"Where is your house, if you don't mind?"

"Itachi and Sasuke can lead you there, how about? Theirs needs a few repairs, so they might stay with you, too."

"That works."

Itachi nods and puts her hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "I don't think we're needed here right now," she says. "And I'd like to get Sasuke settled. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes." She'll find Anneia after.

Itachi leads the way, then, carrying Sasuke after he starts feigning exhaustion. (She has zero problem with keeping him close.)

The compound still has signs of damage - but also signs of rapid repair - and Shisui's house was empty and away from the bulk of the fighting, so it's not even singed.

"We might end up with other people staying, too, if more places can't be salvaged or opened," Itachi comments as she unlocks the door. Shisui doesn't bother keeping his house tightly sealed - it's smarter to just not keep classified materials here, and to put alarm seals around his bedroom.

"Noted. I'm going to go bring Anneia back."

She is standing up on one of the walls, being Vigilant. Tasara hops up next to her and brings her up to speed.

"So we're waiting until tomorrow to do anything more?"

"Unless he wakes up, yes."

"Good. Not gonna lie, I'm kinda tired. Are we going back to the uh, safe house?"

"We're staying at Shisui's house. It's closer. Follow me." They both return.

Itachi's sitting with Sasuke in the living room. 

The boy looks up when Tasara and Anneia enter. "Are you like her?" he asks Anneia, pointing at Tasara.

Aw, cutie.

"Yep!"

"Can you tell me now where you're from?" he asks.

"Sasuke, you shouldn't bother shinobi for information," Itachi says, sounding like this is an old argument. He pouts.

"We're not shinobi, technically."

"But Shisui still isn't here."

"Okay, fine," he says, trying hard not to pout too much.

"Do you want a different story?" Itachi asks - it's probably good to distract him from the fact their parents are currently hospitalized. She hopes one of them at least will be released soon. She isn't sure if her father dying of his injuries would simplify or complicate their plans.

She hates that she's considering that. Not that it shows on her face.

Sasuke hums, but shrugs.

"What do you like stories about?"

"Missions!" Sasuke exclaims. "And fights. And being smart."

Itachi ruffles his hair. He swats at her hand.

"Well, it's not a mission, but in my last year at the Academy this really famous girl came in teach Advanced Combat, and for the first class, she told us all to attack her, there were like twenty of us against just her." She proceeds to describe the fight in great detail, conjuring differently colored sparks and moving them around to represent each actor. The spark at the center never wavers as the outer ring orbits and flows around it. One by one, the attackers wink out. "And then at the end it was just me and her. I was pretty tired by then so I only lasted about ten seconds more, but still."

Sasuke is utterly enthralled. "You're cool!" he says with great enthusiasm. "Are only girls shinobi where you're from?"

(Itachi was listening intently for an entirely different reason.)

"Yeah, only girls get picked."

"I can pretend to be a girl," he says, confidently.

"I thought you wanted to be a shinobi," Itachi teases.

"I'll be both!" Sasuke says, then sits back, done for now with this whole 'producing words' thing.

"I don't think pretending would work."

Sasuke makes a 'so-so' gesture.

"I think they're probably really good at telling," Itachi says, "And you'd have to be super good at infiltration to ever get even close."

He rolls his eyes, recognizing a 'study more' nudge when he hears it. He studies plenty, and something must be really rattling Itachi if she's encouraging him to study instead of play. He's kind of rattled too, though.

Oh. He's sad now.