sunshineverse | Genius and madness go hand in hand

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Genius and madness go hand in hand

Where: Konoha training fields
When: April 18th
Notes: Open, Itachi's having fun setting up a training area for more fun. Come have fun with him?

The training area had a "reserved" sign hung politely on it, and Itachi had been working for several hours now. At times it was obvious he was setting up traps, but he'd also stop and stare at nothing for a while, a frown of concentration on his face. He'd already used up a substantial amount of chakra, but a chakra pill had kept him going and now he was almost finished. He was smeared with dirt and had sticks and leaves in his hair and stuck to his clothes. Frequent breaks were key. He’d gone home and slept for a few hours already, but his mind wouldn’t calm down enough for him to sleep more than that. He'd only run into his father on the way out of the house, which was perfect since Fugaku was the least likely to send him back to bed to get more rest. As he couldn't sleep, the obvious solution was to get ready for putting Sasuke through hell, if he agreed to it.

If not Sasuke refused, then Itachi could always drag Shisui out here to have some fun. That would be a wonderful “I haven’t seen you in awhile” gift. The poisons would all have a day to lose some potency, so they’d be annoying but not dangerous. All the traps were made to immobilize or cause minor damage. All good for testing someone skills when you needed them to stay mostly unharmed. Itachi considered that he probably look a little crazy right now, going here and there and coming back frequently to sit down under a tree and drink water and nibble on whatever snacks he’d brought. He had a small pile of equipment under a tree at the edge of the training area, most of which he’d already pulled out and tinkered with when he was resting.

OOC: Feel free to come and stare or talk to Itachi while he's resting, hanging from a tree, staring into space....whatever.

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Itachi probably should have expected his mother to come after him, but he wasn't exactly on the top of his game right now. He was still a little down from his talk with Ashiko, and he was sleep deprived. Still, his mother was calling, and Itachi was nothing if not a dutiful child.

Most of the time, anyway.

Anyway, he didn't wany his mother to get tangled up in one of his traps.

"Coming Okaa-san!" Itachi quickly tied off what he was working on and quickly headed down and across the trees to land in front of his mother.

"Kami, so you are alive, Itachi! I wouldn't have known if not for your Father's nonchalant replies and the amount of traps I've passed..." Though she felt as if she should continue fussing, she smiles brightly at her son, who seemed to be towering even more over her, and reaches out to offer him a hug.

Well, either a hug or a chance to escape the traps surrounding her. She supposed she should start polishing her trap disassembling skills sooner or later, but for now she decides to focus on her son, "Have you been well, Itachi?"

Itachi tended to come and go as he pleased, silent as a cat. Still, when he was so often not home, actually letting people know he was home was becoming more important. That in mind, Itachi accepted the hug from his mother, to whom he assumed he would always be small and in need of having his nose wiped. Itachi returned it briefly and very gently.

"Better since I got home," Itachi admitted very vaguely. He'd lost weight, considered killing a friend very seriously, and met some very interesting people in Ame. The past week had been very full.

"Must my sons always attempt to lie to me?" Tutting quietly under her breath, Mikoto reaches up to place her small hand gently on his cheek, her lips pursed yet still curved to show her fondness, "Don't be so blatant in your lies, honestly... If you are not alright, then you don't need to cover it up for your okaa-san." Unless, of course, he had done something unimaginably stupid. Then, she supposed, it would be best for the information to be hidden from a protective and warring mother.

Switching from being undercover and lying to everyone and then coming home and having people expecting the blatant truth was evidently not an easy switch, but Itachi had always been secretive.

"Mah..." It hadn't really been a lie. "I am glad to be home." Could they leave it at that? Itachi had no desire to drag out what all had happened to him since he'd left.

"Ah," Mikoto strives to keep a smile on her face, succeeding as far as she can tell. Dropping her hand off his face to allow him his personal bubble again, she picks up the bento by her side and presents it to him, "Oh, here, eat this whenever you have time, Itachi. It's rice balls, your favorite, unless your favorite has changed..."

Did growing up make everyone feel guilty, or was this something other than simply growing up? Was he slowly shutting out those he loved for the sake of secrecy? He'd already hidden the problems with his health for as long as possible, and he knew if the simple measures taken by the medics didn't work, he'd hide that as well.

"No, I'm sadly firmly set in my eating habits," Itachi admitted to her with a crooked smiled as he took the bento box. "Thank you." Itachi had no doubt she'd packed in more than enough food for him, and he saw a chance to make up for his skirting the truth.

"I should probably take a break now. Would you care to join me?"

She laughs softly at his attempt of a joke, nodding in understanding, "You're welcome." She was glad to hear that he had at the very least kept his manners. Tilting her head at his offer, she bites her lip in consideration, "I'm not sure about that. If I joined you, I may start nagging at you to do this and that. Wouldn't it be best for you to eat in peace instead?"

She did have a tendency and liking for nagging people's ears off, no matter how good hearted her intentions were... "But, if you don't mind, then..."

Itachi smiled. "I believe I can put up with it for a while." Mikoto wasn't that bad, and Itachi did miss his family when he was away for months at a time. He had a hard time expressing that.

"Besides, I need to catch up on what's happened while I was away so I don't hurt anyone's feelings by not knowing how they've been," Itachi added.

"The best option would have been to instead ask for the information from the one's who were involved in said gossip instead asking your poor mother dear to provide gossip from the grape vine." Seeing as she was allowed to nag for a little while, Mikoto decided to do just that; nag for a little while.

With a huff and a smile playing on her lips, she motions for the eldest son to lead on to a 'safe' place past the traps.

"Ah, but they tell me their perception of what's happened to them or what's going on. If I hear it from you, then I'm getting the truth instead of someone's biased opinion of the events," Itachi countered as he lead his mother back through the trees and to an nice open place dappled with sunshine from the trees above.

"You're much too kind, implying that your okaa-san cannot lie..." Mikoto smoothly retorts in her teasing tone, tilting her head to the side once more, "You picked a rather pretty training ground. It's a shame it may become damaged... But yes, anyways! Gossip?" For some reason, she felt that she probably shouldn't be telling Itachi about people's lives; wasn't it an invasion of privacy? He did ask, though, so there wasn't much she could do to decline if she wanted to.

"I never meant to imply you couldn't lie; only that I trust you not to lie to me." Itachi glanced around the training field and realized he should have discussed this with his parents before possibly even suggesting it to Obito...definitely before he discussed it with Sasuke. Itachi instantly sobered. He felt almost certain his father would have no issues with what he was going to do, but Mikoto?

Sasuke was her baby.

"Unfortunately it probably will." Itachi didn't intend to go easy on his brother. "I thought it was time to see how Sasuke's been doing with his training."

"Mmhm." She understood that sentiment at least; she had quit being an active ninja by the time she fell pregnant with Itachi, therefore she hadn't had to actually lie for...quite a long time, if she thought about it. She observes when Itachi curiously looks around the trapped training ground, furrowing her eyebrows slightly at his next sentence.

"Are you suggesting..." She trailed off in a softer voice before speaking up once more, "Are you suggesting a pre-jonin testing? On your own younger brother?"

"I'm suggesting that he's getting older, and I can no longer afford to think he'll be content as a Chuunin for much longer. I'm also suggesting that I'm woefully in the dark about my brother's current skill level, which isn't acceptable." Itachi nodded. "If I think he's ready, I'm going to consider recommending him for jounin in a few months, after his birthday."

Moving up in the ranks was dangerous, but a young Jounin like Sasuke not in a time of war of a shortage of ninja would be given time to adjust to the riskier missions. He would be all right.

But if Obito tried to put Sasuke in ANBU, Itachi would probably end up thrown out of Konoha for assaulting the Hokage. ANBU was not a place he ever wanted to see his little brother.

"I cannot exactly say that Sasuke was content to be Chuunin at all, though I'm not sure about...jounin." She wrings her hands, one of very few outward signs of nervousness she portrays, her lips pursed for a few moments as she pauses in thought. She herself had reached Jounin level before the age of eighteen, but Itachi was, after all, the Clan's prodigy. Though she was his mother, she couldn't exactly stop him from doing what he deemed right, even if it was her baby boy's life on the line...

She supposed she couldn't stop her babies from growing up forever, no matter how much she wanted to. With another sigh, Mikoto turns a tired smile towards her son, her voice taking a lighter tone, "If you think he's ready, then go ahead. Just be sure to ask your Father for permission; you know how Fugaku gets when his consent isn't taken into consideration!"

Itachi smiled a little. "I don't recommend him unless I'm more than certain he's ready for it." Itachi assured her. "I should really spend more time with him than I do anyway, and I would like to see how far he's come." And where he lacked so Itachi could help Sasuke shore up his weaknesses.

"I will be sure to ask Father," Itachi said. He probably should have done so this morning.

"If I'm not mistaken, Sasuke is beginning to have that adorable tendency of portraying a sulking and pouting face when I mention having seen you... Mmhm, you really must spend time with him, he always has adored you." Mikoto muses out loud, tapping her lip with the tips of her hand's nails, "And I'm sure that spending time with your brother will allow you more time to relax."

She sighs, this time with much more relief backing up the exhale of air, "I do hope he passes, but be sure to judge him without bias, Itachi."

"He could have chosen a better role model." Itachi wasn't even a good brother, let alone a good role model. He tended to be more goal oriented than anything else and forget personal commitments when he got too busy. "But I will try to spend more time with him." He should probably do that without it being under the pretense of testing him.

"I'm afraid avoiding bias is impossible," Itachi admitted. "I'll be harder on him than I would be on anyone else." Because Sasuke was his younger brother, and Itachi needed to be sure he could defend himself properly on high risk missions, or he'd never be able to recommend him for Jounin.

"And yet, you adore him. In return, he admires you." Having never been forced to experience the pressure of an older sibling, let alone a 'better' sibling, Mikoto was disgruntled at the fact that she couldn't exactly relate to either of her sons on such topics. Still, she loved them, so still she tried.

"Ah..." She wrinkles her nose slightly at his forward admission, laughter almost leaving her lips, "At least your Father's and my own fears of Sasuke being sent out much too early would be quelled, wouldn't it?"

Itachi flushed a little at that, but he couldn't deny the importance of Sasuke to him. Sasuke was so many things in Itachi's mind, and no matter how surly he got, he would always be Itachi's younger brother, the one who had once been so tiny he could be cradled in Itachi's arms. The next time Itachi held a child and felt such a devotion for them would probably be his own.

"I promise I won't even suggest it if he's not ready. He is young, but I don't want to hold him back just because of that." Sasuke was young, and Itachi didn't want his brother to go through the things Itachi had gone through. "If I just recommend him for Special Jounin, it won't be such a jump in difficulty, but he'll still feel he's improving and moving forward."

She giggles quietly, hiding the amused curve of her lips behind a delicate hand. Mikoto sobers up slightly at her grown child's next words, nodding somewhat thoughtfully at his assurances. Special Jounin really would be a much better position for Sasuke, so as for him to learn the tricks of the trade whilst keeping him safe, all the whilst teaching him that nothing in the world of shinobi came easy.

Or, at least, she hoped he'd learn that.

"Mm, I think that might just be a good idea. Go ahead with you plan, seeing as I'm sure Fugaku would approve..."

"Don't worry. I'll talk to Father." Historically, of all Itachi's "family talks," his talks with his father went best. Perhaps it was because they were the most emotionally...repressed members of the family.

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Genius and madness go hand in hand

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