Itachi's Mission

Chapter 8

Sasuke couldn't believe Itachi was forcing him to take a nap! Didn't Itachi know he wasn't a baby anymore! Sasuke huffed and puffed his way to his big brother's king size bed.

Tch, only Itachi would be arrogant enough to sleep on this size of a bed, especially if he was the only person that would be using it Sasuke thought. The oversized and soft bedspread did look tempting though and proving Itachi right, the young Uchiha fell into a deep sleep within minutes.

An hour later

Itachi was exhausted after having the meeting with the rest of the Akatsuki members about capturing Naruto, he also knew that Sasuke wouldn't have a problem with the plan because he knew his little brother despised the orange clad ninja. If he could get the raven haired child to even help them with the mission Itachi would be very thankful; for one it would be a lot easier because Naruto trusts his brother, and two, it would also mean the two Uchiha brothers would get to spend more time together. Itachi smiled inside at just the mere thought of working with the stubborn but adorable boy. The stoic man sighed, speaking of which he should probably check up on the boy now.

The older Uchiha opened the heavy wooden door to his private room, and he found his little Sasuke curled up in a ball with both knees to his chest, and the dark covers were pulled up to his little chin. Itachi didn't have the heart to wake the sleeping beauty up so he would let him sleep until he woke up on his own. But until then Itachi was feeling pretty tired himself and did not hesitate to join his brother on the bed, after all it definitely was big enough for the both of them. He lifted the enticing comforter and slipped in beside Sasuke, resting his head in the opposite direction he closed his expressionless eyes and dosed off to sleep.

Both must have been completely tuckered out because they slept right through the entire night. It was 9 AM and Itachi had overslept, he usually woke up at 7, but didn't certainly have to, his inner alarm clock just always awoke him at that time.

Kisame usually came out of his room at about 8 AM to eat breakfast with Itachi, but this morning the Uchiha could not be found anywhere. The blue shark decided to check his room. He rapped on the door, pretty loudly, but got no response. To check and see if Itachi was alright, he slowly pushed the door open. The room was completely dark and the blue man couldn't see anything. He switched on the light, and there he saw Itachi, and it appeared to be a younger and smaller looking Itachi in bed with him. Now this got the shark man very curious, because he knew Itachi never let anyone sleep in his bed. He noticed how the smaller looking one had one arm sprawled across Itachi's calmly breathing chest while lying on his stomach. And their faces were facing each other, rather closely. This was just too good to pass up, so Kisame ran back to his room grabbed his blue camera, and hurried back to the Uchiha's room.

"Good, they didn't move a muscle" he observed. He quickly and accurately aimed the camera lens at the two sleeping boys and clicked the top button of the camera.

"Wait till I show the rest of the members this little beauty" he chuckled to himself. He had to admit though, the sight before him was rather cute. Kisame's only guess on who this kid was, was that it was Itachi's younger brother, he remembered Itachi mentioning that he would be coming. He didn't want to disturb them, or get a smacking from Itachi so he then softly slipped out the door and ate breakfast quietly by himself.

15 minutes later

Sasuke stretched his small arms out as he yawned softly, but one of his arms hit something, he turned around and came face to face with his older brother. This startled him to say the least, he didn't even remember Itachi getting into bed with him, because if he did he certainly wouldn't have allowed it. He felt way too rested to think any further about sleeping with his brother… literally of course.

As he stared at the ceiling and at his older brother's calm but peaceful face he could hear his tummy rumbling from hunger.

"Aniki, aniki" he said shaking the sleeping figure from above. "ANIKI!" this finally got the Uchiha's attention, he opened his dark eyes and squinted from the sunlight pouring through the window. He looked up into an impatient face.

"What is it Sasuke?" he asked quite groggily.

"I'm hungry" Sasuke whined while putting his hand over his stomach for extra emphasis.

"Alright, I'll be ready in a few minutes, and then I'll take you to the dining hall."

"Ok."

A few minutes later Itachi led his brother to the dining hall, got some food, and sat across from one another at a rectangular white table. They ate in silence until Kisame had walked up to the two brothers.

As soon as Kisame sat down next to Sasuke he wore the smallest smirk on his face, he was trying his hardest not to show it though.

"What are you smiling at?" Itachi inquired.

"Um, uh, nothing. So who's the kid?"

"This is my little brother, Sasuke."

"Ah, I see." He could see the fixed stare the older brother gave him, which basically meant don't ask anymore questions about my brother being here or I'll kill you. So he wisely chose to change the subject.

"I heard that Sasori has been in contact with Kabuto" the shark man stated. This got the older Uchiha quite interested.

"Is he planning on leaving Orochimaru?" he questioned with disbelief.

"I know, he's like Orochimaru's right hand bitch" he laughed, and Sasuke had to chuckle at the joke as well. Itachi just smiled.

"We should still be careful, we don't want Kabuto stealing any information and giving it to Orochimaru" Itachi said, he then glanced at Sasuke sipping at his water, he would have to keep a special eye on him, he didn't want him wondering around by himself if Orochimaru was after him, because he would definitely kill the snake if he even as much as touched the boy.

Meanwhile back in Konoha

Naruto and Sakura came bursting up to Ino.

"We can't find Sasuke anywhere! Did you?"

"Nope" she said while shaking her pretty blonde ponytail back and forth.

"That's it we have to report him missing to Tsunade!" Naruto cried out. Sakura agreed, I mean who was she suppose to stare at and think about everyday?

But Ino looked completely calm "I think you guys are way over reacting, I mean I'm sure Sasuke is perfectly capable of taking care of himself, he is a genius you know."

Both Sakura's and Naruto's faces did not relax at all. "What are you saying! That we should just forget about him!" Naruto screamed. "Well I don't care what you say, I'm heading straight to Tsunade right now" he ran as fast as his two legs could carry him, and Sakura quickly followed Naruto's lead.

Ino just shook her head and smiled, she knew Sasuke would be alright, and if he really wasn't in Konoha anymore she figured it was because he left on his own accord. She would miss his cute little face though.

Tsunade was relaxing at her desk sipping some tea when a loud bang was heard at the other side of the door.

"Ugh, just when I had some peace and quiet, COME IN" she bellowed angrily.

The door opened up wide a second after they were allowed in. Both Naruto and Sakura looked completely out of breath.

"Sasuke….. he…..is……..mis…mis… missing" Naruto panted out.

"Hmm for how long?" the Hokage questioned.

"Since yesterday" he replied. Tsunade sighed, "we can't set out a search for him unless he has been missing for at least five days."

"WHAT? SO WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING UNTIL THEN?"

"Do you know for sure that he was kidnapped?"

"Uh, well no, we just can't find him, and we heard that Itachi was spotted in Konoha, so we just figured…"

"You just figured you would bother me during my peaceful five minutes for someone you can't find for one day, and you don't even know for sure if they were kidnapped?"

"Ummm" both ninjas slowly backed out of Tsunade's office.

"Annoying brats" the blonde woman said out loud and then continued to sip her now lukewarm tea.

"Well I guess that's that" Sakura looked at Naruto with sympathy. Naruto didn't say anything he just slumped down the stairs, maybe I'll get some ramen he thought.

In the Akatsuki cafeteria

"Sasuke, we should start training so we can build up your strength and widen your abilities with different jutsus." Sasuke looked up at his brother with wide eyes, he never thought he would be training with big brother. He wanted to make sure he didn't look too excited though, he wanted to play it cool, he didn't want to look like a fool or a little kid in front of Kisame after all.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and looked passive about it, "if that's what you want" Itachi just smirked and didn't bother asking about his nonchalant reaction. They said goodbye to Kisame and left for the training grounds.

In the bushes where Itachi and Sasuke were training Kabuto was spying on how well the little Uchiha was building his strength and power. Orochimaru will be very pleased to see that the boy is building his strength and abilities the right hand man thought.

Sasuke was panting from all the chakra he had used, but he wasn't finished yet. He opened his red sharingan eyes and concentrated on every movement Itachi used as he lunged in to attack him. He definitely needed practice with his eyes though, he still couldn't see all of his older brother's actions. Itachi planted a hard kick in the other's stomach after appearing right in front of the boy without Sasuke seeing a thing; Sasuke lunged forward momentarily out of breath, because of this he was not able to defend himself from the next attack either which was a hard blow to the right shoulder.

Sasuke looked completely beaten with blood and cuts scattered all throughout his small body, while on the other hand Itachi stood in front of Sasuke as if he had nothing to do with the fight at all.

"You need to learn how to control the amount of chakra and learn not to use too much."

Sasuke scowled up at his big brother standing there breathing calmly, cool, and almost bored. He must look pretty pathetic next to Itachi, he was sure that he was ashamed to be related to such a useless wuss. Sasuke turned his head away from the other figure, "I need to take a break…aniki" he slowly walked away from his brother leaving him alone with his own swarming emotions. Sasuke's pride was brought as low as the dirt on the ground he was walking on, and Kabuto caught the whole thing.

………………………………...

Endnote

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