An Uchiha Vow
Itachi said:
Let's just hope that I'd live to see the day Sasuke reads underneath the underneath. He was foolish like that, that little brother of mine.
A powerful typhoon was brewing outside. It poured a very strong torrent around their home, scaring little Sasuke into a crying fit. Six-year-old Uchiha Itachi briefly wondered when their parents would come back as he went to the two-year-old Uchiha babe and experimentally reached out between the columns. It was the first time he tried, really.
Sasuke, who was sobbing uncontrollably, calmed momentarily to gaze at Itachi's outstretched arm. He oh-so-suddenly leaned in that he accidentally hit his cheek on Itachi's fingers.
Itachi had quickly pulled his hand back and watched out for an inescapable weeping. He was vaguely surprised to see Sasuke giggling adorably and all the more perplexed at how easy that word came up with Sasuke. It was the first time he labeled something as adorable, he thought fleetingly. He speculated how many first times he'd encounter with this brat.
Leaning on Sasuke's crib, watching Sasuke watching him, he saw how Sasuke has clear onyx orbs and how he resembled their mother so much. It was then that Itachi noticed the silence, and how it was filled by the thundering of rain drops on their roof.
How-how-how-how-how…
He lowered a side of the crib and placed both hands on Sasuke's side. If the angle was correct, then he won't fall—just like how mother did it. Sasuke excitedly squealed, flailing his arms in enthusiasm. Testing Sasuke's weight, he placed the baby against him. Sasuke pounded his little fists on Itachi's shoulders, head turning incessantly from side to side on his shoulder. He went to a window settee and let Sasuke stand before the window to watch the rain.
Thrilled, Sasuke tried to climb up the window. Itachi patiently knelt on the settee to support his hyper brother. Finally comfortable, Sasuke went still. His large eyes watched in awe as huge trails of water slithered down the window glass. Water went in, too, in trails- because the window-was-not-really-tightly-closed.
Sasuke pressed a hand against the glass to test the waters, so to speak. Finding them cool and ticklish, he swiped his hands across the window in speedy movements, getting a bit wet in the process. Itachi smiled contentedly, watching his innocent brother play.
In that comfortable instant, Itachi then pondered about this moment and how he wanted it to last forever, how he wanted to see these kinds of moments until Sasuke grows up.
On the other hand, he wondered how long it would be before the inevitable reality corrupts Sasuke, before the clan suffocates Sasuke into apathy and corruption. He wondered if he could do anything about it and decided that yes, he could.
It was then that he vowed to be absolutely strong and powerful in the fastest time possible- to be capable enough as he grows up, to protect this child, this little brother of his, even against norms, against standards, against stereotypical thirsts for power and against the ninjas and the elders and his parents and the kages.
He casually thought that between the entire clan and Sasuke, he'd choose to save Sasuke at any moment.
Alas, he never knew that fate was cruel enough to test thus.
He swiped his hand against the wet glass and played with water together with Sasuke, whose laughter irrevocably downed the thunders.
The powerful typhoon was still brewing outside.
Sasuke had said:
Death was more acceptable than living but not living; having a purpose without purpose at all. I wonder if I was still human or just human in composition- if I was a mere puppet for his amusement, that Itachi.
Note: Absolutely not edited. Pardon the errors. First attempt.