one_long_mission | Someone just got more than they bargained for

And as his benefactor agreed that sleep was the best of avenues open to him, a few ways away, near the house's closest training grounds, was the smallest Sasuke, face scrunched up in concentration. Those training weapons might not be the best, and be unlike real weapons he would use, but they -were- sharp and as Kushina told him, would only serve to make him even better once he used real, perfect-made kunai and shuriken.

He had three kunai and two shuriken in hand, a few more likely available somewhere. Since he was training, he had those bandages on his legs, sporting them in an almost-permanent fashion these days. There were a few targets hung upon nearby trees, seven of them at various angles and locations.
He took a deep breath, gathering his focus, and jumped into the air high. First, two of the three kunai were released, then the third, and as he let the two shuriken fly off as he took out two more kunai, which he hurled upwards with great force. As this was executed, his now-free hand had reached over to slip out a senbon and, spinning in the air to gather more momentum, threw it as well.

The two shuriken hit their target first, and then the two kunai that had been deflected by the last two that were thrown... but the third overall kunai and senbon both missed after their angle went into something unexpected as the two ricocheted off each other.

At least, with this experiment, Sasuke had discovered deflecting a kunai with a senbon would most likely take more work than it was worth for now. The angle was so unpredictable and he'd missed the timing even with his sharingan.
He grunted lightly. On his forehead was that piece of paper he'd almost-permanently had stuck there with chakra.

Itachi was able to find the youngest Sasuke pretty quickly. And for a while, he just hid there, behind a bush, watching his little brother train. He looked... just like Itachi remembered. Exactly like Itachi remembered. It was enough to bring tears to his eyes.

He went over to pick up every weapon, walking easily up the trees, sharingan having faded since he did not need it and wanted to conserve chakra. He jumped back down after that, taking the stray kunai, and glaring at the senbon after he picked it up. What was it that didn't work? Maybe he'd thrown it way too fast after all?

He took out his weapons again, getting in the usual strange... and this time the weapons failed to reach their marks again. Same misses, although the kunai -had- stuck near the target. The senbon..was.. well, he guessed it was into a tree since the angle he threw it indicated it should have.

As he had flipped into the air, however, he had noticed something with his sharingan... how he had not previously, he wondered. It was so bright! "Someone's there?"

Itachi stood up. But of course, it was Naruto that Sasuke saw.

"Hey, Sasuke." he tried to speak like Naruto would speak. He didn't think he really had the time to explain everything that had happened, so he didn't even attempt to try. "Couldn't help but see you training. Good work there. Thought you could use a break."

And then without warning, he poked him. Not in the forehead (that would be far too obvious) but in the arm.

"Tag! You're it."

"Ah, it's older-Naruto!" he shifted off the sharingan, because boy that was getting pretty blinding. "Break? You brought snacks!?" he asked, yes hopeful...

Before.. "HA!" replacing weapons training by stamina training? Good plan. "Cheater!!" he took off after him as fast as he could, making a note to retrieve his weapons later.

Itachi knew Sasuke was after him, so he darted this way and that. He leapt on trees, turned tight corners, jumped, rolled, flipped... He hadn't been able to move that way in a while! Not without conserving a tremendous amount of stamina and chakra first, and it was still only for a few moves. This... this was something out of childhood.

Sasuke ran after him, trying to do what he did, met with some success, but not nearly as good with those movements.

He HAD to get him!! ...he did remember one particular moment, long long ago.. and grinned.
He waited until Naruto was out of sight and then quickly proceeded to summon a bunshin, then rushed up a tree.If his stratagem worked, Naruto would eventually come closer since he wasn't moving an inch, and THEN he would drop down on him! And so, pressed against the tree, fitting within a niche where the bark had misgrown up a branch, he waited for his chance...

It wasn't something that Itachi (or probably Naruto) would fall for, but he let himself fall for it.

"Now, where could he be?"

Itachi dropped to the ground, rolling playfully with the Sasuke that practically landed on him from above. Oh, he laughed so hard. And he wasn't even out of breath!

"Aahha! Got you!" the clone had poofed out the second he'd connected with his target. He felt like such a genius! "You're it now!" he was quick to disentangle from him before rushing away, taking his flight to the tree trunks, now able to most flawlessly manipulate his chakra and stick wherever he may want. "Try'n catch me~"

This might be stamina training, but tag was pretty fun in itself!

"You're on!" He rolled up to his feet and took off after Sasuke this time.

But where Sasuke could summon one clone, Naruto could summon a bunch. So, Itachi used the technique to surround Sasuke with a bunch of Narutos, all jumping in on him in a big dogpile of fun. Eventually, they all disappeared, save for the real one whose stomach was growling like a fox.

"Okay, now it's snack time." he laughed.

"Uwaah!" was Sasuke's reaction as all those Naruto came at him. "Cheaaaater!" he protested as the pile dropped to the ground. Even though he sounded mad, he was laughing a second later at the sound.

"You're always hungry, aren't you?" he gave a sheepish smile as his stomach echoed the other's. "I should eat too... eheh~" he looked over the set of tees nearer the house. "Gotta retrieve my weapons first though!" Older-Naruto was such a great fun-loving guy as much as he was himself!

With that much energy, Itachi guessed that Naruto probably was always hungry, and he nodded.

"I could really go for something sweet, though." he smiled, as he ran past Sasuke. He couldn't afford to wait around. The thought of enjoying some dango without having to worry about whether he could stomach more than a few bites of it? And with Sasuke?! He couldn't pass up the chance. "I bet I'll beat you back to the training grounds, though!"

It was a race!

There was a bout of overjoyed laughter as he ran back. "No fair~ you're so much faster!" he called out. "One day I'll beat you~" besides, his body did still need to grow.

After the weaponry was retrieved and safely stored within their pouches and holders, the two were on their way to the food district... running all the way. Sasuke was getting somewhat breathless, but still followed. "Somethin' sweet huh?" he was no fan, but most places did not -just- have sweet things.

It didn't take him long to find a vendor that was putting out some fresh sticks of dango, among other treats. Nevermind the fact that all the real Naruto seemed to eat was ramen.

"Tell you what. This one's my treat. Is there something you want?" he smirked while he ordered several sticks of different flavors of dango for himself.

"Hmm... Sesame's good!" it wasn't that sweet, and....
..since when did Naruto like dango so much? "Eheheh~ you're funny, older-Naruto~" he gave a smile. "You know... dango reminds me of niisan." there was a fond smile on his lips. "It's his really most favorite thing on earth." he might just chalk it up as coincidence really, since he did not know Naruto that much.

"Oh... can I get one to bring back to niisan too?" he asked, big eyes looking up to him. "He loves hanabi dango the best~"

"Sure." Itachi replied, still trying to sound like Naruto would as he placed the order. "I hadn't seen him around, though. Didn't even know he was here."

Naruto was probably a terrible liar, but Itachi figured he'd try. He honestly had no idea how Naruto would react to that kind of question.

It wasn't long before they were both sitting down with little plates. Itachi took a big bite off his stick, and just... enjoyed the flavor of the dough and the sauce. It tasted better than Itachi remembered it. Of course, when you feel so sick, nothing really had that good of a taste.

"Yeah, I got a younger niisan too, and then there's nii-sama!" he laughed. Yes, that waswhat he would refer to the Hokage as. "There's a girl-me, two of em! There's another me who's a few years older, and he taught me the katon housenka! I think there's another older one too, somewhere!" he finally, finally stopped talking to bite into the dango.

...except he started as soon as he gulped the mouthful. "Oh yeah! Yaknow when we went with Hinata-neesan to show off around kids? Some of em keep comin at me and askin me to show em more! They thought we were reaaaally awesome~" another bite. chew. Gulp.

"Too bad I can't show em what i can do with weapons.. Niisama said it shouldn' be anything dangerous.. so m'gonna listen t'him!"

Itachi was digging into his just as fast. It tasted so good. And he could see every expression on Sasuke's face just as clear as day. It was so wonderful, he almost forgot to look surprised at the amount of Uchiha that seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork.

"That's great!" he grinned, at Sasuke's accomplishment. "Wow, you've been training hard!"

"Hmhmm~" he nodded vigorously. "There's still lots I wanna work on... but I got told to take things on at a time and master'em else I'll only be good at lotsa things, not really great at just some few." he chewed some of the dango again.

he gave the brightest grin then. "And I didn't lose my paper! At all! Even when I did the bunshin and jumped at the trees to stick to em!" indeed, the paper on his forehead garnered him strange glances, but it was -meant- to be there. "If I can do that for just longer, I can go and see Sakumo!"

"I was wondering what that was there for!" Itachi laughed between bites. It was getting a little bit easier to pretend to be Naruto. All you really had to do was be cheerful.

He smiled at Sasuke, took another big bite of dango and then...

... he found himself back in his own room, lying in bed. Back in the familiar body that couldn't run, leap, tumble, play... and could barely even move in general. The sudden aches and pains almost knocked the wind right out of Itachi this time. And he felt his eyes water a little.

Oh, how nice that was while it lasted...

And so, Naruto had a mouthful of dango.. which he gulped down, slightly shocked.
He wasn't sure if he was relieved to be in his own body, or somewhat sad it hadn't lasted longer. He quickly wiped at his eyes, feeling something prickle at them.

He heard the littlest Sasuke's voice, asking him what was wrong.
"Oh, ahah... nothin lil' Sasuke. Just some dust." so this was what Itachi had chosen to do. "..just... dust..." he paused. "..hey, how about we pack all those up and go home? Your brother likes those, so you can share the rest with him." he had not heard the discussion, but could guess.
He did keep the one with the sauce, cause it was pretty good.

Itachi was quickly coming to find that his day to day condition wasn't nearly as bad as being thrust back into it suddenly. But this time, he just couldn't get Sasuke's face out of his mind. If he'd just had longer, maybe he could have seen the other Sasukes too. The older ones, the girls... the ones he's never really seen before.

But that would have meant that the kind Uzumaki boy would have had to suffer longer. And even though it had to be one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for him, he knew it was going to end. In reality, he was lucky to have had as much time as he did. But that didn't stop him from crying a little.

He was only human, after all.

"Hey, hey, stop pulling, I can walk!" Naruto laughed. Ever since he,d said they were going to give the extra dango to Itachi, Sasuke had been urging him faster towards the house.

"They're soooo much better when they're fresh!" Sasuke argued with the widest of smile, holding his brother's super-favorite dango in a hand. plus, he remembered Sakumo said his niisan should eat whenever he could, so this was a good opportunity.

"Aahha~ you get like a thousand times more lively when Itachi's in the picture huh?" Naruto couldn't help but feel traces of sadness. These two loved each other so much, and yet...
"Yea! Niisan is the best ever~" he opened the door to the large home and kicked off his shoes before running to his brother's room. "Niisan!" he did stop at the edge. "..you awake, niisan?"

Itachi heard both of them, and immediately covered his eyes. He didn't want them to see that he was crying, but feigning sleep was impossible when Sasuke was there. It really was. So he tried to dry them with the edge of the sheet instead.

"...mhmm."

The weak mutter was the only answer they got.

"Yaay!" and then came Sasuke's happy cry, and he soon climbed on the bed. "Niisan, niisan! I just went to the dango shop with older-Naruto! We brought you back one, but he says you can have all is if you ever wanna~ ahhaah! He's silly~" he held up the stick of dango.

Naruto entered as well. "Hey there.. Itachi." his voice was just a slight bit hoarse. He had been here.. looking like this.. a short while ago. Just seeing it clearly, he felt tears building up again. He knew, however, that there was most likely nothing else he could do at this point. In fact, seeing him clearly made him wonder just how he was not even in twice more pain...

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