Title: Friend
Rating: T
Summary: Itachi isn't the only one with a little brother who was assaulted. He wonders how Kenen Murakami deals with it.
Warnings: Serious stuff going down here people, get your hanky.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto does.
Author Note: Aww! You guys like my oc's :) You give me warm fuzzies in my tummy! Also, this is the shortest chapter of the lot so far.
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Itachi watches Kakashi training his little brother from the trees. He's good enough that even Sharingan no Kakashi can't catch him spying when he really puts his mind to hiding from people.
So it's a little bit of a surprise when a shadow clone of Naruto appears beside him.
"Heya, Itachi-san."
"Hn. Naruto."
"What'cha doing?" It cocks it's head to the side and stares at Itachi with concentration.
Itachi never assigns gender to clones; it's pointless, really.
"Checking in on my brother," He finally answers. Clone nods like it knows what Itachi is thinking.
"Yeah, I see that. Why? I mean, Boss and Kaka-sensei and Sakura-chan are with him. You don't gotta worry about him when he's with us."
"I always worry about Sasuke."
"No duh," Clone rolls its eyes, "But you gotta 'member, if I can find you, Boss knows that you're here and if you don't think that Sasuke can't sense you, you're either in denial about his abilities or naive."
Itachi doesn't answer, just whips out a shuriken and the clone vanishes in a tiny poof of smoke. Itachi turns his gaze back to the team and manages to see Naruto look over to him and glare.
He doesn't care though, because it doesn't matter if Sasuke can sense him watching or not, he's going to protect his little brother. That's just the way it is.
When Kakashi dismisses the team for the day, Sakura follows the jounin off the field asking a million questions at a time. The boys just turn to stare at Itachi.
Itachi sighs and jumps down from him position in the trees.
He can't really hide from them when they already know he's there.
"Otouto, Naruto-kun."
"Thanks," Naruto rolls his eyes, "Yah know, for killing me in the throat with a shuriken."
Itachi doesn't say anything to that because he's used shadow clones before, and he knows that each one gives the original a taste of what kind of death it had when it disperses.
"Aniki," Sasuke murmurs, "Can I help you with something?"
"I-" He wants to ask about why Naruto was with Sasuke two days ago, on Saturday, with Jogen.
But he already knows, so he can't really. There's only one possible reason why Naruto would be going with Sasuke to Jogen, and that's if Naruto was raped as well.
It hurts to know that not only was Sasuke raped, but Naruto - his best friend - was too.
"May I ask you what your plans for today are?"
Naruto grins up at him, whisker marks on his face crinkling, "We're done training with Kaka-sensei, but we figured that we'd do a bit more taijutsu. We're fairly weak, physically."
They may be weak physically, but they have more than enough strength mentally. To be able to go on after such horror was committed upon them spoke to their strength of mind. "I see," Itachi murmurs. He can understand why the boys would want to be stronger as well.
A chakra signature at the edge of the field causes all three to turn and look. Itachi is curious to see that it's the Murakami boy that he'd seen with Sasuke and his team while they were still in the academy. He wonders why they're still friends.
He isn't friends with anyone that he went to the academy with.
The boy looks apprehensive, but committed to whatever it is that he's here for. Itachi backs away a little, letting the boy feel more comfortable with the younger children. He realizes, as he watches them, that Murakami is only two years younger than him and is curious as to why the boy is scared to approach Sasuke and Naruto when he was closer to them.
He watches Naruto grab Murakami's hand and drag him over to Sasuke. He does notice that Naruto is exceedingly gentle with the older boy.
Their conversation is too low for him to listen to without the aid of chakra enhancing his hearing, but he doesn't utilize his chakra for that. Their conversation is private and Sasuke would know that Itachi was listening in if he did that.
He drifts further away and watches the boys carefully, and discreetly. With every step further away from them that he takes, the calmer Murakami noticeably becomes.
It's then that he suddenly remembers who the boy is; what his name is, what happened to him.
This is the boy that Sasuke had asked about after Itachi had beheaded Sasaki.
He doesn't know why he didn't remember before, despite it practically staring him in the face the entire time.
It must be because he's too focused on Sasuke, he thinks.
Maybe he shouldn't be so focused on one person, he thinks, maybe he should be more... open. He really can't imagine himself as 'open' though. The only person that he really cares about, truly cares about, is Sasuke. Everyone, and everything, else is secondary to Sasuke.
A ninja lands on the ground beside him; another chuunin, one with dark hair, dark eyes, and probably around the age of fifteen.
"Uchiha-san." He stands up calmly, "I am Kenen Murakami." His eyes wander to the three boys, "Manabu-kun is my little brother."
"Itachi Uchiha," Itachi says, "Sasuke-kun is mine." He pauses and wonders if he meant that Sasuke was his own little brother, or just his. He decides that it doesn't really matter. He looks Kenen up and down, "You were not the brother who picked Manabu-kun up from school the day I was there."
"No," Kenen keeps his eyes on the boys, "That was Kouken. He's thirteen. One of our other brothers."
Itachi wonders what it would be like to have more than one brother. "How many siblings do you have?"
"I have five younger brothers."
Itachi is shocked. He can't imagine having to watch out for five younger brothers. No matter how good he is, he's not good enough to watch over them all. He thinks that Kenen must be a very good brother.
"Do you know?" He finally asks, but doesn't come out and say it bluntly. Just by Kenen being here and watching over Manabu has already answered his question.
"I know more than my parents," Kenen admits. The fifteen year old looks over to him, "Probably as much as you do."
"I see," Itachi murmurs. It's questionable whether Kenen knows as much as Itachi does, but he doesn't dispute the older chuunin's claim.
"They're survivors, Itachi-san," Kenen says, "They've survived this, they'll keep surviving. As long as we keep providing them with safe haven."
"I will never stop providing that for Sasuke," Itachi doesn't scowl but his lips do twist downwards.
"Don't get bitchy with me, Itachi-san," Kenen rebukes, "I'm completely out of my depth with Manabu. I- Seriously, I don't understand what happened, I don't understand how Manabu survived, and I don't understand why he would want to be friends with someone else who was hurt in the same manner as he was. By the same man, even."
Itachi realizes that Kenen must feel as helpless as he does about what happened.
"I understand," He tells the older boy. Kenen looks at him with dark emotion in his eyes and Itachi thinks that Kenen believes him.
"So," Kenen takes a deep breath, "How am I supposed to help him?"
Itachi's eyes track the boys as they walk to the shade and continue talking in low voices, a murmur on the wind to him.
Itachi blinks back tears. His answer to Kenen's question hurts.
"I- I don't know."
Kenen sounds just as broken as he does, "But, we'll figure it out, right?"
"Yes," Itachi is firm about that. He will help Sasuke, he will find out how to help Sasuke. And, he supposes, he will help Kenen do the same for his brother.
"Itachi-san?" Kenen rubs his hands together, looking at nothing, just staring into the distance over the tree line, "Why does it hurt so much when I wasn't the one that it happened to?"
"I do not know," Itachi answers quietly. It's surprisingly comforting to know that there is someone else who knows what he's going through, how he feels.
They continue to watch their brothers for a time until Manabu steps away from Sasuke and Naruto. They head over to the boys and Manabu looks a little surprised to see Kenen walking beside Itachi. He smiles though, and lets Kenen take his hand to walk with him.
Kenen sends a look over his shoulder to Itachi as he leaves, one that says he's going to be talking with Itachi again about this.
Itachi finds himself looking forward to it. It's strange, but he thinks that having someone around who understands will let him relax a little bit.
Itachi finds himself thinking that maybe, just maybe, he may have made his very first friend.
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