I've been gone...but I'm back. Short chapter I'm afraid, but it is here. Fresh as a Daisie hehehe

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Chapter Nine: Knowing is not knowing

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Three years ago.

Fugaku didn't like Shikaku, the man asked all the questions he hoped nobody would ask. When he told Itachi this in private a few years back, his son answered:

"But father, isn't the Clan committee all about asking important questions?"

"Yes, and politics is about not answering them."

"But…you answered them." Ah yes, back then Itachi had shadowed him. It was a rather pointless job, but one Itachi had enjoyed immensely as it gave him the perfect excuse to skip classes about things he already knew.

"I'm glad you thought so, son."

. - .

Present.

Throughout the entire Clan Head meeting, Fugakū had been fighting an itch on the side of his face. He didn't know who was staring at him so intensely to cause such an unnecessary skin condition, but whoever it was, was apparently profoundly pissed off.

This was odd, to say the least. Seeing as Fugakū had no time to spare ruining another persons' life. Not anymore.

His youngest was doing a fine job of that himself with his peers.

"Right then, if that's all lets end this meeting early. Shall we?" Yamanaka Inoichi, ever the perkiest of the bunch flashes his hundred-watt smile. There's a resounding murmur and eager shuffling of papers.

Fugakū grunts. Itch on the side of his face suddenly turning frosty.

"Oh! One last thing!"

Fukagū is not the only one to almost trip in sudden despair.

Inoichi, ever benevolent looking, gently but firmly reminds, "Ino-chan's birthday is coming up, don't forget to respond to the invites. Hmm?" He cocks his head, flow of blonde hair offering a urethral swish.

"Tch," Fugakū makes a vague 'yes, yes' gesture with his folder of papers before hurrying to the door as much as politeness would allow. The moment he makes it into the hallway a chill dives down his spine. A chill that came with a message: Turn around, bitch.

Doing just that, Fugakū has to squint in bewilderment.

A dark figure was silhouetted by an eerie, conveniently-placed lamp standing in the middle of the hallway. Positively radiating dramatic tension.

"Would you like to explain to me, Fugakū-san, why I'm currently indebted to a Shaman for five hundred dollars for consultation?"

"Shikaku-san?" Fugakū starts, adding lamely. "Where did you get the lamp?"

Are Nara's allowed to be angry?

"Answer the question."

Fugakū stood silently, transfixed for a moment before saying, "I haven't the faintest what you're spewing."

"Lies!" Shikaku hisses. "Your son –" Fugakū mentally howls – "polluted my son's mind with ideas about demons. And that he was haunted by one!"

"Aren't ghosts the ones who should do the haunting?"

"Don't try to change the subject!" Shikaku advances out of his shadowy stature. Finger raised deftly. "Explain, to me Fugakū-san. Just what the hell your son's agenda is with infecting my boy."

"How are you so sure it's my son's doing?" Fugakū asks despite himself, adding just a hint of scepticism to his tone.

Shikaku looks appropriately unmoved.

He relents. "There is no agenda."

Shikaku chuffs. "Don't try to fool me. There's always an agenda with Uchiha's."

Fukagū gives a slightly sullen look.

"…Seriously?"

He sniffs. "What?"

Shikaku leans in a bit, squinting as though he couldn't see right. "Seriously. Your son?"

"Stop there while you're still breathing." Fugakū glares a bit, making Shikaku lean back. Smirking lopsidedly. Sinking back into his lazy attitude like a cat getting the cream.

"Ho~ I have no intention to offend. It's lovely. An honest Uchiha, sure he's a bit loopy but children," he shrugs as though it explained everything. Which it really didn't. "Makes my job a whole lot easier to recognize."

"Recognize what?" Fugakū bursts, having enough with this weird set-up and glowing lights.

Shikaku splays his hands out theatrically. Continuing to display more emotion than he's done so in his wasteful thirty-eight years of life. "You won't believe it, but your son's convinced his new friend is a magical demon and plans to manipulate it into conquering the world for him."

Realising who this 'new friend' is, Fugakū turns ashen.

"Obviously, seeing as you're the Uchiha's you wouldn't have actually allowed your son to befriend Uzumaki. Considering as you just managed to kick the misunderstanding surrounding the Nine Tails attack and the Minato's death to the curb."

Oh if only.

A large part of Fugakū's brain wants to rock back and forth and suck its thumb.

"Your son must have somehow misunderstood his new friend's disposition. Shikamaru described him as wild-looking. Understandable considering the wondrous imagination children possess at that age. Although," Shikamaru tuts. Beginning to look confused himself. He stares at nowhere in particular, mulling. "I can't particularly comprehend how Shikamaru of all people could have taken your son's words so profoundly. Anyway – " Shikaku turns to blink at the empty space of air Fukagū once stood. In the distance the Exit door slams shut. "Bastard could of at least compensated for the Shaman."

. - .

"Hey, Itachi-kun," Shisui drapes himself over Itachi's shoulders as they wait for their identification cards to be approved at Konoha's Gate. "How'd you like me to treat you to some dango after dropping our mission report off?"

"What's with the sudden bribery," Itachi's eyes slide over to his cousin. Slinking off once his identification's been accepted.

"Oi!" Shisui rushes to catch up, hands raised as though Itachi were a petrified dog about to piss out of anxiety. "I promise it's nothing too bad. As a matter of fact, I think it'll be good for your testosterone levels."

"See you tomorrow." Itachi dismisses, already sensing he was trying to poach him out to the wolves.

"I'm not poaching you!" Shisui exclaims. Reading his mind. "It's a double date I managed to set up. Let's be real here, Itachi. You're a shinobi in a good way, but in another you're a complete mess. You're gonna get laid tonight! Rough and tough. We're gonna loosen you up and make a man outta you!"

They had emerged into the busying, dusty streets of Konoha – and immediately wished they hadn't.

People gawked. Wide expressions telling the boys that they had been given a terrible fright of too much information. Second hand embarrassment turning them scarlet.

Itachi cranes his head over to his horrified cousin. It was perhaps one of the worst things Shisui could have aimed at Itachi other an a jutsu – which he would have gladly accepted in this moment.

Uchiha Clan Heir.

Child genius.

Barely fourteen it was so beyond illegal more than one bystander starts choking on air looking like they wished to sink into the dirt.

He shakes his head a little bit - well it could be perceived as shaking, but it was more like repressed homicide.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He forces out.

Shisui faces him. Eyes trying to physically transmit his shame and sorrow.

Itachi's gaze is implacable.

"Yeah. Sure."

He leaves.

Ears burning in humiliation. Sometimes he really didn't understand his dearest, frustrating cousin.

Just as Itachi finds himself walking through the Uchiha compound, he notices something extremely irregular. Also a wonderful distraction.

A child-like figure, at least he thinks it is, spotting died black hair, shades and a scarf around their face was walking in front of him like a purposeful heroine with no clear direction in mind.

Itachi observes. Curious as to what this goal in infiltrating the Uchiha compound entailed. Clearly the guards posted didn't see him as a threat, so Itachi's not too worried.

He follows the kid past the bakery, local art gallery before he knew it the kid seems to perk up outside the little milk bar. Body twisting towards the door, Itachi sees the reflection in the glass.

Uzu…Uzumaki?

"Master!"

Another child from inside the Milk Bar blasts the door open with their palms. Itachi goes still from realising that was his little brother being called "Master" and his mother shouting from inside the shop as the ferocious little boy tackles Uzumaki in a growl.

"Kento, stay in line of sight, sweetheart!"

Kento's too busy trying to physically shush his friends' mouth with his hands to respond.

"Don't call me that in public you damned demon!" Kento hisses in Uzumaki's floral covered face. "I'm not supposed to know. Get it?"

Itachi was gone two days.

Uzumaki lowers the shades so his eyes connect with Kento's. He gives a conspiring wink and thumbs up.

Somehow, this doesn't inspire much confidence in his little brother. "What can I expect, you're a kid. You wouldn't understand societal politics."

Itachi can feel his face try to express emotion beyond blankness.

It was then Kento finally spots him out the corner of his eye.

The reaction he was expecting to receive from his little, dearest brother after being away on mission was not horror.

"You're here?!"

"Obviously," Itachi's shoulders weigh down.

"But why?" Kento seems to realise something. Hopefully it was tact. "Did you hear that?"

Nope. Just his little brother wanting to cover up his manipulative schemes. Itachi isn't surprised. He shields his heart away from any further damaging, hopeful emotions.

"Yes."

"Could you not tell?" He pats Uzumaki's head like a dog. The other kid preens. "I don't want him taken away from me. I've become attached."

This was not a healthy relationship.

"I cannot lie to our parents, I'm sorry."

"Fine, then I'll tell them Shisui wants to get you laid," Kento grins with a savageness Itachi almost sweats at. "I overheard him whispering with another one of our cousins a while back." His brother chuckles to himself. "Oh ho ho ho~ brother dearest you little fox, you. Didn't know you had it in ya."

Itachi's eyes start to shake in muted horror at Kento's level of knowledge, before cooling himself like a dead body.

"I don't know what you mean. I cannot recall."

Kento's grin sharpens knowingly. "Oh? I'll help you remember. I'm sure mother would love to hear this."

"…On second thought, I saw nothing."

Kento nods with aged purpose. "There's a good lad."

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