You might be wondering why i keep writing new stories when I have three unfinished fics, which, by the way, only have one chapters each. I'll explain it in my profile.
Warnings: OOC-ness. SasuNaru in later chapters, if I ever get there. And Kyuubi-Itachi frienemy relationship.
Please do not hate me for the title. I suck. You can suggest a better one, if you like, but for now, I think this will do.
BEING THE PERFECT BROTHER
The day began just like any other day for Namikaze Kyuubi. He woke up at six, went to the bathroom to do the normal morning ritual, made his bed and went downstairs.
He ignored the mess that was the living room, most likely caused by his dad in his hurry for work, and went straight to the kitchen. He immediately noticed the note on the ref, written by his mother. She was always the calm and collected while his father was…well, being his father.
Namikaze Minato was, in every way, shape and form, a gigantic ball of unlimited energy. He was unlike the fathers Kyuubi had seen so far, which wasn't saying much considering that he was five and the only other dad he knew was the guy next door and Shukaku's dad. Those two were always serious, mature, while his dad had the mentality of a hormonal 15 year old boy on crack. It was a blessing that Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina can keep her cool and wasn't losing her marbles every few seconds otherwise Kyuubi would grow up to be a bad member of society. His dad sucked at being a role-model.
Reading through the note, he noticed how neat her mother's handwriting was. His dad must have been turning the house upside-down looking for a sock while she wrote this.
Kyuu-chan,
Your Papa and I are off to work. Your breakfast is in the microwave. If you're going out, be sure to lock the door. Lunch is in the ref. we'll be home by dinner.
This was part of his routine, too. His mom and dad would leave him at home with food, always coming home at dinner. One would think that his parents were being irresponsible, leaving a five year old by himself. But, like his dad, he was not like any kid his age, except, maybe Shukaku, and him. He was mature, too mature for his age, it's not even cute. His father said it was because he was very much like her mother, both in appearance and manners. His hair was red, not spiky like his father's, and of course, he was always cool.
Well, not always. His inner five year old self always manages to escape from its leash whenever his big brother was around.
Speaking of which…
Your onii-chan will be there around lunch.
Kyuubi couldn't help the giddy smile that appeared on his face after reading the note.
His onii-chan was coming home, and this time, he was going to stay.
He already knew that his onii-chan just graduated high school in Suna and was going to Konoha for college. He would be busy for sure, but that was still two months away. Right now, Kyuubi was going to make sure to enjoy everyday of summer with his Naruto-nii-chan.
"Oi, Kyuubi! How are you this fine morning?" The greeting came too loud to be considered legal at seven in the morning, but Kyuubi ignored this fact and walked over to Kiba-the dog-loving guy didn't want to be cold Kiba-san, despite him being way older than Kyuubi- who was taking his dog, Akamaru, for a morning walk. The dog greeted Kyuubi with a loud woof.
"Good morning, Kiba." Akamaru barked. "Good morning, Akamaru."
"Hey, kid, I've been meaning to ask you this. Do you wanna come over our house this afternoon? It's Akamaru's birthday, you see." The dog gave a woof of acknowledgement and began wagging its tail.
Kyuubi gave an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, I can't. I'm waiting for someone."
"Eh?" Kiba raised an eyebrow. "Someone's coming over to your house? But your parents are at work."
"It's my brother." Kyuubi said, the giddy smile returning full force.
"Eh?" Kiba repeated. That seemed to be his favorite expression today. "About that…well, you talk about your brother every chance you get, and he always visits you, but how come I still haven't met the guy?"
It was true that every time his Naruto-nii-chan visits, he doesn't go out in the neighborhood and just stays in the house. Maybe he was shy? Or worse, maybe he was ashamed because-
"He's just shy." Kyuubi answered.
"Shy? What, is your brother being a girl?"
Kyuubi recognized that as an insult to his big brother, everything that was related to girls was an insults to him and he hated it when someone insults his big brother.
Kyuubi was already out of sight before Kiba even realized that he had been kicked at his family jewels.
Childish. Childish. Childish. Kyuubi's mind kept screaming at him. He ignored it though. He didn't need to act mature now. He only did that when it was needed, like when his parents were around.
When he had been younger, he saw that he was being a burden to his parents. His dad was still paying for the house when he was two. They were in a tight budget and his mom really wanted to help with the bills but had a baby boy to look after. Being her only son, she didn't have anyone else to help her with the chores. Kyuubi's little red eyes saw the exhaustion on his parents faces every end of the day and so he decided to help them by doing the only thing he could do.
He forced himself to grow up, become a big boy, one that wouldn't need assistance changing clothes, one that could bathe himself, use the microwave, one that wouldn't cry even if he was left home alone for the whole day while his parents worked.
Kyuubi became too mature for his age.
Some kids called him a freak for liking books more than plastic toys, old people called him a smart responsible child, while he called himself the great pretender. Despite him acting like a high school genius, inside, he was still a kid who wanted to play tag and hide and seek and to experience a piggy-back ride. But he couldn't do those things, not now, anyway. He was thinking, maybe when it was time for him to go to school himself, he would be just like any other boy. He would run around like a horse, do silly things, make faces at icky girls and-
Before he realized it, the mask that he had worn, for the sake of his parents, wouldn't come off. It was stuck to his face, that stupid, cool facade and before long, he began to hate it.
The worst part of it was that he began to hate his parents.
If it weren't for them, he wouldn't have to learn how to sew his shirt's button by himself.
If it weren't for them, he wouldn't need to wake up early to clean the house.
If it weren't for them, people wouldn't expect him to know what sines and cosines mean.
If it weren't for them, he wouldn't have to suppress the urge to jump on his bed.
If it weren't for them, he would have been normal.
By the time Kyuubi stopped walking, he was standing in the middle of the park. Two years ago, this park wasn't here. Instead, here stood a four-storey building. It was old and had been demolished to be replaced by this park.
Automatically, Kyuubi remembered his Naruto-nii-chan.
He had been Kyuubi's saving grace.
He had been Kyuubi's sun.
He had been Kyuubi's perfect big brother.
Kyuubi swore that he would protect his onii-chan. Now he had a better reason to be a big boy. He would protect his onii-chan no matter what.
He became aware of someone glaring a hole at the back of his head. He already knew who it was even before he turned around. As expected, he was met by his living replica, in terms of attitude.
Uchiha Itachi, the youngest of the Uchihas, was standing at the park's entrance, his arms crossed in an irritated manner. He was very much like Kyuubi, sans the parent-hating past and two times the cockiness. Apparently, it runs in the family.
Kyuubi crossed his arms the same way just to irritate the five year old brat more. He could see the Uchiha's eyebrow ticking and it almost made his day.
"Kyuu-chan." Itachi greeted, using the hated nickname.
"Ita-chan." Kyuubi replied in kind.
"I heard your brother is coming." Itachi took a step forward and Kyuubi saw the challenge in the simple act. He did the same.
"What of it?" he asked.
"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if he's ever going to come and meet my big brother like you told me, uh, one year ago."
"You don't have to worry your pale ass off because this time he'll be sure to meet your Sa-su-kei-nii-chan and then you'll regret it because then you'll know that my Naruto-nii-chan is the best."
"Your big brother had been hiding in your house all those times he came here so what makes you think that? Are you, by any chance, using drugs?"
"He was just busy with school because, unlike your stupid aniki, my Naruto-nii-chan is the smartest student in the world. And I'm not doing drugs, by the way. I'm not sure about you, though, the way your eye color becomes red every minute or so is really creepy."
"I beg to differ, but my aniki is the smartest student in the world. And about my eyes, it's in our blood, because, you know, Uchiha genes are more superior to others, especially Namikazes.
"Che. Beg all you want, I don't care. My Naruto-nii-chan is the smartest in the world, period. And your eyes are still creepy."
"Stupid Kitty."
"Bastard Weasel."
They were both aware of their noses touching, but no one backed away. They were glaring at each other and even though they both stopped arguing, the battle was far from over. By the way their mind works they knew that their rivalry had gone to a whole new level.
It was so on.
Naruto really, really hated to say this but he needed to get this out of his system so, right now he was going to say that his life was totally fucked up, in a not major way.
His dilemma was nothing big, really. No one was dying and everyone had their limbs intact. It was just that the bus decided that it hated its job and took out its anger by overheating and stopping in the middle of nowhere. Of course Naruto knew where he was, the last part was just figurative speaking. He was one hour away from Konoha, in the middle of the desert more commonly known as Suna, without food, cell phone battery empty, and waiting for the next bus that seemed to be coming from the other side of the Milky Way. So it was safe to say that his life was fucked up, in a not major way.
He wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to be at Jiraiya's house in Suna, preparing all the papers for college with Gaara. He wasn't supposed to leave Suna to attend college in Konoha.
But his dad insisted. In other words, he backed Naruto in a corner using kind words and forced him to say yes. Or maybe that was just Naruto and his habit of making his dad the bad guy. It felt natural to him. It was his favorite game; pin the blame on Namikaze Minato's ass. He had been doing that since he was two. If his brain had been functioning properly since birth, maybe he would have started then.
But that was neither here nor there.
He was aware of the dark haired guy bitching on the phone next to him.
"It's your fault, Dog breath, so get your ass in here in 15 minutes.
How Naruto wished he could say that to his dad.
"I don't care if it's impossible. Do it or your dog's cake will go in the trash."
Cake? Hmmm…
Naruto's stomach rumbled at the mention of food. He really should have eaten breakfast, but he was in a hurry. He wanted to get hom- at Minato's house before the end of the world. He needed two hours by Gaara's car to get to the station and four hours by bus to get to Konoha.
"Stop making excuses. I'm going to kill you, anyway, when I get there. I'll make it quick if you just get the fuck here already." A pale thumb pressed a button and ended the call. "What?"
Naruto jumped. That question was directed at him and he just then noticed that he had been staring.
"Nothing." Naruto averted his eyes and looked over at the other irritated passengers.
Five minutes
"Where's the bus coming from, the other side of the fucking universe?" the other man bitched loudly. A few of the passengers looked at him and agreed; most of them ignored him, though.
Naruto hated guys like this. There was no point in talking nonsense at this time. All you could do was wait or else you'll lose your cool and Naruto really hated it when that happens.
Five minutes
"Stupid dog breath and his stupid ideas. I should just throw this cake out the window. Fuck."
It was understandable that this guy was irritated, everybody was, but, in Naruto's humble opinion, it would be better if he did the bitching in his head.
Five minutes
"I know I should have used my car. This fucking bus looks older than Madara. I'm going to fucking sue the management."
Naruto didn't care who Madara was or that the guy was childish enough to do something so rash or that maybe the guy was just, you know, bitching for the sake of bitching. All he wanted was for him to shut the fuck up. Now.
"Excuse me," he began timidly, earning him the glare that would put Global Warming to shame. This just fueled Naruto's anger. "Can you please shut the fuck up now? Please, bastard? You're wasting precious oxygen, do you know that?" Naruto said this with the kindest and most humble smile he could make.
"What?" the man asked.
"I said-."
"I fucking heard what you said!" The man fisted Naruto's shirt and pulled him closer.
Why do people keep doing that? It doesn't make any sense to ask "What?" and follow it with "I fucking heard what you said." That was just wrong in every way.
"You-," the man seemed to be turning the pages of his mental dictionary to find the worst insult known to mankind and Naruto was really freaked-out by the way his eye color would shift from black to red.
"You…DOBE!" the man exclaimed.
Naruto ignored the scandalized looks the other passengers gave them. He was too busy feeling half-ashamed, half-disappointed for this guy and it seemed that the man was feeling the same way, too, by the way his shoulders sagged just the slightest. The glare returned full-force, though. The man must have recovered from his self-induced shock.
"I'm going to fucking ki-!"
"Sasuke!" The…holler…came from the bus' entrance and a second later, a man who looked to be the same age as Naruto, came in, cheeks flushed and very out of breath. The moment he spotted Naruto's acquaintance, his expression brightened then turned sour in the blink of an eye.
"Can you stop being gay for a minute, man? You're, like, in public!"
Naruto was confused. He turned his head to face the man, Sasuke, and couldn't stop his cheeks from coloring just the slightest. Their faces were just an inch apart. When did that happen?
He was pushed violently back to his seat.
"Idiot. If it were this guy, I'd rather be lesbian…or dead, whichever."
Naruto was insulted. He was in no way ugly. Maybe a few deformation on his face, like the scars, but nothing that horrid, really.
"Well, whatever, Sasuke. Where's the cake?"
A box was shoved on his face as the man, Sasuke, walked out the bus.
"You PMS-ing or what?"
Naruto snickered at that. The newcomer turned his attention to him.
"Sorry 'bout that. He gets like that when…well, actually, it's the first time I saw him this pissed. I think the heat is messing with his head."
"It's okay."
"Well, I gotta go. I don't want him to be alone in my car." If he went here by car, why was he so out of breath?
Naruto smiled politely and wave his hand in goodbye.
This was the reason why he didn't bother socializing with other people in Konoha during his visits. They were all a crazy bunch. He'd rather commit suicide than be affected by their sheer stupidity. On second thought, maybe he'll just deal with it. He still had a baby brother to look after. Kyuubi or sanity? It was a close fight but, of course, Kyuubi wins.
He didn't want his baby brother to fall the same way he did.
And that's the end of it for now.
About Itachi calling Kyuubi a Kitty. Well, it wouldn't sound insulting if he were to call Kyuubi a fox.
Most characters are OOC, I know, Especially Naruto, but I have my reasons. Wait for later chapters if you want to know. Did anyone notice the 'kyuubi being Kushina's only son' part? That will be explained in later chapters. Some of you may hate Naruto for hating the MIGHTY MINATO. I already hate him, myself, but again, I have my reasons.
Thank you very much for reading!