So. Like. WHERE DID MY CUTE LITTLE DRABBLE GO? This story is becoming a monster—A HUGE monster! (At least by my own writing standards.) I have an important question to ask at the end, please don't skip it! :) Thank you.
Enjoy!
9
He heard the front door opening quietly and was immediately up and running through the house. Sasuke had promised himself that he'd convince his nii-san to train with him today, at any cost. It wasn't fair, that his brother was always out of the house, that he was always on some mission or another, and he didn't have time for Sasuke anymore.
It hurt something deep inside.
"Nii-sama!" Sasuke bellowed, throwing the door aside and barrelling out of the house without caring for proper manners—or even putting on his sandals. His small feet stung when he pressed them over the surprisingly pointy gravel that made up the path to their home, but Sasuke ignored the painful sensation in favour of more important things. Like stopping his brother from leaving. "Wait, nii-sama!"
Itachi stopped dead in his tracks and turned towards Sasuke, surprise briefly flickering through his eyes before he sighed, walking over to his little brother.
"What are you doing, Sasuke?" He wondered, stopping the boy from advancing further and probably inflicting more harm to himself. He poked the boy's forehead with two fingers, as he said, "It's really early, why are you up?"
Sasuke did not pout. He just let his displeasure show in his face while he crossed his arms in front of him, after batting the offending fingers away. His pyjamas were rumpled and his hair was even messier than usual—but it made sense, since he literally had just rolled out of bed.
"You said you'd train me yesterday," he stated grumpily. "But you didn't, and you promised!"
Itachi's mouth twitched in what could have been a smile or a grimace, Sasuke couldn't be sure. His brother was never really easy to read, but he was kind and powerful and so very intelligent and brave—Sasuke loved him. He was his hero. What did it matter if he sometimes couldn't understand what he was thinking? Sasuke was just a kid, anyway, so it wasn't weird.
"I'm sorry, something unexpected happened and I couldn't make it back before your bedtime," Itachi apologized and Sasuke mulled it over the reason for a bit before graciously accepting it.
"It's fine," he said, "but you must train with me today!" He ordered with narrowed eyes.
His brother looked uncomfortable then, his brows scrunched up in that barely noticeable way that Sasuke had learned it meant that Itachi was trying to say no without making Sasuke sad. The younger brother scowled, unwilling to accept that development.
"Nii-sama!" He protested. "You promised! Please?" Itachi wavered and Sasuke decided to take out the big guns. "Please?" He requested again, big dark eyes round and shining in his best imitation of a puppy. He let his lower lip tremble for a more devastating effect.
"I don't know if I can," Itachi finally answered, weak in front of his brother's teary-eyed expression. Sasuke sniffed and Itachi stuttered. "It's because—I have to—Urgh." Itachi covered his eyes with a hand and Sasuke perked up, sensing that he was about to change his mind. "I was going to see somebody new in the village, and help them move," he explained, rubbing his face with his hand in a tired way. "I promised." Sasuke scowled again.
So, he was going to be abandoned, and it was for an outsider? That was so unfair!
Suddenly, Itachi pinned him with a calculating look.
"Though—this man has a… niece who is your age," he said to himself in a small voice, clearly not intending for Sasuke to hear, but the younger boy listened attentively anyway. "Maybe…" Itachi pondered. Sasuke fidgeted. "Do you want to accompany me, Sasuke?"
The small boy brightened and nodded with enthusiasm. What did it matter if it was to help some unknown man and an icky girl? He was allowed to be with Itachi!
His big brother smiled softly at him and nudged him towards the house.
"All right," he said, "We'll both go, but first you must make yourself presentable. You can't just visit somebody wearing your nightclothes and no shoes."
Alarmed, Sasuke looked himself over and let out a horrified gasp. He then turned on his heel and ran back towards the house. He opened the door but before he put a foot inside, he stopped, turning towards his brother suspiciously.
"Will you wait here for me, nii-sama," he asked, though it sounded more like an order than a question. "I'll be back soon."
He heard Itachi chuckle behind him as he hurriedly made his way to his room, but he ignored him in favour of getting ready as fast as he could. He was not going to risk his brother leaving him behind because Sasuke had not been quick enough to change. He hastily brushed his hair and teeth—after discarding his pyjamas and donning his normal clothes with the Uchiha crest on his back—and, as rapidly as he came in, he ran back outside.
Only when he spotted Itachi waiting patiently for him, sitting on the porch, did he relax.
"I'm ready!" Sasuke breathed out excitedly. His big brother looked at him with amusement.
"Did you use the toilet?" Itachi asked and Sasuke scowled.
"Of course I—" he started indignantly and then paused. Uh. He wiggled, uncomfortably aware that he hadn't and he really needed to go. "I'll be right back!" He declared in a high-pitched, haughty tone.
With the ease of practice, Sasuke ignored Itachi's chuckles with as much dignity as he could muster, and went inside once again.
Sasuke didn't like the building the two brothers entered. It was old, it was lonely and it smelled funny. The stairs creaked and the paint on the walls was chipped. He scrunched up his nose and turned towards Itachi.
"Are you sure this is where they live, nii-sama?" He asked, tugging on the teenager's hand to call his attention. Sasuke was internally happy that he was allowed to walk and hold hands with Itachi all the way from the Uchiha Compound, but he wouldn't admit it out loud because it was embarrassing—he was seven years old already! He was starting the academy in September; he didn't need to be babied!
"Yes, Sasuke. I'm sure," he was told. He couldn't be completely sure, but Sasuke thought that Itachi didn't like the apartment complex that much, either.
Why would anybody want to live there, of all places?
"There it is. Number 306," Itachi said, stopping before a door painted red with golden numbers over the peep hole. His brother knocked politely, and the duo waited to be acknowledged. However, minutes passed without a sign of anybody coming to get the door and, frustrated, Sasuke pounded louder.
There was a crash and a mumbled curse, followed by what sounded as a herd of elephants running to the door. Alarmed, both boys took a hasty step back, and just in time. The door was opened brusquely and a blond head poked through it, looking dishevelled and sweaty.
"Hi! Sorry, we're—Oh! Itachi-san!" The man blinked, blue eyes dropping to Itachi's, surprised. He had a simple white t-shirt and sweatpants on, and a horribly bright orange towel was hanging around his neck. Sasuke observed as he used the blinding piece of cloth to wipe off the sweat from his forehead and hands. "What are you doing here—? No, wait, don't mind me," he fired rapidly and craned his neck towards the inside of the house. Sasuke was about to protest the rude treatment when he bellowed, "BOSS! ITACHI-SAN IS HERE!"
"WHAT?! OH! I FORGOT!" An identical scream could be heard from inside, which coupled with the fact that the man was obviously older than Itachi but called him "san" anyway confused Sasuke to no end.
"HOW COULD YOU FORGET THAT HE WAS COMING? ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!"
"OH, SHUT UP. YOU DIDN'T REMEMBER EITHER!"
"I'M JUST YOUR CLONE, WHY WAS I SUPPOSED TO REMEMBER SOMETHING LIKE THAT? YOU'RE DEFINITELY THE IDI—" The insult died together with the clone in a puff of smoke. Sasuke jumped, startled. Were clones supposed to do that?! He didn't remember them doing anything like that from what his nii-san had taught him. Maybe he would learn to do that in the Academy?
A man who was the carbon copy of the dispelled one appeared at the door, huffing an irritated breath as he pulled off the shuriken with which he had vanished the clone from its place lodged on the wall.
"Cheeky clones, always making fun of me, basta—" he mumbled until he spotted Sasuke's curious eyes upon his person, then bit his tongue and promptly put the shuriken back in his leg pouch. Sasuke rolled his eyes. As if he hadn't seen other people do that already. "Itachi-san! I'm sorry I forgot you said you'd come by. This must be Sasuke-kun?" He asked happily with a smile that was so bright, the boy had to look away. Was this man made of sunshine?!
"Yes, he's my little brother," Itachi confirmed, patting Sasuke on the small of his back in subtle encouragement for him to get closer to the sunny stranger. "Otouto, this man is Namikaze Naruto. He arrived in Konoha just a couple of days ago," he introduced them. The recently named Naruto beamed at Sasuke and waved his hand cheerfully. Was he really older than Itachi? He didn't act as if he were, even when it looked like he should.
"Nice to meet ya, Sasuke!" He chirped with a grin. Then he snapped his fingers and, much like his clone had done minutes before, turned his head away from them to scream to someone inside. "OI, FIRECRACKER! COME 'ERE! THERE ARE PEOPLE YOU HAVE TO MEET!"
"NII-SAN! STOP CALLING ME FIRECRACKER, I'M NOT RED!" An offended, younger and definitely girlish voice answered.
Sasuke grimaced in distaste. Were all the members of this family this loud?
Then, an alarming thought occurred to him: how much time would they have to endure with them?! If he remembered right—and of course he did—Itachi had said that he was helping them move and that's why he couldn't train Sasuke. Not even in the afternoon.
He groaned.
That meant hours! He was going to go deaf if they kept that up!
Naruto cackled madly and Sasuke eyed him distrustfully. Was he crazy?
"You may not be red but sure are explosive, kiddo!" He retorted, not wasting even a second before messing up the blonde hair of the newcomer Sasuke had not noticed arriving. She squealed indignantly and dove down and away from her attacker, hiding behind the nearest human being that could deter the man from doing so—Sasuke.
"Oi, geroff!" Sasuke mumbled, trying to pry small fingers from their death grip on his clothes. 'Firecracker' gasped when she noticed what she was doing and promptly let the boy go with a small shove. The impulse almost made them fall, but their respective nii-san's caught them before they could meet with the floor.
Sasuke scowled and got away from Naruto's arms quickly, spinning to get a better look at the blond menace his brother caught. He was going to call her out on her clumsiness with a nasty remark when he actually noticed her appearance. The Uchiha blinked, astounded, as he concluded that the girl and the man were—almost identical. Except from the fact that she was a girl and he was a boy, and she had her blonde hair falling down her back in two messy ponytails, they looked exactly the same.
It was eerie.
As much as he resembled his aniki—of which his was proud, because not only was Itachi a genius, he was also really handsome, or at least that is what everyone else claimed—there was no way they looked that similar.
The girl had the same big blue eyes, blonde hair and even the same whisker marks on her cheeks Naruto had. Maybe they were clan markings? He hadn't heard of any clan that bore those scars, though.
"Sorry! I'm Uzumaki Naruko! Nii-san Naruto's niece!" She proclaimed boisterously, grinning the same grin her uncle had. No—It couldn't be. "He's the best nii-san ever!"
At that, Sasuke forgot about his confused state. There was no way he could let her say something as ridiculous as that without protest.
"No way! Itachi-nii is the best nii-san ever!"
Unbeknown to them, the objects of their discussion traded amused glances as the kids bickered.
"Well, come in," Naruto invited them, and Sasuke absently heard him as he listed every reason why his nii-san was the best in the entire Fire Nation. Naruko retorted that hers was the best in the whole Continent. And so it went, even as they trudged inside and the four of them (and a couple of the blond man's clones) worked together to make the two bedroom apartment fit enough to live in.
Their bickering never did degenerate into a real fight, and sometime before lunch it had even lost its vague hostility, turning instead into playful banter. As Sasuke helped Naruko bring what was left of her things from the tiniest place the boy had ever seen two floors down, she told him about her life before Naruto.
("I lived there until nii-san came. That's why we're moving, because he lived in one of those tiny ones too, before he knew I existed."
"What do you mean?"
"Nii-san didn't know he had a niece until yesterday. I didn't know anything about 'im either. Or any family. I was alone until he came to Konoha and entered my apartment by mistake.")
When, right before dinnertime, the Uchiha brothers excused themselves to go back to the Uchiha Compound, Sasuke was smiling contentedly.
Itachi glanced from the corner of his eye and his lips twitched upwards.
"Did you have fun, Sasuke?" He asked curiously. Sasuke nodded affirmatively. Itachi looked pleased. "That's good."
Sasuke beamed. He was not lying, he had a great time. As annoying as he found Naruko at the beginning, the girl was fun to play with. He realized that when they found themselves playing ninja in the middle of the living room, after the blonde had confided to him her desire to become the greatest Kunoichi of Konoha, and then become the next Hokage. Sasuke had scoffed and proclaimed that his nii-san would be Hokage first—which developed into a mock fight in the middle of the room. The scuffle escalated quickly into a full-blown ninja battle and the kids had soon been running around and laughing themselves silly.
And Naruto was weird. He acted much like a kid to be an adult, nothing like Sasuke would have expected from someone his aniki had so much respect for. (He was not stupid, he did notice the amicable deference Itachi treated the man with.) Instead of telling them off for playing around and forgetting to unpack the box of books they had been assigned—as any other adult Sasuke knew would have—, Naruto barked out a delighted laugh and promptly joined them in their game, crying out that he was now their enemy and that they had to 'attack him together with everything they had, or they'd never win'.
They hadn't, even when they tried their hardest—Naruto-san was very tricky and, Sasuke had to admit (even if reluctantly and only to himself), very cool. Almost as cool as his brother. Not quite but—almost.
(At the end of the game, Sasuke had huffed out between heavy puffs of air that Itachi would definitely become the next Hokage, but maybe when he retired Naruko could—possibly—replace him. Maybe.)
It was the first time Sasuke had so much fun with people that weren't his brother. Well, now that he was thinking about it, it was also the first time he played with someone his own age that wasn't boring or family.
His cousins were either much older or younger than him, and Jiro—who was five and the closest to his age—was always crying for something, which Sasuke did not tolerate. From other clans he had only met Shikamaru and Hinata—both heirs to their respective families. The first one wasn't fun at all, because he never wanted to do anything but sleep or watch clouds (who did that apart from old men?), and the second one was the daughter of their rival clan—enough said.
So, this was the first time that Sasuke could honestly say that he had made a friend.
The notion filled his chest with warmth and threatened to make him smile forever. Going to the Academy suddenly held much more appeal than before, when he only wanted to make his brother—and to a lesser extent, his father—proud.
Uzumaki Naruko was his friend, and they'd both start the Academy and become awesome shinobi together. The best.
He then suddenly frowned. There was something that had been bothering him all day, but only now that he was not distracted with play and banter did he pay proper attention to it.
"Nii-sama?" He called, troubled. Itachi, sensing his brother's change of mood, stopped walking and turned towards Sasuke, patiently waiting for him to speak his mind. Sasuke hesitated before asking, "Why do Naruko and Naruto have different clan names? They have the same markings—shouldn't they both be Namikaze? Or—or Uzumaki? And why are their names so similar?"
"Ah," Itachi said, tipping his head slightly backwards, a focused expression on his face. "I was wondering when would you ask," he commented, smiling back down at Sasuke. "Did Naruko-chan tell you that the both of them only met yesterday?" Sasuke nodded in confirmation. "Well, that's because Naruto-san is the younger brother of Naruko's dad, and as far as we know, she was given that name in his honour. Apparently, Minato-san believed his baby brother had died after they were separated as kids. As for the clan name—Naruko's mother was an Uzumaki, and as the Sandaime did not know about her having any family left when she was orphaned, he decided she'd safer with that one instead of Namikaze."
"Why, though?" Sasuke asked, not understanding why one name could be safer than the other. A name was a name, right? And Naruko was an orphan? Well, Sasuke had gathered as much when she told him that she had been living alone—but didn't she have any family while growing up? At all? That sounded—very lonely.
"You see, Sasuke… There was only one Namikaze in Konoha, and that was Minato-san," he explained. "He was really famous, really powerful, and he had many, many enemies. If his daughter bore his name, but didn't have any family to protect her… it would have been bad."
"Minato-san… who was he? A famous ninja?"
"Yes, Sasuke. One of the most acclaimed heroes of Konoha—" Itachi said, eyes serious. "Minato-san—Naruko's dad—he was the Fourth Hokage."
Sasuke's eyes grew wide and he gaped, unconcerned with the weird face he was probably making. Itachi looked suddenly fiercely determined, and took the boy by the shoulders, crouching in front of him so that they were looking each other in the eye.
"Listen to me carefully, Otouto," he ordered, "You can't tell anyone about this. Not even Naruko. She doesn't know yet, do you know why?" Sasuke shook his head. "Think. Why?"
"Because… because she'd tell everyone and she'd be in danger?" He offered tentatively, doubtfully. Itachi's eyes gleamed.
"Exactly. Naruto will tell her when he believes she's ready, but for now, she doesn't know."
"Then… why are you telling me this, nii-sama?"
"I'm confiding this to you because Naruko will need your support. Many kids in the Academy will look down on her for being an orphan and not having a clan. Many won't want to be her friends. She's been alone all her life, can you imagine how lonely that is?"
Sasuke could. He supposed it was a little similar to his own friendless situation, only worse. Because, where Sasuke had always had the support of his family—Naruko had no one.
"Well, those kids are stupid," he determined, fierce. His brows scrunched up in frustration, wondering why people could judge Naruko before getting to know her. "She's annoying, but she's fun and she's strong, and she's not less for being an orphan. And even if she were clan-less, that wouldn't change," he declared stubbornly. "I'll be her friend even if no one else wants to, and I won't let her be alone never again."
He was decided.
Yaaay~ Sasuke could have been such a good boy had the Massacre never occured... He'll be a great friend.
Anyway I wanted to ask, before I get more into this... would you like some other character of this world to be of the opposite sex? I mean, if the change was possible with Naruko, then there might be someone else—and if so, who? (And please, choose from those that haven't been mentioned yet. I've plans.) I can't promise to really change it though, but... the possibility is there. Maybe.
I hope you're still enjoying the ride! We're starting to enter the first conflict here, mwahahaha! (?) As always, opinions and constructive criticism are always welcome!
Cheers~