"Best friends?"
Uchiha Itachi looked down at the two little kids standing before him.
One was his younger sister: round-faced, big-eyed, with dark hair and dark eyes, cheerful and cute, wearing a little white dress. She was currently smiling brightly as she wiped the face of the scruffy little boy beside her, her gaze drifting every now and on to his hair and eyes with a profound sense of delight.
The other was... the child left behind by that legendary figure. Short golden hair and bright blue eyes—the very hallmarks of that man. This child looked remarkably like Aunt Kushina, and the six whisker-like marks on his cheeks made him resemble a little tabby cat. His vest was caked in mud, and he had minor scrapes on his face and arms, making it look as though he had taken a tumble or gotten into a fight with someone.
"Mhm." Yuka nodded with total earnestness, though her eyes were actually filled with sheer delight as she gazed at the little boy's dazzling golden hair, full of envious admiration. She was still introducing her newly made friend to her older brother. "His name is Uzumaki Naruto. Which family are the Uzumakis? How come I've never heard of them?"
"I don't have a family..."
Naruto said in a small voice, his lovely blue eyes seeming to cloud over with a layer of mist. This was the first time he had ever been invited to play at someone else's house. Ever since he had learned to talk and walk and understood a little bit of the world, he had lived alone in a cramped single room. Everyone around him hated him, and no matter where he went, nobody would give him the time of day. This was the first time anyone had ever called out to him, taken him by the hand, and gently wiped the mud from his face.
Itachi knew the boy's origins, but because he knew what those origins implied, he naturally kept his mouth shut.
Regardless, his sister had already brought someone home. It was just a meal; it wouldn't disrupt anything. Even if those adults found out, so what? They hadn't intentionally tried to get close to the Jinchuriki—they had simply run into him on the street.
A pure friendship between children was completely normal. His sister didn't even know what the surnames Uzumaki and Namikaze represented.
"Come inside," he said coldly, turning and walking into the courtyard.
"How can you not have a family?" Yuka asked with eager curiosity, clutching Naruto's hand as she followed Itachi's pace. "If you don't have a family, how were you born? Where's your mom? Where's your dad? Then who gave you the clothes you're wearing? And how did you get hurt? Did someone pick a fight with you? Are you strong?"
A child's questions were always varied and plentiful. Facing Naruto, Yuka had so many things she wanted to know and was curious about. Before she knew it, her mouth went rattling on, speaking at a rapid-fire speed that left Naruto's head spinning, completely unsure of where to even begin answering.
Noticing Naruto's anxiety and unease, Itachi reminded her, "Yuka, that's private business."
Yuka seemed to understand. "Big brother, what's private business?"
Her curiosity about Naruto instantly shifted into curiosity about vocabulary. If there was something you didn't understand, you had to bravely ask about it! This was Uchiha Yuka's nindo—if you want to know, ask!
Even Naruto tilted his head, secretly watching Uchiha Itachi, his eyes filled with a mix of unease and curiosity.
Itachi replied calmly, reaching out to stroke his sister's soft hair. "...Things you don't want other people to know—that's private business."
"Ohhh!" Yuka nodded, smiling with all the radiance of the spring sun. "Then I get it!"
***
At lunchtime, Sasuke still hadn't returned as usual, and Fugaku was busy with official duties, leaving only four people at the dining table.
Mikoto was quite surprised that Yuka had run into Naruto outside. Over the past two years, she had occasionally gone to drop things off for Naruto, but she had never actually gone to see him in person, always leaving the packages with the servants at the door and walking away. She had no idea how the boy was getting along. But looking at him now, his attire and physique clearly indicated that he hadn't had an easy time these past two years.
He was terribly thin, his skin tanned a sallow yellow-black. Though he was roughly the same age as Sasuke, his face was so thin there was hardly any flesh on it. His arms and legs were spindly, and the clothes he wore looked as though they had been through a fierce battle right alongside him.
*...I'm sorry, Kushina. I've let your child suffer.*
A wave of guilt washed over Mikoto, and she frequently placed food in Naruto's bowl, an unreadable sheen of moisture shimmering in her eyes.
Naruto couldn't understand the complex emotions in the adult's eyes, but he could feel the goodwill this family was directing toward him. Before he knew it, his eyes grew moist. He buried his head in his bowl, shoveling down rice with increasing frequency. From initial caution to finally letting go and eating his fill, his mood settled down considerably.
Yuka ate with proper manners, though every now and then she received vegetables her brother had placed in her bowl. Her eyes darted around in a circle, and taking advantage of the moment Uchiha Itachi wasn't looking, she tried to toss the greens aside.
*Thwack.* A crisp, moderate sound rang out. The chopsticks she had just extended were pinned in place by Itachi's own chopsticks.
With the sound coming from this direction, the other two people turned to look in unison.
Itachi said flatly, "No being a picky eater."
Though he looked only seven years old, he was as mature as an adult, keeping Yuka thoroughly disciplined.
Caught red-handed, Yuka offered a sheepish smile, puckered her little lips as she pulled her chopsticks back, and glared with bitter resentment at those few leafy green vegetables. After going through several rounds of internal struggle, she finally, tremulously, brought the chopsticks toward her mouth.
The expression on her face made it look as though eating vegetables was going to cost her her life.
Itachi retracted his gaze with satisfaction.
Before he could even take a single bite of his own food, a child's deliberately lowered, breathy whisper reached his ear: "Yuka, if you don't want to eat those, you can give them to me. I'll eat them for you! I can eat a lot! Even though I don't really like vegetables, I'm willing!"
Immediately following that came his sister's voice, overflowing with tearful gratitude: "Really, Naruto?! Wuuu, you're so good to me! You truly are my best friend! My brother from another mother! I'll remember this in my heart!"
By the time Itachi looked over, that pair of chopsticks' worth of vegetables had already vanished into Naruto's stomach, while Yuka was happily digging into the meat in her bowl, eating large mouthfuls with great joy.
"..."
Looking at his sister's innocent, beaming smile, the prematurely mature older brother suddenly felt an indescribable and unspeakable sorrow.
Every single day, he worked hard to correct his sister's rather poor lifestyle habits.
Good daily habits were the only way to build a child's health, but there were always stumbling blocks around his sister.
Take Sasuke, for instance, who spoiled her unconditionally. If Sasuke were here, he would have quietly eaten those two plates of vegetables himself, never letting a single vegetable cross the threshold into Yuka's bowl, embodying the principle that if anyone had to suffer through hardship, it would be him, never his sister. And now this boy he'd just met... was already capable of paying attention to his sister's every move. He was only two years old... What was going to happen when he grew up? Wouldn't Yuka turn the world upside down?
Sigh, it was truly depressing.
"Pfft—Hahahahahahaha!!!"
Compared to Itachi's speechless grief, Mikoto proved to be quite broad-minded.
Amused by the two children's conversation and actions, she sat across the table, covering her mouth with her hand and laughing for a long while.
"Yuka, how does it feel to make a friend?" she asked with a smile, reaching out to pat her younger daughter's head.
Naruto was Yuka's first peer friend outside of the Uchiha clan, so the feeling was naturally quite magical.
Even though she had unilaterally decided that Naruto was her friend, his actions had nonetheless made her immensely happy. The feeling was fantastic, and Yuka loved it!
Yuka answered with high spirits, "Good! Great! Super-duper great!"
"Really?" Naruto tilted his head to look at Yuka, the anticipation in his eyes practically overflowing as his speech stumbled slightly. "Na... Naruto—wait, Yuka, are we friends?"
"Of course! We're friends!"
The two children gazed at each other with a sense of mutual affinity. One rejoiced at being able to see brilliant colors, casting off the curse of black, white, and gray. The other rejoiced at finally having made a friend, no longer standing completely alone in Konohagakure.
Regardless of what each was thinking in their heart, at least... they were on the same wavelength, their eyes had met, and a tacit understanding had formed.
That special frequency and magnetic field were not something outsiders could squeeze into.
Yuka and Naruto giggled foolishly, sticking their thumbs up at each other in unison.
So dazzling...
For the first time, Itachi felt that the little white teeth flashing in his sister's smile were blindingly bright.
He silently looked away and put down his chopsticks.
So be it.
As long as she was happy.
Childhood was irreversible. During his own childhood, he had witnessed many things—things that were either bloody or laid bare the truth of the world, and truths were almost always stained with blood.
Torn-open wounds would leave permanent, hard-to-erase scars that lingered stubbornly in his heart.
As for the childhoods of his younger brother and sister, he hoped to do his utmost to let them live a little better and leave behind more precious and wonderful memories. They deserved to live far more happily beneath the shelter of his wings.
In the limited time they had... in a future full of unknowns, to live happily and freely.