A/N: Starting with an Itachi dream because I love to suffer :) Enjoy!

The spring rain was deafening against the side of the apartment. The skies were just as gray as the mood seemed to be as Itachi stepped through the door, soaked to the bone from the downpour outside.

"You're back!" Izumi was immediately on her feet with a towel, features twisting in alarm. "Is... is he...?"

"He's gone," the simple answer came as he accepted the towel with a blank countenance. He dabbed gently at his drenched hair before wrapping it around his neck, mindful that the ends of his ponytail fell atop the fluffy white fabric. If one looked hard enough, they could see the pain in his coal irises. "I searched everywhere, I asked everyone. Shisui... he's just disappeared."

Izumi's mouth fell open in a silent gasp, her hands flying to cover it.

Sasuke peeked up at him over the couch, and they both locked eyes for a few seconds. Itachi's features softened some at the sight of his little brother, and he beckoned with his hand. Obediently, Sasuke jumped up and padded over, where Itachi wrapped his arms tightly around him in a hug. Sasuke returned the embrace, a little confused.

"Itachi, you're drenching me," he muttered, wrinkling his nose in discomfort when the water began soaking through his shirt.

The man chuckled, pulling away after a moment. When Sasuke looked up at him again, his eyes were warm, and his fear - if still there - was expertly hidden behind a wall. This was the way Itachi explicitly reserved for him and Izumi - this loving endearment that made the boy's shoulders relax and his fears subside, if only for a little while.

Izumi stood beside him, wringing her hands together, a nervous habit of hers. She was chewing on her bottom lip, her brows drawn together in worry.

"Sasuke," Itachi began, and the boy perked up, "you remember the BB gun that Kisame got you for your birthday?"

"The one that you hid away?" Sasuke replied, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah."

For a moment, his brother hesitated. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it, glancing up at Izumi. The woman's eyes were suspiciously shiny, and her lips formed a trembly upturned line, and she nodded to him. Then Itachi turned back to him, his smile plastic.

"I think it's time for you to have it," he continued. "But you must promise me that you'll use it responsibly. No shooting living things, or anything in the house."

Sasuke nodded, his heart lifting in excitement. Naruto would be so stoked to finally see it! "I promise," he quickly vowed. "But only if you promise me that you'll go with Naruto and I next time old man Jiraiya drives us to the movies. That new movie is coming out, remember?"

The taller man slowly nodded. "Aa, I do recall."

Without another word, Itachi straightened, gave another meaningful look to Izumi, and crossed the living room towards the bedrooms. Izumi glanced down at Sasuke, who was looking up at her in confusion. She simply shook her head, wringing her hands again. She bowed her head away from him, although he could see a single tear making its way down the side of her face. What was going on?

His brother returned a few moments later, BB gun in hand. He handed it to Sasuke, and for a moment, his hand enveloped Sasuke's smaller one. When Sasuke looked up, he was met with a swift forehead poke, and Itachi smiled in amusement as the boy stumbled back a bit, holding his forehead with an annoyed frown.

"Forgive me, Sasuke," he said, his eyes twinkling. "But I'm afraid there may not be a next time."

When Sasuke awoke, his room was dark. He blinked, sitting up in bed, his body uncomfortably hot and slightly sweaty. He frowned, feeling more exhausted than before. At least the headache was gone.

He rubbed his eyes, glancing over at the clock. Eight PM. If Izumi wasn't back by now, she was definitely still missing.

With that thought in mind, he jumped out of bed, going to his door. He peeked out into the hallway. "Izumi!"

... No response.

He growled to himself, fisting his hands in his hair. "Dammit, this isn't funny! You know how we felt when...-" He cut himself off, Shisui's name on the tip of his tongue. He swallowed the words before he could say them. "... When Shisui disappeared..."

He went around the apartment one last time, determined to find her. He checked the kitchen. Nothing. Living room. Nothing. Bathroom? Nothing.

He highly doubted she was holed up in her room again. The last time, she'd promised to get a therapist, and she actually went once a week on Fridays. The only problem with that notion is that it was eight PM on a Thursday.

Still...

He reached out and knocked loudly on the door. "Izumi! Are you there?"

He waited for a second... nothing.

Growling louder, he banged on the door. "C'mon, open up! Dammit!"

The deafening silence after his banging subsided made his throat grow tight.

"She would've heard by now," he thought frantically to himself as he fell to his knees before the door. He banged his forehead against the wood, clenching his eyes shut in pain. "She would've come out by now. She's gone."

Panic seized him, and he felt tears bubbling to the surface. Sasuke had never done well with people leaving him; when both his parents died, he'd developed separation anxiety. He was able to control it more easily when he moved in with Itachi and Shisui, and later on when Izumi came to live with them, but after Shisui disappeared, and after Itachi died...

He swallowed harshly, feeling his throat close up even more. His breathing was becoming more erratic by the second, and he was beginning to feel lightheaded.

"Izumi," he called weakly, rising his fist to knock against the door. His voice shook. "Please... please come out..."

He let out a tiny sob, his hand falling from the door to slap against the floorboards. "Don't leave me..."

He sat there and cried, panting and gripping his chest. It was tightening again... "Don't leave me...!"

Hiccuping, he rose his head and shouted, "Don't leave me here alone!" At the end of his shout, his voice cracked, and he sniffled, wiping his running nose on his arm.

His voice bounced off of the sparse white walls, and at the pitiful sound of it, he groaned loudly.

"C'mon, get a grip, Sasuke," he told himself, gritting his teeth. "What would Itachi say...?"

His brother's voice came to mind, soothing and uplifting. "Sometimes men cry, Sasuke. There's no shame in that. Let out your feelings and rise up again."

He clenched his fists. His breathing became a little easier. "Itachi..."

Suddenly, his phone began ringing in his room, startling him. He whirled around, wide-eyed, at his door. Slowly, he staggered to his feet, walking back in. As soon as he opened his phone, he sniffled and wiped his eyes.

He cleared his throat and answered, hoping that it didn't sound like he'd been sobbing his eyes out only moments earlier. "What's up, Naruto?"

"Hey, man!" The boy greeted cheerfully. The very sound of his voice made Sasuke's lips twitch into a small smile. "The old man and I were gonna go to dinner tonight. You wanna go?"

Sasuke glanced up at the window. It was already too dark outside to go patrolling, no matter how good his vision was now. "Uh... I won't be able to pay for much of my portion..."

"Don't worry so much about that!" Naruto groaned. "It's our treat. C'mon, I know you can't resist some Thursday night sushi! Riiiiiiight...?"

Sasuke sighed, a flickering smile spreading across his face. "... Sushi does sound good right now..."

"Then get ready to go. We're almost at your apartment. I'll come up and knock when we get there." Naruto explained. There was some chatter in the background, and he added, "Oh yeah, and Granny Tsunade is with us too!" He dropped his voice to a whisper, "They're totally going on a double-date, so I asked to invite you so that I wouldn't be third-wheeling!"

Sasuke could hear a loud bark of laughter and an angry woman's voice over the line calling "What do you mean 'Granny'?!" before Naruto hastily replied, "Uh, okay gotta go bye!"

The boy pulled the phone away from his ear, staring at the main screen for a moment.

Then he wiped away the rest of his tears, grabbed a tissue, and shaking his head in good humor. "Ah, that idiot..."

Only five minutes later, he heard a loud knocking at his front door. He straightened out the sweater he put on, patted down his hair, and shouted down the hallway, "Come in!"

He heard the door open and Naruto step inside, calling jokingly, "Honey, I'm home!"

Sasuke snorted, shutting his bedroom door and sauntering to the door, commenting, "You'd better hope that you wiped off your shoes first. I'm not cleaning mud off the floor, dear."

"Pah, it's fine," Naruto waved it off, scratching his neck. "Is she not home yet?"

The boy hesitated in putting on his shoes. "... No."

The blond nodded his head, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his orange jacket. Everything about his outfit, from the jacket to the equally orange track pants and black tennis shoes, screamed Naruto. It was hard to imagine the boy in anything that wasn't as loud and boisterous as he often was. It was... rather comforting.

"... hey," he hesitantly said. "Is everything okay?"

Sasuke froze in his spot.

"I didn't wanna bring it up in the car in front of the old man and Granny, but... you sounded like you were in the middle of a serious weep-a-thon." Naruto scuffed at the tile with the toe of his shoe. "You know I'm your friend, right? You can tell me if and when you feel like it."

Sasuke swallowed, his heart momentarily leaping up into his throat again. "... Noted."

As soon as his shoes were on and tied, Naruto clapped him on the back with a grin, his aura sunny once more. "Let's go get some su-shaaaaaaay!"

Sasuke locked the door and stuffed the keys back into his pocket, zipping it up. He and Naruto walked through the hall, the former listening to the latter chatter on.

"-right? And then Gramps comes home and says he found Granny down at the bar again, so he thought, why not? Might as well take his totally, uh, not girlfriend out to dinner with us." Naruto laughed. "I really don't see why they don't just bang already. Everyone can see them dancing around each other. Hell, I can see it, and I'm a real dumbass in anything but practical learning! If I wasn't so considerate, I'd just push 'em together!"

"You know Dr. Senju would wring your neck for it," he remarked. "Doesn't matter that she knew your dad back in the day."

"At least Sakura-chan isn't like that," Naruto smiled goofily. "Well, not as much like that. I guess sometimes I deserve it, y'know? Like that one time I snuck a frog into her backpack during recess in the fifth grade."

Sasuke had to chuckle at that. "She was so pissed at you and Kiba. I still can't believe Kiba only got away with a slap. Her hand is worse than her boots, so I've heard."

"That's 'cause he was a dirty coward! If I could handle a literal ass-kicking, so could he!" The blond exclaimed, throwing up his arms. "Shikamaru wouldn't have ran off. Then again, Shikamaru never really gets involved with anything, so she probably wouldn't have believed him at first anyway."

"Didn't he have a crush on her in the sixth grade?" the black-haired teenager recalled suddenly. "I think I remember a point when they were paired together in every class."

"I dunno," Naruto shrugged. "I never noticed anything. If he did, he's shit at showing it." After a beat, he beamed. "Hey! Just like you!"

"Piss off," Sasuke immediately retorted, shoving him with his elbow. But he hid a tiny smile in the collar of his sweater.

As soon as they got to the car, Naruto and Sasuke piled in the backseat. Jiraiya glanced back at them and greeted the black-haired teenager, and he nodded in reply.

"Is the Uchiha kid back there?" Tsunade twisted to glance back at him. "Ah, of course he is. Hey kid. You learning to make noise yet?"

Sasuke smirked. "Compared to Naruto?"

The blond startled at that, and the two adults in the front seat laughed good-naturedly. He pouted and folded his arms across his chest for a good twenty seconds, but then he dropped the act and relaxed against the leather seat, pulling out his phone so that he could text something.

A moment later, Sasuke heard his phone chime. He rose an eyebrow as he pulled out the Blackberry, reading the text silently to himself as Naruto began giggling.

Finally, he sighed, giving Naruto an exasperated expression. "Dad jokes? Really?"

"I've been holding that one in ever since this morning!" Naruto replied with another hysterical giggle. "You're smiling, admit it!"

"I am not."

"You are! I see a smile!" Naruto leaned in and poked at the corner of his lip, and he halfheartedly swatted the hand from his face.

He looked away, staring out the window with his lips twitching. Naruto was right, he was smiling at a dumb dad joke, and he hated it. But he also wanted more... Naruto would never know.

...Speak of the devil, his phone chimed again.

A/N: I was so tempted to make the entire 'sushi trip' its own chapter, but I think I'll save the second half for later. Instead, you get wholesome bros being bros, because Sasuke deserves it.

And let's be honest, Naruto is 100% That Friend who would airdrop you memes and stupid jokes if he knew you were sad. It's true, I don't make the rules.

Please tell me what you thought! See you later!