Konoha Academy's Dormitory (Nejiten)

Arranged Marriage

Itachi was cleaning up the mess that he had made, the entire coffee table and his brother's face was filled with his matcha tea that came out of his mouth.

"Forgive me otoutou. I do not know what came over my oesophagus, it had always been working fine.." Itachi started as he wiped his brother's face with a cloth.

"Aniki.." Sasuke started as soon as he swatted Itachi's hand off of his face, ".. you are behaving weirdly, these past few days..."

Uchihaa Mikoto, Itachi and Sasuke's mother who was knitting nearby, paused her knitting work and listened on.

"It started right after your recent mission. Are you alright?" Sasuke asked his brother as he masked his worried voice in his usual monotonous tone.

"As I will ever be. Do not dwell on this issue, otoutou. Now run along, I heard Iruka-Sensei gave all the first years a pile of homework to finish." Itachi replied calmly.

Sasuke wanted to argue, he knew his brother well enough. Itachi was distracted, confused and just off. But Itachi gave Sasuke the look, which translates to "I am not entertaining another question."

Sasuke shrugged it off and walked towards his room.

As soon as he left, Mikoto cleared her throat and addressed Itachi gently, "Icchan."

Itachi looked up towards his Mother, a small warm smile present on his face, "Yes, Kaa-San?"

Mikoto kept her voice cheery, hiding any tinge of worry away, "Are you anxious about the arranged marriage proposal?"

Itachi looked down towards the cloth that he was holding onto. He sighed as he replied, "I am not, because it will not be happening."

Mikoto looked up towards her handsome elder born. His face was calm but his eyes, they were filled with suppressed fury.

"Icchan..." Mikoto started but was interrupted by Itachi.

"The clan.." Itachi started as his hands were clenched into fists, ".. choosing a bride for me, a person who I do not even know, who I do not even harbour any emotional..." Itachi stopped, but it was too late, his mother, the ever observant lady that she was, picked it up immediately.

Itachi stood up abruptly, nodded at his Mother before disappearing out of the Uchihaa household.

Mikoto stared at the area where her son was seated at before this; she knew. Her son was most possibly infatuated with another individual. Itachi had never expressed any feelings let alone used the word emotions before. Yet, here he was; bringing that word up as soon as they spoke of the arranged marriage. As the situation called for it, the only thing that came out of Mikoto's mouth was, "Oh crap."

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Itachi was walking around aimlessly, he had nowhere to go, all he knew was that he needed to get out of the stupid compound. His pent up rage was at a dangerous level; he knew. He needed to calm down. The reason why Airin was mostly assigned to him was because she had read his mind once. Due to that, she was assigned to him to Ensure that he would not go crazy, she needed to provide him with emotional support.

He was a brilliant Uchihaa prodigy, he can learn anything in a span of seconds. He ultimately became bored, he was bored of the peaceful life in Konoha. He wanted more. He wanted to leave the village in search of something better, something that can come of as a real challenge to him. When he saw Sasuke left the village, it kind of snapped him a little bit from his initial idea of leaving the village-no. He should not instill those kind of ideas to his little brother. Even so, there were times when he had thoughts of leaving the village. This went on until, he met Teiji. He wondered how a young teen could stay positive even when his entire life was filled with so much negativity. Itachi was intrigued, but when he dived deeper into Teiji's mind, he found himself drowning, there was no escaping Teiji's wrath. For the first time after so long, Itachi yearned to be a part of the village, which would mean that he would be a part of Teiji's life.