"Ugh, what a pain… why do you always have to poke my forehead, 'Tachi-nii!"

My brother Itachi stared at me somberly as he stood in his doorway. However, just moments before he had poked my forehead so friggin hard that I fell over. I tried entering his room but he poked me to the ground before I could. God, so annoying!

My name's Sasuke… nice to meet you. For some reason, my brother and I have no mom. All I remember was that a couple years ago there was a strange Uchiha who came up to me while I was training. Basically, he knocked me out cold! I never remembered any sort of Uchiha around village that matched his description, but I knew it was and Uchiha since I saw his eye through his mask. Hm, since no one told me anything, I couldn't explain why he would just attack me. And now, I have this weird seal-type thing on my belly. If you want to know what happened, you're not getting it out of me. I was in the hospital the entire time! Then I remember Haha-chan's funeral. I didn't understand at the time… Chichi just said she was just going to sleep and she won't wake up if I'm not a good boy. Remember I was 5 at the time… so I believed anything.

Well, anyway, I'm a plainly average Uchiha; somewhat hyper, and somewhat moody. Some things about being a ninja come naturally to me, some more than others. I usually get the hardest of techniques after about a billion tries. Also, I make good grades in school, with the occasional B coming every now and again. Then there's monstrously sneaky C that leaks onto the page that just so happens to be in Iruka-sensei's handwriting—it happens whenever I come home with an essay. I'm also somewhat of the prankster—soaking my Chichi's undies in meat was about the greatest thing I've ever done—he smelled for days! I also like scaling buildings with my chakra-jumps and amazing legs. Though, one time when I was little, I came home from the park with a sprained arm after scaling the jungle gym and falling through a hole in the top. I was always careful after that, heh-heh…

Now back to the situation at hand, my brother, or bother as I like to call him, was standing there shaking his head. He dived back into his room. I let him get away this time, but sooner or later he's got to play with me! I SO wanted to try out multiplayer on my new video game and he said he would do it today!

Goddamnit.

Well, I wanted to see what Chichi and Mai-san were doing anyway, so there! And by the way-if you couldn't tell right about now based off how hyper I am-I'm nine-and-a-half. Heh-heh...

"Touu-saaan… will you play two-player mode on Ninja Warmonger 2 with meee?" I complained loudly as I entered the room.

Mai-san and Chichi were kissing. I wondered what it felt like, you know... to kiss someone. I usually wonder this since all the girls at school wanted me to be a lip-virgin or whatever they called it for them so that they could have their happy ending. Eh, girls.

"Can you please leave, Sasuke-kun?" said Mai-san. She didn't look to happy at all with her pursed lips. She only called me Sasuke-kun because Chichi called me that and she didn't want to look like she didn't care.

"Oh come on now, Mai… he only wants to play a video game…" said Chichi. "ITACHI!"

HA! Knew that would work…

"Tou-san? Is something the matter?" said 'Tachi-nii as he came out into the living room at a walking pace.

"We're going to go rest in my room. Can you please entertain your brother?" said Chichi.

"Alright." said Itachi somewhat vexed.

The two went into the hall and disappeared into the room, while Itachi stared at me. "Well?"

"Well, uh, 'Tachi-nii… I just got this wicked awesome computer game! I got an account, play online, and everything." I said sticking my fists out in front.

"Isn't that a little dangerous for a nine year old? Do you talk with other people on the other end?" said my brother.

"Unfortunately, no… Ninja Warmonger 3 is supposed to have a chat feature but that hasn't come out yet." I said, "And it's nine-and-a-half, not nine. You know, like, almost 10?"

"Okay, well have you finished your homework? If not, then let's do that first." said Itachi irritably.

"I finished my homework and hour ago! Come on, let's just play!" I said tenaciously.

"How do you play?" he said wondering the exact same thing I knew he would.

"Cum'mon, I'll show you!"

XXX

"Your turn, Sasuke-kun."

There we were, sitting at the old laptop-computer that was on the kitchen table. Itachi was a lot better than I had originally thought he would be. I guess that's why he's a jonin. Come to think of it… he was picked out for his brains when he was serving as an Anbu. I still didn't know why he left the Black-Ops all of a sudden…

Anyway, he was playing as Samurai, and I was playing as Ninja. He moved his Samurai away from my group of Ninja, but I had totally forgotten he had hidden his bronze-armored spearmen in the bushes next to the square where he was leading me to in his retreat. That group of ninja was now dead because I moved them closer to the spearmen. Also, the spearmen had cover, so they got +1 damage offensively and on the receiving end they had -2. And, since his turn is over and he defeated a group of ninja, he was instantly healed half of his overall health.

Jeez, could it get any worse?

"I give, Itachi. Can we just stop playing?" I said, looking to him with sad eyes.

"You chose the wrong game." said Itachi. "I've been playing Ninja Warmonger 1 by myself."

I slapped his arm. "Damn it, Itachi! You could have told me you've played one of my games before without asking!"

"Hehe... Well, you seem irritable today. Let's get to that homework." said Itachi with a close-eyed smile.

"I have none." I lied.

"You do." he said, "You're lying, Sasuke-kun."

"Fine, I have like, maybe a couple math problems…" I said, shrugging and trying not to think that I have a whole 10 pages.

"How math pages do you have?" asked Itachi, like he knew it was just a few more than a couple.

"Um…" I said, trying to stall… "A couple…"

"10 pages, correct?"

I opened my mouth in incredulity. "How? You're a freak, you know that."

He chuckled… "Hmhm… I see… I've just learned what that Iruka gives you."

"Whatever…" I said, standing up and saying, "I'm going to get my bag."

I walked away, went into room, took from my bed my shoulder bag, and headed back into the kitchen where Itachi had put away his laptop.

"Ah, Sasuke-kun. Are you ready?" said Itachi.

"Yeah… I'm ready." I said back. "Um, I heard from Kabuki-sensei that I'm going to start doing missions since I graduated last Monday."

"That's great, Otouto-chan." said Itachi. "Why are you still in The Academy again?"

"You ask too many damn questions!" I said, feeling a taboo coming on. "I'm in The Academy because Iruka-sensei thinks I should be there. Besides the Hokage, Iruka-sensei is the man in charge."

"Is it because you scaled to the roof of the school building to many times?" said Itachi with a chuckle.

"Who knows… he's just got it out for me I guess. Maybe he thinks I'm nothin' special or anything like that." I said, shrugging.

I didn't want to go to The Academy—it was just a drawback for me. However, I wondered what my life would be with would be without all my friends like Sakura and Naruto.

Hm…

XXX

That's it, everybody! Tell me what you think!

COPYNINJA BITCHES!