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Takuma checked his clothes for the fourth time before ringing the doorbell.
It was his first time visiting the Uchiha house after his run-in with Itachi. Even though it was a job requirement to keep his position in ANBU a secret, he felt guilty keeping it from Mikoto, especially since finding out that she knew about his real job. He couldn't help but think she was being careful around him, and it caused him to look back at every conversation they had since he had become an operative.
As always, Mikoto opened the door with a smile and warmly welcomed him into her home.
"Oh ho, is that for me?" she said, eyeing the gift-wrapped box in his hand with a mischievous glimmer as they settled into the usual room.
"It is," he slid the gift toward her.
"Can I open it now?"
"Yes, please."
He patiently waited for her to unwrap her gift, revealing a bare utility but highly adjustable belt that could hold multiple pouches. It was Takuma's latest choice of kit that he used over the ANBU standard gear. He trusted it, so he felt confident and comfortable gifting it to her. Gear was very personal to shinobi, and trusting someone else's choice was difficult, so if he was going to recommend something, he needed to trust it with his life.
It was his way of asking for her trust.
"What is it for?"
"An apology," he said with a rueful smile. "For hurting you with a secret."
Her curious hands, exploring the utility belt and accompanying pouches, paused. She looked up at him, her smile slowly slipping from her lips. He didn't need to say it out loud for her to understand what he was talking about.
"Why now?" she asked.
"...Because I know you know. Didn't really like how that changes our relationships."
"Our relationship has changed regardless."
The mutual acknowledgement of his ANBU status wasn't going to change the fact that he was still an ANBU-nin and she was still the Lady Uchiha. There were things they couldn't talk about anymore. Things shared in passing, seen as non-consequential that would've been forgotten or kept secret now, could be used against the Uchiha clan. It didn't matter if Takuma would never share information, but as long as the possibility existed, a boundary now stood between them that might never go away, even if Takuma eventually left ANBU, because he would still retain his connections and could still be considered a source of information.
"I would rather it change at the terms I like rather than pretend nothing has changed," he said.
He could've ignored Itachi's advice and let their relationship exist in an ambiguous state where both pretend that they didn't know in hopes that things would remain fine and well, but while the temptation to do so was intense, it didn't sit right in his heart to do so.
"Would you have told me if I didn't know?" she asked.
"No, I would not have," he replied without hesitation. Perhaps answering with some uncertainty would've received better, but he had come intending to be honest, so that he would do just that.
Mikoto remained silent for an extended moment, during which Takuma felt uncomfortable all over. He would rather get a swift rejection than stew in silence.
"I'm not going to pretend this isn't going to take some time getting used to it, but I appreciate your honesty. Now that this is in the open, we can at least start working towards something both of us are happy with."
Despite months of knowing he was an ANBU-nin, he could tell she wasn't pleased about the situation, but he expected it and understood her. She had spent time getting used to his identity, but now that he had dredged it open, the emotions she had settled had returned.
"This feels deeply uncomfortable," said Takuma, pushing down the resistance. It was difficult to admit caring about someone when one didn't know if that someone felt the same way. He felt as though he was bearing his vulnerability in the open where it could be attacked. "But.. But I care about this enough that I'm fine with feeling this way to ensure everything's fine between us."
He couldn't look at her for fear that he could see something in her eyes he wished against more than anything in the moment. If he cared about her when he sent the letter before he was deployed to war, he cared more now after spending a year away from home. He didn't want to know how he would feel if she rejected him in this moment.
Takuma heard the rustle of clothes as Mikoto moved. A moment later, he was embraced in a warm hug. He froze up in her arms as he failed to comprehend what was happening and felt flustered. It was the first time either of them had initiated or engaged in any form of skinship.
"Look at you, are you trying to tempt me into adopting you?" she said while gently stroking the back of his head. "Thank you for not only feeling this way but also telling me about it. If you're uncomfortable, then I'll be uncomfortable alongside you because I, too, care about what you and I have built together."
He couldn't reply to her because he was still recovering from the shock of being hugged. He hesitated for the longest moment of his life before he raised his hands to hug her back. He was glad it was a weekday and there wasn't anyone home because he didn't know if he could handle anyone running in on them.
"You're not going to ask how I knew?" Takuma asked, feeling awkward after they separated from their hug. He could only remedy the awkwardness by moving the conversation along.
"I don't need to," said Mikoto as she prepared some team, not at all awkward. "There are only two, and my husband doesn't keep things about me from me."
Takuma nodded. Her guess and deduction were correct.
"I hope you haven't reported this to ANBU," she said.
"I'm going to do it by the end of his week," he said, rubbing his temple because he knew it was going to be a hassle and shit show because he had done it before informing his ANBU before.
He knew that his relationship with Lady Uchiha and, in turn, his access to the Uchiha clan leader, was always a consideration for ANBU. Even if he refused to spy on them, ANBU would never give up on it because opinions could change, and because he wasn't a Uchiha or under their sponsorship, and thus he was much easier to turn than a clan member like Itachi. If he had informed them beforehand, he was sure they would have done everything in their power to discourage him from going through it, for fear that it would break the relationship and would cost them a valuable opportunity.
He wasn't going to let them stop him from telling her, so he thought to skip all the hassle and just do it.
As the saying went, "It was better to ask for forgiveness than permission."
"Don't tell them," said Mikoto.
"Why?"
"Because of how it would look to others. I'll bet my rank that many people will think you did this to get out of spying on us because you have some loyalty to the clan. You were in the Police Force, which isn't making things better. They're going to assume that we are close enough to share information. And you never know how that'll affect your job... You're not affiliated with a clan, so you won't get help from others like other clan shinobi."
As a department, ANBU had to expect that their shinobi, especially those from clans, also had loyalties other than those towards the Hidden Leaf. They had to expect that some level of confidential information was going to leak out into the clans. That status could limit them from what they could work on, but around half of ANBU was made up of shinobi who came from clans or had some shinobi lineage, which granted them support. Even if an operative lost opportunities, they could gain access to others through their fellow ANBU clanmates.
"You're an operative; handling secrets is your job, so... keep a secret," she said.
Takuma thought about it for a moment. "Makes sense. I'm not against it, but I'd like to sleep on it," he said.
"Do so," she smiled.
"How is it going with Izumi?"
Mikoto clapped her hands once, animatedly with an excited shimmer in her eyes. "That girl is a dream. It's nice to have a student who just... gets it, immediately!"
"What does that supposed to mean?!" Takuma said, offended because as far as he knew, he was her only other student.
"You're a great student, Takuma. You're a good boy who never skips homework. But that girl just absorbs everything like soil on the first rain after a famine," she sighed as though in bliss.
Takuma recalled Mikoto's method of using sharingan to analyse the opponent's combat style rather than just using it for a monkey copy. It required the Uchiha in question to actually think about what they had copied and understand the logic behind the opponent's choices. It required a solid foundation of combat fundamentals, the ability to think and reason logically, and a knack for turning the insights into effective knowledge.
"It took her one day to understand what I taught her. I showed her seven different combat styles over a week, and on the eighth day, she managed to come up with a decent counter strategy to every single one of them. Another week later, not only had she created solid counters to all of those styles, but she created a rudimentary amalgamation of all those styles—it was terrible, but just the fact that she tried it by herself was proof enough that she got the essence of what I was trying to teach her."
One would expect a Uchiha with a sharingan to absorb everything they see, but most never managed to utilise the eyes to their fullest extent, truly.
"What?" Takuma asked when he saw Mikoto looking at him with a grin.
"Are you bothered? Feeling competitive? Do you feel you're losing against her?" she said, teasing and taunting him. "I won't deny, you have improved considerably with genjutsu, but you still lack something you can call your own."
Takuma sat up straighter, feeling bitter about her words because they were true. From the first day, Mikoto had always disallowed him from buying pre-made genjutsu apart from the set she had given him. If he wanted to use genjutsu, he needed to make them on their own—all of that was in service so that he would eventually create something he could call his signature style.
He had yet to create something like that because he hadn't been able to think about a type of genjutsu that fit him perfectly.
"You have what it takes." Mikoto's usual beautiful, gentle smile returned as she continued, "You have the knowledge, the skill, and the comfort level to use genjutsu during combat. The question is whether you have what it takes to create something special—because that's what separates good from the great."
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The link is in the synopsis!