[A/N: By the way, I am now available as a beta reader, if anyone's interested!]

IV.

"…Aniki?"

Relaxing slightly at the familiar voice, Itachi put away the kunai he had instinctively pulled out and stood to lean over the counter. "Over here, Sasuke-chan."

Sasuke's face brightened as he darted over and bounced up to perch on the counter. "What are you doing in here, Nii-san?" he asked. "Are we going to have lunch soon?"

"Lunch?" Itachi repeated a bit blankly, before glancing at the clock placed high on the opposite wall and realizing that it was already twenty minutes after one. Where had all the time gone? "No, we aren't having lunch just yet," he said, although he knew that feeding the children couldn't be put off much longer. "What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for Naruto," Sasuke explained, holding out his arms expectantly. Itachi gently picked him up and set him down behind the counter. "I thought you would know where he was."

Itachi frowned. "Uzumaki Naruto?" Konoha's jinchuuriki being unaccounted for was a very bad sign.

"Yeah, he's in my class," Sasuke continued. "None of the other kids have seen him. I said I'd go look for him 'cause Shikamaru said he didn't want to bother and Kiba had to watch his baby cousin or something and Ino was trying to make Sakura feel better."

"I'll see what I can do," Itachi said. "By the way, Hana-san, Iruka-san needs your help with something. He's in one of the offices: I'll take you over there, actually. Otouto—"

"I want to come too!" Sasuke begged. "Please? The auditorium is too loud, I don't like it!"

"Very well then," Itachi sighed, taking Sasuke's proffered hand. Remembering how oppressive the auditorium had been, he could see why Sasuke would want to get away from it. Even Itachi had thought it a bit overwhelming, and Sasuke was much smaller than he was.

Iruka was practically ankle-deep in files by the time Itachi got back to the office with Hana and Sasuke in tow. "There you are," he said calmly, as if this was an everyday occurrence. "I'm sorting out the grades."

Hana raised an eyebrow at the mess. "Sorting?"

"Don't worry, I know where everything is!" Iruka protested. "There wasn't enough room on the table!"

Itachi interrupted before an argument could start. "Also, Iruka-san, I need Uzumaki Naruto's address."

"Naruto's?" Iruka repeated with a small frown. "Are you packing the little hellion back home already? I know he's a brat, but really…"

"The reverse, actually," Itachi replied. "No one here seems to know where he is. Will your…sorting scheme…let you find the address?"

"I don't need to," Iruka said. "He lives in the pension apartments near the warehouse district. I don't know the exact number, but it's the third building, in the one with the orange swirlies on the door."

"Thank you," Itachi said, a bit surprised. "I'll go look for him. Come along, Sasuke-chan."

…

It did not take long to find the apartment with the orange swirlies on the door, but when Itachi rang the bell there was no answer from inside. The pension apartments housed almost entirely elderly civilians or retired shinobi, so the inexperienced genin searching that section of the town might have understandably assumed there would be no children there and skipped over them entirely. This would have been easily remedied, but unfortunately, it seemed Naruto might not have stayed put.

"Wait here," Itachi said, leaving Sasuke on the front step as he carefully broke the lock on the window by the door. There didn't seem to be any wires or chakra triggers attached, but Itachi was still wary as he slipped inside.

From the looks of the living room, either there had been a fight involving eight S-rank shinobi, a hurricane had gone through it, or a six-year-old lived there all by himself. Judging by the general pattern of the mess, Itachi ruled out the fight and the hurricane. Naruto had not been kidnapped, at least not from his apartment.

"Is he in there?" Sasuke asked, peeking in through the window.

"It doesn't look like it," Itachi said, although he went quickly through the rest of the apartment just to make sure. Naruto seriously needed some lessons in organization and nutrition; Itachi was practically flooded by laundry when he opened the bedroom, and there was little in the kitchen besides instant ramen. Of course, Naruto really belonged under adult supervision, but there was little to be done about that now.

Climbing out through the window again, Itachi sealed it shut with chakra. Once this mess was over he could see about getting a new lock on, but for now finding Naruto was the higher priority.

"What do you know about Naruto?" Itachi asked Sasuke as they descended the steps again. He could follow the boy's chakra trail to some extent, but once they got onto the main streets it would be much harder to detect, so it would be a lot easier if he had some idea where he was going.

Sasuke shrugged. "He's annoying," he said firmly but unhelpfully.

"Anything else?" Itachi prompted.

"Well, he keeps yelling about how he's going to be the Hokage. Oh, and ramen. 'Ramen ramen Hokage ramen Hokage ramen ramen ramen.' That's about what it's like. And he keeps bothering Sakura. And he glued Mizuki to his chair yesterday."

"Indeed," Itachi remarked, only half-listening by this point as he considered the information. While he didn't pay overmuch attention to the little jinchuuriki besides discreetly scaring off people who might have bad intentions toward the child, he did remember seeing Naruto at a little ramen stand once or twice. Perhaps it was habitual.

"Yeah, and he was supposed to have detention for a whole week but I guess that's not going to happen now, is it?"

"No, probably not," Itachi agreed. "Here, this way," he continued, guiding Sasuke around a corner into the market district.

Ichiraku's Ramen was located at the tail end of the market district, and even though it was located near several much higher-end establishments it still did a rousing business, or rather it had before today when Ichiraku himself had been in residence.

This rousing business happened to include one Uzumaki Naruto, who, to Itachi's great relief, was currently sitting on one of the tall stools in front of the counter. There wasn't anyone else there, of course, so Itachi was a little confused as to why the boy was still hanging around.

Briefly letting go of Sasuke's hand now that the target was in sight, Itachi bounded up to a nearby telephone pole before dropping lightly down to the roof of the little ramen stand. "What are you doing here, Naruto-chan?" he asked mildly.

Naruto jumped, his arms pinwheeling for balance as he nearly fell off the stool. "I dunno," he said when he had finally recovered himself, "I didn't have anything else to do. Ichiraku-jii-san is awfully late. Where is everybody?"

Itachi was a little frustrated by this point, so he spoke more harshly than he might have otherwise. "So you've been sitting here for hours and it didn't even occur to you to look for anybody?"

"Um…yeah?" Naruto replied finally. "It's not like that would do any good, you know."

Itachi sighed. "Yes, but it would have saved us the trouble of scouring the village for you. Come on, you need to come with us to the Academy."

Having apparently just noticed Sasuke, Naruto made a face at the other boy before hopping down off the stool. "I'm not going to the Academy today!" he said defiantly. "And you can't make me do Mizuki-sensei's stupid detention, either!"

"But—" Naruto started sprinting down the street before Itachi could finish the sentence, and Itachi had to perform a quick shunshin to get in front of Naruto and grab him by the arm. "There isn't any school today," Itachi said.

"Then why do I have to go to the Academy?" Naruto demanded, quite logically in fact.

"All the grown-ups are gone, so everyone has to come to the Academy until we can find them," Itachi explained.

"Everybody?" Naruto's sea-blue eyes went big, and his voice started to get a little trembly. "Even Ichiraku-jii-san and Hokage-jii-san?"

"Took you long enough to figure it out, dead-last," Sasuke muttered from behind them.

Itachi turned on him. "Otouto, you mustn't say things like that! Apologize to Naruto-chan!"

Sasuke looked hurt at being shouted at before glaring sulkily at the ground. "But—"

"Apologize!" Itachi snapped. Maybe Hana would let her younger brother run wild with their parents gone, but Itachi had no intention of doing the same. Naruto was unhappy enough at the news without Sasuke baiting him.

"Fine," Sasuke huffed. "I'm sorry you're a—" he caught Itachi's pointed look and quickly amended his sentence. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you, Otouto," Itachi said, bending over to pick up Naruto, who was still looking a bit distraught. "Naruto-chan, how about we stop at a candy store before we head back to the Academy?" he suggested, heading for a small establishment Shisui had made him very familiar with.

There was a horrified gasp from behind him, and Itachi turned to see Sasuke standing frozen in the middle of the street. "What is it, Otouto?" Itachi asked, still a little annoyed.

Sasuke sniffled a couple times, then burst into tears.

Itachi quickly set Naruto down and hurried over to his brother. "What's wrong, Sasuke-chan?" he asked, gently putting his hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"You like Naruto more than meeeee!" Sasuke wailed, and continued to sob.

Itachi stared at him, trying to figure out what demented line of childish reasoning had led to that conclusion. If this was what being a parent was like, maybe all the adults had just up and left, rather than having to put up with situations like this.

[A/N: Poor Sasuke, the stress is finally getting to him. As with all my fics, this one is getting longer, but that's okay, I thought it would happen.]