K this one isn't as funny as the others, but it's necessary. so do try to enjoy!

VampirePrinssess: Yay! POM CUTE 3 btw, have you ever seen any crossgender Ita fanart? I'm so curious! and I removed the note so that might have made reviewing hard on you 3 Sorry about that! Thanks for reviewing again! :)

dearreviewerwho'susernameican'tputhereb/cof FF: I'm glad you enjoyed it! As one of my only active fics, I do love this one lots, so I hope you can keep enjoying this fic!

Anime Ice Dragon: Haha don't worry. I'll save Shisui soon xD Itachi however, must pay for his crimes xDDD

Nixonfaye9: I'm glad you found it funny :P I guess I did pretty well on that note!

Mikoto's eyes stayed on Itachi as she carefully caressed Shisui's cheek and spoke to her youngest.

"Sasuke, you said your aniki slapped Shisui-kun?"

Itachi's eyes widened, knowing exactly where this was going.

"Kaa-san! It wasn-"

"Yup!"

Sasuke cut in with his adorable smile, beaming at the fresh memory of the occurrence as if he had witnessed a Jesus moment.

Itachi fought down the sudden rising need to slap his cute little brother. He was too oblivious to things for his own good.

"Shisui-nii was talking really fast about something and then Aniki went 'WHACK' and there was this really sharp and clear sound! I was going to ask Nii-san why, but he told me to ignore it so I did!"

Shisui's frozen smile twitched a little.

Itachi could practically feel Shisui's hands around his neck. Why? Why did he have to forget to shut up his own brother?

Mikoto's Uchiha Ninja Glare was on in seconds of Sasuke finishing his sentence. Having it utilized on him at 75% by his own mother left Itachi feeling more than just a little lightheaded. She quickly reverted to a gentle smile. Itachi instinctively began to chant a mantra in his head.

"Sasuke, go get ready for dinner, ok?"

"Hai!"

And off scurried Itachi's beloved little brother. Please don't leave me alone to die.

"Shisui-kun, come in and have dinner with us. After that, I'll have a look at that nasty little thing Itachi made on your face."

Shisui knew Mikoto was not as happy as her smile indicated and despite his love of her food, he loved his life a tad more. And as for Itachi, he cast a quick glance over.

Please don't leave me alone to die.

It was every man for himself. Itachi forgot to shut up Sasuke and set Shisui aflame with the chance the entire clan will have heard of the event by dawn. Shisui smiled weakly at Mikoto.

"It's ok, Auntie. I can take care of it later. I've got to-"

"Shisui, the food is getting cold."

A hesitant smile danced on Shisui's lips. Crap. Sasuke had better be done storytelling.

"Arigato, Mikoto-san."

And off went Itachi's dear best friend.

I thought you forgave me. Stupid Shisui.

"Uchiha Itachi."

He swallowed a little at his mother's usage of his whole name. He was screwed.

"Hai, Kaa-sama?"

Mikoto's smile turned to saccharine poison. He was definitely screwed.

"You will be assisting me in my chores for your next days off until I say otherwise. Yes?"

Itachi returned a weak, faltering half-smile, knowing exactly what his assistance would entail. Mikoto was secretly codenamed SuperWoman by many for a reason. There was no other way.

"Hai, Kaa-sama."

Fugaku's eyebrow went up as Sasuke shuffled in with Shisui behind him. The reason for his raised brow, however, was not due to the entrance of the two boys. It was due to the appearance of one and the lack of a third.

"Tadaiima, Otou-sama."

"Konbanwa, Fugaku-sama."

He nodded in acknowledgement as he faced the elder of the two, curious of the red on his cheek.

"Shisui, what happened to you?"

But before Shisui could answer, Sasuke's unusual shift drew Fugaku's attention.

"Sasuke?"

Shisui's eyes widened slightly. No.

The child mistook his father calling his name as a request for him to tell the reason behind his cousin's new facial decoration. And with all the innocent delight and amazement in the world, a grin bloomed on Sasuke's childish features again.

"Aniki slapped Shisui-nii."

When Fugaku's head whipped sharply to stare at him in bewilderment, Shisui's frozen face couldn't even react.

He loved Sasuke. He really did.

But right now, Shisui really, really wanted to just punt the boy into the Hokage Mountain.

Mikoto and Itachi stepped into the kitchen just in time to hear Sasuke declare what he witnessed like it was the main event of his day.

Itachi froze in horror. Mikoto stopped and tried to think of a way to salvage the situation.

But poor Shisui was already an immobile block on the tatami by the dinner table.

Itachi tried hesitantly.

"Shisui?"

A rapid series of blinks came from Shisui and he suddenly shot up, startling all of them. A practiced smile pasted to his face, Shisui turned to face the clan's patriarch and matriarch.

"I just remembered I left some paperwork at Headquarters, I'm afraid I can't stay for dinner tonight, Mikoto-san. Thank you very much for the offer, though. I'll take my leave now."

And ever so robotically, Shisui left.

Itachi had never wanted to shrivel up and die quite so badly.

Innocent Sasuke sat with a confused expression.

"Aniki? Didn't you say you and Shisui-nii managed to make time today? How would he have forgotten paper work?"

Fugaku's brow furrowed in confusion. What in the bloody hell could have happened to make Itachi slap Shisui and leave Sasuke so happy he witnessed it?

Mikoto sighed, wondering if Shisui would be alright. Her youngest really did have such a big mouth.

"Itachi, go wash and come eat."

That night held a very quiet dinner.

Mikoto noted as she watched her Uchiha men.

Sasuke was obliviously adorable as usual, enthralled by the red vegetable fruit with an identity crisis in his bowl.

Fugaku was... well... Fugaku-ing. The man was like a block of wood when it came to interactions with his sons, it only gives a nice solid thunk when you hit it.

Itachi however, looked like his poor little genius brain was fried. His motions of picking up the food from his bowl and bringing it to his mouth for digestion to begin was hardly different from the perspective of the untrained eye, but for his mother?

Itachi was out of it.

So when dinner was over, she sent delighted little Sasuke off with a second bowl of his tomatoes, and quickly captured Fugaku and Itachi.

"Fugaku, sit. Itachi, you will tell us exactly what went on today that lead to this madness of you slapping Shisui."

Itachi momentarily reverted back into Mikoto's 12 year old son.

"It wasn't like I just slapped him!"

Mikoto and Fugaku's eyebrows lifted incrementally.

Itachi groaned, rubbing at his temples desperately.

"Do you remember how Shisui, Sasuke and I took some time just to relax in my room yesterday?"

Mikoto nodded, not quite sure as to how this mattered. Fugaku, however, was being his block of wood self, just sitting like he was a decoration.

Itachi continued, "Shisui and I discovered a possibility of something in a conversation yesterday, and we confirmed it today. In the course of confirming that, we ran into a few problems, and most of those problems were unintentionally damaging to Shisui. Because of that Shisui began to freak out and so I took measures to bring him back to reality. As a direct result of those measures, I slapped him. A fact which Sasuke seems to be very delighted by."

Fugaku finally decided to speak.

"Itachi. You do realize how incredibly stupid this sounds, do you not?"

Mikoto's hand demonstrated Itachi's earlier measures on Shisui quickly.

"And what was it that you two discovered and confirmed?"

Itachi looked away, grimacing and reluctant to reveal the answer to his mother's question.

Fugaku rubbed his cheek as he supported his wife's desire to know the reason behind this whole situation.

"Sasuke has already developed a multitude of fangirls and is completely unaware of this fact."

A crow called out from somewhere on the outskirts of the compound.

You read you review yes?

and just a heads up, new chapters will slow, I'm going to try working on two fics at once. Reviews help keep it from slowing too much. In case you wanted to know. hintwinkhinthinthintwink

BTW, uh.. dear reviewer, ff is being weird and not letting me type your username so... sorry about the space ;-;

Many thanks,

Silent-Himitsu