Parent Trap

A/N: welcome back! oh, wait, i'm the one that's been gone. *sheepish* oh, well, que sera sera. but here's a new chapter for you to sink your teeth into. it's a little emotionally involved, and advances the plot A LOT (you just don't know it yet). i hope you enjoy it all the same!

Warnings: Emotionally-Ruffled!Itachi and Seriously-Morose!June

enjoy!


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Parent Trap: Chapter 7
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“And then Sakura grabs the closest liquid, which just happened to be the punch bowl, and dumps it on my head!”

Itachi smirked at the blonde across the table, watching as Naruto’s face lit with laughter as he recalled walking home in the middle of winter, soaked in raspberry punch. His daughter was sputtering in her grape juice next to him, and Itachi almost marveled at how bright they were compared to his dark and pale family.

But Mikoto was laughing along with Naruto and Ayame, and Fugaku was actually smiling good naturedly, making them both almost light with the same joy and warmth as the Uzumaki duo.

Of course, Itachi wasn’t smirking at the blonde alone. He was smirking at his brother’s obvious discomfort at having someone from his past at their dinner table, a someone Itachi was almost positive was an intimate someone, if his little brother’s reaction the other night at the restaurant was any indication. That, and his reaction at Itachi’s subtle prodding earlier, when he’d been threatened with never seeing his little angels again.

“So, Naruto. What brought you back to Konoha, when Suna was obviously such a good fit for you?” his mother asked smiling, her eyes on Naruto as her fingers idly gripped her wine glass.

A fleeting shadow passed over Naruto’s face that Itachi would have missed had he not been looking at him so intently. He also would have missed the subtle shift of blue eyes towards his little brother. Hn. At least his eyes were still good for something.

“Ah, well, things were getting a bit too… tough in Suna.” Naruto shot a look at his daughter, but she didn’t meet his eyes. Itachi saw a tiny scowl on her face and thought it quite cute, though he would never say so out loud. “A few things all converged into one big headache, and I thought coming back home would be a way to start over. I… I also thought it would be a good idea to be near my loved ones right now, since Ayame’s mother is trying to gain back her custody rights.”

An awkward silence fell over the table. It was kind of a sore spot for the Uchiha family, too, as, not long after Sasuke’s wife’s funeral, her family had tried to take the twins away, claiming they were the only heirs to the woman’s family. Stupid of them, to play the heir card with the Uchiha family, the unrivaled kings of procuring legitimate heirs.

Itachi stared at Sasuke, wondering at his brother’s slightly green complexion and slightly surprised when his brother opened his mouth as if to say something to the blonde. But before he could, a loud belch to Itachi’s left stopped whatever Sasuke had been going to say. It was followed by a short silence before Naruto burst out laughing, accompanied by Ayame, Kei, Mikoto, and surprisingly, Fugaku.

Sasuke looked mortified at his son, admonishing with his eyes for Kei to stop his laughter and apologize for his rude behavior. But again the blonde’s laughter was too infectious to stop, and everyone but Itachi, Sasuke, and Touya continued to laugh.

Itachi smirked at his brother, silently reveling in Sasuke’s discomfort. But then a mischievous light entered the younger Uchiha’s dark eyes, and Itachi had the sudden feeling that his evening was about to get troublesome, to borrow the phrase from Sasuke’s lazy valet.

Sasuke shot his eyes over to his mother before clearing his throat to gain everyone’s attention. “To change the subject, Naruto-san, it is a wonder to me that you happen to know Fujimiya-sensei and have entered into our lives at the very time that Itachi’s well-being is left in her hands.”

Itachi glared at Sasuke, refusing to show his embarrassment over how his mother jumped at the chance to know more about the doctor that had “changed all their lives with her god-sent diagnosis,” or however his mother put it.

“You don’t know how many years we’ve been in fear of Itachi going blind, only to find out it’s not going to happen. To think, an eye doctor finding out it’s a psychological disorder,” his mother gushed giddily.

“Yeah, that sounds like June,” Naruto said affectionately. Itachi shifted his focus to the blonde, still aware of Sasuke’s triumphant smirk over turning this odd situation to his favor.

“She may be an ophthalmologist, but she also majored in psychology, with a focus in cognitive science. Or was it neuroscience? Bah, I can never remember right. She was always dabbling in something or another, always messing with people’s minds,” he ended, chuckling.

“So how long have you and Fujimiya-sensei known each other, Naruto-kun?” Mikoto asked.

“Oh, we met way back in high school. She didn’t exactly have an ideal home life, so she usually spent most of her time with Iruka-sensei and me. Oh, Iruka-sensei is my foster father, if you didn’t know that.”

“My! I had no idea such a young man would have a son!”

“Yeah, Iruka-sensei took me in when I was twelve. He was only responsible for me for six years, but they were six years that, looking back now, were the most important and most needed in my life. But anyway, June spent so much time with us. She and Iruka-sensei got me to graduate high school and then pushed me into applying for college. So I followed her to Suna, where I found a love for teaching and she found a love for poking people in the eye. I was her favorite practice dummy.” There were murmured chuckles, both at the story and at the thought that she was now poking Itachi in the eye instead.

“Oto-sama!” Kei interrupted the story loudly. And for some reason, Itachi was very annoyed by it. Sasuke turned his attention from the blonde to his son, raising a stern eyebrow to show his displeasure at his son’s rude manners. “Um, sorry. But, um, may we be excused from the table?”

Sasuke nodded, and Kei jumped down from his chair, running around the table to grab Ayame’s hand and lead her out of the dining room, Touya trailing slowly behind. Itachi watched them go and then turned his eyes to Naruto, also watching them go with a sad look in his eyes.

“Of course, Suna was also where I met Ayame’s mother. It wasn’t the healthiest of relationships. Sakura was always trying to get me to break up with her, and June was just there for me to complain to and receive comfort. She… she never seemed interested enough in that aspect of my life, always aloof and making non-committal remarks whenever I’d ask her something about it. But when Ayame was born, June was beside herself with happiness, always smiling and laughing as she held her, like she was a completely different person. She ran around everywhere claiming she had a Naruto-clone and would steal Ayame away one day.”

Itachi’s eyes were riveted to the blonde, silently demanding he go on with the story when he came to a halt. For some reason, he found he needed to know about the good doctor, wanted to know, even, something that was highly unusual for him. He was interested in knowing what made her the way she was, where one minute she was stern and commanding and the next was sweet and smiling. And how pretty she was when she smiled…

Itachi’s eyebrows lowered in a slight scowl at where his thoughts were taking him. There was obviously some truth to this psychological disorder on his part. His thoughts were crazy, as of late. Hopefully, once Fujimiya-sensei was finished with her treatment, Itachi would be able to stop the absurd wanderings of his mind.

And yet, he couldn’t stop remembering how he’d held her in his arms as they’d danced, her slim form soft and toned under his hands; how cute she’d been, muttering curses at her blonde companion for making her dance with Itachi, to which Itachi gallantly and amusedly apologized for accepting her stilted offer, captured anew when she blushed a slight pink at having been overheard.

But then, and even now, Itachi was convinced there was something going on between the doctor and the blonde, and how he wished it didn’t start eating away at his gut whenever he thought it.

“And then when Ayame’s mother fought for sole custody, June became my knight in shining armor, or something to that affect,” Naruto continued, bringing Itachi out of his thoughts. “She brought in lawyers and detectives and character witnesses that, in the end, helped me keep my child. For that I will always love her.”

There was yet another awkward silence before Naruto laughed good-naturedly. “I’m sorry. My mouth just gets away from me sometimes. I didn’t mean to get all maudlin on you nice people,” he chuckled.

“Oh, no, you’re perfectly all right, dear,” Mikoto offered. “Though Fujimiya-sensei does sound like a wonderful woman. It almost makes me wonder why the two of you aren’t together, you seem so close.”

“Eh, we were, for a time,” Naruto admitted hesitantly. He seemed uncomfortable with the subject, but continued, unaware of Itachi’s hawk-like gaze, though the Uchiha was sure his brother had caught on. “We broke up a while ago, for different reasons, mind you, but amicably all the same.” Now it was Sasuke whose gaze was locked on Naruto, and Itachi was certainly going to file that bit of information away for later scrutiny and use. Sasuke cast him a look out of the corner of his eye, his gaze falling away to a glare at what was sure an amused smirk on Itachi’s face.

“Well, maybe you should give Itachi a little ammunition for tomorrow, Naruto-san. He’s got an appointment with Fujimiya-sensei tomorrow night.”

Naruto’s face lit up and he laughed. “Oh, and I do have some whoppers. You stick with me, Itachi-san, and you’ll be able to blackmail her for the rest of her life.”

Itachi smirked at the blonde. “I don’t think I even need to ponder the offer to take you up on it.”

“Then let’s adjourn to the sitting room. We should be a bit more comfortable if we’re going to make a young woman’s life miserable,” Fugaku let out dryly, pushing away from the table and walking around to escort his wife out of the dining room.

Naruto stood up to follow, halted by Itachi calling his name. “And in exchange, Naruto-kun, maybe I’ll just have to give up some embarrassing stories about Sasuke.”

“You’ve got a deal,” the blonde said excitedly, giving Sasuke a look before following Itachi’s parents out of the room. Sasuke was giving him the Look II, though it was far too inferior to his own for Itachi to ever be intimidated by it. He returned the Look II with his own casually raised eyebrow that said, ‘you brought this on yourself.’

“This, otouto, means war.”

~*~

Itachi lay on the stiff bed, wires connected to him on almost every limb of his body, in the overly white sleep study room of the hospital, unhappily wondering how the hell he was supposed to even get to sleep when he was so uncomfortable. After a quick dinner with Sasuke and his parents earlier in the evening, Itachi had come into the hospital and met with a haggard Fujimiya-sensei, showing definite signs of sleep deprivation.

He’d gone through the MRI an hour or so before, and now he was being forced to spend the night in a sterile hospital where, at any moment, he could hear someone screaming in pain or fear, aggravated yelling from unhappy patients and/or nurses and doctors, the screech of sirens as the ambulances pulled up to the ER bay, or nothing but a mind numbing silence that would ultimately eat away at his sanity quicker than any of the others combined.

Unfortunately for him, none of those things were influencing his unsuccessful attempt at sleep. And when, upon careful reflection, he’d discovered the source of his inability to fall asleep, he was understandably surly. Enough so that when the source’s light but tired voice queried about his condition lowly through the intercom by his bedside, he couldn’t quite hold back the accusatory bite to his response.

“Uchiha-san,” the intercom breathed out tiredly, “Please try to cooperate. We are just one test away from hopefully finding out what’s happening with your eyes.”

Again, Itachi got the impression that the good doctor was running on her last dregs of energy. And yet, he could not be moved to cut her some slack. He was Uchiha Itachi, after all.

“I would love to oblige you, Fujimiya-sensei, but the atmosphere is more than a little lacking.”

“And what would make you feel more at home, Uchiha-san?” the voice asked, with what Itachi thought – hoped, wished, since it would mean he’d caused it; dammit, he needed to stop thinking those stupid, sappy, and most of all infuriating thoughts – was a bit of amusement.

“Hm,” Itachi pretended to think about it. “Don’t let this get around, Fujimiya-sensei, but I am a very cuddly sleeper. I would more than likely fall right to sleep if I had one or more beautiful and scantily clad women to hold.” His voice held nothing but complete innocence, but from the silence followed quickly by a disbelieving and amused snort, Itachi got the impression that she didn’t quite believe him.

Smart girl.

“You are a charmer,” she murmured, before there was a click that indicated the intercom had been shut off. Itachi felt slightly put out, quickly followed by angry that he was even thinking such things, but he looked up in surprise when the door of the small observation room off to the side opened and emitted Fujimiya’s slight form.

“My, Fujimiya-sensei, after my previous statement, this seems highly inappropriate.” He smirked, though it was lost in the semi-darkness of the room.

“Calm down, Casanova. I’ve just come to see if a light sedative would do the trick of getting you to fall out, without messing up the results of the study.”

“I’m sure your company would do me wonders, more so than any drug that would render me unconscious while you ravish my body.” Hn, this was almost as fun as ribbing Sasuke with innuendo. In fact, he was sure that if he took it far enough, Fujimiya-sensei would lose her temper as beautifully and amusingly as Sasuke did.

She didn’t respond, just fiddled around with some of his machines, and Itachi was a tad bit disappointed. A penlight suddenly passed over his eyes, making him shy away from it, but small yet firm fingers captured his chin and turned him back into it.

“I’m sorry, Uchiha-san. I’m just checking something. You seem wide-awake, so I think a mild sedative will be fine. It’ll just relax you, put you at ease, and make it easier for you to fall asleep on your own.”

Her penlight flicked off, and when his eyes had readjusted to the semi-darkness, he watched as she pulled a small needle from her coat pocket. She pulled the cap off with her teeth, the forceful pull of her head making the few strands of hair already escaped from her bun fall around her face. She spit the cap out onto the floor, and her tongue flicked out to lick her lips as she tested the needle. She lifted her eyes to him and gave him a tired smile.

Pretty.

The needle slipped easily beneath his skin, and there was only a minute cold burn as the sedative seeped into his vein. Fujimiya-sensei walked away, and he could immediately feel the effects of the drug, slowing his thought processes and dulling his senses, but not to the point of falling asleep.

He heard a chair scraping softly across the floor before he registered that Fujimiya-sensei was back and sitting next to his bed. She moved around a bit, trying to find a comfortable position in such an uncomfortable hospital chair, before finally sighing and leaning back, what Itachi could make out of her face trained on him lying in the bed.

“Well, now, at least I got the beautiful woman to help me sleep,” he mused, smirking at her as she chuckled almost soundlessly. “You know, I’m suddenly reminded that my family and I had a wonderfully enlightening dinner with Naruto-kun last night.”

He wasn’t sure, but he thought Fujimiya-sensei’s attention sharpened on him. And interestingly enough, with what little energy he could summon after the sedative, he felt slightly… he didn’t know, but he didn’t like the feeling.

“Oh? I’m sure any time spent in that idiot’s presence would make a person come to any number of revelations. But, for fun, what is it that he happened to tell you?”

Itachi smirked. “Oh, this and that. A handful of things about when you met in high school, your time in Suna, your go at a relationship, your tad over-obsession with Ayame-chan, and a few other things that kept me rather amused and entertained throughout dessert.”

There was a tense silence before she let out a frustrated breath. “That complete and utter moron,” she growled lowly.

“Oh, come now. It wasn’t all that bad. Though my mother does now hold some doubts as to whether a woman who nearly threw another woman through a sidewalk shop window is the best choice to handle her son’s case.”

“I… that… she…” the doctor stuttered in shock. Itachi’s smirk grew, though his eyes seemed to be a bit heavier.

“Of course,” he continued, “who wouldn’t have that kind of reaction when her lineage is dragged through the mud.” Itachi didn’t really want to pry, but Naruto’s comments the night before about her rough childhood and her extreme reaction to a misplaced insult had him curious.

She cleared her throat, whether in embarrassment or to gain some composure, Itachi didn’t know.

“So he even went so far as to tell you why they think I reacted in such a manner.” She didn’t seem angry, but neither did the Uchiha brood, and yet they were angry all the time. She sighed heavily. “My father was a bit abusive toward my mother and me when I was a child, so when I met Naruto and Iruka-sensei, I spent as much time away from him as I could. But that also meant that my mother was left alone to take the brunt of his anger, and when it got really bad, Grandfather came in and took her away, disowning me as the child of that man.

“I’ve been told by my friends, professors, mentors, and psychologists alike that being abandoned by my mother and abused by my father has left me emotionally and physically scarred, to the point that I regularly fly off the handle with my anger issues and become a threat to anyone and anything around me.”

Itachi was a bit speechless, taking in but not sure he was registering her monotonous droning of her childhood correctly.

“That,” she continued with some heat in her voice, “is a bunch of bullshit. Yes, my father hit me, and yes my mother left me, but I had Naruto and Iruka-sensei, and Tsunade-sensei, and many friends in Suna that helped me grow up. Cowering and acting out based on things that happened to a defenseless child is not how a grown woman, with every capability of handling and protecting herself, should behave.”

“So why the level of violence?” Itachi quietly asked, his voice slurred by an almost yawn.

“It… it had less to do with the insults about my parents and more to do with… more to do with the fact that I thought she was right.” She signed and sat up in her chair, her fingers rubbing at her temples.

“Right about what?” he pressed, though he suddenly wanted very much to go to sleep.

He heard the sound of skin slapping skin and realized he had shut his eyes. He tried to open them, but a hand laid gently over them, keeping them shut.

“Sleep, Uchiha-san, and by tomorrow afternoon, I can have some news for you.” He heard her move away, the chair making the scraping noise again as she moved it back to the wall.

“Goodnight, Uchiha-san,” he heard her whisper before she returned to the small observation room.

As he lay drifting off to dreamland, he wet his lips and whispered into the dark, “Right about what?”


TBC


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i hope to update more quickly than i have been in the past. and i hope to advance the plot a bit more in the next chapter.

laters, and as always, thanks for reading!