Itachi

I was pulling up at home when I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. "Hello?" I answered.

"Itachi." It was Tsunade. Fear crept up my spine. Had something happened to Sasuke? I'd only been away from him for what, an hour?

"What is it? Is Sasuke alright?" I couldn't conceal the worry in my voice.

"Maybe a few bruises, but he's fine. He started it actually."

"He got into a fight." From what I was learning about his personality, it wasn't a surprise.

"He did. From what I gather, he attacked Naruto. They've fought before, but this was in a classroom, and he involved another student. Luckily a teacher stopped him before he did too much damage."

"At least he's alright," I said, although I was surprised a high school teacher managed to stop him. I knew he had taken martial arts up until recently. Did he still? I didn't even know.

"Itachi! Take this seriously."

"Don't worry, I am." I frowned, wondering how on earth I was going to deal with this.

"I'm suspending him. I need you to come pick him up," she continued.

I sighed. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes." I hung up and restarted the engine.


When I reached Tsunade's office, a blonde boy was slumped outside on a bench, staring off into space and holding an ice pack to his chin.

He looked up at me and scowled. "Itachi, you bastard. Leave Sasuke alone. You've done enough damage already."

I tensed. "What I do is none of your business, Naruto was it?"

He looked indignant. "I'm his best friend, it is so my business!"

"Best friend?" I raised a skeptical eyebrow, giving the ice pack a pointed look.

"Uh, yeah? It's by default. He doesn't really pay attention to anyone else, so I'm definitely his best friend.

"Well I am his brother," I replied in a tone meant to intimidate.

He snorted, unfazed. "Some brother you've been."

"What sort of best friend gets punched in the face?" I retorted.

He looked incredulous. "Have you met Sasuke?" I winced. I suppose he had a point. "Besides, I'm the one who's always been there for him," he added.

I took a deep breath and decided not to let a seventeen year old get to me, even if he did have a point and the situation with Sasuke was leaving me off balance. "Naruto, I am deeply grateful for everything you've done for my brother in the past, however I will take it from here."

"Hurt him again and you'll regret it," he said in a voice filled with passion.

"Was that a threat?" I chuckled, and then took on a serious expression. This boy did seem to genuinely care about Sasuke so I should be nice. "You don't need to worry. I fully intend to make up for my actions in the past. Sasuke needs support right now, and I am in the best position to provide it." The boy continued to look at me with skepticism, but seemed to accept my answer.

I turned to the office and jumped back as the door opened. A man stepped out, and I immediately recognized the head of spiky white hair. Kakashi was holding some brown paper towels to the side of his face in a half assed attempt to stop some bleeding.

"Senpai," I said, pleasantly surprised.

"Yo. It's been a while." He raised his hand in a wave and assumed his usual cheerful smile.

I nodded. "Last I heard you quit after losing an eye… You're working here now?" This was the last place I would have expected to find him.

He rubbed the back of his head. "Maa, Tsunade offered me the job, so I thought hey, why not give it a try?"

My lips twitched upward. More than likely he'd been too lazy to find another job after that. I glanced at the towels covering his face again. "Anyway, what happened to you?" I'd seen Kakashi's skills first hand, and they were top of the line.

"Eh, well… your brother happened."

"Sasuke did that to you? How?" I asked.

"What can I say? I was blindsided- quite literally." He chuckled, gesturing to his left eye covered by a slanted headband. "I guess I should have expected it seeing as he's your brother."

I snorted. "So that explains how a teacher was able to to restrain him."

He shrugged. "You have a lot of work on your hands when it comes to that kid."

I nodded, although to me Sasuke didn't seem much like a kid anymore. As a child he'd been innocent and cheerful- two words that in no way described him now.

I groaned as I realized how hard this was going to be. He'd been giving me enough trouble already, and I was frustrated. It was a foreign feeling and I didn't know how to deal with it. I really wasn't used to failure.

"Speaking of which, there's somewhere I have to be." I gestured to the door.

"Catch you later!" Kakashi said, holding up a hand in farewell. I turned back to the office as he walked away. I took a moment to compose my features, and knocked.


Sasuke

I opened my eyes and saw Tsunade standing over me with her arms crossed, tapping her foot. I was lying in her office with my back on a hard wooden bench. As I sat up, I saw Kakashi behind her, standing against the far wall and covering the part of his face where I'd stabbed him. I felt a little bit of guilt. My problem had been with Naruto, not him. Oh well, he was the one who chose to get in the middle of it.

Kakashi looked me over and then started towards the door. "It looks like Sasuke's calmed down, so if you don't mind I have a class… I'm rather late."

Tsunade sighed and gestured for him to leave. When the door clicked shut she turned back to me.

"Sasuke! What were you thinking?"

I folded my arms and leaned back, frowning in much the same way she was and keeping my mouth shut.

"Can't you at least try to control yourself? For God's sake you nearly took Kakashi's eye out!"

"Somebody else already did that." I pointed out.

"Well what would he have done if you'd hit the other one?"

"I couldn't have. He would have seen it coming."

She stomped back to her desk and sat down, jerking open a drawer, and pulling out a bottle of sake and a cup. "Sasuke, school is not a battlefield and violence should not be your go to response to provocation." She poured herself a drink and downed it in one go.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

She pursed her lips and continued. "This time you dragged Hinata into it too. If you had hurt her…" She trailed off, shaking her head. She downed another cup and then set the bottle aside, turning her attention fully on me. "I know you've been through a lot recently. You probably just need some more time." She chewed on her thumb as she thought.

"There is only about a month until the end of the term, so I'm suspending you for the rest of it. Get yourself together, and I'll see you in the fall." She stopped talking to glare at me for a moment. "Next time I will expel you," she warned.

I thought it over. I suppose it was a reasonable punishment, and I was quite glad to be rid of school for the time being. At home, I had Itachi to terrorize. School was quite boring in comparison. I tried not to think about how inconvenient this was going to be for him. It wasn't my problem.

"Itachi will be here to pick you up any moment," she added.

"Oh joy, just who I wanted to see." I said, although I did look forward to seeing his reaction to my latest mess.

At that moment, a knock sounded on the door. Itachi came in with a blank expression probably meant to conceal his frustration. He nodded to Tsunade, then turned on me.

"Sasuke, you do realize I have a job," he said, maintaining an impressively calm voice.

I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. "Guess you'll have to take some more time off. Or you could just leave me?"

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then turned to Tsunade. I had to wait while she ran through the details of my punishment again with Itachi. I glared at his back.

When they were finally done talking I stood up and strode to the door. "Let's get going. There's nothing like spending quality time with someone you hate."

Itachi winced and exchanged a look with Tsunade. I yanked open the door, and Itachi shut it gently behind us.

On the way home I was fidgety, restless. If Itachi noticed, he didn't say anything, but when we pulled up, he turned to face me. "You need a change of pace," he said. I raised an eyebrow, but he didn't elaborate.

We climbed out of the car and he beckoned for me to follow him into the yard. He took me out to the middle of the grass, a fair distance from the little purple flowers mom had loved.

Itachi gave me a calculating once over, and then in an instant I felt his fist collided with my body. Not hard enough to hurt me, just enough to knock me a bit off balance. And make me mad.

"Geez Itachi, what the fuck is your problem?" I said as I steadied myself.

"Hmm, I was expecting more from you," he said, with a look of pitying disappointment. "I guess you really have lost your touch."

"Forgive me for not expecting you to punch me," I growled, dropping into a defensive stance as adrenaline flooded my system in anticipation of a good fight. I clenched my teeth in an effort to keep myself from rushing at him. I'd known my brother was skilled but that punch reminded me of just how good he was. I couldn't have dodged it even if I'd known it was coming.

Itachi waited for me to make the next move, giving me the option of backing out. Well, fuck that. There was no way I could beat him, but I would not run away. I would do the best I could, and show him my skills- even if they were a bit rusty. I breathed slowly, calling upon what little patience I possessed to focus and figure out a strategy.

Pretty soon he took a step back, appearing to relax his posture. "That's it then? I guess you know a hopeless cause when you see one."

I growled and moved forward, unable to wait any longer. I swung my fist, and he dodged easily. I kept my momentum, bringing my knee up and into his ribs. He moved, and the blow hardly grazed him, but at least I landed a hit. I smiled slightly.

Itachi was pulling his punches a bit. Normally it would have bothered me, but I would take any advantage I could get.

I let his next hit land. Pain raced through my side, but again, his blow wasn't too hard. I used the moment to try and catch him off guard, but he caught my fist and sent me stumbling backwards.

He moved towards me again and knocked me over with a second blow. I groaned as my head hit the ground, and I was suddenly glad we were fighting on soft grass. Itachi stepped back, giving me a chance to recover.

I rolled to my feet and came at him with a kick. He caught my foot- which was exactly what I was expecting. I twisted around, knocking his feet out from under him, and with another well timed punch, he landed on the ground. I lost my balance and landed on the ground as well, but that was hardly the point.

He covered his mouth in an attempt to hide a smile and I glared at him. "What?" I demanded.

"You've gotten better."

I snorted. "Of course, dumbass. Now stop going easy on me. I know you could have dodged that." We continued to spar for the rest of the morning and I relaxed, for once letting myself enjoy the moment.