Itachi awoke around the usual time. The sun was risen signaling it was day and orange hues of the sky signaled it to be early in the morning. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, got up, brushed his teeth, took a shower, got dressed in his usual uchiha garb, then strode down the hall to check on his baby brother. Some may think it's strange for itachi to do this every morning but the older uchiha couldn't help but be protective of him. After all sasuke was his little brother and he deserved a bit of attention. Extra attention in his personal opinion. Their father certainly paid no mind to him. Itachi was never blind to that fact either. He noticed how his father was just beginning to compare the two of them. How fugaku was considering itachi to be the golden child and sasuke to be nothing more than a spare. It was as if itachi was gold and sasuke was silver. One constantly thought of as better.
Itachi sometimes cursed himself for being such a prodigy that his brother would one day have such a huge gap to fill but at the same time there are moments where itachi finds himself cursing his father for even thinking of putting sasuke in that type of position. Sure, he himself, did his first fireball jutsu in front of his father like magic but didn't his father realise that was only because he had been practicing behind everybody's backs. He had wanted to be prepared in case another war rolled around. His father itachi noticed was more prideful than ever. Itachi knew this was because the supposed coup was going to happen in a few years. Again itachi knew it was not a smart plan but what could a 10 year old do? Right now his father's word was law. Itachi just had to wait for the right opportunity then the future of the clan would be secured and his adorable baby brother would have a relatively safe and happy life. At least that's Itachi's best case scenario.
Itachi allowed a small smile to form on his face as he peeked into his brothers room. His little brother was curled up in bed bundled in his dark blue blankets and hugging the life out of his favorite stuffed toy dinosaur as he breathed evenly signaling that he was still asleep.
Itachi's eye's narrowed as he spotted the open window. He knew for a fact that had been closed the night before when he tucked sasuke in. The question now was how was it opened. Did sasuke do it? That's possible but why would his brother open a window in the first place? the temperature last night hadn't been scorching hot. Did his brother even have the strength to open the rickety thing? It wasn't splintering at the seems but itachi knew for some reason it often got stuck. Itachi inspected it carefully. It didn't seem to be tampered with in anyway. He peered out the window searching for any signs of spying. Sasuke may be viewed as the spare to everyone else but look at what happened to the hyuuga girl heir sasuke's age. Itachi was not taking any chance's with his little brother's life. All caught up in the possibility of harm befalling his younger sibling itachi had forgotten about the racket the window made when shut.
Itachi's head snapped to his brother who yawned rubbing his eye sitting up his dinosaur wrapped lazily in a hold by his other arm.
"Morning Itachi" sasuke said mid stretch.
"Sorry to wake you the window was open" itachi said nonchalantly.
"Oh yeah! There was an owl sitting outside my window last night so i wanted to get a closer look! It's head spun around!" Sasuke explained with child like excitement jumping up on his bed with a smile. He tried to turn his around in a similar fashion but just ended up spinning around his whole body tangling himself in the process. Itachi internally sighed in relief. His little brother always had a fascination with birds. Any flying creature in general really. So this had calmed him greatly.
"Hey itachi ... Can you help me practice my shuriken jutsu?" Sasuke asked hopefully. His lip jutted into a puppy like look and his eyes widened just the right amount. Itachi if he wasn't a boy, wasn't an uchiha, and didn't have his manly pride would have awwed and cooed at the adorable sight. But Itachi instead inwardly crumbled all later plans for himself which was just relaxing and doing nothing anyways faded into nothingness.
Itachi took a long look at sasuke. He appeared hopeful and excited.
"I don't see why not" Itachi said giving into his little brothers plea. Sasuke gave itachi the biggest smile ever and hugged him in victory.
"I can't wait! Itachi this is gonna be great! Your the best big brother ever!" Sasuke proclaimed jumping off his bed zig zagging through the various toys neatly piled yet strewn haphazardly about the his room. His father had told sasuke to keep his room neat and in his own creative right he did. Much to his father's annoyance and mother's chagrin.
He quickly changed his clothes with speed only a young uchiha could possess before he was grabbing itachi's wrist and leading him out his bedroom door and down the stairs fully prepared to make a bee line for the door that leads them outside.
"Boys breakfast first then practice" mikoto commanded gently ushering the boys to the kitchen stopping their scurry. Mikoto you see had heard of their plans because she had been eaves dropping. Mikoto expected sasuke to whine at the command. To cross his arms and proclaim that it's not practicing it's training but he did none of these things. Instead he did the one thing that mikoto thought he would never do.
"Good idea mom! C mon itachi!" He declared yanking his brother to sit down at the table next to him much to the shock of the rest of his family. Usually sasuke was quite defiant in the morning.
Mikoto smiled and placed the bowls of food in front of her children and husband before sitting next to fugaku. Instead of sasuke's usual grumble of getting deterred from his plans he smiled and happily ate his food.
"Thanks mom! This is great!" Sasuke said somewhere in between his sixth and seventh bite. Mikoto calmly sipped her tea and watched sasuke gobble up his food. It was as if he hadn't had her cooking in years! Mikoto idly noted the way sasuke allowed a smile to appear with each bite. It was quite a feat for sasuke to compliment her twice in the span of 5 minutes. She would savor this moment.
Fugaku sipped his tea and finished his breakfast quickly. He had to get to the station and finish the god awful paper work he had been putting off. He got up wordlessly slipping on his vest. He made it to the door and slipped on his shoes. He almost did a double take at his youngest son's call and something wrapped around his leg briefly and almost hesitantly.
"Have a good day at work dad!" Sasuke called running to Fugaku giving him a quick hug then running back to the table to finish his food. Fugaku gave a brief nod and with a wave of his hand he was out the door pondering his younger son's actions as he went to work. Sasuke to Fugaku was a riddle. Yes the boy always did what he said but he never followed to the letter like his brother. Sasuke was always finding ways to defy him without actually doing it or meaning to. Fugaku knew it was never intentional on sasuke's part but it still greatly irked him that his son could do that. The worst part was he had done it without even trying. Fugaku didn't understand why sasuke just wasn't like Itachi and maybe he never would. He vaguely noticed a trail of blood on the road as he walked and fugaku inwardly sighed. That was going to be even more paperwork. Usually a trail of blood meant a dead body. So much for a good day.
Once the boys had finished they headed to the door. "Thanks mom! Breakfast was great! Love you me and Itachi will be back soon!" Sasuke declared hugging her tightly before once again yanking itachi. "Be back soon and be careful! Stay safe!" Mikoto called with a wave. "We will!" Itachi called as sasuke dragged him to some unknown location. Itachi glanced at the road in confusion was that blood? He saw that sasuke was walking toward the forest and of course right where the blood leads. "Sasuke we should go to a different training ground" itachi said stopping in the road. Sasuke in turn gave his brother a defiant look. "Why? It was probably just a wounded animal Itachi" sasuke said crossing his arms. Itachi on his part brushed the comment aside much to sasuke's annoyance. Itachi was about to ruin the plan! Sasuke spotted a mop of spiky blonde hair and inwardly grinned. He tapped a signal to naruto. Naruto in turn grinned and grabbed a bucket of paint and started his graffiti as sasuke warred with itachi about the woods while tapping a morse code of instructions to naruto that is only known to team 7. "Fine we'll go somewhere else" sasuke conceded once naruto finished speed painting a picture of a frog on a store shop. "You'll never catch me alive!" Naruto screamed running down the road as sasuke walked calmly hands stuck into his pockets. Then crash! Both boys went tumbling to the ground as itachi watched a bit lost. Sasuke scowled and fake glare was on his face. "Oh it's you again... Do you always have to be such a dobe?" Sasuke questioned rubbing his head. "Why is it always you i bump into...Do you always have to be a teme?" Naruto countered. Both boys glared at one another and itachi momentarily thought he would have to break up a fight between two four year olds. Not a second later both boys laughed happily and sasuke got up on his feet offering the whiskered boy a hand.
"Thanks Ke" the blonde boy said gratefully.
"No problem To. What are best friends for?" The young uchiha questioned. Itachi's jaw internally hit the floor. Had sasuke just said friend? When did sasuke meet the nine tails container?Sasuke has a friend since when? Itachi was totally lost.
✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨
Like it? Hate it? Tell me in the reviews!
