Acceptance for their predicament was a ways away. Neither of the little boys could fathom why they would ever in a million trillion years marry one another. In fact, it seemed as though they didn't want to know. Which was fine with their older selves. The men didn't expect questions from the children right away. They knew themselves well, each other even better, and the questions would only come when curiosity burned their brains.
The kids had settled down somewhat since their initial shock. Little Naruto's stomach made a pretty loud growling noise after a while. He went back to eating his food with minimal coaxing. He was determined not to look at his friend this time lest he get the urge to puke up this yummy food if he remembered what their older selves had done a few moments prior. He tried very hard to not think about the fact that Sasuke's love was in his food.
Despite him copying his friend and returning to his food, Little Sasuke wasn't stuffing his face like little Naruto. The little boy still only pushed the food in his bowl around with his chopsticks.
"Is your food too cold Sasuke?" Mikoto asked her youngest. This time she was observing her son. "I could heat it up for you."
"Mm-mm." Sasuke shook his head, his eyes closed for a moment setting his chopsticks down. "I'm not hungry."
"You've barely touched your food." Mikoto noted, hands wiping on her apron. Her eyebrows crinkled in concern.
"Yeah, well...I lost my appetite." Little Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek. Add a little truth, he reminded himself. "That kiss was gross."
"Oi." Naruto objected, "Don't try to use us an excuse. You weren't eating back inside either."
Little Sasuke's eyes widened minutely. His heartbeat quickened. Grown up Naruto had noticed too? "Yes I was."
"No." Kage Sasuke's voice was firm. He looked himself dead in the eye. "You weren't."
He snatched his younger self's bowl and reheated it with a quick lil puff of fire. His free hand flying through the signs.
Itachi stared at his elder younger brother eyes wide. "Was that a one handed sign?"
"Yeah, they're not that hard." Sasuke shrugged sliding the bowl back in front of his past self.
Itachi's brow furrowed in confusion. Not that hard? Sasuke had to be joking. One handed signs were nearly unheard of. Of course they were hard. There was no way they were easy to perform. Not by any means.
"Eat up kid." Sasuke told his younger self. He'd yet to even pick his chopsticks back up.
"I can't." Little Sasuke pointed stubbornly to the steam. "Now it's too hot."
"Hm well we can't have you burning your mouth now can we? Allow me." Naruto did a few one handed signs of his own and a light breeze blew over little Sasuke's food. It was cooled just right. "There should be good now."
"I don't care." Little Sasuke shoved the food away. "I don't want it. Someone put their grubby hands in it." Little Sasuke glared at little Naruto's back.
"Hey, my hands were clean!" Little Naruto objected food spraying from his mouth, glaring back over his shoulder at Sasuke.
"You idiot," Little Sasuke wiped away some rice that landed on his cheek. "Swallow before you try to talk!"
"Hmph." Little Naruto stubbornly turned his face away from the Uchiha.
Little Sasuke glowered, the urge to knock the blonde straight off the porch and ground his face into the dirt rising. But that also involved close contact. So, the feeling was fleeting at best. He sighed to himself looking away as well. Why'd their older selves have to make everything all weird?
"You need to eat something sweetie." Mikoto spoke to her youngest trying to be gentle. "How about I go dice you up a fresh tomato and you can have that instead? Just a small one?"
"Hm.." Little Sasuke's cheek puffed out as he thought it over. It was clear no one was going to leave him alone until he got something in him. "Yeah..." the little boy sighed. "...okay."
Mikoto smiled and retreated back into the kitchen to make little Sasuke tomatoes.
"Huh?" Little Sasuke blinked up at his brother as Itachi suddenly pulled him close into his side for a hug. "Hey...what's this for?"
Itachi didn't reply right away. He needed to think of the right words. Good words, unlike the careless ones he'd spat when his head was pounding and Sasuke was being particularly annoying back in his room. He'd never meant to cause Sasuke pain. He didn't think...he hadn't been thinking. It was easier holding Sasuke at a distance these days. Push his brother to the back of his mind. Put the clans needs, the village's needs, over Sasuke's current ones so his brother could have a brighter and better future one day, but...his intentions wouldn't matter if his little brother hurt himself because of a lack of attention now. He told himself that the more he pushed him away, the safer from danger he would be...but really, that was just another lie he told himself. Truth was, as much as he loved his little brother, he didn't want the responsibility of caring for Sasuke on top of everything else that was going on. What a fool he'd been.
He eyed the bandages poking out his brother's sleeves. Sasuke could have died tonight. Naruto's warning rang in his ears. If Naruto had told him and his mother the truth at dinner then it was also true they were to blame. The man had no reason to lie to them. It was clear that he truly loved his brother-the adult version anyways. Sasuke could have died tonight. All because of some careless words he said. All because he hadn't taken five minutes to watch him throw some stupid shuriken. It was a developing behavior, a method to cope with his feelings Naruto had explained, he wasn't trying to take his own life or anything of the sort, but Kunai were sharp, and Sasuke had startled, and he could picture the scene so clearly in his mind, so vivid and lifelike, his brother bleeding out from his wrists with them all unaware and Sasuke would have died.
"Big Brother," Little Sasuke's mouth dropped open. "Your eyes...they're..."
"Holy shit." Naruto's hand covered his mouth.
"Sas-are those-"
Naruto didn't finish and Sasuke had yet to answer. Eyes moved to the door as they heard it creek open again with a screech. Everyone expected to see Mikoto returning with Sasuke's special tomato snack, except she was still in the kitchen.
They were greeted with Fugaku instead who promptly dropped what remained of his bottle of sake at the sight of his eldest's eyes.
"Careful." Sasuke warned, bottle hovering in the air as Sasuke caught it with his rinnegan.
Fugaku's eyes shifted to the older Sasuke.
The man glowered at his son as he floated the bottle over to himself.
"Think you already wasted enough sake tonight." Sasuke smirked lightly. Once again he looked Fugaku dead in the eye. Something he'd been so hesitant to do when he was a little child. But was so easy now with Naruto at his side. Then he drank straight from the bottle.
Just because he could.
When he was finished, he passed it over to Naruto. The blonde took a swig himself, much quicker than Sasuke's long and pointed drawl, and then put the bottle on the porch behind him. They weren't giving that back. No way. That was the first decent bottle of sake the two had seen in years. They were busy kage. Just because they didn't drink much didn't mean they didn't enjoy the occasional bottle together. Special occasions mostly. When they even remembered them. Itachi getting his mangekyou qualified as such. Probably.
Fugaku looked ready to strangle the couple.
Itachi looked at his brother and found himself quite thankful for him stealing his fathers attention. That is until Sasuke spoke to him.
"So," His brothers right eye shifted into his own mangekyou. "'Tachi wanna test em out?"
"Yeah, Itachi! Cmon, what do your eyes do!? I wanna see!" The young one tugged at his shirt. "Please?"
"Sasuke-Sasuke's." Itachi sighed his brothers name shutting his eyes as he corrected himself to include both versions. He leaned back against the support post. "The only thing I want to do right now is take a nap. It's been a long day and it seems it caught up with me."
"You're no fun." The Sasuke's complained together.
"You want to have some fun do you?" Fugaku asked his youngest. He looked at the young boy. So curious and eager to learn. His eyes travelled to the adult version. He remembered his words about him dying a long time ago. What the hell. "Cmon then."
Sasuke blinked stupidly at his father. "Huh?"
"On your feet son." Fugaku walked past them all descending the stairs into the dew ridden grass. "We're going to have ourselves a spar."
Kage Sasuke's body felt like stone. No way. His eyes widened. A spar? For real?
His eyes flicked to his younger self. They were currently true mirror images of one another. Neither could believe what they heard. Father never sparred. Sasuke didn't even think he had a memory of his father sparring with anyone.
Naruto nudged his husband and gave him an encouraging smile. His eyes were saying one thing. 'Go'.
Sasuke blinked rapidly. Right. He grinned.
"Hey." Naruto caught his wrist before he could get up. He gave Sasuke a quick kiss. "Hold back, okay?"
"Uh...don't you mean don't hold back?" Little Sasuke objected.
"Nah," Naruto denied peering over old Sasuke's shoulder as the man took off his cloak. "You go full strength you'd probably kill him."
Little Sasuke looked completely confused. No one could possibly be stronger than his father. Well...maybe Itachi. But he certainly wasn't! He could barely make a fireball the first try.
"I'm that strong?" The question was as hesitant as it was already disbelieving.
"You're the strongest person I know." Naruto answered without hesitation. Kage Sasuke proceeded to walk towards the other side of the lawn. "You remember what I said out front, Sassy?" Naruto asked him as he took his husband's cloak and folded it nicely so it wouldn't wrinkle. "Genius like yours is very rare."
"What does that even mean?" Little Sasuke demanded.
"You know," Naruto looked out at his husband with a wistful smile. "I think your about to see."
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Here's another chapter you guys! Sorry for the wait, but I had a pretty fun weekend with my friend so that was awesome. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next chapter will be out sometime soon!
No questions this time, but I'd still love to hear what you thought of this chapter or the story or like anything else you feel like commenting! Tiff out! Peace! ✌️
