Naruto story idea #3
Based off the idea of an older Naruto taking care of a younger Sasuke
oxoxo
Sasuke is 9. Just after Uchiha massacre. (Sasuke was 9 when that happened right?)
Naruto is 14/15. Chunin. Container of the Kyuubi (was sealed into Naruto at birth, as usual).
Brotherly Sasu/Naru
Naruto often subs for Iruka or acts as his assistant. Iruka sometimes goes to the Uchiha compound so he and Naruto could grade papers.
Iruka is still a brother/parental figure to Naruto.
Whether or not Naruto becomes Sasuke's jounin sensei is optional (on one hand, he wouldn't because he's still a fresh jounin and Kakashi has the sharingan so he could help Sasuke when his activates. On the other hand, it would save resources to have one jounin watch over Sasuke instead of two).
Naruto has been training Sasuke since he became his guardian. He continues training him even after Sasuke becomes a genin (and if Kakashi is his sensei, Naruto nags him excessively to train Sasuke and the rest of his team properly). Because of this, Sasuke is far above his team mates in strength and skill.
Preferably, Sasuke's other teammate is Sai or someone else in cannon.
Whether or not Sasuke leaves the village is optional (preferably, he stays).
oxoxo
One or two weeks after the Uchiha massacre, Sasuke is assigned a chunin caretaker, 14/15 year old Naruto. Things are a bit rocky at first, of course. They eventually get closer. The story is mostly about character development and the bond between Naruto and Sasuke (at least in my mind. It could be different for someone else).
XXX
A week or two after the Uchiha massacre.
XXX
Sasuke stood in the Hokage's office, stunned. A caretaker? He was going to have a caretaker?! The "caretaker" in question was an uncomfortable looking blond teen who was standing by the Hokage's desk.
"Why do I need a," he paused, shooting the blue eyed blond a look, "babysitter?"
The teen glared back and Sasuke swore he heard him mumble 'brat.'
The Hokage sighed. "You're only 9, Sasuke. You need someone to watch over you and take care of you, at least until you get older and able to take care of yourself." He said in a final tone. "Dismissed."
The two left the office, the blond closing the door behind them. They turned to each other.
"So, introductions. I'm Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto gave a smile.
"Hn." Was all Sasuke said and looked away. Naruto frowned.
"I highly doubt that's your name. What's your name?"
"Don't pretend you don't already know it."
"Yeah, but it's polite to introduce yourself, right?"
Sigh. "Sasuke Uchiha."
The dobe beamed. "That's better."
XXX
Yeah, that sucked. Moving on!
Time skip-a few days later
XXX
Sasuke stepped down the stairs, fully dressed and ready to go to the Academy for the first time since the massacre. Strangely, he didn't smell or hear the dobe cooking breakfast, which was odd because Naruto was usually making breakfast around this time. The boy entered the kitchen and saw that it was empty and nothing had even been moved at all.
Just then the front door banged open, startling him. There were several thumps and clanks as something metal was put down then quick footfalls, as if someone was running. A blue/blond blur appeared and ran into the doorway with a thud.
"Hey Sasuke!" the blur, now identified as Naruto in his chunin outfit, minus the green vest, beamed at Sasuke before zooming past him, moving all over the kitchen as he tried to make a quick breakfast and some lunch for the slightly surprised Uchiha.
A few minutes later, Sasuke was sitting in front of a plate with eggs, hash browns and a biscuit with a glass of orange juice (Naruto never made anything with bacon in it; said it was bad for you) while Naruto made a bento with ornigai, tomatoes and sushi.
Sasuke silently ate his eggs as he watched Naruto move around the kitchen. A small part of him was curious and wanted to know why the dobe was out this morning but decided not to ask, for the sake of his sanity and because he really didn't care. Just as he finished eating, Naruto shoved a bento into his hands.
"Okay Sasuke, listen up. When you go to school today, expect a lot of the students and teachers to shower you with pity, kind words and fake smiles and the teachers taking it easy on you. A piece of advice: Ignore them. Just do what you always do. Oh, and by the way, I'm painting the house today. Now go, before you're late for school."
He gave the Uchiha a little nudge (ignoring the 'Glare of Death' Sasuke was sending him) before he took the dirty dishes and started to clean them. Sasuke just stared at his back before walking away. Paint? He was going to paint the house? The boy didn't know if he should be angry or happy so he went for uncaring instead. It's not like it mattered, nothing did now. At the front door Sasuke saw all the paint buckets, brushes, rollers, blue tape and tarp.
Sasuke just 'Hn'ed and walked out the door.
XXX
Time skip-after school
XXX
Sasuke walked though the empty Uchiha district, absolutely steaming on the inside. Naruto was right this morning. Everywhere he looked, people were staring at him with pity! He wanted to scream at them, tell them to stop giving him those looks! All the teachers kept smiling at him, asking him if he was alright and such. The only one who treated him remotely normal was Iruka-sensei. The kids were torn between invading his personal space and being overly loud or keeping silent and giving him a wide berth.
The walk to and from school wasn't any better; all the adults kept giving him fake smiles and looks of pity. And when they thought he wasn't looking or couldn't hear, they would whisper. It was infuriating. Sasuke had never been so glad to be inside the Uchiha district.
Then he stopped and looked around. It was so silent and empty. There were no voices greeting him, not sounds of people moving in their homes or walking down the streets. There was no one there. He was alone.
Then all the blood stains seamed to pop out at him. There, on the walls, there, on the patio, there, on the windows, the chairs, the fences, everywhere! Hadn't they been cleaned, but they weren't, they were wet and dripping and they were still fresh he could smell it, it was everywhere it was all he could see and smell was red red red…(1)
"Hey Sasuke!"
Everything came back into focus. There were no blood stains anywhere, save the ones they were unable to get out of the wood and the smell of blood had vanished.
"Hey Sasuke!" the voice came again and Sasuke found himself looking into curious blue eyes. "Why are you just standing out here?" Naruto asked.
"Hn."
"Nice to see you too, brat."
oxoxo
Sasuke walked through the house in amazement. White. Everything was white. The hallways, the ceilings, the rooms, the doors, everything! How the hell could one person pain an entire mansion in one day?!
"Why…is everything white?" he asked the dobe behind him. 'It better not be about my 'mental state' or something.' He thought angrily.
"It's primer." Naruto replied. "You usually have to put a primer coating on before you use a colored paint. It's going to stay like this for a while, though; I spent most of my money getting paint and materials. Don't worry, I didn't paint your room or any locked(2) rooms."
"Hn."
"You need a wider vocabulary, brat."
"…dobe?"
"Yeah?"
Sasuke mentally kicked himself for what he was about to ask but he wanted to know.
"Earlier you told me to ignore all the looks and whispers and just be myself. How do you know if that works?"
Naruto didn't answer immediately, giving a pained smile. "It works. I'm got saying it's foolproof, but it works. You'll get used to it and the looks and whispers will die down eventually. Just keep your head up and ignore them."
XXX
Time skip – two or three weeks later
XXX
Sasuke entered this house, taking his shoes off at the front door. Smelling something strange, he sniffed the air. Paint. Naruto must have saved up enough money to continue his little house remaking project. He didn't see anything different though. He walked deeper into the house, looking for the newly painted room when he saw some green from the living room doorway.
He walked into the living room and all he saw was green. The whole room was painted a rich, leafy green, except for the ceiling which was a nice sky blue. The blonde painter himself was sitting in front of a wall, wearing an old and stained button up shirt and blue jeans. His back was to Sasuke, focused on something on the wall, surrounded by small paint cans.
Somehow knowing that Sasuke was there, Naruto turned to look at him. "Hey Sasuke, come look at this, I want your opinion."
Sasuke walked over to Naruto and saw what it was he was staring at. Roses. Naruto had painted roses on the wall. They weren't masterpieces but they were pretty good. None of them were the same color. There was a white one, a blue one, a purple one, a yellow one, a pink one, an orange one and a red one. Sasuke looked at the red rose, admiring it.
Suddenly, it wasn't a rose but a blood splatter and it was still wet and fresh and it was starting to drip and the smell of blood was beginning to invade his nose and-(3)
"So Sasuke," Naruto's voice broke thought his thoughts and Sasuke tore his eyes away from the rose/blood spatter, "which color do you think I should do? I want to do them all but I can only do one. My favorites are the yellow and white ones and I'm torn between the two. What do you think?"
Sasuke looked at the roses again, making sure to not look at the red one. He had to admit the yellow and white ones were good. They stood out more than the others and would probably keep the room from looking depressing. But he didn't want to see anymore white.
"The yellow one." Was all he said before heading to his room. He had homework to do.
oxoxo
A few hours later, after Sasuke had finished his homework and training (he made sure to train or exercise everyday) he headed to the kitchen for some dinner. He passed by the living room before he stopped and did a double take. There were yellow roses everywhere. There were lighter green spots too and when he looked closer, Sasuke saw that they were leaves. It made the walls look like they were made of tall rose bushes.
Looking around the room Sasuke noticed other little things as well. There were birds hiding in the leaves, butterflies on the flowers or flying around, and a few rabbits on the ground. At an even closer inspection Sasuke noticed that there were other things as well. There were ladybugs and caterpillars and lizards and all sorts of little insects. Closer to the bottom was the shadowy figure of a cat hidden in the bushes and in another spot he actually saw the white tip of a tail.
'How,' Sasuke thought, 'how the hell was he able to do all this in only a few hours?!'
XXX
Time skip – a few months later
XXX
Sasuke walked into the kitchen and sat at the table as Naruto casually made breakfast. He wasn't in any hurry since it was weekend and Sasuke had nowhere he needed to be and Naruto had a day off.
While the blond cooked, Sasuke looked around the kitchen. Naruto had painted it as a field covered in some white flowers with yellow stripes that Sasuke didn't know the name of. On one side of the field were tall grasses and on the other side were distant mountains. The rest of the kitchen was painted sky blue and there were white clouds on the ceiling.
The kitchen wasn't all he painted. The many hallways of the mansion were painted various scenes. One hallway had the sunset on one side, the sealing getting darker and the darkness of night on the other side. And, of course, there was a field of flowers. Another hallway was a grove of trees, a flower/vine called wisteria clinging to some of the trees. In one of the rooms, there was a large willow tree (he thought it was a willow tree) and a lake filled with lily pads and lotuses. Another room was a fall scene. The trees were in the middle of changing colors and the ground was covered in white spider lilies (by Sasuke's request. He didn't want to see any red and Naruto complied without question). Naruto had painted most of the rooms and hallways by now, all of them nature scenes with flowers.
"Here you go."
Sasuke was brought out of his thoughts as Naruto placed a plate in front of him.
They ate in silence, well, silence on Sasuke's end, Naruto was going on about something or other. At the end of breakfast Sasuke finally spoke.
"Naruto."
Naruto looked somewhat surprised that the boy actually said something. "Yeah?"
Sasuke swallowed his pride. "Could you…paint my room?"
Naruto brightened. "Sure, have anything specific in mind?"
"Not really, but can it be a night scene? With full view of the moon and stars."
"Sure. I already have something in mind. I'll get started on it as soon as possible."
XXX
Time skip – a few days later
XXX
It had taken a few days for Naruto to save up the money he needed for the supplies. When he was ready to paint the room Naruto had Sasuke help him move all the stuff into the hallway.
After moving the last of the stuff out, Naruto turned to Sasuke.
"I don't want you coming in, alright? I want this to be a surprise."
"Hn. Whatever."
Sasuke went outside and trained for a few hours then came back in and did some homework. He idly wondered when Naruto was going to take a break and make dinner. As if he read his mind, Naruto appeared, grinning proudly.
"I'm gonna get dinner started. You're probably going to sleep in a different room tonight; I'm not finished with yours. I'm defiantly going to finish by tomorrow though."
After dinner, the two somehow came to the decision that Sasuke would sleep in Naruto's room and Naruto would sleep on the living room couch.
Looking around Naruto's room, Sasuke had to admit it was different from what he thought it would be. He expected it to be bright and sunny like the rest of the house and have lots of orange but it was surprisingly dark and plain. It was just a forest; there was nothing special about it, no exotic trees or flowers, just a regular forest. It was twilight, not the bright midday that Sasuke expected. But what had Sasuke's attention was a lone animal painted by a tree.
It was a large fox, its golden fur making it stand out from its dark backdrop. The creature sat regally by the tree, giving off an air of calm and wisdom. Its narrowed amber eyes made it look like it was thinking deeply. It was beautiful.
Sasuke had to wonder though. The people of Konoha were not fond of foxes and every October, people would go on fox hunts. Sasuke knew why, it was because of the Kyuubi attack around 14, almost 15, years ago. No one was fond of foxes; they didn't even have any in the Konoha Zoo. So why did Naruto paint one in such a good light in his room?
XXX
Skip-next day
XXX
"Alright Sasuke, ready to see your room?" Naruto grinned down at Sasuke as they stood in front of the boys closed bedroom door. Sasuke just gave his a 'can we get on with it' look and 'hn'ed.
"Your enthusiasm leaves much to be desired." The blond said dryly but he still had a grin on his face as he opened the door.
Sasuke liked what he saw. It was night and a full moon was clearly seen as well as the stars. His room was a small field surrounded by trees. There was a lake in the corner reflecting the moons light. The field was full of tall grasses and cattails and everywhere in the field were yellow dots. Fireflies. It was peaceful.
"So what do you think?" Naruto said from behind him.
"Hn, not too bad." Which was Sasuke-speak for 'I like it, but I'm too proud to admit it.'
"Good!"
XXX
Time skip – graduation day. Sasuke is twelve now.
XXX
Sasuke watched as all of his classmates ran up to their parents, proudly showing off their headbands or holding their heads down to hide their shamefully bare foreheads. There was a cacophony of chatter, parents congratulating their kids, and making plans for a celebratory dinner. The children bragged about their success and made plans of what they were going to do when they started missions.
The Uchiha's eyes discreetly scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar head of stunningly blond hair. He didn't see Naruto at all and after a few minutes of looking and sill not seeing Naruto, Sasuke mentally sighed. He didn't expect Naruto to be there but a small part of him still hoped. Yesterday, Naruto had gone on a two day long mission but said that he would try to hurry so they could celebrate Sasuke's graduation.
When Naruto said that, Sasuke merely 'hn'ed in indifference but on the inside he felt warm. Though Sasuke knew he was going to pass – there was no way he couldn't – it was nice to hear Naruto say it as though it was a fact. The idea that Naruto would celebrate also made him feel warm inside, though he wouldn't admit that under torture.
Over the years, Sasuke and Naruto had become closer and Sasuke viewed the blond as an older brother of sorts. He trained and helped Sasuke as often as he could, complementing and rewarding the younger male when he did something right, before making him repeat it over and over again until Sasuke mastered it. Sasuke's family had never really done any of that. His father rarely trained him and he always compared him to Itachi. While Itachi did show him affection, playing with him from time to time, and training him every now and then, he never really had the time to devote himself to Sasuke's training and he rarely complemented him (but Sasuke supposed that was an Uchiha thing). And no one in the Uchiha clan really "celebrated" anything and if they did it was always calm and low key and somewhat formal. Even Sasuke's birthdays were somewhat formal.
At that thought, Sasuke made a noise of amusement, gaining a strange look from a nearby pedestrian. Birthdays with Naruto were anything but formal. A few weeks after Sasuke turned 10, Naruto had asked about his birthday. Sasuke said it already passed and Naruto's eyes bugged out before declaring this a problem that must be fixed and bodily dragging Sasuke out of the house. Then Naruto realized that he had no clue what to do and decided to 'wing it.' There was a lot of arguing and dragging involved, as well as some running, girls, angry shop owners and a llama. By the time they got home they were tired, had some leaves in their hair, soaking wet and had some glitter on them. Even though he would never admit it, Sasuke had never had so much fun in his life.
Standing in front of his house, Sasuke pulled out his keys and unlocked the door (why did they even have locks anyway, any ninja could just pick the lock or go through the window). He was surprised when he found the door was already unlocked. That meant one of three things. One, he forgot to lock the door this morning (unlikely), two, Naruto was home, or three, someone had broken in.
Sasuke kept his hand close to his kunai pouch, seeming relaxed but on guard. He twitched and shifted into a battle stance as loud footsteps came running in his direction. Wait, they sounded kind of familiar…
Soon enough, Naruto came barreling into sight, the 19 year old jounin only wearing a mesh shirt and boxers. He had bruises and there were splotches of blood still in his hair. He had obviously just come back from his mission and hadn't even finished cleaning himself up.
"Hey Sasuke! Sorry I didn't pick you up. I just got back, like, less than thirty minutes ago. Let me get clean and then we'll go, okay?" He left as quickly as he came, his footsteps getting softer the further he went.
Sasuke smirked. The blond may be an idiot and they may argue a lot and the jounin may act like he was a child but at least it kept things interesting.
XXX
Time skip – a few months after Naruto became Sasuke's guardian. Naruto becomes Iruka's assistant teacher.
XXX
Sasuke sat in his desk, bored but enjoying the quiet. He was early, like an Uchiha should be but lately he'd been coming earlier as there would be less people to annoy/pity him. He was also early because Naruto had woken him up earlier. Naruto had been given an assignment that he had to leave early for but he wanted to make sure Sasuke was taken care of before he left. So he made sure Sasuke set his alarm to go off sooner.
When Sasuke asked what the assignment was, the blond just gave a mischievous foxy grin and said it was a secret.
Sasuke was brought out of his thoughts as the noise level in the room increased as more students started to arrive, talking about this and that. The main thing everyone was talking about, though, was who the new assistant teacher would be.
Assistant teachers were chunnins who were assigned to an academy teacher and assisted them - hence the name - and even became substitutes if the teacher was out. Most chunnins were forced to become assistant teacher whether they wanted to or not but there two reasons that Sasuke could name for doing this.
The first was that there were so many kids and only so many teachers. They needed the help. The second was that if a chunin wanted to become a jounin, he or she had to have had a minimum number of hours of assistant teaching. Sasuke guessed that it was for when a jounin became a jounin sensei; after all, they wouldn't make a jounin who was inexperienced with children the sensei of three genin.
Assistant teachers were inconsistent though, as they had other duties. Some assistant teachers may come in every other day for a few months. Some may be there for a solid week before being gone for weeks and then coming back again. Others came at random, and some don't do anything with the kids at all, only helping out with papers and such, not even subbing when the teacher was out, and forcing a different chunin to take their place. In the past, Sasuke used to hear the adults complain about it, saying they either needed to abolish the practice or make it more consistent.
Sasuke shook those thoughts away, instead checking the time. Class was about to start and all the students were here, including those loud, annoying girls, Sakura and Ino, who were now officially the leaders of his fan club, something that had started shortly after the massacre and had been steadily growing in size. Sasuke had grumbled about it (as much as an Uchiha grumbles) and Naruto scoffed, an uncharacteristic frown on his face.
"You're the last of the Great Uchiha Clan. It had been an honor to marry into the clan before and even more so now. Many of the girls' parents probably want the honor of saying their little girl married The Uchiha and are pushing them onto you. The girls also pity and admire you and are starting to form crushes. They're delusional."
Sasuke sighed as the two idiots continued to argue over who he liked. Why couldn't they, or any of the other girls, realize that he didn't like any of them? His attention turned to the door as Iruka-sensei walked in. The man looked at the chattering students before taking a deep breath. Sasuke prepared himself.
"BE QUIET AND SIT DOWN!"
There was some shuffling then silence.
Iruka smiled. "Alright. Now, to meet your new assistant teacher. Come in please."
The assistant teacher came in and Sasuke's eyes widened.
'Oh no.'
The young chunnins blond hair shone brightly in the light, his clear blue eyes looking over the students and the whiskers on his cheeks stretched as he grinned widely.
"Yo! My name's Naruto Uzumaki and I hope we can get along."
Sasuke felt like banging his head against the desk.
XXX
Time skip - a few weeks to a month or so after Naruto became Sasuke's guardian. Naruto is beginning to train Sasuke.
XXX
Sasuke panted as he glared at the nicks he left on the tree. He had been at this tree walking exercise for almost all day and he wasn't even half way up! He grit his teeth and he approached the tree again, forcing chakra into his feet as he slowly walked up the tree. When he first started the exercise he ran up the tree but Naruto told him to focus on his chakra control, not running up the tree. When he felt like he was about to fall, he used his kunai to leave another nick before gravity set in and he fell to the ground, flipping around to land on his feet. He looked up at his most recent nick and mentally growled. It was worse than the last try!
"Oi, dobe!" he called over to his co called guardian who was reading a book nearby. That morning the blond told him about chakra control/tree walking, demonstrated it, then gave Sasuke a kunai and told him that they wouldn't move on from this exercise until Sasuke reached the top. Then he gave some tips and watched the 9 year old for a while before pulling out a book titled 'Tales of a Gutsy Ninja.'
That was this morning. It was almost dinner time now and Sasuke hadn't even made it halfway up!
At Sasuke's voice, the teen turned away from his well worn book to look at the boy.
"Stop calling me that brat. What do you want?"
"Aren't you supposed to be helping me with this? You're just sitting there reading."
The blond sighed. "Look, I've already done all I could do. I've given you instructions and tips and you're doing the exercise correctly. How long it takes to reach the top is different for each ninja so just take your time."
"It's been a full day."
"That's good."
"How is that good?"
"The more chakra you have, the harder it is to control, and the longer it takes to get to top. It takes the average male ninja a few days to reach the top. I would have been very disappointed if you succeeded in one day." He closed his book and stood up. "Take a break as I make dinner, ok?"
"No. I want to keep going."
"No. I want to watch you to make sure you don't fall and break your neck and I can't do that while I'm making dinner."
"Yes you can. Make a kage bunshin."
"True but you've been at this all day. You need a break. And you're going to have a break even if I have to tie you up."
Sasuke chose to ignore the blond. A few minutes later he found himself bound and gagged to a kitchen chair as Naruto made dinner, humming a cheerful tune.
"Don't be so put out brat." Naruto said to the broody (sulky) Uchiha as they ate dinner. "You can continue training after you eat."
It was silent for a few moments before Sasuke spoke.
"Dobe, how long did it take you to reach the top of the tree?"
"Don't call me that brat. It took me a week and it would have taken longer (4) if my sensei hadn't been impatient and set the bottom of the tree on fire. Don't worry I won't do that to you. Maybe."
xoxox
Much to Sasuke's frustration but slight pride, it took 6 days (5) to complete the training. Naruto said he either had quite a lot of chakra for a 9 year old or his control just sucked that much. Sasuke showed how much he "sucked" by using the grand fireball technique to set the dobe's clothes on fire.
"Okay." The blond grumbled as he crawled out of the pond, his clothes charred and wet. "Since you have tree walking down, you can move on to the water walking. It's a bit more difficult because water is constantly moving and you have to adjust you chakra constantly. Other than that, it's the same as three walking, only instead of sticking to the water, you're repelling it. Got it? Now let's get started."
It took another week for Sasuke to master water walking and for most of the week Sasuke was more wet than dry. Naruto found it amusing, Sasuke not so much.
XXX
Time skip – some random time (just for fun)
XXX
When Sasuke came home that day, it was to complete and utter chaos.
Everything was a mess. In all the rooms, anything that could be moved or thrown around was. Clothes were strewn everywhere, furniture were on their sides, and other objects were all over the floors. Sasuke watched as dozens and dozens of Naruto's ran all over the house and basically ripping it apart, all of them repeating the same line.
"Whereisit,whereisit,whereisit WHERE. IS. IT?"
Sasuke coughed to gain someone's attention. Six Naruto's turned to look at him before they pounced.
"Sasuke, do you know where-"
"-can't find my-"
"-how am I supposed to do anything-"
"-looked everywhere-"
"-elp me find it."
Sasuke just stared at the six Naruto's that were going on and on about something but Sasuke for the life of him did not know what. He was getting annoyed really fast.
"Oi! Can you all be quiet for a second and tell me what's going on?"
The Naruto's around him finally shut up. One of them began speaking.
"Sasuke," he said in a dead serious voice, "I can't find my cookbook."
…What?
Sasuke blinked, his mind blank. A cookbook? Naruto was freaking out over a cookbook?
"A…cookbook?"
"This is serious Sasuke! I can't cook without it! I've tried it before and even though I remembered the directions exactly it turned out horrible! I need it!"
"You need it so bad that you're willing to tear the house down? You better not have broken anything."
"Don't worry I haven't broken a thing."
CRASH
The Naruto's chuckled nervously. "Well, except for that one thing."
Sasuke sighed and he walked into the kitchen, reached over the counter and picked up Naruto's cookbook that Sasuke had placed by the wall that morning. Dozens of blue eyes blinked.
"Oh. Thanks Sasuke."
"Sure. I'm going to be outside training. I refuse to help you clean up your mess."
And so Sasuke went outside to train and do his homework, Naruto and his mini-army of clones cleaned the house and for dinner Naruto dragged Sasuke to Ichiraku's, completely defeating the point of looking for his cookbook in the first place.
(1) It's all mental. He's still a bit stressed and his day at the academy probably didn't help.
(2) Itachi's and his parents rooms.
(3) Yes, he had another mental breakdown. Think about it, he saw his parents and family murdered and then his brother made him relive the experience over and over again. He's only 9, of course he's going to have episodes like this. He does get better though.
(4) Naruto didn't have Sasuke to compete with so he didn't have someone to push him to try harder. You can decide who his sensei was.
(5) Sasuke is 9 not 12. He doesn't have as much chakra as his 12 year old self but he probably doesn't have as much control either.
Side note – Naruto calls Sasuke 'brat' instead of 'teme.' He does this for two reasons – 1) Naruto doesn't want to be a bad influence and swear around a kid. I know that 'teme' is also a crude way to say 'you' but we all know what Naruto really means when he says that. 2) Age difference. In cannon Naruto and Sasuke are peers so Naruto sees Sasuke as a bastard. Here, there is a 6-7 year difference between them and older Naruto sees Sasuke's bastard behavior as bratty behavior.