Akio hated Akane.

Ok, that wasn't even a little bit true-but he did hate that his sister would make a better shinobi. She'd even gotten her Katon jutsu down to half the hand signs by the time Akio finally mastered it well enough to qualify as a warrior.

He hadn't even known that was possible!

There were rumors about some jutsu experts who were so fast at hand signs it looked like they just made one, but his sister's success was making him think the rumors just hadn't gotten the reason for the small amount of hand signs right. At least he'd finally become a warrior and could now support his family. It didn't matter that Akane was better with Katon when Uchiha women weren't even allowed to fight.

Akio wasn't too bad at ninjutsu either.

He tried to remember that while he was first learning he had gotten completely distracted when Ryota managed to bribe a compound guard into teaching him some genjutsu anyway. Which made him a great big brother-because Akio was so much better at genjutsu than he'd ever been at taijutsu and he knew Naoya was doing his best to help Akio survive the battle fields.

But he still wasn't letting Naoya win the title of best big brother because he spent the most time with Akane so she obviously liked him more. In a perfect world Akio would be Akanes best big brother and Naoya would be Akios best big brother and they could just share the title. But in a perfect world Junto would still be alive to fight for the spot as well-so only one of them could win.

Akio missed Junto so much.

He was way nicer than Naoya half the time and he'd tell him stories about the other brothers Akio was starting to worry he'd forget. He hadn't been born to meet Akihito, their oldest brother before he died. Having blurry memories of Daisuke and Hiroshi felt terrible.

Akane had never even known them to remember them the way she did Junto.

He wished Naoya would talk about their brothers, and their father. Junto had told him a couple of stories of the man, Akio was too young to remember him and it felt a little like missing Akihito. Like he missed the idea of them more than who they were. He missed the rest of his dead brothers with his entire heart though. He went to the shrine to pray and tell them stories the way Akane said she did for Junto.

Akio hoped they could hear him when he prayed. He hoped they knew he loved them and missed them all the time. He wished they said it to each other before Akane had started sneaking into their room. But he'd only ever said it to Junto once, and it had mostly been to annoy him by copying Akanes full tackle hugs topped off with declarations of affection.

They hadn't hugged before Akane either. They didn't really hug now, it was more knocking into each other's shoulders, or Naoya catching him in a chokehold if he was honest. But it was the most affection he'd ever seen from his family-and he wished they'd always had it.

His best memory of Daisuke was when he smiled at Akio for getting his first bullseye with a kunai, and his best memory of Hiroshi was when he landed weird in a taijutsu spar and his older brother carried him home like a sack of potatoes thrown over his shoulder.

Hiroshi had died that same night. They had his funeral the very next day. Akio hadn't been able to believe it had really happened until months later halfway through the last Kata Hiroshi taught him when he started crying and couldn't stop for hours.

Junto's death hurt more-but it didn't feel as terrible after.

It wasn't like he disappeared, there one day and gone the next like Hiroshi. Akane remembered him out loud all the time-and after a while Akio did too. He wished Naoya would, but his older brother never wanted to talk about anyone they lost. He would if Akane started and asked him questions-but that was because he wanted to be her favorite and Naoya never told Akane no when she wanted something.

He thought sometimes that maybe they shouldn't spoil her the way their mother did or she might end up as mean as Aiko-who usually ignored them, though Junto used to say she was really nice to Daisuke because they were twins. Akio had never seen Aiko be nice to anyone a day in his life and worried Akane might wake up just as mean as his mother was. Aiko was basically a copy of their mother. She always made the same blank face when Akio tried to talk to either of them.

He had nightmares of Akane making that face. Sometimes he wondered if Naoya did too, and if that was why he was always extra nice to Akane.

Their little sister spent most of the time she could get away from her chores training or spending time with them instead of meeting up with her friends around the compound the way Aiko did. He couldn't help but wonder if they were one fight or disagreement away from her realizing she could do that too. Make friends her age that would stay safe with her in the compound. People she wouldn't have to worry herself over late at night. Akio hated the thought that it must be hard for Akane to love them the way she did. Like it cost her something his other sisters weren't willing to pay.

It was easier to remember to be nice when he thought of it like that. It wasn't like Akane wasn't nice back, anyway. She'd snuck him some daifuku the day before his first mission and hugged him long and hard when he came back trembling and splattered with blood.

Akane even stayed all night in his futon and woke him up everytime he fell asleep and had a nightmare for weeks after. He was pretty sure Akane had given up sleeping in her room with Aiko and stayed in their room even when they weren't there.

He liked to think so.

He liked the idea of coming home at night and being able to see his little sister alive and breathing after seeing all the awful things he did in his missions. The genjutsu Naoya had found for him had saved his life what felt like hundreds of times in the battlefield.

Naoya had been kind about Akio being a baby about becoming a warrior too. But instead of hugging him and making him feel safe and happy to be home-Naoya took care of him in other ways.

He was the one who made sure their dads only surviving squad mate Uncle Makoto was his squad leader for Akios first few missions as a shinobi. He knew that was the most dangerous time for new warriors-and having Uncle Makoto watch out for him had definitely saved his life. Naoya was the one who talked to him about duty and the price his soul would pay so their family could live on safely when Akio made his first kill and couldn't stop seeing the Senjus unseeing eyes whenever he closed his own.

His brother had even gotten his hands on a decent sword for him somehow-and Akio was so grateful every time he made it home.

The older he got and the closer the calls he had, the happier he was that Akane was a girl that got to stay home. Akios nightmares stopped being about Akane making that stupid blank face and became about having his sister shoulder to shoulder on a mission, taking a kunai to the eye or the throat or somewhere else important enough to kill her right away.

As long as Akane was home she was safe.

He needed her to be safe. His cheerful little sister with her easy smiles and warm hugs were the only thing keeping him going sometimes. As long as he could tell himself that Akane was waiting for him-that she would make those horrible painful cries if he died, he could put one foot in front of the other and make it back to the compound, no matter how tired he was, how badly depleted his chakra, or how badly he was hurt.

He'd seen his clan mates fall for less. Akio had seen them give up when they didn't have anything left to fight for-when their will to live gave out and they accepted their fate.

Akio would never accept that fate.

Akane was waiting for him-he couldn't make her sad, couldn't disappoint Naoya after all the work he'd put into making sure Akio kept coming home.

Home where it was safe. Home where there was food and a futon and a sister that would fuss over any wounds some bastard Senju had left.

When Akio was eleven, he got called back to the compound because Senju assassins had infiltrated it. He came home to find his mother rocking back and forth on the ground, that stupid blank faced dead eyed stare on her face even as tears trailed silently down her cheeks.

Something was incredibly wrong.

Akios stomach sank with dread.He cleared his throat, hoping to draw her attention.

"Mother, what's wrong?"

For a moment he thought she hadn't heard, he opened his mouth to ask again, when he realized his mother had begun to chant something quietly.

"She's dead," His mother whispered, over and over. "She's dead."

Akio had collapsed-legs folding under him as his world went twisty and sideways.

His sister was supposed to be safe.

She never left the compound without both her brothers-there was no way she could have died. The compound was the safest place for an Uchiha-but the Senju had gotten in. The Senju had found his baby sister and taken her from them.

Akio wailed, grief forcing its way out of his chest in a tsunami too powerful for him to contain. It was only later when Naoya found him, eyes spinning sharingan red, telling him that Akane was hurt but alive-that his sister, his beautiful wonderful living sister had fought off Senju assassins and gotten hurt saving the life of two of the Clan Heads sons.

The Senju assassins had been targeting children.

Their pregnant sister Akemi and the child in her stomach had become casualties of the attack. They had to pack up what they could, knock out their grief stricken mother and move to a secret outpost that would become their new compound.

Akio could do that.

Akio could do anything as long as Akane was alive.

Maybe it made him a terrible person that he didn't really care that his older sister and her child died-but Akemi had never said two words to him. She might as well have been a stranger. Akane-Akane and Naoya were the closest people, the only real family, he had. Akio could only go on in the world as long as he had them to live for.

He packed up what he could, prioritizing the food, especially if Akane was hurt, she'd need the energy to heal. Akio carried their mother over his shoulder-scoffing softly as he remembered Hiroshi doing the same to him. It may not have been dignified-but it let him carry more of their necessities.

Naoya carried Akane carefully, precious cargo that she was. Her leg was broken, but considering she'd been up against two Senju blades it was a small miracle that was the only wound she'd been left with.

Aside from some burns from a jutsu he knew she'd been trying to create. But they were Uchiha, burn cream was the first thing apprentice healers were taught to make.

She'd be fine.

Akio tried not to think about the clan heads' children, or why Akane had stayed to fight when she could have run. His sister was a good person-it was part of what made her so easy to love, Akane was good in a way the rest of the world wasn't. He didn't want to change her.

Except that he would-if it meant she'd live longer. He could tell from the grip Naoya had on her that he'd thought the same.

x

Akio is definitely the more emotional surviving brother. It's also a little trickier to write him as he's a shinobi but still a child, how do you think I did? Also yes Naoya got the Sharingan.