It was a hot day in July and school was out of session for the summer. A five year old Sasuke was upstairs in his bedroom with his older brother, Itachi. Sasuke was elated that Itachi was finish with his school work and the two could finally play all day together.

Today, the game was secret agents. The target: Fugaku Uchiha.

"So," Itachi started. It was ninety-three degrees outside, and despite the air conditioning in Sasuke's bedroom, the two brothers were crouching under Sasuke's winter comforter, huddled over a piece of paper with a flashlight. "What's the plan, Sasuke?" Itachi asked. His body was hot and his hair was even hotter. To make matters worse, it was starting to stick to his face.

"Agent 6, Itachi! We have codenames, remember?" Sasuke hissed.

As the temperature rose, the Itachi's memory faltered. "Sorry, I forgot." He brought his hand up to brush the sticky hair from out of his eyes. "Why are you Agent 6 again?"

"Stop moving the flashlight, Itachi! I'm trying to draw the map!" He groaned. "I'm Agent 6 because I'll be six years old soon!"

As the temperature rose, Sasuke's temper rose along with it. Both were steadily increasing.

Itachi couldn't help but crack a smile and shake his head. "You're five years old right now though."

Sasuke's head immediately shot up, his eyes wide as he growled at Itachi. "I'll be six soon enough." He grumbled and resumed with his cartography.

Itachi marveled at Sasuke's creativity, but his smile soon faded as a bead of sweat ran down his arm. "Sasuke, are you almost done? It's hot under here!"

"There." Sasuke said and put the finishing touches on his work. "We're here; at home base."

Itachi wondered why the entire house wasn't considered home base, but didn't comment on it. "Okay."

"Father might be over here." Sasuke pointed to their father's study with his blue crayon.

"He might? You mean that you're not sure? Shouldn't a secret agent always be certain of where their target is?" Itachi asked.

Sasuke groaned again. "Secret agents are spies. Our mission is to spy on father so we can figure out where he is."

"Then what?"

"We strike."

Itachi had to pause in order for his mind to fully work out what they were doing. "You want to kill our father?"

"NO! Not for real! Just for pretend!" Sasuke protested and threw his crayon on the floor. He didn't throw it hard enough for it to break, but it did leave a mark on the map.

Itachi could just see the look on his father's face when Sasuke tumbled into his study and loudly exclaimed how they were about to kill him. Their mother would be able to hear it from the kitchen, no doubt about it.

"Pay attention Itachi, because this is what we're gonna do. We'll sneak out of home base and then hide in the base next to it," Sasuke explained before Itachi cut in.

"Which is?"

"Your room."

"Right." Itachi agreed.

Sasuke nodded. "After that, we'll run across the river and hide under the waterfall. After that, we'll scale down the cliff, run past the battlefield, past the provisions room, into the forest, and into enemy territory. That's where the target should be."

Itachi nodded, but on the inside, he was wondering if the waterfall or the cliff pictures depicted the stairs and why Sasuke neglected to mention the large gates with a moat surrounding them.

"Got it?" Sasuke asked.

"I think so." Itachi lied. He would have agreed to anything that came out of Sasuke's mouth if it meant getting out from underneath the blanket they were under.

"Oh, one more thing!" Sasuke said. Itachi's eyes followed him as he walked over to the night stand and pulled out a pair of radios. "Catch!"

"Got it."

Sasuke smiled and turned his radio on, as did Itachi with his. "Agent 9, come in Agent 9, do you read me? Over."

"Why am I," Itachi started, but Sasuke cut him off, gesturing for him to talk into the radio instead. "Sorry," he muttered under his breath before talking into the radio. "Sasuke,"

"Agent 6!"

"Agent 6, sorry. Why am I Agent 9?" He asked and added "over" when Sasuke glared at him.

"You're Agent 9 because your birthday's on the ninth."

Of course. "Why didn't I think of that before?"

"Shh!" Sasuke was peering out of the room. "Get behind me and be quiet! The target will hear you!"

Itachi complied and crawled behind Sasuke. "Is it clear? Over."

"The ghost is clear, Agent 9, over."

Itachi tried to stifle a laugh. "Sasuke, I mean, Agent 6, I think you meant to say "the coast is clear," not the ghost."

Sasuke grunted.

"Over."

"No I didn't, over."

Itachi let him have his way for now. Meanwhile, Sasuke was scanning the hallway from a tiny opening in the door. A few moments later, he opened the door a little further and scanned again. Itachi, who was much taller than Sasuke, scanned from behind him, even though he couldn't see much. Little by little, Sasuke opened the door a little further until there was enough room for him to poke his head through and scan.

Just as Sasuke turned around to give Itachi the signal to move, the brothers heard a low, hollow noise emanate from the end of the hallway.

"The enemy's coming! Go, go, go! Hide under the bed in the base next door! Go!" Sasuke commanded.

Sasuke darted into the hallway followed by Itachi and turned into Itachi's bedroom so fast that Itachi thought for sure that Sasuke would fall and twist his ankle.

"Under the bed!"

That, in itself, posed a problem. Sasuke could fit underneath the bed. Itachi couldn't. "Itachi! Sasuke!" Their mother called from the stairs. "I'm doing laundry! I need your dirty clothes!"

The top step creaked and Mikoto's soft footsteps echoed throughout the hallway.

"Hide, Itachi!" Sasuke hissed from underneath the bed.

With little time to react, Itachi lunged for his desk chair, pulled it out of the way, and hid under the desk. From his hiding place, Itachi could see Sasuke's dark eyes from underneath the bed, glaring at him.

"What?" Itachi mouthed as the door creaked.

Both brothers fell quiet as their mother's pale legs walked to the middle of the room. "Why is this on the floor?" She asked and knelt to pick it up. Mikoto's long hair spilled over her shoulders as she knelt over, shrouding the brother's from her view. Only when she stood up again did she push a portion of it over her shoulder. "Itachi? Did you drop this?" She called. Sasuke glared at Itachi from underneath the bed. Itachi held his breath. "Hmph. Well then. It's mine now!" She called into the hallway.

Itachi pursed his lips together and avoided Sasuke's hard glare as Mikoto walked across the room to retrieve Itachi's hamper full of clothes. They stayed in silence for a while after she shut the door and waited until she was in Sasuke's room.

"Itachi!"

"I'm sorry, Sasuke! I didn't notice!"

Using his forearms, Sasuke pulled himself from underneath Itachi's bed. "You're lucky she didn't see you, or else you'd be dead right now."

Itachi pushed the chair out of the way and crawled out from his hiding space as well. "What would she have done? Beat me with my own clothes?"

"No. She had a gun on her belt." Sasuke said while he dusted himself off.

"What gun? I didn't see her with a gun."

Itachi moved to help Sasuke, but Sasuke pushed his hands away. "You were on the wrong side." He said and crouched behind the door to the room.

"Me? You were under the bed. How could you see if she had a gun or not?"

Sasuke turned around to glare at him again. "She bent over to pick up the radio that you dropped." He said, emphasizing the words "over," "you," and "dropped."

"I'm sorry." Itachi tried to say but Sasuke held up a finger to silence him.

"Shh. There are no excuses on the battlefield. Now let's hide under the waterfall before she comes back."

Itachi nodded.

Sasuke crawled into the hallway first and slowly stood up flat against the wall. Itachi followed his lead. When they reached Sasuke's room, Sasuke briefly looked inside and gave Itachi the signal to move on.

Inside the bathroom, or "the waterfall," Itachi tried to turn on the lights, but Sasuke scolded him and claimed that waterfalls were supposed to be dark. Once Itachi closed the door, Sasuke claimed that he was scared, so they turned on the lights anyways.

"Now what, Agent 6?" Itachi asked.

"What do you mean? We have to get behind the waterfall!"

Itachi knitted his brow. "I thought this was the waterfall."

"No! That's the waterfall." Sasuke pointed to the shower.

Itachi stared at him. "In there? I'm not getting wet, Sasuke."

"Of course not. Mom would get mad if we got in the shower with our clothes on. Get in anyways and close the curtains." He instructed.

Itachi did as he was told and frowned when he stepped in a small puddle of water. He'd dry it off when they got out. "Now what?"

Sasuke didn't answer immediately. He stared at the curtains, then at Itachi, and then at the curtains again. "Let's go, Agent 9." He said and pulled back the curtains.

Cautiously, he stepped out of the shower and placed his ear on the back of the door to listen for Mikoto.

"Do you hear anything?" Itachi whispered.

Sasuke shook his head and opened the door slightly. "I think she's gone. Follow me."

Once in the hallway, Sasuke checked both ends and quickly peered inside Itachi's bedroom as a precautionary measure. With Itachi following behind, the two brothers walked along the length of the hallway with their backs against the wall until they reached the "cliff."

"This is the cliff. Are you ready?" Sasuke asked Itachi.

"I'm ready." He said and extended his foot to take a step.

"No, wait, not yet!" Sasuke yelled.

"What?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Itachi narrowed his own eyes. "You can't just walk off of a cliff. You'll die."

Itachi glanced down the stairs. "I'd say that this is more of a hill than a cliff, Sas-Agent 6."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes too. "It's a cliff! You have to go down it backwards!" He groaned. Itachi just didn't understand. "If somebody told you to jump off a bridge, would you?"

"If somebody told me to scale down a cliff, I wouldn't."

Sasuke stomped his foot. "If you had the right equipment you would!"

Itachi shook his head. "I still wouldn't. I'm afraid of heights."

Sasuke stared at him for a moment before replying "You're a bad secret agent."

Sasuke was relentless. "Fine." Itachi said with a sigh. "I'll go first so that you don't fall. Okay?"

And so Itachi went first. Once in position, he checked for any signs of their mother. A low humming sound emanated from the kitchen. Mikoto was cooking. He took another look down the stairs. Slowly he put one foot down a step, and then another, and repeated the process. When he was about halfway down, Sasuke followed suit.

"Sasuke, Itachi, what on earth are you two up to now?"

Both boys turned their heads at the low rumble of their father's voice. "He found us first! Abort the mission!" Sasuke cried and scurried up the stairs.

"Hold on! Itachi, I need to talk to you."

Itachi's shoulders dropped slightly. He readjusted his position on the steps and descended so that he could talk to Fugaku properly. "Yes, father? What did you want to talk about?"

From upstairs, Sasuke poked his head out from behind the wall. Itachi was going to get it for speaking to the enemy in times like this. Sasuke would have to teach him on how to be a good spy later on.

"Your mother forgot to tell you that your dentist appointment has been rescheduled to today. Now come on, we need to go or we'll be late." He said and left to retrieve his car keys.

Game over.

Itachi glanced upstairs where his eyes fell upon Sasuke's dejected face. "I'm sorry Sasuke; we'll play again some other time."

Sasuke nodded, sat down, and kicked his feet over the top step. "It's okay, Itachi."

"Sorry." Itachi said again with an apologetic smile. His attention fell from Sasuke to the sudden appearance of their father by the front door.

"Itachi, get your shoes on and let's go."

Itachi was silent. "Yes, father." He said and rose to his feet. From the top of the stairs, Sasuke watched him put on his shoes and follow their father out the door.

"Sasuke!" Mikoto called a moment later. "Lunch is ready!"

"Coming." He replied, dragged his legs out from underneath his body and descended the stairs the same way Itachi had attempted to before Sasuke corrected him earlier.

"There you are." Mikoto smiled over her shoulder while she collected the plates from the other side of the room. The only sounds were those of plastic tearing. Something wasn't right. "Are you upset because Itachi had to go to the dentist?" She asked.

Sasuke nodded. His long dark fringes hid his facial expression from Mikoto's view.

Mikoto smiled sympathetically. Time to comfort. "He'll be back." She placed a plate in front of him and walked back to the counter to retrieve the sandwiches.

"When?"

She stopped midway with half a sandwich in both hands. "He'll be back in about…an hour maybe?" As she continued to think, her knees moved forward, followed by her feet, one inch at a time until she stopped at the table. "When the big hand is on top of the 1." She said and handed Sasuke his lunch.

"Thanks." He said and accepted his food.

Mikoto chuckled. "You're welcome. Until he gets back, it's just you and me." With that, she sat down across from her youngest son to eat her own sandwich.

Sasuke smiled. Operation Target Father would be underway in t minus 1 hour.