The walk to Sasuke's house seemed to be a lot shorter than it had been for him to walk to Naruto's house. He didn't know why. Maybe it was because he got lost on the way to Naruto's house, or it could be that he had been more worried about seeing Naruto than it was for him to see his parents. Whatever the reason, Sasuke was thoroughly shocked when they arrived just outside of his house without him even noticing.
"Hello little brother," Itachi said from the door. Sasuke tensed, but Itachi ignored it. He knew that it was going to take his little brother a while to trust him again, and he really couldn't blame the kid. Not after everything that he went through. "Are you two going to come in?"
"I don't want to intrude," Naruto tried to say, but Itachi smiled kindly at him and he knew that he wasn't going to be able to argue. In any other situation he would have, but he really didn't want to leave Sasuke's side quite yet.
"Come on in," Itachi urged the both of them. "Father and mother are eager to see you again little brother."
Sasuke only nodded as he stepped into the house. It was amazing how different the place seemed. It still looked exactly the same as it had been when his parents died, Sasuke never moved anything except to clean and then each object was placed right back where it was originally, but other things made the whole house different. Mainly, it was the scent of the house. He could smell freshly bought flowers, probably given by his father to his mother. It was the one gesture of kindness that his father had always shown to his mother. Whenever a single flower wilted, he would immediately go out and buy another extravagant bouquet to replace it. His mother loved flowers. In fact, she maintained a garden of her own, but she didn't like to pick the flowers and bring them into her home so she loved the gifted flowers from his father.
Then there was the scent of baking. His mother was probably in the kitchen making some sort of sweets. It was another one of her hobbies. In fact, most of their meals contained some sort of sweet. Sasuke considered her to be the best cook in the world, and no other sweet could ever measure up to her amazing cooking. That's why he had stopped eating sweets when she had died, because, even though he actually really liked sweets, they all reminded him of her.
"Mother!" Itachi called into the house. "Father! Sasuke is here."
There was a loud thunking sound as something was put down much more roughly than it probably should have been in the kitchen before Mikoto rushed out to greet her youngest son. "Oh my baby!" she sighed happily as she wrapped her arms tightly around him. Sasuke immediately melted into her warm embrace. He couldn't help it. He had missed his mother's kind touch for such a long time. He felt like an innocent child clinging to his mother after something bad had happened, but he didn't care because his mother gave him all the comfort that he had been missing.
Mr. Uchiha came into the hallway soon after. He wasn't as fast as Mikoto, because of his Uchiha pride, but Sasuke could tell, even though he wouldn't have been able to when he was younger, that his father was more than happy to see him. Mr. Uchiha walked up to his son, who was still wrapped in Mikoto's arms and patted him on the back. "Welcome home son," he said.
Sasuke could only nod. This was all so new to him, and, yet, it's like he had always known this. He felt like, if he closed his eyes, everything would disappear and he would be in his abandoned home again. But when he opened his eyes everything was still there.
"Alright," Mikoto said when she finally let him go, "I'm making some apple pie right now." Apple pie had always been Sasuke's favorite. "Are you going to stay and eat too?" she asked Naruto.
"If that's not a bother," Naruto said with a small smile.
"Of course not," Mikoto smiled. "I'll even pack up a slice for your mother and father, if your mother will promise to give me some of her famous cookies."
"I'm sure she'll be fine with that," Naruto laughed.
Sasuke was suddenly struck with how openly Naruto was acting with his parents, but there was something off about the whole interaction. Naruto seemed to be very shy and, even though he acted like the Uchiha's were a second family to him, Sasuke could tell that there was an undertone of feeling like he shouldn't be there. His parents, on the other hand, treated Naruto with an odd sort of reverence that he had never seen them show to anyone else. His father even seemed to bow his head any time Naruto looked at him, and when Naruto passed him there was a slight forward bend in his back that was very close to a bow. It amazed Sasuke that Naruto could illicit that sort of reaction from either of his parents, but, he supposed, there was a lot about Naruto that he had missed over the years that he had been a traitor. Now, he decided as Naruto followed him and the rest of his family into the dining room, he was determined to learn everything about Naruto and make up for all the horrible things he had done.
"Now Naruto," Mikoto said as she brought out the food and the rest of the group sat in their own perspective chairs. Sasuke's father sat at the head of the table while Mikoto sat opposite him and Itachi sat Fugaku's right side while Sasuke and Naruto sat on his left. "You know our rules. No hoods at the table."
Suddenly the whole room went tense and Naruto stood from his chair. "I've been away from my parents all day today. I'm sure they'll want me home so that we can at least have dinner together."
"At least take some dessert with you," Mikoto said as she too stood up with her lip between her teeth.
"Thank Mikoto-san," Naruto bowed slightly and took the offered food before he left the house entirely.
"What was that about?" Sasuke asked.
"I'm sorry Sasuke," Mikoto said. "I knew that Naruto was sensitive about what was under his hood, but he was always fine with showing himself to us so I just thought that it wouldn't bother him. I was being careless."
"You've seen under his hood?" Sasuke's eyes widened.
"You haven't?" Mikoto asked. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I never should have brought it up."
"It's fine mother," Itachi spoke up. "Sasuke's going to have to learn what's under the hood sooner or later. We just have to give Naruto some time. Isn't that right Sasuke?"
"Fine," Sasuke said begrudgingly. He wanted nothing more than to follow Naruto right out those doors and demand that he explain exactly what he was hiding, but he knew that he had no right to do such a thing as to command that Naruto trust him after he had so easily broken Naruto's trust before.
Sorry guys. This is the last pre-written chapter for this story. I'll post the next one as soon as I finish it