Five times five times five times...five?
Ask me for five things about a particular character, and I will respond with a list or ficlet. (You know the drill: "Five times Arthur was rubbish at talking to girls," or "Five parking tickets Christina de Souza got")Fandoms: Naruto, KKM, FFVII, FFXII, Abyss, Symphonia, KH, Ocean's, PW, HP, Hetalia, KHR, Loveless, Shakespeare, anything else I've
( Read more... )
Iruka's headed home from the grocery store, with bread and vegetables and milk, when he runs into Itachi on the rooftop. He stops with a polite pulse of chakra, and Itachi slows down, takes a long, dangerously short leap across an alleyway to land on the roof edge near Iruka.
"Iruka-sensei," Itachi says, and Iruka rolls his shoulders back, says, "good evening, Itachi-kun."
It's almost dusk, and it's getting close to autumn. There's a bit of a chill, and the air feels damp.
"You have blood," Iruka says, "on your cheek." He watches as Itachi leans back precariously, reaches up to touch his face. Iruka watches Itachi smear the blood with the back of his hand.
"There was a cat," Itachi says. "Caught by dogs, I think."
Iruka's hand is cold, feels raw, so he leans down slowly, lies his groceries on the roof.
"I took care of it, Sensei," Itachi says, and Iruka says, "that's good."
It's twenty minutes later, when Iruka has just finished putting away his groceries, that he hears that the Uchiha family has been slaughtered by one of the clan's most promising sons.
ii
"The Kyuubi is one of your students," Itachi says as he watches Iruka slowly stand back up. He is a little bit impressed-- there is blood in the corner of the teacher's mouth, and Itachi is sure that the last crack was the sound of ribs.
"Was," Iruka says with more blood in his mouth, and Itachi lifts his hand, readies to block Iruka's too-wide blow.
"He still calls you Sensei." Itachi takes a quick step back, out of range of the teacher's leg, and watches Iruka totter, then slowly steady on his feet.
"Lots of people do." Iruka wipes his fist against his mouth, catching the blood on his glove. It's bravado-- Itachi can see the pulse in Iruka's neck, the corners of Iruka's eyes. He's slowing down-- another hit as hard as the last, and his body will begin to shut down.
"Do they, Sensei?"
Iruka laughs, wipes his mouth again with the same bravado all the chuunin of all the villages have. "Your brother was one of my students, too," he says, and the seals he makes look like suicide.
"I know," Itachi says, and he hits the teacher hard enough to throw him to the ground.
Reply
Leave a comment