Chapter 7: Shisui

Itachi approached the training grounds, only to find that they were empty. He turned away only to find himself face to face with Shisui.

"Looking for me?" Damn it Shisui…

"Yes. I believe I owe you at least one sparring session." Itachi said.

"Hmmmmm,"Shisui rubbed his chin in mock thought, "I think your recent absence is worth at least 2 or 3 sessions. Beating up on people who had no chance won't do your skills much good." He shook his head at him as if he were scolding him.

"Whatever you say… Shisui." Itachi made sure that his voice was flat. "Shall we begin?"

"All right, loser has to buy dango for the winner." Shisui said, taking up his position opposite of Itachi within the ring. Itachi shook his head. At least his odd power didn't make his sparring sessions a set process.

Training! Start!

Shisui made the first move, a simple punch. Itachi ducked under it and returned with one of his own. Shisui mirrored his move and they were left right in each other's faces. A mischievous determination shone in Shisui's eyes. He gave Itachi a smile before breaking away.

They went at each other again.

This is what Itachi lived for. It was like he was a normal person and his life wasn't run by text boxes and numbers. It was just him and Shisui, fighting but not fighting. Itachi's mind snapped back to the spar. Shisui had been careless and left a spot on the left side of his torso.

Itachi made a quick snake around Shisui's arm, striking him in the unguarded spot. Shisui smiled at him and delivered a punch to the chest in retaliation. Itachi flew backwards and slid almost to edge of the ring.

"Almost, Shisui, almost." Itachi taunted. With a sweeping movement from his legs, Itachi forced Shisui to jump as he ran at him. He liked Shisui, ever since they'd met. The war had left its marks on both of them, and Shisui understood what he felt. Shisui was like the older brother he never had.

As much as he liked him though, his blows hurt, at least, for the single moment before the Gamer's Body took over. He'd been too absorbed in his thoughts, and Shisui had punished him for it. He'd gotten a harsh kick to the stomach. Shisui didn't want it to end just yet.

Itachi took advantage and kicked Shisui's shin. It didn't matter who it was, the shin was still painful place to get hit. Itachi followed up with a kick that was aimed at his chest, but Shisui was too fast. He caught Itachi's foot and yanked it up. For a brief moment, he hung upside down.

"It's no fair that you're so tall." Itachi said as he looked up at Shisui. He laughed.

"Whining isn't characteristic of an Uchiha." he replied. Itachi "replied" with a blow to Shisui's stomach. "Neither are cheap shots. You should be ashamed of yourself." Shisui unceremoniously dropped Itachi on his head and danced away.

Itachi pulled himself to his feet and went after Shisui. He didn't move. Instead, he gazed into Itachi's eyes, his pupils already whirling into crimson. So it was going to be one of those spars. Itachi's vision shifted as he activated his own Sharingan. They froze.

Shisui started them out. It was a simple illusion. Shisui's form began to flicker at the edges, and then he was gone. Itachi began feeling out for his presence. There, behind a nearby tree. He was one crow, then two, and then a veritable storm.

He raced to the position, his arm already reforming with a kunai in hand. He flung it. Shisui jumped and Itachi followed his movements, waiting for him to land. But he never did. He glared up at him.

"What? It's genjutsu and this isn't serious. I can fly if I want." He laughed at Itachi, who was still grounded. He had no choice but to leap up to meet him.

Itachi was level with Shisui. He gave one look at him before turning and flying away at impossible speeds. Itachi followed suit. His surroundings were an indistinguishable blur as they raced past. All that mattered was Shisui. He went faster and faster, yet was never able to catch up.

He started flinging kunai at him, but he just flitted about them. Not wanting it to be boring, Shisui sent a return volley. Itachi opted to simply block them. The back and forth continued, and they slowed down. Slower and slower, until they stopped, right where they'd begun.

"Well Itachi, you're good, but it's time to end this." Itachi bore a hole through him with his glare. Shisui laughed it off as flesh weaved together to repair the hole Itachi had left. Shisui made a few more movements before he vanished into a large cloud of smoke.

Itachi reached out again for his presence. He was still in the smoke cloud. He waited for Shisui to make a move. The smoke cleared and Itachi hastily made an addition to the illusion. Shisui was topless, and had given himself certain assets.

They bobbed and swayed happily as he was laughing hysterically. Itachi's addition had kept it at least mostly decent.

"I'm 11. You're sick for tempting me with such imagery." Itachi said. "I can't believe you were lecturing me about being proper."

"Oh come on, it's a joke." Shisui replied as the genjutsu faded away. "You can't be that upset."

"Whatever…" Itachi gave him a shove, making him fall out of the ring. "I win."

"I knew I shouldn't have tempted you with dango." Shisui muttered to himself.

Itachi looked down at the empty plate. He regretted eating it so fast, but dango was always so good. He looked up at Shisui, who still had a decent number of them left.

"Sorry Itachi, you ate yours already." He preemptively responded to the question. "Besides, you scolded me for my little prank." He made to eat his dango as slowly as possible.

"I wasn't going to ask. I just want you to hurry up, it's late." Itachi replied dryly.

"Yeah sure, whatever." Shisui said as he began to eat faster. Within minutes, his plate was clean too, and the two left.

"Thanks for the dango." Itachi said after a bit of silence.

"No problem, you won after all. Next time I won't go so easy though, so save your money." Shisui replied.

"Does that mean you'll turn yourself into a naked woman at the beginning then?" Itachi looked him dead in the eyes, his face devoid of expression.

"Nah, though if you want me to I can do it sooner." Shisui winked. Itachi turned away as fast as he could. Shisui waited a moment. "So, what did you do today?"

"I put a stop to a betrayal from some of our own." Itachi's voice was flat.

"Not what you expected?" Shisui asked.

"I dealt with it as I thought appropriate. But," he paused, "my partner gave me a stern lecture about my behaviour afterwards."

"Should I go have a word with him?" Shisui looked at Itachi. His gaze was focused only on the road before them.

"No, it wasn't unpleasant, it's just," another pause from Itachi, "I didn't expect him to say what he did, or that it'd as helpful as it was." He turned and looked up at Shisui. "It's why I came to spar with you tonight."

"Oh, well that's good then." He turned his own gaze to the road ahead. "As long as you thought it was okay, then it's fine."

There was a span of silence until it was time for them to part ways.

"I forgot how fun sparring is. We'll have to remember to make time for it in the future." Itachi said. "So I can stay in top form," he hastily added.

"Yeah, I need to keep myself in top form too." Shisui replied. "Anyways, night." And before Itachi could say anything more, he was gone. He sighed and continued walking.

"Welcome home Itachi, Sasuke's asleep already," Mikoto said as he walked in. She pointed to a spot in the living room. "He fell asleep there waiting for you. Would you like something to eat?"

"No thank you, Shisui treated me to dango after we sparred." Itachi responded.

"Okay then. How was your mission?" She asked.

"It was about what I expected." He said.

Deception Failed

"I see. Well, I'm sure you're tired, so I'll let you go to sleep." She said sweetly.

"Thank you. Good night." Itachi said, leaving his mother alone in the living room.

It was odd. Itachi knew that he couldn't feel exhausted as others could, that he didn't get tired as other did. Yet he felt… drained. Whether it'd been Kakashi's talk to his time with Shisui he couldn't tell. All he knew was that it'd been a long day and that his bed felt soft.

He almost didn't bother with pajamas, but 11 years of routine were not easily shorn, and he found himself in pajamas anyways. He sank into bed. It was soft. He closed his eyes and let himself drift into his imitation of sleep.

A/N: It was slightly gay and that's okay. This chapter was a lot of fun to write, although a bit weird after just jumping from the last chapter to this. I got really excited and wrote the last chapter btw..

But anyways this is just a bit of filler of sorts before the last bit of happy nonsense. And then the first part will conclude and it skips to Itachi's promotion to captain. This first part is mainly to establish relationships and such so that I can rip them away from Itachi later.

That's about it though. So as usual, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.