The Festival (VII)

"C'mon, Sasuke. There is really no need to sulk, is there? I don't think I am such bad company."

The younger boy at his side threw Shisui a gloomy look. "You are not," he said. "And I'm not sulking!"

"Could have fooled me," he chuckled, his amusement growing even more when Sasuke's reaction to that was turning around to hide his obvious pout. "If I didn't know any better, I would think you dislike being with me."

"That's not it…"

Oh, Shisui knew all too well what was bothering the younger boy. It wasn't that Sasuke disliked being with him, but that he disliked not being with his brother instead. That Itachi decided to accompany Naruto, who was Sasuke's best friend, home first before joining them made things even worse. It was stupid to be jealous about silly things like this, Shisui thought, but neither of the brothers was ever logical regarding each other.

"I'm sure Itachi will hurry and catch up with us soon," he consoled the boy. "You understand why he went with Naruto, right? It can be dangerous to be out alone at this time of the night and I don't think you would want your friend to be hurt, do you?"

"Of course not!" Sasuke exclaimed, clearly offended by that question.

"Well, then you have no reason to be sad about it either."

Sasuke huffed. "You could have taken him home too, you know. Then Nii-san would be with me now instead."

Shisui dramatically clutched his chest with an exaggerated gasp. "What? And here I thought you just said you enjoyed my company! How am I to endure the pain of this betrayal?"

"All I said was that you aren't bad company, not that you're good company."

However, while that sounded a bit harsh, the twinkle in his eyes and the small smile on his lips made it clear that he was only joking.

"Oh, now I see how it is," Shisui said. "Well, in that case, there is no reason for why I should teach you this super awesome technique like I planned to. I guess I will just go and teach it to someone else, then. Maybe Naruto would be happy about it, don't you think?"

Sasuke snorted before grinning up to him. "You can't manipulate me that easily, Shisui. Besides, I can just ask Nii-san to teach me something. I bet he knows much cooler Ninjutsu!"

"Ah, yes, he would probably teach you something as well," Shisui agreed unperturbed. "However, what will it be? A kickass technique like the one I would teach you, or a much less impressive but more safe technique like the one Itachi would show you? After all, he can't let his little baby brother get hurt, right?"

Sasuke blinked. "That-"

"Furthermore," he said while throwing one arm over the other boy's shoulder and pulling him closer before continuing in a conspiratorial tone. "You can't use only the things he taught you in your spars against him if you ever want to beat him. As long as he knows everything you're capable of, you will never truly catch him by surprise. With a technique taught by me, on the other hand, you might actually win one of these days!"

This was all it took to make Sasuke completely forget about how much he missed his brother.

However, while he had successfully distracted him from it, Shisui couldn't help but get curious himself about what his friend was up to. Yes, letting a child wander around on his own was indeed a tad too dangerous, but that didn't explain why Itachi needed to be the one to accompany the boy. He even declined Izumi's offer to do it herself! Sure, his whispered argument that he was not actually bringing Naruto to the orphanage but his godfather –and why was the boy even in the orphanage if he had a godfather?!- explained it somewhat as the other children would only get jealous if they found out their friend got to stay outside longer than them, but it didn't quite satisfy Shisui.

Whatever, he thought. I will just make him tell me later. I bet it's something interesting.

Although some aspects of this Naruto were quite different from the one that had existed in the previous timeline, others remained still the same. His ability to lighten the mood wherever he went fell into the latter category.

He and Sasuke had been friends for a while now, meaning Itachi had had the chance to observe the boy more closely than he had ever been able to before, and in that time, Itachi didn't think he had encountered a single person who disliked him. It wasn't like he was friends with everyone, of course, and there were a few people that were annoyed by his antics for sure, but no one actively disliked him.

This time observing him meant Itachi now understood better than ever why he had been able to trust Naruto with Sasuke's fate after his own death, and he was glad that his meddling hadn't changed this aspect of his character.

Tonight's plan would have been impossible to pull off if it had.

"Hey, Itachi?" Naruto said, sounding more curious than he had previously when he regarded him with a tale of his latest prank. "Why are you even here? Sasuke said you were at your family's fancy party and didn't think you would be able to leave."

He chuckled softly. "Well, technically I never left, you see."

"What?" Naruto looked at him with wide blue eyes, confusion written all over his face. "But you did! You're here now, aren't you?"

"I did," he agreed. "However, another version of myself did not." Then, when he realized that Naruto still didn't understand what he was implying, he continued: "You know the Bunshin no Jutsu, right?"

Now he understood. "So you used a clone to stay back while you sneak out and have fun? That's so cool!" However, just a moment after the words had left his mouth, he frowned. "Wait, aren't the clones fake? They're only illusions, right? How comes that nobody notices that?"

"You're correct," Itachi said with an approving nod of his head. "And I'm sure your teacher at the academy will be glad to hear that you actually pay attention to his class from time to time instead of thinking about your next prank. And to answer your question, the technique I used wasn't the Bunshin no Jutsu but a variant of it called Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. It creates real copies of yourself instead of fake ones like the former one, making it perfect for situations like this."

Naruto blinked. "Wait, there is actually a way to create clones? Like, real ones? That's amazing! Why did no one tell me about that earlier? I want to learn it! Can you teach me please?"

Itachi regarded the boy for a few seconds. While he certainly had the chakra reserves to use it already, he wondered if it would be wise to teach it to him. After all, he was still rather young and could do a lot of damage if he went out of hand with it. Stuff that was nothing but a small, harmless prank now could quickly evolve into something that would be a problem. On the other hand, it might also become quite useful in the future. And then there was also to consider that Naruto still struggled with the normal Bunshin no Jutsu, meaning that teaching him the advanced version would give him an alternative he would need for his graduation at the latest.

Naruto was unfortunately not very talented in terms of chakra control, so the odds of him mastering the basic technique weren't all that great.

"I have some conditions before I agree to teach it to you."

"Of course! I will-"

He raised his hand to stop the boy. "You might not like what I have to say, so listen to me first and make your decision afterwards."

Naruto looked a bit annoyed but grudgingly nodded his consent.

"If I teach you the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, you must promise me to not use it for your pranks." Naruto immediately opened his mouth to complain, but Itachi just ignored him and went on. "And secondly, you will not use it to skip school by sending one of your clones there in your stead. Do you agree?"

The boy looked a tad annoyed about these limitations, but to his pleasant surprise, he didn't try to argue with him about them. "Yeah, fine. I agree."

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise!"

Itachi narrowed his eyes. "If I find out that you lied and used them for either of these two reasons, I-"

"I said 'I promise', didn't I?" Naruto interrupted him with a frustrated growl. "I never go back on my word, so if I say I will not use it for that, I won't!"

They kept glaring at each other for a few more seconds before Itachi let the façade fall. "That's good," he said with a smile. "In that case, I will teach you."

Let's hope I don't regret it.

It would be a lie to claim that she wasn't enjoying herself, and while Tsunade was great at lying to herself, she saw no reason to do so right now. Not that she would ever confess that out loud, of course; Jiraiya would never let that go if she did.

However, that didn't stop her from leaning back in her seat with a drink in her hand and a smile on her lips as she watched her old teammate and sensei banter just like in the good ol' days.

Coming back to Konoha after all these years had been simultaneously easier and harder than she had expected. On one hand, once she made the decision to return for a short visit, she had surprisingly little hesitation to actually go through with it; on the other hand, seeing countless reminders of the life she had left behind no matter where she went was just as painful as she had thought it would be.

Although in the end, she couldn't say she regretted coming here.

As much as it pained her to admit, she had missed her childhood home. For every painful memory, there were a dozen good ones. In fact, even some of the things she had dreaded for years turned out to actually be a welcome sight, the Hokage Monument being a prime example. While not the majority, Tsunade had had more than one nightmare that involved her family over the years, and when she arrived at Konoha yesterday, she hadn't even been able to look at their pictures at the wall on her sensei's office. Today, however, she spent several hours looking at their stone faces, and honestly? It was a relief. She didn't think she was ready to look at their pictures yet, but if she was lucky, that too could change before her departure.

It would be really nice to see their faces again to refresh her memories of them. Maybe she should look for some pictures of her parents as well when she was already at it…

However, as much as she enjoyed watching Jiraiya make a fool of himself and no matter how much it eased something inside her chest to see her sensei smile in a way that made him look at least a decade younger than he actually was, she was neither oblivious nor stupid. Jiraiya might think himself subtle, and maybe he was when he really tried, but he couldn't fool Tsunade that easily.

She freely admitted that he might have succeeded if she hadn't been suspicious from the very beginning –after all, there was no way that Sarutobi-sensei would simply give up on bringing her back as fast as he did- but as it was, she had noticed several strange things about his behaviour:

For one thing, he didn't drink quite as much as he should have. That wasn't to say that he didn't drink at all or even just a little bit, of course. The amount of alcohol in his blood would surely kill a lesser man. Tsunade was familiar with her former teammate, however, and thus knew that he could drink much more than that. This late in the evening, after several hours of drinking, he should be not only tipsy but drunk.

And then there was also the fact that she had caught him looking at the clock several times already. Now, that alone wouldn't be too suspicious in and on itself. Unlikely as it was, he might have had other obligations this evening. The truly strange thing was that every time he checked the time, he would also look out of the window as if he was looking for someone.

Tsunade was neither oblivious nor stupid. She knew when someone was planning something, and in this case, she was clearly the object of whatever was going on.

Sensei doesn't let anything on, of course. She snorted. No surprise there. Jiraiya was always the idiot of the group, after all.

Maybe that was a bit too cruel, but whatever. She wasn't known for mincing her words anyway, and as long as she only thought them, nobody would even know.

"Anything funny?"

She blinked, needing a second to realize that it was her Jiraiya had addressed. "You mean something other than your antics?"

"Well," he said with a silly grin while puffing out his chest. "I am very entertaining if I may say so myself. However, I didn't say anything that would have made you snort, so there must be something else. Care to share it with the class?"

She casually swirled her glass with one hand while considering that for a few seconds before deciding to just go with it. "I was just wondering who you are waiting for," she said. "Must be someone really special if not even I can keep your attention."

"What?" Jiraiya said. "Waiting on someone? Me? What gave you that idea?" He then laughed while scratching the back of his head, obviously trying not to act suspicious.

Sometimes Tsunade seriously wondered how that buffoon could be an excellent actor during missions while failing so spectacular in a more private setting.

Sensei chuckled. "I think she refers to your regular glances at the clock, Jiraiya."

"… was it that obvious?"

She chuckled. "For everyone that knows you? Yes, it was."

Both men snorted at that.

"There's no harm in telling you, I guess," Jiraiya said after taking a sip from his glass. "I'm meeting my godson after this and I don't want to disappoint him by being late. I'm doing enough of that already as it is, no need to add to the list."

"You aren't doing too bad," Sensei consoled him while Tsunade blinked in surprise. "You are a very busy man. With that in mind, you're doing all you can."

"That's not always enough, though."

She felt as if there was more to that, but when he didn't continue, she didn't push. If there was someone who knew how it felt not wanting to talk about something, it was her.

"So," she said. "I guess that's also the reason you didn't drink as much as usual?"

"Well, I can't be completely wasted when dealing with a child, can I? Probably not the best idea if you ask me."

"I wish you would have been aware of that before I beat it into the thick head of yours."

Tsunade gasped in disbelieve at the old man's words before turning an incredulous look at Jiraiya. "Please tell me you weren't drunk while with that brat."

He winced. "That was one time! Besides, nothing happened! I-"

"Gods," she interrupted him before emptying her glass with a single gulp. "The boy doesn't live with you right?" She turned towards Sarutobi. "If he does, you better change that."

"Don't worry," he said, completely ignoring Jiraiya's indignant complaints in the background. "The boy lives in the orphanage. Jiraiya only visits him whenever he is in the village."

The man in question let his head drop onto his arms with a groan. "The two of you are impossible."

"And you love us anyway."

"Anyway," he said as he raised his head again, completely ignoring their sensei's comment. "It's almost time, so I should probably get going. Wanna come and meet him?"

She thought about it for a second before she nodded, ignoring the feeling of walking right into a trap. "Sure, why not?"