Disclaimer: Naruto and the Naruto characters belongs to Kishimoto
A/N: This is my first fanfiction and I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
It was night and the full moon shined brightly from the dark sky. The young, dark haired boy slept calmly. A shadow moved silently and quickly towards the house. He checked the surroundings, making sure nobody followed him. He opened a window and climbed through the it.
Slowly he walked through the house which he knew like the back of his hand, making sure he didn't make a single sound. He walked to the younger boy's room and carefully opened the door. The door made a tiny creaking sound, but the noise was too loud in the silent night. He stopped in the middle of the doorway. Every muscle in his body froze, and he listened carefully to make sure the younger boy was still asleep. His breathing was still slow and calm, and there were no signs of him waking up any time soon. The older boy let go of the breath he was holding, and slowly walked closer. He stopped by the bed and looked down on his younger brother. A tiny smile appeared on Itachi's face when he saw how soundly Sasuke was sleeping. Itachi knelt down beside the bed, and held back an urge to stroke his brothers hair.
Suddenly, the muscles in the young boy's body tensed, and his breathing became more troubled. Was he having a nightmare? The older brother's face turned from the always serious and blank expression to a more worried one. He couldn't bear to see his brother like this, knowing it was too dangerous to help him. If Sasuke had a nightmare before the incident, Itachi would have held him tightly until the younger boy had calmed down, and he would have stayed by his side until he fell asleep again.
Sasuke's eyes suddenly shot open. Itachi didn't even have time to hide, nor did he want to. But he soon realized that it was a grave mistake that he hadn't gotten away in time. The little boy's eyes turned from desperate to panicked the moment he saw Itachi. Sasuke opened his mouth, ready to scream, but Itachi clamped his hand over it, so he couldn't do it, and he whispered a silent: "Shh Sasuke, it's okay."
Sasuke's hands grabbed the sheets and squeezed them very tightly. Itachi couldn't bear to see those desperate eyes, filled with hate and pain, look at him. He leaned forward and placed an arm around his neck and shoulder, and hugged him tightly to him. He felt how Sasuke was fighting to escape. He was hitting Itachi's chest, and trying to push himself away from his older brother. This only made Itachi hug him even closer to him, which made Sasuke fight harder to escape, but after a short while he stopped fighting. His small hands were still placed on Itachi's chest, tightly clenching and squeezing his shirt. A tiny sob escaped Sasuke's lips. Itachi could feel his shirt getting wet from Sasuke's tears. He moved his hand from Sasuke's neck and began stroking the younger boys hair slowly. Itachi could feel Sasuke's tiny heart still beating at a fast pace against his own chest. But slowly his breathing became more and more controlled and quiet. Itachi could have sworn Sasuke was snuggling into him, which made him smile a bit.
"A-Aniki?" Sasuke asked, and even though he had calmed down, his voice was still trembling.
"Hmm?" Itachi answered carefully to make sure he didn't scare his brother.
"Please don't leave."
"I won't." Itachi whispered. "I will always be right by your side and protect you."
Sasuke snuggled even more into his brother, and when Itachi looked down at him, his eyes were closed and a small, sad smile had appeared on his lips. It only took a couple of minutes before Sasuke was asleep again. Itachi carefully put him back into his bed, and wiped the tears that had run down his cheeks, away.
Itachi stroked his hair one last time, and walked over to the door. In the doorway he turned around and looked one last time at his brother, before he walked out in the hallway, and closed the door behind him. He went down the hallway, crawled out through the window, and closed it behind him.
Sasuke woke up and looked around the room. Had Itachi really been there that night? There wasn't a single trace of him. And he couldn't have been, could he? Itachi didn't care about him, so why would he have been there? It must have been a dream. And what a weird dream.
Sasuke got up and looked outside the window. It was still very early in the morning, and everything was very quiet. He walked over to the window and opened it. It seemed like it was going to rain later today.
Earlier that night, a shadow was waiting outside Konoha, on top of a hill. Itachi who had just left the village, cast a last glance at the village, before he ran up to the shadow.
"You just can't leave that city alone, can you?" Kisame asked.
"No I can't," Itachi answered, as his expression returned to the always blank one. "After all, someone I really care about lives there."
