Title: Cooties

Summary: Sasuke gets a cootie shot. Sasu/Saku fluff, Ita/Saku Bromance.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Prompt: Indestructible

Rating: K+

Warning(s): No Warning applies.

Comments: It is Sasu/Saku, however I feel that Ita/Saku has taken the stage. Please read and Review! :D

A small head peeked out of the window, eyes wide awake and alight with excitement as they roved over the front gate and the boundary wall. Little Sasuke had heard muffled barks outside and since nobody in the Uchiha clan owned any dogs then his brother must be home along with his teammates, so he had snuck out of his room and now stood on his tiptoes peering out of a hallway window.

Just as he was about to give up and go back to his room, the front gate creaked open and his Onii-san walked in, with renewed vigour Sasuke lifted himself a bit more to get a clearer look of his Onii-san after five long days.

Itachi was still in his jounin uniform, he came inside the gates but stopped and turned around to face someone. From his position Sasuke could see the other two people who had accompanied Itachi on his mission, one was Itachi's best friend Shisui Uchiha who was laughing at something and the other was Hana Inuzuka who looked ready to attack him.

Itachi seemed to shake his head at his friends' antics. A murmured conversation followed between the three which seemed to calm Hana down and had Shisui rubbing the back of his head, grinning. Finally, with a clap on Itachi's back Shisui left, but Hana seemed to linger. She said something to Itachi, who presumably said something back, Sasuke could care less as his toes were starting to hurt and he was getting impatient to get his Nii-san all to himself.

That was until he saw Itachi walk forward to the gate and shake hands with the Inuzuka.

Sasuke was aghast, his Nii-san had touched a girl.

And everyone knew girls had cooties.

Sasuke wrinkled his small nose at the thought and blew out the bangs that were falling on his frown in distress. He would have to confront his Nii-san about this worrying incident, god forbid Onii-san contract any girl germs from the Inuzuka Onee-san.

At last Itachi entered the house and was greeted by a beaming Sasuke, "Welcome home Nii-san!" he exclaimed in a dramatic whisper.

Itachi smiled fondly and ruffled his hair, "I am home."

Sasuke waited impatiently till Itachi had changed and was sitting comfortably in his bed before deciding to bring up his concerns.

"Ne, Nii-san...", he trailed off when Itachi faced him and raised an eyebrow. Then gathering courage he decided to get straight to the point, just like his father always said he should, his father said beating around the bush was a cowards excuse. "Girls have cooties."

Now both of Itachi's eyebrows had disappeared under his bangs.

Seeing his brother's expression, Sasuke hurried to explain, "Kiba told me. We were building Hokage's tower with the blocks and the girls were building a castle but they didn't have enough blocks and Sakura asked me for one so I gave it to her but then Kiba won't play with me because he said I touched her and so I had cooties, so I told him that Naruto played with her too but he didn't have cooties but he said that that's why all the other kids don't play with Naruto because he had cooties and now no one would play with me either now because I had them too. So I told him that I didn't have cooties and if he told anyone that I did then I would beat him up but he said that he would set Akamaru on me if I touched him so I said that if he set Akamaru on me then I would tell you and you would come and beat him up." Sasuke took a deep breath and smiled triumphantly, "He didn't tell anyone." Then his smile morphed into a troubled frown, "But you shook hands with Hana Nee-san and now you are infaaacted too."

Itachi was having trouble holding in his laughter, but since he was all too familiar with the Uchiha pride, he dared not give into his amusement in front of Sasuke and offend his fragile five year old ego. He just grinned and beckoned him forward, shifting a little as he climbed onto the bed like a small monkey with chubby legs and seated himself comfortably.

"Hold out your arm Sasuke", he motioned.

Obligingly Sasuke held out his arm. So trusting, Itachi thought a little wistfully. Then he dug deep into his memory to remember what he had seen so many kids his age do and feeling a little silly (but anything for his otouto) he chanted while doing the required motions,

"Circle, Circle, dot, dot, Now you have a cootie shot."

Sasuke just stared at his brother in amazement as Itachi made two circle on his forearm and then two dots with his index finger poking it twice.

" Sasuke, you are now warded against cooties. You can go near Sakura-chan and.." he hesitated a little, "..Naruto too."

Only his brother would know a justsu against cooties, Sasuke thought awestruck. The he bounded from the bed, and jumped excitedly, "Alright!" He exclaimed, his eyes shining brightly, "I bet no one else in class knows this. I am Indestructible now! You are awesome Nii-san!"

Itachi just smiled good naturedly. He was content that he could at last do something 'normal' and 'brotherly' for his otouto.

" I think its time for you to go to bed. You wouldn't want to be caught out of bed at this time by Kaa-san, now would you?" he said ushering him out of the room and into Sasuke's own.

Sasuke, pleased and enthralled at knowing something that he could use against Kiba the next day, was easily shepherded into bed by Itachi.

Itachi had a hand on the door, when he remembered something and turned around, "Ne, Otouto..", Sasuke turned half closed eyes towards his older brother, his shuriken plushie nestled comfortably under his chin, "Do you like Sakura-chan?"

Sasuke nearly fell off the bed in his surprise, then scrambling up, he faced his brother with a comical mixture of horror, incredulity and embarrassment on his face. "O-of course not!"

Itachi just smiled in amusement and left the room, the light dusting of red on Sasuke's face answer enough.

The next day found Sasuke embroiled in another shouting match with Kiba..

"I WON'T GET COOTIES!"

"YOU WOULD TOO!"

"I WON'T!"

"YOU WILL!"

"MY NII-SAN GAVE ME A COOTIE SHOT!"

Kiba hesitated at this, if Itachi had given Sassuke some jutsu against cooties then it would be very powerful, but still...

"Prove it!"

"I will!"

And with a loud "hmph" both stuck their noses in the air and stalked in the opposite direction... Only for Kiba to turn around and scramble after Sasuke because recess was over.

Soon the news was spread among all the boys that Sasuke was going to prove that he couldn't get cooties. Everyone from the lazy Shikamaru, who was always sleeping (even during recess!) to the rude upperclassman Hyuuga Neji were covertly watching from their positions around the room, outside the class, and through the window, to see what his next move would be.

However, all of Sasuke's attempts to get close to Sakura were spoiled much to his mounting frustration. When he tried to sit next to her during colouring, Naruto took the seat before him, which resulted in a fist-fight and a ten minute time-out.

Then during craft, he fashioned a ribbon out of red origami paper to give it to her, however before he could reach her, Ino intercepted him. Sasuke really didn't like the light that entered her eyes at that moment. In the next second, the ribbon was almost snatched from his hands (he had quicker reflexes), but Ino was not to be outdone. She just gave him a mischievous grin, then turned around and skipped to one of her friends. She whispered something into her ear, then they both turned around to stare at him, a grin on their faces. This was the start of the 'Sasuke likes girls with long hair' rumour.

It was absurd how hard it was to get close to one girl when he wanted to, Naruto wouldn't leave Sakura's side and after that one time-out Sasuke couldn't really force him to. The fact that he could prove his point through someone other than her didn't even enter his mind.

Soon it was time for everyone to go home. Sasuke was running out of opportunities to get close to her.

So he decided to put his all in one last attempt.

His bag was packed before the bell signalling the end of the school day had finished ringing. But he hung back a little and watched the other students start leaving. He watched as Naruto hurriedly packed his bag and tailed after Sakura who was chatting with Ino and packing her own things at a more sedate pace.

He waited till just the right moment, inching towards the three surreptitiously. Then just as Sakura moved a little to the front of the other two who had started bickering over something while trailing a little behind her, he took the opportunity. Slowly, (so much slower than his beloved Nii-san, he lamented) he made the appropriate seals and took in a mighty deep breath till his cheeks were ready to burst and a tickling warmth started growing in his stomach gradually (but still so slowly, he was panicking now, scared of losing the opportune moment) making its way up his torso till it gathered in his mouth and just as Ino and Naruto having reached a huffy end to their squabble made to increase their pace, he let it fly.

The resulting flame was insultingly, pityingly small compared to the effort it took and it stung his pride as he remembered Itachi's impressive fireball that roared and incinerated everything in its path, still it achieved its purpose.

The two didn't realize anything at first and that gave Sasuke enough time to slip away from the scene of the crime, almost unnoticed.

Then suddenly someone screamed quickly bringing everyone's attention to the two who were still clueless. Then realizing that everyone was shrieking and pointing towards their backside they simultaneously turned their head in the other's direction and pointing at each other's derriere shouted at the same time.

"Ino-"

"Naruto-"

"Your shirt is on fire!"

Wide-eyed they exchanged a horrified look as realization finally crept in and then quickly glanced at their own backsides and finally starting jumping up and down flailing and shrieking as the warmth became a uncomfortable heat.

In the commotion that followed Sasuke walked up to Sakura with leisurely gait, completely unbothered with the panic spreading among the class.

"Come on Sakura, lets go."

Sakura who was wringing her hands as she watched the teacher try to contain Naruto and Ino to stop them from coming in contact with anything flammable and wrestle a blanket around the two, looked up at him with surprise and panic in her gaze, "S-Sasuke-kun, b-but.. but," her gaze flicked between him and the scene before her, unsure, "we should do something."

Sasuke dismissed her concerns with a flick of his hand, "Its under control," and as he said it, another teacher rushed in from an adjoining class with a bucket of water and doused the two with it. "Besides," he continued dryly, "they'll survive. Unfortunately." he added under his breath.

And with that he took an extra step towards her and seized her hand in his own. Sakura turned towards him in surprise and gasped rather loudly, "Sasuke-kun!"

But he was already walking, and gave an impatient tug on her hand when she failed to comply with his unvoiced wishes, "Come on."

By now, Ino and Naruto were being wrapped in a blanket, resembling doused cats with much the same expression of annoyance. However, Chouji who was nearer to the door noticed the Sasuke and Sakura leaving and he nudged Shikamaru, who, eyebrows raised tapped Kiba on the shoulder.

Kiba turned around, irritated at having his entertainment interrupted because both Ino and Naruto's expression and reaction was just priceless. But all amusement vanished when he noticed Sasuke leading Sakura out of the room by her hand. And to add salt and vinegar to the wound, Sasuke turned around right at the threshold and noticing his audience which was the whole class at that moment, a smirk graced his lips; Sakura too turned around to look at what had caught his attention and seeing all the gazes focused on them a pretty pink blush spread across her cheeks.

Then Sasuke purposefully raised their joined hands the expression on his face smugly superior then he ruined all the maturity that he normally exuded by using the hand not holding Sakura's to pull down the bottom eyelid of his left eye and stuck out his tongue at Kiba.

In a shrubbery right outside the elementary school which afforded a clear view of the class and its recent exciting incidents, crouched Itachi and Shisui.

"Oh God..." Shisui breathed the word out in an awed tone of voice with no little amount of horror and shock in it.

"Indeed," Itachi mused.

The tone of his voice a had Shisui turning to him in surprise, "You are smiling!" he accused.

"Indeed," Itachi repeated.

"Why are you smiling?!" Shisui yelped. "Your brother just set two of his classmates on fire! And now he is apparently courting a girl! He is five, Itachi, five!"

"Indeed," if anything Itachi's smile increased at these facts. "He is going to be a great shinobi."

Shisui stared at his cousin and best-friend askance, "Yeah, suuuure... In a world where Anko rules."

A/N: Did you guys read chapter 685?! :O :O :O FINALLY some SasuSaku! And I don't care what anyone says it was definitely a SasuSaku moment! I was whimpering with the amount of power it took me to suppress my fangirl screams... Thank you Kishimoto-san!

Do Review!