Two Loves, One Fate (Itachi & Sasuke Uchiha)

№ 36 :: Acknowledgements

Chapter Thirty-Six

By the following morning, I was back to the normal routine I had before ever leaving the Snow Kingdom. I talked to no one other than Raile or my father, and ignored anyone who dared address me by my royal title. It seemed that I was acting arrogant, maybe even selfish, but the palace help was quite aware of the disdain I had for my title. They’ve all been dealing with my ways for the last sixteen years, and it wasn’t going to change now that I was a bit older.

However, talk quickly circulated around the kingdom and false stories about my whereabouts immediately became the gossip among servants. Most of them thought I knew nothing about it, but the walls of my kingdom had ears, and I was certainly able to hear everything. There was just one thing — I couldn’t give a damn what they said because I knew the truth, and that was all that mattered.

That morning was just like any other; I decided that I was in need of a serious training session, and I needed something to do to release all the built up frustration that slowly continued to build up within me. I couldn’t exactly tell my father about Orochimaru’s plans of attacking the kingdom without revealing my talent for divination; however, everything was on my hands now, and I had to do everything in my power to prevent such a thing from ever happening.

I stood alone on the concrete courtyard located behind the palace, and I was surrounded by a dozen or so ANBU members — I had quite the laugh when I found out that only the new recruits in safeguarding the kingdom were the ones to volunteer for my training. The veterans obviously knew better than to give me a reason to unleash hell upon them.

As my caretaker, Raile had to be present at the courtyard under my father’s orders to ‘keep an eye on me,’ which I hardly was able to understand. Nonetheless, Raile was one of my best friends and I never minded her presence at my trainings. The only thing that worried me was the fact that Raile could be harmed somehow; it was rare, but accidents did occur and people usually were hurt.

Just like in the past, my training sessions brought forth an audience. Servants disregarded their duties to watch from the balconies above; obviously with my father’s permission to do so. It always made me proud whenever my sessions amazed those who watched, but one specific person was constantly absent since he believed all this to be pointless. My father believed I had no reason to be a kunoichi, and that I would always have the protection from the ANBU.

Maybe that was the very reason why I chose to follow this path; my father couldn’t necessary control the fact that being a kunoichi came naturally to me, and the thought of it all made him furious. My father would never understand that training to be the very best gave my life meaning, and as of recently, it was the only thing that could bring a smile to my lips.

In previous years, I chose to borrow an ANBU mask for these types of sessions, but ever since Tsunade-sama had given me my own mask back when I lived in Konoha, I thought it was appropriate to wear that small memento. I slipped the mask on, shielding my face from the ANBU and anyone who was looking down on the scene which was about to unfold.

Silence weighed down on my shoulders as the crowd finally quieted down and all the ANBU members surrounding me immediately fell down to one knee, their heads lowered. My gaze wandered over all the men kneeling before me, confusion evident over my features. I was beginning to wonder what was going on, but then I felt it — his gaze was focused directly on me. His gaze was burning small holes into my skin and I just knew that he was waiting to see my reaction at his sudden appearance.

I slowly turned around, removing my custom ANBU mask in the process to stare in the direction that everyone was bowing in. I met my father’s gaze and it almost seemed like the world froze. He was smiling down at me from a balcony up above and the corners of my lips slightly twitched upwards. My father nodded at me, almost as if he were giving me his approval. My heart seized in my chest — my father had always been disdainful when it came to my training sessions, but to see him actually make an effort to see what I was capable of made me happier than words could even describe.