Naruto and Itachi

"Demon!"

"Get out of our village!"

"No one wants you here!"

Naruto glances around frantically, looking for a way out. For the most part, the day had been going fairly well. Sure, he'd gotten the usual glares and hateful glances, but that was nothing unusual. Then he'd headed out, needing to buy a carton of milk, and the store keeper had refused to sell it to "a demon brat like him."

And then the angry mob had descended.

Naruto lowers his gaze, trying to block out the hateful words.

'Ignore them,' he thinks, trying to maintain that practiced, cheerful expression.

"I just want some milk," he says. "That's all. Look, I have money and everything."

"I don't want your money!" the shopkeeper snaps. "Just leave."

"Honestly, that brat," someone grumbles. "Bothering innocent people like this, someone needs to report him to the Hokage…"

'Jiji likes me more than he likes you,' Naruto thinks spitefully, but says nothing. He knows from experience that there's no point in arguing with them. For whatever reason, they hate him, and nothing he does is going to change that.

'For now. But just wait until I become Hokage, and THEN they'll like me!'

He sighs and takes a step back. They aren't going to go away, not until he leaves first, and pretending to be okay is becoming way too hard. He can feel tears stinging his eyes, and he knows that it's only practice that stops them from leaking out. He's been through this far too many times to not know how to hold them back.

He's about to walk away when a familiar voice enters the fray.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

He recognises it immediately — it's Itachi. Sasuke's big brother, and his big brother now too, he supposes, although he can still hardly believe that. Itachi sounds angry, and Naruto feels a spike of fear. Itachi will hate him now. Why wouldn't he? Everyone else does, and as soon as Itachi realises that no one else likes him, he'll never want Naruto around him or Sasuke ever again.

He feels something wet on his cheeks and realises that he has begun to cry. He lowers his head, and tries to block out everything that is happening around him.

"What did you do?!" Itachi roars, and Naruto flinches. Itachi isn't talking to him though; he's yelling at the crowd of angry villagers. "Why is he crying?!"

"That demon — "

"What did you call him?!"

"He threatened her," one man yells, gesturing at the shopkeeper. "We couldn't just let him get away with it!"

"He's a child!" Itachi snaps, at the same time Naruto cries, "I just wanted to buy some milk!"

Itachi's expression darkens further.

"You can't be taking it's side!" the man continues furiously.

"It?!"

And then the man is lying on the floor, groaning in pain, and Itachi is rubbing his knuckles and muttering something about "bloody thick heads,", and everyone else is backing away.

Someone tries to say something, but Itachi glares at them. Naruto notices that his eyes are red.

Itachi tosses some money on the counter, and picks up the carton of milk. No one says anything.

"Is that all you need, Naruto?" he asks, his voice soft. Naruto stares at him, eyes wide in awe, and nods his head.

Itachi takes his hand and leads him out of the store. Naruto walks beside him, staring at him the whole time.

"Bastards," Itachi mutters.

"It's okay," Naruto says, and Itachi jumps, and flushes for some reason. "I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't be," Itachi grumbles. "It's not fair…"

Naruto shrugs. He's actually feeling okay about it for once. Sure, the villagers had been awful to him, but Itachi had stuck up for him, and no one ever did that. Maybe this was what it was like to have a family. Naruto feels a warm feeling bubble inside him.

"Thank you," he says.

Itachi pats his head, and smiles gently.

Naruto walks quietly beside him for a moment, but still can't shake off that feeling of uncertainty. Hesitantly, he asks, "Itachi-nii…how come you don't hate me like they do?"

"Because they're idiots," Itachi says promptly. "And they're wrong."

"They called me a demon," Naruto says, shoulders slumping. "And they told me to leave the village, and said no one wanted me here."

He wants to understand why people like Itachi and Jiji can like him, and yet so many other people don't. It's confusing, and it hurts, and he wants to know why.

"You're not a demon," Itachi tells him, his voice firm. "Trust me. I've met demons. Russia? Now he was a demon. There's a reason he showed up when I tried that summoning spell. And Belarus, Lord, I think there was something seriously wrong with that family. Oh, and how could I forget Sweden, there was always something rather unsettling about him. And Prussia. That little…and France, oh Lord how I despised that Frog…"

Itachi catches Naruto staring at him with wide, confused eyes, and stops abruptly. "Oh, I do apologise for that, sometimes I…anyway. What I'm trying to say is, those people don't know what they're talking about. You're amazing, Naruto, and the people who truly care about you know that."

Naruto thinks of the people who do care about him, no matter how few there may be, and decides that maybe Itachi is right. And besides, he'll have plenty of time to change everyone else's minds when he becomes Hokage.

For now though, maybe he can just enjoy the fact that he finally has a family.