Crossroads (A Naruto Fanfiction)

Spite Kills Worse Than A Kunai

When Minato returned Satsuki's paper to Itachi, the hokage didn't have much to say other than that the hours he had spent trying to decipher it bared no fruit. "I don't have anything to connect it with to even begin breaking it down, other than seperating the repeating characters and words I could make out. I have no way of knowing their sounds. I might ask Satsuki to teach me such an intriguing language." He laughed it off, but the Uchiha heir knew Minato was more than serious about it. Having expected such an outcome, Itachi wasn't dissapointed. He was even amused when Satsuki reacted so surprised when he handed it back to him.

Itachi sighed as he reaffirmed his patience. If one thing Itachi can do for his brother other than protect him, is to allow Satsuki the comfort of moving at his own pace. He eyed his brother who sat on the other side of their Father during the clan meeting before his attention was distracted. "The merchants outside of Konoha are starting to raise their prices to ridiculous levels against us." An elder remarked.

The youngest elder, the only elder more of the younger generation can truly respect, chuckled mirthlessly. Uchiha Hoozuki was blunt and tactiful, a man of facts and hard truths, and was steadfast in his own opinions. More than anything, Itachi respected him for not letting hatred and grudge cloud his vision like the other elders, and most of the clan itself. "Of course they would. Foreign merchants higher the prices from that of the local merchant. If Konoha merchants themselves are raising the average prices against us, it'd be almost impossible to afford what we need from the outsiders." He said.

"We can't even live properly in our own village. The Sandaime should have lived just a while longer for this!"

"As respected and influential the Sandaime was, the Yondaime holds more ground when it comes to this. For the leader to support us when he himself had lost his wife during the Kyuubi's attack sends a solid message. We have most of the other clans support as well. It is the civilians we have to pay attention to." Fugaku stated.

"They would only argue of him being biased since his student is an Uchiha and the other clan's support mean nothing when they act ignorant of our strife."

"There is nothing we can-"

Itachi turned to his father when he stopped mid-sentence. His father would never be so openly distracted as to stop speaking in a middle of a sentence, but apparently, having his brother tug at his sleeve was enough to do so. Satsuki always kept himself in the background in all the meetings he attended so far. He wouldn't move other than a shift to ease the pressure on his legs, and never participated. What would be there for him to participate in anyway? "He needs to start opening up to the world around him Itachi. I expect learning about our clan will help him." Fugaku explained when he had asked about it. His mother had no complaints.

Itachi had his reservations over this decision. Satsuki had many stresses set upon him already and to add more stress by letting him know of the Uchiha, his family, and the scrutiny they face didn't sound like a good idea. The only reason he hadn't voiced this was because Satsuki himself seemed eager to attend these meetings, much to his confusion. [I want to understand what's going on around me.] His brother informed him.

Just why was Satsuki coming out of the background now?

Itachi watched as his brother signed and he had to blink a few times in shock at what was conveyed. His father was the only other person to understand those signs as Shisui was absent to this meeting, and his father himself looked mildly surprised. [If the other clans support us, we can ask them to help. The problem is that we're becoming isolated, but that may be because we are allowing that to happen. We're not banned from going out to the village. There is nothing stopping us.] It took a handful of minutes just for Satsuki to form the proper signs, shaking his head when he did something wrong before starting over. With his Father showing patience, no one else interfered.