Over a decade ago, when Hinata was 7, Uchiha Itachi was a brilliant young man exiting his teens. Only 16 but already so mature and knowledgeable, the perfect son to a privileged household. His family looked at him with pride, his little brother looked up with admiration and everyone around him could barely conceal the envy.
He was but a child yet he knew his place. The career he was expected to pursue and where, the woman he was supposed to marry and when, the life he was meant to live and why. He studied the law, and agreed without complaint, all those years ago, to the mandated betrothal. A long engagement was arranged, until he turned 18, then with Hinata's legal guardian's approval and despite her age and cluelessness, it would be set in stone.
Guilt nags at him every year as he forgoes the cemetery and settles for lighting a single stick of incense in her name. The white lavender-scented smoke floats in front of what should have been a picture of the deceased, but was instead a black and white drawing. Crafted with charcoal tools over thick paper and slightly smudged, it was a talented artist's portrayal of what a 12 year old Hinata would have looked like. It was a commission from an expert in human anatomy, the last ditch effort to search for her 5 years ago before the case was dropped for good.
Looking at the gray colored eyes that he knows are white with a pale lavender tint, he wonders what she looks like now, with sharper lines on her face and bigger curves on her body. A beauty. The beauty that never was. A precious child, like a younger sister, for as little as he had gotten the chance to know her.
Next to the dirtied sketch he places a pocket sized picture of 23 year old Sasuke, the most recent he had printed. The young man was scowling at the camera, hating his picture taken despite his inherited good looks. The edges of Itachi's lips curl upwards slightly at the fond memory of when that picture was taken.
The generic ringtone he had by default on his cellphone brought the genius out of his deep thoughts, displaying a number he didn't recognize as the caller. With a little apprehension, he answered.
"Uchiha Itachi, correct?" a voice he had never heard in his life asked without introduction, prompting a dry yes as his answer, opening his laptop and going straight for the program that can pin an estimated location of the caller, he pauses before running the script.
"May we speak freely?" The gruff voice questions. Itachi glances behind him where the door to his personal room is closed, but unlocked, and swiftly goes to lock it. He does a quick mental run trying to determine if he had ever left his phone unattended, studying the possibility of a bug, but rules it out. He was a very cautious man with his belongings. Curtly, he gives the man the green light and some shuffling is heard before he is greeted by a voice that he does recognize.
"The mission was a set-up, I can't go back to Konoha not knowing who to trust" his brother, not bothering with pleasantries, informs.
"Yes, we thought as much'' Itachi answered, forgoing any questions regarding the other's whereabouts or status. If he were in immediate danger, he supposes that would have been the first thing out of his mouth.
"I have somewhere to recover, but I can't hide forever" the younger one informs.
"What do you need?" He asks, reading into the vagueness of the reassurance that the other won't explicitly day where he resides and wondering if it would put him at risk if they caught him trying to trace the location of the call. Choosing not to take that risk, he shuts his laptop again.
"Is a team coming for me?" The younger asks, having figured that it wasn't too likely given how the first mission ended.
"Not yet".
"Good. Ino is dead, that means her mission to save me was set up as well. We don't have the same immediate supervisor, so it must have come from much higher" Sasuke theorizes.
"You want me to find them?" The older brother offers, cogs gyrating inside his head already.
"First we need to know who I can count on. Does my team still function?" He asks, deciding not to ask if they are alive or alright, just functioning. Never one to reveal attachment, those Uchiha boys.
"They do, you were even temporarily replaced" the older informs, knowing his brother won't chance contacting his team with his replacement as a completely unknown variable.
"I can't have the team come help, then, we can't trust the new guy" the other says with clear frustration. Itachi can almost hear the synaptic vesicles release as the younger recalculates his plan based on the new information.
"How long until full recovery?" He asks, making plans of his own.
"I won't take more than a week" even if I'm not fully recovered by then, I won't stall any longer, is what the sureness of the answer implies.
"That'll be a 3 day drive, with 9 different control points to go through" he provides uselessly, aware that his brother knows, but wanting a clear time frame so they can work together bed " 3 of which no route can avoid, unless you go a section on foot and that would be making it-"
"8 days trip, I know" the younger interrupted "I have a plan, I just need most of my strength back to execute it" he says, and the phone picks up voices he can't decipher before he hears his brother again "Make that 10 days, I don't think I can take the minimal rest stops I'm used to" he clues, vague as can be, but the fact that someone else interjected for him to say so makes it clear that he won't be making the trip alone. Itachi aches to ask about the mysterious helper and whether or not they can be trusted, but he knows better.
"Take care, I'll do my part" he says simply before ending the call and deleting it from his phone's history.