Chapter Text
Another mission completed.
Another easy mission completed.
An entire year had passed since he became a genin and he expected some changes. Instead, stagnancy. No increase in mission difficulty. No sign of promotion. An entire year, and he saw no progress. He may as well still be in the academy.
Itachi counted only one mission as his. Konoha pushed to the edge of war, manpower stretched thin, catching that Iwagakure spy had been an important mission probably meant for chunin or jonin yet he had been chosen. Not his team, the other two not a fraction more ready for the chunin exams than day one. Not even his jonin instructor, the man sounding baffled at suddenly being handed an important mission. Itachi had been selected because someone realized how capable he was.
A year left him frustrated. He just couldn’t accept that things took time. He may not have time.
A year since joining the meetings beneath Nakano Shrine, he had seen a steady decline. The arguments, the animosity, every meeting he attended left a hole that filled with more and more frustration. Everytime he tried to say anything, his voice was smothered- most often by his father, who then tried to smooth over his interruptions by tying it to his age. He could see why Shisui had given up, silent, swallowing his opinion and choking on it with a miserable look.
If Itachi had a higher rank, maybe they’d listen…
Minazuki doubled over, his hands on his knees as he breathed heavily. Itachi tried to ignore him as he passed by. Shinko finished her dash to the edge of the water, giving an excited hop and shout at seeing the ocean.
Their mission today had concluded on the Southern coast of the Land of Fire. A simple delivery mission without a hint of trouble along the way. Except for Tenma trying to divert them from the set route, convinced a different path was suddenly a shortcut.
His time better spent on himself and learning ninjutsu, Itachi had sent a crow summon to scout ahead and return with the safest, fastest, route his team could handle. Minazuki agreed to the route Itachi laid out. Tenma, of course, refused to accept it because Itachi had been the one to suggest it. Shinko then tried to argue on Itachi’s behalf while calling Tenma out. Minazuki had stood off to the side looking flustered. A typical day.
The same events repeated when Shinko smelt ocean salt. Just one look, she promised, taking off. Tenma charged after her while shouting, now suddenly upset about someone diverting from the path. Voices fading over a growing distance, it was clear they wouldn’t be returning any time soon. Itachi went to fetch them as Minazuki stood idly. The sprint to catch up had winded Minazuki more than it probably should have.
All three of his genin running off had forced him to follow. Minazuki collapsed to sit in the sand. “We’ll just… Take a… Fifteen-minute break,” Minazuki managed to force out between gasps for air.
That decision sentencing him to another delay, Itachi decided missions away from Konoha may be worse just because the whole day became a lost cause.
And today…
“This is boring,” Tenma complained after a minute of looking around at an empty beach.
“Oh, don’ be like that, it’s beautiful!” Shinko waved her arms to gesture at the ocean stretched along the horizon, calm water reflecting sparkling sunlight. “You’ve been complainin’ all day, now that’s boring.”
The arguing reigniting, the two kicking water at each other, Itachi accepted his fate. They would be camping somewhere tonight instead of making the full return trip.
He turned back towards the trees to find a decent place to read.
His sandal caught the edge of a shell buried in loose sand. He stared, mildly annoyed with the sand it left in his shoe, but the little shell… Pale gold with faded purple-brown stripes, it wasn’t even a particularly special shell, but, just before he’d left…
I miss the ocean.
He ended up reaching down to grab the shell. As he brushed off the sand, he considered how ridiculous it would be to give it as a graduation gift to anyone else, but Renri would probably like it. She’d have a chance to go on missions like this, and, in context of her, it didn’t sound as bad.
Maybe, part of why he felt so agitated with the normal routine of his team today was because he had to miss her graduation. The other part, he didn’t like that she had graduated early. She didn’t need to, even if she wanted to. The conflict between opposing feelings was draining.
Tenma saw him pocket the shell and, like always, had something to say about nothing. Shinko took it upon herself to chastise him for it, and the splashing continued. Minazuki watched on with a worried look.
Itachi said nothing.
Just another day, everything repeating unchanged.
Renri walked home from the academy a final time.
Hitai-ate tucked away in her shirt, she had graduated. Forever and no time at all. A part of her felt unsure. Takuma-sensei had accidentally become her trusted adult-figure. Graduating meant losing his day-to-day presence. He assured her, somehow catching that thought, so much keener than she credited, that she could still come to him with any issues she had. She stubbornly felt that would be wrong, though, his obligation over. She should be able to handle things on her own. Graduating also meant losing the scheduled stability of the academy. While she could study and do nearly whatever, whenever, she’d never had so much… freedom and responsibility. It almost felt overwhelming to consider, until she remembered this just returned what she lost when she decided to go to the academy.
But, still, she felt more positive than negative about the changes.
Takuma-sensei had met with her jonin instructor prior to the graduation ceremony today. Another worry, she wouldn’t be joining a team formed this year, but replacing a member from a team formed last year. Takuma assured her that she would get along with her jonin instructor- no mention of her teammates. Instead of the orientation day the rest of the graduates would be attending, she had a few extra days to stew in anticipation. Her jonin instructor apparently wanted to give her new teammates time to adjust to the change.
She poked at the headband in her shirt. Her nerves were frayed worse than her sleeve.
The day still didn’t feel quite real.
Had Takuma-sensei not been around, no one familiar would have attended her graduation. Like Itachi’s, most of the graduates were a few years older than her. From the rafters last year, she had felt the notes of hostility as Itachi had read the graduation speech. From the stage earlier today, she had a perfect view of the apprehensive faces radiating that thinly-veiled hostility while the other graduates glared death threats. She admired Itachi all the more for his unflinching response. She wouldn’t have made it through a word of a speech, her sleeve ruined from her picking at it while standing quietly.
Itachi would have probably made an appearance afterwards, had he been in Konoha. He made a point to tell her that he had a mission today, his expression grave like he had to deliver terrible news. She would have burst out laughing if he hadn’t been completely serious. Circular reasoning, she wondered if he treated it seriously because he thought graduating was important, if he thought she thought graduating was important, or if he thought she would simply feel more isolated and alone. Regardless, she felt a returning pang of guilt for not finding him after his.
Instead, she had avoided him before lying to his face and then he lied to her.
Something felt off, after that. Not right away. Maybe not even because of that lie. A week or two later, Itachi and Shisui seemed to share some secret.
“Congrats!”
Renri’s feet left the ground as she startled like a cat, voice ripping her from her thoughts to the source. Shisui stood across the street, hands cupped around his mouth like he needed help projecting. Not far from the academy, people milling about, most looked to him but a few followed his gaze to her and she felt a new wave of heat in her face. He gave a thumbs up as she stood frozen.
She wanted to throw something at him when he laughed at the face she definitely made. He ran before she could act on that. Towards the Hokage tower, she didn’t follow.
Instead, she covered her mouth, hiding a smile and stifling a laugh. Shisui’s congratulations at least felt genuine.
Her final walk home from the academy to her apartment, she decided to make this final as well. Another chapter to force closed, she wanted to leave it behind to be a Konoha shinobi.
A well-kept house nestled between two others, the small yard picked free of weeds and flower bed meticulously tended, she quickly hopped into the tree squished between the house and the fence. Enough leaf cover to be out of sight, she sat down. She closed her eyes.
One of the few times she dared tempt fate and practice sensing more than just chakra was to sense-
It wasn’t there.
Her eyes snapped open, that flicker of life missing. She stared at darkened windows like she’d ever glimpsed more than drawn curtains and silhouettes. Not there, but why? For the last year and a half, there had been no change. No matter how many times she passed, how many times she stretched her ability to sense the entire house, she always sensed a person bound to one room, their chakra so weak it barely existed. That familiarity, she could narrow in on them right away.
She risked jumping from the tree to the adjacent house’s roof. Only one other time had she been foolish enough to try and peer inside that room.
Curtain drawn. A sliver of light between. A gap. A growing shadow, an outline behind-
“You are trespassing.”
Dead monotone froze her. A gasp, a shout, whatever sound tried to escape her throat choked her. The shadow cast onto the house came from a person standing directly behind her. She didn’t need the silhouette to recognize him. Only his voice. Heart pounding in her ears, she still heard him.
An eternity passing, she finally forced her body to move. To confirm. A stiff glance over her shoulder and she met eyes with a rat mask.
He didn’t repeat himself or say anything more. He’d made his point. She understood. Stepping foot onto this property was a crime worse than trespassing on a civilian’s property. Looking wouldn’t be excused.
Rat-mask said Morita Mariko and her mother were no longer residents of Konoha. She was meant to accept that lie unquestioningly, evidence contrary something to be ignored or face elimination.
She’d failed to ignore.
Mariko’s mother had never left. Renri had never accepted the lie handed to her. If no one would tell her anything, she resolved that she would investigate it herself. After all, how hard could it be? She could sense a person inside, always inside, unmoving, barely alive. She went as far as to use genjutsu on one of Mariko’s friends to learn that Mariko’s mother had been severely injured during the kyuubi attack. Her condition had been worsening around the time Mariko had vanished.
Without Shisui present, she wasn’t so bold as to ask anything. Only relent and hope it was enough to be ignored over eliminated.
Her knees wanted to shake as she walked to the edge of the roof. Dropping off the roof to hit solid ground hurt tensed muscles. The jolt of landing, her headband fell partway from her shirt. A half-second of hesitation in her retreat, she stared at the leaf etched in metal, at her wide eyes reflected back at her.
Hitai-ate shoved back into her shirt, she had graduated. Her pace picked up as she fought sprinting away from the house and that Anbu connecting a web.
She couldn’t escape the weight shifting in her shirt with every step.
She was a genin now. She would be expected to protect Konoha.
All of Konoha.
Itachi lingered another minute.
There were two points at which their paths could intentionally cross despite having made no plans.
In the morning, Renri, Itachi, and even Shisui had settled on a time and place for basic warm-up exercises before more serious training. A five minute window offered plenty of time. If anyone showed up, they could do what was basically a short run together- even Renri, while in the academy, had time for it. If not, then whoever showed up could move on with their day without wasting a lot of time.
The second point was a rotating schedule of shops that Renri and Itachi visited in the afternoon. She had been sworn to secrecy. Shisui absolutely couldn’t find out, or Itachi would have to suffer through more of his jokes than he already did.
Five minutes up, he took a step.
A shuriken whizzing by had him lazily looking over his shoulder. It imbedded in a nearby tree, path obvious, precise, and so far away from somehow accidentally hitting him it was comical. He considered taking off into a sprint anyway, just to annoy her. Instead, he waited as Renri finished jogging down the street, already looking like she’d been on a run.
“Don’t you dare,” she said with the last of her breath. He tilted his head slightly. She rolled her eyes. He knew full well she threw that shuriken to tell him to stop before forcing her to try to catch up to him. She wouldn’t. She didn’t appreciate being teased. Not when it meant running.
Otherwise, she was really fun to tease.
He still found it odd for her to be late enough that she had to run to get here in time. She had become rather punctual- and really tried to avoid running any chance she reasonably could. Nothing out of place, only long hair everywhere from running, but…
“Where’s your headband?”
She immediately got flustered, eyes darting everywhere but him. “That’s why I’m late,” she mumbled, reaching into her shirt to retrieve said headband. She ran her fingers over the metal before holding it out, eyes flitting to his when the pause dragged. He was meant to figure something out. A rather standard hitai-ate, etched metal fixed to dark fabric, he didn’t get it. His silence made her pout. She didn’t want to explain. “I don’t know how to wear it!”
He tried not to laugh.
“I’m serious,” she blurted out, desperate to defend herself and the squeak in her voice.
“Do you need help?”
“Itachi,” she complained, pouting more, “you know what I mean.”
He did not, and that finally made him burst out laughing. She tried to maintain her pout. When that failed, she covered her mouth, then failing to completely hide her smile as he quieted down. She may have graduated early, but her primary concern remained: she didn’t want to gain negative attention by missing a social cue she didn’t know about.
“There aren’t any rules,” he said, corner of his lips still quirked, “just wear it however you want.” It really didn’t matter.
Fractional loss of cheer kept from his face, it didn’t matter how it was worn. That wasn’t the question that would be asked. Why were they allowed? Why were they the exception? Did clan come before Konoha?
Maybe that’s why Minazuki wouldn’t recommend him for chunin? There had to be a reason.
Renri tilted the headband, pensively staring at reflective metal.
Something didn’t feel right, not with her standing beside him, a genin, a shinobi. She may be right about him making exceptions for himself, but he had to be exceptional. His goal required it. But Renri, he felt she shouldn’t have been allowed to graduate early no matter her skills. She didn’t need to.
He couldn’t force out any variation of congratulations for her graduation.
“I’ll… figure it out by the time I meet my team.” She shoved the forehead protector back into her shirt. “In a few days.” She paused, looking to him expectantly. He agreed: strange. Orientation should have been today. “Takuma-sensei said that I’d be replacing a member of an existing team.”
He held back a spark of anger. Anger born mostly from concern. Depending on the team, she could be sent on more difficult missions than even him. War had only shifted to subterfuge, not peace. He didn’t like this.
She tugged at her sleeve, his expression somehow letting something through. Something she could misinterpret. ”I don’t know why. Probably not something good, since Takuma-sensei wouldn’t say and my jonin thought it was best to tell the other two a few days before actually meeting.”
“Are you still excited to be a genin?”
The question slipped out almost without thought, but he wanted to know. She had been determined to be helpful. To Konoha. And, to her, that meant as a ninja.
She perked up, discomfort shoved aside as she nodded. “I’m excited and nervous,” she admitted, a slight smile on her face as she messed with her sleeve. “Even if they don’t like me right away, I’m excited to meet my teammates.”
A drastically different stance than Itachi had with his team, but was it wrong that she wanted to be friends with her teammates? Was that what a shinobi should be?
A thousand things he could have brought back, but he held out the seashell, that speck of beach trash all he had to offer her for graduating. “I picked it up while on that mission yesterday.” He felt only a little ridiculous saying it out loud. Especially as she stared at the shell, dark eyes shining.
She gingerly accepted the shell.
“Since you graduated, you’ll get to go on missions, too,” he explained, silence remarkably awkward for him today. Spring sun barely peeking through the clouds this morning, he had no excuse for how warm he felt other than nerves. “You’ll be able to leave.” And return, he hoped, but he realized she had no choice in coming to Konoha.
He’d make it so there was no need for her to be a shinobi anymore.
He couldn’t keep wasting time as a genin.
“Thank you,” she said softly, turning the shell over in her hand before tucking it away safely in a pocket sewn inside her shirt. Through a smile, she promised, “I’ll bring something back for you someday.”
“Please, don’t. Shisui already has a souvenir problem he likes to share.”
She smiled in a way that said she absolutely wouldn’t listen.