4. like I was a brother
Not as many people came to the graduation ceremony as Sasuke had expected, but it made sense when he thought about it. There had been attacks almost every month for the last two and a half years - mostly little raids that would do focused damage somewhere before the attacking shinobi withdrew - and anyone who wasn't patrolling or on guard duty was working to keep the village in repair. At the same time, Konoha was so swamped with mission requests that even the teachers were getting sent out, and they'd had to combine several of the classes that were at the same level just to keep from canceling lessons.
Fewer people were coming back from missions, too. Sasuke tried not to think about that very much.
Itachi was at the ceremony anyway. Sasuke hadn't asked him to come, exactly, but he'd made sure Itachi knew when it was, which was just as good. Seeing Itachi in the crowd was still strange, though; it reminded him of when he had entered the academy, only switched around and more painful than he had thought it would be. Still, it was better than no one coming - or not graduating at all, like Naruto, who was stuck watching the ceremony from the swing in the yard.
After it was over, Sasuke went to him first and said, "Sorry." They had been training together almost every day, sometimes with Itachi's help, but it hadn't been enough; Naruto was getting better, but his grades were still too low for him to graduate early. Sasuke wasn't sure if it was because he was a bad teacher, or if Naruto really was just hopeless.
"'S fine," said Naruto, and kicked at the ground. "It's not your fault, yanno. I'll totally knock 'em dead next time, just wait... Yo, Itachi."
Sasuke turned, instinctively taking a step back towards Naruto, and saw that Itachi had followed him over. "Congratulations, Sasuke," he said. "Graduating at eleven - I'm very proud of you. Naruto-kun, I'm sure you'll make it next time, you've been working very hard lately."
"Yeah, I totally will!" Naruto said, finally looking up and smiling. "I mean, I almost passed this time! Mizuki-sensei was gonna let me, but stupid Iruka-sensei was all picky about my clone jutsu... At least it stood up this time, right, Sasuke?"
"Yes, but it looked like a ghost," Sasuke said.
"A ghost clone could be totally useful! Like, I could pretend to be dead, and -"
"Yes, I see," Itachi said, and only Sasuke noticed that he was suppressing a smile. "Well, you're welcome to come over later for dinner and we can practice..."
"Sure," Naruto said, "then I can show you my awesome new jutsu too! It's so great it almost knocked out Iruka-sensei!"
"No," Sasuke said. "You're not showing my brother that useless crap."
"I'm looking forward to seeing it," Itachi said, as if he didn't have enough experience with Naruto's terrible ideas by now to know better, and Naruto grinned. "I think one of the teachers is looking for you, though..."
Sasuke looked over at the little crowd of new genin and family, and saw Mizuki approaching them. "Okay - see you later, Sasuke!" Naruto said, and went to talk to him.
Itachi was determined to make a fancy dinner to celebrate Sasuke's graduation, and dragged Sasuke through the whole market to get ingredients. Most of the shopkeepers wouldn't talk to Itachi except to name a price when something wasn't labeled and to give totals; by the time they were done Sasuke was seething with rage and didn't care who noticed. No one else had a right to treat his brother like that, they didn't even know what he'd done, they were just being jerks and Itachi let them get away with it.
Maybe he hadn't even noticed; as soon as they got home, he started sorting out what needed to cook right away and what could wait, planning out what sounded like an entire five-course meal. Sasuke briefly considered the possibility of dying from an overdose of domesticity, but Itachi was a really good cook when he put his mind to it, so it was probably worthwhile to live a bit longer; Naruto and Anko could eat a five-course meal each, anyway. And when Naruto came over they could go practice before dinner and work out what to do about Naruto not graduating...
But it got later and later and Naruto still hadn't shown up. Sasuke wondered if maybe he'd been more disappointed about not graduating than he'd let on, but even when he was disappointed, Naruto wasn't the type to miss out on free food, and Sasuke began to worry as he watched the clock.
Itachi seemed worried, too, but that might have been because he thought Anko was ruining her appetite with dango. "I'm almost done," he said, while Sasuke fidgeted with his new forehead protector. "And I made appetizers, they're right there -"
"Rice balls? Nah, thanks," Anko said, popping another dango in her mouth. "I told you, I have a separate stomach for dango, quit worrying."
Someone knocked on the door, providing a welcome interruption; Sasuke jumped up to answer it, but Itachi abandoned the stove and stopped him with a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. Sasuke grudgingly sat back down, taking one of the rice balls from the plate on the table, and Itachi opened the door.
"Captain, it's an emergency," said the person outside; Sasuke recognized the voice as one of Itachi's new team members, a woman called Uzuki. He tried to edge a little closer to the door to hear what the emergency was - it might be another raid, though they would've heard the noise by now if it were - but Anko blocked him. All he could catch was Uzuki leaning inside to whisper into Itachi's ear; whatever she said made Itachi flinch and glance over at Sasuke, but he only said, "I'm on it. Where are the others?"
"Yoshimoto's on call tonight and can't leave the hospital," Uzuki said, "and I called Sei first, she's talking to the chuunin who were on duty."
"What's going on?" Sasuke asked. The secrecy made him suspect the organization in black coats - even after two years of subtle digging, he hadn't been able to find out anymore about them - and if Naruto was out there where they could find him...
"It'll be all right, Sasuke," Itachi said, going back to the stove and turning it off and not looking at Sasuke at all. "Everything's done - you two should go ahead and eat, I'll be back later."
"Oh, like hell," Anko said, getting up. "I'm going too, if it's this big."
"There's no need, Anko-san, it's your day off," said Itachi.
"It's yours too, don't think that you're going to -"
Without turning around Itachi made a hand signal that Sasuke didn't recognize, and Anko paused, then sat back down. "You're gonna pay," she said, but with less bloodthirsty enthusiasm than usual. "Don't take too long or I'll kill you."
Sasuke bit his lip to stop from asking what was going on again, since it was obvious no one was going to tell him, and said, "Yeah, don't let the food get cold."
Itachi did turn, then, and tried to smile at Sasuke, but it wasn't very convincing; "I'll try not to," he said, and he left with Uzuki.
Anko got up again, this time to check on the food on the stove and say, "Crap. I don't even remember what this is - where does your brother keep the serving things, anyway?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and went to help her; as they got the food sorted out onto plates, he asked casually, "What's the emergency, anyway? It's not those guys in coats again, is it?"
"Akatsuki?" Anko said, and Sasuke filed the name away with grim triumph. "Nah, it's - it's just a village problem. Which you don't have to worry about yet, baby genin."
"I do too," Sasuke said irritably, and sat down to eat. "Just because I'm a new genin doesn't mean I can't help protect the village..."
Anko sat across from him, already halfway through her plate, and said, "It does this time. Eat your vegetables, or I will."
Sasuke ate the vegetables and waited for Itachi to get back.
Eventually the food got cold, so they had to wrap it up and try to cram it all in the fridge, which wasn't really big enough for that many leftovers. Almost all of their store of dishes were dirty, too; for once Anko didn't weasel out and helped wash them, which almost made Sasuke start worrying again, except she wouldn't put any away. She claimed that she didn't know where they went, even though Sasuke could have told her, and sat around watching him clean up instead and told him horror stories about her early genin missions, most of which Sasuke didn't believe.
She stuck around for a while after the dishes were done and tried teaching Sasuke how to play a dice game she'd learned on a mission, but neither of them could concentrate on it; Sasuke didn't see the point of games that didn't help you practice real skills, anyway.
When Anko finally left, he sat against the wall that faced his and Itachi's bedrooms and read the guidelines for registering as a new shinobi, over and over, because they would stop making sense and then he would realize that he'd accidentally skipped a line and have to start over.
He wasn't waiting up for Itachi, that would be dumb. He needed to study a little more, that was all, he wasn't tired or anything...
A soft noise startled him awake, and he blinked at the diffuse morning light filling the apartment. Damn, he ached all over - he should've just gone to bed... He covered up a yawn, looked for the source of the noise, and saw that Itachi had just come in and was taking off his shoes.
"Hey," Sasuke said; Itachi looked up, and Sasuke was struck, not for the first time, by how exhausted Itachi looked. He'd looked a little tired all the time for as long as Sasuke could remember - it was just the way his face was - but it seemed worse lately. One night's lost sleep shouldn't wear out an experienced shinobi like Itachi.
"Good morning," Itachi said, interrupting Sasuke's train of thought. "Sorry I couldn't make it back earlier - was everything all right here?"
"Yeah," Sasuke said, hiding another yawn. "I only stayed up to study - what was the emergency?"
Even tired, he couldn't miss that Itachi hesitated before saying, "It was a false alarm. Sasuke, you should get some rest, you have a lot to do later."
Sasuke said "Fine," and got up, stretching, but instead of going to his room he decided to take a chance and said, "I wish Dad could've come to graduation."
"He and Mother would have been proud of you," said Itachi, barely hesitating at all this time. "They always expected a lot of you, and they wouldn't be disappointed."
I'll kill you, Sasuke thought. It was nearly an automatic reflex by now, running through his mind without really registering, and no trace of it showed on his face. It was always the same when he took a chance and brought up their family; Itachi didn't say they were pathetic or anything bad about them, didn't get defensive, wouldn't say anything except stuff about how they'd be proud of Sasuke or whatever. It was sickening.
Sasuke said "Mm," looking down, and was taking a step towards his room when Itachi said, "Sasuke, about Naruto..."
"What about him?" Sasuke said, looking back at Itachi, his heart beating a little faster. "Is he okay?"
"Yes, he's fine," Itachi said. "But maybe you should try to be a little nicer to him..."
"I am nice to him," Sasuke protested, "he's just annoying." Had there been a pause before "nicer," as if Itachi had started to say something else? But Sasuke couldn't immediately think of what else Itachi might want to say about Naruto. He was probably over-thinking it because he was tired; he felt like he hadn't slept at all.
Itachi just said, "Right, right," and waved Sasuke off toward his room. Sasuke went, and fell asleep the moment after he collapsed into bed.
When Sasuke finally managed to track Naruto down late that afternoon, he couldn't see why Itachi had been concerned; Naruto looked as energetic and obnoxious as ever, maybe even more so because of the slightly battered forehead protector he had gotten somewhere. Sasuke stole the seat next to him at the ramen shop - didn't Naruto ever eat anything else? - and said, "Hey, dumbass, where'd you steal that?"
Naruto jumped, gulped down a mouthful of noodles, and said, "I didn't! Iruka-sensei gave it to me because I graduated, yanno? I learned this totally awesome jutsu all by myself and sensei said that was enough and gave me his headband! Pretty cool, huh?"
"Huh," Sasuke said. "Really?" Naruto nodded and scooped up another clump of noodles. "That'll make things easier, I guess... At least, as long as we can get on the same team."
"We totally can!" Naruto said. "And we'll go on lots of important missions and find out about your brother and everything! We'll be the best team ever, yeah?"
"Yeah," said Sasuke. He started checking his money to see if he had enough for a bowl of ramen - he hadn't had anything to eat yet, and he was here anyway - when he noticed that Naruto had stopped eating.
"Hey, Sasuke," he said, sounding a little less confident than usual, "yanno, about that host thing..."
"What about it?" Sasuke asked. After Sasori and Orochimaru's visit they had tried to find out more about the possibility of the Kyuubi being sealed in a human host, but had given up quickly; none of the scrolls they could access had any information, and the adults, who despised Naruto, became even more hateful if either of them mentioned the Kyuubi, even in passing.
Naruto swirled the few remaining noodles in his ramen around and said, "Well - if, um, if it turned out the Kyuubi really was in a person - would you be scared of them? That person?"
"Why would I be?" Sasuke said, and asked the owner for a bowl of ramen with tomatoes. "Dumbass - pay attention in class sometimes. Just because the Kyuubi's sealed in a person doesn't make it not sealed. They would probably be mostly normal, except for having a lot of chakra... Anyway, the Fourth Hokage was a master of seals, he wouldn't put a leaky seal on something like the Kyuubi. And definitely not if he were sealing it in a person."
Sasuke paused for a moment to split a pair of chopsticks while he waited for his ramen, then asked, "Did you find out who the host is, then? There was some kind of emergency last night and Itachi got called in - was it about them?"
"Nah, nothing like that," Naruto said, smiling a little too widely. "I was just thinking about it, yanno! In case we ever find out who it is."
Sasuke let it drop. If Naruto had discovered something he'd let it spill eventually, but trying to force anything out of him was pointless. They had more immediate worries, like the team assignments being given out the next day.
Sasuke had come up with a couple of contingency plans in case he and Naruto ended up on different teams after all. He was especially proud of the codes he'd worked out that were simple enough for Naruto to remember but would still be tough to crack; it was almost disappointing to hear a strangely battered-looking Iruka call both their names and assign them to Team Seven along with Haruno Sakura. Things would be easier this way, though. Maybe he could use the codes for something else...
Naruto hopped down from his seat to grab the empty one on Sasuke's left, stretched, and said, "Haha, we're super lucky! We get to be on the same team with the cutest girl in class - totally awesome!"
"Don't get distracted," Sasuke muttered, and winced as a bright-eyed, pink-haired girl shoved her way to the seat on his right.
"Sasuke-kun!" she said; he could almost hear the sparkles in her voice. "Isn't this wonderful? We can finally be together! Ah, I mean - on a team, not - you know - well..." She blushed.
Sasuke slouched deeper into his chair and tried to ignore Naruto's frantic whispers about switching places.
"It's too bad we're stuck with that totally useless Naruto," Sakura went on, "but -"
"He's not useless," Sasuke said loudly, and Naruto and Sakura's jaws both dropped. He felt ridiculous the second it was out of his mouth, since he called Naruto useless at least twice a day, but that wasn't the same as Sakura saying it. The girl didn't know them or train with them; she didn't know how hard Naruto worked trying to keep up with Sasuke, or that he let Sasuke stay over whenever he couldn't stand sharing an apartment with his brother for another second, and it didn't matter if Naruto was a terrible ninja, he wasn't useless.
"Sorry, Sasuke-kun," Sakura said, biting her lip, but she shot Naruto a glare that could have killed a jounin. Naruto didn't seem to notice; he was grinning in a way that Sasuke knew meant he'd never live down admitting that Naruto was useful. Damn. He looked to the front of the classroom to see if their team leader had shown up yet, but Iruka was the only one down there. All of the other teams had already left.
Naruto leaned over the desk and yelled, "Iruka-sensei, Iruka-sensei! Where's our team leader, huh?"
"He must be running a little late," said Iruka, who looked a bit worried. "I've got classes to teach - just hold on, I'm sure he'll be here soon..."
He left, and the members of Team Seven were on their own.
They waited for what felt like hours. It would have been bad enough waiting just with Naruto, who couldn't shut up about his cool new jutsu (which actually did sound useful, for a change, though creating multiple solid clones had to be way above Naruto's skill level), but the pink-haired girl fawning over Sasuke was a whole new level of irritating. He would rather have been stuck in a room with Anko, who at least could have taught them something.
Either out of pity or because he really was interested in Sakura for some reason, Naruto started trying to distract her by making a human pyramid out of his shadow clones. It half-worked; she was frowning at him as she said to Sasuke, "He really doesn't know how to behave, does he? I guess it's because he doesn't have any parents... Still, he's lucky! My parents are so annoying, they're always nagging me about eating enough and homework and -"
"Shut up," Sasuke said, filled with a sudden vicious hatred for her and her cheerful ignorance. "You don't know anything - just getting annoyed because your parents nag you, that's nothing, it's nothing like not having them. Just shut up!"
"Hey, Sasuke, Sakura-chan," said Naruto, precariously balanced on top of the clones' backs, "don't fight, okay? It's totally uncool for -"
The door behind him opened and the unsteady pyramid of clones collapsed in a burst of smoke, dumping Naruto on top of the unfortunate door-opener.
Sakura immediately started protesting - "It was Naruto's stupid idea! I didn't have anything to do with it, I was just talking with Sasuke-kun!" - while Sasuke could only stare in unhappy recognition at the jounin who was standing up with a struggling Naruto dangling from one hand.
"Hmm - my first impression of you all," said Kakashi, "is that - I don't like you."
Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter! I'll make it up to you next week with a longer one AND a side story, that sound okay? It's a fun side story, too, if I do say so myself... X3