Weeping Samurai | Uchiha Itachi [Editing]

Chapter 1: Silence

"Has that old man been beating you up or something?" the woman laughed as she looked down at her daughter. "Goodness, look at you! I hope your father knows you're only eight!"

Shiro puffed out her chest to make her seem more tough.

"I'm turning nine this year!" the white haired girl put both of her small hands on her hips. "Tousan is going to give me my first katana six months after my birthday!"

A sudden high pitched crying interrupted Shiro, the girl whirling around towards the noise.

"Imouto (younger sister)!"

"Why don't you go and calm her down?" Shiro's mother smiled at her daughter.

Shiro blinked her wide onyx eyes and nodded, knitting her eyebrows together in anticipation.

"You can count on me, Kaasan! I'll make Yoru-chan feel better!"

The woman giggled, closing her bright midnight eyes and brushing a long snow-white lock from her pale face.

"Run along now then." She crouched down to her daughter's level and took her small face into her delicate hands. She pressed her full pink lips to the white-haired girl's forehead, planting a soft kiss on her smooth pale skin.

Shiro nodded once, her lips pouted in a certain sense of determination, and ran towards one of the screen doors that separated the other rooms from the main chamber. She slid open the shoji, the paper screen yellowing with age, revealing a small girl with short black hair, curled up into a ball on a plump beige bed mat, the thin brown blanket wrapped around her tightly.

"Yoru-chan!" Shiro called to her sister at the door, her onyx eyes wide.

The little girl on the floor sniffled peeked from the blankets, her shimmering gray eyes sparkling from tears.

"N-neechan?" the black-haired girl stammered.

"It's okay, imouto!" Shiro ran over to her sister and slumped down next to her. "I'm here now!"

"T-there was a man..." Yoru cowered under her layer of blankets. "He was grabbing me and taking me away..."

"There's no man!" Shiro poked her younger sister through the thin brown wool blanket. "And no one is going to take you away! It was just a nightmare, imouto!"

The little girl sniffed again and slowly crept from under the covers.

"R-really?" She gazed up at her elder sister with round, tear-soaked ashy eyes.

"Hai!" Shiro gave her younger sister a toothy smile, her face bright and beaming. "I'll protect you if there is ever anyone who tries to take you away, because I love my imouto!"

Yoru seemed to be comforted by these words, for she launched herself from under the blankets and tackled her elder sister, buring her nose into Shiro's thin white cotton dress.

"Daisuki desu, neechan! (I love you, elder sister)" Yoru squeaked as her thin around wrapped around Shiro's waist.

The white haired girl gazed down at her little sister, a smile spreading across her pale face. She stroked Yoru's dark silky hair and murmured softly, consoling her.

"Daisuki desu, imouto," Shiro sighed.

~~~*~~~

"Come on, Yoru-chan!" Shiro called to her sister as they trained together in the field, the tall grass brushing against their hips. "Just another spar and we'll go home!"