Sehnsucht [Naruto Fanfiction]

Chapter 21 - Alcohol

Chapter 21 - Alcohol

Itachi had been sitting at home for the last few hours, and although he knew it was late, probably midnight by now, he wasn't tired yet. He had resorted to reading his book in the ancient armchair but snapped his head up towards his door when he heard the sound of glass smashing from the direction of Hitori's apartment. He hadn't even realised that she was home, more than likely from having his nose in his novel, and got up to investigate the sound. When he returned from HQ, he planned to see if she was alright, but she wasn't at home.

Her apartment door was still half open, but he knew that she kept it open sometimes because only one of her windows actually opened. She had been away for a week and was probably trying to air the place out, especially since she had been having a tough time with Inari's death. He announced his presence by knocking on the open door and strolled in casually, expecting to see a huge mess. The mess wasn't so bad, but Hitori was pushing the glass into one corner with her bare foot, and he felt like screaming.

"What are you doing?!" He said with more alarm than he attempted to convey, and she spun around lazily, just barely acknowledging him. He could smell sake in the air and gathered that she had been drinking.

"What? Did I disturb you?" She turned back away and continued her attempt at tidying up the glass, and Itachi sighed softly.

"You're going to cut yourself." She paid him no mind and kept going anyway. "You're a shinobi, and you managed to break a glass." His voice relaxed, knowing she wouldn't listen to his lecturing.

"Ahh, I'm only human." She waved her hand to brush off his comment, and he heard her chuckle softly.

"And you've been drinking." He leaned against her fridge and crossed his arms over his chest.

She finally turned to him, and he could tell from how her eyes roamed over him that she was taking in his appearance momentarily. His hair was out, not in its usual ponytail, and he was in a simple black tank shirt and stone-grey track pants that came to just below his knees. His sharp eyes didn't miss the way her gaze lingered momentarily, and she looked back away from him, placing the kettle on the stove, blatantly ignoring the pile of glass near her feet.

"Yes, I have been. What's your point?" She grabbed a pot and a package from her cupboards, and he just decided to stay quiet and watch her.

Even though she was drunk to an extent, she was still rather graceful, and he was surprised that she had actually knocked a glass off the counter after seeing her move around reasonably well. Only the delay in her reactions and slowed movements made it obvious. Shinobi were usually moderately good at doing everyday things while under the influence. She moved around him carefully when she grabbed a pair of chopsticks from her drawers.

Her stove element clicked to life until a flame appeared, and she placed the pot down after half-filling it with water. She opened the brightly coloured packaging and placed the dry noodles in the water, which soon came to the boil. Quietly, he watched her make her late-night snack and stayed quiet. After a few minutes, Hitori turned the element off and placed the pot on a hot mat on the counter behind her. She stirred the contents until satisfied and blew on a mouthful before shovelling it in at an alarming pace.

"Did you not eat dinner?" He asked her with a teasing hint to his tone.

"You know what I heard today?" She ignored his question completely. "I heard three ladies who must have been in their sixties talking about a handsome young man with long dark hair who helped one of them with her shopping this morning." Her tone was purposely dramatic and melodic.

She turned to him briefly and smirked darkly. He figured she had a point to her story and waited patiently for her to finish two more mouthfuls of noodles before continuing her tale. As per usual, she did everything in outbursts: a bite, then half of some epic story, then more food, and so on. It was something that he'd always found rather amusing about her, and it was always funny.