(Looking for a Beta reader with substantial knowledge about Naruto. PM me if you are willing and available to help.)
Jacen - Hey, everyone. Sorry for the relatively long delay. I was having difficulty translating my thoughts into actions.
Akira – Please stop talking they don't care about your excuses.
Naruto – Yeah they want to read about me and Nii-san.
Ryouji – What are you losers talking about? They want to read about me. Or at least the foxy ladies do. They can't get enough of me.
Jacen – All of you, cut it out and give out the disclaimer.
Ryouji – Geez, man. Chill. Fine I'll do it. Jacen does not own Naruto. You happy now, Jacen!
Jacen – Thanks, well everyone. Please, Read and Review. As much as I enjoy writing, I'd like to get some comments, to make it all worthwhile.
The next morning, Akira found himself being brought back to realm of consciousness rather rudely by his alarm clock going off. I must punish that which dares disturb my rest. His hand appeared quickly from underneath the blankets and began making a short string of one-handed hand seals.
"Lightning Element: Lightning Lance." Akira murmured obviously half-awake and nowhere near conscious. A three foot spear of lightning erupted in Akira's opened hand. With pinpoint accuracy, it flew across the room towards the unfortunate alarm clock, which exploded on contact with the lightning. Unfortunately for Naruto, he just entered his brother's room to check on his older brother, just the clock exploded. His eyes grew wide with fright and bullets of sweat began pouring down his face. Nii-san is really scary…he thought, I should probably leave Nii-san alone until he wakes up. The realization hit him that that idea was probably the smartest thing to ever come out of his brain, quickly turned and ran back to his room to get ready for class at the Ninja Academy.
A half hour passed before Akira drunkenly walked out of his room and into the kitchen. Naruto remembering the incident with the alarm clock, was trying not to make any sudden movement else he incur Nii-san's wrath... He swallowed hard as he watched Akira sit down at the table across from him and poured himself a glass of tea. Naruto watched his brother with anxious eyes, as he poured himself a second glass of tea. By his third glass of tea, Akira's eyes opened revealing his intelligent dark emerald eyes. Looking at Naruto, with a look of confusion on his face, The look of fear on Naruto's face told him everything he needed to know. He stood up and ran back to his room, fearful of the condition of it.
"NOT AGAIN! THAT'S THE THREE-HUNDRED AND FORTY-FIFTH ALARM CLOCK THAT I'VE GONE THROUGH THIS YEAR!!!" Akira yelled from the safety of his room. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, nii-san's awake.
Akira quickly got dressed into his training clothes: a navy blue tee-shirt, a pair of forest camouflage pants, his black shoes and his black jacket with the crescent moon insignia on the back of it. He quickly attached his kunai to his right thigh and tied his forehead protector around his left upper arm. Carelessly throwing the strap of his katana over his head and under his left arm and putting on his wrist-watch, he looked in his mirror, and smiled. Oh yeah, I look quite bad-ass.
After finishing getting ready, he walked and picked up the smoldering remains of latest alarm clock. With a disheartened sigh, he calmly placed it on a shelf in his closet marked "Destroyed by Lightning Jutsu" surrounded by similarly burned alarm clocks. He looked at his large collection of destroyed alarm clocks, the majority of them were on the shelves marked "Destroyed by Wind Jutsu" or "Destroyed by Kunai". But there were a couple of them that made it onto a shelf marked "other". He couldn't help but chuckle whenever he thought about those ones: One was destroyed by an explosive note, one was destroyed by a fire jutsu, and one was disintegrated along with most of the desk by some unknown technique.
"Time for you to start heading to class, aniki."Akira said with a glint of determination in his eyes as he walked out into the living room to face his little brother.
A half hour passed, before it was time for Akira to leave his apartment. He calmly opened the door and stepped through the portal as he looked up at the clear blue sky. It's a beautiful day, he thought as he paused to take in nature's beauty before looking at his watch, Oh well, I guess that it's time to start heading over to the training field. Couldn't help but smile as he walked down the stairs outside his apartment, this is my first training mission as a full-fledged ninja.
"Jatta!" He yelled as he leapt into the air, full of excitement, catching the attention of a passing Jonin with a hideous bowl cut and thick eyebrows wearing a green spandex suit, a Jonin Vest, and orange legwarmers.
"I am Maito Gai, and I can see that by your youthful display, that you too, feel the burning power of Youth. Who might your sensei be fellow shinobi?" The Jonin asked as he dropped in to a ridiculous pose involving him pointing his hand at Akira and sticking his thumb up in the air as he smiled revealing his spotless, shiny teeth.
Akira felt a bead of sweat run down his brow. Oh dear, this guy is more queer looking then Shigehito-sensei.
"…Shigehito Ishimaru." Akira said, albeit hesitantly. The jonin, Gai's eyes grew wide at the mention of his former teammate's name.
"You have my sympathy, shinobi-san." His voice stammered out as he started to continue down his path, pausing once to warn Akira, "Be careful not to let his most un-youthful actions cloud dim your brilliant flame of youth."
"That was really strange." Akira said as he looked down at his watch, oh shit, I've got to run; I only have ten minutes to get there. He thought as he took off running as fast as he could towards the training fields.
Nine minutes later, Akira arrived at the designated training grounds. The rest of his team were already there, waiting for him and Shigehito to arrive. Miharu looked up at Akira with an annoyed look on her face, as he approached.
"What took you so long, Akira-kun? Sensei said that the training mission would begin at eight o'clock sharp." The slender tomboy said as he approached. Akira raised his arms up in mock surrender.
"Sorry. I stopped to look up at the clouds. I guess I ran a little late." Looking rather sheepish, Akira apologized to the rest of his team.
"Akira-kun, it's alright, at least, you made it here before sensei." Miharu smiled softly, causing questions to start running through his head.
"Oh man, I was hoping that you weren't going to show, Akira. Then it would be just me and Miharu-chan for the mission." Ryouji said as he stood up and began doing some stretches.
Akira just smiled as he adjusted his scabbard in order to draw his katana. After a few minutes he had began running himself through kenjutsu katas.
Miharu found herself laughing at the two boys' devotion to their studies, but after a while she realized that they had the right idea.
Another half hour passed, without any sign of their sensei. Purely out of boredom, they started to take turns sparring with each other.
Just as they were about to call it a day, and go file a formal complaint against their jonin sensei, Shigehito, their sensei finally appeared in a gust of leaves.
"Hello students! I see that you were all here on time, you see punctuality is one of the first things a shinobi must learn." Shigehito said adopting a cheesy pose like Gai's. His students, who decided to show their annoyance at their sensei by ignoring him while he was talking. "Are you even listening to me?" His face grew red from anger and annoyance at his three genin.
"If you want us to be punctual then be punctual yourself, sensei." Miharu replied without even looking at her angry sensei. The rest of her teammates stopped their brief training to listen to their sensei. Shigehito coughed into his right hand, in an attempt to get his students' attention.
"Okay kids, I'm going to explain your task to you. We're here to test your skills as a ninja. On my back is a scroll, your task is to get this scroll, anyway that you can." Shigehito said with his creepy eyes narrowed like a predatory creature, he held up a large scroll in his left hand, he slid it back on to his back before continuing, "You can use anything at your disposal to get this scroll. But I warn you, I may not be Kakashi-senpai, but I'm good enough that the only way that you are going to succeed if you come at me with the intent to kill, understood?" He paused a moment to let his words sink in. After his students nodded their heads in acknowledgement, he continued, "You may begin now." He said before disappearing into a puff of smoke.
Miharu, Ryouji and Akira looked at each other, before separating to attack their teacher, one their own.
Ryouji took refuge behind some bushes. As he slowly pulled out his naginata from his obi sash each of its sections came together and locked into place. A smile formed on his face, this was going to be easy, he thought, he was in his element, nature. He could feel the chakra of every animal, every plant, every insect, and every person near his position.
Akira found himself a nice rock to hide behind. From it he could see Miharu's hiding place, a tree trunk, and Shigehito's position. He tried to signal her to cover him and that he was planning on a direct attack. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to understand quite what he was signaling.
Hiding behind a tree trunk on the outskirts of the forest, Miharu began scanning the nearby area for her sensei. She eventually spotted her teammate, Akira, behind a large boulder, gesturing to her with his hands. Hand signals was one of Miharu's worst classes in the academy so all she could understand was something that sounded like, "Chew cover bee, owl obstruct kensai." She flashed him a thumbs up, even though she had no idea what the hell he was signaling. She placed her hands together and quickly made the hand-seals to activate her Sharingan. I've got enough chakra to use this for about thirty minutes. Time to go get sensei.
She leapt from behind the tree and ran toward Shigehito, to begin her assault.
Shigehito stood in the middle of the field and looked for his students. Ryouji was behind some bushes, Akira was behind a boulder, and Miharu was running towards him. It seems like everyone has hidden themselves quite wel…Wait, Miharu is charging towards me. He sighed at Miharu's impatience. Oh dear, looks like she wants to be the first lesson.
"Miharu-chan, do you know the first piece of Shinobi Tactical Knowledge? Taijutsu." Shigehito asked as he adopted the fighting stance of the Tekken-fu fighting style. Miharu started off with a cartwheel kick, which Shigehito dodged. Immediately she followed up with a roundhouse high kick, which he then grabbed her ankle with his left hand while he extended his first and middle fingers and said:
"Not bad, Miharu-chan. Hidden Taijutsu Master Technique: One Thousand Years of Pleasure." Miharu's eyes grew wide, as her sensei used the vile technique, pain erupted from her groin, causing tears to run her face. He calmly withdrew his fingers from her womanhood and let her spasming body fall to the ground before licking his fingers. "umm…tasty." He said turning towards her with a smile.
"YOU BASTARD!!" She screamed at him, tears cascading down her face, and pain throbbing from her womanhood.
"Ja ne! I've got to go entertain the rest of your team." He said before disappearing in a puff of smoke, again.
Akira watched in horror as Miharu took off runnig towards Shigehito from her hiding spot behind the tree. OH SHIT! I've got to stop her before sensei does something to her. He thought as started running as fast as he could, hoping to get her in time. Unfortunately he wasn't quick enough to save her dignity.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU COVER ME!?!" Miharu cried to Akira, tears still cascading down her face.
"Gomen nasai Miharu-chan." Akira said apologetically. "I was signaling you to cover me, since I have no ranged jutsus, so I had planned on being the distraction for you. Don't worry I'll get him for you." Akira said sincerely as he kneeled down to try and help her up. Suddenly Shigehito appeared behind Akira and Miharu:
"Shinobi Tactical Knowledge two, Genjutsu." Shigehito said as he finished his hand seals Akira's eyes quickly went out of focus.
Akira looked around, his right hand tightly griping his katana's hilt from its scabbard on his back. Where did sensei and Miharu-chan go. He heard a faint female voice, behind him.
"Akira-kun, he…lp me." He turned towards the voice and saw Miharu, with kunai, shurikens and blood covering her body. Akira rushed to over to her side to try to help her.
"Miharu, forgive me." Akira whispered as he kneeled down to embrace her bloody body. Suddenly he felt a punch to his back of his head, the vision of the severely wounded Miharu that was in his arms faded out and was replaced by an angry Miharu standing behind him.
Her Sharingan eyes narrowed as she stared down at her teammate, who was hugging air. I better apologize to her before she kills me. He held his hands up in mock surrender and swallowed hard. "Miharu, please don't hurt me. I was caught in a genjutsu." She smiled softly, causing a bead of sweat to roll down Akira's face. This girl is strange one second she's angry the next she's smiling. What the hell!!!
"I know, I saw. My Sharingan allows me to see through illusions. I'm feeling better now, so we'd better find the others." Miharu suggested to her teammate with a smile, her groin was still hurting, but fortunately it wasn't as bad as it had been. He's not bad looking, polite and kind. I'm still not sure how strong he is though.
"Oh, okay then, Miharu. I'll watch your back." Akira replied politely, as he drew his katana out of its sheath. "Let's go, Miharu-chan." And they headed off to find the rest of their team.
Ryouji was watching his sensei, defeat both Miharu and Akira, with Taijutsu and Genjutsu, respectively. All the while, trying to formulate a plan to steal the scroll from their sensei, to no avail. No good, this just sucks, I'm awesome with Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and healing, but damn no matter how hard I try I'm not going to be coming up with a strategy to defeat sensei. He sighed, Give me a straight up fight to all this sneaking around. And where is that kid, Akira? I could really use his intellect right now. He thought as he began to look for his teammates.
Shigehito just smiled, Two lessons down, two to go. Running through the field, in the attempt to locate the last two students.
A naginata blade flew past Shigehito's face, causing him to leap back a few feet.
"You have some slick moves Shigehito-sensei." Ryouji said as he flicked his wrist causing his naginata to retrace and begin locking itself into its 'true' naginata form. "It's been a while since I going to go full force with my weapon. Most of the students at the academy can't deal with the power of my 'Valentine' naginata." Ryouji explained as he began twirling his naginata.
Shigehito just smiled as he observed Ryouji's weapon. It's definitely not a standard weapon, from the looks of it, the shaft is made up of about twenty or more segments that are held together by a thin, flexible cable allowing it to extend to about twenty feet to thirty feet in length. So as long as I stay out of that radius I should be fine.
"Ryouji, Are you familiar with Shinobi Tactical Knowledge Three: Ninjutsu?" The older man said with a smile.
"Yes sensei." Ryouji responded as he swung his weapon towards his sensei, as his opponent began making hand-seals.
"Earth Element: Stone Wall Jutsu." Shigehito said.
Just as the naginata entered lethal velocity, a thick wall of stone rose out of the ground causing the blade to ricochet back towards Ryouji.
Flicking his wrist causing his dangerous weapon to change direction and snake back towards him. Shigehito seeing the delay in recovery, sent a trio of kunai with explosive notes attached to them, flying towards Ryouji.
Flicking his wrist and spinning in a circle causing his bladed whip (Ryouji is using his Naginata like a whip right now.) to spin around him knocking the explosive kunai out of the way. A cloud of smoke erupted around Ryouji. When the smoke cleared Ryouji was standing alone in the clearing. Geez, where did he go. Suddenly he felt a hand grip his ankle.
"Earth Element: Inner Decapitation Jutsu." Shigehito exclaimed as he pulled Ryouji into the ground and they traded positions.
"Geez, man. It figures." Ryouji said as only his head remained above ground.
"At least now you're be a-head in the game." Shigehito laughed at his little joke, Ryouji just smiled as Shigehito disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
So you're planning on burying me in the dirt because you think that I can't escape.
Underneath the ground, Ryouji reached into his kimono for a small seed, which he then placed into the soil near him. Here goes nothing.
"Ninpou: Rose Garden Jutsu!" Ryouji shouted channeling chakra into the seed, causing a thick chakra-empowered vine to sprout and carefully encircle him. Focusing on controlling the vine, the vine began lifting him up through the ground, just as Akira and Miharu appeared.
"Ryouji, what is that?" Akira asked inquisitively.
"That is one my clan's secret techniques." Ryouji said as he commanded the vine to set him on the ground. A bead of sweat rolled down his brow as Ryouji pulled off a rose from the vine, before it shriveled up and turned to dust. Miharu blushed as Ryouji handed the long-stem rose to her. "A beautiful flower, for a beautiful girl."
Seeing the way that Ryouji had manipulated the vine, a plan began to form in Akira's mind.
"That's it I've got a plan. Everyone gather around." Akira called out. Ryouji and Miharu looked at him with surprise. "The plan requires each of us to use our strengths to pull it off, we have the element of surprise on our side, because I don't think that sensei has seen your technique yet," Akira explained pointing at Ryouji. "and he still probably believes that you're still going to be buried. I'm going to need four of your seeds…" Akira continued the explanation.
While Akira and the others were planning how to defeat their sensei, Shigehito was running around looking for his students.
Where the hell are they? Shigehito thought as he walked through the woods near the fence.
He then spent the next ten minutes searching for his genin students. This training field is not that big, damn it.
"Are you sure that this is going to work?" Miharu asked unsure about their chances. Akira nodded. Ryouji handed Akira the seeds, like they discussed. Then with a nod, Ryouji, took a position in the nearby foliage, while Akira and Miharu took their positions in the middle of the field. Once they were in position, Akira discreetly planted the seeds into the ground near where their position. All set, now all we have to do is hope that sensei takes the bait. Akira thought to himself.
A few minutes later, Shigehito spotted his two wayward students in the middle of the field. I suppose that they aren't that foolish to stand out in the open, but you never know. I'd better go teach them a lesson. He thought with a smile on his face, as he charged towards Miharu and Akira at full speed.
"Prepare yourselves!" Shigehito called out as he threw three kunai towards the two students.
Akira hands made a series of hand seals as he spoke:
"Wind Type: Tempest Wall." The wind in front of Akira kicked up dramatically just as the kunai neared its target. The kunai hit the wind and was sent spinning uncontrollably towards Akira, who quickly caught them and threw them back through the wall at their sensei.
Shit, I didn't expect a chunin-level defensive technique like that from that kid. Shigehito thought as he dodged his returned kunai. Who is this kid? He wondered as he pressed forward, unaware of the trap that he was about to spring.
Akira watched as his sensei was about to reach the position. Smiling, he quickly drew his sword from its sheath on his back and adopted a defensive kendo stance. It's up to you guys now. Akira said as he gave the signal to execute the plan.
Ryouji closed his eyes and made a short series of hand seals, before saying:
"Ninpou: Embrace of Nature."
Shigehito watched in horror as thick chakra-empowered vines began wrapping themselves around his body. WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME!?! The look of surprise was on his face as the vines completely immobilized him. SHIT!
"Kazekiri." Akira explained as he began channeling wind element chakra into his sword. After a few seconds of channeling, he brought his sword back and slashed through the ground exploding the chakra as it impacted the wall of wind that he had created previously, dissipating it. A thin wave of wind shot towards Shigehito. A ranged Wind type Sword Technique, waste of chakra at this range. The girl standing next to him had been doing hand seals, throughout the execution of his technique.
"My turn. Fire Type: Grand Fireball Technique." She said loudly as she pulled back her head to take in a deep breath and quickly blew into her hand sending a large fireball towards their sensei only to first impact the shockwave of wind chakra, further increasing in size before engulfing Shigehito in a giant flame.
A couple minutes later, Shigehito returned to consciousness, only to find that his students had completed their first training session.
"Damn…I was under the impression that you guys weren't going to be strong enough to take me down. Excellent plan by the way, whose was it?" The charbroiled sensei asked his students as they gathered around. They all pointed to Akira, which at this point shrugged and scratched the back of his head bashfully. Who is this kid? Most of his techniques that I've seen are at least Chunin-level, he planned this ridiculously ornate plan, and has a decent amount of skill at nature manipulation. Shigehito thought as he looked at the rest of the group. Ryouji can use plants as weapons, and Miharu has the Sharingan and Chunnin-level Fire Type Techniques. I got really lucky with this team. They're make it to the Chunnin Exams within the year, provided that they can execute missions like they did this one. "Well, you four did really well. Take the rest of the day off. I'll see you all at the Mission Reception in the Academy tomorrow morning." Shigehito said as he disappeared into a puff of smoke.
"Yo guys! Was that really necessary to add Wind Chakra to the Grand Fireball Technique?" Ryouji asked as they all began to leave the training field.
"I actually hadn't planned the Fireball at all. I was hoping that the Wind Chakra from my Tempest Wall Technique combined with my Kazekiri technique would be enough to defeat sensei." Akira said humbly.
"The Grand Fireball was my idea, although I didn't expect it grow bigger as it engulfed Akira-kun's attack." Miharu admitted to the group.
"You know, let's all go to Ichiraku's Ramen to celebrate our first mission." Ryouji suggested in an attempt to release the tension that was building up. Everyone smiled at the suggestion.
"Is it alright if I bring aniki, I'll pay for his meal." Akira asked the group.
"It's fine by me, Akira. How 'bout we all go together to go get your little brother." Ryouji replied. I'm curious, I wonder if his little brother is just like him.
With a smile they all began the walk back to his apartment…
When they arrived at Akira's apartment, they were shocked at the mess.
"Damnit, Naruto!!!! What have you been doing while I've been out?" Akira yelled as he began chasing Naruto around the apartment with his katana. The kid was very good at dodging. Ryouji and the rest of the team thought as they watched this crazy sideshow.
"Nii-san!!! I went to class like you told me and we got let out early to go home and practice what we learned today." Naruto said while dodging his angry brother's assault.
"I thought that I told you to keep this apartment clean when I was gone. So that if my teammates came here they wouldn't think that we live like pigs." Akira yelled as he slashed his sword at his little brother, who luckily had dodged under the blade. "And here I came to take you to Ichiraku's Ramen, so that you can meet my team."
"Ichiraku's Ramen!!! Yatta!!!! I'll start cleaning up the house now, if you're treating me." Naruto cried out in excitement and ran to the kitchen area to begin cleaning the entire house. At Naruto's reaction, a bead of sweet to ran down everyone's brow.
Attempting to be a gracious guest, Miharu walked over to Akira as he sheathed his sword and asked:
"Would you like me to help or would you rather we wait outside while you guys clean up."
"Um…If you want you can go hang out in my room, until we're done." Akira replied as he began picking up empty cups of instant ramen to throw in the trash. "It's the room on the right."
"Arigato, Akira-kun. Let's go wait in Akira's room for them to get ready." Miharu suggested to Ryouji, as she opened the door, revealing a spotlessly clean room. "Wow!" She stated amazed at the appearance of such a perfect room. She carefully entered the room allowing Ryouji to follow as she began exploring her mysterious teammate's room.
"Fuck!" Ryouji cursed envious of the condition of the room. He also began looking around the room, in the hopes of gettting some insight on Akira.
After a few minutes of exploring Miharu opened Akira's closet, and looked at the demolished alarm clocks.
"What the fuck!?!" She cursed loudly out of surprise. What are these…She wondered as Ryouji walked over to her. He just took one look at the closet's contents and laughed.
"Apparently, he doesn't like waking up to alarm clocks." Ryouji said jokingly just as Akira and Naruto came into the room.
Akira scratched the back of his head and looked rather embarrassed. Naruto looked annoyed.
"Hey nii-san, I thought that we were going to be going to Ichiraku's when we finished. Why is everyone standing around? Doesn't anybody realize that we are ready to leave? We are talking about the best ramen in the world here." Naruto said with an annoyed tone in his voice.
"I thought that you said that you had no ranged techniques, Akira-kun. How did you destroy these clocks?" Miharu said as she looked at Akira. He shrugged his shoulders and said:
"Honestly I don't know. Apparently, I use ranged elemental jutsu in my sleep. Luckily, I only destroy alarm clocks…" Akira's voice trailed off as everyone began to stare at him.
Ryouji just laughed as Naruto's face scrunched up, looking disappointed that he cleaned up most of the house and nobody was moving in the direction of the door.
"Yeah, we'd better get goin' before Akira's little brother blows a gasket." Ryouji said as he began walking towards the door.
The group left the apartment and began the short trek to the ramen stand. A few minutes later, they walked in and sat down at the bar.
"Welcome everyone, especially my favorite customer. What can I get for you, today?" Teuchi said as he got ready to make his famous goods.
"Miso ramen!!!" Naruto said with a very excited look on his face.
"Okay, one bowl of miso ramen for Naruto. What about the rest of you?" Teuchi said as Ayame began the preparations to full all of their orders.
"I'll take a bowl of barbecued pork ramen." Miharu said to Teuchi, as she grabbed a pair of chopsticks.
"Hey pops, give me some of your Ichiraku's Special recipe, with double toppings." Ryouji requested, looking at Ayame with a flirtatious grin on his face.
"I'll take a bowl of your shrimp ramen, Teuchi-sama." Akira said politely, with a small bow of his head.
"Okay. One miso, one barbecued pork, one shrimp and one Special coming up." Teuchi said as he and Ayame began cooking everyone's meal.
A few minutes later, Teuchi brought out everyone's meals.
"Itadakimasu!" The group said in unison as they broke their chopsticks apart and began eating.
Naruto was the first to finish.
"Nee-san! Can I get another bowl, please?" He said as he turned to face his older brother, who answered with a nod. "Yatta! Can I get another bowl of miso ramen."
"Sure, Naruto." Teuchi said as he took Naruto's empty bowl and replaced it with a full bowl.
After Naruto finished his fourth bowl, everyone left their money and began walking home.
I wonder how sensei is doing after getting burnt pretty badly. I hope that he'll be okay tomorrow. Akira thought as he and Naruto walked home.
In the Leaf Village Hospital, across town, Shigehito sneezed. Some beautiful woman must be having beautifully dirty thoughts about me. He thought with a smile, as the nurses treated his third-degree burns.
(I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter.)
Kazekiri – Wind Edge
Aniki – Little brother