Swing Life Away

Summary: Itachi is a boy who's been rich his entire life until his father kicks him out of the family. What does a twenty-two-year-old do when he's kicked out of the house? He ends up where his brother ran to, with no money. Through it all, Itachi meets Sakura, the girl who manages to help him get his life back together while teaching him just how wonderful life can actually be.

Warnings: Sasuke and Itachi talk and stuff in this one. There's no hate because they understand each other. Implied NaruHina, slight SasuSaku in the beginning, mainly ItaSaku. Year difference between Sasuke and Itachi is only two years rather than seven.

Itachi Uchiha was known by every person in New York City. He was the heir of a huge corporation. He dated super models. He was also possibly the sexiest thing walking on the streets of Manhattan. There was a wikipedia page dedicated to him, even though, essentially, he had done nothing but be rich and date super models and wear expensive clothes. He got a new car every six months; the best sports cars from Europe, naturally, and most people doubted that he ever heard the word 'no' in his life unless he was the one saying it to his outrageous amount of fan girls across the globe. He was cocky, he was arrogant, and quite possibly apathetic. There was never any word of his making generous donations like his parents to children in Africa or whatnot. No, Itachi Uchiha kept every penny he ever got (not that he earned, considering he never really earned anything, things were simply given to him). He owned Manhattan. He thrived on liquid cash. His shoes were Dolce; his clothes Armani. He even managed to get away with rocker hair and a badass attitude. In fact, if anything, these traits increased his popularity, if that was humanly possible. He could have the world in the palm of his hand if he wanted to.

But, if there was anything bad to say about Itachi other than he had an ego the size of freaking Jupiter, it was that Itachi had very little experience with emotions. He had never been in love; a statement he never admitted to the public or his personally-detached family. Sure he'd dated super hot models and had one night stands with God-knows-how-many gorgeous women, but he'd never actually... felt anything for them. He was simply Itachi Uchiha, criminally gorgeous millionaire heartbreaker.

So why the hell he was sitting in his father's office instead of having amazing sex with some hot super model, was somewhat... less than comprehendible to him. Itachi sat their somewhat awkwardly. The chair his butt was planted in was a bit too small for his lean 6'4 frame. The fact that he was in his father's office just... irked him, somehow. His father's business, while being the source of all of his wealth and the reason he was what and who he was, made him feel uncomfortable, like he didn't belong there. Itachi took a deep, soundless breath and let it out slowly. He was acting fucking ridiculous, and he scolded himself for it.

Snap out of it.

"Itachi," his father said, finishing his signature on a paper, "we need to talk."

"About what?" Itachi asked, wanting this conversation to be over with as soon as possible. His tone was arrogant and apathetic.

"Well, we've been thinking about this for almost a year, since you've been acting..." his father struggled to find the right word, but then started over. "Your mother, the Uchiha elders and I have all discussed this and-"

"Get to the point," Itachi said in a bored tone that could be taken as mocking if one didn't know him. His father fumed, being some one who didn't know him. Hell, no one really knew Itachi. Itachi shoved the thought aside like he did every day, like it was a far away issue to be dealt with much, much later.

"We have decided to cut you from the family!" his father suddenly boomed, hands connecting with his expensive desk violently and he leaned over it to yell at our hero. "You do nothing but waste our money and put a horrible image out into the world for the Uchiha family. We are all sick and tired of it!"

"Do you mean 'we' as just you or 'we' as nobody?" Itachi shot back. He had never had a good relationship with his father. Ever. His father always expected the best of him because he graduated school two years early. Two years. Whoopty-fucking-doo. After that, it was all his father ever wanted from him. More power. The Uchiha family must have a perfect heir. Nothing can be wrong with him. Ever. Once Itachi had realized this last year, he'd been doing everything he could to be the exact opposite of what his father wanted: drunk, partying, possibly a sex-addicted. An almost empty page in the book of pop-culture. Itachi and his father glared at each other, his father's face becoming redder by the second. Itachi tried to keep his face stoic and drained of most color, but not to the point to where his father actually knew what he was thinking. Itachi kept his obsidian eyes harsh but blank, a clear 'bring it on' kind of look burning behind their apathetic nature.

"We've cut all our bonds with you! We took your money! We packed your clothes! We slashed all of your cards, and we deleted your page from wikipedia," his father said, disgust mixed with an odd feeling of satisfaction. Itachi stared.

They were really kicking him out.

"Fine," Itachi said coldly, standing up to tower over his father. He always knew that he was nothing like his father anyway. Itachi thought of all the times in his childhood when he simply wanted his father to be there, to see him at school debate or to be there for one of his basketball games. But no. He never was.

And Itachi realized that that was what had gotten to him all along.

"All I ever wanted was for you to simply take time off and be there," Itachi said, venom and resentment in his voice, "but you could never get your arrogant ass out of that thrown you sit on, could you? Not even for your prodigal son." Itachi scoffed. "And yet you wonder why Sasuke ran away."

He knew the comment of his little brother hit home. Badly. His father's face crumbled. Itachi felt immense satisfaction in doing so. He slammed the door on his way out. He found a pair of his ancient beat up skateboarding shoes, his now-empty wallet and a duffel bag filled with all of his casual clothes in the hallway. All the clothes that had been Armani or even acutely expensive had been taken out. It left a few thermal shirts, one pair of sweat pants, three pairs of jeans and lots of socks and underwear. Itachi sighed. At least he still had his cell phone, because he paid for that himself with money he got from sponsors (though God knew what they were sponsoring for...). He slipped on a pair of jeans, changing from his suit right there in the hallway. He kept his dress shirt, tie and jacket on, throwing his shiny shoes across the hall and slipping into comfortable old shoes while scrolling down his extensive contact list. Now that he was sort of kicked out (there was no way he could, or would, show his face as a kicked-out Uchiha family member in New York City), he only knew one person who even remotely wanted to see him, if at all.

Sasuke.

Itachi pressed the screen, which then told him that he was calling his brother. He pressed the phone to his ear, swinging the heavy duffel bag over his shoulder as he started walking. His shoes were still just a little big; they'd been huge when he first got them at age fifteen. Itachi walked down the hallway as the phone rang on and on. He was just about to hang up when he answered the phone.

"Hn?" a tired voice said. Ah yes. One hour difference.

"Little brother. How would you like a visit from me?" Itachi asked, smirking. Sasuke exhaled.

"Hn." Itachi took this as a sign to continue.

"If I catch a train now I'll be there around five."

"How long is this stay?" Sasuke asked. Itachi could basically hear his eyes narrow over the phone. Itachi was already out on the street walking towards the train station. Some freak magazine photographer got his picture and he cursed under his breath. The story, once found out, would be all over the news, just like it had when Sasuke ran away.

"Permanently," Itachi stated, making sure he got the point across that Sasuke really didn't have an option. Sasuke groaned.

"No fucking way-" he was cut off by a female voice invading their conversation.

"Sasuke, who are you on the phone with so early?"

"Sakura.... Go away, I'm on the phone."

"I brought you breakfast, you ungrateful jerk. You're sick as hell. You should be sleeping!"

"Fuck...Sakura, give me five minutes, okay?"

"Who is it?"

"Fuck no am I going to tell y-"

"WHO. IS. IT?"

"Itachi. Damn."

"Alright. Talk for FIVE minutes and then sleep."

"Hn."

"Note to self," Sasuke said, coming back on to the phone in an irritate voice, "Never live near a girl who's a nurse and who fusses over you. Ever."

"I take it Sakura is living with you now?" Itachi asked. He dully remembered Sakura as a part of some part conversation they had had. It seemed that she had somehow been involved with Sasuke's life when he ran away. She, apparently, had been the one who generously offered for him to live in her basement during high school.

"Yeah. Her landlord was driving her crazy and her mother's gone, you know, so she moved into the house next door. She's renting a room there. She spends enough time at my house to basically live with me, though," Sasuke said, sighing. "Anyway, what happened?"

"I'll explain when I get there," Itachi said shortly. "I take it the 'what happened' means it's fine?"

"Hn." Sasuke sounded less than pleased.