A/N: Here's the next one!


Chapter 5: To Be King


Early the next morning saw a certain noiret Uchiha prince lying, sleepless and exhausted, in his bed.

The sun had just begun to rise, its cheerful rays slowly creeping across the floor to crawl upon his bedsheets.

He stared up at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes as he silently pleaded Kami for at least a few minutes of precious sleep, but with every passing moment his hopes dwindled.

A yawn from somewhere at his feet made him twitch, only looking away from the ceiling to see Naruto awakening, sitting up with a stretch.

"G'mornin', Sasuke," he mumbled, rubbing the tears away after he yawned again. "Beautiful morning, isn't it?"

He stayed silent, holding his tongue.

Naruto frowned, leaning over. "Sasuke? Dude, you awake?"

Slowly, the prince turned his head to give the blond a deadpan stare. "No, Naruto, I died somewhere between midnight and three with my eyes open and I still somehow have a heartbeat."

His friend winced a little. "Geez, what bit you in the ass?"

"My thoughts," he retorted, choosing to ignore the insult as he closed his eyes. "I didn't sleep a wink."

Naruto pressed a hand to the prince's forehead, waiting for a moment. The prince opened his eyes to frown in confusion at him, and he clucked his tongue and pulled his hand away a second later.

"You feel alright," he said, as if Sasuke hadn't just told him the reason he was awake. "You don't look so hot, though. Get enough sleep?"

The prince, in his drowsy haze, merely blinked.

Naruto folded his arms, giving him a look that said 'I'm waiting'.

Finally, the prince rolled his eyes, sitting up in his bed. "I swear to you, Naruto, that you would struggle to pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel."

The blond scratched his head, scrunching up his nose. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing." He was waved away. "What am I to do today?"

"Well, if I can remember..." Naruto tapped his finger to his chin before consulting the book at the end of the nightstand. "Always good to look. Um, looks like you have a lesson from your father this morning and another meeting with a couple of foreign noblewomen in the afternoon, right before tea."

Sasuke groaned, flinging himself backwards onto his pillow. "If you weren't my personal servant, I'd ask you to kill me."

"Just because I'm your friend doesn't mean I don't have the urge to murder you sometimes," Naruto reminded with a huff as he snapped the book shut. The sound it made made Sasuke jump, and he looked up at Naruto with a glare.

"Don't look at me like that, teme." He rolled his eyes, grabbing the prince by the shoulders and trying to yank him out of bed. "C'mon, get up- geez, what do you weigh? I'd be jealous if you weren't so heavy- we need to get you dressed for breakfast."


Itachi awoke silently, sitting up in his bedroll as he stretched. The cool morning air was just enough to make him want to retreat into his bed again, but he had a mission to do.

He glanced over at his partner, the enormous fish of a man Kisame, and pulled on a coat. It looked like he was the one stuck with breakfast again.

Rule one of being a soldier, he recited to himself, always be prepared for any contingency.

He slipped on his sandals and crept out of the tent, the full force of the cold smacking him in the face. He rubbed his cheeks a little to warm them up and then got to work.

He pulled out a small cast-iron pot and lid and some firewood and got to work. He arranged the firewood in the little firepit they'd dug the night before. Looking around, he brought his hands together and gently blew a stream of fire to the pit, and the wood caught it.

A tiny smile came to his face at the sight. Even if it forever linked him with his cursed family, his element comforted him. They could take just about anything from him, but as long as he had fire, he had hope. Its flames were a comforting hug, like the ones his mother used to give.

He set up an iron 'stovetop' above the flames and stood up, pot in hand. He headed for the nearby river, only filling the pot halfway. He came back to see Kisame coming out of the tent, fully dressed and rubbing his eye.

"Morning, Itachi-san," he greeted with that feral-looking grin. "Same breakfast as usual?"

Wordlessly, the noiret nodded. He put the lid on and set the pot on the 'oventop', going to grab the box of rice from his pack in the tent.

...

A little while later, the two - well, mostly Kisame - were engaged in pleasant conversation beside the little fire. The rice was boiling steadily, providing a little bit of background noise.

"Y'know, I've had something on my mind for a while." Kisame said as he lifted the lid to see its contents. "You've been in the resistance for a while, yet you haven't said more than a word about why."

Itachi sat still in his spot, the unasked question coming forth in his mind.

Kisame set the lid back on the pot and turned to look at his young partner. "Why'd you leave? Konoha, I mean. It seems rather strange trading such a cushy life for this one."

The noiret nodded, the movement so slight you almost couldn't see it. He watched the pot for a few moments.

Finally, due to Kisame's expectant stare, he spoke. "I left because I had nothing."

Kisame, slightly taken-aback, blinked. "What?"

'My past life." Itachi gestured with his eyes towards the east. "I was nothing but a pawn in someone else's game. A mere black knight."

The blue-skinned man still looked puzzled.

Itachi sighed quietly. "I was never meant to be king. My father purposefully trained me to become a soldier in hopes that I would one day command his armies."

"But... but you were the firstborn, right?"

"Only that." His eyes grew cold as he remembered. "I was too weak. Too emotional. He surmised that I would never make a good king - and perhaps correctly so."

Kisame scratched the back of his head. "Damn, man. That's awful; I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Itachi waved off the question, taking a mitt in his hand to take off the lid. "In any event, the only one we have to fear now... is Sasuke."


Sasuke barely managed to stifle a yawn as his father went on about different techniques.

'- and that creates..." Fugaku quickly went through the handsigns and blew, a sizely fireball escaping from his throat to incinerate the target.

"Well done, father." Sasuke monotonously praised.

Fugaku rose an eyebrow at his youngest. "Haven't you been listening to me?"

"Of course." The boy stretched, mimicking the symbols, only to release his own. His fireball, while significantly smaller, still hit the target dead-on, making the wood burst into flames.

His father smiled proudly. "It needs work, but it's a testament to your proud heritage."

Sasuke shrugged, aloof. Meh, that's the closest to praise that I'll get from him.

"You're restless, aren't you?" He asked rhetorically. Placing a hand on his son's shoulder, he steered them towards the garden door. "Why don't you clean up and get ready for your future bride?"

"Perhaps future bride, Father," he corrected, a hint of ice in his voice.

"Of course, of course." The brunet nodded. "You don't even know her yet. Well, after today, you will."

He let go, watching his son saunter down the hallway, arms folded.

His eyes crinkled into a smile for a moment, but it faded as he thought of the future.

"I must get him a bride," he murmured to himself, gazing out of one of the large floor-to-ceiling windows at the sky. The color was darkening, periwinkle to a lovely azure. "If he's to become king on his twentieth birthday, it must be done."


Sasuke flopped onto his bed, his hair still damp from his bath.

Naruto looked up from his book. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't want to meet her," the prince groaned into his pillow. "She'll be obsessed with me, just like the others before her."

"Don't be such a Negative Nancy, geez." Naruto rolled his eyes and shut his book, sitting up. "You don't even know her yet. Would it kill you to be a little optimistic?"

He shifted, looking up from the cloth with a deadpan stare.

"Fine," he replied, flicking a piece of bark off of his comforter with his fingers, "I'm optimistic that this one will turn out to be a total s-"

"Okay, okay, fine!" Naruto interrupted loudly.

"- Okay, one, don't interrupt me." Sasuke glared at his friend. "Two, I was going to say snob."

Naruto just sighed as the prince hid his face in the pillow again.


A/N: And thus ends this Uchiha-filled chapter.

Please tell me what you thought, feel free to speculate, and I'll see you guys in the next chapter.