Filial Duty

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Summary: What do you do when a family fic one-shot plot bunny attacks you in bed? You wake up and write the story. Sasuke learned early on that each member of his family had a job to do.

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A mother will teach you how to bake chocolate chip cookies…

Mikoto laughed as her six year old sneezed in the cloud of flour she'd upended into the bowl. Little Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "Kaa-chan, that tickles—! Ah…ah! Aachooo!" he sneezed again.

She swept him into a hug. "That tickles? How about this, honey pie?" she chuckled, attacking his tummy with her fingers. He squealed loudly. "Kaa-chan!"

The flour eventually found itself mixed with baking soda and salt and a large egg.

"Sasuke—honey pie, one egg!" his mother cried, but too late…the enthusiastic young boy had cracked open another on the counter and was looking up to the dark haired woman with an 'oh-no-did-I-do-something-wrong-again?' look. Mikoto sighed, and picked him up, using one hand to wipe up the mess and the other to balance him on her hip. He buried his nose in her neck, whispering, "'M sorry, kaa-chan!"

"It's okay, sweetie," she smiled, "Here, watch this!" She brought out her prized electric mixer and beat together the butter and granulated salts until they were just about combined. Sasuke watched, wide-eyed. "Uwah, kaa-chan! May I try?"

"Maybe when you're a little older, hmmm?" she said, smearing a bit of the mix on his nose. He squeaked and grabbed her finger, turning it and pushing it into her own nose. She mock glared at him, and tickled him again. "Little Sasuke! How mischievous of you!"

He leapt off the counter into her arms, and she hummed a little nonsense at him as they worked, mixing in the flour, the chocolate chips, and stirring it form the dough.

"Bake an apple pie, and sing oh my, what a pretty pie! Oh, how I love apple pie!" she chanted.

"I like apple pie too, and I love you! I'd like to share my pie with you, would you share with me too?" he finished. Mikoto pecked her son on the cheek. "Always and forever," she told him, "My little Sasuke."

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A father will show you how to dunk the cookies in milk…

"Like this, otou-san?" Sasuke asked, shoving a whole cookie into the tall glass.

Fugaku shook with the force of his chuckles. "No, baby bear, not like that! See, the cookie crumbles that way…break it in half, then dip one in…see, like this!" he demonstrated with a fresh cookie, "Dip the edge in, then bite—homph! Like that!"

Sasuke obeyed, but his lower lip suddenly trembled when he brought his half cookie out: the part dunked in the milk had stayed in the milk. Fugaku ruffled his hair fondly. "Aiyo, baby bear! This is why we have spoons on standby! To rescue the cookie bits that fall in," he explained, dredging up the mush, "Taste?"

The little raven haired boy licked the utensil eagerly.

"Try again," Fugaku encouraged. Sasuke dunked the whole cookie again, and quickly transferred it to his mouth. "'Ow's 'is, offo-shan?" he mumbled. The elder Uchiha looked around hastily for his wife before pulling his son into a proud hug. "That's my baby bear!" he growled, "But don't let your mamma hear you talk with your mouth full, or I'll never hear the end of it!"

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A brother will show you how to hide the cookies for a better use…

Sasuke's eyes widened as his aniki expertly filched two of the confections. He tugged on his sleeve urgently, and Itachi leaned down to his level. "What're those for, onii-san?"

"A friend of mine," Itachi whispered back.

"Will you show me how to do that?"

"Grab a couple when I distract them."

"What're you boys gossiping about?" their mother asked, "Eat your dinner, it's getting cold!"

"We're talking about my new crush, have I told you?" the elder son said smoothly. Sasuke stifled his giggles and hid two more cookies under his napkin. When his older brother excused himself from the table, he followed suit, pretend-stalking him upstairs into his bedroom.

"RAWR!" he roared, jumping onto Itachi's back. The outwardly taciturn teen laughed at his otouto. "C'mere, Sasu-chan, there's someone I want you to meet."

He bent down next to his bed and reached under it, bringing out a small cage. He lifted a hatch, and a beautiful, flame furred kitsune baby stumbled out.

"Oh!" Sasuke gasped, "Aniki!"

"Shhh," Itachi shushed him, "Don't tell kaa-chan or otou-san. He'll be our little secret, okay?"

"Okay!"

"I'm trying to feed him solid food," the older boy invited the younger to come closer, "He's taken to cookies. Go on, feed him, he doesn't bite!"

Sasuke stroked the fire colored pelt as the little thing ate crumbs out of his other hand.

"Does he have a name?"

"You can name him," Itachi smiled.

"Really!?"

"Really."

"Um…" Sasuke thought hard, "How about Junya?"

"Junya," Itachi said, "That's a beautiful name, Sasu-chan. Almost as beautiful as yours."

The little boy beamed at him and crawled into his lap, playing with the baby fox.

"Did you know Sasu-chan," Itachi said after a pause,"That there's another little baby fox in the village that's even more helpless than this one?"

Sasuke's eyes showed empathy and determination as he looked to his older brother. "Really, onii-san? We should adopt him too!"

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto," Itachi murmured, "And he's in your class. You can adopt him for your own, Sasuke. Will you?"

The young Uchiha fell silent for a while. "The class doesn't like him," he said.

"Do you?"

"I like him."

"So you'll take care of him? It's a lot harder to take care of a boy than it is to take care of a fox you know…if you adopt him, it'll be for life."

"I will," Sasuke said passionately, "I'll take good care of him, onii-san!"

Itachi hugged his brother. "That's my otouto. That's my Sasu-chan."

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-yawns widely- now to crawl back to oblivion…