Chapter Text
“Can you teach me?”
Sachiko had never been a strong speaker. At least, not where it really mattered. She stammers over her words, cannot fathom speaking the words she thoughtfully plans in her head in imaginary conversations.
For first time since she’s approached them, Itachi looks surprised.
But it’s not the sort of surprised that ordinary people so easily display on their faces. No, Sachiko reminds herself, this is a man of the age of thirteen who has slaughtered more than she could ever count. He is not ordinary. He is a prodigy, a shinobi of the ages. That is why she’s here, after all.
Instead, his surprise is accounted for by the halt of his calm exhale, the brief pause in his movement. His eyes don’t even widen at her request, nor did they widen when she first arrived. He didn’t even have to look at her when she approached, because he already knew she was there.
Jealousy returned, but ambition accompanied it this time in Sachiko’s heart.
Before he can reply, Sasuke starts to laugh. Sachiko feels her face burn, but stands her ground, indignantly glancing away at the sight of Itachi’s gaze. He’s too hard to read. She would search for a sight of something– Maybe pity, maybe refusal, maybe compassion. But she would never find anything like that, would never catch a slip up from someone so composed.
Itachi opens his mouth. “Wait.” His lips seal, perfectly stoic. “Just– Can you just listen, for a moment? Please. Let me–” Sachiko stammers, grateful that the side conversations of the store can at least cover her public humiliation. “Let me, just…”
Itachi is too stoic, too patient, and remains wordless. Sasuke is too amused, snickering beneath his breath and casting Sachiko weird looks. Sachiko feels her face grow impossibly warmer.
There’s a moment of silence between the three. Sachiko starts, slower. “My name is Sasaki Sachiko. I.. Um, I think you were classmates with my sister, but that’s… Besides the point.”
“You saw me at the hospital, like you said. With, um, Mister Miyo.” Itachi seems to soften at that, a barely perceptible relaxation of his eyes. “You talked about Sasuke. I’m guessing this is him?”
“What’s it to you, lady?” Sasuke bleats. Sachiko decides that it’d be better to ignore him, even as Itachi casts him a smile. Then, Sasuke pauses, turns pink. “Big Brother Itachi talked about me?”
“He did. Very fondly,” Sachiko murmurs, and Sasuke ruffles up in pride, looking to Itachi, he plays it off with a smile and a shrug. She looks away. “I was in the hospital for 158 days.”
Itachi looks expectant, like he assumed that she would tell him why. Sachiko waits, just to see if he would ask her, eyes wide. After a moment of silence, he nods. “Were you going to continue?” he suggests, and his voice is just as soft as she remembered, even as she blazes pink.
“Um, well, I just got out recently. Around last month or so. And, to be honest, I’ve…” Sasuke looks at her, scrutinizing. All she can feel is shame. “I’ve fallen behind. Really. And, and I don’t… The Sasaki aren’t a very large clan. Or well renowned, at that. But I’m sure you knew that. The total opposite of you, really. I mean, you’re only three years older than me, but you’ve accomplished more than I could ever hope to achieve in my lifetime.”
Itachi looks unimpressed. Sachiko can feel the sweat building on her upper lip. “Or… well, everyone talks about you. Everyone knows your name. You’re more skilled than people thrice your age, really.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Itachi muses, without any bite. “But I appreciate your kind words.”
“I just– How do you do it? I… I can’t.” Sachiko hesitates. “I don’t think I can. I’ve been working so hard for the past six months, really. My…”
She stops herself before she can admit how little her family seems to care, too embarrassed to admit how forgotten she really is. “No one else can teach me.”
She cannot read Itachi’s expression. “I sympathize with your situation, truly,” he starts, and Sachiko can already feel the rejection, deep in her gut. “But I’m sure a girl as smart as you can understand that with prestige, comes responsibility. I simply cannot be handing out random favors to kunoichi from inferior clans.” Sachiko bristles at that, but she knows he speaks nothing but the truth.
“Especially when you and I are certainly not in any sort of courtship, or have any sort of familial connection. And truthfully, I would not have the free time to do such anyways. Our clans have completely different Kekkei Genkai, not to mention would have our heads for indulging in such happenings. The answer is no. Now, I must ask you to leave, before any more rumors spread.”
Sachiko visibly crumples. “But–” She pauses, seems to bite her tongue. Itachi turns away from her. The conversation is over, his shoulders seem to tell her. “But sir, please. I want to learn from you. I want to learn from the best.”
“Then I suggest you find someone else. Do not be fooled. I am still only thirteen.”
Sachiko shudders at the familiarity. He must’ve said such to her before. “But, Mister Itachi–”
“He said leave him alone, lady!” Sasuke blurts, face squished into a scowl Sachiko otherwise would’ve found funny. “Itachi, why won’t she go away?” he whines.
Sachiko turns pink. “Have some decorum, will you?” she hisses beneath her breath, a mumble Sasuke can barely hear.
Itachi stands, an abrupt motion that makes Sachiko stagger back. If she were taller than him while they were sitting, he was much taller than her while standing. “I suggest you leave now,” he repeats. His eyes are cold, but his warning is a hot slap across her face.
Sachiko knows that this time, it’s not a suggestion. “I’m not going to give up,” she announces, a frown tugged over her lips. “I’m going to keep asking you until you say yes.”
“You’re wasting your time,” he replies smoothly.
“No, I’m not,” she answers, defensive, impulsive, even when she thinks that he’s probably right. “I’ll convince you. You’ll see.”
But Sachiko is unsure of the statement. Sasuke laughs in her face. She tries not to consider herself as someone who hates, but when his disrespect is so blatant, so justified, she feels hate behind her eyes and hot in her chest. Does she deserve it?
She bites down on the skin inside her cheek as she turns on her heel and marches away, face alight as the store whispers behind her, as the sky seems to laugh at her despair.
“It’s useless,” Sachiko proclaims, sun beating down on her face, neck dripping with sweat and her chest tight. Shisui sits beside her on the bench, conveniently in the shade that covers only half of the seat.
“Sorry, Sachi,” he sighs, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. A plate of dango lies between them, growing sticky with heat, untouched by both. “I don’t mean to say I told you so, but, did you really think giving him some dango was going to work?”
Sachiko flushes deep with shame, unable to respond.
They fall into silence. The cicadas buzz, loud– The village continues around them, even with the ground sizzling with heat. There is sweat dampening Sachiko’s collar, and she envies how composed Shisui seems, even in the blazing heat, even after most likely embarrassing himself just by being around her. She can feel her face warm further and she lets her eyes close, tilting her head back.
He’s in the shade, anyways. He will always be in a different league than her, she supposes.
“Thanks for trying, at least,” she says, fanning herself, eyes still closed. “Even if you and Hiro, are…” She falls quiet, mouth drying instantly. He looks at her, questioningly, and even while she doesn’t look his way, she can feel the lingering question. “Fighting…? Or… something.”
She cannot see the expression on his face, but she hopes it is not as gut twisting as she assumes it might be. She opens her eyes, and looks to him.
He is perfectly normal. Not a single sign of distress on his body. “Yeah,” he finally says.
Sachiko looks back up to the sky, which is cloudlessly bright. “Don’t be upset,” she says, reaching out as if to pat his hand softly. Before making contact, she tugs it away, as if scared of herself without looking in his direction. It’s the first time she’s felt like this in the presence of someone she would call her friend. She didn’t think about her and Shisui’s friendship that much before, not in terms of status and power.
“Everyone fights. That’s what friends do.” Friends, she thinks, Shisui was friends with her family, her clan.
“Yeah,” he repeats. “Friends.”
“…Yeah.” He was friends with them, even when they were so much… lesser. They were lesser. Oh, God, Sachiko was so much lesser. She could feel her hands build precipitation, as if she grew more nervous just thinking about it.
They fall into silence, briefly, but Sachiko knows he doesn’t even have to think about their friendship like she does. She tries not to grow more red, more ashamed of herself, sweating like a pig in the sun.
“C’mon,” Shisui says suddenly, lifting from his seat, stretching his arms out into the sunny sky. “Let’s go get some ice cream. We’ll share a popsicle.”
Sachiko smiles, even if it’s shaky, following suit. She disregards the sweat on her hairline as she trails after him, trying her best to look composed. “Twin pops?” she suggests.
Shisui laughs a little, and when he does, she can’t help but miss Sadahiro. It’s like she can see a flicker of Sadahiro’s soul in his eyes, like they were so intertwined they were practically becoming each other in her head. “I’ve never heard anyone call them that,” he snorts. “Except you, and…”
He trails off, smile falling. Sachiko sighs. His gaze flickers to her and she can feel herself stiffen, clammy and cold like she had just set fire to hay. “Hey,” Shisui starts, quiet, as they walk. His steps are silent. Her’s are loud. “Is there something wrong? What’s up with you?”
Sachiko is still stiff. They are friends, aren’t they? Even if Sachiko wasn’t even a genin yet? Even when Sachiko was a Sasaki, a distant line from a noble family tainted by an illegitimate child? Her chest grows tighter, and she must’ve stopped walking without knowing it— Shisui stands in front of her, looking back in what she thinks is concern.
Or is it pity? Does he pity her?
Itachi was right. How could she be friends with an Uchiha? How could an Uchiha be friends with her?
“Did Itachi tell you something?” Shisui asks, and Sachiko can see him now, crouched in front of her, even in the heat. It is something so distinctly like her brother that she can feel her stomach ache in his absence.
“Why do you think that?” She replies, eyes unable to meet his, where she fiddles at her nails. Shisui reaches out, places his hands over hers to still the fidgeting.
Shisui grumbles beneath his breath, and stands. “That kid, I swear…” He murmurs, turning his back to her, gesturing for her to follow. She follows. Of course she does. “Ya know, don’t take anything he says to heart. He’s really a sweet boy, I promise.”
Sachiko walks behind him, timid. “He didn’t tell me anything.”
Shisui says nothing, but she can feel his doubt. “He’s real logical. He thinks everything through, and is really considerate. But he’s mature. Everything he does has… Purpose. If he said something to hurt your feelings…” Shisui hesitates.
Sachiko hangs her head, not enough to sulk (something too indignant, in her mind), but enough to be noticeable.
“Try not to take it personally. He doesn’t do stuff to be mean. He knows what he’s doing.”
Sachiko pauses as Shisui stops in front of her, at the door of the nearby convenience store. “Wait here,” he says, and she listens.
Sachiko settles on the steps of the convenience store, her arms folded over her knees, her chin on her forearms. Cicadas buzz ambiently, a hot breeze blows by her ankles. Maybe it was about time for her to learn a lesson, anyways.
Sachiko always knew about clan hierarchy. Hell, Nobunari would always be the priority over her, even if he was three years her junior, even if Sachiko always had to respect everyone older than her. But Nobunari belonged to the main family. It was just… Different. The Sasaki genes ran stronger in him. It was merely fact. It would always be fact, even if she secretly thought it a little unfair.
Sachiko always knew her life revolved around how powerful she was— And usually physically. After the Third Great War, the land was torn apart. In school, she was taught that only the strong survived. Konohagakure needed defense that could only be built by strong shinobi.
Who wouldn’t want to serve their country?
Sachiko swallows, glances up through the heat, where she can see its waves reflecting off the dirt ground.
Children laugh in the shade, share toys and nudge each other with joy. Their laughter is so free. Sachiko looks back down at her feet.
The Sasaki clan just.. Wasn’t as strong as the others. That’s how life worked; The strongest always won, and the strongest always survived. The other clans were treated better because they were stronger. They could protect the village in ways her family could not.
She was… Lesser than?
Shisui stands beside her, brows furrowed softly. Wordlessly, he sinks down to where she sits and takes a seat beside her. He splits the popsicle, blue and already dripping down onto his fingers. “Take it, before it melts,” he insists.
Sachiko takes it. There are so many things she wants to ask him.
“How did you and Sadahiro meet?”
Shisui almost chokes, and Sachiko smiles. “Is that what’s been bothering you?” he says, incredulous.
She shakes her head. “No, but I want to hear it anyways.”
Shisui’s lips split into a grin, and he laughs, even with melted ice cream over his knuckles, sticking his skin to itself. “Maybe when you’re older.”
He’s still laughing with himself as she bites into her half of the ice pop. They fall into soft silence.
Sachiko glances at him. In the distance, a group of children are laughing, singing. “Shisui?”
He looks to her from where he’s taken a bite from his popsicle.
“Are we still friends?” He looks quizzicle. Sachiko looks too earnest for him to poke fun at her, for once. “Even if The Sasaki Clan isn’t…” She hesitates. “Isn’t as.. good as you guys? Even if you and Sadahiro fight?”
Shisui’s lips are pressed into a thin line, and he nods. “We’ll always be friends, Sachi.” He looks like he has more to say, but Sachiko beats him to it.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”