A/N: Yo, everyone!... So, first NaruSasu fanfic – First fanfic ever, for that matter, which put me a little nervous about uploading, but no way to know without trying, right? I got this idea by watching come criminal series and simply by re-watching and re-reading Naruto Shippuden and getting that burning feeling in your stomach when finding out that Itachi had been sacrificing his life to protect Sasuke and Sasuke getting hurt once he finds out, Naruto being the one who understands Sasuke's feelings and the one to make him feel loved again. So, based on that and with a lot of help from the whole Konoha gang to bring some good humor to the story, I created this AU plot and decided to go forward with it.

Sasuke is 21 years old and 8 in flashbacks, Naruto is 23.

I'll be using Japanese words such as sensei (teacher/master), senpai (someone superior to you; someone you admire/respect), and the suffixes 'kun' and 'chan'.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto—'cause if I did, Sasuke would have confessed his undying love for Naruto a long, long time ago. *shakes head in disapproval* Also, a big shout-out to Fiona (mitzukages/tumblr) for letting me use her edit as this fanfic's cover!

So here's the first chapter, and I hope you enjoy it. Please leave reviews; I accept constructive critics, and opinions/suggestions are very welcome.

Small, excited and yet insecure dark eyes of an eight year old Uchiha quickly travelled over a table full of delicious food, colourful desserts that he hasn't tasted in a while, his favourite juice and a bottle of a dark whine—which the little raven knew was an expensive one that deserved all the 'respect', for what he's heard in all kind of boring reunions from his room—and his older brother standing next to it with a soft smile on his face. Sasuke Uchiha allowed a grin to form on his face, noticing how Itachi Uchiha's—his older brother—own expression had turned into one of amusement as he lifted an eyebrow, taking in the little one's sparkling eyes.

"Have a seat, Sasuke, or the food's going to get cold," Itachi said as he took his usual seat.

Sasuke didn't need to be told twice and climbed to the chair that was placed in front of his older brother's one. "Big brother, big brother! Did you really cook all of this?" He finally asked, his huge dark eyes waiting until Itachi was done placing a little bit of food from every different plate on the small table – no matter the circumstances, an Uchiha was to keep their manners – on his own plate. Itachi chuckled softly, proceeding to serve his younger brother.

"Yes, Sasuke, I cooked all of this. I did promise you a nice dinner, now didn't I?" He said, studying the younger Uchiha's expression before moving on, his soft smile still present on his features as he sat back on his chair, Sasuke's plate now full "It has been rather difficult to have such a nice dinner since it happened, so this is really nice, don't you think, Sasuke?"

Sasuke seemed a little hesitant at first, his small hand wrapping around the silver fork next to his plate. He then looked up, his dark bangs uncovering his eyes, and slightly nodded at his older brother, the same small smile from before returning to his young face.

The two dark haired boys clapped their hands together and said their thank you's before starting the meal, a comfortable silence settling between them as they enjoyed the delicious food Itachi knew how to do so perfectly well—but that was to expect. He was Itachi Uchiha, after all. Sasuke mentally noted down to start learning how to cook as soon as possible.

Once they were done eating, Sasuke sighed happily and leaned back on his chair—only to get a warning look from Itachi which made him sit straight up again, the younger boy offering him a sheepish grin—and after some minutes, Itachi was making the dishes and passing them to Sasuke, who had the duty of drying them off and placing them in the kitchen counter, since he still couldn't reach a big part of the drawers and cupboard—he wasn't small, he could totally do it!... If Itachi allowed him to, instead of going with the 'we don't need more broken dishes or an injured Sasuke' argument—and before the younger boy, who had been talking nonstop about his day at school to his older brother knew it, it was time for Itachi to go to work. The elder Uchiha worked at an office a little away from town to some company that wasn't too famous—that's what Sasuke had been told, anyway—though he'd only gotten the work a few weeks ago in order to be able to earn money instead of having to finish university, because it meant having to put Sasuke in an orphanage until he finished it.

Small dark eyes looked at the now empty table and back at Itachi, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. This didn't go unnoticed by Itachi, who blinked a couple times at Sasuke.

"What is it, Sasuke?"

"I… " He paused. "Big brother?"

"Hn?"

"How did you get… money for all that good food? I know it was expensive, and… you only got to work some time ago, so I don't get it. How come you could make a pretty dinner if you're boss hasn't even paid you ye—"

He was cut off when he felt fingers and a warm palm messing his dark hair a little. Sasuke pouted annoyingly at his older brother, who knew this was something that annoyed the kid to no end, but when he looked up and saw his expression, he couldn't help but get even more confused. Itachi stared back at him with an almost guilty expression, his dark bangs covering his eyes, and his hand stopped moving to simply rest on Sasuke's head and slightly pet it. Some minutes passed.

Was that a… tear?

And then, two fingers poked the lost little boy's forehead "You don't need to worry about the money, Sasuke, I have got that under control. I am pretty sure we both know what you are truly worried about, am I correct?" Itachi carefully said, too many emotions mixed in those dark eyes.

Sasuke slightly parted his lips to argue, but closed them again when he saw the look on his older brother's face. Looking down at his own feet and feeling, again, completely defeated by Itachi's weird capability of knowing exactly what he was truly thinking, he nodded, confirming the taller raven's thoughts.

The older Uchiha got on his knees so he was at the same level as his brother and pulled him into a hug, allowing the smaller body to cling to him and pull on his sleeves.

"Do you trust me?"

He received a small nod against his shoulder as a response.

"Then, please, please, Sasuke, believe your older brother when he says he is not going to break our promise—especially not because of money, I will not allow us to ever fall apart because of money, no matter what it takes, we will always have it. No matter what happens, we will always be together," He closed his eyes, petting his little brother's back. "Always."

Sasuke nodded again, a small, embarrassed sob coming out from his lips, followed by a silent 'thank you'.

Suddenly opening his eyes when the front door was closed, Sasuke Uchiha hopefully gazed up at the clock standing on the bedside table on the right side of his double bed that announced 2am in a beeping red. He sat upright in a quick movement, throwing the blankets back. The raven took his time to glare at his room's closed door and to listen very carefully at the very slightest sound downstairs, nodding a bit to himself when coming to the conclusion that his brother had, indeed, left for work.

Letting out a deep breath he didn't know he was holding, Sasuke closed his eyes in relief and pondered one last time over what he was about to do in the next minutes—it wasn't like the younger Uchiha wasn't sure about wanting to find out about every secret that was kept in the Forbidden Room, as he liked to call it, since Itachi had never, ever allowed his little brother to step inside it one single time in his life and always kept it locked from him, but he knew that whatever was inside that so secret room, was precious information – perhaps the answer to everything that has bothered Sasuke for the last thirteen years. How they always had such luxuries such as expensive cars and the nice, big Uchiha mansion that needed a lot of economic efforts to be a nice home, the possibility of going out to expensive restaurants every night, Sasuke being able to study in the most famous and expensive university of all—which, of course, almost begged for his entrance once Sasuke had such high grades and thanked them for choosing their university since the Uchiha Family had quite a reputation—and having the possibility of staying in a nice suit in Tokyo, which he left for one month to spend time with his older brother because he had two months' worth of vacation. Being aware of how cheap the salary of where Itachi 'worked'—which he absolutely didn't, that being something Sasuke was able to discover thanks to some research and some 'free time' to visit the office, though he never talked to Itachi about it—was, Sasuke was sharp enough to conclude that there was some dark business behind all the money they were able to get thanks to Itachi's little secret work that always took nocturne schedules.

But most of all, if there was something that bothered the raven, was all the traps Itachi sat around the house whenever he left for work. Mortal, well hidden traps—Sasuke wasn't even sure where half of them were—that were meant to cause real harm to whoever tried to enter in the mansion by force - or in any different way than through the front door for that matter, which was only opened by a six number code.

Opening his eyes with a terribly dark glare, Sasuke walked out of his room, the idea of being lied to fulfilling his mind. He cautiously walked up to the attic and tried to ignore his shaking hands as best as he could, his jaw clenched and his stomach making pitiful sounds. No, he wasn't scared.

He was simply itching to find the goddamn truth.

This is it, Itachi. Whatever you're hiding from me, I will find out all about it.

"Boooooriiiiing," A certain blonde haired boy annoyingly whined as he tossed his game cards on the table, declaring yet another lost game. He laid his forehead on the small table, slightly hitting against it multiple times. How could you be bored when you're part of a Front/Striking Squad in the most known and dangerous prison in Tokyo? That, Naruto Uzumaki didn't know, but it was, indeed, a rather calm—or, at least, what you could consider calm in a goddamn prison—day in Shageki no Prison(1). The whole squads(2) except for the Tracking one – this squad including Kiba, Sai and Shino – and only three members of the Back-Up Team, which meant Temari, Kankurou and Hinata were also missing from the room, were present in the living/waiting room for the last three hours without a single order or any bit of action on their jobs. Of course the Uzumaki loved being in the Striking Squad with lazy ass Shikamaru, Neji, Lee and Gaara, but they were only called in dangerous situations, which were mostly confirmed once the tracking Squad had found any evidence – because it's better to prevent than to risk it, they always took some members from the Back Up Squad to back the Tracking one. The thing was, it always left them nervous to wait for any order, knowing their comrades were tracking down villains, but today was taking a lot of more time than usual for some action to finally make Naruto run out there and kick some villains' asses. No danger, no warnings—absolutely nothing.

"Aaaand you lost. Again," Shikamaru Nara commented the obvious as he tossed his own game on the coffee table, his words followed by a yawn "You know, Naruto, it's no fun to play against you. You keep losing and losing," He said as he leaned back against his chair, placing his both hands on the back of his head and watching with amusement as the blonde police in front of him kept hitting his head against the small table.

Naruto lifted his head, sending a frustrated glare at his friend "Shut up, Shika! I'm not even giving my all and it's our-" He paused to count with his fingers "-somethin-th game!"

The other just shrugged and yawned once again "Whatever you say, you still lost," He shook his head, his eyes looking up at the TV screen that was showing some football game to which Lee Rock was showing great enthusiasm to. Typical. He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"I am so freakin' bored! See, this is why I hate night shifts. Nothing ever happens," Naruto whined once again, making the long haired boy sitting on the sofa turned to the TV twitch his eyebrow in annoyance. The blonde picked up some cards from the table and started making the first two pyramids that would support his soon to be huge card castle. Hell, yes. "Sometimes I wonder why I even took this job,"

"Save the world, make a difference… That kind of stuff," Shikamaru replied in a bored tone, resisting the urge to clap when Naruto constructed the first pyramids of what he assumed would turn into a card castle. It'd be too much of a drag, anyway. His hands were warm inside his pockets, so why bother?

"Oh, yeah. That," Naruto answered with the same bored tone "So much for 'saving the world'," He said with an annoyed pout, and then lifted his hands up and stared intensively at the base of his card castle when it started trembling, threating to fall down. He smiled proudly when it stopped, and returned to construct it.

"Well, isn't it a good thing that there aren't people out there murdering or stealing?" Neji Hyuuga joined the conversation when he got bored of the football match—all he could hear was Lee 'encouraging the players', anyway—and turned around on the sofa so he could look at his two comrades.

"Well, yeah," Naruto said in a sheepish tone and slightly glared at Neji, his stupid logic totally ruining the blonde's reason for whining. He then looked up at the TV screen, smirking when the game was finally over and showing the final results of the match. Seems like Kiba just lost his little bet against Lee.

Fair enough, Lee seemed to be thinking the same as Naruto and came running to their table, making Naruto's dear card castle almost fall. Almost. Shikamaru seemed a bit worried, too, since calculating the best angles of where the different cards should be put on had become his entertainment.

Neji blinked a couple times, but then just sighed. "Another bet?" He asked, though he was pretty sure that was the situation.

"Yes, my dear Neji!" Lee cheerfully said, throwing an arm around the long haired boy's shoulders who seemed truly annoyed by the other's actions. "And this time, I won!—which means Kiba will be the one to pay for our next family dinner! Such a youthful, brilliant bet!" The energetic boy exclaimed, flashing a smile. Naruto couldn't help but grin back as a picture of a very angry Inuzuka flashed through his mind. Oh, he would be sure to get the most expensive plate on the menu.

In the next second, Lee was behind Naruto, staring at his almost finished card castle. "What are you doing, Naruto-kun?" He asked, making Naruto jump on his chair and the castle tremble again. "No!" The blonde exclaimed, quickly covering Lee's mouth and only taking back his hand when the castle settled. He sighed in relief.

"It's a card castle," He whispered, making Lee blink a couple times before looking back at the card castle. It sure seemed to take some work.

"A card castle? That seems rather difficult to do! As I'd expect from my rival!" Lee exclaimed, again, only to have his mouth shut by Naruto's hand, again. The blonde sweat dropped.

"You can't talk loudly or they'll fall, Lee! It's almost finished! See? Only seven more cards, and we'll have the best card castle ever," The blonde said as he slowly picked two more cards from the table and began to slowly put them on top of the last ones, Lee's eyes cautiously following them. They both let out a deep breath of relief when another pyramid was made and their castle was still standing.

"We should name it," Lee whispered, his eyes never leaving the castle

"Yeah, totally," The blonde agreed and they both starting whispering names for their castle, Shikamaru and Neji making small talk in the process and going through TV channels.

After taking the key that was hidden inside his sock, breathing deeply, and, in a quick movement, unlocking the door and when he was at least 50% sure that there wouldn't be any knives falling from the ceiling to kill him, Sasuke was finally inside the darkness present in the long Forbidden place. He took his time to turn off all sort of cameras that had took him nearly three weeks to find through his laptop and lots of research, he finally closed the door and ripped a piece of the paper wall that revealed a hole, where an expensive and high-quality laptop awaited him. The Uchiha nodded again and turned it on, taking him almost two hours to be able to break through all sort of codes—as it was mentioned before, lost and lots of research. Some more anxious minutes had passed—

-And then he found it. Reading all the documents as fast as he could, the younger Uchiha's eyes went huge and the piece of technology fell to the ground with a loud thud when his hands began shaking. Staring blankly at the laptop for long, hurtful seconds and taking big amounts of time to let what he just read sink into his mind, a bunch of painful memories and events that had made no sense to him all this time finally began to fit together. Falling to his knees as his breath became uneven, the lost Uchiha stared at his shaking hands, not being able to feel the warm tears that had started to unconsciously roll down his cheeks.

"You don't need to worry about money, little brother. I'll give you everything you need, no matter what it takes,"

"This work will mostly be done at night, so you won't have to be alone at home,"

"Do NOT go to the attic, you hear me? You will be severely punished if you do so. And remember, Sasuke, that everything I do—I do for a reason and one reason only – to keep my promise to you,"

"Don't worry about me, little brother, I am happy as long as you are. So tell me, are you happy, Sasuke?"

"I will never allow you to be sent to an orphanage. If it's money we need to prevent that from happening, then that's what I will get,"

"Study hard and follow your own path, so you won't end up like me. School is very important, and it is your duty to study, understood?"

"Never give out information to strangers – no matter who it is, don't talk to strangers. Don't trust people easily or you will get hurt,"

"Sometimes one must sacrifice himself to make others happy, even if it means ruining your whole life—because you know as long as that person is happy, life will still have a meaning,"

"Even with father's fortune stolen, we won't fall because of money, Sasuke. Money is an easy luxury to get nowadays,"

"I'll do anything to keep up my promise to you, little brother. Anything,"

Weakly covering his ears with his vulnerable pale hands, the raven allowed a sob to escape from deep inside his throat, hating the feeling of feeling so vulnerable for the second time in his life—hating the feeling of failing to protect the ones he held dear to him.

Two arguing female voices echoed through the hallway before entering the room. Naruto didn't even need to look up to guess who they were because 1) he was too worried that his and Lee's baby, as they had decided, would fall and die due to the noise and 2) because the nicknames 'Forehead' or 'Ino pig' were just too obvious.

"—Well, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't even have become a medic, so there!" Sakura Haruno argued, crossing her arms over her chest and sending a small smirk at the blonde girl's direction that was in front of her, blushing from embarrassment and… angriness?

"Don't get cocky, Forehead! Just because you finished your course first than me, it doesn't mean anything! You almost killed that guy back there!" Ino Yamanaka's comeback filled the room and it was her time to smirk, the boys in the room looking bored – seeing the two medics arguing was something they were more than used to.

"The idiot called me ugly!" The pink haired girl shouted, and Ino totally bought that as a valid argument, their discussion ending up in a fit of laughter. They walked up to the table, Ino quickly sitting next to Shikamaru and starting a small conversation, though the blonde girl was mostly the one to talk. Sakura lifted a confused, perfect pink eyebrow at Lee's and Naruto's panicked expressions and then sent a questioning look at Neji, who just face-palmed at the two boys' ridiculous reactions and pointed at the card castle. The pink haired medic didn't seem to get it so she got between them from behind, leaning forward to the table, each arm on each boys' shoulders.

"Hey, Naruto, Lee! What are you guys doi—"

"NOOO, SUSAN!(3)" They both yelled in panic—getting weird looks from Ino and Shikamaru in the process—as the card castle suddenly fell, cards falling on the table and all over the floor.

Sakura's eyebrows drew in confusion as Lee kneeled over the cards and cried, trying to pick all of them up and rub his cheek against the pieces of paper. Naruto stood up and pointed an accusing finger at her. "LOOK WHAT YOU DID, SAKURA-CHAN!" He yelled out.

A nerve popped on her forehead.

"YOU KILLED HER! YOU MONSTER!" The blonde yelled again.

Her eyebrow twitched.

Naruto was about to keep playing the role of the brave father, but quickly stepped back when he noticed the Sakura's expression. He waved his both hands in front of his chest in a defensive matter. "N-Nevermind, Sakura-chan! We can always remake her and—OW!" He cried out when receiving a hard punch from the pinkette.

"NARUTO, YOU IDIOT!" She yelled and began lecturing him about how he should be preparing for an any-moment-now danger situation instead of joking around, taking her a long time to explain him that it was just a cards castle, when three new figures walked through the door. Everyone looked up, their attention drawn to the three men.

"Now, now! Look at all this youth! Just what I'd expect from a group of young adults, ready to go out there at any time and save the world!" Gai Might exclaimed, automatically receiving an energetic 'Gai-Sensei!' yell in return. Naruto glared at Lee's back. Was Gai really more important than Susan? What kind of dad was he?!

His greeting was followed by a much more laid-back 'Yo' – Kakashi Hatake followed behind, his eyes only lifting from his book for some seconds before going back to it, and then a strong, friendly arm wrapped around the silver haired man's shoulders, Obito Miyagi(4) appearing in the room with a giant grin.

"Yo!" He mimicked his best friend in a much louder version, only to try and peck on his Icha Icha Paradise book, receiving a sigh from Kakashi. Naruto's blue eyes automatically lit up as he looked at Obito, grinning at him. The other smiled, giving him a thumbs up.

"Hey, kiddo! Hanging in there?"

"Of course, 'Ito! Bored as hell, but still alive!" Naruto grinned "Who knew being a policeman could be so boring?" The blonde said with a frustrated sigh, making Obito laugh out loud. Obito had been Naruto's idol—along with his mother—since the first week he was accepted to work as a special agent. Due to their identical personalities, the two of them had quickly formed a strong bond – the kind of bond anyone would have with a brother.

"Watch your mouth, Naruto! Your dad would be disappointed!" The older adult said with a wink before walking to the coffee machine with Kakashi.

"Who'd be disappointed?" Minato Namikaze asked with a raised eyebrow as he entered the room, making Obito chock on his black coffee and receive a few strong pats on his back from Gai.

"Yo, boss," Shikamaru greeted along with the others, Ino and Sakura too busy giggling at Obito and... fangirling over him?.

"Hey, dad! Got anythin' for us?" Naruto asked with big, hopeful blue eyes.

"Sorry Naruto, but no. Seems like you guys will have the rest of the night fr—"

"Boss, boss!" A female voice shouted along with hurried footsteps, only stopping when she was being supported by the door, panting and her breath heavy. Everyone in the room looked at Tenten Atenine(5), Gaara appearing some seconds after. The whole group automatically got to their feet when noticing Gaara's worried expression – they knew something was up, and Naruto couldn't be more excited about it. She looked up at Minato worriedly before gulping, and the whole situation was making everyone in the room scared of what was coming.

"I got information from the tracking team, and…" She paused, taking another deep breath.

"…And they might have found the Akatsuki's hideout," Gaara finished for her, his pale eyes finally looking over at everyone present in the room… and stopping at the Uzumaki, whose eyes had gone huge and his breath had gotten trapped in his throat. The blonde frowned in frustration and stared at his own feet, having trouble processing what he's just heard, and unconsciously clenching his fists so hard his knuckles began turning white. The Akatsuki were a dangerous, famous and very well organized group of high ranked criminals that weren't even identified since the police had never had, once in the crime story, been able to know the slightest bit about the members. They consisted of highly skilled drug dealers, and even some murderers. Naruto glared at the ground, that last word fulfilling his mind.

Minato cleared his throat, making Naruto jump from his place. He nodded at his son and then looked at everyone in the room, assuming a commanding expression.

"Here's the chance we've been waiting for," Minato said in a low, serious tone before clapping his hands together "Go, and don't let them escape! We're sending the reinforcements!" And just like that, everyone in the room got his deathly masks on and rushed out of the room to get everything they'd need ready, Shikamaru shouting their plan's name and the Squads nodding in agreement.

When Naruto was practically running out the room and angrily shaking, he felt his father's strong hand grab his shoulder and push him back when he was about to pass him.

"Naruto, do not act recklessly. Remember, you've got your comrades with you," He paused, continuing when his son hesitantly nodded in agreement. "I believe in you, son. Now, go!" He said and patted the younger blonde's shoulder. Naruto nodded once again, and walked to get his bulletproof vest, clenching his fists. "Thank you, dad," He whispered to himself, determination showing on his features.

In a blink of an eye, Tenten already had their guns ready, giving a special TAR-21 Assault Rifle powerful one to Naruto and offering him a determinate smile.

"That's how you rule, ne, Uzumaki?" She said, patting his favourite 'babe', as Naruto liked to call it.

"You bet I do," The blonde quietly replied and gladly took his gun, his jaw clenched and anger shouting through his veins as he zipped his black jacket all the way to the top, covering his bulletproof vest. He kept his deathly glare on as he jumped into the dark blue van along his Squad, the adrenaline and the need to release such nostalgia growing by the second.

"Naruto,"

He looked at the side and, in the next second, Shikamaru was offering him a tight hug "We'll do it. Together. You can count on us."

The blonde gladly and slowly returned the hug, feeling like he had all the support in the world when the rest of the squad nodded at him and offered him reassuring smiles.

And when the van started, Kakashi guiding, he knew it—that this was it.

He was going to finally fucking have the chance to arrest them.

Between that huge group of criminals, was the man who killed his beloved mother.

1: Shageki means gun or fire shot; I wanted to make the prison seems as strict and infallible as a shotgun, eh.

2: The way the Squads work will be based on the manga – it's just like them turning into one big team with different Squads that work in different ways and follow the Hokage's order, but they're special agents/medics instead of shinobi. And the Squads are changed, as well.

3: Gotta love Eddsworld. xD

4: Obito is not related to the Uchiha clan in this story, or it'd complicate the whole thing. I just really had to put him here cause he's one of my favourite characters!

5: I'm not sure if that's her second name, but that's all I found on Google. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, and that was the first chapter. Hope it's not too rushed! Thanks for reading and please review!