Sweet and innocent

Just for the record, none of the characters belong to me…. And I am absolutely sorry I forgot the previous chapter’s disclaimer…. Neways, I don’t own Naruto, or anyting remotely similar to that anime.

Itachi blinked. Twice. Looking at the Hokage, not believing a word the older man was saying, but knowing they were indeed, quite true, and simply devastating. He could feel the dread forming again. Sasuke demanded to be on the hearing was a needle. A sharp, long needle piercing his chest, going straight to his heart, inserting its poisonous liquid into his veins, filled with a lethal doses of fear and despair, which traveled all around his body, feeling him with such a feeling he had never thought would affect him: helplessness.

In front of the Hokage’s words, and the meaning behind them, Itachi felt absolutely helpless. He only had a week!! A week to find Sasuke, and the hearing, that implied he had to conjure up a whole reason and explaining that would justify why he wanted to take guardianship of Naruto, and even harder, explain just WHY he was a fitting guardian for the blond, all of that, while finding Sasuke. Itachi nearly wanted to brake down and cry.

“Itachi… you look like I have just condemned you to your death” Hokage worriedly said, giving a serious look at Itachi, and silently asking the young Uchiha exactly what was so wrong at the moment.

Itachi felt his breathe cut out, he was staring straight at the Hokage, and knew it was simply know or never… “Sasuke’s missing. We had a fight. He left during the mission. Ran from home”

Itachi knew the old man was by his side for sure now, for the in less than three seconds, the Hokage went from looking concerned, then shocked, then aggravated, running his hand over his forehead in a confused, worried gesture that only made Itachi feel even more hopeless than he already felt. Itachi hadn’t thought that was possible, but the situation proved him wrong.

Sandaime took a deep breath, analyzing the situation carefully, before he stood from his chair, looking at Itachi seriously. He rounded the table, and sat right in front of the young ANBU , in that kind of way a father sits before having a serious talk with his child, arms loose, yet fingers intertwining by his thighs. Itachi simply stared back at him, awaiting the incoming blow.

“Itachi… I hope you understand what this means” Hokage seriously said, in a voice that gave Itachi the chills up and down his spine… and not in a good, pleasurable way. The young man remained silent, waiting for the Hokage to speak. A few moments went by, and the older man opened his mouth to explain himself.

Itachi entered his house in a mess of despair, his face dirty, a few cuts on his body due to unusual carelessness, his clothes stuck to his body due to the heavy rain that had been going for the last two days.

Two days. He had been here for two days, and there had still been no sigh of Sasuke at all. Itachi closed his eyes, in a matter to remain a little calmness, bits of the conversation with Sarutobi-sama running through his mind:

Flashback:

“No longer, Hokage-sama??” Itachi asked, almost pitifully if anybody asked him, but judging by the turmoil in his chest, it was a miracle in itself the young man wasn’t crying his heart out, on his knees, begging for the older man his generous help, offering his whole soul to him, give the situation.

He gazed at the Hokage, and their gazes met, one broken, the other sad, not knowing how to really help one of his village’s greatest assets, despite his usual cocky pretenses.

“I;m sorry, Itachi… the date of the hearing is irrevocable. As a matter of fact, if it were up to the Council, you wouldn’t even have gotten a notice, and the survey would’ve started weeks ago.” Itachi nodded, thankful for the kind words of comfort, but his mind was still working a hundred miles per minute, trying to find a logic, a solution to all of this. “It was the most I could do, they are indeed against the idea of letting you prepare for it, and also as to having you care for Naruto…. Or even Sasuke, for that matter”

Itachi separated his gaze from the floor, to stare at the old man in sheer shock. No…. no no no no, NO!! He hadn’t heard what he thought he heard. The council simply couldn’t judge his guardianship of Sasuke!!! He was the legal guardian of his Otouto, he went through that stupid test secretly imposed upon them flawlessly, and he had the guardianship legal paper to prove it! That hack of old people just couldn’t undo that out of their own whim, they couldn’t tear Sasuke away form him. It wasn’t possible. Itachi simply couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea.

“Itachi… this hearing is not only about Naruto, the council has insisted to also put Sasuke’s caring as well” Itachi broke gaze from Hokage, to rest his head on his hands. How would he do this??? Not only he had to convince the Council of how he was capable of looking after Sasuke once more, but also make clear there were no second intentions behind Naruto’s guardianship, but he had to do it in less than one week, while Sasuke was missing and having a horrible, horrible spat with Itachi. He was going to lose his Otouto.. he would lose Naruto and Sasuke all together. The mere thought of it made Itachi’s chest ache in despair. “I am sorry, Itachi… it is not the end, though…”

/Oh, lord… what more???/ Against his better judgment, Itachi made a carry on gesture with his hand.

“Given your news of Sasuke’s disappearance, I find myself forced to inform you, I believe you shall be watched”

“Watched??? By who?? Why??”

“As an insurance resource, of course. The council is planning to assign high-ranked Jounins to observe you, make sure you would be raising those children well.”

Itachi nodded, seeing the logic in the council’s action, and despising them for doing such a thing, for believing he didn’t really care about Naruto and Sasuke. He silently vowed they would perish at the very first chance he got.

“Fortunately though” Hokage continued, and Itachi was deadly curious as to how anything of this could ever be fortunate for him, he seemed to be on the high lane to losing everything he had ever cared for and loved. “Given the current situation, I managed to get some time”

Itachi’s whole body stirred, his body on attention, his mind focused, Hokage-sama’s words simply seemed to be the only thing to keep him from falling into a frantic, hysterical state. He had time. He didn’t know how long, had no idea how the old man got it, all he knew was there still seemed to be a chance to solve this mess. Right now, that was more than Itachi ever wished for.

“Time?? What do you mean… how long??”

“Not much, unfortunately. I managed to convince the council into delaying the survey until three days from now. They wanted to start the survey today. I know I don’t need to say no one should know of this…” Like a thunder, Itachi understood the meaning behind Sarutobi’s words. He stood up, looked at the old man solemnly, and in a gesture he rarely did, he bowed to the other man, low and respectful, until he made a perfect 90 degree angle, right hand over his heart, eyes closed. After bowing, he simply thanked the Hokage, but it was an honest, deep and sincere feeling, which the old man responded by bowing his head just a tad bit. Afterwards, he left, finding his missing brother the greater priority in his head. He had three days to get that done, before he lost anything he loved.

Itachi leaned against his door, taking a deep, heavy breath. That had been two days ago. He had skillfully searched through the whole village, careful to not show the nervous wreck he had become, telling Naruto to not speak anything of Sasuke missing to anyone; to everyone but Kakashi, the young Uchiha had come down with a hard flu, and when the rare visit came (mostly annoying fan girls who believed was their right to take care of them), the young boy was sleeping, and therefor couldn’t attend anyone. But, even with all his careful planning, his vivid searching and skills, he still hadn’t found a trace of Sasuke’s whereabouts.

But the truth drowned him. It stuck on his throat, and suffocated him, cutting his hair out and shutting out his sanity. Sometime in the next day, the council’s survey would start, and it was only a matter of minutes, hours if they were lucky, until that hoard of near-corpses would find Sasuke had been missing, and they would tear him not only from naruto, but his Otouto as well. Itachi really had no idea how he hadn’t started pulling his hair out by now. It seemed like a lovely idea at the moment.

“Itachi?!?!” Naruto’s voic reached him as the little blond came into the living room hurriedly, and it shocked him to hear something unexpected in the boy’s voice: joy, happiness, a certain air about him that screamed optimism and Itachi hadn’t seen in Naruto for a long while.

Even before Naruto spoke, Itachi knew what the young boy would say, for there was only one thing that would make Naruto be this joyous right about now. “Sasuke came back?? Where is he?? Is he alright??”

For a single second, Naruto looked at him in shock, then seemed to understand Sasuke was the thing in front of Itachi’s mind, and therefore simply jumped into that conclusion. After a second, Naruto answered the young Uchiha as better as he possibly could.

“Kakashi brought him a few hours ago, I was just going out to get you, cause ‘Kashi doesn’t want to lose sight of him” Itachi nodded, pointedly ignoring the nickname Naruto had suddenly bestowed onto Kakashi. “He’s in his room, he’s alright. Kakashi’s with him”

Then, Naruto saw the strange shift: Itachi’s black eyes cleared themselves from the haunted look he had carried for the last two days, his face became completely unreadable, arms hanging loosely to his sides, his gaze lost and unfocused on anything at all; there couldn’t be found a single indication as to what the young Uchiha was thinking at the moment… except for his eyes… the bone-chilling anger reflected in the black eyes, how seething and intimidating Itachi looked, with pure murder in his orbs. The older male walked right past Naruto, not saying a word, nor letting the blond say anything either, leaving Naruto standing there, thinking how just how much he wouldn’t like to be in Sasuke’s place right about now, considering the older Uchiha’s look.

Itachi walked through the house, his pace calm and measured, no one could even guess how angered he felt at the moment by watching him walk, but he was sure he was showing it in some other way, because turning down the aisle to Sasuke and Naruto’s room, he saw Kakashi coming out of the boy’s room, and froze upon gazing at Itachi, he saw the older man’s Adam’s apple bob up and down in a nervous gesture, a certain wariness that wasn’t compatible with the ANBU’s usual lazy demeanor. It only lasted for about three seconds, though, before the older man got a hold of himself, and approached the incoming Itachi.

“Itachi..” he grabbed the younger man’s arm, who tugged his arm free from the soft grasp, glaring at Kakashi in a way that made the silver strands on the back of his neck stand up.

“Where did you find him??” Itachi’s voice was ice. Ice, solid, hard and sharp, attempting to extinguish anything crossing its path. Kakashi arched an eyebrow, hands on his hips as he looked over Itachi, taking in the young man’s chilly attitude.

“Outside Konoha” the older ANBU answered, as he leaned against a wall, his voice back to the almost lazy tone. “How he skipped the border’s security, I have no idea” Itachi didn’t know what bothered him most, the lazy way Kakashi spoke, or that the man was calmly examinating his fingernails, as though he wasn’t speaking of Itachi’s greatest treasure.

“Thank you for finding him” Kakashi waved his hand at Itachi, silently telling him he didn’t need to thank him anything. Itachi nodded, acknowledging the simple gesture. “Do me a favor. Take Naruto to his place for the night… or your house. I need to speak to my bratty little brother” Once again, Kakashi raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the younger man, which was, in turn, once again, answered with silence.

Itachi glared at the man, for good measure, before resuming his walk to the boy’s room, nothing would keep him from having a long, very emotional and disciplining conversation with his little brother…. Nothing, but the exact words Kakashi said, as Itachi walked by him:

“He told me why he left” Itachi froze, not believing his ears, willing himself to think it was a trick, and Sasuke hadn’t spoken about their fight to Kakashi, but he knew the older man wouldn’t have mentioned it unless it was true. If anything, the older man had been honest and loyal to them, and had no reason to do otherwise.

None said anything for a while, both caught up within their own thoughts, Kakashi clearly trying to find a sensible, delicate way to approach the matter, while Itachi simply made a list of every possible thing Kakashi could say, and pondering on a quick, ruthless comeback. He wanted to get to his brother, and Kakashi was simply retaining from doing so.

“Did he, now??” If he wanted this conversation to be over with, Itachi may as well start it.

“Yeah… and you better be careful” Itachi turned around so quickly, Kakashi barely saw him move, to be once again victim of his ever famous Uchiha stare, that void, emotionless look that made Kakashi’s hair stand on attention. He felt himself tense, under that indecipherable look, Kakashi felt himself completely out of place.

“Of what, exactly, Kakashi?” So low… so slow and dangerous, the kind of whisper that makes people pay even more attention than needed.

“What do you think?? The council, Itachi. If they happened to know you’re playing—“

“I’m not playing anything.” Itachi cut him right in. “Does it look like I’m playing to you??” The younger man hissed, his eyes stating a clear, hard menace to Kakashi. Even with the glare, the older man did not seem phased by it, in fact, Kakashi looked amused by Itachi’s reaction, and was clearly suppressing the smile he knew would set the Uchiha off, and would probably get him in so much trouble, he’d have to nearly kill the other male to prevent his own death.

“Of course not” Itachi couldn’t possibly imagine a tone filled with more sarcasm than Kakashi’s at the moment, but he simply choose to ignore it, he was aching to see his little brother, to get some senses into his skull once and for all, he could deal with Kakashi later. Right now, he just wanted this conversation over and done with as soon as possible. “But you should really watch your steps, Itachi… Sasuke looked genuinely determine to go to the Hokage, tell him what you’ve been doing with Naruto, and why you fought, it’s a sheer miracle I convinced him to be here. I know you care about those children, Itachi, probably more than you should, but I can’t help but feel that you’re walking on a very thin ice right now. If anything of this week’s happening was to be known..”

“It won’t, Kakashi. I’ll make sure of it.” The raven-haired said, turning from the older man, to walk to his brother’s room, thinking this conversation to be over and done with, not expecting Kakashi’s next words at all.

“They’ll be watching you, Itachi. Don’t ever think for a second the Council will let you have the guardianship of those two without you fighting with teeth and nails for it, if they see something like that, they’ll take them both away so fast, you’re head’s gonna come off your shoulder from the spinning” By the time Itachi spun around to face the older ANBU once more, Kakashi was gone, he only found thin air.

Growling to himself, Itachi pulled himself together, and after taking a deep breathe, took that final step to Sasuke’s door, and opened it, more than ready to face his mischievous little brother.

Sasuke didn’t look away from his window when he heard the door opening, thinking it most have been Kakashi, to come and speak to him about something, or Naruto, to once again make sure he wouldn’t get away again. He swore, that blond had turned into such a cute puppy since his return a few hours ago. When he heard his name, though, he knew it was neither. With a heavy heart, and dread feeling his soul, Sasuke turned, and met his brother’s black eyes. After a moment, he swallowed dry, still looking at Itachi, for one thing was for certain: Itachi was not amused. In fact, the young man looked quite pissed. More so than Sasuke had ever seen him in his whole life. Only one thing went through the young Uchiha’s mind.

/I’m in so much trouble/