Tomato Salad
Summary: Uchiha Itachi doesn't remember much of his childhood. But he does remember helping his mother prepare tomato salad. Now at the brink of death, Itachi realized he never taught Sasuke how to cut a tomato into equally thin slices.
Tomato Salad
His early childhood revolved around his mother.
Uchiha Itachi didn't remember exactly what he did every day at the age of four, but he knew most of it was spent by the side of his mother.
Even though his first training session with his father was a blur, Itachi could remember with great clarity the first time he helped his mother prepare salad for dinner. The autumn sun shaded the clouds a pretty pink and orange. Bathed in orange light, his mother handed him a washed tomato.
He remembered the tomato being larger than his hand. He had giggled when he told her.
His mother smiled, he remembers. The wind blew her hair out of her face so he didn't miss any of it. The slight crinkle at the edge of her eyes and the upturn of pink lips.
He remembered his mother taking his hand in hers and cut the red fruit into equal slices. Her hands were soft and nimble but firm and precise as they guided his.
At the age of four, Uchiha Itachi believed his mother was the strongest of them all.
He remembered feeling pride as he looked up at his mother. Because only his mother could cut the round sphere into equally thin slices.
She had been pregnant then.
He didn't remember much of the pregnancy either. Only that he found out how women got pregnant. From some very knowledgeable cousins.
Itachi hadn't been very close to his brother when the child was first born. In fact, Itachi did everything to stay away from it. Even stay away from his mother. It was a childish jealousy, but he remembers not liking his younger brother at all.
Itachi doesn't remember how his brother looked as a toddler. He's seen pictures but he never remembered actually looking at his younger brother back then.
At the age of six, he had been too busy training to pay attention to his two year old brother. Those two years of training were a blur too. He doesn't remember much of the exercises nor does he remember the soreness or pain. But Itachi does remember that he helped his mother prepare salad twenty-six times that year.
She always handed him the washed tomatoes first. And he would cut them into thin equal slices.
At the age of seven, he remembers looking at his brother for the first time.
His mother had been making dinner that evening when Itachi came home from academy. His brother beside her with a tomato in his hands. He had been three, a year younger than when Itachi first held the tomato for the dinner salad.
He remembers greeting her and putting his bag on the kitchen table. His mother was hastily laying out all the dishes and working three pans at the same time. She had been out shopping and ran into an old friend, she said. Father was coming home soon but she just started with dinner. Help with the salad.
She pressed the knife handle into his hands and smiled.
Itachi remembered trying to wrestle the tomato out of his brother's hands. Those little hands gripped the tomato firmly, without any notions to let it go. He remembered sighing when he realized what he had to do.
Maneuvering his body around the stubborn three year old, he remembered getting one little hand to wrap around the knife and the other to hold the tomato ready for cutting. He remembered slicing the tomato into equally thin pieces.
Once he finished, Itachi remembered looking down and meeting sparkling black eyes and a wide smile.
"Brother the bestest!" Uchiha Sasuke squealed in delight. Itachi remembered pausing and looking at his brother.
Afterward, he smiled.
And fed the younger a thin slice of the tomato.
He would never forget the joy that erupted on his little brother's face. Eyes closed completely and mouth opened wide. The thin slice almost falling out. Squirming around, Sasuke faced his brother and asked:
"Teach me?"
The sound of the front door sliding open alerted the busy kitchen that father had returned. Looking at the incomplete salad, Uchiha Itachi remembered poking the younger's forehead for the first time:
"Sorry, maybe tomorrow Sasuke."
Now at the brink of death, Itachi realized he never taught Sasuke how to cut a tomato into equally thin slices.
The older Uchiha almost smiled as he fell, imagining the unequal slices on their mother's salad.
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A/N: It's been a while since I've been in the whole Naruto fandom, but with Crazy Sasuke on the loose, I couldn't help but whip up some Uchiha angst! I always imagined Itachi dying and wondering about a random thing like why wasn't Sasuke wearing a high collar or how was their family flower garden after all these years. So here, he was thinking about mother's good old tomato salad!
Read and Review! :D Hope you enjoyed my 2 AM spoof.