Team 7: change the past to protect the future (Editing in Progress)

Ch 4: sasuke has a friend...since when?

Itachi awoke around the usual time. The sun was risen, signaling it was day, and orange hues of the sky signaled it to be early in the morning. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, got up, brushed his teeth, took a shower, got dressed in his usual Uchiha garb, then strode down the hall to check on his baby brother. Some may think that it's strange for Itachi to do this every morning but the older Uchiha couldn't help but be protective of him. After all, Sasuke was his little brother, and he deserved a bit of attention. Extra attention, in his personal opinion. Their father certainly paid no mind to him. Itachi was never blind to that fact either. He noticed how his father was just beginning to compare the two of them. How Fugaku was considering Itachi to be the golden child and Sasuke to be nothing more than a spare. It was as if Itachi was gold and Sasuke was silver. One constantly thought of as better.

Itachi sometimes cursed himself for being such a prodigy that his brother would one day have such a huge gap to fill, but at the same time there are moments where Itachi finds himself cursing his father for even thinking of putting Sasuke in that type of position. Sure, he himself did his first fireball jutsu in front of his father like magic, but his father didn't realize that was only because he had been practicing behind everybody's backs. He had wanted to be prepared in case another war rolled around. His father, Itachi noticed, was more prideful than ever. Itachi knew this was because the supposed coup was going to happen in a few years. Again Itachi knew it was not a smart plan, but what could a 10 year old do? Right now his father's word was law. Itachi just had to wait for the right opportunity, then the future of the clan would be secured and his adorable baby brother would have a relatively safe and happy life. At least that's Itachi's best case scenario.

Itachi allowed a small smile to form on his face as he peeked into his brother's room. His little brother was curled up in bed, bundled in his dark blue blankets and hugging the life out of his favorite stuffed toy dinosaur as he breathed evenly, signaling that he was still asleep.

Itachi's eyes narrowed as he spotted the open window. He knew for a fact that it had been closed the night before when he tucked Sasuke in. The question now was how was it opened? Did Sasuke do it? That's possible, but why would his brother open a window in the first place? The temperature last night hadn't been scorching hot. Did his brother even have the strength to open the rickety thing? It wasn't splintering at the seams, but Itachi knew for some reason it often got stuck. Itachi inspected it carefully. It didn't seem to be tampered with in anyway. He peered out the window, searching for any signs of spying. Sasuke may be viewed as the spare to everyone else but look at what happened to the Hyuuga girl heir Sasuke's age. Itachi was not taking any chances with his little brother's life. All caught up in the possibility of harm befalling his younger sibling Itachi had forgotten about the racket the window made when shut.

Itachi's head snapped to his brother who yawned, and rubbing his eye sat up with his dinosaur wrapped lazily in a hold by his other arm.

"Morning Itachi," Sasuke said mid stretch.

"Sorry to wake you. The window was open," Itachi said nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah! There was an owl sitting outside my window last night, so i wanted to get a closer look! It's head spun around!" Sasuke explained with child like excitement, jumping up on his bed with a smile. He tried to turn his around in a similar fashion but just ended up spinning around his whole body, tangling himself in the process. Itachi internally sighed in relief. His little brother always had a fascination with birds. Any flying creature in general really. So this had calmed him greatly.

"Hey Itachi ..... Can you help me practice my shuriken jutsu?" Sasuke asked hopefully. His lip jutted into a puppy like look and his eyes widened just the right amount. Itachi, if he wasn't a boy, wasn't an Uchiha and didn't have his manly pride would have awed and cooed at the adorable sight. But Itachi instead inwardly crumbled all later plans for himself (which was just relaxing and doing nothing anyways) and made them fade into nothingness.