one_long_mission | {open} It was a beautiful morning.

He nodded and leaned back. "It did, yes."

"Then the eyesight... It's permanent! It's really going to last forever!" He hugged all three of them again, and activated his most advanced sharingan.

(Hopefully, doing that in front of the kids wasn't a bad idea. It was one of the parts of growing up Uchiha that he tended to gloss over. But they were too smart to not know. They had to know, or at least have a good idea of what sharingan were.)

He saw the chakra patterns he was so accustomed to, on top of clear vision. It really was a fantastic thing.

He prodded at his partner, then smiled. "I see you're excited."

"You never did have much of a problem seeing things." He smirked.

He narrowed his eyes a little, then smirked. "And will you be running into things in your eagerness to look closer?"

"At least I'll see them when I do." he smirked back. Then his tone turned serious. "Thank you. For convincing me to do this... Sasuke, you too. I couldn't have gone through with any of this without you both."

Sasuke leaned down and hugged him around the shoulders. "You and Aniki needed to do this Niisan, not just for you, but for those two brats too." He looked to the twins who looked a little affronted. "I'm glad it worked."

Itachi nodded. "You're right, Sasuke..."

Technically, the case could be made that they needed to do it for all Uchiha. It was the first operation of its kind - a willing transfer where eyes were literally switched between clansmen. No one was sacrificed. No one was killed. And both recipients obtained an eternal mangekyo sharingan. It was certainly one for the clan records.

"...This is cause for a celebration, don't you think?"

"I think you should just stare at them a bit more and let your eyes adjust. But... I'll get you ice cream, okay Niisan?" He put his hand on the man's head, then swept out of the room before he could be further waylaid.

"I think he's a little overwhelmed by your reaction."

That didn't stop Minoru from bouncing up to follow him, though.

"Can I have ice cream too? I want ice cream! I love ice cream!"

Itachi just smiled and shook his head.

"He can have the ice cream... I was just... I'd completely resigned myself to the fact that I was going blind. Nothing was going to change that... And something did. How else could I feel?"

Isamu, unwilling to be parted from his mother, tugged on his shirt. "You can stare at me mom! You're better than some sugary ol ice cream!"

Laughing, he settled himself next to the two. "Now don't be like that Isamu, you'd be out of here in a heartbeat for sours." He petted the back of his partner's neck. "I didn't say it was a wrong reaction."

"I can't help but stare at all of you..." Itachi just shook his head with a smile. "I can see so much of us in you. It's... amazing. That's what it is. And for identical twins, I can hardly believe how different you look."

Minoru came running back with a small bowl of ice cream, and plopped right back where was in the middle of things.

Isamu jabbed his brother with his foot for almost dumping the bowl on him. 'Careful!"

Itachi just laughed. "Identical is relative."

"I'm not gonna drop it!" Minoru shouted with a big spoonful in his mouth. "Who'd waste ice cream?"

But his partner's words struck a chord. And Itachi suddenly realized that it had been many years since he'd even seen what HE looked like clearly.

"We're not exactly identical either... are we."

"No. We have slightly different scar patterns and I seem to be aging a bit more... gracefully."

In truth, when he saw Itachi's face, that was pretty much how he imagined he still looked. Apparently, that wasn't quite the case.

"What do I look like, then?"

It was kind of a rhetorical question that was best answered by a mirror. But children, being children, don't seem to know the meaning of the word rhetorical.

"Older than Papa. Definitely!" Minoru pointed with his spoon. "Um... Your hair is flatter and not as black. Your face is thinner. Actually, all of you is thinner and you kinda hunch over more. Papa's eyes used to be brighter too, but now yours are bright too."

And he was still thinking of more he could say.

"Uh huh! And you do this thing, where you try to sit super still a lot, and have this line, right here." He touched his mother's forehead. "That happens when you're irritated that daddy doesn't have. His are here."

And the little hands poked the corners of his eyes on the outside instead.

Itachi couldn't help it, he started to chuckle.

"Oh yeah! And you're whiter too!." Minoru added. "And sometimes you get these dark spots under your eyes like you got punched twice. But I don't think anybody punched you."

Isamu beamed at him. "And you're taller than Daddy, but only a little. I think he's almost caught up to you. It's hard to tell though cause you're always slumpy."

"Anything else?" Itachi was almost afraid to ask.

"And... um... actually, that's all I can think of..." Minoru resumed eating his ice cream.

Isamu thought about it. "You cry more!"

Minoru nodded eagerly, the spoon still in his mouth.

"Oh! And when you smile, it's not as big! Sometimes it's kinda sad. And your teeth aren't as white either."

"Yeah! But it's okay mommy, I love you!"

Itachi was, of course, crumpled to the side by now, continuing to laugh.

"Yeah! I love you too, Mama!" Minoru grinned, dropping his spoon in the now-empty bowl of ice cream before lunging at his mother for another hug.

Itachi made a note to himself to actually look in a mirror at some point. But for now...

"Maybe you should tell Papa what he looks like."

"Papa looks like a tomato!" Isamu beamed at his father. "Right now anyway..."

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