Mistake - A Naruto Fan-Fiction

Sitting on a porch in a courtyard, a white haired child, with his book in hand, looked up towards the dark clouds that are approaching, brows furrowed and eyes filled with uncertain worry. "Is everything alright, Orion-kun?" Itachi asked the said child as he noticed the look the child was giving.

The first born of the main branch of the Uchiha"s was a.s.signed to watch over the Hatake-Nara in place of his cousin, Shisui, and the child"s uncle, Kakashi, as they were called for a short mission a few days ago, and would probably come back later in afternoon, and if not, in the evening. Add to the fact that other adults are gone as well because they"re having their meeting of some sort.

Only a few ANBU"s and ninjas are around the household for safety.

That said, Itachi"s okay with it since he has no school and can watch over his little brother as well. Seeing that his brother and the Hatake-Nara are getting along with no problem and are not as wild as other children, he didn"t see any problem with this.

Well, except for one thing; the sickly child seems to be bothered by something.

"No… I"m okay… it"s just…" The child sheepishly shook his head, providing a small smile as well, "It got a bit colder, right?" The child sneezed right after that, proving his point.

"Now that you pointed it out…" Itachi looked towards the direction where Orion was originally looking at, "it indeed got colder."

"I know…!" Young Sasuke popped out of nowhere, tackling his brother"s back, "I"ll go grab a blankie." He beamed with a br.i.m.m.i.n.g smile. Itachi chuckled and ruffled his young brother"s hair into a mess, "Okay, okay... You go do that…" With that, young Sasuke left.

That only brought silence and awkwardness between the remaining two on the porch. Well, not until Itachi caught something from the corner of his eyes. He swear he saw something fly towards the white-haired child"s direction. He simply narrowed his eyes and stayed silent, standing up from his seat and looking out to and fro at the bush.

It seems like he was a bit paranoid because, if something indeed flew from the bush"s direction to Orion"s, the child would surely react—but no, he didn"t; and, to be sure, he looked over at the child, but the child is still as the same as before: letting his small feet dangle over the porch with a book in hand.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary so the Uchiha went back to his seat and, at the same time, his younger brother came scurrying, buried with fluffy blankets in his arms. Of course, being the nice brother he is, Itachi helped his younger brother with a smile on his face.

As he turned around though, he almost immediately stopped as the sickly white-haired child turned to face him with a rather disturbed look.

Now, this time, there really is something wrong.

Before the "oldest" in the bunch could even speak, the white-haired child beat him to it. "I… don"t feel so good, Itachi-niisan… let"s… let"s go somewhere… anywhere but here, please." Orion"s voice was shaking, and it was enough to make Itachi drop the blankets in his hands to grab Sasuke"s hands and carry Orion in his arms.

The child seemed really disturbed to the point that it made Itachi alert.

Then, a chill ran down the spine of the first-born Uchiha, making him stop momentarily, "What on earth was that?"

__________

Today, I woke up with a cold sweat. I"ve been having strange, vivid dreams lately, and, honestly, it"s quite unsettling. Why? It"s because the dream just keeps repeating over and over, showing me blurs of colours fighting and clashing, but the colours that are definitely standing out are the colour of crimson red and a golden hue.

Every single time, that shade of red—reminding me the colour of blood, is appearing with that golden light… and every single time, there"s that same white blur emerging from the said colours—and it"s like providing a way for me to get through that nightmare, and wake up, apparently. It"s like telling me to, literally, walk towards the light in order to "survive" that nightmare.

Well, I"m thankful for that bright light, whatever that is.

I let out a big sigh as I sat up, pulling out my blanket away and going out of bed to get ready for the day. I quickly fixed the bed before picking up the clothes that"s on the table. I snagged a towel as well before going out of the guest room, making my way down the hall to reach the bathroom to, well, what else? Eat—just kidding, I mean, who in their right minds would eat in a bathroom? Disgusting.

I"m taking a bath, of course—a bath.

While making my way down the hall I almost slammed into someone while thinking about how eerily quiet the house is. Thankfully, the person who I was about to b.u.mp into, called me out. It"s Itachi in a pink ap.r.o.n again. With, this time, a wooden spoon in his hands.

"Where"s kasan?" I asked him, staring at his coal eyes.

"All of the adults went out for a meeting." He smiled, his short voice, softened down for a child, reaching me.

"Oh, okay…" That makes sense because… I heard them talking about a plan or something the other day, after my uncle and Shisui-nii left for a "mission". I gave him a small smile, "Thank you, Itachi-niisan." I then proceeded to walk past him to get to the bathroom.

Now, finally at the place I"m supposed to be, I quickly locked the door and took a short, ice-cold bath. After drying myself, I noticed that the clothes I was given is in the Uchiha style, more so identical with Sasuke"s since I"m just a little taller than him. So, basically, I"m either going to wear Sasuke"s clothes, or Itachi"s old ones. Probably the latter judging how new they look.

It"s not really bothering me but after I wore it… it"s kind of scary how I like this style more than the traditional j.a.panese clothes I wear back at home. I guess it"s because this style is close to the style I always wore when I was a 28-year old guy, minus the shorts of course.

I looked myself at the mirror and… not gonna lie, I"m rocking this dark blue turtleneck right now. No, no—I"m not a narcissist, it"s just I"ve missed this kind of clothing. I have some like this back at home but they"re quite light coloured, and I don"t like those blinding colours.

I chuckled at myself before proceeding to brush my teeth at the sink.

Now finished, my hair is still not dry so I took the towel with me and went to the kitchen, straight to the electric fan by the sliding door. I faced my back at it and sat down in front of it, letting the wind blow through my hair, drying my thick hair. Kasan does this with a blow dryer so my hair"s always fluffy, but I don"t think I can get a hold of one right now, unless I ask for it—which I"m not gonna do because my anxiety will punch me in the face.

Oh, look at me: a "4-year old" with an anxiety—haha… ha… It"s not funny, Orion, geez.

I heaved a sigh, but Itachi, who"s cooking up something that smells really nice, probably took it differently and proceeded to walk towards me while removing his ap.r.o.n. He picked up a brush that was conveniently on the table and grabbed my towel off of my hair gently.

I think he thought that I"m having trouble drying my hair. Well, he does have a long hair so I think he understands me so, he started brushing my hair while I stare at the floor because I have nothing to do. He paused for a moment before standing up and leaving the brush with me.

I thought he got bored and went off somewhere, but it just turned out that he… he actually grabbed a hairdryer to dry my hair. Oh, bless him. I give you my good luck for drying my hair since even kasan"s having troubles drying it. But hey, kasan loves my hair because once it dries neatly, it"s so fluffy and shiny—that"s what she told me, at least.

I got so carried away by my silly thoughts that it startled me when he gathered my hair into a bunch. Through the reflection from the window, I saw him as he bit onto a hair tie, running his long fingers through my silver-ish hair. He then proceeded to put my hair into a pony tail, which actually worked out even though my hair is just around an inch under my neck.

Well, if my hair isn"t curly, it would surely be longer than this. Also, I"m not really… used to others putting up my hair. It was always kasan and… Cherry… who"ll put up my hair into a s.n.a.t.c.h. I looked down and s.p.a.ced out a bit after remembering Cherry… A~h… it"d be nice to know how"s she doing, but something"s telling me that she"s become successful in life.

It"s quite odd to have such feelings.

I really do hope she got over this dead man.

"Ah…!" A voice snapped me out of my daze, "Shiro-chan"s kawaii." Sasuke"s face popped in front of me, making me blink—how long has he been there?

Wait—what did he say?!

"You"re so cute but you look so sad..." Sasuke tilted his head before turning to his brother, "Don"cha think so, niisan?" Itachi took his time to glance at me. He then proceeded to give me an apologetic smile, "Does he now?" The younger Uchiha nodded, "Mhm…! Because… he always looks like he"s gonna cry, see?" He then pointed at me.

Guys, you know I"m here right? There"s no need to talk about me. Now it"s awkward that Sasuke"s words made Itachi do a double take on me and look at me straight in the eyes, like, bro, it"s quite uncomfortable don"t you think?

I proceeded to cough and the Uchiha blinked, shaking his head and is probably wondering why he was staring at my eyes. "Oh, uh… breakfast"s ready." He then walked over and placed the dishes on the table, proceeding to get servings of fried rice for the three of us.

Yo, his cooking"s h.e.l.la good.

I didn"t realise that I had my chopsticks resting on my lips as I smile at the food. I only snapped out when Sasuke started chuckling. "It"s good, right?" He smiled, "My niisan cooks amazing food, doesn"t he?"

I then gave Itachi a small smile, "Mhm… he does…"

After breakfast, and because Itachi had forbidden both Sasuke and I to go out, the younger Uchiha proceeded to drag me to his room to play something. I"d absolutely be thrilled if he has some sort of console, but, of course, that is not possible.

Instead, he has this Shōgi table at the corner of the room. Of course, I was interested at the Go board next to it.

"You like to play Shōgi." That wasn"t even a question, Sasuke—what are you trying to say? Just because I"m a Nara I love playing that thing? Is that a common Nara stereotype in this world or something?

Well, I don"t hate playing Shōgi, but I would sure pick any other game if there are opportunities… like right now, "Oh… no… I prefer Go over Shōgi…" because I like war-based games… I left out my thoughts and proceeded to smile when he eagerly went to pick it up.

Well, Go is just a simple strategy game. Whoever captures more… "territory" with their stones wins the game.

"Here"s the thing, Shiro-chan…" He looked away, face reads embarra.s.sment, "I… don"t really get how people play this game… this is niisan"s board game…"

"Eh…?" My eyes twitched. Seriously? Well… time to put whatever Shikkun taught me in use, "The most simplified way of explaining the rules is… uh… you may place your stone on any point on the board, but if I surround that stone, I will remove it." Thank you, Shikamaru for telling me that. I didn"t think that a day would come that I"d be the one saying this.

"Wait, really?" He blinked, most likely out of surprise.

"Mhm."

"How about Shōgi, then?" A bead of sweat rolled down my forehead when he asked about Shōgi.

"I… don"t really play Shōgi that much… I probably only played it once or twice with Shikkun… so I didn"t bother going through the rules since he would casually remind me of them… I don"t think I could help you with Shōgi… sorry." I started ranting without knowing it so I kind of stopped when Sasuke started to stare at me weirdly.

"I…" He breathed in, "… didn"t know you could actually talk that much, Shiro-chan."

Oh, please. I didn"t, either. "Uh… s-sorry…?" I scratched the back of my neck, trying to stop the heat rushing up my cheeks.

"No, no… it"s okay… it"s just… it"s weird hearing you talk for over a minute…." He shrugged, giving me the bowl of stones for the board game.

We casually started the game with him horribly losing, and with me having to explain things along the way. After he got the hang of it, I dumbed down my play to match his for a few moments to see how he is doing. He falls in traps here and there but, all in all, he can go in a round alone without any guidance.

"Eh… Go, huh?" Itachi entered Sasuke"s room while wiping his wet hands with a towel.

"Niisan! Look…! Shiro-chan teached—"

"Taught." Itachi corrected.

"—taught me how to play." Sasuke beamed, bragging to his brother.

"That"s great." The older brother smiled.

"You said you"d teach me next time but Orion already taught me so…" Sasuke puffed out his cheeks, looking a bit disappointed.

"Did I?" Itachi wondered as he opened his room"s door, which is right across Sasuke"s so, naturally, I had a glimpse to what his room looks like and, honestly, I was a bit surprised when I saw a guitar sitting at the corner of the room.

"Ah…! I know." Sasuke has a cheeky grin on his face, and it seems like I"m not the only one who saw the guitar, "Play some music for us."

Itachi momentarily paused before grabbing his guitar and making his way towards us with a blank face.

I didn"t know guitars already exist! Well, pianos does so… why didn"t I think of a guitar?! Ugh… so many lost opportunities; I could"ve pretended to be interested with that instrument and "learn" it for a couple of months before playing on my own.

I could start now, actually… so, I stared at the guitar with… "interest"… and Itachi looked back with a pa.s.sive look. He smiled at me, "You"re curious?" I nodded at his question, and he simply let out a chuckle. "Sasuke, too, was interested so, I don"t know why he doesn"t want to touch it anymore." He smiled pettily at the younger Uchiha.

Oh my… I didn"t know Itachi has THIS side of him—what the heck? There"s so many things left out in the anime, geez.

"W-Well… the strings broke, okay?" Sasuke folded his arms.

"Anyways, come here, Ori-kun." Sometimes he"s unreadable, and sometimes, Itachi"s rather gentle—especially to younger kids, like Shisui—but less annoying than Shisui. I suppose he"s just pa.s.sive, because that"s how he was portrayed.

I placed my bowl of stones down and went to him. He made me sit on his lap and positioned my hands on the guitar and… I just realised that the guitar"s too big for me.

Oh… so that"s why he"s letting me strum instead of teaching me the chords.

"Strum for me, okay?"

"Mkay…" I first strummed randomly to figure out what chords he"s doing at the end of the guitar and once I figured it out, I started to go along, placing some mistakes here in there for "naturalism"—because why would a 4-year old know how to play a guitar instantly, right?

"Oh…" Sasuke leaned closer and smiled, "Lemme try…!"

I crawled away from Itachi and almost had a heart attack when Sasuke started strumming… violently. No wonder the strings broke.

After that "music session", Itachi whipped something quick at the kitchen for some snacks, then we hung around and I stumbled across Itachi"s mini library in his room so, I brightened up and asked if I could borrow some to read and, oh gosh—history? This is amazing. I need to borrow some more often.

I"ve read all of tou-san"s book at home and almost all of them are about Nara Medical Jutsu"s and Nara Jutsu"s. I"ve even read some over and over so I"m really looking forward for something new to read.

Time seems to go quickly because, after Itachi let me borrow some to read, I was immersed into the world of history and didn"t notice that a lot of time had already pa.s.sed and… when did I get to their porch? I must"ve mindlessly followed them when they went here.

By them, I meant Itachi and Sasuke.

I"m already through four books and, this is my fifth one and I"m in the middle of it, so I placed it down for a moment to get back into reality. Well, a cold brush of air is what told me to stop reading for a moment, actually.

It suddenly became cold, and I have a bad feeling about this…

I quickly glanced up when I heard birds chirping weirdly and… they"re flying all over the place. I looked up and saw the darkest clouds I"ve ever seen in this timeline of my 4, almost 5 years of life and I paled. Who wouldn"t? That cloud brought this nasty feeling with it, geez.

"Is everything alright, Orion-kun?" Itachi asked me.

"No… I"m okay… it"s just…" I sheepishly shook my head, providing a small smile as well, "It got a bit colder, right?" As if on cue, I sneezed.

"Now that you pointed it out…" Itachi looked towards the direction to where I was originally looking at, "it indeed got colder."

"I know…!" Sasuke popped out of nowhere, tackling his brother"s back, "I"ll go grab a blankie." He beamed with a br.i.m.m.i.n.g smile. Itachi chuckled and ruffled his young brother"s hair into a mess, "Okay, okay... You go do that…" With that, Sasuke left.

I sighed and shook whatever I was feeling off to continue reading the book I was recommended. I didn"t even bat an eye when a bush from the Uchiha residence"s courtyard shook… not until something stuck under my hands, which made me stop.

No, scratch that—my whole world stopped as soon as my eyes read the contents of the flash card that slid under my hands out of nowhere.

The bits of chakra infused into the card tells me that this came from… "him". He won"t lie to me, right? He"s an ally, right? To me, at least…

I slowly turned around, dropped my things but held onto the card, swallowing whatever"s stuck in my throat right now.

Woah… I"m actually scared? What the heck? Aren"t I supposed to be the character who"ll always dive right into danger and break fourth walls?

Alright.

I"m actually scared.

I can"t even think straight.

"I… don"t feel so good, Itachi-niisan… let"s… let"s go somewhere… anywhere but here, please." My voice was shaking, and it was enough to make Itachi drop the blankets in his hands to grab Sasuke"s hands and carry me in his arms since my legs are not working properly.

I closed my eyes and the words on the card seemed to have been etched into my mind... and I can"t take them off of my mind.

["He"s after you. He knows you"re here. I can"t help you further. I tried. Run. –Xavier."]

Whether his words are true or not, it"s definitely setting all of the alarms of my soul and body—like I badly want to get away whoever Shiro is talking about.