SasuNaru, yaoi, m-preg, OOC, OC and unbeta-read

Standard disclaimer applies

Author's notes: Sorry for the wait and I almost couldn't update today because PC's condition turned for the worse. The possibility of me not being able to update any fics until the PC is fixed has reached to 90 percent. I hope you guys will understand and be patient about it. To all anonymous reviewers, thank you. As previously mentioned, there is a one-year time skip between the previous chapter and this.

Chapter 35: I want to be strong

Uchiha

The name Uchiha was always associated to the powerful sharingan and that alone could send shivers in anyone. But it wasn't the sharingan that made people respect and fear them but also intelligence, prodigious talents and sharp skills that came with the name. In view of this, nobody found the guts to bully anyone who carried the blood of the Uchiha.

Unfortunately, to five school bullies who were two years older than Akemi, the boy was none of the things that made Uchiha scary. He was like any ordinary geek who spent his whole time with his nose buried in any boring books and scrolls. In their free time, they would find him sitting in the corner of the room like a weak prey. So was it their fault when they finally decided to gang up on him on some alley after school hours?

The sudden punch that Akemi received made his head buzz in pain and his eyes watery. The academy didn't warn him of this kind of pain and the pain described in the action stories he read was different. Way too different.

"He's going to cry for his mom!" one of the kids exclaimed dramatically making his four friends laugh. "But wait! He didn't have any mother."

"All he has are two fathers and one of them is trying to play as his mother," another one snickered.

If there was one thing that was unforgivable to Akemi, it was insulting his family especially his chichiue. Screaming bloody murder, he pushed the offender and straddled him. And even though his eyes were bleeding red with one tomoe on each, it didn't faze them. Why should they? He was the Uchiha who did nothing but bury himself with books. He pulled his fist and punched the guy hard.

"You're right. I don't have a mother, but chichiue is better than any of yours. He's the best and I have two great ninjas I could train with."

The guy underneath him smirked. "Your punch was too weak, geek," he sneered and threw Akemi to the ground. "You're the weakest Uchiha. You are pathetic."

Chanting those words over and over again, they started kicking Akemi who was trying to fight back with all his might but he was nothing compared to the five bullies. It didn't take long before he lay down on the ground, drawing his knees up in a fetal position as his whole body screaming in pain. But even then, his Uchiha pride wouldn't allow him to shed tears or make sounds of pain or beg them to stop.

The leader of the gang continued laughing as he kicked Akemi. It wasn't enough. He could never get enough. He wanted the weak boy to scream in pain. He readied himself for another strong kick, his right leg pulled backwards. But before he could land the attack, he found himself thrown across to the wall together with his other friends.

Standing in front of them, protecting Akemi was none other than Yuuzuki – the youngest ANBU captain since Itachi, who had just appeared in a silent 'poof' between them and his younger brother.

They gulped as they saw Yuuzuki's sharingan, the three tomoes spinning wildly and when he talked his voice was colder than ice.

"Lovely," he said sarcastically, "you just ganged up on my brother." He took one daunting step towards them, "You should know who you are messing up with."

Before Yuuzuki could do or say something more, the five bullies left in a very impressive speed, leaving only a trail of dust. Still frowning but his sharingan already deactivated, he hunkered down.

"Akemi?"

"Why do you have to fight my fight?" he asked, annoyed because he knew those bullies had another reason to see him as a weakling.

"It wasn't a fight, Akemi," he replied and he immediately carried his half-conscious brother.

-SasuNaru is love-

"Are you sure you are doing this right, Miki?" Naruto asked almost in doubt as the chakra on her pointer finger became as thin as a needle but sharper than a kunai. It wasn't always that a parent volunteered to be his child's practice subject for her weekend assignment.

"Tsunade-sama said that this is a perfect size for doing on-field medical operation. It's quick and painless. If you feel pain when I insert this, then I did something wrong."

"Didn't the old hag teach you how to reassure your patient?" he teased.

"She said I should knock our patients out with punches. Two months from now, I'll be learning how to punch like her," she added excitedly, making Naruto shiver in fear. He always hated that brute strength from Tsunade and now his daughter would be like Sakura and Shizune. God forbid.

At the other part of the living, Kisho squealed as he ran after his otousan whom he failed to catch once more. Yes, both of them were playing tag with Sasuke briskly walking away from his son. He couldn't help but chuckle when another squeal came from the boy. But the four of them stopped when they heard Yuuzuki enter with a battered Akemi in his arms.

"Oh!" Miki clapped her hands in delight, "I have a new subject."

Yuuzuki frowned, "This is not a good time to joke, Mi-chan."

"I'm not. Tsunade-sama told me how to handle cases like his."

"What happened?" Naruto asked worriedly as he started wiping dirt and blood from Akemi's face.

"He's being bullied. I just got there in time for the situation to go worst," he said but inside, he felt that the situation could never go worst because it already was. He didn't get there in time. If he did, Akemi wouldn't be hurt.

"How many were they?" Sasuke asked while thinking of different punishment. He was angry that somebody dared to hurt his child and a part of his ego was wounded because until now, nobody attack or bully an Uchiha other than the Uchiha themselves.

"Five but I'm going to deal with them. I know them," he said. Or rather, he knew their parents. He was friends with their parents and he might as well talk with them or talk with those bullies personally. Either way, he'd make sure they would never dare to go near his brother.

-Sasunaru is love-

When Akemi woke up, he found himself in his room and he was glad that no one was there because he didn't want to see or talk to anyone after the beating and taunting he received.

He disliked the fact that Yuuzuki had save him because he knew it made him weaker in the eyes of those boys. However, every time he remembered how his brother appeared in a swirl of threadlike flame; threw those boys in one single arm movement and how he stood in front of him like a warrior, there was only one word he could describe him: cool.

His brother was just so cool and then scary when he started talking in that dangerous voice. He never thought that the friendly Yuuzuki could be that ominous. But how could he knew when he never spent much time with him? In fact he avoided his brother not because he hated him but because his brother always ended up annoying him or they ended up arguing. Personality-wise they were not compatible.

Yuuzuki was very friendly and charming. He liked to try anything new and he liked stuffing himself with sweets in every opportunity he could get. He also liked to be around people; he liked to talk with them; laughed with them and do anything that deals with people. So it wasn't a surprise when Yuuzuki could remember all the villagers' faces together with their names or when more than half of the village called him 'Yuu-chan' or invite him for meals or refreshment. Yuuzuki was easy-going and cheerful and there was no denying that his presence alone could liven up a gathering more.

Although Akemi looked like his older brother, he was totally different. He was a taciturn and he preferred books over the company of other people. He like reading books of different genre than dealing with people. He read too much that he was like a walking encyclopedia. In school, he was good in theories and orals; lessons, homework and written exams were too easy to the point of boredom but the same thing couldn't be said with his hands-on. Where he excelled within classroom he barely passed in the field because he had no interest in training.

But at that moment, he swore he would be strong as his brother and when he does, nobody would bully him anymore. He would surely make those bullies pay. With revenge on his mind, he fell into slumber once more.

-SasuNaru is love-

Early morning, Naruto stepped into Akemi's room after knocking and found the boy getting ready.

"Good morning, chichiue," the boy greeted as he put on his shirt.

"Good morning, too" the blonde replied as he seated himself on the edge of the bed. "How are you? Do your wounds still hurt?"

"No. I feel good," Akemi said, looking at his father through the mirror he was now standing in front.

"You're up early. Where are you going?"

The boy looked at him, briefly hesitating whether he should tell his father about his path towards revenge. "I'm off to seek power!" he said.

That statement was like a cold and hard slap against Naruto's face. He looked surprised as images of a 12-year-old Sasuke abandoning him for power came to taunt him.

"Akemi…" he trailed off as he realized that the boy had already left. He stood up to go after him then he stopped himself at the doorway. He told himself he was just jumping to conclusion. Surely, his child didn't mean it the way he thought he meant it. Besides, Orochimaru was dead and he was more than certain there was no other man as wicked and as powerful as the snake-bastard. There was no man who would dementedly offer Akemi power. Akemi wasn't the 12-year-old Sasuke.

And as he tried to comfort himself, flashes of the Konoha traitor danced across his mind, driving him to none-too-gently thumped his forehead against the wall.

"Chichiue?" Miki's soft voice broke through his worries and with his forehead leaning against the wall, he looked at her. "Are you okay?" she asked while Kisho moved towards him only to touch the wall as far his height would allow. "Poor wall," he commented, more concerned on the object than with his chichiue's forehead. Naruto looked slightly miffed while Miki choked back her laughter.

"Miki, shouldn't you be eating your breakfast now?" Sasuke called from the hallway.

"Yes, I'm going to," she replied and dashed to their dining room.

"You okay?" Sasuke asked, noticing the worried look on his wife's face.

"Ne, Sasuke, Orochimaru is dead right?" Naruto asked almost in a hushed tone. The other man frowned as he picked their son up from the ground. "Why the sudden question?" "He's dead right? And he won't be offering power to anyone even to Akemi."

Fear was already flickering in those blue eyes and Sasuke looked at those orbs deeply as if trying to vanquish what troubled his blonde. He understood the apprehension Naruto felt but he was also certain Akemi wasn't as foolish as he was once.

"Yes, he is dead," he assured. "No one is going to abandon you for power… again." The blonde seemed to calm down and Sasuke handed Kisho over to Naruto. And as he watched the two of them walking towards the dining room, Sasuke decided he had to talk with Akemi when he returns. The boy should understand the different between power and strength before he would make a mistake.

- SasuNaru is love -

A soft sound broke the silence that hung over the training ground of the Uchiha compound as Yuuzuki landed on the ground perfectly. The boy smiled victoriously as he found kunais embedded at the center of each target marks. He already had a perfect kunai-throwing skill but he wanted to reach the state where his best friend, Hisayuki, was. But the big problem was that Hisayuki had the byakugan to see through things so hitting targets was very easy for him and he was also fast. That was the only difference in their skills, their bloodline limit.

"Aniki," Yuuzuki heard through the adrenaline receding from him and whipped around to find his younger brother. He gaped. Was the image concocted by his already tired eyes? If it was, it wasn't surprising at all considering that he had been activating his sharingan for almost two hours now.

"Help me train," the image continued and determination seemed to flare in those normally emotionless eyes. At that request, Yuuzuki immediately declared himself to be hallucinating. How many times did he invite Akemi to train with him? How many times did he offer to help his younger brother to train? Countless and all those times he was turned down coldly or wordlessly. He deactivated his sharingan and rubbed his eyes but even then the image didn't disappear.

"Are you real?" he blurted out which made the younger boy looked at him owlishly.

"I want to be as strong as you," Akemi admitted. He watched as his older brother frowned. He expected his brother to refuse after all he had turned down all his offers and invitations in the past so what Yuuzuki said wasn't what he was expecting.

"You can't be like me, Akemi," he said. "To be so is like setting a limit of your potential."

"What do you mean?"

"Why be like me when you can be stronger than me?" Yuuzuki asked as he started gathering his kunais. All along, his gut told him that Akemi had the potential to be stronger; to be better than him so when he saw the latter pouring his attention to books and never bothering to develop his skills or showing efforts to make his potential into a reality, he thought everything was a waste. It was one of the reasons why he called him a fool.

"Really?" A doubtful voice.

The older boy looked over his shoulder and nodded. "But you need to show the same determination, commitment and passion you show to your books."

His younger brother nodded and he smiled approvingly.

"C'mon, let's see how bad you are on field," he said and the word 'bad' didn't escape from Akemi who frowned but instead of retorting he mentally readied himself for whatever training his brother could come up for him. He wished whatever it was, it won't be a brother-torture in disguise.

I'll help you gain strength but it's up to you how you'll use it.

-Sasunaru is love-

Sasuke stepped into Akemi's after being permitted by his son who was now on his bed, ready to sleep. You're going to sleep?" he asked, surprised. He remembered Akemi's routine to know that at that moment the boy should be giving one of his books his undivided attention and not lying down on his bed motionlessly and with his eyes closed.

Akemi nodded - a movement that made his muscles screamed in weary. His morning training with his brother had been mild almost playful but the afternoon one wasn't. It was hell and strenuous. The training was to improve his endurance and after the training Yuuzuki told him it wasn't even the beginning yet. He wondered how he could gain strength by having his body beaten to exhaustion. Wasn't there any short cut to power?

"Why do you want power?" he asked straightforwardly.

"I want revenge," Akemi replied with hatred lacing his voice. He could never forgive those boys.

"But power and strength is not the same. Power doesn't mean one is strong. Strength, on the other hand, could give you a power you never know you had."

Akemi looked at him in bewilderment and Sasuke told himself it was too early for the boy to understand the difference between power and strength much less know it. Hell, he only understood that when he was around the age of 16.

"Do you want revenge so much?"

"Of course," the boy answered and as an afterthought added, "Is it bad?"

Shrugging his shoulders, Sasuke replied "It depends but revenge would only give you a moment of exhilaration and then when it's gone, there's just a dull emptiness."

"Why?" This time Akemi opened his eyes to observe his otousan. There was just something from his voice that made him more attentive. Perhaps it was the severity of the way his father was speaking. It was like he was speaking from an experience.

"For different reasons but in your case, you'd only be dragging yourself to their level."

"But they said I'm the weakest Uchiha."

"But beating them up isn't the best way to prove you aren't. Be the best you can be and protect your important persons."

Silence settled between them as Sasuke let the words sunk into Akemi's.

"Ne, Akemi," he said in secretive voice, "I'll let you in on a secret shared by the best ninjas in Konoha."

"What?" an interested Akemi whispered back.

"True power lies in protecting the people you love."

"What do you mean?"

Sasuke let his hand glide through Akemi's eyes, "You'll understand it someday." And before he left, he tucked his child while bidding each other a good night.

-SasuNaru is love-

Akemi looked surprised when he found Yuuzuki waiting for him by the gates of the academy.

"I thought you're going to be late for our training," Akemi said as the two started walking down towards their residence.

"Well, the mission turned out easier than we expected," he said. "And since your classes was about to end, I decided to wait for you so we could go home together."

Unfortunately, Akemi was no longer listening to him because his attention was diverted to something or to be more exact to someone else. Yuuzuki followed his gaze and saw Akemi's bullies. He saw his younger brother clenching his fist, saw his eyes tainted with red and noticed his body was tensed. But just as quickly, he relaxed and continued walking, making Yuuzuki smile.

"You better get yourself ready for some serious training, little brother," he said before he started enumerating all kinds of things the two would do before dinner. He failed to see the stunned look on Akemi's face when the younger one realized his brother didn't use the word 'foolish' and he wondered what caused that.

I won't stoop to your level. I'll seek a long-lasting honor in my own untainted way.

TBC

This time I am too tired to think of any after notes.

Chapter summary: In a mission, as his enemy moves towards him with kunai aimed at his heart, Yuuzuki realizes that despite what people thought of him, he is weak. He wants to become stronger but realizes it is too late because he is going to die and this time nobody can save him.