Sasuke knows he's supposed to be at the festival. Mother specifically told him that he was supposed to stay next to her and not wander away at all. And Mother was at the festival.
But after they stopped at the stand with dango (too sweet) and the stand with kakigouri (yuck) and the stand with yakitori (not bad) Mother and Father stopped again, this time to talk to Shisui. He was Itachi's friend but Itachi wasn't there with him today. Itachi was working today instead, even though it was a festival day and they should have given him the day off.
"Hi Shisui," Sasuke said.
Shisui didn't look at Sasuke, though. Instead he said, to Father, "Awful weather today, isn't it?"
Sasuke asked, "How come you always say that?" Because Shisui always did say that, that exact thing, even when it was nice out. And also when it was night. He only never said it when Itachi was there, but every time he talked to Father he would always say that. Or usually. Or he would say something else stupid, like, "It's quiet today," even if it was not quiet at all. Shisui would always say stuff about the day like he wasn't even paying attention to the actual day, whenever he talked to Father. And then Father would frown, especially when Shisui said that the weather was bad.
Now Father was frowning even more, at Sasuke. Sasuke said, "Don't be mad. Look, the weather isn't actually bad."
Father just frowned more and said to Mother, "Take Sasuke, I'll catch up."
While they walked, Mother said to him, "Sasuke, Shisui just has a very strange sense of humor. That's why he says those things."
"Oh," said Sasuke.
And they kept walking, but Mother was also frowning while they walked. She sat down on a bench and closed her eyes and put her head in her hands with her palms over her eyes.
"Are you okay?" asked Sasuke.
"Yes," said Mother. She looked up at him. "Mommy is just very tired today. Very, very tired." She put her head back down.
Sasuke watched her for a while, and then he decided to watch other people at the festival. He saw another girl spinning fire poi around herself so fast that it looked like a long ribbon of fire even though actually you could see that it was just a small piece of fire whenever she slowed down. At first he thought it might be one of his cousins because Uchiha use fire but then when he looked it was a girl he didn't recognize. Plus she had really light blond hair and really light blue eyes also so probably she wasn't an Uchiha.
Then Sasuke noticed that he had walked a little bit away from Mother and she might be mad. But then when he looked back at her, she was still holding her head. She didn't even notice that he had not stayed by her side at all.
It was bad of him but Sasuke just kept walking, walking through the crowd of people at the matsuri. Nobody noticed him or asked where his mother was. They just did things without really noticing him. They talked a lot, and some people shouted about things that they wanted to sell, and some people were laughing. It was very loud and Sasuke did not think he liked it. He decided that Itachi probably did not like it either, and so actually it was good that he wasn't at the festival even if Sasuke liked it when he was close.
Sasuke just kept walking through the people who didn't see him, and saw that some people were also not happy. There were girls crying in the corner and boys sitting in the corner glaring at girls. And also there were people with headbands who were shinobi just like his brother and they looked around at the people laughing and shouting and looked like they didn't really understand what everyone was shouting about. This made Sasuke feel a little better because if he didn't like it and the shinobi didn't like it then probably he would be good at being a shinobi.
Sasuke just kept walking until eventually there weren't any more booths and then he kept walking and walking until he couldn't even hear the festival anymore. He couldn't hear anything but the sound of night, frogs and crickets and nightbirds, and also someone shouting, "Hey! Kid!"
Sasuke turns around and sees the girl from the festival running after him, except this time she isn't holding fire poi in her hands. She's just running after him, waving her arms. Shouting, which is dumb because he turned around and so obviously he sees her and she doesn't have to shout anymore. "What?"
She skids to a stop in front of him and pants like she's been running for a long time. Her voice is low, almost like a boy's voice, but Sasuke can tell she's a girl because of her long hair and her pretty eyes and the way she is shaped like Mother. She is short but he looks at the way she dresses and thinks she must be an older girl, because of the skirt she is wearing. It makes her legs look very long.
"You're... Itachi's brother... right?" She has a hand on her hips and is glaring but she's breathing hard so she doesn't sound very scary.
"Yeah," Sasuke says proudly.
"Good. Un." The girl's breathing is back to normal now, and she is looking at Sasuke without blinking. Her eyes are very blue. "What's his birthday?"
"Huh?"
She smiles at him. Her smile is very nice. "Well, I just want to know when your brother's birthday is."
Sasuke is suddenly suspicious. He does not entirely trust girls besides Mother. They dress weird and smell different. And he doesn't know why this one is asking about brother. So even though she is smiling really nicely Sasuke frowns and asks, "Why do you want to know?"
"Ahaha, well, actually," she says, blushing, "I'm Itachi's girlfriend, un. I wanted to get him something-"
"No. Itachi doesn't have a girlfriend."
The girl presses her lips together very tightly, and her eyes turn into little slits. "Actually, I-"
"Plus that's stupid. If you were his girlfriend you'd know his birthday. But he doesn't like girls."
"Of course he likes girls, you little moron. Just tell me his fucking birthday, un."
"You're not his girlfriend!" Because there is totally absolutely completely no way that Itachi has a girlfriend. And not just because girls are gross but also because Itachi would have told him or something and because it was just stupid that he would have one. It was stupid. This girl wasn't even nice at all, she was loud and mean and Itachi would not like someone who was like that especially if they were mean to Sasuke and there was just no way that it was possible that Itachi had a girlfriend.
"So what? Is his birthday a secret or something? I just want to know so I can get him something, un. It's not like I'm a weirdo. It's not like I'm a stalker." She was smiling again, but her hands were clenched like she was going to punch something. But she had better not punch Sasuke because he is going to be a shinobi and Itachi taught him how to do taijutsu and he would beat her good even if she was taller.
"You're a total weirdo, and you lied."
"At least tell me his sign."
"No."
"His blood type."
"No."
"Okay. Okay. How about this, un." Suddenly she is smiling and this time she seems happy for real, and not just faking it. He can see her teeth. "How about you tell me everything a girl would ever want to know about your brother, or else I'll burn off your face with my art. How about that, un."
"No!" And then Sasuke bends down and picks up a rock from the ground and throws it at the girl as hard as he can. He is already turning when it hits but it looks like it hit her in the eye and she shrieks and Sasuke is turned all the way around and he runs as hard as he can, runs and runs and thinks he will never stop running. He did a bad thing. He hit that girl in the eye and maybe hurt her. He is not supposed to throw rocks at people. And also he went away from Mother even though she said to stay with him. He was going to be in trouble. Father was going to be so disappointed in him and maybe he would arrest him and put him in jail because he had done something so bad. He had run away and he had thrown a rock and that had been very bad and he was sorry but sorry didn't cut it -
"Sasuke? Where are you running to?"
Sasuke stopped running. Looked over at Itachi with tears in his eyes. "Niisan?"
Itachi frowned and knelt next to him. His eyes were very sad. Sasuke thinks that even though he is not crying, Itachi's eyes are even sadder than his own. "What's wrong, otouto?"
"You don't have a girlfriend, do you?"
Itachi blinks. Once, then twice. He looks confused. "No, Sasuke."
And somehow Sasuke is so happy to hear it that he starts crying even harder, even though shinobi aren't supposed to cry, but Itachi never minds anyway and so he just cries until his eyes hurt and he says, "Good. That's good."
[Sasuke wakes up slowly, his eyes opening before he even really knows he's awake. When he sits up, he has a strange look on his face, like he's realized something. He is frowning as he turns the Hitomi off.]