The color of wine and roses

Disclaimer applies.


Chapter 2

"He says you can come in." Itachi's mother told Shisui. "It seems Sasuke's inside. If he bothers you two too much tell him to come to me to the kitchen. I have something nice prepared for him there." She added before disappearing down the corridor.

Shisui entered Itachi's room. Sasuke was there indeed, glaring up at him from where he was standing next to Itachi.

"Hiya, Sasuke-kun !" Shisui exclaimed, coming over to ruffle Sasuke's wiry hair.

Sasuke looked about ready to bite off his offending hand.

"How is it at the Academy then ? You're going to pass anytime soon ?"

Sasuke frowned.

"What ? You have bad notes or something ?"

Itachi let himself be ignored. Shisui's bickering with his brother always came first. As if even his best friend was trying to avoid talking to him for as long as possible. Lately, he was rarely coming over at all. And Itachi couldn't go to his house as Shisui's parents didn't approve of their friendship and told him to stay away from their part of the Uchiha compound. Itachi would understand if Shisui was truly busy, but that wasn't the case. He was performing occasional short-term jounin level missions and getting educated to become a police force's member in a few
years, but that still left him with lots of free time on his hands.

But he had many other friends and dated most wanted girls in Konoha, so why would he bother ? They were becoming more and more distant as the time passed anyway. Maybe just because a mere jounin with little battle experience could never understand what an ANBU felt. Or maybe because Shisui had never considered him his friend in the first place, putting up with him only because he was told to by the clan.

"Tsk, Sasuke. You're never going to become a genin if you keep on having fun with the girls instead of studying..." Shisui continued, his hand still ruffling Sasuke's hair roughly.

"Leave him alone." Itachi interfered at last in a monotone voice.

Shisui looked up at him, his hand not leaving Sasuke's hair. Itachi looked weary. His eyes were more badly swollen than he'd ever seen them being before. Shisui immediately felt bad for disrupting Itachi's rest when most likely he was drained after a mission. But yet again there wasn't a time nowadays when Itachi would be present and not resting after a mission. He sure was busy in the ANBU.

Shisui squeaked when an abrupt wave of pain assaulted his senses as Sasuke sank his little teeth into his hand, piercing the skin.

"You little..." Shisui muttered, hugging his bleeding hand to his chest protectively.

"Let him go." Itachi stopped him before he could follow Sasuke, who, wisely for once, decided it was better to run away.

Shisui seethed in the general direction of the door. He licked the twin little wounds clean absent-mindedly before sitting down on the bed next to Itachi.

Itachi's hair was still damp and sparkling in the ambient morning light, making for a truly endearing vision. It made Shisui smile.

"Why are you always so mean to him ?" Itachi asked, though he didn't really sound interested.

"Because it's fun to see him angry. He's sooooooo scary. I'll drop out of fear one of these days."

"Why did you come ?" Itachi changed the topic.

"To see how you're doing, I guess."

"I'm fine. As always." Itachi stated in a tired monotone.

"Yeah... Somehow, I fail to see that for some time now... I've heard you were promoted, though."

"It's unsettling that such informations leak out of the ANBU."

"Whole the clan knows. Your father made sure of that."

Itachi chose not to comment on that.

"And ? What are you going to do ? Now that you've reached the top of the regular shinobi hierarchy ? You except to be promoted further in the ANBU ranks eventually ?"

"I don't except anything."

"You think you're too young for that ? Or that the Uchihas don't have enough influence in the ANBU ?"

"There's just no reason for me to think about the future."

Shisui looked at him closely, seemingly not comprehending.

"Why so ?"

"In ANBU, on average, we loose one man every two missions. I don't think I'll have much of a future."

They were silent for a long while, Shisui's smile gone.

"Quit, then." He said in the end.

"lt's not like I can just quit, not for as long as my team exists, at least."

Shisui's brow furrowed.

"Bullshit. You've done quite enough already to satisfy your father's and not to mention the clan elders' ambitions for a thirteen year old ! You can't just die now, or in a month or in a year. That's not fair."

"Fair ?" Itachi repeated, thinking over the concept. There was nothing fair in the shinobi's life altogether and Shisui truly was ignorant if he thought differently.

"It would've been a terrible waste to let you die now, you know. It's not like you've already done all you could possibly do, Itachi. It's way too early to call it quits for you. Don't you dare dying." Looking into Shisui's eyes while he was saying that, seeing the faith burning in them
like a black flame, Itachi felt like nodding childlishly and truly believing him. Believing there was still something more left for him than just an honorable death.

Itachi had always wanted to believe Shisui, had always wanted him to stay wiser and stronger than him so he could teach him things and convince him over and over again the world really was the way he saw it.

For disillusionnement proved to be a heavy burden, which Shisui still didn't seem to carry.

"At least tell me you're going to do something about it." Shisui urged him.

"I'm going to do something about it." Itachi uttered at last, avoiding Shisui's intense gaze.

Shisui rewarded him with a heart-melting smile.

"ANBU isn't a good place for you anyway. Look at yourself. You're either on a mission or righteously resting after one. You have no life besides that. You will go insane if this keeps up."

Itachi didn't answer, only looking at him cryptically.

Shisui felt more and more uneasy with every passing second. He didn't know why he bothered anyway. It wasn't as if he could understand Itachi anymore. It wasn't as if he was a great companion or a cherished friend. But he still cared. Maybe just because nobody else in that damned clan seemed to care enough to change anything, including even Itachi himself. It irked Shisui to no end. Because, after all, Itachi was only human - something they didn't seem to realize. He could just get killed, he could go nuts and he needed some basic things they'd depraved him of. Shisui could still remember all too vividly how a few years ago Itachi couldn't stop crying for weeks after he'd been told to commit his first assassination. Memories like that made him care still, no matter how far apart they had drifted. No matter how cold Itachi had become in the meantime.

"You deserve something better than that, Itachi."

"You think... I could become significantly stronger still ?" Itachi asked in the end, finally showing some traces of interest.

Shisui swallowed audibly before answering. If something had been unsettling him about Itachi it was just that - his own strive for power, which had nothing to do with the clan`s ambitions. Shisui had always had a bad feeling about possible consequences of Itachi harbouring such
feelings.

"Nobody in the whole clan surpasses your ninjitsu. That's a known fact. But you know well enough yourself that there's still more. Genjutsu, for instance, isn't all about a basic dispelling jutsus they teach at the academy. And our bloodline tends to be pretty talented in it as a whole.
But only way for an Uchiha to get a high-level genjutsu training involving the Sharingan is to become a candidate to the police forces. And since your father opposes you entering there there`s no way for you to get it..."

"Unless you'll teach me." Itachi looked up at him finally. Shisui was well aware it was the closest he would come to asking. And that it meant a lot.

"Unless I'll teach you. Again." Shisui added, sounding wistful. He cherished those times when Itachi had been still looking up to him, but he wasn't all that sure it was a good idea to try to bring them back. They had both changed since then. Itachi had dramatically changed, mostly.
To the point that made Shisui almost afraid to get close to him now.

"I can still sneak out of the compound on the pretense of doing something in the ANBU. They never know that I lie."

"It will drain your chakra reserves and strain your eyes more. You may have hard time on your regular missions because of that."

"I'll be fine."

Shisui could see Itachi was pretty much determined already. And he, of all people, didn't want to let him down.

"We'll try it then." He agreed in the end. "This evening by the Nakano river ?"

Itachi nodded. The black tresses slid off of his back with the movement, shadowing most of his face. Shisui felt like doing something about it, but he restrained himself, his hand twitching in a feeble attempt to touch Itachi`s hair. He remembered them to be soft to the touch, unlike
Sasuke`s, from those times when Itachi still had been little and he`d ruffled his hair whenever they'd met.

"I'll be going, then. Have some rest."

And he was just gone with those words, living up to his reputation.

He was also called Shisui of the Mirage and told to be the most promising young genjutsu user in the clan. Itachi wasn't exactly jealous about that, he was just intrigued as to how he himself would be when it came to genjutsu. For some time now. His father had insisted genjutsu training was off-limits to him for the time being, though. Not until he was fifteen, they told him over and over again. While Itachi didn't think he had many chances of ever being fifteen. And he wanted to know.

Testing the limit of his capacity was one of the few things which still interested him nowadays, after all.

And most of all, opposing his parents had always felt like the best of drugs.

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This evening by the Nakano river Shisui was waiting for Itachi to come over, with a pouch full of scrolls on advanced brain anatomy strapped to his belt. But somehow, he didn't quite except what he saw when Itachi had finally appeared by his side. He hadn't excepted the complete ANBU attire, the mask and the team captain's white cloak. Shisui had never even actually seen the ANBU attire from up that close before. The wariness was instinctive. It was well known a masked ANBU doesn't come close to another shinobi in the village's borders for no reason. Shisui had no reason to be afraid, though. But it was instinctive.

And came even before the realization that for a nineteen year old he was a thirteen year old boy's body can be deceptively girly in its compact, fine-boned form.

An actual woman in the ANBU attire. That would've been quite something.

"I have time up till the morning." Itachi said.

He nodded. His parents would forgive him yet another night out as well.

"They have told you you were too young to study genjutsu, haven't they ?"

Itachi nodded. It wasn't unsettling not to see his expression while talking to him, Shisui realized with a start. His face wasn't much better than the mask when it came to portraiying emotions anyway.

"I think the tradition forbids to teach advanced genjutsu to Uchihas who are younger than fifteen. Because it's the hardest of all the ninja arts, because it requires an exceptionnal chakra control, but most of all, because a crucial secret of our clan is linked to it. The elders always
present the scroll which contains it to the adepts at the beginning of their first lesson. I wouldn't risk taking it out though. You'll have to go see it yourself. If me teaching you proves of any use I'll tell you where it's hidden. The tradition is there for a reason, isn't it ?" Shisui smiled. "We wouldn't want to break it all the way to the end... Though, honestly, I don't believe what's written in that scroll is true. They call it Legendary
Sharingan. And it's just that - a legend."

Legendary Sharingan. As far as he knew, Itachi had been kept in the dark about it up until now. They still treated him like a kid and wouldn't tell him things, even though he was the only Uchiha in the ANBU, even though he was killing people on a regular basis, that still wasn't enough
to be considered adult. At least his teammates somehow got pretty much satisfied with him getting rid of his virginity the way he'd done. They thought he'd done it because they'd excepted him to, to become fit to be a leader they wanted to have. They'd seen it as some sort of sacrifice on his part, and told him to seek out some girls now, but Itachi saw no reason to. There was something oddly fascinating about what had happened and it made him wonder about how would that feel with someone he actually knew. With someone who was important, whom he could look up to. He knew no such girls.

It felt good to be instructed by Shisui again on that night, it felt good to have him mold his hands into the proper handseals with his larger and warmer hands again, it felt good to be truly inferior to someone again.

There was a reason to listen to what Shisui had to say. He was an expert genjutsu user already while Itachi had no experience at all. There was a reason for him to tell Itachi what to do. The same way there was no logical explanation for why his parents or the clan elders should
command him. Itachi was well aware he was stronger than each and every single one of them. A few years after it had actually happened, his father had admitted himself Itachi had surpassed him.

And if he was already stronger than the clan head himself then why should the clan still control him the way it did ? It was a dangerous way of thinking, Itachi was well aware of that. But it was one his thoughts sometimes followed and he could do nothing about it.

"As expected, you have great potential." Shisui told him at the sunrise, after some long hours of incessant training. "You're still lacking some theorethical insight, but you should be able to work through that in a few weeks. Return those scrolls when you're done."

Itachi nodded, taking the pouch full of scrolls from him.

"And the Legendary Sharingan ?" He actually asked.

Shisui jumped down to the river bank and dipped his hand in the cool water. Itachi followed.

"Next time." Shisui told in a somewhat strained voice. It made Itachi all the more curious as to what the mysterious scroll held within. "It seems warm enough..." He mused to himself. "You feel like having a soak ?"

Itachi answered with sliding the mask off his face and swiftly taking off the rest of his clothes. In a blink of an eye, he was already waist-deep in the water and advancing further towards the center of the river. Shisui began to undress himself. Looking up from taking off his sandals
granted him with an unsettling sight. Itachi kept on walking in the water towards the center of the river, sinking deeper and deeper still. The water was up to his face and then covered him completely, the top of his head disappearing under the surface. Itachi wasn't attempting to
swim at all and hadn't even as much as closed his eyes before walking right under the water.

A good few minutes of deadly silence passed before he resurfaced. Only then Shisui was able to move again. He finished undressing quickly and jumped into the river himself.

For a while there, he'd been thinking Itachi had been attempting to make himself drown. A foolish thought, of course.

Resurfacing after the jump, Shisui looked around curiously. He couldn't seem to notice Itachi anywhere. Of course, for an Uchiha it didn't take a lot to see a human hidden underwater. He activated the Sharingan, scanning the area again. Now, a subtle shadow caught his attention.
Itachi resurfaced right next to him.

He immediately looked wary, seeing his Sharingan activated.

"I just wanted to see where you've hidden." Shisui explained. "There is no need to be so alert. It's not like we're doing anything bad right now. Not anymore, at least."

Itachi nodded and sank back down, disappearing underwater again. He hovered there for a while, making Shisui somewhat uneasy as the ripples coming from his movements carressed his legs in an unsettling way.

He really felt weird around Itachi these days. Everything from his looks, through his demeanor and his power to his actions unsettled Shisui in a way. Sometimes he couldn't sleep at night trying to figure Itachi out.

And now... Seeing how talented he was, Shisui would risk saying that Itachi was going to become a genjutsu master of his caliber in mere months.

Itachi resurfaced again, looking somewhat flushed on the face. It was kind of weird considering the water was barely warm and the air still right out chilly.

"Can I ask you something ?" Itachi asked, letting his damp hair down and combing through it with his fingers. He sounded pretty much bland, but with a trace of childishness which still manifested in him from time to time. As unsettling as everything else about him.

"Sure."

"How old were you when you had sex for the first time ?"

Shisui looked at Itachi curiously. What kind of thing to ask was that ? But yet again, Itachi was thirteen. He was supposed to show some unhealthy interest in those matters. But what unsettled Shisui more than the actual question was a silly thought that Itachi had been checking him out underwater earlier.

"Do I have to answer ?"

Itachi looked at him expectantly.

"Like... fourteen ?" Shisui answered, hesitantly. "She's been a nice girl, older than me by a few years. She's teaching at the Academy now, as far as I know... Why would you ask, anyway ? You'd like to do that, yourself ?"

Silence and deepening blush coloring Itachi's cheeks answered him.

"No kidding. You did it already ? You have a girlfriend then ?"

"It was my teammate from the ANBU." Itachi answered in a collected tone, his blush subsiding as well. His eyes were gleaming in a way Shisui couldn't exactly decipher.

"You mean: a guy ?" He asked, trying not to sound overly terrified.

"I just wanted to tell someone." Itachi explained apollogetically, looking away.

"But... It's like... You wanted it to happen ?"

"I guess I did." Itachi said before sinking underwater again.

Shisui splashed some water on his face before heading back to the shore. He got out of the water and began putting his clothes on. Itachi swam to the shore as well. Shisui didn't feel like looking back at him, at his damp and sparkling hair and sinewy body glistening with the water
drops in the morning light. Not after what he'd heard.

If he wanted it, would Itachi let him as well ? The mere thought made his insides burn.

"I'd like to do that with you. To see how it is with someone I trust."

"Listen there, Itachi ! We're cousins. We're way too closely related for you to ever think about me in that way !" Shisui erupted, seeing as Itachi's words managed to successfully add pain to the injury.

There had always been something off with Itachi like that. Something about his prettiness mixed with tremendous power, something about the grace with which he moved, the way his long lashes fluttered against the alabaster skin of his cheeks that made Shisui worry on some unconscious level. Someone just had to jump at the chance. There was something so entirely wrong about the prodigy Uchiha whoring around Shisui could pretty much decipher the twisted logic Itachi had behind his actions. Itachi so loved to oppose their family in the little things he could oppose them in it was very like him after all to go and hit at his cousin.

But he could never agree.

Why should he, suddenly ? After all those years he'd spent chasing girls. He'd never considered himself a pedophile. And he didn't plan to start now.

"I just wanted to ask..." Itachi muttered, getting out of the water and reaching for his own clothes. He seemed sad for some reason. It didn't manifest in his features or even his eyes, it was rather something about whole his posture.

It made Shisui feel as if he'd let him down.

Itachi removed his damp underwear before putting his pants on and bending down to reach for his shirt. A warm hug envelopping him from behind made him freeze in his movements.

Shisui laughed in his ear. His laughter was so strained though it hurt to listen to it.

"I've wanted this, too, you know. Sometimes you just..." Shisui shook his head. "But stop it, Itachi. Don't go around making other men want you. They will. And you will end up hurt."

"Not if it's you."

"If it's me, as well. Even if we do it, I'll have to go back to my girls eventually. Sooner or later."

"Am I... unpleasant ?"

Shisui shook his head.

"There's still the clan."

"There's always the clan." The hate apparent in Itachi's voice made Shisui start.

"That's right. There is. And always will be the clan."

Whatever Itachi mused about after he had said it, his eyes turned darker and colder than ever.


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Duh, there was no lemon. Hope you don't mind (too much). I'll do something about it in the next chapter.