachi might have realized the futility of his actions even now. It was written in his face, in the way he so rarely smiled anymore. The inevitable truth was carving deeper and deeper into his soul with every passing day.
And I?
I was just waiting to die.
"You've been working so hard," I said. "And you always come home so sad. I didn't…I didn't want you to worry about me too. I didn't want to make things worse for you."
Itachi let out a long breath, not quite a sigh.
He laid his hand on my head and pulled me close.
"You have never made things worse for me, Kiyo-chan," he said. I sniffled again as he stroked my hair soothingly. "You're alright now. You're alright."
And he held me until I was.
…
A/N: The Academy timeline is a little fuzzy in canon because ages and dates don't always make sense. I had to go back to the previous chapter and rearrange a few events so that the timeline makes a bit more sense. Hopefully it works a little better now.
