Part 1:
How it starts
Episode 2: Family Portrait
A blond-haired, blue-eyed teen glared up at the man before him. "He did what?"
"He hit on a girl again. I was pissed and I insulted him…" said the man guiltily, hitting his head on his desk again.
The blonde took on a sorry look and walked around the desk to pat Itachi on the back. His blue eyes travelled across the room to look at the other teen, which sat on the couch of the office. It was becoming a habit for him to comfort the man, his best friend's older brother, his cousin's best friend and superior, but most importantly, he was like family. Four to five years ago, the two families met somewhere in New York.
The Uzumaki family consisted of Naruto Uzumaki, blond-haired, blue-eyed kid, and his older cousin, Kyuubi Uzumaki, red-haired, red-eyed young man. The rest of their family had been mysteriously murdered and the police had stopped looking for the culprit when Kyuubi turned eighteen. Even though they were merely cousins, they acted like brothers, since their parents were neighbours and they practically grew up together. The Uchiha consisted of Sasuke Uchiha, ebony-haired kid with onyx eyes, and his older brother Itachi Uchiha, who looked like Sasuke but older. The rest of their family had blown up during a mysterious event and the affair was muted. Back when they met, Itachi had just turned twenty and Kyuubi would turn eighteen the next winter, while Sasuke and Naruto, being born the same year, were both about to turn twelve.
Immediately, the Uchiha heirs and the Uzumaki heirs developed an affinity rarely seen in this era, and had decided to start a business together. The affair went great for about a year and a half. Although when they started to get approached by governmental agencies like the FBI and the CIA, they started having trouble. Their business fell to the ground in less than a month and the four boys found themselves with nothing left but themselves. That's when a man approached them. His name was Kakashi Hatake and he worked for the government. He told them that they had great potential for such young persons as they were and that he may be able to help them back on tracks. The boys accepted and their business was back together, although this time under the government's orders.
They were called the ninjas and their business consisted of getting information from about everywhere. They were so good in fact that after a while they couldn't get all the information demanded from their base in Miami. Again, Kakashi came to them and proposed a solution. They could send someone to get the information at the source. At first they were thinking of taking someone else in their small team. Then Kyuubi said he would go. After six months of training, he went on his first mission on the terrain. A simple exercise, the other agents said, sure that the redhead would fail. But despite his young age, Kyuubi got a high score and passed.
After that, everything went great. They were a new branch in the Secret Services and were managing just great at them four. Nobody knew who they were or how they managed, but now they were glad to have such intelligent young men working so hard. Kyuubi was almost always out on missions while Sasuke, Naruto and Itachi worked in the US to get the information needed as fast as possible. Right now, though, Itachi wished things had gone otherwise. No big changes, really, but sometimes slight changes make big differences.
Last year, at his 24th birthday party, Itachi had invited only his close friends, along with the contacts they had in other countries. While most contacts hadn't been able to come, they had still assisted on video cams. Everything had been going great, but then Kyuubi drank a bit too much and started hitting on Sakura and Ino, two girls he had befriended in Tokyo. The girls found that funny and pushed the redhead away, saying they weren't interested. Kyuubi had ended stumbling on the floor and crashing on Itachi's lap. He had muttered a half-assed "sorry" before kissing his best friend fully on the lips. The Uchiha had pushed his friend away and whipped at his mouth. Later that night, Itachi, whose heart had been beating strangely fast every time his red-haired brushed past him or every time their eyes met, had come to the conclusion that he felt something more than friendship for his friend.
After that, he stopped insulting him like he used to do. And every time he heard that the eldest Uzumaki had been hitting on some random girl, he would have a killing spree that he would drown in alcohol somewhere in a dark corner of his bedroom. Right now, though, he couldn't do that. It was the beginning of the day and Kyuubi could be back anytime now. Plus, he still had work to do, even though he doubted he could get anything done in his condition. Everyone knew of his feelings for the redhead, except said redhead. That's why, as he felt like crying, killing or committing suicide, Naruto was patting his back. He was tired of this situation, so to get his mind off the image of a drunk Kyuubi hitting on a random girl, he turned a devious smirk to his friend's cousin.
"When will you decide to get together, again?" he asked innocently, even though his face showed the opposite.
Naruto was taken aback by the sudden change of subject and backed away a little. "I don't see what you're talking about, Itachi."
Just as he was about to say something else, Itachi's cell phone started ringing. He picked it up and flung it open. "Weasel here," he said, a reflex.
"Hey there, Itachi," said the familiar voice of Shikamaru.
"Shikamaru Nara? Why the hell are you calling right now?" he asked.
"Well, I decided to call you now since Kyuubi is asleep. You should really tell him, you know. It's such a drag to have to make things up as to why you started insulting him again. He's an idiot. He won't know unless you tell him. If you want I can even ask Sasuke and Naruto to harass you. I'm sure you'll tell the redhead just to have some peace," said Shikamaru, his voice even.
One of Itachi's eyebrows started twitching violently. "Since when do you talk this much?" he asked.
"I just took some coffee. Don't ask. Well are you going to tell him, Itachi?"
The Uchiha sighed. "Yeah, I'll tell him this evening."
"I'll make sure you do. By the way, Sakura and Ino wish you a happy birthday since they were caught up in something and they really couldn't go to America this year. They'll try to call you sometime this week, but they can't promise anything."
"The important thing is that they are and stay all right."
"Yeah, that's what I told them. Anyway, we're about to land on Guam. We should be home for the party."
"Good. Oh, and… is Kyuubi alright? He told me he got into some trouble but I got angry before I could ask him how he was…" said sheepishly the eldest Uchiha.
Shikamaru held in a laugh. "Sometimes I wonder who'll top between you two, you know," teased the Nara. "Don't worry. He seems fine to me. He wasn't limping or wincing or bleeding."
Itachi sighed of relief, forgetting for a moment that Shikamaru had teased him. "That's good to know. See you at the party, Shika."
"Yeah, see ya."
The line went dead. Sasuke, still sitting on the couch of his brother's office, smirked. "I wonder if people would be into a bet as to who between Kyuubi and you would be top."
Itachi's eyebrow twitched as he turned to his younger brother. "And I wonder who would bet for which of you two would scream louder. I'm sure you'd beat Naruto for the volume but not the top," countered the older sibling.
Now it was Sasuke's turn to have his eyebrow twitching, while Naruto simply went red. Itachi smirked and looked out the window. He loved to tease those teens…
Shikamaru looked as Kyuubi got off the jet. They had just landed in Guam. In maximum an hour and a half, they had to be away from the island, else their cover could be blown up and they would be in trouble. The red-haired man approached his younger contact with a sheepish smile. It had been difficult to wake the Uzumaki up and the Nara had simply given up. To his surprise, though, the redhead had woken up as soon as he had opened the cockpit. It was a military jet, so while they didn't have a lot of comfort, they were able to cover a greater distance in less time.
Kyuubi approached Shikamaru and yawned. "Sorry about that, Shika," he said, looking around.
"Doesn't matter. I would have left you in the jet if you hadn't woken up. Anyway. We have maximum an hour and a half. That's way enough time for us to eat and for these guys to fuel the jet," said the Nara, motioning in the direction of three mechanics.
"Great. Where do we eat?" asked the redhead, excited by the idea of food.
"I'll follow you and your stomach, Uzumaki," replied Shikamaru, an amused smirk stretching his lips.
"Alright!" exclaimed Kyuubi, before sprinting down the nearest street.
Shikamaru followed him and soon they stopped before a fast food restaurant. He chuckled at his friend's choice, but followed him in nonetheless. Once they were done eating, they hurried back to the jet. After a quick check-up to make sure everything really was in order, they got in and took off in direction of their sweet home: America.