A/N: I had an urge to write this after (finally) reading the manga and having just rewatched Naruto Abridged episode 22: Gaara- "When I was little, I had a bear. And hung out on swingsets! Because that's apparently what you do when you're a depressed child on Naruto- you hang out on swingsets!" XD I love the complex relationship between Sasuke and Itachi, I really do.

Dedicated to i AM the Random Idiot because she's sick. D:

"I'm home."

"Big brother!" A black blur of a child dashed from behind the sliding wood door and wrapped his arms around Uchiha Itachi's midsection, burying his face in his older brother's stomach. "You're home!"

"I just said that, Sasuke." An amused, if weary, smile crossed Itachi's face as he patted his little brother's head.

The younger boy veritably bounced with excitement, wide, adoring eyes never leaving his brother's face. "It was a half-day at the Academy today, so I ran home and waited for you behind the door until you got here and I could jump out and surprise you because you wouldn't think I'd be home this early!" Sasuke rambled nonstop as the two made their way inside, Itachi with his arm wrapped around the shorter boy's shoulders. "And I thought about distracting you with clone jutsu but then I didn't know when you'd be back and if I ran out of Chakra then I'd get tired and wouldn't be able to jump fast enough to surprise you, and I really have to go to the bathroom because I didn't want to be in there when you got home, so then to make sure I would know, I thought about setting a trap-"

A low-voiced chuckle interrupted the boy mid-sentence. "Breathe, Sasuke," Itachi cautioned, bending down to remove his shoes. "If it was a half-day, why didn't you go practice shuriken throwing like always?"

"Mmm..." He pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. "Because I want you to come with me, brother!"

"Sasuke!"

"Uh-oh!" He jumped and darted behind his brother as their mother rounded the corner wielding a saucepan that was presumably for making dinner (though Sasuke-hitting seemed a definite possibility from her expression).

"Your brother just got home from a mission," Mikoto tapped the pan against her shoulder warningly. "Don't bother him. He's tired."

"But-"

"It's okay," Itachi grinned over his shoulder. "I promised Sasuke I'd practice with him as soon as I came back."

"You di-?" Sasuke clapped a hand over his mouth and nodded. "He did, Mom!" he managed through his fingers.

She raised an eyebrow. "Mm-hm." Clear skepticism colored her voice, but she just shook her head and made her way into the kitchen. "Don't stay out too late."

"Yay!" Sasuke punched a fist in the air and grabbed Itachi's shoes, extending them with a wide grin. "You're the best, brother!" The second the older brother took his shoes, Sasuke grabbed his own and wriggled them onto his feet, jumping up and grabbing Itachi's hand. "Come on, let's go!"

"Where are we going?" Itachi cast a glance over his shoulder at the Uchiha compound Sasuke's pattering feet was quickly leaving behind them.

"To the Academy, of course." Single-mindedly, Sasuke kept pulling his brother along, shoes crunching on the gravel path. "I can practice there now since I'm a student!"

Itachi nodded in understanding, another small smile crossing his face. "You remembered to bring your shuriken, didn't you?"

He stopped for a second, then resumed his pace. "Of course!" The offended pout over his shoulder abruptly became a grin. "I'll race you, brother!"

"You forgot, didn't you?"

"What? No..." Sasuke tried his best innocent face, but on his five-year-old features, it just looked guilty.

"You're trying to race so you could get some shuriken from the training ground before I realized."

His little brother flinched, and Itachi knew he'd gotten him right on the mark. "I forgot..." he admitted quietly. "Mom might've said I couldn't practice at the Academy if we didn't leave real quick, and I thought I had some but I don't and you're not mad, right?"

"No, Sasuke." He ruffled his hair and kept walking, hands in his pockets. "You can use my shuriken, okay?"

"Really!?"

"You didn't just forget so you could use mine, did you?"

"No!" Sasuke grinned and stuck his hands in his pockets, too. "But can we race anyway?"

Itachi exhaled and shook his head regretfully. "Not today, Sasuke."

"Aww..." Not one to stay discouraged for long, Sasuke perked up immediately and began to tell Itachi about his day with all the bubbling enthusiasm one might expect from a child accompanied by his beloved older brother. Itachi listened with one ear; lost in his own thoughts of the recently completed mission, it took him a second to realize they had stopped by the Academy training grounds and his brother had asked a question.

Startlingly perceptive, big black eyes stared at him with surprising seriousness. "Are you okay, brother?"

"Of course." Mentally, Itachi shook off his thoughts and focused on his little brother.

Sasuke's face screwed up in an unhappy pout. "You look sad." Seeing no further response was coming, he extended one hand. "Can I use your shuriken now?"

"I've never seen the Academy this deserted," Itachi observed, absently handing Sasuke his shuriken holster. The dirt training ground, the grassy courtyard; even the classrooms' windows yawned empty and foreboding. The only comforting sound was the steady, rhythmic thunks of metal embedding in wood. The older Uchiha sank down to the ground and rested his head against one of the sturdy wooden posts. As alert as he tried to be, the recently promoted Chuunin nodded off, his head slumping on his shoulder.

Sasuke paused in mid-throw and glanced over, concern flashing across his face that, in his young self-centered mind, his brother had stopped watching him. He opened his mouth wide, ready to shout and wake him, but froze.

"Your brother just got home from a mission. He's tired."

And so the boy closed his mouth, tiptoed to the post, and wretched out the shuriken with all his strength. As he started carefully putting them back in the holster, a sudden chill went through him. Caked on one of the sharp point was blood, dry yet no more than a few hours old. Little Sasuke bit his lip, then pulled at the tail of his shirt and stuck it in his mouth to moisten it, using the wet fabric to wipe the blood from the weapon.

"Brother," he said softly, padding over and shaking his shoulder. "Brother, I cleaned your shuriken. Let's go home."

Itachi blinked up at the boy standing over him. "Thank you, Sasuke." Waving a hand slightly, a tiny smile crossed his face. "Come here."

"No, you're gonna poke my head!" He backed away with both hands protectively covering his forehead.

Another low chuckle, the kind Sasuke loved to hear. "I won't poke your forehead," he promised. "Come here." Itachi held out one arm and let Sasuke run into him. "Mother will be unhappy if she sees that on your shirt," he noted, licking his thumb and scrubbing at the spot. "Why did you do that, Sasuke?"

"Because you were tired and I didn't want your weapons to get rusty." Those big black eyes blinked. "I learned that's what happens when you don't clean them, and then if your weapons were rusty they wouldn't work and then you might get hurt and then- Ow!" Betrayed, Sasuke pouted again. "You said you wouldn't do that!"

Itachi lowered his fingers from where he'd poked his brother and smiled. "Thank you, Sasuke."

"Hee." Sasuke grinned. "Can I swing on the swing real quick before we go?"

"Not for long."

"Yay!" He dashed away into the courtyard, Itachi following at a much slower pace, hand holding his shuriken holster. He had his brother; no matter what the mission, Sasuke would always be there with him. Before he had even made it into the courtyard, his brother came walking back.

"What is it?"

"There's someone on the swing already. He's always there. I never get to use it." Sasuke sighed, then grabbed his brother's hand, his perpetual cheer returning. "Let's go home, big brother."

"Maybe I can put one up for you behind the house."

"Really?" Mouth wide, Sasuke jumped and clapped his hands.

"Maybe," Itachi repeated, ruffling his brother's hair. "You did clean my shuriken, so I owe you that much, at least."

-xXx- One year later –xXx-

Uchiha Sasuke sat alone on a swing, hanging from two simple ropes on a tree in the woods behind his home. It was still his home, though no one was there but him. The clouds crashed above, lightning illuminating the empty scene of the deserted compound. Through the pouring rain, he sat on that swing, swinging slowly back and forth from the wind until the time between thunder and lightning was almost instantaneous. Then he jumped down, hand flying to the shuriken holster that was his almost constant companion these days, and extracted two of the deadly sharp throwing stars.

He used the lightning's brief flash to sight his target. Twin thunks of metal flew into the tree. The smash of thunder muted the crash of the sliced ropes letting their wooden burden fall to the ground, and in the rain, no one would have been able to see his tears.

"Itachi, you liar."