Finally finished with his duties and training for the day, Itachi was roaming the hallways of the Haruno Manor looking for his younger brother. He had the next day entirely free and was hoping to spend it with Sasuke. They had already been here for four days and Itachi had not seen hair or hind of him, which he found rather odd. Normally all Sasuke does is trail after him wanting to play or help him practice. So he found it weird that he hadn't seen his brother in so long.
He had spent most of the day accompanying some of his father men on a simple scouting was not too complicated. He did consider himself lucky; most genin got stuck with doing rather tedious missions like babysitting or weeding a garden. But then again most genin don't graduate at the age of 7 and even more so, most genin aren't the crown prince.
Night had already fallen and most of the people in the manor had already retired to their chambers. But Itachi knew his younger brother well enough to know he was most certainly not asleep. He personally has witnessed his mother's struggle at trying to get Sasuke to go to bed.
When he arrived to Sasuke's door he noticed it was oddly quiet on the other side. "He couldn't possibly be asleep could he?" Itachi pondered. He carefully opened the door only to the bed empty. He was positive that this was the room his brother was staying in; he even recognized some of Sasuke's building blocks on the floor. So where could he be?
He heard footsteps approaching and looked to the end of the corridor to find one of the manor's servants. The servant paused when he noticed Itachi standing in front of the open door.
"If you're looking for the young prince," he started, "he's probably with baby Sakura in her room."
"Ah," responded Itachi.
"It's the one at the very end in the next hallway over."
"Thanks."
With that Itachi made his way over.
When he had first heard about the arrangement between his father and Lord Haruno he felt troubled. Lord Haruno was one of the wealthiest men in the country. He owns pretty much every mine in this country and in many of the surrounding countries as well. While some of these mines produce coal, Iron is what is primarily extracted from them. The iron is then used for weapons such as kunai and shuriken. Even though he owns an entire monopoly of supplying this country and it's neighbors their weapons Lord Haruno and his wife were some of the most humble people he's every met.
When they had learned that Mebuki was pregnant with their first they decided to sell their grand manor in the city and opted to live out in the countryside into the smaller and simpler one they have now. They felt it was a much better environment to raise their baby in. When word had reached his father that Mebuki had delivered a girl, he could just see the wheels in his father's heard turn. While they were currently at peace with all the neighboring nations, it never hurt to take precautions. If for some reason war were to break out it would be very beneficial to the Land of Fire if there were able to cut off their enemy's supplies to weapons. Thus the marriage arrangement was brought up.
The Uchiha's and the Haruno's have always had a very good relationship. Lord Haruno has supplied his father's ninja with only the finest weapons for years. It did not take long to convince him to the arrangement.
So it wasn't the Haruno's themselves that were the problem. He was sure that they would raise their daughter to be a wonderful, respectable young women, the problem came when he thought of his younger brother.
Itachi knew most arranged marriages tended to be formed without either party being in love with the other, they are formed entirely for convenience, but not all of them remained loveless. His parents were in an arranged marriage, but over time they grew to love each other dearly. While his father may not be as open about it, he can see the way his eyes soften ever so slightly whenever he looks at his mother. So there was a slight possibility that Sasuke would one day come to love this girl, but the other possibility still existed. His brother could grow up and fall in love with another girl. Then what? Would his brother be forced to spend the rest of his life with someone he didn't love?
In an effort to try and prevent Sasuke from being forced into an unwanted marriage, Itachi had tried offering up his own services. When Sakura came of age he would marry her in his brothers place, but it seems his father has other plans for him.
Itachi stopped when once he found what looked like the right door. He heard no noise coming form the other side but decided it wouldn't hurt to check. He carefully opened the door and took a look inside. Other than a candle burning atop a dresser the room was dark. He quickly scanned it and found no sign of his little brother. He paused when he caught sight of the crib in the middle of the room.
While he's had the chance to greet Kazashi and his wife, he has yet had a chance to actually catch a glimpse of the infant. He approached quietly as to not wake her. His eyes immediately widened in surprise only to soften a moment later upon seeing the sight inside the crib.
Little Sakura was probably the cutest baby he's ever seen. She was sound asleep dressed in a pink footed pajama and had her left index and middle finger in her mouth, however it was who was beside her that really got him. Sasuke was cuddled up against the pink haired infant in what was the most adorable embrace dressed in his own navy blue footed pajamas. Itachi could not help the small smile that crawled onto his lips.
After a few moments he quietly turned and exited the room, the scene still vivid in his mind.
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.
.
When Itachi had told him had that he had the entire day free to play with him, Sasuke was ecstatic. Other than the courtyard and the garden area he was not able to leave the premise of the Manor. So when he heard that they were going to go explore the nearby forest he couldn't help but feel excited.
He was happy to have someone to play with other than Sakura, not that he didn't like her anything! Though he will secretly admit that she can be quite boring. She's always sleeping and whenever she's not all she really does is drool on herself. She also has a tendency to want to stuff everything in her mouth. His mother told him that it's a typical of a 5 month old and that he did the exact same thing when he was her age as well. Still he couldn't help but get quite upset when she destroyed three of his toy shuriken by gnawing off all the points. After a bit of crying though he realized that since his toys were obviously more superior to her frilly pink ones, how could she not want to play with them? He'll have to remember to get her a set of her own.
Most of the morning was spent with Itachi helping Sasuke target practice with some kunai, these of course were also toy ones since Sasuke was still much too young to practice with real ones. For lunch they ate the box bento's one of the cooks in the kitchen had prepared for them, then the rest of the afternoon was spent playing tag and catching some bugs.
After a quick dip in a creek they were on their way back to the manor when Itachi noticed Sasuke pause and pick up a daisy that was growing on the side of the trail.
"Who's the flower for Sasuke?" questioned Itachi as they began walking again, even though he already had a feeling he knew.
"Sakura," his brother answered.
"Ah," He replied.
"Tell me Sasuke, do you like Sakura?"
"Of course I do! I'm going to marry her one day!"
"Why?" Itachi asked as he stopped and turned to him thus causing Sasuke to do the same. While the scene he walked into last night was utterly adorable, he still had his doubts. "Are you doing it cause father and mother told you to or –"
"Mother told me that I'm going to marry her." Sasuke interrupted. "So doesn't that make her my most important person? Isn't' that why father and mother got married?"
Sasuke's eager face prevented Itachi from saying anymore. "You're right," he stated "that is why father married mother." With that Itachi started for the manor again with Sasuke trailing after him. "Maybe now's not the time," he thought peering over at Sasuke.
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By the end of their weeklong visit Mikoto was surprised everything had gone so… smoothly. While Sasuke has always been well behaved he has been known to do some whining and pitch fitting. Itachi was such an easy baby compared to Sasuke. She swore that she never heard him cry. He would sleep so much, all day and all night, that she would have to wake him up every time she wanted to feed him. Sometimes, worried that he wasn't breathing, she would have to result to putting a small mirror in front of his face to check for condensation. While Sasuke wasn't a crier either, he did demand a lot of attention. She partly blames Itachi for making him that way, for he was always dotting on his younger brother. Almost never failing to comply Sasuke's wishes.
But this entire week, other than the toy shuriken incident, she heard not a peep or whine from Sasuke about how he wanted to play with Itachi or how he was fed up with being stuck within the manor's premises or many other things she was sure he would wine about, for that she has Sakura to thank. Sasuke would not leave her side for even a moment, even going as far as wanting to bathe and sleep with the infant.
She looked around the room one more time just to make sure she's gotten everything. As much as she did enjoy the tranquility and serenity of the countryside, a country cannot run itself. Both her and her husband have duties to attend to that come with being rulers of a country.
It was about 6 in the morning and they had to leave soon if they wanted to make it to the palace by nightfall. Absolutely sure that she wasn't missing anything from the room she went and checked Sasuke's as well. After a quick inspection, to which sure enough she had found a left shoe and a shirt, she headed to the courtyard where the carriage awaited. She knew she didn't have bother to check Itachi's.
When she arrived the carriage was already loaded, and the horses and ninja where in place. She spotted Itachi amongst them clothed in his gear. To her left she saw Kazashi and her husband talking. A little bit to the side of them was Sasuke, holding an unfamiliar bag, right beside Mebuki who was holding Sakura swaddled in a blanket. She approached them.
"I really am going to miss having you around," Mebuki sighed, "it can be quite lonely sometimes especially when Kazashi has to leave on business."
"It was a pleasure being here. Thank you so much for having us and please do feel free to come and visit us whenever you like, especially if Kazashi is gone much too long. Come stay with us so you wont feel lonely." She replied. At this point her husband and Lord Kazashi approached.
"We really must get going," Fugaku stated.
"We understand," Kazashi replied.
She shot a warning glance at Sasuke. He immediately understood. Dropping his bag he turned toward Kizashi and his wife and bowed.
"Thank you for having us," he started "And I'll take good care of Sakura while she's with us."
At this the adults glanced at each other. Mikoto crouched down to be at eye level with her youngest. "Sasuke honey, is Sakura coming with us?" she questioned.
"Of course she is!" he exclaimed. "I even packed for her," at this Sasuke opened his bag in order to display its contents. Hastily thrown inside were many articles of Sakura's clothing, some bottles, a pacifier and a stuffed animal or two.
She honestly wanted to laugh at the adorableness of it all but she knew doing so would only make Sasuke's reaction worse.
"Baby," she began. "Sakura's not coming with us."
Upon hearing this Sasuke's face fell. "Why not?! She has too!" Tears already brimming his eyes.
"She has to stay here with her parents—"
"Then I'll stay here too!" he cried. "Please mother! I can't leave her!" At this point full-blown tears were coming out and Mikoto's heart broke in half. Just as she reached out to pull her baby into her arms her husband's voice broke through.
"Sasuke."
At the sound of his fathers stern voice Sasuke stilled himself and looked up.
"You heard your mother, she's not coming with us and your not staying either. You'll see her again soon," her husband scolded.
Sasuke, probably too scared of his father to say anything in return, ran off crying into the carriage. The sound of him slamming the door shut echoed throughout the courtyard.
"I'm so sorry" Mikoto began as she picked up the bag with Sakura's stuff.
"No, no, no," Mebuki responded as she took the bag. "I'm just glad he took such a liking to her."
After one last goodbye her husband headed to the front of their caravan while she headed towards the carriage. From her position outside she could make out the whimpers and sniffles coming from within in. She opened the door to find Sasuke sprawled out, facing downwards hands covering his face, on one side of the carriage. He was trembling in an effort to contain his cries.
As much as it broke her she knew it would be best if she just let him cry it out. As the carriage lurched forward she really hoped at these goodbyes would not all end this way.
A/N: I'm so glad you guys liked the first chapter! I was so terrified that no one would even read it! Please forgive any grammatical errors unless its uber bad, then please let me know! I've been trying to figure out how to make a fanfic page on tumblr and i haven't gotten the hang of it and I'm about to cry! I'll try to shoot for another update by next Sunday as well. Have a blessed week!
