Author's Note: For those who have this as a favorite or added this to their alerts, you really must want to kick my ass right now. Sorry! I kind of fell off the face of the Earth for a few months there. Eheh. Well, please enjoy this chapter to make up for my disappearance.
It's_Hottness: I would like to think that Sasuke is already feeling love in a romantic way towards Naruto, but he just doesn't understand it yet.
Rinoa-Diethel: Artificial Intelligence? I don't think I've ever seen that movie; I'm not much of a sci-fi fan.
Kilito: Sorry, I didn't really notice since I'd like to think that it's sort of in Sasuke's perspective and since he's a child I can't see him calling his friend anything other than Naruto. But I can try harder to make the story more likable.
roboguy45: The answer to your question is yes. As Naruto grows older he will get upgrades that will show how old he is. His body parts will be replaced with more matured ones.
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When Sasuke climbed the big maple tree in his backyard out of excitement for finally seeing Naruto, after finishing his studies, he immediately felt guilty for making him worry so much. He just wanted to show how brave and cool he was.
"Sasuke please? Come down, you might get hurt!" The small blonde said worriedly. The raven felt a tinge of regret but kept on going higher up the tree.
Naruto had no choice but to take care of Sasuke since Uchiha-sama, Sasuke's father, was in a very important meeting and the maids and servants were all rushing with fury trying to make everything perfect for Uchiha-sama's guest. They had no time to watch a pair of foolish children.
Naruto stood anxiously hoping that Sasuke wouldn't hurt himself. He hugged his arms close to his body, just then realizing how cold it really was. The blonde robot decided to stay on the ground just in case Sasuke needed catching it wouldn't do with two idiots in a tree and nobody to catch them.
"Naruto!" The tiny raven yelled, scaring Naruto out of his thoughts as he scrambled to look up the tree. Through a little clearing in the leaves Naruto squinted and saw little Sasuke dangling on a tree branch.
He gasped and tried to get a better look, Sasuke struggled to keep his grip on the branch but it was too much strain on his small arms. The robot didn't know what to do, his artificial mind was racing with thoughts, how was he going to save Sasuke?
He took a deep breath and calmed himself before looking up at Sasuke with determination in his blue eyes.
"Sasuke! Let go! I'll catch you, I promise!" Naruto yelled through the cup he made with his hands. His breath showed through the air as he shivered because of the whirl of emotions that passed through him. He heard a grunt and then more leaves falling to the already covered ground.
"I-I don't know! I'm scared! Naruto, what do I do?!" Sasuke yelled out frantically as he panted and tried to keep his small hands wrapped around the branch tight. The sweat from his hands made him lose his grip and he shrieked as he fell through the branches and leaves.
His hand caught onto a lower branch and he clambered onto it with snot dripping from his nose down past his quivering lips and chin. His vision was blurry with tears as he was scared to fall. The branch he was on was not too high but it was not that low either; he shivered as the cold froze his skin and the thin sweater he had on wasn't helping him withstand the weather.
"Sasuke! Trust me, I promise I'll catch you! I won't let you get hurt, believe it!" Naruto shouted as tears welled in the corners of his eyes but he wiped them away furiously, he had to be the brave one in this situation. His cheeks were pink from the cold as he braced his legs by crouching slightly and he held out his arms prepared to catch another body.
"…Naruto, I-I-I trust you! I'm gonna jump." Sasuke said as he swung his legs back and forth to make sure he landed where he heard Naruto's voice. He loosened his grip on the branch as he swallowed his fears because he trusted Naruto.
"One…Two…Three!" Sasuke yelled as he let go completely and shut his eyes tightly letting fate decide the next step in his life. As he felt the gravity pick up and the wind run through his clothes, he thought about the fun things he had never done with Naruto.
His thoughts were stopped as he felt himself being caught with two arms. They were weak arms because as soon as Sasuke was caught he was already falling back. He had thought Naruto had lied to him and broke his promise but when he opened his eyes to the grey sky, blinking rapidly to the brightness, he had wondered what had happened and where Naruto was.
He sat up quickly expecting the blonde to scurry over to him pleading for forgiveness and apologizing multiple times but he didn't see the blonde. He had thought that Naruto was a little less than he thought but then when his hand had tried to support his weight it slipped off of something.
He looked behind him and he was left breathless, tears dripped from his eyes as he was unable to do a thing. There behind him was Naruto laying in the fallen leaves but he wasn't smiling happily at him, no, his eyes were closed with his eyebrows frowned as if he was in pain. The always warm body that stood next to him was now cold as ice.
He shook at Naruto and slapped his face to make him open his eyes but they wouldn't, he yelled at Naruto saying mean things as more tears flooded his view. His father had told him that it was possible to break Naruto and he did just that, he broke Naruto.
He was a monster; with all the things he could remember about making sure to have fun with Naruto and be in their own secret club, it was all gone. But maybe he could still save Naruto somehow, anything was possible was what Naruto had told him.
He wasted no time with blindly getting up and stumbling to the door as he ran through the house with his tiny feet pounding on the hard wood floors. Maids were flustered and tried to stop him but their hands were too full. His tears dripped on the floor as he ran closer to where his father was.
Servants tried to stop him but he evaded them expertly with desperation. Once he reached the door he slid it open forcefully making it hit the wall harshly. There was man there who had stopped talking when Sasuke just came in, his father looked beyond angry but was curious as to why Sasuke was crying and why Sasuke was coming to him.
"Naruuuuuuuto!" Sasuke wailed as he finally let his emotions get the better of him making him look the age he actually was instead of the composed look he had been taught from lessons. His small hands formed into fists and were rubbing at his already red and wet eyes. The man had softened at the sight and padded towards the young man.
"What's wrong, kid?" The guy asked roughly as he smiled down at the tiny raven. The raven sniffed loudly and looked up at the stranger with watery eyes.
"I-I-I broke Naru-Naruto!" Sasuke shouted as he hiccupped and wailed again making his father laugh nervously in embarrassment. The man looked back at Sasuke's father and stood fully while picking the raven up, folding him within the man's strong arms. He sat down in front of Sasuke's father with Sasuke seated in his lap still wiping at his eyes.
"This Naruto kid is the thing we were talking about, isn't he?" The guy asked as he ruffled Sasuke's hair. Sasuke cries quieted down to just a few hiccups now and then as his eyes drooped with sleep; his arms hung limply against the man's folded legs.
Just when he was about to sleep, the image of Naruto was flashed within his mind and his eyes snapped open as he leaned up and slammed his small fist against the table.
"I broke Naruto! Father, save him, please?!" Sasuke shouted loudly as he got off the man's lap and looked at his father with a pleading expression. Fugaku was about to answer when he was interrupted again by a maid.
"Uchiha-sama! Naruto-sama has been found in the backyard and he's not responding!" The maid yelled urgently making Fugaku swiftly get up passing Sasuke and the man as he pounded his hard feet against the wood floor. Sasuke was about to get up and follow him but then was pulled back into the lap of the stranger.
Sasuke tilted his head back and the top of his head rested against the man's chest as he glared at the stranger.
"Let go! I have to see Naruto!" He shouted angrily but it came out as cute. The man smiled down at him and ruffled his dark locks.
"I think it would be better if you didn't get in your father's way." He said wisely making Sasuke pout but he was still nervous.
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When Sasuke had woken up in his room, he didn't remember how he fell asleep but then began frantically to search for Naruto looking in every corner of his room and was about to search around the house when he didn't find him.
"Sasuke, wait." His ass of a brother said before he left the room. Itachi gently pushed Sasuke back into his room as he leaned against the doorframe.
"Ah, I heard you broke Naruto. Tsk, I can't believe you Sasuke. I'm disappointed, now Naruto can't ever come back here. They're taking him away." Itachi said sadly.
When Itachi had finished speaking, Sasuke was already in tears making Itachi cover his mouth trying to hide his laughter. It was just too cute.
"Is that true Itachi?" Sasuke said with the most heartbroken expression on his face making Itachi almost feel guilty for playing his cruel joke. The older brother turned his head away unable to face his brother's face. The raven was about to collapse right there and start balling his eyes out, but stopped mid-way when he heard voices.
"Are you sure you're alright?" A deep voice said and the younger raven knew it was his father. "Yes, I'm sure; I just needed to be rebooted." A softer voice reassured the older man. As their steps pounded against the stairs, Sasuke waited in anticipation. As they turned the corner to look into Sasuke's bedroom, the tiny raven held his breath.
There, right in front of him was Naruto, alive and healthy with a surprised look on his face when he saw the tears at the corners of youngest Uchiha's eyes. "Ah! Sasuke!" The blonde said with a smile threatening to split his face as he abandoned the oldest Uchiha to run and hug the raven.
The small raven sat shocked for a few moments before embracing the blonde and weeping on his small shoulder. Sasuke's father and brother looked at them with a fond smile on their face before deciding to leave the pair alone for their reunion.
As Sasuke started to quiet down, nearly reduced to small hiccups, he immediately bombarded his robot friend with apologies and questions. "I'm sorry, Naruto. Can you forgive me?" The raven said as he used his small fist to wipe away the stray tears. The blonde look confused. "Forgive you for what?" He asked his head tilted to the side as he still held onto Sasuke's arms.
"I almost broke you!" Sasuke cried out while swimming in his self hate for almost breaking his best friend, at least he'd like to think so. "No way! I'm Naruto and Naruto doesn't break that easily! I'm tough!" The blonde said talking in third person while showing off his small, barely noticeable muscles, trying to make Sasuke laugh.
The raven gave a watery smile and hugged the blonde tight again. They stayed like that for a while before the warm robot had spoken up again. "I'm kind of tired." He said with a small yawn and the raven had to agree. They both stood up, supporting the other with their arms as they sleepily made their way to the bed.
The blonde pulled himself up and then reached over to pull the raven up onto the bed also. Beneath the covers, they lied close to one another sharing their body heat.
"Naruto?"
"Hmm?" The blonde said sleepily, not bothering to open his eyes.
"I'm…I'm really glad you're okay." The raven said, his hands growing cold in nervousness. The blonde shifted closer attempting to share more of his warmth.
"Hmm." The blonde responded about to sleep and recharge his energy. When he was plugged in, he was recharging his brain and his data, but when he was sleeping he was recharging his body to be able to use it the next day.
"I'm mean, if you weren't there, I'd be sad…and I would miss you…" The tiny raven trailed off as he could no longer keep his eyes open and he fell into a deep sleep, comforted by Naruto's presence next to his.
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When Sasuke awoke once again, he noticed that Naruto was still sleeping and thought that he was just tired so he left him be while he went to do his daily activities. When time passed by and the raven returned, he saw Naruto still sleeping and grew worried.
What if something was really wrong with Naruto? What if it was the aftereffects of what happened yesterday? The panicked Sasuke thought frantically as he patted Naruto's cheek, trying to rouse him. When the blonde didn't respond, he decided to run across the hall towards Itachi's room for help.
An irritated groan came from the other side of the door when the tiny raven pounded on it. Itachi came out of his room with his shirt half on as he looked down at Sasuke. Tears were at the corners of his eyes again and Itachi thought that his younger brother cried too much, way too often.
"Yes Sasuke?" Itachi drawled out as he leaned against his doorframe and crossed his arms after putting his other arm through his sleeve.
"Naruto's not waking up." The small raven said threatening to cry and Itachi, who didn't want to deal with a crying Sasuke that early in the day was quick to respond. "My dear little brother, Naruto must still be tired from yesterday." The older brother said with a small smile on his face as he patted the little boy's head.
"Are you sure?" His younger brother said and that had made Itachi sigh and crouch down to Sasuke's height. "I'm sure; he just saved a human life!" The older Uchiha said as he ruffled his brother's hair and wiped away the tears that were gathered.
"Now, out. Your Aniki is still tired." The older said fondly and the smaller raven smiled towards him before running back to his room to take care of Naruto.
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When the blonde robot finally woke up from his long sleep, Sasuke was upset because his friend had to go for a checkup.
"Yay! Let's play, Naruto!" The tiny raven said happily with a smile on his face as he clapped. The blonde responded with a smile and were about to get into mischief when Sasuke's father called up the stairs.
"Sasuke, Naruto! I need to speak with you!" Sasuke's father had yelled and the tiny raven groaned in annoyance. His old man was preventing him from playing with Naruto. Quickly, the raven tugged his friend's hand and ran down the stairs to get it over with. The sooner they did the quicker they could play together.
"Great, you're here. Listen Sasuke, Naruto has to go back to his original home for a checkup to see how he is doing. Do you want to come along?" His father said as pulled their coats out of the closet. The tiny raven's heart almost stopped when he heard that Naruto had to go back but when he found out it was just for a checkup, he was still unhappy.
There he went again! Every time he wanted to play with Naruto, something always got in the way. The raven pouted as his father buttoned his coat up for him, likewise for Naruto. He was about to stand there sulking and demand that Naruto stay there with him until the blonde tugged on his hand to go outside.
He didn't understand why his father just couldn't reschedule; he usually did when he was too busy to take Sasuke to the doctor's. On the way there, Naruto didn't pay much attention to the small raven and instead enjoyed the scenery that was flying past them. The only thing that was keeping Sasuke from throwing a tantrum was the fact that his blonde friend was holding his hand.
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When they got to the lab, where Naruto had come from, the people there immediately swept Naruto into hugs and presented him with smiles.
"Naruto! How ya been, kid?" A lab worker said as he ruffled the blonde's hair, which then rewarded him with a beautiful smile. Other workers came up to them and talked with the blonde, making the raven feel slightly left out and lonely.
"Naruto, while I set up for your exam, I'll show you the new prototypes we have." A man said as he took the blonde by his other hand and the led the pair away from the entrance area towards the place where they kept prototypes. Sasuke got dragged along with Naruto since he absolutely refused to let go of the blonde's hand.
When they got to the room, the tiny raven was set back on how happy the robots looked. There were some who took care of others depending how old they looked, while other played happily. There were even some that instantly healed when they got cut, which fascinated Sasuke so much that he didn't notice when they were pulled in a different direction.
"Naruto, this is Gaara. His personality malfunctioned and we're working on fixing it, but we don't know if the damage is irreversible." The man said and the blonde left him, to talk to the quiet and lonely robot. "Well, I can see you're going to be busy, so I'll just leave you alone." The smiling man said as he walked out of the room to leave the robots to their business.
"Hello, I'm Naruto!" The blonde said happily towards the redheaded robot, just like he did when he met Sasuke. The other robot did not say anything besides staring at the other happy robot blankly.
Time passed by with only Naruto rambling on and on about one subject or another as the redhead stared on, not once taking his eyes off of the blonde, while the raven sat around lazily sighing every now and then.
The man that had brought them in had come in once again but this time to usher the blonde robot to his exam. Naruto waved goodbye to Gaara the silent robot and said that he hoped to meet again one day. He was quite happy when he saw the redhead wave his hand towards him in goodbye.
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"This is not good Naruto. Why happened to your arm?" A man in a lab coat said as he looked over the blonde robot's arm. Damage was dealt to it and if you took a closer look, you would see that it functioned weirdly.
"You know, I just got into a little accident," The blonde said nervously. "Why? Is something wrong with it?" The blonde was worried that Sasuke might get in trouble and he would have to be taken away from the tiny raven. Naruto's best friend stood outside of the exam room as the blonde was being looked over.
"We're going to have to replace it is all. But I would like you to more careful next time." The man said as he went to work on replacing the blonde's arm with a much newer arm.
When they arrived back home, the pair was so exhausted that Sasuke's father had to carry them upstairs and tuck them in to bed. Before Sasuke went to sleep, he pulled Naruto closer to him, to share body heat like they always did.
The last thing that he thought about before he could no longer think was that he hoped that Naruto didn't go back to that place. The tiny raven didn't quite like it and wished deeply that Naruto would stay forever with him. Only with him.
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When Sasuke and Naruto were left alone to their own devices, they developed the unhealthy habit of eating ramen.
"Sasuke, I'm kinda hungry." The blonde robot said as he rubbed his tummy for emphases. The little raven sighed and rolled his eyes as he was forced to end his little game with Naruto. He stood up pulling the other boy along with him, holding hands as they made their way down the stairs to the kitchen.
When they got there, the blonde was left standing awkwardly, fidgeting every few minutes as he watched Sasuke search through the cabinets to find something to eat.
"Aha!" The raven said aloud making the blonde curious, so he quietly stood behind the raven, standing on his tippytoes to look over the raven's shoulder. In his hand was a paper box in the shape of a bowl, on the front of the package said "Ramen! Beef flavor. Cooks in three minutes!"
"Sasuke, what's that?" The blonde said tilting his head as the tiny raven turned to face him. "It's food." Was all the raven said and then went over to the sink to fill it up with water, which then he placed in the microwave, punched in the time and waited for it to finish cooking.
When the robot heard the microwave start he jumped in surprise only to stick his face against the machine's glass to get a closer look. "What is this, Sasu?" The blonde said not turning to look at the tiny raven, only to watch the food spin on a tray. "It's called a microwave." Sasuke said a bit gruffly, annoyed that Naruto wasn't looking at him when he explained things. He wanted to show Naruto how smart he was.
"Is it like…me?" He questioned quietly with a deep look of concentration on his face. The raven opened his mouth to respond but then closed it unable to answer him. "Hmm, I don't know. I've never thought about it." The raven said deciding to stand next to Naruto watching the food spin.
"It must be lonely." The blonde robot said a bit sadly making the tiny raven frown. "I don't know, Naru. It seems pretty happy when it cooks our food, it makes a little 'ding' sound." The blonde did not say anything, instead rubbing the microwave's side giving it encouraging words as it heated the noodles.
To say it was awkward when Itachi came down the stairs to get something to drink was an understatement. All he saw was his two little brothers pressing their faces to the microwave while Naruto rubbed and patted it as he talked to it. He decided not to disturb them and quietly backtracked up the stairs.
A ding-like noise was heard and the pair was snapped out of their stupor. "Ah! It's finished." When they opened the door to the machine, they were more careful almost gentle-like. They slowly took out the steaming cup and once they stepped a little ways back from the microwave they dug in, sharing the same cup. After they finished and tossed the cup away, the blonde went up to the machine.
"Great job, buddy." The blonde robot said to the machine and gave it a few friendly pats.
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Author's Note: All forms of review are welcomed and I'd be happy to answer your questions, if you have any.