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“Stop dragging your feet” Shisui ordered and pulled the backpack from Itachi’s hands before the younger boy had a chance to zip it.
“Hey!” Itachi snapped. He glared up at his cousin.
“You’ve packed and repacked 5 times. I guarantee you have everything you need,” Shisui promised.
“Maybe I’d be more confident if I knew where we were going or what we were doing,” Itachi grumbled.
Shisui didn’t manage to stop his eyes from rolling this time. “Again, the idea is that it’s a present. By definition I can’t tell you anything else.”
Itachi squeezed his eyes closed and counted to 10 before opening. “This is a bad idea,” he said after a minute. His voice was low, like he was afraid of being overheard even though the house was empty.
Shisui’s face softened. “We can take a weekend,” he said.
Itachi shook his head. “What if something happens while we’re gone?”
“The one good thing about being up to our necks in this mess is that neither side will start shit without us.” Shisu ran his fingers through his short cropped curls and tugged at the knots that always seemed to appear on the crown of his head. His lips fell into a frown.
Itachi shivered.In a heartbeat, his kind, goofy, mischievous older cousin had been replaced by a man Itachi almost wished was a stranger.
Shisui looked older than his 15 years. His expression was cold and empty. His eyes stared at nothingness with the intensity of a veteran shinobi on the battlefield.
Itachi climbed to his feet and tugged at the bag in Shisui’s hand. “I can carry my own bag,” he said.
Shisui shook his head and Itachi wondered what memories and worries clung to his cousin like cobwebs.
Shisui flashed Itachi a grin that the younger Uchiha couldn’t help but return. He very purposely didn’t think about the summons he’d received earlier that day. He’d had this trip planned for 6 months and he wasn’t going to give it up for Danzou Shimmaru. The man owned pretty much every other aspect of their lives. Shisui was adamant that he didn’t get to have Itachi’s 13th birthday. They were going to have fun or die trying. “Good, because you way overpacked and I’m not carrying that thing. I think it weighs as much as you do.”
Itachi rolled his eyes and turned for the door. He hesitated on the front porch.
Shisui raised an eyebrow.
“I have no idea where we’re going,” Itachi reminded his cousin.
Shisui winced and hopped down from the porch.
Itachi fell into step off Shisui’s right shoulder and the pair walked through the morning sunlight.
Itachi did his best not to notice the way people stared and whispered. The eyes on them didn’t diminish when the 2 Uchiha stepped through the gates of the clan compound and into the village proper.
The red and white crest that both boys wore on their back was reason enough for the villagers to stare and anbu to shadow them through the city streets. The rumors that Itachi heard whispered when people thought he was out of earshot didn’t help.
Protege, they called him. Something unnatural about him. How could someone so young be in the anbu?
Shisui, was the subject of his own rumors. What sort of shinobi turns down an appointment to the anbu? What sort of an Uchiha goes against the good of the clan?
Shisui met every curious and accusatory glance with a smile that showed just a bit too many teeth. His eyes were dark, so dark the pupil and iris were indistinguishable.
No one held Shisui’s gaze if they weren’t compelled to by the crimson glow of his sharingan. Uncanny. Unnatural, people whispered.
Both boys relaxed when the village gates were hidden from sight behind the first hill on the road north.
An hour into their walk, Shisui turned off the road.
Itachi didn’t question it.
Shisui glanced over his shoulder. A different, wicked smile on his lips. “Think you can keep up with me?” he asked Itachi.
Itachi adjusted the bag on his shoulders as an answer.
Shisui didn’t waste time acknowledging it. His form flickered and he was gone.
Itachi just smiled and darted after Shisui.
Chakra ran warm and steady through Itachi’s veins, enhancing his muscles and strengthening the bones so they didn’t snap under the force on them. Faster than humanly possible, the 2 Uchiha raced through the forest.
Sunlight filtered through the pine boughs delicate beams. The air was sharp with the scent of pine and growing things.
A bird startled at the passage of twin blurs and called a warning.
The trees grew taller and sturdier the further from civilization they got.
When the branches looked sturdy enough, Shisui took to the canopy.
Itachi shifted his chakra, channeling it to the soles of his feet and chased Shisui up the trunk of a ponderosa that had likely seen the birth of Konohagakure.
Bark crunched under sandals.
They moved so fast the world around them blurred.
It was reckless, but Itachi didn’t protest.
Green needles merged with golden sunlight like an endless kaleidoscope.
Under Shisui’s feet a clearing stretched. He pushed off the last branch and reached for the blue sky overhead. It was so close he could almost grasp it.
The fall seemed to last forever. Shisui took the impact on his shoulder and rolled to disperse the force.
Itachi, his eyes spinning red, saw the gap in the canopy in time to stop. He looked down at Shisui, sprawled amid the first of summer’s wildflowers with onyx eyes and the sort of genuine smile he saved for times when Itachi was the only one looking.
Itachi landed lightly in the meadow. He skipped to where Shisui lay and sat down beside his cousin’s head.
Itachi picked a delicate, pink beach pea blossom out of Shisui’s hair. “Better?”
Shisui laughed. “Isn’t it?”
Itachi took a deep breath and surveyed the surroundings. They were miles from the nearest road. Any tail they may have had was long gone. So few people had the skill and chakra to use shuushin in a sustained way. Even fewer had the eyes to track them. All who had both were accounted for elsewhere.
The sun was bright and warm, promising a hot afternoon without making it a threat. A gentle breeze rippled across the meadow. The beach peans bowed their many blossomed heads in greeting.
Itachi tucked the flower he’d stolen from Shisui’s hair behind his own ear and let his shoulder relax. “It is better,” he agreed.
Shisui beamed.
They stayed in the meadow for an hour. A bumble bee bigger than Itachi’s thumb meandered through the meadow and a swallowtail butterfly floated on the wind in an effortless dance.
As chakra faded, Itachi felt an ache settle in his muscles. He was used to shuushin and in good shape, so the justus left him feeling pleasantly tired-- limbs heavy and entirely ready for a nap in the sunlight.
Shisui saw the way Itachi’s blinks slowed down and noticed the way the kid’s back shifted to the sun, like a cat.
“We should keep moving,” Shisui muttered. He climbed to his feet with a groan and offered Itachi a hand up. “I don’t want to be walking when it gets hot.”
Shisui took the lead again. This time his pace was more or less leisurely. Sometimes he sprinted a few yards ahead to dance along a fallen log. Other times he stopped to poke at an odd fungus with a stick.
Itachi hummed and trailed behind his cousin, content to watch and think about nothing.
Early afternoon, Shisui stopped. He turned to Itachi and, faster than the younger could react, Shisui pulled Itachi’s forehead protector down over his eye.
Itachi’s pulse skyrocketed and he scrambled to uncover his eyes as fear made his finger stupid.
Shisui realized his mistake as soon as he’d made it. “Easy,” Shisui ordered. He quickly helped Itachi pull the metal and fabric away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t really think that through.”
Itachi blinked the sharingan out of his eyes and they both pretended he wasn’t also blinking away tears. His skin burned where Shisui’s fingertips had skimmed his eyelids.
The remnants of the nightmare all Uchiha shared danced across both boys’ vision. As long as there had been the sharingan, there had been those who coveted it. Guard your eyes , the elders taught.
Itachi hated it. He hated it even more when he realized why they looked at him and not Shisui when they said it. Shisui was older, but he wasn’t the clan heir. If one of them was meant to be the spare, it wasn’t Itachi. If one of them was likely to upset the clan’s designs, it was Shisui.
Itachi shoved such thoughts aside. They weren’t thinking about politics or clans or cyclic history. “I take it, whatever surprise you’ve come up with is ahead?” Itachi asked.
Shisui nodded, but didn’t meet Itachi’s eyes.
Itachi grabbed his cousin’s hand and closed his eyes. “If you run me into a tree, I will never forgive you.”
“I won’t.”
Itachi let Shisui tow him forward. He felt the soft mat of dry pine needles give way to sand and then stone.
“Okay, you can open your eyes,” Shisui said.
Itachi blinked his eyes against the blinding sun and gasped when his vision cleared. The lake wasn’t big, but it was crystal clear and the sort of turquoise that poets spent lifetimes trying to capture.
The emerald green forest was reflected in the flawless surface.
Below, fish swam. They were big. Impossibly big.
Shisui was grinning and already stripping down to his small clothes.
Itachi couldn’t stop staring.
“Pretty great, huh?” Shisui beamed. “I stumbled on it on my way back from a mission.”
Itachi nodded. “It’s beautiful, but why are we here?”
“You asked for something useful for your birthday, so I’m going to teach you how to swim-- really swim, not the dog paddle they teach at the academy.”
The way Shisui was smiling, Itachi wasn’t so sure he shouldn’t have just asked for dango or something.
Shisui nudged Itachi shoulder. “If you don’t start stripping I’m going to drag you in and get your socks wet.”
Itachi wrinkled his nose at the threat. “How deep is it?”
“The rock shelf is only 4 feet deep, but the middle of the lake is deceptively deep. I’m pretty sure the trout are bigger than you.”
“I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Itachi mumbled, but he sat down to tug off his sandals and fold his shirt.
“You couldn’t ask for a better place to learn to swim,” Shisui argued. “No current, no spectators, plenty big, nowhere for creepy things to hide.” Shisui wiggled his fingers at the last thought.
Itachi narrowed his eyes.
Shisui laughed and waded into the water. “Plus it’s perfectly cold even in the sun.”
Itachi set his clothes beside his backpack and followed Shisui into the water.
It was cold enough to steal his breath.
Shishui was a patent teacher and Itachi was an easy student.
By the time the sun started to sink behind the distant mountain peaks, Itachi was equally comfortable floating on his back and paddling around.
Shisui, now convinced his cousin wasn’t going to drown, climbed back out onto the rocky shore.
Before Itachi could ask what he was doing, Shisui was hurling himself off the edge and into the deeper part of the lake.
Shisui pulled his way through the water with practiced ease.
The trout didn’t know what to make of the Uchiha when he wriggled his way into their space. When he made no move to attack, they continued their lazy swimming.
Shisui’s fingers grazed scaled backs and crimson eyes marveled at the way iridescent spots caught the sunlight. They weren’t quite Itachi sized, but close.
Shisui looked up through the crystal clear water and grinned at Itachi.
Itachi just shook his head in fond exasperation, 100 percent certain Shisui was going to give him a heart attack someday.
As the sunset painted the sky crimson, the boys lit a small fire on the beach. They cooked soup in a battered metal teapot and Shisui pulled carefully wrapped dango out of his bag.
The fire crackled. An owl called. The fireflies awoke to dance along the shoreline and the stars overhead soon followed their lead.
The first meteor took Itachi by surprise.
Shisui saw it reflected in Itachi’s dark eyes. “There’s supposed to be a shower,” he said lightly.
“I know,” Itachi breathed, eyes locked on the sky, half eaten dango momentarily forgotten. “You can’t see it from the city. I didn’t even think…”
“Come on,” Shisui ordered. He was half breathless from excitement.
Itachi frowned, but set down his food and stood up.
Shisui hopped from foot to foot back down to the lake.
Itachi hesitated at the edge of the water. Without the sun, it would undoubtedly be frigid.
Shisui grabbed Itachi’s ankle and saved him from the indecision.
Itachi shrieked and came up sputtering.
Shisui laughed so hard he choked trying to stay afloat.
Itachi flailed around, trying to dunk his cousin.
Shisui batted Itachi’s hands away. “You can drown me later, come on. Follow my lead.”
Itachi sighed and watched Shisui, still not sure why they were back in the water.
Shisui floated on his back and kicked his feet gently, so that he glided towards the middle of the small lake.
Itachi did the same. As he drifted closer, Shisui grabbed his hand.
Slowly, the surface of the water stilled and Itachi understood. The stars weren’t just overhead. They were all around.
The meteor shower began in earnest.
Itachi felt like he was floating through the sky and Shisui’s hand in his was the only thing anchoring him.
When Itachi couldn’t keep his eyes open, the boys swam back to shore and laid out sleeping bags on the sand.
“Did you make a wish?” Shisui asked, voice sleep and eyes still fixated on the sky.
“Yeah.”
“Me too.”
“What’d you wish for?” Itachi couldn’t keep himself from asking.
“For this to last forever,” Shisui murmured.
“Meteor showers are short,” Itachi mumbled around a yawn.
“I meant this feeling. It’s nice to not have to worry, to just get to be kids. It’s not like either of us got a chance to just thave fun growing up, we’ve got to steal the chances when we see them. It’d be nice if it would just last.”
Itachi frowned. Sometimes he forgot that Shisui and he had so much in common. Itachi had 2 sources of fun in his life, his baby brother who he loved dearly and who made sure had the chance to enjoy being a kid, and Shisui who made sure he had the chance to enjoy being a kid. Shisui only had him. Shisui hadn’t had anybody for years.
Itachi could imagine how lonely it had been to be the lone protege, a little kid with grownup eyes and grownup responsibilities.
“What’d you wish for?” Shisui asked, like he knew where Itachi’s thoughts were going.
“I wished for my 14th birthday to be better than this one.”
Shisui made an indignant noise.
Itachi snickered. “That’s not an insult. If wishes come true, everything’s going to work out better than I can even imagine. It’ll have to for anything to top this.”
In the dark, Shisui smiled.
---
It’s odd how well wishes sometimes work out, how much one little choice can change the course of history.
The Shisui and Itachi returned from their camping trip and caught Itachi’s father home alone, working on clan paperwork. Fugaku was tired. He’d been so afraid when Itachi disappeared. Only finding out that Shisui was also unaccounted for had kept him from tearing out of the village in search of his son.
Between the relief and exhaustion, Fugaku fell under Shisui’s ultimate genjutsu with ease.
When Shisui went to makeup his meeting with Danzou, Itachi went with him. The man had been prepared for one protege, but not 2. Swimming wasn’t the only thing Itachi learned from his cousin.
Peace came easy after that.
Shisui let the genjutsu on Fugaku fade 6 months later. The Uchiha never really wanted war.
Itachi wove a failsafe into the genjutsu on Danzou. The elder never really wanted peace.
Itachi spent his 14th birthday between anbu assignments at an undeveloped hot spring high in the mountains above Iwa. Shisui sprawled on the warm ground and complained that they weren’t going to be able to see the meteors with all the steam.
Itachi just hummed and fixed his eyes on the sky.