I’m so happy! thank you for letting me know you’re enjoying it! Switch-a-roo is proving to be one of the hardest things I write and that’s saying something considering Vital Fluids. The story is complex enough that my tired brain is very confused most of the time but I love Sasuke in that fic so much I keep chipping away at it.
Thank you for taking the time to message! That’s so lovely and appreciated! Much love! Inky
Inspirationless: where you have the motivation but just can’t think of anything good to write.
Motivation Deprived: you have the idea, but just, don’t really wanna.
Pooped: Basically you have no ideas and don’t really feel like writing anyways.
Procrastination: Where you are SO PUMPED TO GET THIS THING DONE!! But, there’s that other thing, and, your show is on, and, you’ll just do it tomorrow.
It was not often that they fought. Unlike most siblings Sasuke Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha had an overabundance of brains between them and fighting was beneath their faculties. Instead Sasuke preferred to seeth, plotting ways in which to make his brother sigh and roll his eyes which was the equivalent of losing his temper.
Itachi mostly did it for show. It allowed the problem to pass by more quickly and peace to be restored.
“She cannot stay here.” Sasuke whispered as they walked rapidly down the hall. On either side the windows their mother had acquired last made them feel as though they were half outside. The grounds had been sprinkled in a confetti of branches and wayward leaves, bits of evergreen ripped from trees. The storm had been a furious one and it had left it’s mark. Already the gardeners were out and about, raking up the chaos.
Itachi adjusted the sleeves of his blazer and shirt, opening the door for his brother before entering the foyer himself.
“Where do you propose she go?”
“Home.” Sasuke threw it like a rock and regretted it much like he would have regretted breaking a window. Closing his eyes he waited for his brother’s reprimand. A thing he waited for often, but rarely felt the sting of.
With only their steps to echo in the foyer he rolled his eyes to look at Itachi who was frowning only slightly at the floor as he walked, his silence more telling than anything else he could have done.
“Fine, perhaps home would not be the best place.”
“Would you be agreeable to marrying a cousin?” The question was unforeseen and Sasuke’s face crinkled with displeasure.
“We have no female cousins.”
“How about a sister?” Itachi continued, shoving his hands into his pockets which to most people would seem like a calm subtle movement but for Sasuke was a signal that he was clenching his fists. The twist of Sasuke’s lips said enough in response and Itachi nodded. “Of course not. There is a reason it happens so rarely now.”
“It is not our business.” Sasuke put in finally, stopping before the entrance to the dining room where his father was likely having his midday meal and waiting impatiently to speak to his sons.
“It would appear it is, since she is in your room right now.” Itachi tilted his head at his brother, waiting for him to see reason.
And of course he did. Sending her home, giving her back did not seem a viable option for not only would there be consequences for her there would also be for both of them. No young lady of her station should spend time unaccompanied with two young men. It was unseemly.
The image of Mikoto and Fugaku’s faces at the revelation of what their sons were up to made his stomach twist experimentally inside his torso, as though contemplating how to invert itself.
“She is trouble of the most catastrophic kind and I do not appreciate her presence.” Sasuke snapped, shoving a finger into Itachi’s shoulder for emphasis. “I do not appreciate it.”
Itachi smiled, hearing the silent agreement to tolerate the situation as he opened the door and stepped through.
Fugaku was indeed waiting. His plate had been cleared. A saucer sat ignored beside him, and a newspaper spread out on the table top. On either side of him two place settings sat pristine and ignored.
There was a tension in the air that only their father was capable of infusing into oxygen. A sort of melodramatic electricity that made the hair on the back of their necks and arms rise on end. If they had known they had the same frightening ability perhaps both boys would have been less rebuffed by it but not having had much course to use it they swallowed and slid into their respective seats as quietly as possible.
“Father.” Itachi began, smiling at the server who politely began placing tiny sandwiches of varying kinds on his plate. “Good…afternoon, I suppose it is now.”
“Yes.” Fugaku nodded, eyes still trained on his paper and coffee sitting ignored by his side. “Nearly late afternoon.”
Sasuke watched as Itachi shifted the food on his plate with his fork carefully. A move which meant he was searching for the proper way to go about entering into the conversation that would soothe their father into calmness.
Of all the people Itachi wooed with ease their father was the one Sasuke had been able to detect he struggled with the most. It amused him as much as worried him for everyone loved his brother, and only his father seemed capable of feeling anything other than affection for him.
Strangely Fugaku made the most sense to Sasuke. He was a man of simple needs. He wanted his wife happy, he wanted his sons respectful and strong, he wanted his family heritage preserved.
So Sasuke spoke, “I made a mistake last night.”
His father looked up, eyes unreadable but interested enough for Sasuke to continue. “I had wanted to see if perhaps Chidori would be difficult to manage in the storm.”
“Some of the staff mentioned there were signs that you had both left the house during the night.” Fugaku replied in encouragement. Itachi watched as still as a bird facing a cat, eyes flashing from his brother to his father.
“Yes, my attempts to clean up my mess were less than satisfactory, unfortunately.” Sasuke admitted, stirring the soup in his bowl slowly before taking a sip. “I was hoping for a bit of a fight for the reigns but Chidori was hardly fazed by the storm. We got wet and muddy and a bit out of breath but nothing as exciting as I hoped.”
“Hm.” Fugaku hummed, leaning back to place a hand on his coffee. The shift of the liquid within the teacup wafted with the scent of roasted coffee beans and the underlying tang of liquor. Fugaku’s face softened minutely into a contemplative mask.
. “I did want to ask you how I should go about speaking to the stable hands.” Sasuke continued, watching Itachi’s brows pull together with displeasure. Cooly, he ignored it.
“The stable hands?” Fugaku’s face was placid and smooth. “About?”
“Well, I was able to sneak into the stables, saddle and ready Chidori and take him out without so much as one of them stirring in the loft. I thought that the reason we housed them was for the safety of our horses. Had I been a thief-”
“Perhaps they did see you.” Itachi put in sharply, his fork clattering to the plate. “Perhaps they saw you and felt it best to let the son of the house go about his business without disturbing your privacy.”
Fugaku glanced at Itachi but focused once more on Sasuke after a pause.
“Itachi, make sure to ask if they saw anything. Based on that reply Sasuke will know if he needs to approach the stable hands with his concern, think you not?”
“Certainly, Father. A good solution.” Itachi nodded, while Sasuke rolled his eyes.
“Must have been some sport being out in that gale though.” Fugaku put in more lightly in the quiet and Sasuke smirked, remembering the flash of lightning that tossed Chidori to his back legs.
With it came the memory of Hinata’s small arms snapping around him tight, her breath hot on the back of his neck as she cried out.
Blinking rapidly to clear the image from his mind Sasuke nodded. “Yes, it was most interesting, for a short time.”
“I appreciate that you had the sense not to go out into it, despite the temptation.” Fugaku sipped at his coffee, watching Itachi over the rim as he ate. “Your Mother tells me you are ill again.”
“I did not think getting soaking wet sounded all that amusing, honestly.” Itachi soothed. “And I am fine. You know how Mother worries.”
The rest of the lunch was had in relative silence while Sasuke and Itachi spoke with their eyes.
“Did you get anything?”
Itachi nodded, lifting the cloth napkin he had pilfered from dinner and stuffed with the last of the biscuits and cheese from lunch when the maid had dashed to the kitchen at his request for tea. “You?”
Sasuke shrugged. “It is more difficult in the kitchen with all those eyes but I said I was likely to need something since I missed breakfast and the cook said she would send a tray to my room.”
“It has been the most difficult part.” Itachi admitted glancing back over his shoulder down the hall to check they were not being watched or followed. “I never realized how little I interacted with food until I needed to feed someone other than myself.”
“Until you needed to steal it, you mean?” Sasuke grumbled. His mood had not lifted despite the meal. Still in knots his insides fluttered and danced in ways he was not accustomed to. At the sight of his bedroom door he winced, noting the muddy mess he had smeared all over the stone in an attempt to hide his tracks. There would be more maids later to clean that up.
Too many eyes. Too many windows in their house.
Together they paused at the door, and feeling strange Sasuke knocked.
“Hinata?” Itachi called. “May we come in?”
The door was flung open only a second later and the brothers slipped inside to find HInata hiding behind it, eyes wide and shoulders tense nearly to her ears. There was mud on her face still. Her hair had dried in a disarray and in Sasuke’s clothes she looked the beggar for sure.
Still, Itachi grinned at the sight of her, pressing a hand to her head. “A bath is in order, I think. You must miss those.”
Flushing a red that threatened to pop the vessels in her cheeks the girl stuttered and stammered through what might have been an apology for her general appearance although Sasuke stopped paying attention halfway through her attempt to speak.
“I pilfered some breakfast.” Itachi explained, spreading out the napkin on Sasuke’s desk. “Sasuke was more clever and will have something warmer for you later. He requested a tray in a bit.”
“Oh… thank you. I… I’m so sorry.” Hinata began again, snatching a biscuit to nibble on before she lost her nerve. Flopped on his bed Sasuke watched as she tucked her ridiculous mane behind her ears as best she could with nervous fingers.
Everything about the girl was nervous. Her eyes never settled, her nibbles were squirrely and her shoulders tight. He frowned slightly and caught the look Itachi was giving him.
“So. How did you end up in this mess?” He crossed his arms, leaning back on his pillows.
Hinata swallowed hard, picking at bits of biscuit with her fingers. “Neji told me about Naruto.”
Itachi sat at the edge of the bed then, interested in the fact that she was now willing to talk about how she had come to be at their property at all. Weeks they had gone through together, sneaking about and surviving in hiding but never had she felt like sharing her reason for ending there, at the door of the Uchiha home.
The only thing that Itachi had known for sure was that she could not go back to where she once belonged and that he could not let her stay out in the rain.
“Naruto?” Sasuke’s frown deepend.
“Neji goes to the same school as Shisui, I believe. The same school Naruto attends.” Hinata swallowed dryly. “He told me about how you both helped him…and I… I thought…”
“Hinata.” Itachi whispered, drawing her eyes up to him. “Did Neji send you here?”
Blood, brilliant in her pale face rose so her freckles lit bright and her eyes clenched shut. “N-no!” The lie was strangled and shamed she hid her face in her hands. “No… I don’t… I don’t think he…not on purpose. Not directly.”
“But he knew you would consider it.” Sasuke snarled. Suddenly Neji’s face was clear in his mind. The similarity to his cousin was only vague but he remembered him now. Tall and arrogant as all Hyuuga were prone to be, he had introduced himself icily at the school when Itachi and Sasuke had gone with Shisui to get a tour.
“It was clever. If asked he would not be able to say with any certainty where she was but he offered her the best chance he knew of. We did not expose Naruto and we did set him up with a better living situation.” Itachi shrugged. “Perhaps he thought we would be compassionate.”
“You.” Sasuke muttered. “He thought you would be compassionate.”
Itachi smirked. “True. You did give Naruto a black eye.”
Hinata lifted her head with a snap and Sasuke bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile. “I am not going to punch you.”
Pressing her lips into a very thin line the girl shakily stared back, a thing he noted must have taken much effort.
“No, he is not. Eat, Hinata. You’ve barely had anything for days. You should have a bath after and hopefully more food will be on the way. Meanwhile we have to go on a mission.” Itachi rubbed his hands together as he turned to his brother.
“A mission?” Hinata took the words right out of Sasuke’s mouth.
“To find you clothes that actually suit you.” He waved a hand at the oversized pajamas she was still in.
“No.” Sasuke snapped, shoving himself to his feet abruptly. “No. I am not going to steal from Mother.”
“It’s not stealing, it’s borrowing. And anyway.” Itachi waved a hand. “She has things from before she was married, things that would fit Hinata. She cannot be left in those pajamas. It’s ridiculous.”
“No.” Sasuke continued stubbornly.
And he kept saying it even after they were walking down the hall in the direction of his parents private chambers.
“Say,” Itachi submitted after listening to Sasuke ranting about how much he despised their current situation. “If I asked you to help me bury a body…?”
“If you are trying to be humorous,” Sasuke grumbled, avoiding making eye contact with a passing maid as they traversed the wide shining floor of the Main entrance. “, you are failing miserably.”
Itachi’s smile was restrained enough that it did not draw any unnecessary attention. “Well, I’m certainly enjoying myself.”
It was with contempt that Sasuke placed the items they had pilfered from their mother’s closets on his own bed. Never in his life would he have imagined a time when his bed, still disastrous and unturned would be covered in women’s clothing.
Itachi seemed entirely at ease with the quest they had undergone and successfully returned from. There were a handful of skirts of a fashion that he thought would suit their charge. There were blouses, and jumpers, shawls and boots. Of undergarments they had found they could neither of them dare a hand and so that was rather lacking. The idea of taking Hinata to their mother’s closet and having her pick these things out was quickly put aside even as it bloomed inside their heads at the same time.
Sasuke thought that likely the concept would make the girl faint. Itachi thought that he would be unable to pronounce the word ‘undergarment’ before Hinata at all.
With a sheepish knock on the bathing room door and a stilted explanation of what awaited her in Sasuke’s room should she wish to come out to inspect it, Itachi stressed how he and Sasuke would be in his own room waiting for her before rushing away.
Sitting rather impatiently together in his chambers the brothers glanced at each other on and off as they pretended to read or write as Itachi was doing.
“It has been some time.” Sasuke finally put forth, snapping his book closed.
Itachi who had been trying to focus on the page in front of him but had only managed to splotch it with dripped ink from his pen sat up.
“Yes but I daresay I don’t know how long it takes a girl to dress.”
His neck brightened to redness that Sasuke found amusing enough to smirk at widely and leaning back in the chair he had been occupying by the fire he let out a soft bark of a noise that might have been a chuckle.
“Nearly twenty years and still flushing at the concept of a girl dressing?” He dared, catching the sharp look his brother threw at him with another teasing smile. “You have been with her alone for weeks, are you not madly in love with her?”
Itachi did not smile as he had expected, but turned back to the page before him with a frown that was unusual for his smooth young face. “No, I am not. She needed help. Is that the only reason you would believe I would reach out to her?”
“You have not told me the circumstances.” Sasuke replied a little more seriously, feeling the chaffing of Itachi’s hurt feelings. “I was just jesting, anyway.”
“It was pouring. Do you remember? It had been pouring for days.”
Still, so as to better listen, Sasuke watched his brother gazing at the door which Hinata would hopefully be crossing soon.
“She was just on the street, just a little shape straight and stiff in the cold and I could not fathom leaving her there.” He blinked slowly and Sasuke could tell from the faded glaze of his gaze that he was back there in the moment. He was feeling the heat of the fire in the sitting room, the coolness of the storm outside sighing through the glass window and in the distance just clear enough for him to see through the gates of the property a shape, soaking wet in the growing dark.
“You know how Mother and especially Father are.” Itachi whispered. “Well meaning but obstinate and I just thought… if this girl- this person comes with trouble that is of an unusual kind she will not find any help here. Not by normal means.”
“What a strange thing you are.” Sasuke interrupted, drawing his brother from the story to look at him. Frowning only slightly Sasuke shook his head. “Who else thinks of such things? I certainly would not have.”
“Of course not.” Itachi’s remark was filled with knowing and Sasuke paused in realization. That, and only that reason was why his brother had said nothing. It was why he had lied.
“So,” He prompted, to steer his thoughts and his brother from the concept that Sasuke was like his parents while Itachi, perfect esteemed Itachi was not. “You found her out there.”
“She hardly spoke the first day, but when I asked her if there was anyone I could call to aid her she was adamant there was no one. I knew that was not true, of course.” Itachi shook his head as he thought, rubbing at his bottom lip with his thumb. “Her eyes tell a story of her origin that she cannot deny. She was so cold, and drenched. Bringing her inside was not an option as you were waiting and I had no plan. So, I saddled Susanoo and we made for the guest house.”
“And you managed to get yourself bronchitis.” Sasuke put in irritably.
“I had a bit of a cold before that.” Itachi waved away his frustration with a flap of his hand. “It is not her fault.”
“Well, if I am suddenly ill due to the exploits of the previous night I will certainly blame her.” Sasuke snapped, crossing his arms stubbornly. “I will let her know it too.”
“Sasuke, if I did not know any better I would say you are jealous.” Itachi smiled wide, watching with growing delight as his brother’s cheeks darkened to a pink hue. “Now, the question is; are you jealous because I have got to spend time privately with a pretty girl or because the pretty girl is taking your older brother’s attentions for herself?”
“You are ridiculous.” Sasuke snarled, shoving himself to his feet. “Utterly ridiculous.”
“H..hello?”
The boys froze at the sound of her voice through the crack in the door and it occurred to them both at the same time that they had no way of knowing how long she had been standing there, listening.
With that knowledge in their heads there was no avoiding her entrance to find two very red faced uncomfortable Uchiha blinking at her in surprise.
She had found a black ankle long skirt of a thick sturdy and dependable material that cinched at her waist with a belt over a white blouse that buttoned to her collarbone. With her hair braided tightly out of her face they could see that indeed she was from a high born family.
Out of the oversized clothing of before her movements were hesitant but graceful. Certainly she seemed less scared and more uncertain. Carefully smoothing the skirt with her hands she leaned on the door to close it, looking back and forth worriedly.
“I…I’m sorry… did I do something wrong?”
“No, of course not.” Itachi managed first, his words half laugh. “You look refreshed! Are you feeling alright? You were in the rain for some time again last night.”
“I am fine.” Hinata nodded, eyes dancing to Sasuke who flopped himself back into his chair with book in hand, looking bored despite the red sheen on his cheeks.
“Great, we can do some planning now.” Itachi smiled, swiping the papers on his desk away before picking up a roll of parchment from the shelving above.
“Planning?” Hinata and Sasuke asked together before glancing at each other. Annoyed was Sasuke’s expression and Hinata’s surprise was quickly wiped away by sheepishness.
“Yes.” Itachi spread the soft roll of paper out. “You cannot stay in that shoddy old shack in the woods. One more good storm and it might come down. You could fall through a rotten bit of landing and we would not know about it until one of us got to check on you which is unreliable. You will have to stay here.”
“Here?” Sasuke was the one to gasp this time, although Hinata’s round mouth displayed her shock with equal measure. “Among the servants and our parents?”
“Yes, hence the planning.” Dipping into the inkwell Itachi tucked into his desk. “We know our own schedules. Now what we need is the schedules of everyone else in the house. It will be an enormous game of chess. All we have to do is keep Hinata away from everyone. We know all the tricks of getting in and out of the house unnoticed.”
“At night, when everyone is sleeping.” Sasuke shook his head. “Not during the day.”
“Consider it a challenge.”
“You plan on doing this for how long? Eventually the Hyuuga are going to come knocking. They are probably in an uproar looking for their heiress even now.”
“I plan on doing this for as long as we need to figure out a solution.” Itachi was intent on his parchment where a calendar was being drawn with both their fencing lessons, riding practice, tutor appointments being slotted through each day.
“A solution?” Sasuke had stood once more, throwing the book he was unlikely to read back onto the chair. “A solution for what?”
“For what?” Itachi looked up at him quizzically, surprised by the absurdity of the question. Hinata watched in silence as the two young men studied each other, speaking in rapid fire through their stares.
You cannot do this. Even for you this is too much. She is their heiress, it is their family. Her marriage is their decision and you cannot hope to intervene and come out on the other side alive.
Itachi let out a long breath and straightened. “Hinata?”
Surprised to even be addressed despite being the topic of discussion the girl turned to him, hands clenched at her sides.
“What would you do if we were to hand you back to your family? Would you marry your cousin?”
Sasuke turned to watch as she closed her eyes, lowered her head and absorbed the pain that exploded in her chest, burning hot and vivid as her heart beat.
They listened together to her quiet breaths, the slow forceful way she threaded her will through the air to make herself calm enough to speak.
“This….I feel so strongly that this is not something you, either of you, should endure. I was not thinking when I came here. I am so very sorry and I-”
“Hinata.” Itachi interrupted softly. “What would you do?”
Fists clenching rhythmically at her sides she looked out the window to the brightness of the blue sky now clear of clouds and thunder. So strange it was to gaze at such possibility of beauty and joy when inside nothing but the roiling darkness of the storm still raged.
“I would die.” There was no stutter as she whispered, picturing her cousin’s face. Kind as he was, Neji was her brother. Some things simply could not be endured.
“I would die, one way or the other.”
Turning her gray eyes, intending to plead forgiveness from Itachi she felt herself snagged by Sasuke’s undiluted stare.
There was no animosity in it, neither was there gentleness. Flat and unrelenting he examined her and caught by surprise she let him.
Whatever he searched for he must have found. Flexing his jaw tightly for a moment before turning away he sighed grudgingly at his brother.
The shiver through his spine rankled to his hips where he sat on Chidori’s back. The gelding shied from the thunder only slightly. Beneath his hoofs mud splattered and made wet sucking noises hardly audible over the pounding of the rain.
It was not fear that drew his silence and his hesitation however. Being an Uchiha there were few things he feared. Still, the guest house, long abandoned on the outskirts of their large property was much like a thing from a horrible tale.
It sat hunched against the rain, with shutters drawn in places and the porch dark. Sharp points of brick and mortar rose on the roof in shadows that he recognized as chimney tops though none puffed with smoke.
It had been a cold and miserable ride to the guest house. Over an hour he had struggled with Chidori through the fray and more than once had had to tame the beast down when the lightning screamed.
Less fear and more rancor made the gelding rise on back legs, teeth working at the bit with a sort of passion rarely seen in horses. He wanted to fight the rain, the wind, the lightning and thunder. It was one of the things Sasuke loved the most about Chidori. Nothing but his own shadow seemed to give him pause.
Letting out a heavy breath he dismounted. Patting his horse’s neck with a gloved hand before tying him to the bannister of the front steps.
The guest house shook at the boom of more thunder, and he watched with growing trepidation as shutters long broken by time danced in the frolicking wind, slamming and banging against the outer walls of the house he thought had once been painted white.
He could just imagine the racket. It would be shaking the entirety of the building inside. What chaos the girl must be enduring. There would be no sleeping in such a gale. The house itself would be mourning the beating it was receiving and with all it’s moaning and groaning the single solitary occupant would surely be frayed at the nerves.
There was no point in knocking and so he pushed inside through the complaining door into the darkness of the entryway.
Once the guest house had been a place of summer holiday. Behind it a well stocked lake, framed by lilies and long curtained weeping willows gathered warm drafts to sweep up onto its banks.
Long ago before his own father’s time it would have been a lovely thing to visit the guest house. Here picnics would have been had in the sunshine and late night bonfires with hot tea and roasted apples would have welcomed the night.
Those days were past, however. The house was not just decrepit, it was senile. Inside he listened to the festering drip drip of raindrops having found their way in and the shudder and shake of the house’s bones.
Wall paper peeled in curly cues from the walls and the flash of lightning lit a spotted mirror at the end of the hall where his shadow loomed frightening and large.
Drawing a breath he hurried towards the stairs, skipping over the bits of hollow ground where the floorboards had caved and only dank air and blackness had replaced them.
Each step creaked and protested his weight and more than once he wondered that he did not die right there on the stairwell before reaching the landing where the only light and warmth in the entirety of the house beckoned.
He almost rushed forward, feeling the itch of the eerie on the back of his neck and the urge to inspect his surroundings lest a ghoul jump to take him from the shadows.
But he had the happy luck to have receptive ears and he paused at the sound not of rain or of thunder but of a voice small and calm, melting through the cracks of the door frame like the butter yellow light.
“Sleep my child and peace attend thee,
All through the night
Guardian angels God will send thee,
All through the night
Soft the drowsy hours are creeping
Hill and vale in slumber sleeping,
I my loving vigil keeping
All through the night.”
It was not the voice of an angel, though it sang with the sort of confidence that came from thinking one is alone. It was the emotion in the words that really gave him pause. There was an earnest honesty that was delivered with the melody and only when she drew a deep breath did he move to peer through the crack of the door and the frame.
The room was lit by a single oil lamp sitting on the middle of a wooden floor. A ratty old carpet had clearly been there recently as the stain of it’s reddish coloring had marked the floorboards in a giant dusty square and in the background among the shadows the roll of the rejected carpet sat in a haphazard pile.
By the light, with arms wrapped tightly around their knees a small body sat. Sasuke was puzzled by the sight for though it was clearly a young woman’s voice he had just heard there was a boy sitting there. Trousers and a shirt that fit poorly covered his curved back and boots clearly too big were adjusted by small hands. A hat sat on the small head where it lay on his folded arms.
Curious and a vexed Sasuke pushed through the door, making the hinge ring an alarm that had the boy scrambling to his feet so fast he knocked the lamp over.
The darkness bloomed for a moment before the fire surged to fight it. Oil and heat exploded where the glass had cracked and Sasuke cursed sharply as he moved to stomp the flame that rose so readily on the dry abandoned wood.
The boy gave a cry, high pitched and startled before reaching for the abandoned carpet and chucking it over the entire mess nearly knocking Sasuke over in the process. It was a heavy piece of fabric and made heavier by the moldy damp that had so clearly been the reason for its rejection
Grunting, the younger Uchiha stepped back to watch the boy stomp hard on the carpet and lamp mound. Smoke and the stench of burning wood and moldy fabric permeated the dark.
“Itachi, y…you gave me a fright.”
Sasuke whirled at the sound, at the voice and the words.
The boy who was not a boy lifted his head from where he stood catching his breath with hands on his knees. The glare of lightning flashed through the window pane and kicked the air from Sasuke’s lungs.
Her face was delicate, a small nose, a smattering of perfectly placed freckles, full lips and wide eyes of a gray so pale they could only be from one family tree.
She took in his face at the same time he took in her own and the shock was almost as great. Stepping back as though stung, she worked her mouth though no sound came forth.
“Who are you?”
They gasped the sentence together and her flinch was as strong as his wince. Unsettled, Sasuke studied her panicked gaze some more. Dubiously he wondered at his uncontested faith in his brother and the possibility that it was madness.
Her voice had abandoned her, it was clear from her gasping breaths and so he ground out, “I am Sasuke Uchiha. Itachi sent me.”
Her eyes, already impossibly large widened at his name. “His…you are his brother.”
“And you?” He frowned in response to her soft expression, annoyed with the familiarity that she used to address any thought of his older sibling. “Who are you?”
The girl swallowed again, as though the name clawed inside her throat to stay from her mouth.
“I am Hinata.” She rubbed her hands lightly on the baggy trousers hugging her hips, her fingers fiddling with the hem of the long button down shirt hanging off her shoulders awkwardly. “Hinata Hyuuga.”
Two things occurred which caused Sasuke an unfair amount of feelings for a young man who was rather uncomfortable with such things.
One was that he realized she was wearing his old clothes, probably ransacked from the back of his closet by his treacherous older brother when he was not looking.
The second was that this girl, wearing his clothes was the daughter of another prestigious family. A powerful, large family who had been bickering on and off with his family for so long it was almost an affectionate sort of spite they now held for each other.
Almost.
It would certainly get less affectionate the moment they realized where she was.
“Oh Itachi.” Sasuke closed his eyes and hung his head for a moment to brace himself against the headache searing through his brain.
“What have you done?”
Her attempts to convince him that this was not Itachi’s fault were as surprising as her reluctance to hold on to him as they rode.
There was evidence of a rider in her simply from the way she settled in the saddle behind him. She was cloaked in his jacket for he had not thought to bring another, a thing he was most vexed by considering the downpour and the task his brother had appointed him.
“Please,” She half yelled into his ear against the rage of the storm they were fighting to return to the Uchiha house. “I have been a most horrible imposition on your brother. Please do not hold it against him.”
“Hold what against him? The fact he has been lying to me all along or the fact that he’s likely started a feud by housing you?” Sasuke strained to look at her over his shoulder. The hat she wore had been knocked off. Her hair fell in a mess of darkness along her face, black as oil in contrast with her skin.
Chidori skipped uneasily beneath them and Hinata balked, distracted from replying as the gelding side stepped what looked remarkably like a snake among the grass in the shadows.
Focusing once more on the lead Sasuke patted the horse’s neck. “Easy, boy. It’s a branch for heaven’s sake.”
Another flash of lightning screeched across the sky. There was no time to count between it and the thunder anymore. They rumbled and rolled together, making the very earth beneath them seem to tremble. This was a war the sky was fighting with the earth. Sasuke clicked his tongue and urged Chidori faster through the mud, his mind heavy with the possibility that they would be collateral damage in the battle.
The next roar of thunder startled Chidori properly. He reared low, tossing his head so Sasuke had to fight for control and behind him Hinata cried out, finally grabbing hold of his waist in a desperate attempt to stay seated.
“Easy.” Sasuke growled, clenching his teeth against the massiveness of Chidori’s bulk. The gelding wanted to spring. All the muscles of his body poised to run as was his breeding. There was danger for them here, in the thickness of the wood with the skeletal trees all reaching for the electric bolts above, taunting the heavens with their height.
“Can you ride well?” Sasuke cried over the rainfall, unable to deviate his attention from the reins and Chidori’s snarling fight with the bit.
“I…I yes. But I.. I’m sorry I will have to hold on and- ah!” Hinata screamed as Sasuke let the animal have his way. Nearly torn from their own skins they held on for dear life as the beast, finally free tore a path through the fray.
They were a sore and messy pair skulking through the dark of the Uchiha house. Dripping mud and rain, pungent with ash and smoke they snuck through the back door where deliveries were made and up a winding stairwell pitch black with night.
No amount of windows would be of help with no moon to shine her light. After the third soft grunt from Hinata tripping over the uneven twisting steps of the spiral staircase Sasuke grabbed her arm and urged her on blindly.
He knew the steps like he knew his own face. Any amusement to be had in the house had to be snuck. That often meant wanderings to look at the stars on hot summer nights or pre-dawn pillaging of the kitchens.
Itachi had taught him all the secrets. When the servants slept and when they rose. What door creaked loud enough to wake the dogs. Which window never sealed properly and could be opened from the outdoors.
Using all this ingenuity the younger Uchiha brought his charge to their bedroom corridor. Thankfully on a completely separate wing from their parents sleeping. Still out breath and sore from the wild ride they scrambled through the dark and past the doorframe.
The heat of the fire hit them like a hot breath. With a sniff and heavy sigh Hinata leaned against the door, shoulders drooping with clear exhaustion.
Itachi had fallen asleep on Sasuke’s bed and although she moved towards him at the sight of the familiar face the press of her cold fingers to her lips signalled her realization not to speak.
Peeling the wet sweater off his body Sasuke watched, a frown so deep it seemed permanent on his forehead.
“He would have gone for you himself, I am sure.” The displeasure was clear in his voice as he rummaged in his wardrobe, throwing items on the chair beside it with frustrated movements. “And I still would have been in the dark, but for the fact he has a fever and has taken ill again.”
“He seems very warm.” Hinata admitted in a whisper to match her host’s. Itachi’s cheeks were pink and although at first she would have said it was the inferno of the fire it became clear that something rattled in his chest with every breath.
“I cannot imagine that riding out to see you every day did much to improve his health.” He would have slammed the wardrobe door but for the fact that his brother slept on, undisturbed by their presence. Instead, with a lot of effort he closed it gently before turning to face her.
Hinata swallowed hard at his piercing glare, hugging her body self consciously. “I…I am so very sorry-”
“Stop.” He lifted a handful of clothes in his hand. “I do not want to hear it. Tomorrow I will ask him what the meaning of all this is. Until then take this, the room right across the hall is Itachi’s. No one will disturb you.”
Head bowed, Hinata received the items offered in silence and slid from the room. In her wake a trail of rainwater and mud glistened.
Sighing deeply Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose. They had taken a rather long way to his bedroom and he realized now he was going to have to spend the rest of the night mopping all the floors.
“Madness.” He grumbled, shooting a look at his slumbering brother that softened despite his best intentions.
“Pure madness.”
They were under siege.
Waking as though barely escaping drowning the Uchiha brothers sat bolt up in Sasuke’s bed. Hair tousled, one flushed to redness by his lingering fever, the other blanching white at the sound of a monstrous thing attempting to take down his bedroom door.
“Where is my eldest? Where is my Itachi?”
Turning like mechanical dolls the boys edging on men looked each other in the eye and pronounced with varying degrees of worry, “Mother.”
“Sasuke, where is she?” Itachi gasped, shoving himself out of the bed as fast as his limbs would allow. It was significantly less quickly than his younger brother who had already thrown a robe over his pajamas and was tying it as he marched disheveled to the door. “At the door, evidently.” Sasuke snapped.
“Not Mother.” Itachi snapped, for once biting the sentence with impatience. Sasuke stiffened, realizing that if his mother had looked for Itachi in his bedroom then…
“We have a problem.”
“I might die.” Itachi explained calmly, attempting to keep his head. “I may very well never see you past this morning.”
Hissing with distaste Sasuke glared, shoving him back into the bed and tucking him in as they formulated a plan with no words. “If you do end up six feet under, I will be happy in the knowledge that it was not by my doing but by your own foolishness.”
“It was the right thing to do.”
Sasuke tried not to sneer too fiercely with disbelief.
“Where are my children?” Mikoto’s voice rose in panic and growing irritation. “Where have my offspring gone? Sasuke, why is this door locked?”
“Appear sickly.” Sasuke instructed with couple sharp slaps to Itachi’s cheeks in an effort to bring forth more of a flush.
Itachi gasped and flung him away. “Ouch. Stop that nonsense and open the door.”
“He’s here!” Sasuke yelled, marching over. The moment the latch was moved the door snapped and he sucked in a breath to dodge the blow that might have broken his nose.
“Why is this door locked?” Mikoto asked conversationally as though she had indeed not been attempting to knock it down by sheer force of will.
Sasuke blinked at her as though in surprise at the question. “I did not realize I did that. I apologize mother.”
“Itachi’s door was not locked.” She continued, waving away the apology she clearly detected as fib. “But why should it have been when he was not even in the room?”
Itachi lay limp on the pillows, letting out a long breath that rattled like paper crinkled in his lungs. “Forgive me, Mother for the fright. I was not feeling well and I ended up coming to seek Sasuke’s company.”
“It was unappreciated.” Sasuke threw in. “He kicks in his sleep.”
“I did not mean to fall asleep.” Itachi explained, moving as though to sit up in the bed.
“Oh my children.” Mikoto sighed, lacing a hand through Itachi’s hair and feeling the fever burn her finger tips.
A frown, real this time and not the exaggerated drama of before filtered through her face.
“You burn.”
“It is going down.” Itachi held her hand to dislodge it from his forehead. “I feel much better today.”
“Well, when neither of you came down for breakfast I thought surely something was wrong. And then one of the maids asked about the halls being left smeared with mud and a mop in use and I thought…” her eyes slid dark and beautiful but more importantly clever from one face to the other. “…my boys would not have dared to go out in the storm. My boys are wise and would have known not to cause their mother such anxieties. Am I not correct?”
There was a long pause in which Itachi looked at Sasuke and Sasuke looked at Itachi, both waiting for the other to assuage her fears. In a panic now that neither had said anything they both jumped in head first.
“Mother, of course not.”
“Did you actually think it was us?”
Attired in her usual simple black dress, well made and elegant in it’s simplicity Mikoto managed to conjure a picture of the Black Death as she looked from son to son.
“Speak.”
“I…wanted to ride out in the rain.” Sasuke threw in before Itachi could get a sound out of his open mouth.
“I took Chidori out and got extremely filthy I tried to clean it but evidently I am not as good a mopper as I am a rider.” He clenched his hands behind his back. “I am apologize Mother. I asked Itachi to stay in my room to be sure someone knew when I got back. When I found him asleep I did not want to wake him.”
It was unlike Sasuke to divulge so much conversation so early in the morning. Itachi stared with a sort of impressed shock from behind his mother’s turned back.
“Hm.” Mikoto rose, walking in the silence of the morn to plant a kiss on her youngest’s forehead before continuing out the door.
“If your Father finds out there will be…unrest. Best you bring it up yourself. In a way that he might find acceptable. Something about how you wanted to test yourself against the storm.” She threw over her shoulder.
“Well, that was the idea.” Sasuke replied, watching with mild amusement as she turned and gave him a knowing look. “Oh certainly.” She nodded. “Of course it was.”
And without another word, she closed the door.
They waited. Breath held to burning in their lungs and faces pinched until finally they could remain still no longer.
Throwing the blankets off and ripping the door open they scouted the hall and slipped together into Itachi’s room.
Light flooded the chamber in golden beams. The storm had beaten itself to silence by the time the sun began to rise and with the curtains parted the light turned the room into a glowing gold.
His bed was a mess of unmade covers and a pillow on the floor where he was certain he would not have left it.
“Hinata?” Itachi hissed, spinning in a circle to look for the girl. “Hinata where are you?”
Softly a muffled voice let out a whimper. “Is it… is she? Is she gone? Is it safe?”
Together the brothers glanced at each other and then crouched, peering beneath the bed where Hinata lay on her stomach, eyes wide and cat-like in the shadows.
“Yes.” Itachi let out a soft laugh, reaching a hand beneath. “Come on out. The floor is freezing.”
Shoving himself to his feet Sasuke stood with arms crossed, watching as the girl scrambled out and upon righting herself threw her arms around Itachi.
“You’re all right.” He soothed, rubbing her back. “She did not see you, yes?”
“All right.” Sasuke cut in before Hinata could give her shaky answer, drawing both their faces towards him with the seriousness of his tone. “What is this?” He waved a hand impatiently at them. “What is happening? I am now complicit. I deserve to know.”
Itachi glanced at Hinata then, watching as color and tears rose to her face in rapid succession. Staring at the floor, she pressed her fingers together before her, blinking hard to keep from crying.
“I would like to know also.” Itachi admitted, offering Sasuke a weak sigh as he rubbed Hinata’s back. “She has not told me.”
It took effort not to let his mouth fall open, but Sasuke managed it. Instead he closed his eyes, pressing two knuckles to his forehead. “Are you telling me that the eldest daughter of the Hyuuga has been living on our property for days and you do not even know why?”
“I…I ran.” Hinata offered shakily. “I ran from home.”
“Clearly.” Sasuke threw a glare her way, aware that although he had had few enough conversations with females this one was getting on his nerves in a way he had not thought possible. “But why did you-?”
“My mother died recently.” She offered then, and she swallowed. “I did not realize how much… I did not know that she…” wincing she drew a breath and forced her words to come.
“My father and uncle have intentions about the future of our family, and the division of our land had become a dispute.” She shivered. “They are twins.”
“Yes. I think I recall that.” Itachi murmured, brow furrowed. “But, Hinata what-?”
“They decided that to keep our estate whole…” she shuddered, and buried her face into her hands. “Neji.”
Jaw dropping open Itachi sucked in a long weary breath. “No.”
It took a moment for Sasuke to catch on. He had never cared for family politics and more importantly had never been interested in the politics of the ruling class in Konoha. The county was a mish mash of different kin all vying for more power or influence through merit, money or marriage.
Even his marriage was not important to him however. His parents would decide and hopefully the woman would be quiet enough to tolerate and not terribly ugly. It was all he really had to bother himself with.
So when he recalled with some effort that beside the two daughters there was also a cousin named Neji he let his brows rise.
“They wish for us to marry.” Her chin wobbled and Sasuke felt Itachi’s long enduring stare on his face, judging the look there for compassion.
Grudgingly Sasuke placed both hands on his hips, blinking hard through the surprise and disbelief. “All right.” He admitted after a moment, waving at Itachi with impatience. “You were right.”
Itachi did not smile with victory however, just rubbed Hinata’s back some more. “As I usually am.”
“what is a popular Japanese boy name?” “What is the age of maturity in Canada?” “How does someone underage inherit a large estate?” “What are the stages of alcohol withdrawal?” “What does naturalization look like in Japan? In Canada? In America? In Switzerland?” “What happens when your rib breaks?” “Can a minor move overseas with the consent of a guardian?” “How much does a P.O box cost?” “How do you mix a strong martini?” “What is the largest wasp in the world?”
. is it morally wrong to doxx someone who consistently sends you “kill yourself” messages? i mean, just… theoretically… ya know? for science, let us discuss
“Not what, who. He’s the most feared bounty hunter in the system.”
“What makes him so special? Cybernetics? Psyonics? Whatever it is, we’ve beaten it before.”
“That’s just it, there is no trick. Nothing. Plain Vanilla biology and no weapons beyond chemically propelled kinetics and edged tools.”
“You’re kidding, right? Then why is he such a big deal?”
“He’s a big deal because he does the job without anything like that. He can track you down and kill you without any net-dives or mind scans, and there’s nothing we’ve got that can shut him down. He’s not cybernetic so we can’t EM him, and he’s got no psychic presence so we can’t psybomb him. There’s almost no way to track him down or get away once he’s found you.”
“Can’t we just kill him?”
“Good luck. First you’ve got to find him, and they say he can disguise himself as anything.”
Ink Child Writing 