Birthday boy

19 October 982AR

Itachi got up early to train, went downstairs and saw his father sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee in one hand and the newspaper in the other.

"Good morning." Itachi sat on the chair to the right of his father, where a bowl, a bottle of milk and a box of cereal had been placed. Neko-nin choco cereals, the cereals of a true ninja!

"Morning." Fugaku nods and looks at him for a moment before focusing back on the newspaper.

"Where is Kaa-san?"

"She's busy with something,"

"Is she on a mission?"

"No, it's something personal."

"Something personal?" Seeing that Fugaku doesn't respond, Itachi pouts and pours milk into his bowl.

`What is happening? Why all this mystery? That gift, the special occasion, that mysterious person.`

"Itachi." His dad's voice pulls the child out of his reflections.

"Huh?" Itachi sees his father looking at him with a strange expression.

"Do you always pour the milk before the cereal?"

"Yeah," Itachi doesn't understand why his father looks at him like he's some exotic bird. Pouring the milk before the cereal is perfectly normal, doing so you control exactly how much milk you consume. Also in winter, when it is cold, one can heat the milk and have a breakfast that is not only delicious but also warm.

"I see." Fugaku looks at him for a moment and then shakes his head.

Itachi decides to ignore his father's behavior and eats his breakfast. After finishing he puts away the milk and cereal, after putting the bowl and spoon in the sink, his father calls him back.

"Don't leave home and don't train, we have plans for this afternoon."

"What plans?" Itachi watches as his father falls silent and crosses his arms. "Why all this mystery Tou-san? The gift, the mysterious person,...? Is something wrong?"

Fugaku sighs and looks out the window.

"Don't worry, son. It's nothing, just your mother, she's kind of...dramatic. Today is the birthday of someone important to her and she's excited for you to meet them."

"Oh." Itachi's eyes light up with recognition. "Why didn't I meet this person until now?"

"You did it." Before Itachi's confused look, the patriarch adds: "You used to be very close, you always played together but three years ago that person was sent to the battlefront and when he came back he was not in the best condition. So Mikoto decided to wait until he recovers before introducing you."

"Okay." Itachi becomes even more curious about this person but he doesn't press any further and he goes to the library. `My memories didn't start to come back until my third year of life, something I'm grateful for. If I had remembered my previous life from the moment of my rebirth... That would have been a nightmare. But the bad thing about that is that I hardly have any memory of my first two years of life, I wonder who that person is? Maybe a teammate of Kaa-san?`

Itachi knows many of his parents' friends but not all of them. Many ninjas who fought on the front lines decided to isolate themselves after coming back home and focus on their recovery (both physical and mental, going through a war, seeing your friends and relatives die in front of your eyes...). When a ninja is on the battlefield he has his guard up 24/7, he is ready to react at the slightest noise, at the slightest of touches. That mentality becomes dangerous when they return home, because going from hostile territory to safe territory does not turn off those instincts that kept the ninja alive during the war.

Adjusting takes time, and during that time the ninja can be a danger to others, which is why many choose to isolate themselves a little until they can control those instincts (there have been cases, especially of younger and lower ranked ninjas, who reacted in a violent way to friendly touches, like a hug or a pat on the back).

***

Mikoto came home just as Itachi was in the juiciest part of the book "The Prince of Wind and the Ronin", a romance novel about the son of a Daimyo (Feudal Lord) and a rogue ninja.

Since today he is not allowed to leave the house to train, Itachi decided to take a break and catch up on the most famous novels of the moment.

`Knowing pop culture is also important for a ninja.` That is Itachi's justification, definitely not because he is a fan of romance novels. Definitely not.

"Itachi, I've prepared your outfit for today." Mikoto informs him during lunch.

"What's wrong with my current clothes?"

Mikoto looks at his son with a raised eyebrow. Itachi is dressed in gray pants and a black long-sleeved shirt.

"You like dark colors too much, you never choose the bright color clothes I buy you!" Mikoto complains.

"A ninja has to be discreet and subtle." Itachi replies without flinching.

"Paragraph 4, page 72 of the book The Basics of a Good Ninja." Fugaku smiles slightly, he too had read that book when he was Itachi's age.

"And a great ninja is able to go unnoticed while he is dressed in the brightest and most striking colors. What do you want to be, Itachi, a good ninja or a great ninja?" Mikoto looks at him with a cunning gleam in her eyes.

Itachi sees the trap but cannot refute the words of his mother.

`Kushina-oba is always wearing something bright red and she is an S-rank jonin.` Itachi muses with a thoughtful look.

***

Dressed in a blue kimono with a pattern of white clouds, Itachi follows his parents to a house on the other side of the village. In a gift bag he carries the box of sweets.

Konoha is much livelier than a few months ago, the atmosphere is brighter and people seem more relaxed. On the way to the birthday person's house several people stopped the family of three to greet them and many more looked at them as if they were some kind of celebrity.

All three are very good looking people dressed in high quality kimonos. To that is added that they are the main family of one of the founding clans of Konoha. Of course they are famous within the village, but it is the first time so many eyes are on them. Itachi is not used to it, every time he goes out with his mother he gets some looks but not that many.

`Maybe it's because it's all three of us and we're dressed formally?`

All that attention made Itachi quite self-aware and he grabbed his mother's hand, Mikoto looked at him with a warm glow in her eyes and squeezed his little hand. It was quite comforting and Itachi felt more comfortable.

Fugaku watched the interaction with a small smile.

After a few minutes they reach their destination. The house is in a walled compound, it has a main house with two floors, a dojo and another smaller building (the size of a shed). It reminds Itachi of the samurai mansions he saw in a documentary.

There are several people in the garden, which is decorated with red and white triangular flags with the clan symbol, and birthday balloons. There are some round tables with chairs and a large rectangular table with various gifts on it.

`I see 12 people, and there are more inside. This person must be someone important within the clan.`

Mikoto introduces him to all the guests, Itachi recognizes some of them.

Uchiha Uruchi and her husband Uchiha Teyaki, the founders and owners of Uchiha Senbei. Uchiha Senbei is a very famous shop within Konoha that sells senbei (a type of cracker made from rice). The secret recipe is jealously guarded, which gave it great fame. They were always very kind to Itachi, and every time he passed by their store they gave him some cookies, they never accepted Itachi's money saying that it is the duty of the elders making sure the younglings grow healthy and strong thus they need to eat a lot .

They are distant relatives (they are cousins ​​of one of Itachi's grandparents) so Itachi calls them oji-san and oba-san (uncle and aunt).

Uchiha Kyoya is his father's cousin and one of the captains of the Military Police, he leads the logistics department and is a man of few words but very doting with the younger members of the clan, every time he passes by the main family` house he brings Itachi some gifts (mostly sweets as he knows about Itachi's sweet tooth).

Uchiha Hazuki is a chunin who teaches at the Ninja Academy and is married to a medic-nin named Sato Yuto. They have a daughter of Itachi's age named Izumi, the girl is quite shy and she looked at Itachi from behind her father's leg and got scared when he looked at her.

Itachi thought it was weird but didn't pay too much attention to it (he's unaware of how penetrating his gaze can be).

After introducing him to all the guests in the garden, Mikoto took him inside the house (Fugaku stayed chatting with Kyoya). There he saw someone he didn't expect to see, though after thinking about it for a moment his presence isn't all that surprising. At the party there are some children and he is only 7 years old.

"Mikoto-mama!"

"Shi-chan!"

Itachi watches as Shisui throws himself into his mom's arms with a raised eyebrow.

How do these two know each other? And did he just call his mom "mama"?!

"Itachi, I would like to introduce you to Uchiha Shisui, my secret son!" Mikoto gestures for him to come closer.

"I am her secret love child. You can call me Shisui-nii!" Shisui smiles brightly. Itachi looks at his mother with wide eyes, Mikoto places a hand on Shisui's head and nods.

They both look very serious.

"Nani?!" (What?!)

Itachi looked at them wide-eyed and open-mouthed. The boy hears some laughter and looks around, all the guests are looking at them and trying to hide their laughter.

The heir realizes what is happening before the two clowns burst out laughing.

"Did you see his face?" Shisui says between laughter, he is holding his stomach and can't stop laughing.

"His eyes-" Mikoto leans against a nearby wall.

Itachi looks at them with dead eyes, turns around and goes back to the garden.

"Idiots."

He goes to one of the tables and takes a cookie. As he chews it he mumbles something about trolls and bullies.

Fugaku walks over and places a hand on his shoulder.

"So you already saw that duo in action." He states dryly. "Shisui is the birthday boy, he is the son of your mother's sensei, he is also her godson. He is an extremely talented ninja, but his personality…" The patriarch sighs.

"Itachi!" Shisui come running and tries to tackle Itachi.

The boy jumps to avoid the hug, landing a few feet away and looking where Shisui should be. He just sees some leaves dancing in the air.

Arms hug him from behind.

"You're not mad, are you? It was just a little joke!" Itachi doesn't have to look to see Shisui's pout.

"You are an idiot." Itachi answers dryly.

"Yeah." Shisui doesn't even bother to deny it. "Let's go eat some dango! Kyoya-oji brought some from a famous store in the capital!"

Shisui drags Itachi over to one of the tables and grabs a tray of dango.

"I like Kuri dango better, but Mitarashi is not bad either. Did you know that there is a girl in the village called Mitarashi Anko? Hahaha she has the name of two types of dango! And the most hilarious of all is that she loves dango!"

"Uh." Itachi nods his head as he eats dango.

The two continue chatting, the joke from earlier quickly forgotten.

Fugaku looks at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Itachi seems very comfortable with Shisui." He comments.

"Yes, I knew they were going to be great friends!" Mikoto answers, having appeared out of nowhere.

"But it seems this isn't the first time they've met," Fugaku narrows his eyes. "Shisui's orders were to protect Itachi from a distance."

"So what? I always intended for them to meet, it does not matter how"

Fugaku looks at his wife and nods his head. In the end it doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is that Itachi finally made a friend.

`Being alone all the time is not good, Shisui will help him out of his shell.' Fugaku looks at the two friends approvingly.

***

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