Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > A Discordant Symphony
Breaking Into the Compound
0 reviewsChapter 2 - in which a blender is returned, the past is a distant country and Sakura refuses to be intimidated.
0Unrated
A/N: Nope, still don't own it.
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Chapter Two: Breaking into the Compound
It took Sakura twenty minutes to seal everything she owned into a backpack-full of scrolls.
It took her ten more to deliver the keys to her squint-eyed landlady, disable the traps she’d set up and give the woman in the flat opposite the blender back.
It was quite depressing, really, she decided - she’d sort of hoped that it would take longer to uproot herself from the apartment she‘d been living in since she left her parents’ house. Apparently not.
Glancing at he town clock, high upon the Hokage’s tower, Sakura noted the time and began slowly meandering towards the Uchiha compound. It was quite far out, really, right up against the outer wall and much less central than all the other clans’ buildings. She didn’t have a clue why, but decided that there was probably a story behind it.
And so it was that, at exactly five minutes before noon, Sakura found herself standing outside the main gate. Unfortunately, she was being refused entrance by a guard.
“You’re going to have to wait here until someone from the House comes and gets you, I’m afraid. I’m not allowed to let anyone in unaccompanied. Rules are rules.” He shrugged carelessly. “What can you do?”
Knowing full well that if Itachi had not wanted her to be left on the doorstep, she would not be left on the doorstep, she smiled politely at the guard and shouldered her backpack once more. “Oh, it’s okay, I can wait until I next see him.” She wasn’t stupid enough to start a disturbance with the secret police force, after all - true, it would get Itachi to come and let her in, but it wouldn’t make her look very good in the eyes of the clan. Or its heir, for that matter.
The pink haired woman walked away from the guard post, trying to remember the nearest entrance into the compound. She had grown up with Sasuke Uchiha, and therefore was not without a passable knowledge of the ways into and out of his fortress. A fact which Itachi was more than aware of, mainly as a result of a prank Naruto and herself had played on Sasuke, back when they were genin…
-
… six years earlier …
-
“Naruto! What are you doing?” Sakura hissed at him as he parted a bush and began to worm his way into the passage hidden behind it.
“Lighten up, Sakura - it’ll be fun.”
“Naruto!” It was very hard to yell at someone when you were trying to be silent. “That’s the Uchiha compound! We can’t go in there, we’ll get into really big trouble!”
“You want to get him back for earlier, don’t you?” He was almost fully inside, now, and all that the pink haired girl could see of him was his sandals.
“Come back out!” They’d been at war with the young Uchiha for several days now, and a small part of her had to admit that getting him when he was asleep would not only be hilarious but also a resounding victory for Naruto and herself. Not that they were on the same team - this was a hasty allegiance that had been formed as soon as the black haired member of their team had started using his Sharingan to see through their individual plots.
When his feet had disappeared, however, the kunoichi realised that she really had no choice but to follow him - she was probably already in enough trouble as it was, having snuck out of her house at two in the morning.
“Naruto?” Getting on her hands and knees, she realised that the passage really was pitch black. Crawling blindly forward, wincing as her bare knees scraped on the floor, she followed the sounds of her friend blundering along for what seemed like an eternity, whispering death threats and pointless discouragement all the way. She could at least try to get him to see sense, she decided, even if it probably wasn’t possible at this point in time to actually turn around.
When they emerged, muddy, bruised and blinking, from the tunnel, the pair found themselves in a patch of vegetation facing what looked like the Uchiha main house. They’d been there before, obviously, when Sasuke had been ill, or when he’d wanted them to train with him in his own personal obstacle course, but it looked totally different in the darkness.
“We can still turn around, if you want, Sakura.”
Glancing at Naruto, eyes bright and a grin fixed on her face, the girl punched him on the arm. “I’m going to kill you if we get caught, okay?”
“To be honest, I think they’ll do that for us…”
“Shut up.”
The smile in her voice told him she didn’t really mean it, and that he wasn’t about to get punched, so he gladly followed her around the edge of the planting, glancing from side to side to try and see any guards.
“His room’s on the fourth floor.”
“I know… Come on.”
Using the chakra control perfected by running up trees, Sakura led the way up the side of the house, hunched over to try and reduce her silhouette.
Unfortunately, their magnificent plan fell to pieces before they’d reached the third floor when Naruto felt the chakra of a guard moving around above them.
“In here!” Sakura flew into an open window, followed by Naruto, cursing and desperately trying to see in the darkness.
“Where are we?!”
“Shut up! How the hell should I know?”
As their eyes became accustomed to the darkness, the horrifying realisation that they were not alone dawned chillingly upon the pair.
A dark shape, tall and black against the backdrop of silk paper that was the door, slowly became more defined in the eyes of the twelve-year-olds.
“And what do you two think you are doing?”
The voice was deep and sonorous - and quite possibly the very last one on earth they wanted to hear at this point.
Shocked and frightened into silence, Sakura and Naruto could only stare gob-smacked at the Uchiha they had heard so much about from their other best friend.
“Well, I somehow doubt that you’re assassins - you’re too short.”
Naruto found a small hand clapped over his mouth as he opened it to protest at being called small as Itachi flicked a light switch, leaving his captives blinking and squinting in the sudden brightness.
“Yes, I thought it was you two. You’re on Team Seven, right? The hyperactive boy and the girl with the chakra control… What are you doing here?”
It took the stuttering genin five minutes to tell him about the prank war, their plan and relate everything that had happened until they jumped into the room with Itachi in.
“Please don’t put us in prison.”
The dark-eyed young man glanced at Sakura. He was smiling slightly, though, an expression that they recognised from Sasuke - he was amused.
“I won’t put you in prison. Too much paperwork for a start. No, I’m afraid that I shall have to suffer from a sudden bout of short-term memory loss - you know which room Sasuke’s is, right?”
Once he’d received a hasty nod from the pink-haired girl (her friend was still goldfish-ing at him), Itachi ushered them out of his door.
“Try not to get caught again - most of my family won’t be as forgiving.”
Thanking him for being so understanding with her eyes, Sakura took hold of Naruto’s elbow and firmly dragged him down the corridor.
The rest of their adrenalin-fuelled trip had gone without a hitch, as far as she could remember, though meeting the Uchiha heir had remained much more prominently in her memory than whatever prank they’d pulled on Sasuke.
-
… Present …
-
Moving silently through the undergrowth that conveniently flanked the outer wall of the compound, Sakura headed towards the training grounds, having decided that it was as good a start as anything. Until, of course, she felt a kunai pressed lightly against her throat and a familiar chakra presence at her back.
“Sorry I’m late, Uchiha-sama.”
“You weren’t masking your chakra very well. Anyone looking for you would have know that you were there.”
“That was the general idea.”
She spun round as soon as he had removed the weapon, tensing for another attack - and was therefore slightly surprised to find his hands empty and his eyes staring into her own.
“You’re not afraid of the Sharingan.”
“No.” She laughed slightly, “I’m far too used to it.”
“How do you know you’re not already in a Genjutsu?”
“I grew up with your brother and Kakashi-sensei. My best friend for years was also a specialist at getting into people’s heads. You could say I’ve become resistant. I mean, probably not to yours, to be honest, but I have more than one defence to repel invaders.”
“How intriguing.” Motioning for her to follow, Itachi headed out of the shrubbery and onto the perfectly-manicured lawn in front of the main building. “I suppose that this removes the need for me to teach you how to resist them.”
“Oh no - I was looking forward to testing my wits against the great Itachi Uchiha.” Her tone was light and teasing, and Sakura had to use all her training in controlling her outward countenance not to hit herself. What was she doing? This man held her entire career in his hands, and here she was making a mockery of his achievements?!
Surreptitiously, she glanced at the man walking beside her; his face was characteristically emotionless, but she could have sworn that his eyes creased in amusement, just for a second…
“Indeed.”
For the rest of their journey across perfect lawns, sculpted pathways and elegant ornamental bridges to the main house and the room Itachi had set up for her, the kunoichi kept a tight rein on her mouth. Better silence than making a fool of herself.
-
“Have you seen our cherry blossom lately?”
Kakashi glanced up at his friend from over his book, slightly surprised.
“Not for a couple of days. Why?”
Genma frowned, stirring his coffee with his senbon distractedly. “She was called to the Hokage’s office yesterday. Something about Itachi Uchiha.”
“…Oh.”
“She hasn’t got herself into trouble with an ANBU, has she?” Gai sounded surprised.
“Not that I know of…” The grey haired ninja put his book down, frowning. “How did you find out?”
“I offered to take the message in the stead of the pretty girl on reception. I doubt Tsunade wanted any of us to know, though, seen as she was asking a civilian to deliver it.”
“What, was it a scroll?” The black-haired man sounded curious, with an edge of worry creeping into his normally smooth voice.
“No, nothing like that - the girls at reception were giggling about the Uchiha heir when I got there, and then they got a message that Sakura was to be fetched right away.” The metal in his hands was creating a strangely mesmerising whirlpool in his cooling drink as he spoke. “None of them wanted to go out in the rain, so I offered to go and get her.”“Where was she?” Kakashi asked.
“Training.”
“In yesterdays weather?!” Gai sounded concerned. “She’ll catch a cold doing that…”
“She’s quite weather resistant. She’s been using that chakra control of hers to regulate her body temperature for quite some time now. I don’t think she even knows she does it.”
“Really?” Genma looked surprised. “I thought she didn’t have a very big chakra reserve?”
Kakashi shook his head. “Not at all. She is always comparing herself to a Kyuubi and a Uchiha. Therefore, she thinks she doesn’t have much, which for Sakura is almost the same as having hardly any. She’s adjusted everything that she does to use the tiniest amount possible, but her body knows how much she really has. It heals her wounds almost automatically, now, and regulates other things as well, such as her temperature…” He tapped his Sharingan. “It’s quite interesting watching the conflict happening within her. I never actually measured her reserves, back when she was my student - I would have, but it would have enforced the notion that she was ‘weak’ in both her own mind and the boys’. She never has been very good at using everything she has. It would not have been a true result.”
He tilted his chair back slightly, moving his hands behind his head to stare at the sky. “It’s neither a well documented fact nor a widely known one, but a side effect of learning chakra control to as high a standard as she has is that the amount of energy you can store becomes higher. And she did this at a time when her body was changing the most, when her chakra limits were changing the fastest. I think that if she actually utilised everything she has…” He shrugged, letting the chair fall forward with a bang as he once more looked at his friends. “She might have as much chakra as Sasuke. Or possibly more.”
“Seriously? But… so she doesn’t know this?” Genma had stopped stirring his coffee, the almost cold liquid undisturbed in front of him.
“No. She works so hard with what she has that I decided it would impact upon her training in a bad way if I told her- Tsunade-sama seems to think so too. She has worked everything she knows to the point where most jutsus take half as much of her chakra as they would mine.”
The three men stared contemplatively at their drinks for a moment.
Genma was the first to break the silence. “But where does this lead us with Uchiha-san?” “The ANBU’s always short on medics…”
Gai’s almost careless statement hung ominously in the air as the famous copy-nin of Konoha turned slowly to face him. “It is, isn’t it? Now, why is that? It’s been proven that many more people survive missions if a medic is with them. So why are there so few in the squad?”“Well, they take so long to train, I guess… And there are so few of them. Konoha couldn’t afford to lose one.”
Kakashi nodded at Genma. “Exactly. So, what’s another thing that increases a ninja’s chances? What would ensure that the medical staff would survive on a mission?”
“Put them under the protection of another ninja?” Gai’s voice was quiet and unsure.
“Bingo. Who’s the most capable shinobi in the ANBU, the one most likely to keep anyone entrusted to his care alive?”
“Itachi Uchiha.” Genma looked pale as realisation dawned.
“The very same.”
-
Glancing around the room that she had been deposited in, under strict orders to unpack, Sakura had to admit that she had taken quite a liking to her new bedroom. It was right at the top of the Main House, in what would be called an attic in most dwellings; not here, however, as it seemed that there was still a full complement of maids living in the rooms surrounding her own.
It was small but practical and -surprisingly- devoid of the Uchiha symbol. Sakura had expected more signs of who the owners were, but apparently not. The only sign of their presence were a tiny insignia in the left hand corner of the towel hung on a hook upon the door.
There was a tall wardrobe in one corner, built out of dark wood and with a rough-hewn charm that she was instantly drawn to, and beside it a large desk and chair of the same style. The window was of the same wood, the shutters that covered it opening onto a blue sky dotted with wispy white clouds. The curtains were pale linen, the same as the bedspread, and she was quite thankful for the wooden coverings outside her window; she never did sleep well when there was light in her room.
The bed was long and slim, with a set of colourful blankets folded up at one end and a white pillow at the other - she would sleep well in that, she decided, remembering with a wince her old mattress; grey and noisy, it had ceased to be comfortable long ago, the springs shot to pieces and a Sakura-shaped dent in the middle of it.
Upon opening the wardrobe, the kunoichi was very surprised to find several sets of clothes already hanging up in there; they looked too fancy to be a maids, though, so she merely moved them to one side and proceeded to place her own crumpled belongings upon the coat hangers next to them.
Deciding not to unpack most of her junk until later - she probably wouldn’t need any of it, anyway - she retrieved her few framed photos and placed them on the shelving above her desk before putting the bag full of the rest of her scrolls under the bed.
“Son!”
“Father?” Physically stopping his eyes from rolling, Itachi turned to face the man who had provided half of his DNA. A fact which he wasn’t very proud of.
“Have you seen your brother anywhere?”
A shinobi asking for the whereabouts of someone rather than just finding out for himself? Frankly, it was embarrassing.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Are you coming to dinner today?”
He made a mental note to avoid eating with his family at all costs that evening. He did not want the ‘it’s time for a nice, incestuous marriage to a woman you don’t love’ speech. Again.
“If nothing comes up.”
“I’d like you to make an effort, Itachi. You barely ever eat with us. I realise that you are busy with your… commitments, but still; I would like you to take a more active part in the Clan in the future.”
Of course. Allow the elders the chance to poison his mind against all who did not bear the Uchiha name, of his own free will?
Unlikely.
“Of course, father. I look forward to your instruction on these matters.”
Duly flattered and satisfied with his son’s compliance, the head of the clan nodded briefly at his eldest and walked off again, probably to harass his wife about the location of his youngest.
Mentally sighing, the tall man headed back upstairs towards the room he had placed his new student in. It wouldn’t be long before his family found about the girl he had sequestered within their household, but no matter; he was sure that with a careful application of base flattery and status they would allow her to remain.
If, of course, she met his expectations.
At least she wasn’t scared of him, he acknowledged with a small smile - maybe she should have been, in all honesty, but it was a nice change even from the majority of the ANBU. And brazenly breaking into the compound - again - was a nice twist to her personality. He would have to explore that particular attitude towards the rules later.
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A/N: You know the drill, guys :) reviews make my day.
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Chapter Two: Breaking into the Compound
It took Sakura twenty minutes to seal everything she owned into a backpack-full of scrolls.
It took her ten more to deliver the keys to her squint-eyed landlady, disable the traps she’d set up and give the woman in the flat opposite the blender back.
It was quite depressing, really, she decided - she’d sort of hoped that it would take longer to uproot herself from the apartment she‘d been living in since she left her parents’ house. Apparently not.
Glancing at he town clock, high upon the Hokage’s tower, Sakura noted the time and began slowly meandering towards the Uchiha compound. It was quite far out, really, right up against the outer wall and much less central than all the other clans’ buildings. She didn’t have a clue why, but decided that there was probably a story behind it.
And so it was that, at exactly five minutes before noon, Sakura found herself standing outside the main gate. Unfortunately, she was being refused entrance by a guard.
“You’re going to have to wait here until someone from the House comes and gets you, I’m afraid. I’m not allowed to let anyone in unaccompanied. Rules are rules.” He shrugged carelessly. “What can you do?”
Knowing full well that if Itachi had not wanted her to be left on the doorstep, she would not be left on the doorstep, she smiled politely at the guard and shouldered her backpack once more. “Oh, it’s okay, I can wait until I next see him.” She wasn’t stupid enough to start a disturbance with the secret police force, after all - true, it would get Itachi to come and let her in, but it wouldn’t make her look very good in the eyes of the clan. Or its heir, for that matter.
The pink haired woman walked away from the guard post, trying to remember the nearest entrance into the compound. She had grown up with Sasuke Uchiha, and therefore was not without a passable knowledge of the ways into and out of his fortress. A fact which Itachi was more than aware of, mainly as a result of a prank Naruto and herself had played on Sasuke, back when they were genin…
-
… six years earlier …
-
“Naruto! What are you doing?” Sakura hissed at him as he parted a bush and began to worm his way into the passage hidden behind it.
“Lighten up, Sakura - it’ll be fun.”
“Naruto!” It was very hard to yell at someone when you were trying to be silent. “That’s the Uchiha compound! We can’t go in there, we’ll get into really big trouble!”
“You want to get him back for earlier, don’t you?” He was almost fully inside, now, and all that the pink haired girl could see of him was his sandals.
“Come back out!” They’d been at war with the young Uchiha for several days now, and a small part of her had to admit that getting him when he was asleep would not only be hilarious but also a resounding victory for Naruto and herself. Not that they were on the same team - this was a hasty allegiance that had been formed as soon as the black haired member of their team had started using his Sharingan to see through their individual plots.
When his feet had disappeared, however, the kunoichi realised that she really had no choice but to follow him - she was probably already in enough trouble as it was, having snuck out of her house at two in the morning.
“Naruto?” Getting on her hands and knees, she realised that the passage really was pitch black. Crawling blindly forward, wincing as her bare knees scraped on the floor, she followed the sounds of her friend blundering along for what seemed like an eternity, whispering death threats and pointless discouragement all the way. She could at least try to get him to see sense, she decided, even if it probably wasn’t possible at this point in time to actually turn around.
When they emerged, muddy, bruised and blinking, from the tunnel, the pair found themselves in a patch of vegetation facing what looked like the Uchiha main house. They’d been there before, obviously, when Sasuke had been ill, or when he’d wanted them to train with him in his own personal obstacle course, but it looked totally different in the darkness.
“We can still turn around, if you want, Sakura.”
Glancing at Naruto, eyes bright and a grin fixed on her face, the girl punched him on the arm. “I’m going to kill you if we get caught, okay?”
“To be honest, I think they’ll do that for us…”
“Shut up.”
The smile in her voice told him she didn’t really mean it, and that he wasn’t about to get punched, so he gladly followed her around the edge of the planting, glancing from side to side to try and see any guards.
“His room’s on the fourth floor.”
“I know… Come on.”
Using the chakra control perfected by running up trees, Sakura led the way up the side of the house, hunched over to try and reduce her silhouette.
Unfortunately, their magnificent plan fell to pieces before they’d reached the third floor when Naruto felt the chakra of a guard moving around above them.
“In here!” Sakura flew into an open window, followed by Naruto, cursing and desperately trying to see in the darkness.
“Where are we?!”
“Shut up! How the hell should I know?”
As their eyes became accustomed to the darkness, the horrifying realisation that they were not alone dawned chillingly upon the pair.
A dark shape, tall and black against the backdrop of silk paper that was the door, slowly became more defined in the eyes of the twelve-year-olds.
“And what do you two think you are doing?”
The voice was deep and sonorous - and quite possibly the very last one on earth they wanted to hear at this point.
Shocked and frightened into silence, Sakura and Naruto could only stare gob-smacked at the Uchiha they had heard so much about from their other best friend.
“Well, I somehow doubt that you’re assassins - you’re too short.”
Naruto found a small hand clapped over his mouth as he opened it to protest at being called small as Itachi flicked a light switch, leaving his captives blinking and squinting in the sudden brightness.
“Yes, I thought it was you two. You’re on Team Seven, right? The hyperactive boy and the girl with the chakra control… What are you doing here?”
It took the stuttering genin five minutes to tell him about the prank war, their plan and relate everything that had happened until they jumped into the room with Itachi in.
“Please don’t put us in prison.”
The dark-eyed young man glanced at Sakura. He was smiling slightly, though, an expression that they recognised from Sasuke - he was amused.
“I won’t put you in prison. Too much paperwork for a start. No, I’m afraid that I shall have to suffer from a sudden bout of short-term memory loss - you know which room Sasuke’s is, right?”
Once he’d received a hasty nod from the pink-haired girl (her friend was still goldfish-ing at him), Itachi ushered them out of his door.
“Try not to get caught again - most of my family won’t be as forgiving.”
Thanking him for being so understanding with her eyes, Sakura took hold of Naruto’s elbow and firmly dragged him down the corridor.
The rest of their adrenalin-fuelled trip had gone without a hitch, as far as she could remember, though meeting the Uchiha heir had remained much more prominently in her memory than whatever prank they’d pulled on Sasuke.
-
… Present …
-
Moving silently through the undergrowth that conveniently flanked the outer wall of the compound, Sakura headed towards the training grounds, having decided that it was as good a start as anything. Until, of course, she felt a kunai pressed lightly against her throat and a familiar chakra presence at her back.
“Sorry I’m late, Uchiha-sama.”
“You weren’t masking your chakra very well. Anyone looking for you would have know that you were there.”
“That was the general idea.”
She spun round as soon as he had removed the weapon, tensing for another attack - and was therefore slightly surprised to find his hands empty and his eyes staring into her own.
“You’re not afraid of the Sharingan.”
“No.” She laughed slightly, “I’m far too used to it.”
“How do you know you’re not already in a Genjutsu?”
“I grew up with your brother and Kakashi-sensei. My best friend for years was also a specialist at getting into people’s heads. You could say I’ve become resistant. I mean, probably not to yours, to be honest, but I have more than one defence to repel invaders.”
“How intriguing.” Motioning for her to follow, Itachi headed out of the shrubbery and onto the perfectly-manicured lawn in front of the main building. “I suppose that this removes the need for me to teach you how to resist them.”
“Oh no - I was looking forward to testing my wits against the great Itachi Uchiha.” Her tone was light and teasing, and Sakura had to use all her training in controlling her outward countenance not to hit herself. What was she doing? This man held her entire career in his hands, and here she was making a mockery of his achievements?!
Surreptitiously, she glanced at the man walking beside her; his face was characteristically emotionless, but she could have sworn that his eyes creased in amusement, just for a second…
“Indeed.”
For the rest of their journey across perfect lawns, sculpted pathways and elegant ornamental bridges to the main house and the room Itachi had set up for her, the kunoichi kept a tight rein on her mouth. Better silence than making a fool of herself.
-
“Have you seen our cherry blossom lately?”
Kakashi glanced up at his friend from over his book, slightly surprised.
“Not for a couple of days. Why?”
Genma frowned, stirring his coffee with his senbon distractedly. “She was called to the Hokage’s office yesterday. Something about Itachi Uchiha.”
“…Oh.”
“She hasn’t got herself into trouble with an ANBU, has she?” Gai sounded surprised.
“Not that I know of…” The grey haired ninja put his book down, frowning. “How did you find out?”
“I offered to take the message in the stead of the pretty girl on reception. I doubt Tsunade wanted any of us to know, though, seen as she was asking a civilian to deliver it.”
“What, was it a scroll?” The black-haired man sounded curious, with an edge of worry creeping into his normally smooth voice.
“No, nothing like that - the girls at reception were giggling about the Uchiha heir when I got there, and then they got a message that Sakura was to be fetched right away.” The metal in his hands was creating a strangely mesmerising whirlpool in his cooling drink as he spoke. “None of them wanted to go out in the rain, so I offered to go and get her.”“Where was she?” Kakashi asked.
“Training.”
“In yesterdays weather?!” Gai sounded concerned. “She’ll catch a cold doing that…”
“She’s quite weather resistant. She’s been using that chakra control of hers to regulate her body temperature for quite some time now. I don’t think she even knows she does it.”
“Really?” Genma looked surprised. “I thought she didn’t have a very big chakra reserve?”
Kakashi shook his head. “Not at all. She is always comparing herself to a Kyuubi and a Uchiha. Therefore, she thinks she doesn’t have much, which for Sakura is almost the same as having hardly any. She’s adjusted everything that she does to use the tiniest amount possible, but her body knows how much she really has. It heals her wounds almost automatically, now, and regulates other things as well, such as her temperature…” He tapped his Sharingan. “It’s quite interesting watching the conflict happening within her. I never actually measured her reserves, back when she was my student - I would have, but it would have enforced the notion that she was ‘weak’ in both her own mind and the boys’. She never has been very good at using everything she has. It would not have been a true result.”
He tilted his chair back slightly, moving his hands behind his head to stare at the sky. “It’s neither a well documented fact nor a widely known one, but a side effect of learning chakra control to as high a standard as she has is that the amount of energy you can store becomes higher. And she did this at a time when her body was changing the most, when her chakra limits were changing the fastest. I think that if she actually utilised everything she has…” He shrugged, letting the chair fall forward with a bang as he once more looked at his friends. “She might have as much chakra as Sasuke. Or possibly more.”
“Seriously? But… so she doesn’t know this?” Genma had stopped stirring his coffee, the almost cold liquid undisturbed in front of him.
“No. She works so hard with what she has that I decided it would impact upon her training in a bad way if I told her- Tsunade-sama seems to think so too. She has worked everything she knows to the point where most jutsus take half as much of her chakra as they would mine.”
The three men stared contemplatively at their drinks for a moment.
Genma was the first to break the silence. “But where does this lead us with Uchiha-san?” “The ANBU’s always short on medics…”
Gai’s almost careless statement hung ominously in the air as the famous copy-nin of Konoha turned slowly to face him. “It is, isn’t it? Now, why is that? It’s been proven that many more people survive missions if a medic is with them. So why are there so few in the squad?”“Well, they take so long to train, I guess… And there are so few of them. Konoha couldn’t afford to lose one.”
Kakashi nodded at Genma. “Exactly. So, what’s another thing that increases a ninja’s chances? What would ensure that the medical staff would survive on a mission?”
“Put them under the protection of another ninja?” Gai’s voice was quiet and unsure.
“Bingo. Who’s the most capable shinobi in the ANBU, the one most likely to keep anyone entrusted to his care alive?”
“Itachi Uchiha.” Genma looked pale as realisation dawned.
“The very same.”
-
Glancing around the room that she had been deposited in, under strict orders to unpack, Sakura had to admit that she had taken quite a liking to her new bedroom. It was right at the top of the Main House, in what would be called an attic in most dwellings; not here, however, as it seemed that there was still a full complement of maids living in the rooms surrounding her own.
It was small but practical and -surprisingly- devoid of the Uchiha symbol. Sakura had expected more signs of who the owners were, but apparently not. The only sign of their presence were a tiny insignia in the left hand corner of the towel hung on a hook upon the door.
There was a tall wardrobe in one corner, built out of dark wood and with a rough-hewn charm that she was instantly drawn to, and beside it a large desk and chair of the same style. The window was of the same wood, the shutters that covered it opening onto a blue sky dotted with wispy white clouds. The curtains were pale linen, the same as the bedspread, and she was quite thankful for the wooden coverings outside her window; she never did sleep well when there was light in her room.
The bed was long and slim, with a set of colourful blankets folded up at one end and a white pillow at the other - she would sleep well in that, she decided, remembering with a wince her old mattress; grey and noisy, it had ceased to be comfortable long ago, the springs shot to pieces and a Sakura-shaped dent in the middle of it.
Upon opening the wardrobe, the kunoichi was very surprised to find several sets of clothes already hanging up in there; they looked too fancy to be a maids, though, so she merely moved them to one side and proceeded to place her own crumpled belongings upon the coat hangers next to them.
Deciding not to unpack most of her junk until later - she probably wouldn’t need any of it, anyway - she retrieved her few framed photos and placed them on the shelving above her desk before putting the bag full of the rest of her scrolls under the bed.
“Son!”
“Father?” Physically stopping his eyes from rolling, Itachi turned to face the man who had provided half of his DNA. A fact which he wasn’t very proud of.
“Have you seen your brother anywhere?”
A shinobi asking for the whereabouts of someone rather than just finding out for himself? Frankly, it was embarrassing.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Are you coming to dinner today?”
He made a mental note to avoid eating with his family at all costs that evening. He did not want the ‘it’s time for a nice, incestuous marriage to a woman you don’t love’ speech. Again.
“If nothing comes up.”
“I’d like you to make an effort, Itachi. You barely ever eat with us. I realise that you are busy with your… commitments, but still; I would like you to take a more active part in the Clan in the future.”
Of course. Allow the elders the chance to poison his mind against all who did not bear the Uchiha name, of his own free will?
Unlikely.
“Of course, father. I look forward to your instruction on these matters.”
Duly flattered and satisfied with his son’s compliance, the head of the clan nodded briefly at his eldest and walked off again, probably to harass his wife about the location of his youngest.
Mentally sighing, the tall man headed back upstairs towards the room he had placed his new student in. It wouldn’t be long before his family found about the girl he had sequestered within their household, but no matter; he was sure that with a careful application of base flattery and status they would allow her to remain.
If, of course, she met his expectations.
At least she wasn’t scared of him, he acknowledged with a small smile - maybe she should have been, in all honesty, but it was a nice change even from the majority of the ANBU. And brazenly breaking into the compound - again - was a nice twist to her personality. He would have to explore that particular attitude towards the rules later.
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A/N: You know the drill, guys :) reviews make my day.
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