27 Warning (1/2)

The wind blew strong. The cold air breezed through the abundant village, sending a few some chills. The dark clouds are approaching towards the Hidden Village of Leaf. Birds flew towards the opposite direction, sensing something dangerous approaching.

Sitting on a porch in a courtyard, a white haired child, with his book in hand, looked up towards the dark clouds that are approaching, brows furrowed and eyes filled with uncertain worry. ”Is everything alright, Orion-kun?” Itachi asked the said child as he noticed the look the child was giving.

The first born of the main branch of the Uchiha's was assigned to watch over the Hatake-Nara in place of his cousin, Shisui, and the child's uncle, Kakashi, as they were called for a short mission a few days ago, and would probably come back later in afternoon, and if not, in the evening. Add to the fact that other adults are gone as well because they're having their meeting of some sort.

Only a few ANBU's and ninjas are around the household for safety.

That said, Itachi's okay with it since he has no school and can watch over his little brother as well. Seeing that his brother and the Hatake-Nara are getting along with no problem and are not as wild as other children, he didn't see any problem with this.

Well, except for one thing; the sickly child seems to be bothered by something.

”No… I'm okay… it's just…” The child sheepishly shook his head, providing a small smile as well, ”It got a bit colder, right?” The child sneezed right after that, proving his point.

”Now that you pointed it out…” Itachi looked towards the direction where Orion was originally looking at, ”it indeed got colder.”

”I know…!” Young Sasuke popped out of nowhere, tackling his brother's back, ”I'll go grab a blankie.” He beamed with a brimming smile. Itachi chuckled and ruffled his young brother's hair into a mess, ”Okay, okay... You go do that…” With that, young Sasuke left.

That only brought silence and awkwardness between the remaining two on the porch. Well, not until Itachi caught something from the corner of his eyes. He swear he saw something fly towards the white-haired child's direction. He simply narrowed his eyes and stayed silent, standing up from his seat and looking out to and fro at the bush.

It seems like he was a bit paranoid because, if something indeed flew from the bush's direction to Orion's, the child would surely react—but no, he didn't; and, to be sure, he looked over at the child, but the child is still as the same as before: letting his small feet dangle over the porch with a book in hand.

Nothing seems out of the ordinary so the Uchiha went back to his seat and, at the same time, his younger brother came scurrying, buried with fluffy blankets in his arms. Of course, being the nice brother he is, Itachi helped his younger brother with a smile on his face.

As he turned around though, he almost immediately stopped as the sickly white-haired child turned to face him with a rather disturbed look.

Now, this time, there really is something wrong.

Before the ”oldest” in the bunch could even speak, the white-haired child beat him to it. ”I… don't feel so good, Itachi-niisan… let's… let's go somewhere… anywhere but here, please.” Orion's voice was shaking, and it was enough to make Itachi drop the blankets in his hands to grab Sasuke's hands and carry Orion in his arms.

The child seemed really disturbed to the point that it made Itachi alert.

Then, a chill ran down the spine of the first-born Uchiha, making him stop momentarily, 'What on earth was that?'

__________

Today, I woke up with a cold sweat. I've been having strange, vivid dreams lately, and, honestly, it's quite unsettling. Why? It's because the dream just keeps repeating over and over, showing me blurs of colours fighting and clashing, but the colours that are definitely standing out are the colour of crimson red and a golden hue.

Every single time, that shade of red—reminding me the colour of blood, is appearing with that golden light… and every single time, there's that same white blur emerging from the said colours—and it's like providing a way for me to get through that nightmare, and wake up, apparently. It's like telling me to, literally, walk towards the light in order to ”survive” that nightmare.

Well, I'm thankful for that bright light, whatever that is.

I let out a big sigh as I sat up, pulling out my blanket away and going out of bed to get ready for the day. I quickly fixed the bed before picking up the clothes that's on the table. I snagged a towel as well before going out of the guest room, making my way down the hall to reach the bathroom to, well, what else? Eat—just kidding, I mean, who in their right minds would eat in a bathroom? Disgusting.

I'm taking a bath, of course—a bath.

While making my way down the hall I almost slammed into someone while thinking about how eerily quiet the house is. Thankfully, the person who I was about to bump into, called me out. It's Itachi in a pink apron again. With, this time, a wooden spoon in his hands.

”Where's kaa-san?” I asked him, staring at his coal eyes.

”All of the adults went out for a meeting.” He smiled, his short voice, softened down for a child, reaching me.

”Oh, okay…” That makes sense because… I heard them talking about a plan or something the other day, after my uncle and Shisui-nii left for a ”mission”. I gave him a small smile, ”Thank you, Itachi-niisan.” I then proceeded to walk past him to get to the bathroom.

Now, finally at the place I'm supposed to be, I quickly locked the door and took a short, ice-cold bath. After drying myself, I noticed that the clothes I was given is in the Uchiha style, more so identical with Sasuke's since I'm just a little taller than him. So, basically, I'm either going to wear Sasuke's clothes, or Itachi's old ones. Probably the latter judging how new they look.

It's not really bothering me but after I wore it… it's kind of scary how I like this style more than the traditional Japanese clothes I wear back at home. I guess it's because this style is close to the style I always wore when I was a 28-year old guy, minus the shorts of course.

I looked myself at the mirror and… not gonna lie, I'm rocking this dark blue turtleneck right now. No, no—I'm not a narcissist, it's just I've missed this kind of clothing. I have some like this back at home but they're quite light coloured, and I don't like those blinding colours.

I chuckled at myself before proceeding to brush my teeth at the sink.

Now finished, my hair is still not dry so I took the towel with me and went to the kitchen, straight to the electric fan by the sliding door. I faced my back at it and sat down in front of it, letting the wind blow through my hair, drying my thick hair. Kaa-san does this with a blow dryerso my hair's always fluffy, but I don't think I can get a hold of one right now, unless I ask for it—which I'm not gonna do because my anxiety will punch me in the face.

Oh, look at me: a ”4-year old” with an anxiety—haha… ha… It's not funny, Orion, geez.

I heaved a sigh, but Itachi, who's cooking up something that smells really nice, probably took it differently and proceeded to walk towards me while removing his apron. He picked up a brush that was conveniently on the table and grabbed my towel off of my hair gently.

I think he thought that I'm having trouble drying my hair. Well, he does have a long hair so I think he understands me so, he started brushing my hair while I stare at the floor because I have nothing to do. He paused for a moment before standing up and leaving the brush with me.

I thought he got bored and went off somewhere, but it just turned out that he… he actually grabbed a hairdryer to dry my hair. Oh, bless him. I give you my good luck for drying my hair since even kaa-san's having troubles drying it. But hey, kaa-san loves my hair because once it dries neatly, it's so fluffy and shiny—that's what she told me, at least.

I got so carried away by my silly thoughts that it startled me when he gathered my hair into a bunch. Through the reflection from the window, I saw him as he bit onto a hair tie, running his long fingers through my silver-ish hair. He then proceeded to put my hair into a pony tail, which actually worked out even though my hair is just around an inch under my neck.

Well, if my hair isn't curly, it would surely be longer than this. Also, I'm not really… used to others putting up my hair. It was always kaa-san and… Cherry… who'll put up my hair into a snatch. I looked down and spaced out a bit after remembering Cherry… A~h… it'd be nice to know how's she doing, but something's telling me that she's become successful in life.

It's quite odd to have such feelings.

I really do hope she got over this dead man.

”Ah…!” A voice snapped me out of my daze, ”Shiro-chan's kawaii.” Sasuke's face popped in front of me, making me blink—how long has he been there?

Wait—what did he say?!

”You're so cute but you look so sad...” Sasuke tilted his head before turning to his brother, ”Don'cha think so, niisan?” Itachi took his time to glance at me. He then proceeded to give me an apologetic smile, ”Does he now?” The younger Uchiha nodded, ”Mhm…! Because… he always looks like he's gonna cry, see?” He then pointed at me.

Guys, you know I'm here right? There's no need to talk about me. Now it's awkward that Sasuke's words made Itachi do a double take on me and look at me straight in the eyes, like, bro, it's quite uncomfortable don't you think?

I proceeded to cough and the Uchiha blinked, shaking his head and is probably wondering why he was staring at my eyes. ”Oh, uh… breakfast's ready.” He then walked over and placed the dishes on the table, proceeding to get servings of fried rice for the three of us.

Yo, his cooking's hella good.

I didn't realise that I had my chopsticks resting on my lips as I smile at the food. I only snapped out when Sasuke started chuckling. ”It's good, right?” He smiled, ”My niisan cooks amazing food, doesn't he?”

I then gave Itachi a small smile, ”Mhm… he does…”

After breakfast, and because Itachi had forbidden both Sasuke and I to go out, the younger Uchiha proceeded to drag me to his room to play something. I'd absolutely be thrilled if he has some sort of console, but, of course, that is not possible.

Instead, he has this Shōgi table at the corner of the room. Of course, I was interested at the Go board next to it.

”You like to play Shōgi.” That wasn't even a question, Sasuke—what are you trying to say? Just because I'm a Nara I love playing that thing? Is that a common Nara stereotype in this world or something?

Well, I don't hate playing Shōgi, but I would sure pick any other game if there are opportunities… like right now, ”Oh… no… I prefer Go over Shōgi…” because I like war-based games… I left out my thoughts and proceeded to smile when he eagerly went to pick it up.

Well, Go is just a simple strategy game. Whoever captures more… ”territory”with their stones wins the game.