Chapter Text
“Why’d you have to send Annaisha to wake me.” Hitoshi mutters. Sasuke raises an eyebrow at the attitude. He knows Hitoshi has a harder time waking up than the other kids, but still.
“Excuse me?” He’s getting better at the whole watch-your-tone voice. It was a bit of a learning curve, and he’s still not entirely sure how he acquired so many children, but they all remind him of himself and since he’s pretty much all out of ideas on the getting back home front, he had to find some way to occupy himself.
Hitoshi is the brat he’s most familiar with. He’s been with him the longest, afterall. So Hitoshi immediately recognizes Sasuke’s tone and corrects himself.
“Sorry,” He mutters.
Sasuke nods, satisfied for now. “Set the table. If the others aren’t up by that time, get them up using any means necessary.”
“Any?” Hitoshi echoes.
Sasuke lets a grin spread across his face. “Any and all.”
Hitoshi has never set the table so fast in his life.
He disappears up the stairs and Sasuke prepares to hear indignant shouts. They come a few minutes later.
“Hey! I’m gonna tell Sasuke-san you did that!” The youngest, Hiyori, screams.
“He said I could use any means necessary , Hicchan.” He hears Hitoshi reply with smug satisfaction clear in his voice.
The next child down the stairs is Kinboshi. They’re the second youngest. 10 years old, making them 5 years younger than Hitoshi.
Kinboshi is quiet. Their Quirk is telekinesis, but they don’t use it often, which Sasuke doesn’t mind. Hiyori’s Quirk is loud enough for both of them.
“Food?” Kinboshi rubs their eyes tiredly.
“Mhm.” Hitoshi, who returned just a few seconds ago, yawns and Kinboshi does the same. They each get their food.
Most of their meals are self-serve since Kinboshi is very particular about their food. It led to arguments before, but eventually, they came to the mutual conclusion that even if they fought, Kinboshi’s food sensitivities weren’t going to change if they felt that strongly about it.
“Eggs?” Kinboshi wrinkles their nose and Sasuke can tell that Kinboshi will get very upset very quickly if he doesn’t say anything.
“Cooked in a separate pan that was washed and dried twice. I used the stovetop on the top left and I only used it for the eggs.” He says quickly but confidently.
“…Hand?”
“Washed thoroughly.” Sasuke lets Kinboshi inspect his only hand. He’s gotten over the missing hand. It hadn’t taken long since his snakes helped him out around the house anyway. And really, any adversaries in this world are still weak enough that he doesn’t even need to use one hand.
Kinboshi nods and offers Sasuke a beaming smile before getting their food.
“Hitoshi, did you manage to get Hiyori out of bed?”
“She’s in the shower as we speak.” Hitoshi answers.
“Sasuke-san!” A loud, panicked shout comes from the room of the second oldest, Genji.
Sasuke isn’t worried, not really. Genji has the tendency to panic about losing small things, especially in the mornings.
Sasuke turns off all the burners on the stove and the oven before heading to where Genji and Hiyori share a room.
As soon as Sasuke’s in the room, Genji runs up to him with nervous hands. “I-I can’t… find my binder.”
“Alright. Do you remember if you put it in the laundry?” Sasuke doesn’t remember washing it but Genji sometimes does it himself so he can have it early the next morning.
“I… dunno. Can’t find it.” He repeats.
“Let’s check the dryer.” Sasuke turns and heads to the laundry room. He makes sure he can hear Genji’s footsteps behind him as he walks.
He opens the dryer and steps back. “Don’t throw everything in the dryer on the floor. Put it on top of the dryer or in the clean laundry bin.”
Genji nods quickly and searches through the laundry anxiously going through the things until he makes an excited sound. “Found it!”
His hands shake with excitement instead of nervousness and he’s about to run off before Sasuke stops him.
“I’m glad you found it,” Sasuke replies slowly, “but can you pick up the clothes that fell on the floor while you looked?”
Genji nods and puts the things that fell on the floor back in the dryer. He looks to Sasuke for confirmation, which Sasuke gives him, and then returns to his room to finish getting ready.
“You can’t not eat!” Sasuke wouldn’t have heard this if his hearing wasn’t better than average.
“I know that, ‘Boshi! I’ll eat it later.” Hiyori’s naturally loud voice answers.
“But it’ll be all gross later.” The disgust in Kinboshi’s voice is palpable.
“I don’t care about that stuff as much as you, ‘Boshi, but don’t worry. I’ll make sure it’s packed real good.”
Sasuke choses that moment to re-enter the kitchen. Hiyori has joined Hitoshi and Kinboshi at the table. All three children freeze when he enters the room and stop talking immediately.
“You do know I could hear you, right?” Sasuke says dryly. “Hiyori, it’s fine if you don’t want to eat it right now, you can eat it on the way to school or as a snack, but eat it at some point.”
“Got it!” She slides down her chair and runs to the other room. Hiyori is quite short for her age. Her feet still don’t reach the floor of the kitchen stools.
There’s a 4 year gap between the middle children. Hitoshi is 15, Genji is 14, Kinboshi is 10, and Hiyori is 9.
Ah, that’s right.
“Your birthday is soon, Hiyori. What would you like?”
“A radio!” She shouts and the ringing from her voice makes Hitoshi and Kinboshi wince.
“Your Quirk, Hicchan.” Hitoshi reminds her gently.
“Oh!” She whispers. “Sorry.”
“Radio? For Presentation Michael?” Kinboshi wonders. Hitoshi wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.
“He’s just super cool!” Hiyori defends.
Sasuke nods and listens to her talk about him for what must be the 15th time this week. He suppresses a sigh. It’s only Monday.
Present Mic and Hiyori have similar Quirks, but Hiyori’s voice doesn’t increase in volume. Instead, if she gets too excited, her voice can cause people to hear ringing in their ears. In extreme cases, eardrums have been blown out. According to her doctor, it shouldn’t affect her, but Sasuke’s been subtly pushing her into learning some sign language, just in case.
Genji is last to enter the kitchen, as usual, since it takes him a bit more time to get ready. Genji is the newest addition, he joined them a year ago after he was kicked out of his last home for “causing problems.” He doesn’t have a Quirk, well not that they know of. Genji doesn’t really seem to care one way or another so neither do the rest of them.
Sasuke only legally got his foster license a year and a half ago when he had to pull some strings to get Kinboshi with him. He’s still not really sure how these children have wormed their way into his heart, but he isn’t going to complain. He knows full well how badly this whole experience could’ve ended for him had he been completely alone, though Hitoshi is the only one who knows about where he’s really from.
Genji gets his food and joins the others.
“You all have everything?” He asks.
Back when he was at the academy, he spent months working up a routine so he wouldn’t forget any of his personal belongings, but since he was around 8, it still happened anyway. He remembers wishing he had someone there to remind him.
Not that any of that is important for now, but every time he asks he can’t help but be reminded.
He lists things each of them should have. Genji and Hiyori, predictably, forget more things than the other two, which always upsets Genji more than Hiyori, but not as much as it used to.
“You have to meet my mentor today, remember?” Hitoshi speaks around a bite of toast.
“Finish chewing before you speak, Hitoshi.” Sasuke replies instinctively. “And yes, I do remember. Aizawa Shouta, correct?”
“That’s the one.” Hitoshi nods. “He said he’d come here cause I mentioned that I had siblings.”
Sasuke blinks. “Awfully considerate of him.”
He is slightly suspicious. He’s known Hitoshi for 4 years at this point and seen his fair share of people trying to use the kid. He’s relatively confident that he’s taught Hitoshi how to recognize those types of people, but Sasuke will always be more paranoid than the kids.
(At least he hopes he will be. There’s not a lot of things that could happen to the kids for them to be more paranoid than him, and all of them are things he doesn’t want to think about happening to any of them.)
“I know you have a thing against everyone you don’t know,” Sasuke feels like he ought to be offended at that. “But he’s a cool guy.”
“I’m sure he is.” Sasuke replies honestly. But that doesn’t mean Sasuke’s going to ignore the possibility of him being creepy. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive, as Sasuke knows very well.
The rest of the morning continues in a similar fashion. All the brats manage to keep track of all of their things long enough for them to leave, and Sasuke does a bit of cleaning and shopping that takes up most of the morning.
He does have a job. He’s a freelance “problem solver.” Most of those problems are people and 9 times out of 10, the solution is killing them, but that’s not really important. It makes a lot of money, especially in a world where most people with the correct… skill set for the job either turn to a life of crime or become heroes with morals.
Sasuke, of course, has lines he won’t cross. Killing kids is one of them. He’s never been able to do it. Even when he was with the Akatsuki. Orochimaru and Suigetsu always called him soft for it. Though Suigetsu said it in a more teasing manner.
More often than not, job requests that entail child murder end up with the requester dying instead of the kid.
He makes himself lunch and picks up a job for tomorrow evening. The short notice jobs usually pay more, and while he’s not really short on money, it would be nice to save some since Hiyori is bound to ask for something ridiculously expensive now that she’s more comfortable in the house.
Last year she had been surprised to even get a gift at all, but she’s had much more time to get used to a new environment.
He sends off the confirmation and goes to clean his weapons.
By the time 3:15 comes around, pretty much all his kunai and shuriken look brand new. He has to keep them in good shape since he doesn’t have a place to get really high quality ones for a reasonable price.
He picks up Kinboshi and Hiyori first, since they get out of school first.
“Sasuke-san!” Hiyori runs up to him and begins firing off rapidfire facts about her day. Kinboshi walks at a calmer pace but seems similarly happy.
“Hand.” Kinboshi makes grabby motions at Sasuke’s hand.
“Kinboshi.” Sasuke replies chidingly.
Kinboshi scowls. “Hand. Please.”
Sasuke lets Kinboshi clean off his hand and lower wrist with a cloth before holding it.
“Thank you.” Kinboshi clutches Sasuke’s hand tightly in theirs and they continue their journey to Genji’s school before returning home again.
Hitoshi is buzzing with nerves as he and Aizawa-san make their way to his house. His jaw is clenched tightly to stop himself from rambling.
“There’s no reason to be nervous, Hitoshi.” Aizawa-san says impassively.
“I know.” He just really wants Sasuke to like Aizawa-san. They’re actually really similar, so they should get along.
They go up the steps to the house and Hitoshi unlocks the door.
“I’m home!” He calls, though he doesn’t really need to. Hicchan runs up to him almost immediately and pulls him into the house, retelling stories from her day.
“Welcome.” ‘Boshi looks up from the book they’re reading.
“Where’s Genji?” Though he probably knows the answer to that. Genji has been really into math lately, which isn’t a sentiment Hitoshi shares but it’s cute either way. Actually, it’s becoming kind of not-cute because Genji is getting way past Hitoshi’s grade level and is coming to him with concepts Hitoshi hasn’t even heard of.
“He’s in our room!” Hicchan answers.
Sasuke walks over and carefully pries Hicchan from around Hitoshi’s waist.
“Hiyori, Kinboshi, I have to talk with Hitoshi’s teacher now.” He explains. “Please pack up, I can help you if you need, and continue in my or Kinboshi’s room right now. Dinner is in an hour or two.”
“But I want to stay! Why does Hitoshi get to stay?” Hiyori whines.
Kinboshi frowns, upset at the prospect of having to move. Sasuke inhales in the way he does when he’s beginning to feel overwhelmed, but reels it in before the other kids notice.
“I’ll put Sana with you, if you’d like.”
“Sana?” Kinboshi pipes up.
Sasuke’s eyes gleam victoriously as he herds them into one of the bedrooms.
“I apologize, Aizawa-san.” Sasuke says when he returns as he gestures for Aizawa-san to sit.
“It’s no problem.” Aizawa-san replies easily.
“Tea?” Sasuke offers.
“No, thank you.”
“Coffee?”
Aizawa-san hesitates. “I’ll have some coffee, thanks.”
Sasuke makes a clone of himself and has it watch the coffee while he sits on the armchair next to the sofa Aizawa-san and Hitoshi are sitting on.
Sasuke uses his abilities around the house quite often. Hitoshi knows they’re not a Quirk, from what Sasuke’s told him. It’s fascinating, either way. The scope of what Sasuke can do never ceases to amaze.
Aizawa watches the clone carefully but doesn’t say anything about it.
“You’re quite young.” is what he says instead, blunt as ever.
“I’m 24.”
Aizawa-san must’ve thought he was a little older, from the little hints of surprise that make it onto his face.
“Even younger than I thought.” Aizawa-san mutters, confirming Hitoshi’s suspicions.
“You were 20 when we met?” Hitoshi pipes up, also a bit surprised. They never really discussed Sasuke’s age explicitly. Only that he was an Adult With Issues.
“Around that age, yes.” Sasuke nods, clearly thinking about the awkward first meeting they had.
Hitoshi’s running. His legs burn with exhaustion and his breath condenses with each exhale. He’s so exhausted that he doesn’t notice the man in front of him.
He can’t slow himself down fast enough and for a moment, he’s terrified that he’s about to run into this stranger. He doesn’t, though. The man side steps him with ease and they make eye contact for several excruciatingly awkward seconds.
“Oh.” The man says, rather belatedly. “Hello.”
“…Hi?”
Silence.
“Can I… help you?” The man asks.
“I don’t think so.” Hitoshi replies, equally bemused by the situation.
“I figured as much.”
More silence.
“I’m going to go….” The man slowly turns to leave.
“Yeah. Me too.” Hitoshi is also about to turn to leave when they realize they’re turning in the same direction.
“Ah.” The man observes. “We’re headed the same way.”
“It appears so.”
Neither of them move.
Hitoshi wants to crawl into a hole and never come out.
They’re broken out of their frozen state by Hitoshi’s foster parent screaming down the alley that she’ll be throwing out all his stuff and he can expect the social worker in a few hours.
“Shit.”
“Oh.” The man says eloquently. “It seems you’re homeless.”
“Thanks for pointing that out.” Hitoshi mutters.
“Unfortunate.”
“Very.”
“I’d say it’s been nice meeting you but….”
“It hasn’t.”
“Not really, no.” The man pauses. “I do need to get going, though. Hopefully your situation sorts out.” He speaks in a way that would maybe be comforting if they hadn’t spent the last few minutes standing around like 6th graders at a school dance.
“Yep.”
The man disappears.
Hitoshi hopes they never see each other again.
Hitoshi’s hope does not come true.
Now, it’s funny to think about, for a while though, it just sat in the back of their minds, neither of them having the social skills to bring it up.
“Was there a reason for this meeting, Aizawa-san?” Sasuke wonders. The clone he summoned hands him and Hitoshi a cup of tea and Aizawa takes his coffee.
“Thank you,” Aizawa says to the clone, which dispels almost immediately. “Yes, actually. As I’m sure you know, I’ve begun training Hitoshi so he can get into the hero course.”
“I am aware, yes.” Sasuke nods. “I support him fully, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“That’s good to hear, but-”
“Sasuke-san!” A tearful cry from Kinboshi, who’s usually very soft spoken, has Sasuke and Hitoshi on their feet in less than a second.
Sasuke is gone from the living room faster than Hitoshi’s eyes can register.
Hitoshi runs to Kinboshi’s room to find Sasuke crouched next to Hiyori and Kinboshi, both of which have tears running down their faces. Kinboshi has blood running down one of their fingers and the book they were reading is torn in half. Hitoshi can guess what happened.
The door to Genji’s room creaks open at the loud noises and Hitoshi can tell that the stress from the two youngest will get to him soon.
“Sasuke-san?” Genji asks.
“Hitoshi, can you-” Hitoshi cuts Sasuke off, which would usually be something Sasuke wouldn’t like, but this situation is already stressful enough.
“Got it.”
Hitoshi mutters an apology to Aizawa-san, who’s standing in the doorway with a concerned look marring his face, but the wariness he was carrying when he entered the house is gone. At this, Hitoshi feels a weight on his chest lift.
“I have to say, I didn’t think this to be a place you would frequent, Uchiha-san.” The voice of Hitoshi’s teacher, Aizawa Shouta, shouldn’t be a surprise, given where they are.
The bar they’re at is a hotspot for information. Sasuke is here to get some intel before he completes a few jobs. Aizawa is probably here for similar reasons of a more heroic nature.
“Really?” Sasuke asks, amused. “Should I be offended at the underestimation?”
“Hardly.” Aizawa scoffs, before ordering a drink. “I never did ask you what you did for work, afterall.”
“Hm? Is that suspicion I’m sensing from you?”
“Well, you're not a villain. Not to toot my own horn but I would’ve heard of you by now if you were.” Aizawa shrugs. “As long as it’s not that, you’re out of my jurisdiction.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Sasuke orders 6 Kamikaze shots.
Aizawa wolf whistles. “You must have some alcohol tolerance.”
“Of a sort.” Sasuke replies vaguely, downing 3 of the shots. It would take a full bottle of vodka to get him passed tipsy.
The night drags on and Sasuke spends most of it listening to his surroundings, like Aizawa. They sit in an amicable silence for most of it, only talking occasionally. He’s ordered 12 more shots since then.
“Can’t imagine your kids would appreciate you coming home drunk.” Aizawa’s voice hasn’t changed even a little bit since their first interaction in the bar. He’s had several drinks, so either he’s really good at hiding the effects of the alcohol or he’s got a similar tolerance to Sasuke.
“Good thing they don’t have to worry about that, then.” Sasuke pauses. “They aren’t my kids.”
“Give it up.” Aizawa sounds like he’s speaking from experience. “There’s no escape.”
Sasuke finishes off his shots. At this point, he’s feeling a bit drunk and he knows he’s gone a bit overboard. If he does the math correctly, he’s had 36 ounces of vodka, which is well over a liter.
“I should get going.” Sasuke stands up carefully.
Aizawa is staring at where his left arm would be if it was still there. There’s a question in his eyes but Sasuke can tell he doesn’t know how to ask it.
“It’s been gone for some time, Aizawa-san.” Sasuke says. “8 years.”
And wow that is such a strange thing to think about. It’s been that long since the war. His heart twists at the thought that it’s also been 6 years since he’s seen any of his teammates.
“You must’ve been quite young.” Aizawa comments.
Sasuke’s mouth moves on autopilot. “Not really. But it was my fault anyway.”
“You’re 24? So 8 years ago is 16.”
“I was 17.” He blinks and shakes his head lightly. “It doesn’t matter.”
Aizawa raises an eyebrow and stands up.
“I should get going.” Sasuke repeats. He grabs his jacket. “See you around, Aizawa-san.”
He leaves the bar and doesn’t look back.