DISCLAIMER- I don't own Naruto or any of it's charecters.
Once in a Lifetime
Two thirteen year olds sat on the tickling emerald grass that looked as endless as an ocean. To any outside observer the two would seem like bickering rivals, which in a way they were, but in the strange and somewhat twisted reality that they live in, they were best friends. One sat in perfect silence, looking at the over-energized blonde with indifference. His onyx eyes looked bored of his best friends ranting and raving, his mind wandering to their parents meeting taking place at Sanctuary Hall. They, himself and his… explosive friend, weren't permitted to come.
His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by two eight year olds, who now successfully tackled and pinned him to the ground all the while filling the air with childish laughter. A smile came to the teen's face as his light laughter joined the others. He flipped the two younger ones over and began to tickle them unmercifully, his blonde friend joining him in the tickle torture in moments. The infuriating blondie then turned on him after catching him off guard, and all three of them had ganged up on him.
"H-he-e-y-y-y, n-no f-fair!" he said between his laughter and trying to breath, "N-not unt-til you s-say m-mercy!" all three exclaimed, also trying to breath between their own, more hysterical, laughter. The poor teen on the ground couldn't stop laughing either, "okay, okay! Mercy, mercy!" His blond friend grinned wickedly at him after collapsing next to him on the grass, while the other two fell on top of the teen, still giggling. "B-betrayer." He accused his blonde friend, his devilish grin only widened as he answered, "C-couldn't leave S-Sasuke and N-Naruto to ALL the torture." The teen rolled his eyes at his friend, his friend always loved to tease him whenever the chance aroused.
"Hey Aniki, Deidara, where's Tenten?" Sasuke asked himself and Naruto, sitting up to look around for her. "Should we tell them Itachi?" Deidara asked his raven haired friend with a look so serious, Itachi couldn't glare at him, and neither was he able to contain a laugh as he answered, "Well seeing as you already implied that we know, I guess we don't really have a choice. Do we?" An embarrassed blush tinted Deidara's cheeks as he pouted, crossed his arms in the most childish way, and stuck out his tongue. Again Itachi laughed at his friends antics, he looked down at the two seven year olds waiting impatiently for an answer. "Come on, Aniki, tell us," pleaded both Naruto and Sasuke.
Itachi knew he was going to have to give in sooner or later, to his little brother and his adoptive one. He let out a sigh before answering the two keen listeners awaiting it, "She's in the meeting with our parents. You know she's needed for her abilities…" He noticed the two about to ask if they could go wreck havoc by barging in there, unannounced to ask if Tenten could play, "We'll go drag her out later and we can all go over to the river, okay?" he finished quickly, answering the unasked question from the two. As expected Naruto jumped up with a cries of joy while Sasuke, being the ever more mature of the two, thanked his older brother before joining Naruto with his own cries of joy.
Both Itachi and Deidara smiled at the two bouncing seven year olds thinking of how when they, themselves use to bounce around with joy when they were happy or Deidara was on a sugar rush, then again said blonde still acted like a child most of the time, and probably always will. "Oh I almost forgot! Hey Itachi, guess what?!" he cried out, which there wasn't really any need, considering he was right beside him.
Itachi let out a weary sigh, "what is it Dei?" The blonde grinned at the use of his name, "I finally finished my bomb last night!!!! Isn't that great?! I can't wait to try it out! I wonder what we can blow up this time!" Itachi smiled at his friend's crazy ramblings, Deidara had this peculiar hobby of making bombs and dragging Itachi along to test them. They had already blown up five walls, three rooms, the rose garden, two stables, the pantry, two nurseries' (no one was in them at the time), six fountains, and Deidara's favorite testing spot, Itachi's room which had been blown up at least half a dozen times, much to Itachi's dismay, and annoyance.
The faint smell of rain touched Itachi's nose and tiny wet droplets fell into his eyes, he looked up to the sky, catching a glimpse of the setting sun. Well I better get them inside before they get soaked. Itachi stood up and called two his little brother(s) and best friend, "Come on you guy's it's starting to rain." Naruto looked over to him and pleaded, "Ahhh, come on Aniki we don't want to go inside! Can we please stay out here? Please?" Naruto was soon joined by Sasuke and Deidara. As Itachi was assaulted with pleads and complaining, he caught a glimpse of Tenten making her way into the resting lounge. Thank Kami for distractions! "Oh! You don't want to go in? Okay, but what about Tenten? She's in the resting lounge all alone, after a tiring meeting. Don't you want to at least go say hi to her?" Itachi said to the three, now quite people.
Sasuke was the first to speak, "Well, come on Aniki…" himself and Naruto pulling Itachi towards the lounge, "We have to go see Tenten! Hurry up Aniki!" Exclaimed Naruto tugging at Itachi's white cotton shirt. With Deidara in stride they eventually reached the resting lounge. The lounge was covered in pillows. Tenten was meditating silently in the corner, her auburn hair reaching her shoulders, her brown eyes closed. Sasuke and Naruto let go of Itachi's now somewhat stretched shirt and attempted to surprise the girl which Itachi knew would be close to impossible to achieve, "Don't even think about it." He heard her say tiredly. He smirked at the pouting seven year olds and went to the ebony shelf to get one of his favorite books and read. Never try to sneak up on a Seer.
An hour went by in the lounge, listening to the bickering seven year olds, Tenten trying to quite the two, Deidara fiddling with a new bomb, and listening to the consoling sound of the rain. "No, the chicken comes first and then the egg!" Naruto argued, "No you dobe, the egg was first, how do you explain how the chicken got there, if not from an egg?" Sasuke replied bored, Itachi was unfortunately subjected to hearing the entire argument, while trying to read.
He was about to tell them to quite down when he heard a soft thud. The two got silent, so Itachi didn't think much of it, assuming Tenten or Dei, had thrown something at them to quite them. "Oh, no you did not." He heard Sasuke say, "Oh, yes I did." Naruto had answered, Itachi, ever the curious, wondered what was really happening around him, but also being the stubborn person he is he continued reading.
The five unlikely companions looked up to the castle with an ominous feeling of dread and anxiety. They had nothing but horrendous memories of all their previous owners, and now they were to be waiting on four spoiled princesses and their brother. The ropes dug into their skin, the guards shoved them roughly foreword, as the drawbridge opened…
Itachi unceremoniously dropped the book onto the floor as a pillow hit him in the head. He looked up aggravated, at being so rudely interrupted, when a second pillow flew towards him. This time Itachi barely dodged it, when he heard and explosion from behind him. He glanced back to the thrown pillow as feathers floated down to see a pillow sized hole in the wall.
"Deidara! What the hell did you do that for?! Are you trying to kill me?! Why in Kami's name did you put a bomb in the pillow?!" He said exasperated, Deidara looked at him innocently, and said in a perfectly calm and serious tone with a smirk in place, "Oh, was that where I put that bomb? Silly me." Deidara soon found himself bombarded with millions of flying pillows, coming from Itachi's side of the room, while Sasuke and Naruto were also in heated pillow battle, Tenten was soon forced to join, as one of Naruto's stray pillows hit her while she was trying to meditate.
There was soon an all out pillow war. Naruto was out of commission first, by a straight pillow shot by Sasuke and a double from Tenten. Next, was Tenten who had been distracted by Naruto as Deidara threw a curve pillow, hitting her in the back. Sasuke soon just got tired from it and sat down between Naruto and Tenten, to watch his older brother and Deidara finish their battle.
Deidara was soon out as a pillow flew at him, and landed on his stomach with a heavy thud, "Hey! No fair there was book in that one!" Deidara accused Itachi. The older Uchiha gave him an innocent smile, and said quite calmly, "Oh was that where I put that book? Silly me." Deidara gave him a mixture of a smile and a glare, which forced Itachi to let out a light chuckle as he looked down to the three others, all in deep slumber.
"Come on Dei; help me get them in bed." It was relatively easy since all their rooms where no further apart than a room or two. Deidara took Tenten to her room saying, "'night Itachi." Itachi, laid Naruto and Sasuke in bed, changed them into their Pajamas' pulling the covers up and giving both of them a goodnight. He usually always did it, because their parents were still running around trying to do everything at night.
Itachi then crawled into his own bed, he almost went to sleep the minute his head touched his pillow, but he sat up completely alert when his door slowly opened to reveal both boy's looking at him sleepily in his doorway, "Aniki, the dobe had a bad dream, can we sleep with you?" Sasuke said in a drowsy slur. "Please Aniki?" pleaded Naruto through half lidded eyes holding a small nine-tailed fox stuffed animal. Itachi gave a light sigh and smiled tiredly; he held up the covers and motioned for them to get under. They both nestled into Itachi's bed, and snuggled up to him, before going into another slumber, filled with something better than a few nightmares.
At the meeting-
"You know you have to erase their memories, Mikoto we have no choice. He's coming in four days. No one here wants to do it, but it's the only thing we can do. It's the only way to keep them alive." Minato said. "I know, but……" Fugaku glided over behind his wife and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Mi, love I don't want to have to do this either, but its like Nato say's it's the only way. We knew this day would come; we've even prepared a vessel for the Kyuubi, and Mi, remember you only have to erase their memories of us and their heritage. They'll still have memories of their time together, and we've taught them everything we know and don't forget they'll always have the cloaks."
Mikoto released a defeated sigh, "I understand. I know what I must do to keep them alive. I'll begin preparations for the sealing of the fox tomorrow, for you Minato, but we'll have to pry the vessel away from Naruto. I'll start with the erasing of their memories on the first light of the final day." With these final words the meeting came to a dreary close.