Title: "Family Secrets/Dirty Laundry" (I really don't know which title I like more, so I gave it both. ;;)
Author: Yukari Rin
Fandom: Naruto
Character(s)/Pairing(s): ItaSasuSaku
Rating: T
Notes: My beta Ichatelle's Christmas gift. AU, and in a different style from my usual stuff. I had so much fun writing this (as evidenced by the longer length) - I fear there may be more fics to come set in this universe. I hope you enjoy it, Uke-chan, and thank you for being patient with me.
Disclaimer: Naruto and related properties belong to Masashi Kishimoto and related parties.

"Family Secrets/Dirty Laundry"

Sasuke's breathing had slowed and settled into a calm rhythm, and he shivered at the slight chill in the room. Itachi brushed a lock of unruly raven hair from his younger brother's cheek as he stood over the bed before pulling the comforter up to cover Sasuke's naked shoulders. (He had promised, as he always did, to wash the sheets in the morning after Sasuke and their parents had gone off for the day. It was one of the benefits of having afternoon classes instead of morning ones at his university.

Of course he had planned it that way.)

He left the window open, though, the gentle night breeze bringing in the crisp winter air he enjoyed so much.

A week later Sasuke brought over a classmate to work on a science project. Sakura was smart, proper, cute (in a girlish way, not the womanly type), and obviously trying to make a good impression. Itachi smiled at her and inside his mind he chided her. It wouldn't work. Their mother and father might like her, but Sasuke was his.

They worked on the project in the kitchen, and Itachi decided to keep an eye on them by doing his homework in the dining room. It was different from his normal habits, and he knew Sasuke was more tense than normal as he felt his brother's eyes follow his every movement more closely than usual. (Sakura felt as though she was being watched, too, but made no comment of it.)

She stayed for supper at Mikoto's request, and Sat next to Sasuke. Oh, she was slightly pink all throughout the meal, pleased with the seating arrangement. That night, several hours after she had gone home, though, Itachi pinned his brother to the back of his bedroom door and asked if there was anything he should be aware of. Sasuke shook his head and moaned silently as his brother gave him a gentle stroke along his length before stepping back and crouching down.

Itachi had thought that had been the end of it, but when Sakura and Naruto came over soon after for another project (theatre, this time) he watched his brother like a hawk. He saw Sakura's annoyance with the blond, and was glad to see that he shared at least one small emotion with her. The way his brother continuously rubbed his temple every time the blond spoke told him volumes, and he was assured that there was nothing to worry about. He made certain that night, though, to make clear what he thought about Naruto.

It was a Friday night, and Sasuke didn't have physical education on Monday, so Itachi could bruise him more than usual.

The season changed and Itachi grew a bit busier with school, and wasn't able to spend as much time with his brother (he had to maintain his front during exam season, and would be sure to make it up to his brother as soon as the last one had finished). When he returned early one afternoon thanks to a canceled class, he immediately took notice of the female shoes neatly placed on the floor near the door. Itachi moved silently up the stairs and to Sasuke's closed door, the sounds of barely muffled sex meeting his ears without having to press them against the old wood.

Itachi stood outside the bedroom and listened in until they were finished, narrowing his eyes when he heard Sasuke sound his climax twice, but smirking when he heard Sakura cough and gag after the second. How many other people had she sucked off, he wondered. He downstairs and out of the house as soon he heard them dress themselves once more.

It was a Wednesday, but he made sure Sasuke knew who had the better mouth that night.

Once again he had assumed that he had been clear enough, and that his brother would stop wasting his time with the Haruno slut. His brother's announcement that he'd be going on a camping trip over spring break with a few friends didn't sit well with him, though. He knew who would be on that trip, despite Sasuke's lies to their parents that it would be Naruto and a few other of his male friends from school. When he called Sasuke on his lie after supper, he threatened to tell their parents unless Sasuke did everything he told him to do.

As he was showering in the early dawn he wondered who his brother had been practicing on, since there's no way he could have practiced that trick on Sakura.

Even after the trip, it was clear that Sasuke wasn't simply infatuated with Sakura. She came over every so often, but after the third time Itachi punished Sasuke for sharing his bed with someone besides him, Sasuke usually went to Sakura's house for sex (it was simply easier, too, since it was just Sakura and her mother living together), and "spent the night" at Naruto's more often (he knew those were the nights that Sakura's mother had to work nights).

After a year of dealing with Sasuke's distraction Itachi called Sakura one day, mimicking Sasuke's voice perfectly, and telling her to meet him at a local cafe. They met and he told her quite plainly that he wanted to know why exactly she took so much of his brother's time away from more worthy pursuits. Sakura was a smart girl, and had figured out who had left all the hickeys and bruises she couldn't claim ownership of. She replied that if he was so curious she wouldn't mind showing him; after all, he was similar enough to Sasuke.

So they got a room at a cheap but clean hotel, and he had to admit she was pretty talented (her large mouth and long tongue a nice difference from Sasuke's), and repaid her by taking her the way Sasuke liked it.

They never spoke of it again, the mutual threat of telling Sasuke what the other did and driving him from each other enough to keep silent to the boy as well. They didn't mind sharing, they realized, so long as they only had to share Itachi amongst themselves.