Disturbances (I).

Itachi clapped along with everyone else when the Hokage finished his speech and most of the children ran towards their families to say goodbye to them before their first day of school would begin.

However, the object of his attention wasn't part of that group. Instead of running towards someone, she just kept standing where she was while glancing at all the other children her age celebrating the moment with a soft smile as they talked with their families. That was to say, she did that until her eyes fell on him. Then her eyes widened and she started to hurriedly walk towards him, visibly restraining herself not to run.

"Itachi-nii!" Haku said. "And Sasuke-chan too! What are you doing here?"

He smiled at her. "We wanted to congratulate you on your enrollment in the academy. It would be rude to miss your first day of school, wouldn't it?"

Her own smile grew even bigger and he could see something wet glittering in her eyes before she gave them a small bow. "Thank you very much for coming."

'No one should be all alone on this day.' he thought but didn't say out loud.

"Our mother also sends her congratulations," he continued. "She too wanted to come, but she didn't feel well and Otou-san insisted she stayed in bed and rest. She wanted me to tell you that she has the fullest confidence that you will have no trouble in class."

"I will try my best to not disappoint her."

"I doubt you could do that even if you tried," he said with a chuckle. "But you're more than welcome to ask me for help if you struggle with something anyway."

Over the last two and a half years, Haku had come a lot over to their house. In the beginning, she had been a bit hesitant and unsure, but that behaviour stopped as soon as it became clear that she was welcome. It was clear to anyone that his mother enjoyed having a girl over to spoil, something that he had also noticed in her treatment of Izumi whenever she came over. He was more or less convinced by now that she had wished for a daughter and now expressed some of that onto them. Itachi wasn't complaining, of course; all three of them enjoyed their time together from what he could tell and that was the most important thing.

She had done the same with Anko as well before she had left.

Even his father seemed to have a soft spot for her. That might have something to do with how well-behaved she was, though, as well as the fact that she had a Kekkei Genkai. If she one day revived her clan, it would be a good thing to be on good terms with her, after all.

However, the most adorable thing was her relationship with Sasuke.

"Sasuke," Itachi said while gently trying -and failing- to push him in front of him from where he was hiding behind his leg. "Wasn't there something you wanted to give Haku?"

The four years old glanced shyly around his body from where he stood behind his legs to look at the girl, only to immediately turn beet red and jerk his head back.

Haku kneeled down. "You have something for me, Sasuke-chan?"

Sasuke tried to back down some more but Itachi's hand held him firmly in place, leaving him no chance to retreat. Thus, his only option was to confront her. "Yes," he said before he bowing while holding a little box with his outstretched arms. "Congratulations on your enrollment!" He tipped a bit over his words, especially when he tried to say 'congratulations', and spoke a bit too fast, but that only enhanced the cuteness of his action.

"Oh~?" Haku said when she took the box out of his hands. "What is it?"

Seeing that Sasuke wasn't about to answer, he took over for him. "He wanted to make a bento box for you, so we got up extra early today to prepare it." Personally, he thought the idea behind it was that he wanted to return the favour of her helping their mother making food for them whenever she was over at their house. "He wasn't happy with the first few attempts, though, so this is actually the fourth box we made."

"Nii-san!" Sasuke exclaimed. "Don't tell her that!"

Instead of replying, he ruffled his hair with a smile.

"Thank you, both of you," Haku said warmly, her voice making Sasuke jerk back behind Itachi's leg. "I hope you didn't ruin the kitchen, though. Mikoto-san wouldn't be happy with that."

"We made sure to make not too much of a mess," he guaranteed her. He didn't mention that he had left a clone behind to clean up.

"That's a relief," she said while finally rising from her kneeling position. "I need to go now, classes are starting soon."

She was right. There were only a few families aside of them left, most having already gone home.

"You're invited for dinner at our place tonight," he told her. "We're looking forward to hearing about your first day at school."

"Of course. Thank you, Itachi-nii."

Sasuke left the cover of his body for long enough to give a quick "Have fun" before vanishing again.

The two of them stayed long enough to watch her enter the building before they turned around and left as well.

....

The village was silent as Fugaku walked through its streets, most of the population being deep asleep already at this late hour. He took a deep breath and enjoyed the cool breeze on his face while thanking Tsukiyomi, the god of the moon and one of the three patron gods of his clan, for the clear night. It was the first time in several weeks that he managed to get out of his office to do some practical work, so he would have been severely annoyed if that just happened to be on a dark and gloomy night.

Fortunately, it was in the middle of the week, meaning there were little to no people outside at this time anymore. That didn't count for other parts where the nightlife was active even on such days, of course, but as that wasn't in his assigned district, he didn't care. Let others be worried about that for now.

It was nice to just walk around without any worry in the world, paying only enough attention to be aware of his surroundings. He hardly got the time to think these days because there was just too much work to do. With the arrival of the delegate from Kumogakure next week for the peace treaty between their villages as well as the daimyo's representative that would arrive at the same time, he was working with the ANBU almost all day to prepare for them. For some reason, the Hokage had ordered them to take additional measures compared to the last few times such guests had arrived.

At least the ANBU troops that were sent all over the continent in the wake of Danzō's arrest were returning one after another, meaning the workload of the KMPF would lessen the more time went on. Once that happened, he should finally have the time to train with Itachi again, something he did hardly have the chance to do since the boy's return from the Chūnin Exams. Now that he thought about it, Sasuke was getting old enough to be trained as well. They had been more relaxed with him than with his brother, with him not being the heir and growing up in times of peace instead of during a war, but he would start at the academy soon enough. He would need to be ready by then.

It felt as if it was just yesterday that Sasuke had been born and yet it was almost time for them to make the traditional trip to the Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami shrine. Time truly flew by.

"Uchiha-san! Uchiha-san!" He turned around to see a well-dressed, middle-aged man running towards him. "Uchiha-san, there is this ninja who causes trouble in the pub! He's drunk and-"

"Where exactly is that pub?" he interrupted the man with a voice that didn't leave any room for discussion before stretching out his senses. "No matter," he said, having felt the nearby source of chakra. "I already found it."

Appearing in front of the pub in question with a shunshin, he cursed himself for going on patrol alone instead of in a group as it was usually done. Not that he feared he couldn't handle this alone, he was one of the strongest shinobi in the village, after all, but it was always better to have several pairs of eyes on the scene.

He was just about to open the door when his senses warned him of danger, making him jump into the air before his brain even caught up with what exactly his instincts were telling him. A second later, a fireball burst through the wall where he just stood a mere moment ago.

Fugaku watched with a scowl as the flames exploded against a nearby building –a closed shop instead of a house where people lived, fortunately- before landing on the ground again, kicking off with blazing Sharingan the moment his feet touched the floor to apprehend the culprit while a shadow clone rushed towards the flame to stop it before it could spread further and so even more damage than it already did.

Inside the pub reigned chaos, but he could immediately make out the centre of it nonetheless; at the other end of the room stood an average-looking man who needed to support himself on the nearby wall to keep upright while another one laid on the ground in front of him. The man on the floor hadn't any visible injury, but fear was written on his face.

"Stop immediately!" he shouted, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "Everyone-"

The culprit panicked at the sight of him and moved to weave hand seals, obviously not thinking that action over. After all, attacking the police was hardly the smart thing to do, not just in this but in any other situation either.

Fugaku rushed forward, allowing himself a moment to smirk as he saw the man almost tripling to the ground without his arm supporting him before he smashed his fist into the man's stomach, making him throw up almost immediately. Ignoring that while also dodging the vomit to avoid any of it hitting his clothes, he finished the 'fight' by hitting him in the neck.

The man's face landed in his own vomit a moment later.

"Alright, now that everybody is calm" –well, maybe calling it 'shocked' was more fitting- "I ask all of you to give me your name and place of residence. For now, I will only interview the owner, but the rest of you needs to come to the police station tomorrow to give your testimonies." He would prefer to do it right now, of course, but he doubted the people here were sober enough for that.

He threw a quick glance through the hole in the wall to watch his clone extinguish the last flames with a water technique. At least the flames didn't spread further, he thought. The technique did enough damage as it is. Then he turned towards the devastated looking owner who couldn't keep his eyes from the hole either.

It was understandable. Having your property and probably only source of income destroyed would be shocking for everyone.

"Alright," he asked a bit more gently. "What exactly happened?"

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