A/N: Hi! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Reviews totally brighten my day. Okay! My friend brought up a really important point after reading this story, a point I'd never have thought of before. Sasuke and Itachi don't act as "dark" as they're supposed to. That is so true. After some thinking, I decided that Sasuke acted differently because of the fact that his parents were still alive, Itachi didn't massacre the Uchiha clan, and everyone is happy.

But seeing as how this doesn't really happen, I had to do some awkward thinking.

What would the brothers be like if they grew up with their parents and everything was normal?

I was in total, insane control.

And THAT'S why Itachi is an extremely hyper overly cheerful 20 year old with dreams of musical glory. Sasuke isn't as cold and dark as how he is in the anime and manga, so I just loosened him up a bit. A lot. He isn't as indifferent, and as you'll see in this chapter, he strives hard to please his parents.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO.

So Sakura was cutting nervously into her baked potato (another one of the marvelous dishes on the table). She wasn't exactly sure how to do this, the entire affair of taking a knife, slicing through the potato, then picking it up with fork or spoon was difficult.

Extremely so.

Even more than usual because this potato was really hard.

There was a loud cackle of thunder, and then a flash of lightning.

And just then, the lights went out.

Everyone froze except for Sasuke.

"Don't panic, kids," Mikoto said, "its okay."

"Um." That was Itachi.

It was pitch black, except for the weak gray sunlight coming in through the morning room and the few windows.

An exceptionally loud boom of thunder, and Sakura almost jumped; her elbow slid off the table, knocking her knife to the ground.

She heard it clatter and hit something.

10 seconds later-

Sasuke slowly turned to look at her sidelong.

His onyx orbs flashed Sharingan red for a moment.

"Oh." Sakura stammered, "Uh—sorry. Was that your foot?"

Sasuke's eyes said yes it was indeed his foot, idiot.

She blinked.

He sighed then smirked lightly, (no one could see it) facing front again.

"Don't worry about it."

"Er—okay."

Well, there was no way she was getting her knife.

The lights flickered back on.

There was some nervous laughter, and they resumed their eating.

But Sakura was without a knife to cut her baked potato.

She looked around for something to cut it with, but to no avail. There were only five placemats and 5 sets of forks, spoons, and knives. She wasn't about to lean over and ask someone if she could use their knife.

No way.

She bit her lip. Just then, Itachi's dark eyes met her emerald ones.

"Somethin' wrong?" He asked.

"Nope. Nothing at all."

Sakura looked at the dry baked potato. If she left the whole thing when she hadn't even started eating, she'd waste food. They'd think she was an ungrateful little brat without any sense of respect or politeness. And the food itself looked really good, too.

She sighed.

Taking up the spoon, the rosette gripped it tightly in her right hand.

She started cutting viciously into the hard baked potato. She thought she had a piece separated enough, when suddenly it wouldn't budge. It was stuck.

That's when Sakura made her mistake.

She gritted her teeth and drove in harder, pushing down, then jerking up.

You can see where this is going, right?

When she yanked the spoon up, trying to free the chunks of baked potato—

Turns out the chunks of baked potato wanted to fly.

The lumps went up.

Everyone stared as they flew high into the air, then started coming down.

One went into Fugaku's drink.

Another landed on his head.

The third went into Sasuke's plate, and the last fell in Itachi's lap.

For a second, no one did anything.

Then Sakura jumped up.

"Augh!" She cried, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!"

There was a flash of lightning, and the lights flicked off again.

"No, dear," Mikoto said quickly, "it's fine! I think I made a mistake in the baking. The potato's are really hard—"

"No!" Sakura shouted, her eyes ready to stream tears, "You're lying! Please stop it! I'm sorry! This is my fault! I always mess up! I'm so sorry!"

She spun 'round.

"No, Sakura!" Itachi said, "wait!"

Sakura made her way across the polished wood and ran up the stairs.

There was a slam as she went into her room.

Fugaku sighed in depressed irritation and swiped the potato lump off of his head.

"Oh no." Mikoto panicked. "Someone has to go talk to her! Fugaku and I can't do it, we're adults. Itachi? Sasuke? It has to be one of you two."

Sasuke picked up the lump of potato from out of his plate and put it on a napkin.

Itachi pushed the lump of potato out of his lap and onto the floor.

Neither looked all too excited to be involuntarily volunteered.

And then a thought struck Itachi.

"Sasuke should do it."

Said Uchiha looked up.

"Me? Why me?"

"Because you guys are almost the same age, little brother," Itachi said, his eyes narrowing and mouth curling into his foxy grin, "and you're obviously the closest to our new foster sister."

Sasuke shot him a death glare.

"Dear," Mikoto said, walking over and putting her hand on his shoulder, "Itachi's right. You and Sakura are pretty much the same age, and I think she'll listen to you."

"How do you figure that?"

"I don't know, Sasuke. I just do."

"But mom—" he protested.

Mikoto gave him a look.

"Fine," Sasuke muttered , "whatever."

Fugaku stared coldly at his youngest child.

"Be more respectful to your mother, Sasuke."

He said it quietly but so viciously that Sasuke stood and bowed his head.

"Sorry mom."

"It's fine dear," Mikoto said, "don't worry. Go talk to Sakura. And I think now would be a good time to give her the gifts, okay?"

He nodded, turned around and started walking away—

When Itachi sprang up and followed him.

When they were out of earshot of their parents, Itachi put his elbow on Sasuke's shoulder and leaned down.

Hard.

Sasuke frowned but figured Itachi wouldn't have followed him if it wasn't to say something important.

"Just think of it this way, Sasuke," Itachi said, "mom is actually doing you a favor. If all goes well and you convince Sakura that she's not just some clumsy depressed little girl who makes mistakes and fails at life without a hope and full of despair, you'll win her heart and she'll love you for eternity."

Both of them stopped.

"Well…" Itachi considered slowly, "…maybe. Possibly. Eventually."

Sasuke shrugged his brothers arm off and rounded on him.

The only reason he was being so to this girl was because his mom told him that Sakura had been through a lot and needed as much kindness as possible.

But that didn't mean Uchiha Sasuke didn't have any interest in the feisty pink-haired kid.

He did, in fact.

But he would never have pulled out chairs for her or any gentlemanly stunt like that if not for his mother.

Sasuke managed an "Itachi you idiot get out of my life" through clenched teeth and started walking up the steps.

"She was crying, you know."

Sasuke turned to stare at his brother.

"What? When?"

Itachi pushed his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"Earlier today. I was on my way to mom and dad's room and I heard her."

Sasuke exhaled.

Great.

Outside, the rain stopped.

"Just want to let you know that this is serious," his brother said, "don't screw it up. Try comforting her."

Sasuke nodded and made his way up the steps. He was actually kind of impressed and relieved that Uchiha Itachi had an actual heart somewhere underneath all that romance and music.

Then Itachi's voice rang out:

"You could try something like: 'I'll be here for you, my love!'" he said, "or 'I'll be here forever to wipe your tears away!' Or something."

Itachi was very smooth with the ladies.

What was that about impressed?

"Keep your lame romantic advice to yourself, Mr. Piano prodigy," Sasuke snarled.

Itachi grinned. "Whatever, brother. Just don't mess up."

"I'll try," Sasuke said more to himself than Itachi, and made his way to Sakura's room.

He pressed his ear to the door.

Nothing.

Sasuke slid his hand down and turned the knob.

The door swung open—

There was no one inside.

Sasuke looked around and his keen gaze caught that the balcony door was unlocked.

She was out there.

He took a step in, then stopped.

Oh.

He'd forgotten the gifts.

Spinning around, Sasuke went into the bonus room closet and dragged out the two big boxes full of gifts for Sakura from the Uchiha family. They were either from Mikoto, Fugaku, Itachi or Sasuke. Everything was hand-wrapped, hand-written, and hand-signed.

All due to some persuading and threats from Mikoto, of course.

And then Sasuke remembered something. It was one of Itachi's special gifts, but it was in Itachi's room. Sasuke ran into Itachi's room, picked up the present, and ran back. He picked up the boxes (they didn't have lids, so some of the presents were poking him in the face) and went into Sakura's room. He shut the door quietly with his foot and proceeded onto the balcony.

Sakura was there, sitting on the far left under an awning. She was hugging her knees to her chest.

She managed a soundless "Sasuke?"

He did his smirking smile and made his way over to her, sitting down and setting the boxes to his left.

For a time neither said anything.

The rain had stopped long ago; now the sky was a calm, sad, mellow dove gray. A breeze blew.

It was kind of chilly for summer.

As everyone knows, Sasuke doesn't talk much and can sit in silence for a long time without feeling awkward.

But Sakura, on the other hand—

She was sweating and her cheeks were flushed. Mainly because Sasuke was sitting so close to her. She'd never been this close to him before.

(Seeing as how she'd only been living at his house for a couple hours).

She shifted uncomfortably.

And right when she was about to start wringing her hands—

He turned his onyx eyes to her.

"Sakura," he sighed, choosing his words carefully, "…what happened at lunch, it doesn't matter. Everyone makes mistakes…and...uh…." For the first time ever, Uchiha Sasuke sounded cheesy. He cleared his throat. "You don't need to get upset over it, all right? No one's mad or—"

"You don't get it, Sasuke," Sakura said, shaking her head, "I always do that. I always make really stupid mistakes when I'm not supposed to screw things up. I always end up messing up right when everything seems to be going right. I hate that. I speak without thinking and do idiotic things without thinking of the consequences."

He stared at her.

"And with me," she went on quickly, "it's not even the whole, 'do what your heart tells you' thing. I just do the first thing that comes to my mind. My heart is…so unsure. I don't even know how to feel. There's just too much anger inside, too much ticked off, confused hurt… completely clouding up my heart." Sakura said, turning away from him to stare straight ahead, to look without seeing. "There's just so much I don't even understand…" her voice dropped down to a whisper as she pulled her knees to her chest, "inside…I'm just...so… lost."

Just then, the sun came out.

And there was silence.

Sakura bit her lip and shut her eyes, making sure the tears wouldn't fall. She would never let herself cry in front of Sasuke, no way. A moment later, everything she just said came back to her,

Oh, snap.

She jerked her head up.

"Oh, my God! See! I ramble, too! I ramble about things I'm never supposed to tell anyone!"

She cried out in frustration and kicked the railing of the balcony, only hurting her socked foot in the process.

Right then, Sasuke turned to her; his jaw clenched.

"Sakura. I just…want to tell you that…"

His mind flicked back to Itachi. What should he say? 'I'll be here for you, my love? I'll be here forever to wipe your tears away?'

"R-really?" Sakura whispered.

Sasuke froze.

"What?"

"You'll really be here for me forever to wipe my tears away?"

Ah.

Crap.

"Wait. Did I just say all that out loud?"

She nodded.

Sasuke bit back a swear word and passed a hand over his face.

Stupid Itachi.

Stupid, stupid, stupid older brother!

If he hadn't told Sasuke all that mushy romantic junk he'd never had said anything this stupid!

AUGH!

Itachi!

This. Was. All. HIS fault.

"So will you?" Sakura asked.

She looked sincerely hopeful.

Sasuke tried not to grit his teeth and managed a half smile.

And he nodded.

"W-wow," Sakura stammered, her face going beet red. "That's amazing. Thank you so much, Sasuke."

"Anytime."

She grinned and turned her eyes to the sky. After a second, she said—

"Hey look. A rainbow."

There was a huge rainbow stretching across the sky, the spectrum of colors standing out against the gray sky.

Rainbows and romance…

It was like a picture perfect moment.

But it only lasted for, eh, 10 seconds right until—

"Meow!"

Their eyes snapped away from the sky and to the boxes.

Sasuke knew what it was, but Sakura—

"Did that box just meow?"

He laughed sadly and shook his head.

"All this stuff is for you," he said, "everyone got you different presents. And Itachi…well, Itachi got you …a someone." He pulled the special gift out of the box and pushed it over to Sakura. It was a carrying box, and around it was a ribbon with a little card that said "From: Itachi To: Sakura."

Sakura opened the little door and out came—

A cat?

"Meow!"

The kitty cat was bright orange with bright blue eyes. Around the neck was a string with a little tag which read: "Name- Naruto."

"Naruto?" Sakura asked, picking him up, "For me? Wow! He's adorable!"

"Yeah," Sasuke said half-heartedly, "he was sleeping this whole time and I think he just woke up."

"He's so cu-u-u-u-u-te!" Sakura grinned, hugging Naruto to her chest.

Sasuke knew otherwise.

A/N: YES! Naruto is a CAT! Ha. I wanted to bring Naruto into this somehow, and decided I'd name the cat after him. PLEASE REVIEW!