Big Brother

Big Brother

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"  "   Talking.

"  "   Thinking.

" Italicized words "  Screaming or strong voice.

----   POV switch.

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UCHIHACEST!! DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ.

"Thanks, Naruto, see you tomorrow." A young raven haired boy waved goodbye to his friend in the doorway. The light from the warm house seemed to shy away from the darkness of the outside.

His blonde friend smiled back at him from a few feet away. "See ya, Sasuke!" And Sasuke stepped outside and closed the door.

Then that familiar voice echoed in his head for about the umpteenth time that night. "Sasuke, when you leave Naruto's, call me and I'll come and get you." Why? "I don't want  you walking home alone that late at night by yourself..."

Sasuke leaned against a tree next to Naruto's house, shivering from the slight coldness of the night air. He reached down into his pocket and hesitantly pulled out his cell phone, turning it over and over in his hands. He didn't want to disturb his older brother. Itachi was probably sitting very comfortably at home, and Sasuke would feel horrible for disturbing him.

"Oh... What do I do? Aniki..."

Making up his mind, he slipped his slender gray cell phone back into his pocket and peeled himself from the tree. He started back home.

The night chill crept under his loose shirt and pants and made him shiver again as he walked. Damn his carelessness for not bringing a sweatshirt. Twelve year old Sasuke cursed in his head as he shivered again. His thoughts turned to his brother, and he longed to be held in the older Uchiha's warm embrace. After this thought ran through his mind he mentally scolded himself. He was thinking so selfishly, as he was directly disobeying his older brother. He knew Itachi was trying to do what was best for him, but he couldn't help but think of his request as unnecessary. And pus, it was weird to want to be held by your brother, right? So against his brother's wishes, Sasuke walked on through the night, completely...

Vulnerable.

Every little sound spooked him and made his heart pound. Sasuke constantly glanced behind him and all around to make sure no one was stalking him.

He was almost halfway, and Sasuke felt his heart lifting. Maybe if he made it home safe by himself, Itachi wouldn't worry so much. Smiling at the sudden idea that flitted across his mind, he kept on walking, glancing around every now and then.

That was when he heard it. A deafening rustle of leaves on a bush on the other side of the dark street. Sasuke's heart skipped a beat when he snapped his head towards the sound and saw a few shadows dashing across the street.

To the side he was on.

Sasuke's breathing hitched and his onyx eyes widened in fear. He saw the shadows move again and a burst of adrenaline flooded his system. He bolted, running as fast as he could away from the shadows of most likely rogue ninjas.

Sasuke snapped his head back and realized in horror that they were right on his tail. At a quick glance he counted three rogues, but he couldn't be certain. The oxygen-starved muscles in his legs screamed for relief, but he couldn't do anything to stop the lactic acid, he forced himself to keep running. He heard one their sneering voices and another boost of adrenaline kicked in, giving him somewhat renewed energy. Sasuke began to groan a bit as his footsteps pounded hard and fast on the ground.

Without thinking, he turned a corner and into a gloomy alleyway, and it had a looming air of murder. Sasuke realized what he'd just ran into and cursed under his breath.

A death trap.

"What was that, kid?" A gruff voice made him wince as it asked the question viciously.

Sasuke turned around to face them and began to back away. They advanced on him, cackling darkly, and Sasuke realized there weren't three, but five rogues. He whimpered and gasped as he felt his back hit the cold, hard stone of the building that closed the vacant alleyway into the darkness.

"Heh. Looks like you're cornered, kid."

Sasuke's bottom lip trembled, tears making their way down his cheeks quickly. One landed in his mouth but he couldn't taste it, he could barely pay any mind to anything but the situation at hand.

The man in front, who was probably top dog, advanced on him further. Sasuke could now see the whites of his eyes, and they were bloodshot and ugly in every way. He could even smell him from where he stood four feet away, and Sasuke began to shake. He smelled of rape and blood.

"This can't be happening, oh my God what's gonna happen?! Am I gonna... die? Someone help me..." Sasuke's thoughts whirred around in his head. He was to scared to move, to scared to breath. All he could do was stare in horror at his stalkers.

The man in front of him took another step forward and drew out a kunai, and a glinted dangerously in the feeble moonlight.

Sasuke's heart sped up again and his stomach churned. Sweat began to form in beads on the back of his neck, a dripped down his back, causing a little shiver. His onyx eyes stayed glued to the rogue.

Then he remembered the device sitting in his pocket, and clung to a tiny sliver of hope that he could at least get Itachi's phone to ring so he'd call back and realize something was wrong. But just before he went to move his hand to reach into his pocket, one of the rogues in the back spoke.

"Hey boss, what if the kid has a cell phone or something?" He gruff voice pierced Sasuke's sliver of hope. Could things get any worse?

"Oh yeah, good thinking. I bet he does." Never say that, because it always does. Sasuke watched as the man's dark eyes locked on the little lump in his right pocket, and walked the rest of the way towards the cowering boy. As he came nearer Sasuke pressed himself further into the wall, praying that maybe if he pressed hard enough he'd go through it. But as the man's hand reached into his pocket and grabbed the phone, Sasuke punched him as hard as a twelve year old could in the face.

But he realized too late it was the worst thing he could've done. Grunting a bit, the man, looking seriously annoyed, punched his chin up, making his neck crack a bit and blood gush from his mouth. Sasuke whimpered and watched in horror as the man dropped the phone on the ground and smashed it into nothing with his foot.

The man looked up at Sasuke with ugly eyes and smirked. "Well, little Uchiha, I have a few questions that... would be in 'ya best interest 'ta answer, ne?"

----

The older Uchiha sat by himself at home, as their parents were on a mission, rigid and tense as a pole.

Groaning in frustration, he leaned his head back on the top of the couch and clenched his shaking hands, a second later letting them go.

"Sasuke... Why didn't you call me yet...?"

Itachi Uchiha didn't worry. He never worried. Except when he didn't know exactly where his baby brother was, and this was one of those times. He could barely sit still. He was never completely relaxed unless he could physically see his Otouto. That was just how a protective older brother was, he told himself, but he couldn't bring himself to be fully convinced that that was all it was.

His hand kept wandering unconsciously to his cell phone, but then he'd pull his fingers away and sigh.

But he couldn't bare doing that again. So letting out a frustrated growl, Itachi grabbed his phone and dialed Sasuke's number.

His heart increased as the seconds ticked by that the cell phone tried to connect, and he watched the screen intently. What happened next was the final straw.

A cool, metallic female voice rang from the small speakers. "We're sorry, but the call could not go through."

It took a second to register the words in his brain. When they did, Itachi's heart skipped a beat and his dark onyx eyes bled into the color of the Sharingan, it had activated. A second later it seemed and he was out the door, katana under his plain black cloak. He slammed the door carelessly and ran off the manor, thankful it was late at night and no one would really notice him. That would cause for complications.

Even more than there already was.  

----

"C'mon kid, we don't have all night, damn it!" The man was now holding a dirty kunai to Sasuke's neck, and it was beginning to cut into his skin a bit.

The young Uchiha whimpered and gaining a sudden confidence kicked the man's feet out from under him with his own feet, and then kicked him away. Sasuke straightened up a bit and watched nervously as the rogue, who was now about six feet away from him, growled in pain and got up. Then he turned to the boy and began to walk slowly back to him. Each step he took Sasuke sank further down the stone wall, which now was stained with his own blood in some places. The man was about a foot away when he growled coldly, "That was the last kick you'll ever throw, kid." and pulled out another kunai. The other four came closer and stood behind the leader, and Sasuke couldn't hold it in any longer. His brother was right; he should've listened.

Itachi was always right.

"ANIKIIIIIII!!! " he screamed into the night until he thought his lungs would burst. His voice echoed horribly off the still trees and buildings and Sasuke hoped with his life that his big brother had heard him. It was the only thing he could do.
  
----

"Anikiii! "

Itachi heard a faint, but terrible scream to his right, and snapped his gaze there. But he saw nothing for as far as he could see.

"Anikiii! "

He heard it again, and he knew it was his baby brother. "Damn it!" He punched the tree he was standing next to. "Sasuke where the hell are you?!?" Itachi growled at the frozen air, not liking the scenarios playing one by one in his head that Sasuke could be in. Taking a giant leap of faith, he sighed and bolted in the direction he heard the scream, hoping against hope Sasuke was there.

And alive.

----

"Aeh... Nii-san! Nii-san! " Sasuke whimpered, not as loud as the first time, and struggled helplessly as the man held a fistful of the collar of his shirt. The man lifted Sasuke off the stone and slammed him hard back to it again, making a jagged piece dig into the younger's arm and his back to throb. He gasped at the sudden pain shooting through his body.

"Alright, I tried 'da easy way, but someone didn't wanna cooperate. So I guess 'dis means we're gonna have 'ta do it 'da hard way..." He smirked darkly at Sasuke, their faces about four inches away.

Sasuke watched as the man pulled the kunai back, tears burning the corners and stinging where there were cuts on his face. "I'm dead. I'm sorry, Aniki... I should've listened... Goodbye..."

The man sniggered. Just as he started to bring the kunai forward at Sasuke, another kunai whizzed in between the four inches separating their faces. The man dropped the kunai and it clanged to the ground. A second later, a terrible, cold growl sounded from Sasuke's left. A powerful, no, vicious, furious growl sliced the air around them. When he turned his gaze to see what had made it, he couldn't believe what he saw.

Standing to their right, Sasuke's left, was a very furious-looking, terrifying seventeen year old. His long, dark hair flapped all over the place in its ponytail, and the hair that stayed loose framed the vicious expression currently inhabiting his features. He was built and muscular, you could tell even though he had a cloak on. His eyes the color of blood, the unmistakable symbol of the Three Ring Sharingan emblazoned in their centers.

The man backed up a bit from Sasuke. Named could see him flinch a little bit. "U-Uchiha Itachi..." The man asked, but at the same time kind of sounded annoyed.

Sasuke, shaking uncontrollably now, stared to his left at his brother, who was now glaring a hole in the rogue's head. Itachi... He looked plain horrifying. Sasuke had never in his life seen him so furious, and it scared him to be standing there against the wall so vulnerable.

Itachi growled and suddenly no less than six slender kunai sliced through the night air, you could hear the air as it parted for them. Sasuke's eyes followed them and they met one of the rogues, pinned to the wall with five of them, the sixth one planted squarely into his heart. The scream seemed oddly detached, but Sasuke was too astonished at how accurate and amazing his brother was in combat when he really wanted to be.

That was one down, four to go. The rogues dispersed throughout the alleyway, the leader in the shadows. Itachi whipped out his katana, running his finger down the blade threateningly before using a substitution justu and disappearing. Sasuke looked to the four of them, and before he could wonder which one was going to be next, his older brother appeared behind the one farthest away from Sasuke and  forced the blade straight through the rogue nin's back. There was an earsplitting scream and the nin  collapsed forward. Itachi slipped the katana out of its victim and charged at the third nin. He jumped out of that way, but Itachi was one step ahead. He kicked the the rogue hard in the stomach, no doubt knocking the wind out of him. Just then the leader and his only able crony charged at Itachi. Turning around a bit too late, the rogue punched him right in the jaw, and blood Itachi probably didn't care about gushed down his chin. The Uchiha recovered quickly and punched the rogue in the back of the neck, sending him plummeting to the ground, but Itachi brought his knee up and crashed it into the nin's chest. Groaning loudly, the nin pushed himself up and charged at Itachi. Named's lips formed into a twisted smirk and his fingers snapped back an forth in lightning speed hand signs. He put his right hand up to his mouth and hissed:

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! "

Sasuke recognized the justu as soon as his brother spoke the words. The Fireball justsu he'd been trying to practice for months, and could only produce a tiny flame. Itachi had been helping him practice, but he'd never seen his older brother use it in combat. Neither had he seen it used at full force.

Sasuke watched in awe as fire shot out from his brother's mouth and flew to the opposing nin, who had now slowed down and began to run the other way. When that failed him he jumped to the side as far as he could, but the fire was quicker and it devoured his straggly form, leaving a very burnt body in its place. Sasuke winced at the site, but was soon distracted by the growl of the leader, the one who'd done the most damage.

Sasuke didn't doubt his brother, Itachi must've known this about the man because the loathing that radiated from his eyes alone could kill someone. Literally, in Itachi's case.

They stood on opposite ends of the small, dark alleyway, which now smelt mostly of blood. The Uchiha and the master rogue glared at each other for what seemed like hours, but it was merely a few minutes. But all they did was glare, sizing each other up. C'mon guys, this wasn't a staring contest.

Sasuke was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the gruff voice of the rogue. "They were disgraces... All of them... You'll find I am much more difficult to defeat... Uchiha Itachi..."

"Shut your mouth." Itachi growled at him. Sasuke's stomach turned; his voice sounded nothing like it usually did. He could tell it was the unmistakable voice of his older brother, but it held such venom that it was almost unrecognizable.

Now Sasuke saw something in his brother's blood colored eyes, something that glinted dangerously and he knew exactly what his brother was going to do. Oh my God...


Their eyes locked; now was his chance. Itachi's eyes flashed and suddenly the man made some sort of a strangled, groan and then screamed, clutching his chest.

A second later the screams stopped at the man, collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Itachi, eyes hard and cold, drove the katana into the helpless man, his loathing and rage supplying all the force he needed. The sickening sound of ripping flesh, and the last of the rogues were gone.

Looking extremely upset, Itachi closed his bloodstained hand around the handle and pulled the katana up and out of the man, and letting it fall loudly to the blood-soaked ground.

That was when, for the first time that night, their eyes met. Blood tinted Sharingan to petrified onyx, Itachi's eyes pierced Sasuke's and it almost hurt to look into them. The younger was afraid to speak, the thought that his brother was mad at him for not calling him and causing so much trouble was haunting him. Sasuke had never seen his older brother so angry before, it was still a little scary to think about, that image of when he first saw him tonight would be burned into his mind forever. The way he stood, his expression so vicious and his eyes so... disturbing...

He was torn away from his thoughts as Itachi walked over to him, those bright red eyes flashed with pain everytime they gazed over a wound on Sasuke's still shaking form, still pressed up against the stone wall.

----

It tore Itachi's heart out, to see his baby brother like this. Up against a wall, shaking and covered in bruises and cuts.  

No.

He picked up his still trembling brother and turned out of the alleyway.

----

No words were exchanged, nothing to break the deafening silence as Itachi held him, carrying him back to the manor. It was probably around midnight now; he'd left Naruto's at about ten. Hard to believe that was only two hours ago.

The constant fear Sasuke had been feeling had numbed him from everything else, but now that the fear had mostly gone away, he began to feel the cold night air again, harsher than before, as they were now deeper into the night. He shivered and Itachi must've felt it, because he wrapped his arms tighter around his little brother.

Sasuke had never felt more safe in his life, held by Itachi. But he was still a little spooked, and he twitched a little at every other noise heard around them.

----

He walked staring straight ahead, holding his baby brother as tight as he could without hurting him. Itachi was screaming inside, he wanted to punish himself; he'd let his baby brother get hurt, if he'd shown up a second later, the precious boy in his arms wouldn't... well... he wouldn't be feeling him breath right now. This idea brought tiny burning tears to his blazing Sharingan eyes. Holding in a sigh, he just shook his head slightly and continued walking. He felt his brother shiver in his grasp and remembered how close he was to losing him, and his heart nearly broke in two.

----

As they neared the door, Itachi put Sasuke down and opened the door quietly, even though their parents weren't back yet. Once they were both inside, there was an awkward silence. Sasuke watched as Itachi locked door, and prayed silently as he turned around that he wasn't mad at him.

Just then Sasuke saw something strange in his brother's eyes, and it made him nervous, he'd never seen it before. Before he could open his mouth to speak, Itachi kneeled down and pulled Sasuke into a bone-crushing hug, and there it was. That warm embrace Sasuke had longed for. The younger Uchiha nuzzled his head into the older's neck and gripped the fabric of his shirt like a life line, still trembling a little, and they stayed like that for a minute or so.

Now Sasuke felt Itachi inhale quickly and looked up, and his eyes widened at what he saw. His brother was... crying? He'd never seen Itachi cry before, never in his life. Tonight had been a night of firsts for Sasuke, it seemed. The younger's heart broke as he met Itachi's watery gaze, a few tears clouding up his dark onyx eyes, now that he deactivated the Sharingan.

"Otouto..." He whispered as he traced over some of the large cuts on Sasuke's face with his fingers. "... I'm sorry..."

At this Sasuke's eyes burned with tears. "Aniki... Why are you sorry? Th-This is my fault..."

Itachi shook his head slightly. "I wasn't there to protect you... You were hurt..."

Tears rolled down his already red-ish cheeks, and Itachi leaned closer to him. When he spoke he sounded choked. "W-Well... They're not that bad..."

Itachi knew he was talking about the cuts and bruises, and he pulled Sasuke even closer. "That's not the point, Sasuke! You're my baby brother, I'm supposed to protect you. You're..." He paused to get a hold of himself.

Sasuke just looked up into his dark onyx eyes and waited for him to speak, savoring the feel of his brother's strong arm around him and the touch of his other hand on the back of his neck.

"You're... you... I can't lose you, Sasuke..." Itachi whispered, their faces and inch away from each others. Sasuke blushed a bit at the sensation of Itachi's breath on his face. Just then Itachi felt something drip onto his hand and glanced at it; blood from the back of Sasuke's neck dripped down his wrist and he met Sasuke square in the eyes.

"Sasuke, you're bleeding." Itachi whispered, their lips barely grazing as his breath ghosted over the younger's lips.

Sasuke was in a trance, and he whispered, "I didn't listen to you, Aniki, let me bleed-"

Itachi didn't want to hear anymore, so he tilted Sasuke's neck upwards, leaned in the half inch that separated them and kissed him, making sure he could feel the passion. He wrapped arm around Sasuke's back and the other hand latched onto the hem of his shirt. Sasuke leaned into his body and mewed as he wrapped his arms around the older's neck.

Itachi grinned into the kiss at his baby brother's cuteness, and wrapped both arms around him protectively to show him why he was sorry. Sasuke was his baby brother and no one was going to take him away, his possessiveness came from the love he had for him that was more than brotherly. Sasuke mewed in his arms again and Itachi slipped his tongue into the younger's mouth, eliciting another moan from Sasuke.

Sasuke couldn't think; Why did it feel so right? Why did it feel so good kissing his brother when he knew it was wrong? Why didn't he care? He welcomed the hot sensation in his mouth and moaned at it several times, until Itachi secured his grip and stood up, not breaking the kiss and carrying his brother upstairs. Sasuke wrapped his legs around his brother's hips and they were on the second floor. Itachi maneuvered his way down the hallway and turned into his room, and once they were inside he shut and locked the door without breaking the kiss. It was too addicting, he couldn't break it if he wanted to.

Not bothering to turn the lights on, Itachi walked quickly to his bed and still keeping their lips connected, Itachi leaned onto the bed and they both fell onto it, Itachi on top of Sasuke. The older Uchiha just let himself fall on the younger, and he completely relaxed.

Sasuke mewed, loving feeling the pressure of having his brother's weight on top of him. Their bodies molded perfectly to each other's. Itachi's hand found Sasuke's lying palm up on the bed and he took it.

Reluctantly, Itachi withdrew his tongue and broke the kiss, and gazed down at Sasuke without moving off of him. "Otouto... I'm never going to let anyone take you away from me..." he whispered.

Sasuke smiled sleepily, pure happiness spread across his face. "I love you, Itachi..."

Itachi slid off Sasuke and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him up against him. Sasuke buried his face in his brother's chest and sighed as Itachi pulled the blankets over them.

"I love you too, Sasuke... So much..."