Chapter Text
“Hm. So this is the little one that’s caused so much trouble, eh?”
The old woman sat in her chair takes a deep drag off her pipe, blowing great clouds of smoke out of her mouth and catlike nose. Then, she sets the pipe aside with the barest sort of smile.
Itachi nods, passing Makoto off when Nekobaa holds her arms out in a silent demand to hold her.
The old woman inspects the child carefully, like a judge inspecting a prized show dog. Makoto seems to find this fun, giggling when she’s prodded in the belly or her cheeks get pinched. She tries to grab at Nekobaa’s ears, wide eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Various cats hop up onto the chair to inspect her as well, sniffing her and batting at her with their paws trying to figure her out. Makoto seems to like that, trying to grab at their tails and ears with a great, toothless grin.
“She’s cute!” one of the cats declares.
“She’s really fat too nyaa-” another chimes in, with a swish of her bottlebrush tail. “She’s been eating lots huh?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s a lively little thing,” Nekobaa finally declares, once she’s satisfied. “A bit more like your brother than you when you were a kitten.”
Itachi nods again, leaning against Kisame to take some of the weight off the heavy wooden cane in his hand.
“And you want to leave her here while you try to talk your way out of a global war?”
“That’s the short version of things, yeah,” Kisame answers.
“Hm. you’ve got a lot of nerve asking such a favor from us considering your family’s debt to us.”
“I know it’s sudden, and it’s not a small thing to ask. But I still don’t trust Konoha with her if I’m not there, and if things go badly I’d like to know she’s safe.”
“I suppose if the world ends there’s no hope you people will ever pay me back.” Nekobaa harrumphs, though judging by the way she’s handling the baby she can’t be that upset.
“Thank you,” Itachi says, painfully making his way forward. He leans down and kisses Makoto’s forehead, petting her shock of curly dark hair.
“We won’t be gone long,” he promises her. “Just bear with it for a little while, alright?”
Makoto starts to fuss, reaching out toward him to get him to stay.
“Oh hush, you-” Nekobaa scolds. “Your fathers have important matters to attend to, so you’re stuck with us until they’ve sorted this mess out.”
“ Nyaa don’t worry, we’ll look after her!” A particularly corpulent tabby declares. “It’ll be fun won’t it?”
Makoto still whines, reaching out toward Itachi and Kisame as they turn to leave.
“Thank you,” Itachi says. “This means a lot to me.”
Nekobaa huffs, making a show of being annoyed, as if this were some great inconvenience to her. Even though both Kisame and Itachi can tell she isn’t- not really, anyway.
She clears her throat to get them to stop on their way out- possibly waiting for the moment to be suitably dramatic for her tastes.
“You and Sasuke be good to each other, you hear me?” she orders him. “It broke my heart to see you two at odds; it isn’t right and I won’t tolerate any more of that, you hear me boy?”
Itachi can’t keep the smile off his face.
“You won’t have to worry about that,” he assures her. “I think things are going to be fine between us from now on.”
“They better be.”
“We’ll be alright. Thank you for your help.”
With that, they leave, seen off by a cacophony of mewls.
“Good luck Itachi nyaa!”
“We’ll take good care of the baby nyaa, just leave it to us!”
“Bring us back some yummy fish when you come back okay?”
“Yeah yeah! I want sea bream!”
“Yeah, tell the shark guy to catch us a real big tuna too! He can catch tuna right nyaa ?”
Kisame shakes his head and snickers.
“Alright alright, we’ll make sure to bring the biggest yellowtail we can catch, just be a little patient.”
With that, they step out into the cool air, bathed in the golden glow of sunset.
Kisame stretches out with a groan and a grimace.
“Well now the fun is really gonna start, huh?”
“I guess so.”
Itachi grips his cane tighter, as if that would be enough to calm his nerves.
If things go bad during this talk, he knows he’ll need to intervene. To put a stop to whatever their leader has planned for Konoha. But in this state, he isn’t so sure he’d be able to do that successfully.
Relying only on words is daunting.
But with Kisame with him, it’s a bit less scary.
“You’re not getting cold feet are you?” Kisame asks, with a raised eyebrow.
“Of course not,” Itachi huffs. “Slow down a little, okay? I can’t move as fast as I used to.”
“Right, right. Sorry about that- there’s no need to hurry anyway, so we can take it slow. Leader said he didn’t mind waiting.”
Even though it can’t be helped, Itachi is annoyed at how slow he’s become. It feels like everything takes him twice as long as it should and it makes him want to put his fist through a wall.)
(He’s been told it will get better with time. But everything he’s put himself through has taken its toll on his body, and he wonders if he’ll ever get back to even how he was before. And that thought scares him a bit.)
Kisame puts a hand on his shoulder, sensing his uncertainty.
“It’s gonna be alright,” he says. “Whatever happens after this- we’ve always made shit work before, right? It won’t be any different this time around.”
Part of Itachi wants to believe that. But another part of him is unsure.
Unsure or not, however, there’s nothing else to be done at the moment.
Besides, he’s still here. So he can still try to fix the mess he helped to make. Whatever path Sasuke decides to take with his life, he can finally be a part of it. He doesn’t have to leave Kisame behind far before either of them are ready.
And for that, he’s grateful.
Even if he’s hobbling along at a snail’s pace to get everywhere he needs going.
His huff of frustration doesn’t go unnoticed. Kisame, without asking for permission, scoops him up and starts carrying him without even breaking stride.
“Hey-”
“There, now we don’t have to go quite as slowly and you don’t have to grouse.”
Itachi hides his face in Kisame’s neck and grumbles a halfhearted complaint, but doesn’t ask to be put back down.
"...I hope Makoto is alright with being an only child," he remarks.
"Eh, I don't think so," Kisame answers. "She'll probably have a baby cousin of her own before too long, with how many people seem to be crushing on that brother of yours."
"Please don't make me think about that," Itachi groans.
Kisame laughs in response.
"Fine, whatever you say, Itachi-san."
A noisy flock of birds passes overhead, briefly blotting out the setting sun.
They set off into their uncertain future together. Neither of them knowing exactly what lies ahead, but both understanding that, one way or another, they’ll see it through to the end.