White Rain Chapter 5 - Part 1
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chuunin_archiveI was busy doing Nanowrimo, but now I'm back! This chapter contains a Sasuke VS Naruto battle... but the chapter is too long for one LJ post.... -_-
Title: White Rain
Chapter: 5 PART 1
Summary/So far: A woman arrives in Konoha seeking asylum for herself...and Itachi's children (surprise!). One of the children looks like Itachi and is named after Itachi, which causes emotional confusion for Sasuke. Itachi and his sister join the Academy. Meanwhile, the woman is under suspicion of Konoha-nin. Naruto has to navigate the village through dicey waters.
Warnings: Violence, Intrigue, Mature Situations, OCs (developed)
Pairings: Multiple. So far SasuSaku, ItaOC, NejiTen, InoCho
Questions and Answers:
Q: Will Itachi (Uchiha) make an appearance? A: Yes. In the past.
Q: Is Naruto in love with Sasuke? A: No. But he loves him as friend and almost family.
Q: Why is there a public match between Sasuke and the Hokage? Wouldn't this make Naruto seem weak in the eyes of the villagers if he lost? A: No. It is a handicapped sporting event.
Q: How canon is your AU? A: As canon as it can be until I write a direct contradiction and Kishimoto moves on without me. I am caught up with the manga. If at some point I deviate from the manga, I will announce it in the author’s notes.
Q: I expect a totally awesome Naruto-Sasuke spar. Will you be ‘bringing out the big guns,’ so to speak? A: I tried for you! I hope it doesn’t fail to meet expectations…
Q: Why is Itachi addressing various strangers (Iruka) by their respective first names while being overly polite at other points? A: Uh… Author oversight? Because I was too lazy to look up Iruka’s last name… (sorry)
Q: Does Lucia have a secret history? A: Yes.
To everyone who reviewed: Thank you very much!
I spent November writing a novel for Nanowrimo and wrote this the first week of December. I was not able to find a beta for the chapter, and I’m regrettably not always the best judge of my own work. If you are reading, PLEASE review. I spend a lot of time on this (seriously). I’m enjoying this story because it is a huge challenge, but I don’t really know if I’m getting it across the way I intend. The stats are a little strange. Lots of favorites and alerts, but hits drop by halves chapter to chapter and the number of reviews is grossly disproportionate to alerts—so I don’t know if people are actually reading, or continuing to read. So let me know!
White Rain
Chapter 5
By Zapenstap
Rina had buried her nose in the text book Iruka Umino had given them and almost ran into Itachi when he stopped at the market.
She glared up at him. “Why’d you stop?”
“Supplies,” Itachi explained, and pulled his mother’s money purse from his pocket. “Mom asked us to get some things before we came home, remember?”
“Oh.” She flipped back through the pages and held it open to a spread outlining what appeared to be a number of tools and weapons. “We should see if we can find ninja gear,” she said, turning the book around and showing him the pages with labeled pictures.
Itachi scanned the recommended items: Soft-soled shoes, kunai knives, shuriken, flash bombs, weapons pouch...It went on and on. “House stuff first,” he said. “I don’t know if we can afford all that, and I don’t know what is most important. For the time being, we might have to borrow from the school, or on credit.”
He counted out the coins they had left in his hand and did some quick calculations. Like his mother, Itachi had been born with a good head for numbers. He’d been being raised by bankers, and his studies had taught him a fair understanding of market principles. The currency in this country—Ryou—was different than at home, but he had paid close attention to how much things cost when they crossed the border to get a handle on prices. He thought they had enough for what he hoped to buy, but he planned to barter as if they had less.
Itachi was feeling nervous about Ninja Academy, so this was a welcome challenge. He knew how to trade. Haggling and negotiation was a rite of passage in his old school, especially among boys whose parents expected them to start learning the family business around age thirteen or fourteen.
He hashed out a plan with Rina, and they began to look for what they needed. The shopping district sprawled several streets, and like many village markets, prices were never as set as the paper they were printed on. As for tactics, in a village this small, Itachi thought it best to avoid playing the hapless waif card, but he did intend to play up on the limit of their funds.
Itachi didn’t waste time. With Rina in tow, he started with the most expensive, necessary items. When prices could not be negotiated as low as he wanted, he asked about giveaways: a small item tossed in free with a larger one, or a discounted item tossed in on credit if he promised to pay later and shop at that stand again. Sometimes he pretended to be interested in something of lesser quality, and then allowed the merchant to up-sell him on a better piece for a comparatively lower price. Sometimes he would refuse a purchase all together if it didn’t meet his requirements, or failed to match the negotiations of a competitor. A few times he allowed Rina to “pick out” her favorite among choices. Naturally, she always chose the best, and upon learning the price, he would regretfully inform her that they couldn’t afford it. Rina played the adorable, crestfallen child splendidly, and the merchants would chuckle and haggle a little lower just to see her smile.
Itachi knew he wasn’t fooling anybody, of course, but that didn’t matter. Contrary to what many people believed, merchants were not put off by negotiations. They expected it. A time or two he even thought he caught a smile on their faces. He hoped it meant he had earned their respect. Remembering one of his mother’s most important rules, he made it a point to learn the names of all the merchants, especially in successful transactions: business is business, but every human interaction is a relationship first. In the long run, becoming a valued customer was more beneficial than simply buying something. After all, now that they lived here, they would likely need to return to the store again and the better the relationship with the store owner, the more credit they would have with which to bargain.
Around noon, both he and Rina were loaded down with bags and decided to call it quits. Before going home, he elected to treat them both to lunch in town. He let Rina choose where they were going to eat.
“Just pick someplace affordable,” he mumbled.
Rina pointed out a ramen shop—a little hut with stools facing a counter behind a row of half curtains cut from great squares of white cloth. He and Rina ducked under the curtains and sat down on a pair of stools side by side. Itachi ordered two bowls of ramen and looked grimly into the purse where the remaining coins made a much quieter clinking sound than they had before shopping.
“This is interesting,” Rina said, hoisting the text book back out of her shopping bag and laying it on the countertop. She had continued reading while watching their purchases as he bartered. She flipped to the first chapter and showed him an outline of human bodies, male and female, with swirls and arrows pointing to what looked like nodules spaced along the limbs, torso, neck, and head. “It explains chakra,” she summarized, “and different kinds of jutsu, and different kinds of ninja. There are three ranks. And a girl ninja is called a Kunoichi!” She smiled.
“Do you think Kunoichi are as strong as other ninja?” Itachi teased her.
She gave him a frosty stare as if to say of course they are, and then turned her nose up at him. She sat primly with her ankles crossed at the edge of her stool, staring coolly at the back wall of the ramen shop. Itachi tried to imagine his sister displaying this level of polite huffiness in ninja combat gear and failed. He wondered if all ninja, especially Kunoichi, were hand-to-hand fighters, or if the different kinds of jutsu Rina discovered in the text allowed for other abilities more suited to her nature. He really just couldn’t imagine her hitting anyone—not effectively anyway.
“Did I hear you ask if Kunoichi are strong?” the chef said to them as he served up two ramen bowls with a flourish. He had a laughing face, his eyes squinted slits from so much smiling. “You’re about to find out! Here comes Sakura Haruno, undoubtedly the strongest Kunoichi in the village. She looks to be in a temper too.” He put a finger over his lips and winked at them. “If she asks, I am not here!”
With that, he dropped out of sight behind the bar.
Itachi turned just in time to see a woman charging up to the stand.
“NARUTO!”
She flung the curtains aside stared thunderously at the empty stools on either side of Itachi and Rina.
Itachi’s mouth parted in surprise. It was the same woman who had been with his uncle Sasuke yesterday. By how close they stood to each other, he had assumed she was his girlfriend.
“He’s not here either?” She made a sound rich with exasperation, eyes flashing and shoulders tensing as she swept a glance over the empty stools. When she saw Itachi, her face registered recognition. The rage that had made a murderous mask out of her otherwise pretty features vanished completely, chased away by startlement.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said. He could tell she was just surprised to see him, and she blushed when she heard herself. She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again, she made eye contact, her tone was a good deal warmer. “How are you?”
“Nice to see you again,” he said.
Rina smiled at Sakura. “You’re a Kunoichi?” Itachi had the impression that Rina was impressed, but more by the concept of female ninja and whatever she had read in that book than Sakura herself. She had probably got it into her head to hawk the Kunoichi in the village to see if the things she read about were true. So she could imitate them, of course.
Sakura smiled back. “That’s right.” She looked around a little uncertainly. “I’d like to talk to you both,” she said apologetically, “but I’m a bit in a hurry. I’m looking for Naruto…er, the Hokage. He’s in such…!” She flushed, catching herself. “Have you seen him?”
“Is he in trouble?” Rina asked. Itachi lightly shook his head in warning, eyeing his sister askance. She just looked at him. “What? Mama says that when men are in trouble, they shouldn’t run away, especially from women. It only comes back harder!”
Itachi made a face at her. Sakura stared at Rina with startled, blue-green eyes that sparkled. Then she laughed. “Well, it’s coming back to him this time all right!” She landed a fist on the counter top with such a heavy thump that the entire shop wobbled. When she lifted her hand, Itachi saw that the force of the slam had left an indent on the surface. Itachi stared at the running cracks with alarm. Sakura didn’t seem to notice. “When I get my hands on him, he’s going to have to hobble to the arena.”
“Are you coming to the match?” Itachi asked, partly out of curiosity but mostly out of the hope that distracting her might calm her down. He understood now why the ramen chef was crouching under the counter. “Between Naruto and my uncle Sasuke?”
“Your uncle Sasuke,” Sakura repeated quietly to herself. Itachi froze, immediately pierced by the knowledge that he had said something he should have not have said. Sakura’s face had an odd, drifting look to it, as if she were thinking too many things and feeling too many things to have a proper reaction. She didn’t seem to realize it was noticeable either. He shouldn’t have said “uncle.” She wasn’t ready for it, or Sasuke wasn’t, at least. After a moment, Sakura turned sad eyes on him. “Yes, I’m going. In fact, I’m mediating. You know, Sasuke is…” She took a deep breath. Abruptly, an annoyed look crossed her face. She was changeable, Itachi decided. Like a tempest, her emotions came over her like a storm and dissipated just as quickly. He watched her expression alter from sad to thoughtful to annoyed to furious in the space of three heartbeats. It was like roulette.
Her reaction interested him because he wanted to know how she felt about all of this, but also because something about her way of processing complex feelings seemed familiar somehow. He couldn’t quite place it. He wouldn’t call it moodiness. Rina was moody. Rina could be adorably chipper all day and then depressingly gloomy for absolutely no reason, but Rina didn’t have flashes of temper. Sakura’s emotions were charged, deliberate, and focused on something particular.
He decided after a moment of thought that she was more like his mother. His mother’s fits of emotion were also purposeful, and passionate, but different than Sakura’s because they were so rare. Her outbursts were not obvious to anyone who didn’t know her privately. Most people thought his mother had tight control of herself all of the time, but she didn’t. When she did lose it, it was suddenly, and inconveniently, and until she fully expressed herself, she could swing dangerously between extremes of cold ice and raging heat. Sakura reminded him of that, only she was not secretive about it, and seemed let her emotions out freely exactly as she felt them rather than bottling them up until they burst.
Whatever internal argument raged inside Sakura’s head right now, it was making her angry, either at Sasuke or herself, he guessed.
He watched as Sakura’s eyes narrowed and her hands clenched into fists that shook. “Ooh!” she fumed. “I can’t believe them! They both act like this fight is the only important thing in the universe, and now here you are, and I’m caught between them dealing with everything, and it’s so…. Gah! They are both absurd! Men!”
Rina nodded over her ramen as if she had loads of dating experience and knew precisely what Sakura meant.
“Why are they fighting?” Itachi asked. With his mother, he found that questions were often a good way of redirecting strong feelings.
Sakura blinked. “Huh?”
“The Hokage and Sasuke. What are they fighting about?”
“Oh,” she said, and just like that, she switched tracks; all her rage vanished. “Nothing. They aren’t fighting. Well, not any more than usual. The match is just for sport. Naruto thinks it’s healthy for the village.”
“How?” Itachi asked, again to distract her, but also because it interested him how the village was run. He could see how regular sporting events could bring in a lot of money, especially if people had to pay to get in, but something told him that wasn’t what Sakura meant.
She tapped her chin with a gloved finger, pausing as if thinking out how to best explain. “Well, with the world mostly at peace, the Hokage feels that regulated matches are the best way of encouraging competition to keep up the strength of the village. You see, if we don’t have something to keep ninja from getting… antsy, they’ll start picking unnecessary battles to test their skills. So we have two kinds of matches regularly. We have Drawings, where interested competitors submit their names to facilitator and lots are drawn, and we have Challenges, where any competitor can challenge any other competitor.”
“Which is it this time?”
“Neither,” she said. “Today’s fight is an exhibition match. Every once in awhile, Naruto schedules exhibition matches to inspire the generation in training and to promote sportsmanship. It’s not always Naruto and Sasuke, but their matches always attract the biggest turnout.”
“How is an exhibition different from a challenge?”
“Exhibitions are more for show,” Sakura said. “They can only be fought between competitors who already acknowledge each other. They can do some wild stuff for the crowd, but the match itself is a handicap. They do that to keep it interesting, and also to keep it from getting out of control.”
“Isn’t that predictable?”
“Not really. Depending on the handicap, the fight turns out differently. For example, when Sasuke and Naruto fight, sometimes Naruto has an advantage and sometimes Sasuke does. It depends on the rules for that match. But the advantages don’t always matter. Strategy is more important. For that reason, there’s lots of betting. That alone has almost become an industry.”
She grimaced, as if Konoha making its money on gambling wasn’t the most savory of thoughts, but one she had to accept. Itachi wondered if the village was strapped for money during these times of peace. He could guess at lots of little requests ninja might receive, but maybe not so many big ones. He could imagine that peace would be problematic for a militant society. Still, gambling had to be better than war.
“I’m going to be a Kunoichi!” Rina declared suddenly, as if this exactly followed along the thread of conversation. Itachi could tell by her face that she was just bursting to make this announcement. He supposed she had been mulling it over since they came away from the school. She sat very straight on her seat with their school’s primary textbook on her lap, kicking her legs against the rung of the stool. Something she had read must have really excited her.
Sakura blinked at Itachi’s sister. “You are?”
“We joined the Academy this morning!”
Sakura stared. “You did?” A succession of thoughts crossed her face like butterflies.
She’s thinking how she’s going to tell Sasuke, he thought. It was just a guess, but given that she seemed so focused on him and Naruto, and since he knew Naruto at least already knew, it seemed like a logical leap. From her expression, he didn’t think Sasuke was going to like this news. It disheartened him.
“The ramen man said you are strong,” Rina said. “Are you strong?”
Itachi was glad for Rina’s silly questions. It gave him a chance to think. He didn’t know all the facts, but he knew his presence here caused Sasuke grief. Even so, he felt a connection between them, something genetic that couldn’t be explained. Only now he was just putting a burden on Sakura too. He didn’t want it like this. What he wanted was for everything to be easy. But of course, it couldn’t be. He tried not to think about it.
Thankfully, Rina’s question caused Sakura to laugh. “Well, I like to think so! But you can always work on it.”
The laughter lasted only a moment, and then the worry came right back to her face. “I’m sorry, guys, but I really have to find Naruto. And Sasuke too.” She put a hand to her temple as if it throbbed. “Itachi, about Sasuke’s reaction to you yesterday...”
“It’s okay,” he said hastily.
She bit her lip as she looked at him, as if she didn’t quite believe it.
“I mean I understand,” Itachi said. “It’s fine. I’m all right.” He was. He wished he didn’t have to be all right with it, but it was just easier being all right with things like that, and better than putting the burden to make it right on other people. It was like glossing over Gehard’s treatment of his mother for Rina’s sake, or pretending for his mother that he didn’t know or understand why her relationship with Gehard was the way it was. It was just easier to pretend that everything was fine. He could handle his own emotions. His mother and sister had problems enough. It was the same with Sasuke.
“Well,” Sakura said uncertainly. “I know it’s got to be hard coming to a new place, and having something like that happen isn’t the most welcoming thing.” She sighed. “Maybe just give him a bit of time? It’s been rough for him and I think it is just a little much all at once, but he might come around.”
“Okay,” he agreed, encouraged that she called his bluff and offered something suitable to hope in: Time. “I hope so. I mean, I think I’d like to get to know him, but I don’t want to be a bother. You can tell him I said that. If you want.” He didn’t want to sound too eager.
She smiled wanly. “I hope so. So you’re sure I’ll see you two at the match?”
“I think so,” Itachi told her.
“Great!” She smiled again before ducking out of the ramen shop the way she had come.
“That was a little weird,” Itachi told Rina.
She nodded, but didn’t comment, following Sakura’s back with eyes full of thought.
“Whew!” the chef said, rising out of his crouch as soon as Sakura had gone. Itachi and Rina rotated on their stools to face him. “The Hokage was here,” he said quietly, “but I don’t want to be the one to tell her! I was afraid she’d break my new countertop.” He sighed at the warped boards where Sakura’s fist had crashed. Something about his face gave Itachi the impression that he considered the impact she had left to be mild. He raised his eyebrows in question. “Don’t mess with that one!” the chef warned. “She trained with the great Lady Tsunade. ”
Itachi didn’t know who that was so he didn’t say anything.
“So you’re Uchiha’s nephew?” the chef said. “I should have known! I don’t suppose you’ve got a Sharingan?”
“A what?” Itachi asked.
The ramen chef chuckled. “Guess not.”
“What is a Sharingan?” Itachi asked curiously.
“A doujutsu,” the chef replied. “You probably don’t know what that is, but it has to do with the eyes. The Sharingan is one of the Leaf village’s most famous doujustu. It’s a genetic trait passed down in the Uchiha family. Itachi Uchiha had one too. So does Sasuke.”
Itachi remembered the change in his uncle’s eyes yesterday when the cornea had turned red and the pupils had taken on such a strange shape. He sat in stunned silence. “You think I might have eyes like that?” Was that why the Uchiha were special?
“I don’t know,” the ramen chef said, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if you had the potential.” He winked.
Itachi shared a meaningful look with Rina.
They really needed to study.
He and Rina finished eating quickly and thanked the chef. Then they gathered up their shopping bags and headed back home. By the time they walked through the front door, the Akimichis had gone and Itachi’s mother was busy putting away the provisions Choji and Ino had brought them as a house warming gift. As he watched her, he wondered what she knew, if anything, about the eye doujutsu his father’s family was famous for.
“Well?” she asked when they set down the supplies.
“We joined the Academy,” Itachi said, “And I bought you the stuff you wanted.”
He thought he saw some strained emotion cross his mother’s face, but in an instant it was gone and he doubted having seen it. Instead, she smiled at him, her luminous eyes drinking in the light as she shoved the bag of flour into their cupboards and dusted off her green skirts.
“I’m glad,” she said.
“There’s going to be a match between the Hokage and my uncle Sasuke,” Itachi told her.
His mother nodded. “I know. “
“Can we go?”
“The Akimichis are going to take us.”
“Okay.” He paused, wondering if he should ask her about the Sharingan, but decided not to bring it up with her yet. He would ask better questions when he understood more. He had enough perplexing things to think about. “We’re going to study then,” Itachi said, and hurried up the stairs.
“My room! My room!” Rina cried on his heels, straining to beat him as he flew up the steps two at a time to the second level.
“Nope,” he grinned at her. “Mine!”
He pushed open the door to his room and jumped onto the bed, kicking off his shoes and laying his head on the musty pillow that had been here for who knew how long. He stared up at the ceiling, breathing in the scents of rustic wood as his sister clambered on the bed beside him and dumped their books out on the mattress.
He picked up the volume Iruka Urimo had given them and opened to the first page. “Okay, genius,” he said to his sister. “You’ve had a chance to skim it. Where should I start?”
She summarized the introduction for him and told him the first chapter was a waste of time and he could probably skip it. She emphasized the section with the chart and the beginning of chapter two, so that’s where he started.
He read the subheading aloud. “Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and Ninjutsu: The three major ninja abilities.”
*****
Sasuke somehow sensed Sakura coming before she arrived. When she emerged from between the trees to enter his secret training spot, the first thing he saw was the agitation on her face.
He had been in the glen since dawn, finishing his final round of training before his match and had just woken from a recuperating nap. After a light meal, a heavy work out, and a bit of sleep, he felt a great deal better than he had most of yesterday.
When Sakura appeared with that half angry, half weepy look on her face, he remembered their conversation from the day before and felt spontaneously terrible. He had been cold, he knew, and now her thoughts were whirling full of him and all his problems. He got up from the grass and caught her up in a hug before she could open her mouth. His arms fully enclosed her body, meeting behind her back as he pulled her in a rough embrace.
“I’m sorry,” he said in her ear. “About yesterday. If you ever doubted I loved you, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t…”
“I’m sorry!” she interrupted. “I’m so brash to bring it up at such a time. I knew you were overwrought! I was only thinking about myself. I should have waited.”
They stared at each other in surprise. Sakura’s green eyes shimmered with sincerity, and he felt his heart pound in response. Then he kissed her, or she kissed him. At any rate, they kissed. And didn’t stop kissing. The kisses deepened until his breath hitched and the palpitations in his heart spread to where the blood throbbed to his fingers and toes and radiated through his chest. He could feel the flame also in Sakura, her skin hot to his touch. She whispered under her breath, a plaintive request that set his blood on fire and wiped clean all thought. He began pulling at the laces that held her leather vest in place.
An hour later, the sun was a little higher in the sky and he was back on the grass with his hands behind his head, staring at the leaves dangling from the boughs of the tree limbs crossing above the glen.
“Sasuke…” Beside him, Sakura was flushed and spent, her body heaving for breath and her skin faintly pink all over, which pleased him. Her eyes fluttered as she stared at the circle of blue sky above the secluded glen. “That wasn’t what I intended at all.”
Sasuke rolled on his side. His lips found her ear. He nibbled on her earlobe and gently threaded his fingers through her hair behind her head. He pulled her head forward, cradling her neck, and gently lifted her up until they were both in a sitting position.
Perspiration coated Sakura’s bare skin from the waist up. Her shirt and undergarments lay in a heap with most of his clothes. She still wore a skirt, but it was eschew on her hips and pushed up so high she might as well have been wearing nothing. If they hadn’t been outside, and if it hadn’t happened so suddenly, he would have undressed her completely and held her for awhile.
He held her for a little while now, pulling her against his chest and breathing in the fragrance of her hair.
“I know what we have is not perfect,” he said. “I’ve got a lot to work through, and it’s hard, and not fair, but I—”
“It’s okay,” she responded. She smiled at him, a sugary smile that might have been a lie but warmed him anyway.
He rested his chin on her head and closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her and ignoring everything else. He couldn’t get lost in it. Just because they were happy now didn’t mean everything was fixed. He knew that. She still had a dream of having a family. He couldn’t deal with the family he had. But maybe with time—a lot of time—and a lot of patience… His mind wandered away from the thought. He didn’t want to dwell on it. He didn’t want to think about it right now. Maybe it was better just to enjoy the happiness of the moment. In this moment, he had everything he wanted.
Sakura took a deep breath in his arms.
“I saw Itachi today,” she murmured.
He stiffened inadvertently, and then remembered who she must have meant. He didn’t say anything.
“He was in the ramen shop with his sister,” she told him. “They’re sweet kids.”
Sweet kids. He closed his eyes, saw his brother’s face, and opened them again. “What did they say?” he asked.
“They’ve joined the Ninja Academy.”
He couldn’t believe it. Naruto was right.
“And they’re coming to the match. I thought you should know.”
“Thank you for telling me,” he said.
He was glad to know, though unsure what to do with the information. The boy and his sister were going to join the Academy and train to be ninja. That meant they weren’t going away. They would stay here. He had hoped to think of their presence as temporary, but that was impossible now. He didn’t know what to do. If they were a part of the village, he would have to deal with them at some point. He rubbed Sakura’s arms from the elbow to the shoulder, staring beyond her head at the tree line. He wanted to know more, and he wanted to know nothing. He didn’t want to think. Maybe that wasn’t true. He didn’t want to feel.
“We should get dressed,” he said. “It’s almost time.”
*****
NOT OVER: There is a Part 2 - Naruto/Sasuke fight that I'll just leave on my journal.
Or you can see the entirety at Fanfiction.net
^_^
Skip the story and just read the Naruto/Sasuke fight
Title: White Rain
Chapter: 5 PART 1
Summary/So far: A woman arrives in Konoha seeking asylum for herself...and Itachi's children (surprise!). One of the children looks like Itachi and is named after Itachi, which causes emotional confusion for Sasuke. Itachi and his sister join the Academy. Meanwhile, the woman is under suspicion of Konoha-nin. Naruto has to navigate the village through dicey waters.
Warnings: Violence, Intrigue, Mature Situations, OCs (developed)
Pairings: Multiple. So far SasuSaku, ItaOC, NejiTen, InoCho
Questions and Answers:
Q: Will Itachi (Uchiha) make an appearance? A: Yes. In the past.
Q: Is Naruto in love with Sasuke? A: No. But he loves him as friend and almost family.
Q: Why is there a public match between Sasuke and the Hokage? Wouldn't this make Naruto seem weak in the eyes of the villagers if he lost? A: No. It is a handicapped sporting event.
Q: How canon is your AU? A: As canon as it can be until I write a direct contradiction and Kishimoto moves on without me. I am caught up with the manga. If at some point I deviate from the manga, I will announce it in the author’s notes.
Q: I expect a totally awesome Naruto-Sasuke spar. Will you be ‘bringing out the big guns,’ so to speak? A: I tried for you! I hope it doesn’t fail to meet expectations…
Q: Why is Itachi addressing various strangers (Iruka) by their respective first names while being overly polite at other points? A: Uh… Author oversight? Because I was too lazy to look up Iruka’s last name… (sorry)
Q: Does Lucia have a secret history? A: Yes.
To everyone who reviewed: Thank you very much!
I spent November writing a novel for Nanowrimo and wrote this the first week of December. I was not able to find a beta for the chapter, and I’m regrettably not always the best judge of my own work. If you are reading, PLEASE review. I spend a lot of time on this (seriously). I’m enjoying this story because it is a huge challenge, but I don’t really know if I’m getting it across the way I intend. The stats are a little strange. Lots of favorites and alerts, but hits drop by halves chapter to chapter and the number of reviews is grossly disproportionate to alerts—so I don’t know if people are actually reading, or continuing to read. So let me know!
White Rain
Chapter 5
By Zapenstap
Rina had buried her nose in the text book Iruka Umino had given them and almost ran into Itachi when he stopped at the market.
She glared up at him. “Why’d you stop?”
“Supplies,” Itachi explained, and pulled his mother’s money purse from his pocket. “Mom asked us to get some things before we came home, remember?”
“Oh.” She flipped back through the pages and held it open to a spread outlining what appeared to be a number of tools and weapons. “We should see if we can find ninja gear,” she said, turning the book around and showing him the pages with labeled pictures.
Itachi scanned the recommended items: Soft-soled shoes, kunai knives, shuriken, flash bombs, weapons pouch...It went on and on. “House stuff first,” he said. “I don’t know if we can afford all that, and I don’t know what is most important. For the time being, we might have to borrow from the school, or on credit.”
He counted out the coins they had left in his hand and did some quick calculations. Like his mother, Itachi had been born with a good head for numbers. He’d been being raised by bankers, and his studies had taught him a fair understanding of market principles. The currency in this country—Ryou—was different than at home, but he had paid close attention to how much things cost when they crossed the border to get a handle on prices. He thought they had enough for what he hoped to buy, but he planned to barter as if they had less.
Itachi was feeling nervous about Ninja Academy, so this was a welcome challenge. He knew how to trade. Haggling and negotiation was a rite of passage in his old school, especially among boys whose parents expected them to start learning the family business around age thirteen or fourteen.
He hashed out a plan with Rina, and they began to look for what they needed. The shopping district sprawled several streets, and like many village markets, prices were never as set as the paper they were printed on. As for tactics, in a village this small, Itachi thought it best to avoid playing the hapless waif card, but he did intend to play up on the limit of their funds.
Itachi didn’t waste time. With Rina in tow, he started with the most expensive, necessary items. When prices could not be negotiated as low as he wanted, he asked about giveaways: a small item tossed in free with a larger one, or a discounted item tossed in on credit if he promised to pay later and shop at that stand again. Sometimes he pretended to be interested in something of lesser quality, and then allowed the merchant to up-sell him on a better piece for a comparatively lower price. Sometimes he would refuse a purchase all together if it didn’t meet his requirements, or failed to match the negotiations of a competitor. A few times he allowed Rina to “pick out” her favorite among choices. Naturally, she always chose the best, and upon learning the price, he would regretfully inform her that they couldn’t afford it. Rina played the adorable, crestfallen child splendidly, and the merchants would chuckle and haggle a little lower just to see her smile.
Itachi knew he wasn’t fooling anybody, of course, but that didn’t matter. Contrary to what many people believed, merchants were not put off by negotiations. They expected it. A time or two he even thought he caught a smile on their faces. He hoped it meant he had earned their respect. Remembering one of his mother’s most important rules, he made it a point to learn the names of all the merchants, especially in successful transactions: business is business, but every human interaction is a relationship first. In the long run, becoming a valued customer was more beneficial than simply buying something. After all, now that they lived here, they would likely need to return to the store again and the better the relationship with the store owner, the more credit they would have with which to bargain.
Around noon, both he and Rina were loaded down with bags and decided to call it quits. Before going home, he elected to treat them both to lunch in town. He let Rina choose where they were going to eat.
“Just pick someplace affordable,” he mumbled.
Rina pointed out a ramen shop—a little hut with stools facing a counter behind a row of half curtains cut from great squares of white cloth. He and Rina ducked under the curtains and sat down on a pair of stools side by side. Itachi ordered two bowls of ramen and looked grimly into the purse where the remaining coins made a much quieter clinking sound than they had before shopping.
“This is interesting,” Rina said, hoisting the text book back out of her shopping bag and laying it on the countertop. She had continued reading while watching their purchases as he bartered. She flipped to the first chapter and showed him an outline of human bodies, male and female, with swirls and arrows pointing to what looked like nodules spaced along the limbs, torso, neck, and head. “It explains chakra,” she summarized, “and different kinds of jutsu, and different kinds of ninja. There are three ranks. And a girl ninja is called a Kunoichi!” She smiled.
“Do you think Kunoichi are as strong as other ninja?” Itachi teased her.
She gave him a frosty stare as if to say of course they are, and then turned her nose up at him. She sat primly with her ankles crossed at the edge of her stool, staring coolly at the back wall of the ramen shop. Itachi tried to imagine his sister displaying this level of polite huffiness in ninja combat gear and failed. He wondered if all ninja, especially Kunoichi, were hand-to-hand fighters, or if the different kinds of jutsu Rina discovered in the text allowed for other abilities more suited to her nature. He really just couldn’t imagine her hitting anyone—not effectively anyway.
“Did I hear you ask if Kunoichi are strong?” the chef said to them as he served up two ramen bowls with a flourish. He had a laughing face, his eyes squinted slits from so much smiling. “You’re about to find out! Here comes Sakura Haruno, undoubtedly the strongest Kunoichi in the village. She looks to be in a temper too.” He put a finger over his lips and winked at them. “If she asks, I am not here!”
With that, he dropped out of sight behind the bar.
Itachi turned just in time to see a woman charging up to the stand.
“NARUTO!”
She flung the curtains aside stared thunderously at the empty stools on either side of Itachi and Rina.
Itachi’s mouth parted in surprise. It was the same woman who had been with his uncle Sasuke yesterday. By how close they stood to each other, he had assumed she was his girlfriend.
“He’s not here either?” She made a sound rich with exasperation, eyes flashing and shoulders tensing as she swept a glance over the empty stools. When she saw Itachi, her face registered recognition. The rage that had made a murderous mask out of her otherwise pretty features vanished completely, chased away by startlement.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said. He could tell she was just surprised to see him, and she blushed when she heard herself. She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again, she made eye contact, her tone was a good deal warmer. “How are you?”
“Nice to see you again,” he said.
Rina smiled at Sakura. “You’re a Kunoichi?” Itachi had the impression that Rina was impressed, but more by the concept of female ninja and whatever she had read in that book than Sakura herself. She had probably got it into her head to hawk the Kunoichi in the village to see if the things she read about were true. So she could imitate them, of course.
Sakura smiled back. “That’s right.” She looked around a little uncertainly. “I’d like to talk to you both,” she said apologetically, “but I’m a bit in a hurry. I’m looking for Naruto…er, the Hokage. He’s in such…!” She flushed, catching herself. “Have you seen him?”
“Is he in trouble?” Rina asked. Itachi lightly shook his head in warning, eyeing his sister askance. She just looked at him. “What? Mama says that when men are in trouble, they shouldn’t run away, especially from women. It only comes back harder!”
Itachi made a face at her. Sakura stared at Rina with startled, blue-green eyes that sparkled. Then she laughed. “Well, it’s coming back to him this time all right!” She landed a fist on the counter top with such a heavy thump that the entire shop wobbled. When she lifted her hand, Itachi saw that the force of the slam had left an indent on the surface. Itachi stared at the running cracks with alarm. Sakura didn’t seem to notice. “When I get my hands on him, he’s going to have to hobble to the arena.”
“Are you coming to the match?” Itachi asked, partly out of curiosity but mostly out of the hope that distracting her might calm her down. He understood now why the ramen chef was crouching under the counter. “Between Naruto and my uncle Sasuke?”
“Your uncle Sasuke,” Sakura repeated quietly to herself. Itachi froze, immediately pierced by the knowledge that he had said something he should have not have said. Sakura’s face had an odd, drifting look to it, as if she were thinking too many things and feeling too many things to have a proper reaction. She didn’t seem to realize it was noticeable either. He shouldn’t have said “uncle.” She wasn’t ready for it, or Sasuke wasn’t, at least. After a moment, Sakura turned sad eyes on him. “Yes, I’m going. In fact, I’m mediating. You know, Sasuke is…” She took a deep breath. Abruptly, an annoyed look crossed her face. She was changeable, Itachi decided. Like a tempest, her emotions came over her like a storm and dissipated just as quickly. He watched her expression alter from sad to thoughtful to annoyed to furious in the space of three heartbeats. It was like roulette.
Her reaction interested him because he wanted to know how she felt about all of this, but also because something about her way of processing complex feelings seemed familiar somehow. He couldn’t quite place it. He wouldn’t call it moodiness. Rina was moody. Rina could be adorably chipper all day and then depressingly gloomy for absolutely no reason, but Rina didn’t have flashes of temper. Sakura’s emotions were charged, deliberate, and focused on something particular.
He decided after a moment of thought that she was more like his mother. His mother’s fits of emotion were also purposeful, and passionate, but different than Sakura’s because they were so rare. Her outbursts were not obvious to anyone who didn’t know her privately. Most people thought his mother had tight control of herself all of the time, but she didn’t. When she did lose it, it was suddenly, and inconveniently, and until she fully expressed herself, she could swing dangerously between extremes of cold ice and raging heat. Sakura reminded him of that, only she was not secretive about it, and seemed let her emotions out freely exactly as she felt them rather than bottling them up until they burst.
Whatever internal argument raged inside Sakura’s head right now, it was making her angry, either at Sasuke or herself, he guessed.
He watched as Sakura’s eyes narrowed and her hands clenched into fists that shook. “Ooh!” she fumed. “I can’t believe them! They both act like this fight is the only important thing in the universe, and now here you are, and I’m caught between them dealing with everything, and it’s so…. Gah! They are both absurd! Men!”
Rina nodded over her ramen as if she had loads of dating experience and knew precisely what Sakura meant.
“Why are they fighting?” Itachi asked. With his mother, he found that questions were often a good way of redirecting strong feelings.
Sakura blinked. “Huh?”
“The Hokage and Sasuke. What are they fighting about?”
“Oh,” she said, and just like that, she switched tracks; all her rage vanished. “Nothing. They aren’t fighting. Well, not any more than usual. The match is just for sport. Naruto thinks it’s healthy for the village.”
“How?” Itachi asked, again to distract her, but also because it interested him how the village was run. He could see how regular sporting events could bring in a lot of money, especially if people had to pay to get in, but something told him that wasn’t what Sakura meant.
She tapped her chin with a gloved finger, pausing as if thinking out how to best explain. “Well, with the world mostly at peace, the Hokage feels that regulated matches are the best way of encouraging competition to keep up the strength of the village. You see, if we don’t have something to keep ninja from getting… antsy, they’ll start picking unnecessary battles to test their skills. So we have two kinds of matches regularly. We have Drawings, where interested competitors submit their names to facilitator and lots are drawn, and we have Challenges, where any competitor can challenge any other competitor.”
“Which is it this time?”
“Neither,” she said. “Today’s fight is an exhibition match. Every once in awhile, Naruto schedules exhibition matches to inspire the generation in training and to promote sportsmanship. It’s not always Naruto and Sasuke, but their matches always attract the biggest turnout.”
“How is an exhibition different from a challenge?”
“Exhibitions are more for show,” Sakura said. “They can only be fought between competitors who already acknowledge each other. They can do some wild stuff for the crowd, but the match itself is a handicap. They do that to keep it interesting, and also to keep it from getting out of control.”
“Isn’t that predictable?”
“Not really. Depending on the handicap, the fight turns out differently. For example, when Sasuke and Naruto fight, sometimes Naruto has an advantage and sometimes Sasuke does. It depends on the rules for that match. But the advantages don’t always matter. Strategy is more important. For that reason, there’s lots of betting. That alone has almost become an industry.”
She grimaced, as if Konoha making its money on gambling wasn’t the most savory of thoughts, but one she had to accept. Itachi wondered if the village was strapped for money during these times of peace. He could guess at lots of little requests ninja might receive, but maybe not so many big ones. He could imagine that peace would be problematic for a militant society. Still, gambling had to be better than war.
“I’m going to be a Kunoichi!” Rina declared suddenly, as if this exactly followed along the thread of conversation. Itachi could tell by her face that she was just bursting to make this announcement. He supposed she had been mulling it over since they came away from the school. She sat very straight on her seat with their school’s primary textbook on her lap, kicking her legs against the rung of the stool. Something she had read must have really excited her.
Sakura blinked at Itachi’s sister. “You are?”
“We joined the Academy this morning!”
Sakura stared. “You did?” A succession of thoughts crossed her face like butterflies.
She’s thinking how she’s going to tell Sasuke, he thought. It was just a guess, but given that she seemed so focused on him and Naruto, and since he knew Naruto at least already knew, it seemed like a logical leap. From her expression, he didn’t think Sasuke was going to like this news. It disheartened him.
“The ramen man said you are strong,” Rina said. “Are you strong?”
Itachi was glad for Rina’s silly questions. It gave him a chance to think. He didn’t know all the facts, but he knew his presence here caused Sasuke grief. Even so, he felt a connection between them, something genetic that couldn’t be explained. Only now he was just putting a burden on Sakura too. He didn’t want it like this. What he wanted was for everything to be easy. But of course, it couldn’t be. He tried not to think about it.
Thankfully, Rina’s question caused Sakura to laugh. “Well, I like to think so! But you can always work on it.”
The laughter lasted only a moment, and then the worry came right back to her face. “I’m sorry, guys, but I really have to find Naruto. And Sasuke too.” She put a hand to her temple as if it throbbed. “Itachi, about Sasuke’s reaction to you yesterday...”
“It’s okay,” he said hastily.
She bit her lip as she looked at him, as if she didn’t quite believe it.
“I mean I understand,” Itachi said. “It’s fine. I’m all right.” He was. He wished he didn’t have to be all right with it, but it was just easier being all right with things like that, and better than putting the burden to make it right on other people. It was like glossing over Gehard’s treatment of his mother for Rina’s sake, or pretending for his mother that he didn’t know or understand why her relationship with Gehard was the way it was. It was just easier to pretend that everything was fine. He could handle his own emotions. His mother and sister had problems enough. It was the same with Sasuke.
“Well,” Sakura said uncertainly. “I know it’s got to be hard coming to a new place, and having something like that happen isn’t the most welcoming thing.” She sighed. “Maybe just give him a bit of time? It’s been rough for him and I think it is just a little much all at once, but he might come around.”
“Okay,” he agreed, encouraged that she called his bluff and offered something suitable to hope in: Time. “I hope so. I mean, I think I’d like to get to know him, but I don’t want to be a bother. You can tell him I said that. If you want.” He didn’t want to sound too eager.
She smiled wanly. “I hope so. So you’re sure I’ll see you two at the match?”
“I think so,” Itachi told her.
“Great!” She smiled again before ducking out of the ramen shop the way she had come.
“That was a little weird,” Itachi told Rina.
She nodded, but didn’t comment, following Sakura’s back with eyes full of thought.
“Whew!” the chef said, rising out of his crouch as soon as Sakura had gone. Itachi and Rina rotated on their stools to face him. “The Hokage was here,” he said quietly, “but I don’t want to be the one to tell her! I was afraid she’d break my new countertop.” He sighed at the warped boards where Sakura’s fist had crashed. Something about his face gave Itachi the impression that he considered the impact she had left to be mild. He raised his eyebrows in question. “Don’t mess with that one!” the chef warned. “She trained with the great Lady Tsunade. ”
Itachi didn’t know who that was so he didn’t say anything.
“So you’re Uchiha’s nephew?” the chef said. “I should have known! I don’t suppose you’ve got a Sharingan?”
“A what?” Itachi asked.
The ramen chef chuckled. “Guess not.”
“What is a Sharingan?” Itachi asked curiously.
“A doujutsu,” the chef replied. “You probably don’t know what that is, but it has to do with the eyes. The Sharingan is one of the Leaf village’s most famous doujustu. It’s a genetic trait passed down in the Uchiha family. Itachi Uchiha had one too. So does Sasuke.”
Itachi remembered the change in his uncle’s eyes yesterday when the cornea had turned red and the pupils had taken on such a strange shape. He sat in stunned silence. “You think I might have eyes like that?” Was that why the Uchiha were special?
“I don’t know,” the ramen chef said, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if you had the potential.” He winked.
Itachi shared a meaningful look with Rina.
They really needed to study.
He and Rina finished eating quickly and thanked the chef. Then they gathered up their shopping bags and headed back home. By the time they walked through the front door, the Akimichis had gone and Itachi’s mother was busy putting away the provisions Choji and Ino had brought them as a house warming gift. As he watched her, he wondered what she knew, if anything, about the eye doujutsu his father’s family was famous for.
“Well?” she asked when they set down the supplies.
“We joined the Academy,” Itachi said, “And I bought you the stuff you wanted.”
He thought he saw some strained emotion cross his mother’s face, but in an instant it was gone and he doubted having seen it. Instead, she smiled at him, her luminous eyes drinking in the light as she shoved the bag of flour into their cupboards and dusted off her green skirts.
“I’m glad,” she said.
“There’s going to be a match between the Hokage and my uncle Sasuke,” Itachi told her.
His mother nodded. “I know. “
“Can we go?”
“The Akimichis are going to take us.”
“Okay.” He paused, wondering if he should ask her about the Sharingan, but decided not to bring it up with her yet. He would ask better questions when he understood more. He had enough perplexing things to think about. “We’re going to study then,” Itachi said, and hurried up the stairs.
“My room! My room!” Rina cried on his heels, straining to beat him as he flew up the steps two at a time to the second level.
“Nope,” he grinned at her. “Mine!”
He pushed open the door to his room and jumped onto the bed, kicking off his shoes and laying his head on the musty pillow that had been here for who knew how long. He stared up at the ceiling, breathing in the scents of rustic wood as his sister clambered on the bed beside him and dumped their books out on the mattress.
He picked up the volume Iruka Urimo had given them and opened to the first page. “Okay, genius,” he said to his sister. “You’ve had a chance to skim it. Where should I start?”
She summarized the introduction for him and told him the first chapter was a waste of time and he could probably skip it. She emphasized the section with the chart and the beginning of chapter two, so that’s where he started.
He read the subheading aloud. “Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and Ninjutsu: The three major ninja abilities.”
*****
Sasuke somehow sensed Sakura coming before she arrived. When she emerged from between the trees to enter his secret training spot, the first thing he saw was the agitation on her face.
He had been in the glen since dawn, finishing his final round of training before his match and had just woken from a recuperating nap. After a light meal, a heavy work out, and a bit of sleep, he felt a great deal better than he had most of yesterday.
When Sakura appeared with that half angry, half weepy look on her face, he remembered their conversation from the day before and felt spontaneously terrible. He had been cold, he knew, and now her thoughts were whirling full of him and all his problems. He got up from the grass and caught her up in a hug before she could open her mouth. His arms fully enclosed her body, meeting behind her back as he pulled her in a rough embrace.
“I’m sorry,” he said in her ear. “About yesterday. If you ever doubted I loved you, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t…”
“I’m sorry!” she interrupted. “I’m so brash to bring it up at such a time. I knew you were overwrought! I was only thinking about myself. I should have waited.”
They stared at each other in surprise. Sakura’s green eyes shimmered with sincerity, and he felt his heart pound in response. Then he kissed her, or she kissed him. At any rate, they kissed. And didn’t stop kissing. The kisses deepened until his breath hitched and the palpitations in his heart spread to where the blood throbbed to his fingers and toes and radiated through his chest. He could feel the flame also in Sakura, her skin hot to his touch. She whispered under her breath, a plaintive request that set his blood on fire and wiped clean all thought. He began pulling at the laces that held her leather vest in place.
An hour later, the sun was a little higher in the sky and he was back on the grass with his hands behind his head, staring at the leaves dangling from the boughs of the tree limbs crossing above the glen.
“Sasuke…” Beside him, Sakura was flushed and spent, her body heaving for breath and her skin faintly pink all over, which pleased him. Her eyes fluttered as she stared at the circle of blue sky above the secluded glen. “That wasn’t what I intended at all.”
Sasuke rolled on his side. His lips found her ear. He nibbled on her earlobe and gently threaded his fingers through her hair behind her head. He pulled her head forward, cradling her neck, and gently lifted her up until they were both in a sitting position.
Perspiration coated Sakura’s bare skin from the waist up. Her shirt and undergarments lay in a heap with most of his clothes. She still wore a skirt, but it was eschew on her hips and pushed up so high she might as well have been wearing nothing. If they hadn’t been outside, and if it hadn’t happened so suddenly, he would have undressed her completely and held her for awhile.
He held her for a little while now, pulling her against his chest and breathing in the fragrance of her hair.
“I know what we have is not perfect,” he said. “I’ve got a lot to work through, and it’s hard, and not fair, but I—”
“It’s okay,” she responded. She smiled at him, a sugary smile that might have been a lie but warmed him anyway.
He rested his chin on her head and closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her and ignoring everything else. He couldn’t get lost in it. Just because they were happy now didn’t mean everything was fixed. He knew that. She still had a dream of having a family. He couldn’t deal with the family he had. But maybe with time—a lot of time—and a lot of patience… His mind wandered away from the thought. He didn’t want to dwell on it. He didn’t want to think about it right now. Maybe it was better just to enjoy the happiness of the moment. In this moment, he had everything he wanted.
Sakura took a deep breath in his arms.
“I saw Itachi today,” she murmured.
He stiffened inadvertently, and then remembered who she must have meant. He didn’t say anything.
“He was in the ramen shop with his sister,” she told him. “They’re sweet kids.”
Sweet kids. He closed his eyes, saw his brother’s face, and opened them again. “What did they say?” he asked.
“They’ve joined the Ninja Academy.”
He couldn’t believe it. Naruto was right.
“And they’re coming to the match. I thought you should know.”
“Thank you for telling me,” he said.
He was glad to know, though unsure what to do with the information. The boy and his sister were going to join the Academy and train to be ninja. That meant they weren’t going away. They would stay here. He had hoped to think of their presence as temporary, but that was impossible now. He didn’t know what to do. If they were a part of the village, he would have to deal with them at some point. He rubbed Sakura’s arms from the elbow to the shoulder, staring beyond her head at the tree line. He wanted to know more, and he wanted to know nothing. He didn’t want to think. Maybe that wasn’t true. He didn’t want to feel.
“We should get dressed,” he said. “It’s almost time.”
*****
NOT OVER: There is a Part 2 - Naruto/Sasuke fight that I'll just leave on my journal.
Or you can see the entirety at Fanfiction.net
^_^
Skip the story and just read the Naruto/Sasuke fight
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