A/N: I hate babies.  Little kids are cute, but babies send me to the nearest underground hole I can find, because they¡¯re little demons with the faces of angels.  Except literally.

Warnings: OOCness and chibi fluff.  Not sure at what age kids start daycare and such, but I started at three so let¡¯s go with that.  ^^

In my eyes, Sasuke and Itachi¡¯s (chibi) relationship is something like this:

SASUKE: Let¡¯s go train, aniki!

ITACHI: ...

SASUKE: You¡¯re breaking your promise, aniki!

ITACHI: ...tomorrow.  Busy now.  ::runs away::

 

Baby Brother

By Io Ouvalyrin

 

When Itachi first saw his baby brother, he wasn¡¯t too impressed.  A tiny little brat with a scrunched up face and a thin line of drool trickling from the corner of his mouth that Mom quickly wiped away; how could he have been?  But he managed to smile and hold out his arms and not drop Sasuke Uchiha on the ground, though when one of Sasuke¡¯s tiny fists hit a bruise on the side of his arm from training he wished he could.

 

When Sasuke needed to be changed and Mom couldn¡¯t and Dad was out, Itachi held his breath, remembered that he was going to be a ninja and not only that, he was- or would be- one of the best, and did it.  He even let Sasuke chomp harmlessly on his finger to keep him quiet.

 

When Sasuke started teething, Itachi seriously contemplated suicide for himself and homicide for Sasuke.  At the very least, he wanted to drop Sasuke into a well and let him freeze to death just to get some sleep.  Instead, he resorted to sleeping outside (with Dad, who apparently couldn¡¯t take this a second time) until Sasuke stopped wailing every five seconds at the top of his (rather impressive) lungs.

 

Once, he stuck his finger in Sasuke¡¯s mouth like he¡¯d done before Sasuke started teething, and found himself grounded for the next five months for yelling some rather creative (if he did say so himself) words about his brother.

 

Sasuke learned to speak, and it was the teething nightmare all over again, only a thousand times worse, because Sasuke could walk by then and insisted on climbing into Itachi¡¯s bed and hogging all the blankets.  He also babbled in his sleep.  Itachi bought ear plugs and woke up more than once with his arm curled around Sasuke¡¯s waist while he breathed in the sweet baby scent Sasuke still had.

 

When Sasuke went to school (well, it was more like daycare), Itachi surprised both himself and Sasuke by pushing against Sasuke¡¯s forehead with one finger; the closest thing to an affectionate gesture that he¡¯d ever done while Sasuke was awake.  Itachi hadn¡¯t meant to, but Sasuke had the largest, blackest eyes he¡¯d ever seen, and it was...kind of cute.  Then Sasuke glommed onto his leg after school and refused to let go, on the grounds that Itachi had promised to train him and was going to break that promise.  (And Itachi really hadn¡¯t meant to, but he had...things to do.)

 

Five years old, and Sasuke still had to sleep with his big brother.  Itachi couldn¡¯t really be annoyed though, because he actually liked it when Sasuke was asleep, and not because it was one of the few times Sasuke wasn¡¯t bugging him about something or other.

 

Itachi turned twelve and someone told him that having a little brother tag along behind him constantly was ¡°uncool,¡± and even if he was the resident genius, he didn¡¯t make the rules.  So he told Sasuke to go away more than he should have and watched as Sasuke¡¯s face fell and the beginnings of tears glimmer in the corner of his eyes.  This did something to Itachi, so he said he was sorry to Sasuke and told the other boys, ¡°Screw you, he¡¯s my little brother,¡± or something along those lines.  Probably more impolite though.

 

One day- he couldn¡¯t remember how old they¡¯d been- he took Sasuke to the carnival and found a photo booth.  There, he kissed Sasuke right when the flash went off and gave Sasuke a copy.

 

Next week, Sasuke stopped smiling, tore up the picture and everything else that reminded him of his big brother, and swore to kill Itachi Uchiha.

 

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1