one_long_mission | Someone just got more than they bargained for

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...

He rubbed his eyes and activated his sharingan, forcing himself to sit up on his own strength for a change. The tears in his eyes were gone, but there were little wet stains on his pillow, if anyone had that kind of eye for detail.

"...Thank you. Naruto..."

It could just as easily been for the dango. But they both knew what it was really for.

"Least I could do" he gave him a smile. "Heh. You know, you really have the cutest of little brothers.." he felt Sasuke could spend his life clinging to Itachi and be content. At least this littlest one.

"Niisan! Older-Naruto cheated at tag, and used a buncha clones!" he pointed.
"Eeeeeh? I didn't!"
"Yes you did! Cheater!! eheh... it was fun though." he really wasn't angry at him. "Reminds me when you tricked me with a shadow clone when we were playin hide and seek! I can't do those yet.. but soon!"

Itachi nodded to Naruto. If the boy really was going to be Hokage some day, he'd make a good one. A kind one.

"Tag, huh... and dango too..." he smiled as he wrapped a thin arm around Sasuke. "Sounds like you had quite an exciting afternoon... Maybe... when I'm a little better... we can have an afternoon like that too..."

There was such hope in his voice. But it sounded so sad at the same time.

Naruto went over to give Itachi's head a light pat, as he had done before leaving him there. "yaknow...I really wanna see that too~" He did wish, right at this moment, that there was something more he could do...

"Hmhmm~ it was really fun! Oh, and I trained with th'kunai n'em shurikens, added in a senbon too, but s'kinda harder to work with em... Not givin up though! I got five outta the seven targets, and I got sooo close to six!" Sasuke recounted excitedly. "Eehhe~ and I still got th'paper stuck to m'head~"

"I'm proud of you..." he whispered.

He wasn't just proud of Sasuke's improvement and determination. He was saying that as much to Naruto as well. Naruto showed a tremendous amount of character in what he did. And one day, he would be proud to consider that boy his Hokage.

"M'hearin some ramen callin my name over there" Naruto gave the brothers a smile. "You two have a good rest o'day eh?"

"Seeya, older-Naruto! let's play-- uh.. I mean... train again sometime~" he gave a sheepish but overjoyed smile as the other went out.

"You got it lil' guy." the blond called out from the hallway.

And then, Sasuke proceeded to settle more against his big brother, grinning. "I've been gettin used to the sharingan too, whenever m'doin anythin that needs it! It's really nifty!"

Itachi did hope he didn't get Naruto into any future tight spots. Sasuke might ask him to train with him a little more often, though...

"... what have you been able to do with it?"

"I was able to see older-Naruto in the bushes! He thought he was hidden really well I bet, but his chakra's all reaaaally bright, like a sun!" he laughed lightly. "Couldn't really be missin that... When I was chasin him playin tag, I could see all what he was doin and copy it. It didn' work all that well though, cause he's so much taller than me and he moves different." he, however, was already starting to assimilate the sharingan's capabilities more and more as he used it. It was unevolved yet, so not much could be expected, but he was doing a good job of learning by himself.

"Good, very good... seeing chakra... That should come very naturally to you." he explained a little about the earliest form of the sharingan. "You can really learn to use it to your advantage. Understand what normal chakra looks like... and you can tell if... if something's not right. If there's a genjutsu, or... or what type of chakra they have and how much... I'm... probably a better example of the latter, though... instead of normal chakra."

"Hn. I'll remember that." the boy nodded. "Niisan, you might be a better example of what not-normal chakra's like, but..." he then claimed him into a light hug, careful about any attached tubings or other stuff. "I ain't ever gonna find a container that holds so much love for me~"

Itachi chuckled a little bit, warmly. "Now, there's a thought... If only... the sharingan could see love... Not raw power... What a different clan we would all be..."

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