Tag: uminosclassroom

uminosclassroom:

Iruka nods. He would have accepted either answer, but ‘bath’ was probably the better choice. At a certain point body odor plateaus, a fact most shinobi find out during their careers. Itachi smells just as bad as he had a week ago.

“I’ll show you your room on the way. You can borrow some of my clothes for now.” They are about the same height, though Iruka is quite a bit heavier. The house is small, meant for a family of four at most. His parents bedroom has been collecting dust for a few months now. Iruka can change the sheets while Itachi bathes.

“This will be your room. I didn’t know you were coming, but I’ll have it ready when you get of the bath.” He opens the first door, an empty room consisting of a double bed with a nightstand on either side. A little further down the hallway he pauses to hand Itachi a towel from the little linen closet and then points Itachi to the bathroom.

“My room is the next door to your left if you ever need anything. I’ll leave your clothes outside.” 

A bigger home than he’d expected…he knew the man lived alone for many a year, and most orphaned shinobi also lost their parents home in the attack. Itachi keeps unnecessarily quiet throughout the whole ordeal. Tucking away the easiest escape routes, and hiding spots.

He shouldn’t need to, but the way of the shinobi was deeply ingrained into his very being. Attempting to domesticate Itachi at this point was going to prove difficult, even if he was not entirely adverse to the idea. 

Iruka is….kind. A kindness he cannot allow to seep in, because this isn’t when they were children and Iruka caught him with an infant Sasuke. They are adults, and things have happened to both of them. This is merely convenient, as Itachi does not want to set foot in the district, nor does he think he is wanted there. 

He heads straight for the bathroom once the door is shut. Divests himself of his clothes, runs the water as hot as his body will handle. It runs a murky, reddish brown, and by the time Itachi is through with his bath his skin will be a few shades lighter. Both from removing the grime and the weeks he spent in a dark cell without sunlight. 

Afterwards he’ll simply present himself and wait for instructions, the clothing Iruka’s left for him hanging off of his thin frame.

uminosclassroom:

@uchihasavior

It took time and negotiation, but they released Itachi from his binds. At least, from what Iruka was able to gather. He came back for his usual visit one afternoon only to have been told Itachi was released. It was foolish to have thought he would have been informed, but the Hokage was at least willing to clarify that he had been pardoned of all crimes and that the retrieval squad for Sasuke had been sent out earlier that day. 

Iruka hears nothing about Itachi for another week. Then, he wakes up to a sharp knock on his door, the kind that usually signals some sort of emergency. He is up with his vest and weapons pouch on a second later, locking eyes with a porcelain mask. Oh, this was bad–

“Uchiha Itachi is being left in your custody.” Comes the terse debriefing. 

“What?” That was not at all what he had expected. “I never signed any release forms.”

“Hokage-sama has assigned him to you.” He guides Itachi forward with a hand between his shoulder blades. Iruka suspects, both by their smell and the tone of the man’s voice, that the man is mission-worn. Iruka can take Itachi for now, and clarify later when he can get a hold of someone willing to listen to his concerns. 

“Alright, I’ll take him then.” He states it clearly, for ease of reporting. The ANBU is gone before Iruka gets to the last word. He sighs, rubs his hands across his eyes to clear away a few crumbs that had gathered and looks Itachi over. “Do you want lunch or a bath first?” 

Placing Itachi on the retrieval squad for Sasuke had been a fierce discussion. There was no sense allowing Sasuke to train with another criminal to try to kill someone who had just been pardoned in light of the Uchiha conspiracy coming to light, and the other nations would see Sasuke as a stronger threat the longer he was allowed to remain outside the Leaf.

But despite their protests, Itachi packed the power they needed. At only eighteen, he was not only a wielder of the Mangekyo Sharingan, but a bearer of the Susano’o, and Itachi quelled the ache in his body as a group of himself and several senior ANBU and Special Jonin made for one of Orochimaru’s hideouts.

Sasuke came easier, when the truth came out. Still bitter, with a mix of confusion. But the bait of his brother was too much to ignore, even if he was still angry with him.

The ordeal over, Tsunade was happy to get both Uchiha off her hands. More trouble than they’re worth, she’d mutter, sake staining her breath. Itachi ignores it because most people discuss Uchiha in this way, and he’s in no position to fight it. 

His usefulness over, he also doesn’t blame the ANBU for washing him off their hands, either, providing no protest, physical or verbal, for being pushed inside. He’s quiet for a while, as if he’s thinking Iruka’s question through.

He hasn’t bathed in almost two months, and the mission itself is still fresh. His body aches, both from the exhaustion and the illness creeping in his veins. 

“A bath.” Food could always come later.