Arc 02

Unexpected Help

Sasuke awoke when his alarm clock went off. It felt kind of strange waking up to that annoying alarm since he was used to either Mei or Itachi waking him up at least five minutes before his alarm was supposed to go off, but he tried not to put too much thought into it. Instead, he got up, grabbed his clothes and headed directly for the bathroom. But he froze a second after walking into the kitchen, where his big brother stood talking with a stranger in the doorway.

He figured he was not supposed to eavesdrop on them when realizing that they were practically whispering so he hid himself behind one of the kitchen counters. From there he would be able to follow their conversation. It came to an abrupt halt, though, and Itachi disappeared into Sasuke's bedroom. The black haired boy cocked his head as he tried to find reason in Itachi's action, but his brother did not give him long to puzzle over it when suddenly he was back in the kitchen, handing over a small bag to the lanky stranger. Itachi received money back.

"Sasuke," Mei said firmly as soon as Itachi had closed the front door. He had not seen her walk up from behind him. "You should be getting ready for school." Sasuke just nodded and went inside the bathroom. He could not make out much of what his brother and Mei were saying to each other, but the disappointed tone in Mei's voice was not to be misinterpreted.

"I don't want those people inside my house, you know that!"

"Mei, there's no way around it. It's so much easier and it takes less time. I already told you I've to make as much money as possible before the baby comes."

That was all Sasuke managed to hear clearly when walking from the bathroom and back to his bedroom. In there, he did not really pay much attention to the quiet quarrel they had in the kitchen. He was more focused on finding something.

He searched for so long and at one point, he was about to give up and just go to school. He would be late if he and Itachi did not go soon.

But suddenly, Sasuke finally spotted what it was he had been looking for. At least he thought that had to be it. He had never seen it before. Had Itachi been hiding his stuff there all along?

The pale boy removed the loose board, which was not placed correctly, and found a hollow space underneath it. He stuck one hand down the hole and grabbed the first thing his hand bumped into.

It was all small plastic bags. But they were not empty. They all contained at least something. Some had pills, some had powder, some even contained a kind of dried grass, plant or something. Sasuke wrecked his brain to try and figure out what it was and why Itachi was hiding it in his room. The only thing he could come up with was that it had to be the thing the police always came to look for. At least Sasuke remembered seeing Itachi flush some similar bags down the toilet right before the police went inside on a raid.

He bit his lip thoughtfully after putting all the bags back down into the cavity. Sasuke had never noticed that the board could be separated from the others before. Did that mean something?

Carefully, he placed the board neatly where it was supposed to be so you could no longer tell that there was a hidey-hole underneath it. If what was in there was important to Itachi, but on the same time was something that could get him thrown into jail, Sasuke would make sure to protect his big brother's secret at all costs.

Itachi was the one to follow Sasuke to school as he used to, but when Sasuke got off from school again, the unusual occurred.

"Hey, Sasuke-chan, ready to go home?" Mei asked after placing herself in front of young boy.

"Where's Nii-chan?"

"He's busy today and I had the day off. Hope you don't mind that I'm the one to pick you up?"

"Oh. No, it's fine."

"We gotta hurry back today. Itachi and I have something to do so I hope you don't mind being home alone for a little while." She sent Sasuke an apologetic smile as they started walking home.

"No... It's okay."

Sasuke had been left alone at home many times before. He was a big boy and he was supposed to be able to take care of himself, at least for a couple of hours. But that time, they were gone for almost the entire day.They still had not come home when the hour hand hit seven.

The black haired boy wondered if he was should start eating by himself or if Mei was going to come home soon and cook for him. Or maybe they were going to bring takeout! The thought alone literally made Sasuke's mouth water. They rarely got takeout because Mei was such an amazing cook. Sasuke really did like whatever she made for them, but once in a while it was nice to eat things from Mcdonald's or Ichibanya. He could not resist the tempting curry rice that particular fast food chain offered. If there was one thing he loved, it was spicy food. Though his absolute favorite dish had to be Mei's special riceballs with bonita filling. Nothing beat that.

A car pulled up the driveway, taking Sasuke out of his food heaven. It had to be them, he thought and sprinted towards the window, immediately having to realize the ugly truth.

"The police?" Sasuke whispered to himself and took a few steps away from the window.

They were there to confiscate those bags Itachi made money off. It had to be that.

Without allowing himself to think things through properly, he ran into his room, removed the board, gathered all the plastic bags, put the board back in place and quickly covered the detachable board with his dirty laundry before finally rushing towards the bathroom with all the bags in his arms. Unfortunately, he stumbled over the threshold and he dropped everything on the bathroom floor.

He broke out into a cold sweat as he began to throw the bags into the toilet one by one. When he figured the toilet would not be able to flush with anymore in it, he paused to click the button that would empty the toilet bowl for all evidence. He repeated that twice more before everything was gone and someone knocked on the front door.

Sasuke looked around to make sure that he had gotten them all. Then he went back the way he came from to check that he had not dropped any on the way to the bathroom either. Everything appeared to be gone.

"Police, open the door. We have a warrant." One police officer claimed.

Sasuke walked up to the door. His heart was pounding fast and he did not know where to place his hands. "I... I-I'm not supposed to let st-strangers inside," he stuttered.

"It's the police," the same man repeated. "Open this door now or we're gonna break it down."

The young boy did not dare to try and hold them back any longer. It was the police, after all. What if they were going to put him to jail for not following orders? He just wished his big brother was there with him. Maybe then it would not feel as scary.

The lock clicked and the police entered, seeming surprised when only finding a child inside the house. They were not as polite and gentle as Sasuke had hoped. One officer immediately started frisking the boy. He never liked it when they did that.

All the other officers started going through the different rooms of the house and they were just as careless as always. Sasuke flinched several times during the search, especially when things were swept down from the tables closest to him. He wanted to go check how they were treating the stuff in his room, but he did not dare to move. He stood by the door for the entire time.

Suddenly, after Sasuke had been through 15 minutes of hell, the door cracked open once again.

"What the...?" said a voice very familiar to Sasuke when the man heard loud noises from inside the house.

"Nii-chan!" Sasuke shouted from behind the arms that hid his mousy face. Itachi looked behind the door, finding his frightened little brother sitting shrinkingly in a corner.

"Oi, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" Itachi shouted and high-stepped through the labyrinth of broken things on the floor towards the police officer closest to him. The man shouted something to all the others and soon Itachi stood facing all of them.

Sasuke looked up from his hiding place to see if they were hurting Itachi, but Mei scooped him up into her arms, holding him so their bellies touched, and discretely guided him to look the other way by placing a reassuring hand on the back of his neck. She did not want him to see them strip searching his brother.

"Pants down, hands on the wall, spread your legs." That part had always been the worst part to Itachi. It was degrading, but he knew it could not be helped. He was just thankful that Mei was looking away and that she had made sure that Sasuke would not have to watch it either.

"All clear," one finally said after having searched everywhere and everyone. Sasuke was not sure for how long they had been there, but in his opinion, it was too long.

The police was distinctly displeased with leaving the ruined residence empty-handed. Mei began sorting out the mess, but Itachi did not help. He went right for Sasuke's bedroom.

Sasuke stooped and picked up a few pieces from a ruined vase.

"Leave it, Sasuke," Mei said softly. "I'll clean that up. You should get ready for bed."

"But I'm hungry." The young boy placed the scattered porcelain on the kitchen counter.

"I'll make you something to eat in a minute. Go watch some TV, okay?" Sasuke nodded. There was nothing at this time a night that Sasuke wanted to watch, but he did not complain.

"Where is it?!" Itachi shouted from Sasuke's room, only to stomp into the open kitchen/living room.

"What are you talking about?" Mei asked.

"My stuff. It's all gone. Where is it? Did they take it?" he snarled with a lot of fuss.

They stood yelling at each other for a moment before Sasuke finally realized what it was Itachi was looking for.

"I took it." Mei and Itachi's eyes were fixed on Sasuke. "I saw the police and I flushed it all down the toilet." One of Itachi's eyes twitched like he was in pain.

"You... did what?" Sasuke was not sure what that tone meant.

Itachi walked in front of his little brother with heavy steps, grabbed his arm hard and slapped him across his face.

"Itachi!" Mei's mouth was wide open in shock. She wanted to move over and protect Sasuke, but she was too stunned to move. Sasuke wore a similar expression.

"Do you have any idea how much money you've cost me?! You flushed thousands of dollars down the toilet like it was nothing. What the hell am I supposed to do now?!" Sasuke was in a blue funk.

"Itachi, let go of him," Mei growled, boring her nails into Itachi's arms. Neither Sasuke nor Itachi had even noticed that Mei had moved over to them. Shhe had never sounded so furious.

Itachi sent her a look, then let go of Sasuke's bruised arm and retreated to his bedroom. Mei followed her confused boyfriend with her eyes, placing a hand on her already growing belly.

"Sasuke, you did the right thing. Itachi is just-" Sasuke cut her off by slapping away the hand she tried to settle on his shoulder. He looked at her angrily with teary eyes before running to his room, slamming the door shut behind him.

When the pale boy finally decided to come out of his room again, he found his big brother sitting by the window, smoking one of those oddly shaped cigarettes, which smoke smelled sweeter than most others.

Sasuke approached him slowly, imagining he was a ninja hidden in the shadows. But Itachi noticed him straight away.

"Why aren't you in bed?" he asked, looking back out of the window while taking a drag of his cigarette.

"I-I couldn't sleep." Sasuke's eyes bounced up and down as Itachi fidgeted with his feet. The older of them did not look so upset anymore and though Sasuke wanted to apologize for his bad doings, he did not dare.

His brother had never treated him so roughly before.

Instead, Sasuke asked him the standard question. "Can I try?" The black haired boy moved closer to his brother, but only to receive a harmless poke to the forehead.

"You already know the answer to that." Sasuke looked away, provoked. Itachi put out his cigarette, got up on his feet and closed the window. "Come, Sasuke, I'll read you a bedtime story."

Before the story reached its end, Sasuke was already asleep.