SLAP!

The sickening sound echoed throughout the empty halls, everything frozen in place. All noises ceased; nothing could be heard other than tears hitting the wood planks in the floor.

Drip, drip, drip…

"Sasuke-kun…I…I didn't…"

The young Uchiha ran down the halls of the compound, going in any direction other than where his so called 'niisan' was. Itachi had done the unthinkable. He hit his little brother.

It had been an accident, really. The older brother had had a rough day. His sensei was pushing him a little too hard in their one-on-one training that afternoon. It's true; he's a very skilled boy, but he was only 13. He could only tolerate so much in one day before he would snap. He was reaching his limit, which was very rare. An irritable Itachi was hardly ever witnessed. And so, when Sasuke had unsuspectingly jumped up behind his brother, the older of the two acted on reflex and swung his hand back, effectively slapping his dearly beloved brother across the face.

Itachi stood there for quite a while before slowly stumbling towards his room, regret clearly shown on his usually expressionless face. He slid the door open and walked inside, gently sliding it closed behind him.

Sliding down the wall opposite the door, the boy placed his hands on his face, sighing out of misery. "What have I done," he thought. He ran his hand through his usually smooth hair, but came across many tangles. Grunting out of displeasure, the Uchiha prodigy roughly took his hand from his hair and glared at the ceiling, as if doing that would cause all his problems to disappear. How he wished it were that easy.

After contemplating what to do for about an hour, the boy's mother came in to tell him it was time for dinner. When she was about to leave, he called out for her to stay, and she obeyed. Asking her son what was on his mind, Itachi hesitantly answered back with another question.

"What do you do if you did something…unforgivable to someone you care deeply for? For example, you have hurt or injured someone in more ways than one..?"

Mikoto stared at her eldest child with curiosity and confusion for a moment, but quickly regained her composure and replied with that best answer she could come up with.

"Well, sweetie…the best thing to do is very simple. All you have to do is apologize. If this person truly cares for you as much as you care for them, then I'm sure that everything will be fine."

Thanking his mother, Itachi got up from where he had been seated and helped the other in the room to her feet, following her out into the dining room.

"Sasuke-kun, may I speak with you for a moment?"

Signaling for his little brother to follow him, the older sibling walked out into the garden and sat down on the stone bench. The younger of the two followed suit, avoiding eye contact with his niisan.

Sighing, Itachi slowly turned towards his brother. "Sasuke-kun…I…I'm sorry."

Wide eyed, Sasuke snapped his head in his sibling's direction. "Wha…what?"

"I…I'm sorry for my actions yester-oomph!"

Itachi was cut off by the tight squeeze of a hug he received from his smaller brother. Looking down, he noticed that Sasuke was shaking, and suddenly became worried, but relaxed when he heard muffled shouts of laughter. He hugged the spiky haired boy back and smiled at the sky. Finally letting go, the younger boy rambled on about how much he missed his niisan and how much he wanted to train and play with his niisan, but his niisan drowned it all out for a moment. He was just glad that they were back to normal. Smiling down to the small Uchiha, he suggested that they play a game of tag, all while holding one thought in his head.

Thank you, okaa-san

A/N: I know, I could've done better, but who cares. It's just that I had this idea for a long time now, but never got the chance to do it *cough*LIES*cough* so here it is! I actually already started this on my old laptop, and was almost, finished but one day my laptop just wouldn't turn on, so I had to start from scratch. Well, I hope you enjoyed this fanfic of the Uchiha brothers (because I just ADORE their sibling relationship ((you know, without all the killing and hate and…stuff…yeah))).

Ja ne!