Summary: Sasuke Uchiha, a mastermind arsonist for hire. That is, until his mother says it's time for him to come home for dinner. But, he's not really a "mastermind arsonist"; he's a 7 year old boy with a cute imagination.

My inspiration: Calvin & Hobbes

Title: Glow


Chapter Two: Punishment.

Sasuke Uchiha had a wild imagination at the age of 7, one that was both a blessing and what some would call an innate urge to cause damage. In other words, a curse. One that would not only grant him punishment, but also his older brother.

7:30 am came quickly one day in foggy March. It marked Itachi's parent's birthday. Fugaku was exactly one year older than his wife, and he enjoyed the power it held within that knowledge. Like being able to drink first, get his license first, and things like that. However, it also meant he would turn old first. And on his 41st birthday, he woke up thinking about just that.

"What if my hip goes and Mikoto is just dancing away? She'd surely have the last laugh." He thought trivially. Mikoto had always teased and badgered him about being a year older because it meant that she was always younger than him.

He shook his head out of it. Husband and wife shouldn't care about those little things. In fact all that mattered was the cruise that they were set to go on in a few hours. He turned on his side and stared at the travelling tickets with happiness and sighed. Allowing himself to drift into sleep..

"Jerk face! I was about to eat that!" Shouted Sasuke as he thunderously hopped up on something and began to pound his weight on it as he chased Itachi.

"First come first served, if you wanted it so badly you would have at least hidden, an already made cereal, before you went into the bathroom!" Itachi returned loudly.

Fugaku sat up. Just what was going on? He lifted himself up and out of bed quickly. Sounds of things flying in the air and crashing with a force pounded against his ears. He mumbled a grim remark about teaching those two a lesson.

"Fire Brigade will deal with you!" Sasuke shouted, a wild shrill of war cry followed and Itachi was pounced on.

"You heathen give it back to innocent Sasuke. Stop your villainous ways so you can receive mercy!" Sasuke cried as Itachi yelped in choked pain, the sound of a bowl breaking into pieces filled the ears of their father. More importantly...the spilled milk.

"Sasuke! Itachi!" He growled from atop of the stairs. The onyx eyes of both young boys shot up to their father. They gulped simultaneously as Fugaku surveyed the mess. Paintings had crashed down, the family portrait had been splattered with some sort of food, and there lay the broken bowl with cereal oozing in the creases of the pieces, and the spilled milk river floating unto his fine rug.

Fugaku couldn't help sputtering a bit at the instant, spontaneous and random damage. However, he could help his anger as he traversed back inside to wake their mother to deal with the unruly children. He didn't have time for a grey hair.


"Get your foot off of my face!" Itachi angrily hissed, as they were roped together on the couch. Sasuke was far more flexible than him and with hard work involved, he was able to properly stick his unwashed foot in his older brother's face.

"Then stop elbowing me." Sasuke grunted as he tried to wedge Itachi's pointed elbow out of his ribs so he could breathe.

"Fine, I'll stop, only when your hand is out of my hair." Itachi said a bit calmer now, in the mood, reluctantly, for compromise.

"Then cut your hair!" Sasuke said lunging for the floor. He didn't weight enough, and was artless at the task of moving Itachi. In order to reinforce team work their mother bandaged them together, with a pair of scissors a hundred meters away. She wasn't playing. If they wanted to do anything it would have to be together, or at least attached to each other. This ruined Sasuke's plan for wanting to build his tree house. But, spending more time with his older brother was something he secretly liked.

Itachi couldn't wait to be free of the smelly first grader. His nose scrunched up in disbelief that this was actually happening to him. Sasuke was an ungrateful brat who ruined his date last night by calling him in the middle of the date, and telling him that mom needed his help desperately.

Turns out the only thing his mother needed was air, because he used so much hair spray.

If anything, spending time with Sasuke was a chore, not a precious moment.

They had done it. Sasuke and Itachi wormed their way to the scissors after 3 hours of being stuck together. It took an hour for them to figure out why the scissors were there, thanks to their arguing. However, Itachi was the only person wriggling due to Sasuke being "conveniently" on his back. Once free they immediately left each other's presence. Itachi to his music and Sasuke to his building.


Knock. Knock.

Itachi took his head phones out of his ears and said "come in" right after. There his father stood, inaudibly (due to Itachi's permeable hearing) telling him to do something.

"S-Sorry?" Itachi asked again, wondering what the matter was with his ears. In slow motion his father said: "You...are...to help...Sasuke build his...tree...houuuusssee." In reality he said it much faster but Itachi experienced the rare time where everything happened in slow motion.

"NOOOOO!" His insides screamed, his mind and physical body ached in pre-helping Sasuke knowing one or both of them would be injured during the making of this tree house.

"Go. Away." Sasuke said with fire in his dark grey eyes. Itachi turned on his heels to leave, but came in confrontation with his mother's scowl from the garage. Her whole body was covered from the shadow of the garage, but a twinkle in her eyes could be seen from a mile away.

"I...can't. Look..." Itachi sighed, still staring at his watchful mother. Sasuke's eye brow arched in bemusement. Just why was Itachi acting so weird? "I want to help." Itachi said loudly as if to make another person hear him.

"OKAY. BUT I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP." Sasuke said playing along with Itachi's awkward behavior. Itachi's eye twitched at the insult.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me, I don't need your help."

"Is that so?" Itachi snorted looking at the boards of wooden slacks.

"Fire Brigade will help me. He knows how to do fire." Sasuke said knowingly as if he really was fire brigade in disguise and Itachi didn't know.

"Right..."

Sasuke turned away from him and went back to making his plans. He had a blue print sheet and everything, which intrigued Itachi to want to know what it looks like. He stepped behind him and looked over his shoulder carefully. It was a decked out, exhaustive blue print of a complex tree house.

"No way...you did this?" Itachi choked, worrying his prodigy was soon to be succeeded.

"No. This one is mine, just making a few changes."

A child written, poorly drawn tree house from only the outside was on a plain sheet of computer paper. The lines were wriggly and didn't have a single complex thing about it, in fact it was rather spartan. Itachi tried to suppress his laughter, but after the sounds of restricted laughter became too hard to deal with he let it out.

"Okay, "personal friend of the Fire Brigade" you can do it." Itachi said yearning to know how Sasuke planned to do this. His mother had left for the cruise and wouldn't be back for a few days with his father. After promising on a bible not to wreck a thing, he had to keep Sasuke preoccupied, and letting him do this himself would take up the much needed time, and keep him out of the house.

Itachi pulled up a chair, propped his feet on stacks of books and began to read classic books in the March air. Hours had passed, and he didn't give the banging of hammers and screws a second thought. In fact, he just went inside for a drink. When it became dark, he went to go check on Sasuke. There was no need, a presumably messy tree house stood up there, and was covered with a big blanket.

"At least it isn't mine." Itachi yawned, ready for bed early.

The next morning came in a rush, and Itachi felt the burst of a silent morning fill his ears. Not for long, because hammering interrupted that. He didn't mind, Sasuke was far away, outside even and nothing could be broken.

Pound! Pound! Pound! Rhythmically filled his ears all day, and he could only enjoy it with the TV so loud, it drowned it out. When dusk came again, it stopped, Sasuke was inside and the a larger looking mess, presumably, was underneath an even bigger blanket.

"So how's it going?" Itachi asked almost curiously. Sasuke shrugged. "It's gong." He said like an adult. Itachi picked up on that and smiled at Sasuke's maturity until Sasuke's eye brows furrowed and he started to walk away.

BANG! BANG! DRILLLLLL!

Day three was here, and so would his parents at 10pm sharp. However, Itachi was too relaxed to get out of bed for the entire morning and waited for Sasuke to come in for lunch to talk to him.

"Hey, sport." Sasuke's eye brow arched, but he still nodded.

"So how is it going?"

"It's going." Sasuke said again calmly.

"Hey, um make sure to be careful with those tools."

"I know how to use them. Just in case your wondering." Sasuke said finishing his sandwich and jumping off to go finish his work.

"When should it be done?"

"In an hour or so." Sasuke said lithely as he stepped out.

"Call me when you're done!"

"Will do." Sasuke waved.

Itachi snorted. "Some first grader, already acting like he's got his own place...Well he does now doesn't he?" Itachi thought. He had half a mind to get up and check it out. But, he could wait until Sasuke called him.

Sasuke was right on the mark. It had been an hour since 3:30 when Sasuke said he'd be done in an hour. He came in slowly, beaming to tell Itachi he was finished.

Itachi didn't know why but curiosity and excitement welled up in him at the same time. He treaded outside calmly, trying to remember that Sasuke was only 7 how good could it-

"Guh uh, uhm..."Itachi said wordlessly. There stood the smaller replica of the complex model he had seen before. Oak wood was used to structure it, and the outside looked incredible. A rope hung from the open window, glassless and the door way was perfectly sculptured. "M-Maybe only the outside looks good, I bet the inside is empty, of filled with saw dust or what ever." Itachi thought, refusing not to be so in awe and jealous wonderment of this.

"If you think that it is only the outside that looks good, go ahead inside." Sasuke said as if reading his mind. Itachi ran along the side of the tree house and entered through the window. 2 rooms. One that looked for planning because of the big table in the middle, the other for snacks. 3 crosses hung magically around decoratively. Each year for their birthdays they get a cross, Itachi usually wore his or hung it in his room. But, he never thought Sasuke could be so-

"Innovative." Itachi breathed.

"I know. Told you Fire Brigade was good."

Itachi had to admit, his childhood prodigy had been surpassed.

A/N: Review! Review! Review God bless!