"Hey, Sasuke," started Naruto.
Sasuke's answer was a muffled grunt. He knew at this moment - it was always the moment after he did something regrettable; damn epiphanies always clashed with his schedule - that that grunt would be the end of him. The grunt was a reflex, really.
The funny thing about being drowsy when you were a ninja was that you tended to do things on auto-pilot. Doing things on auto-pilot was kind of not very conducive to resting or sleeping in the long run.
"I heard about brother complexes from Kiba the other day. I think you have one of those."
". . . We're not seriously talking about this, are we?" muttered Sasuke. He hated being sleepy when someone was around. It led to him feeling perpetually hovering on that fine line between blissfully asleep and mournfully awake.
"I mean, hear me out, man. You hardly go a day without talking about him, and there was that thing in our first meeting with you saying that your dream is to find him and, I dunno, couldn't you have a cooler dream like being Hokage- or maybe not because that's already my dream and you can kinda find your own, I guess."
"Well, I don't know, you idiot. What if you had every single living relative of yours murdered and you were there for the body count, only to find out your brother's body was missing so you don't know whether or not he's still alive? What if?"
Sasuke was facing Naruto and doing his very best to glare at him in the dark. When Naruto became quiet for more than three minutes, Sasuke thought that he had finally talked some sense into the guy. He turned his back on Naruto and tried to sleep once again. All this mission tension was going to lead to a bad back and a terrible headache.
Unfortunately, Sasuke underestimated Naruto's stubbornness and inability to read the atmosphere.
"Kakashi was right," said Naruto with something akin to awe in his voice. "You do become talkative when I talk about your brother. Talk about a bro-con."
This was a special kind of hell. A hell reserved for people who could not protect their family from being slaughtered.
Sasuke was dead sure.
Dead. Sure.
The very next morning, Sakura was looking at him as if he was going to fall any second and Kakashi was chuckling, as was the man's wont, but Sasuke was lacking sleep and he was feeling as if everything was a part of some grand conspiracy.
Granted, he was a ninja and they were expected to see that everything was a part of some grand conspiracy.
When Kakashi told him, "Ah, Sasuke, I see that you've gotten your Sharingan," with an insufferably wide smile - Sasuke was just sure of it - behind the black cloth that covered his face day in and day out, Sasuke punched Naruto.
Note: This is sort of a series of fics. It's an alternate reality where, on the night of the Uchiha Massacre, Itachi never waited for Sasuke or Sasuke never went home in time to catch Itachi.
Just sort of wondering what would happen if Sasuke never knew that it was his brother who killed their parents.
Also, mind you, this isn't supposed to be all that serious. :D