The Boy

Chapter 20: Wine

Itachi followed and shook his head again till he looked up to see the brief cameo of shades and ruined raven hair.

"Hey watch the cart...I'll be right back." He left the cart there with the two ogling the shelves for new items, not noticing his request at all.

Itachi left that aisle to go down a few lanes to the one where he'd saw the peeping figure. Surprisingly no one was there. He then heard a shriek come from the lane over. He unsheathed his combat knife out of drilled in reflex and headed over to the liquor aisle crouched down.

What he saw was a man opening wine bottle after wine bottle as if it was a tasting contest. The shriek had come from a startled shopper whom was running away out of fear that they'd be an accomplice in this misdemeanor.

Itachi had dealt with this type before when enemies would drink away when they lost and become more aggressive than normal. So he approached slowly from behind unnoticed and unheard. With a speed that could rival any snake he grabbed the man's wrist with his free hand forcing him to drop the bottle onto the floor. He twisted the drunk's arm behind his back and kicked the man's leg in to make him go down on his knees in the puddle of alcohol around him instead of the shards from the broken wine bottle.

He then forced the man on his stomach and held the curve of his blade to the back of the man's neck with his knee on his back to cease mobility.

"Hold, don't move."

"Get the fuck off me!" Sasuke tried to jerk around but the knee on his back refused to let up.

Itachi recognized that voice the moment it broke out. He sheathed his combat knife and undid his bandana to bind the man's hands before turning him around. With his knee now pressing hard but not too hard on the disorderly guy's chest he removed the shades and pocketed them.

"Sasuke?! What happened to you?" Itachi didn't get his brothers get up or the shame he'd brought on his hair.

Sasuke just looked up at his big brother with nothing but loathe. He tried to adjust to laying on his hands but it wasn't working. All he could feel was the numbing effect taking place and the cold from the alcohol beneath him soaking his clothes and wetting his hands. That only ignited more spite in his heart than the grief already present.

"Get. The. Fuck. Off. Me!"

"No matter how much you enunciate you're words I'm not moving till you calm down." Itachi said as he checked his brother for any weapons.

"Get off, get off, get off, get off!" Sasuke whined like a child and tried again to move but failed the same as the first time. His brother was always bigger and stronger...and now he was something else he wasn't.

"Itachi what's going on?"

Both Uchiha's looked to their right to see Naruto standing there confounded at the end of the lane with both hands on his inflated gumdrop belly.

 Sasuke grinned with a sinister glint his eyes at the blonde.

"Hey beautiful where's my son?" his voice carried this malicious tone to it as if he'd did something horrible.

Naruto stepped back at that even though he wasn't close to the youngest Uchiha at all.

"Minochi!" The blonde panicked and went back to check on said child he'd told to stay by the cart, just to make sure he was still there.

"What the hell did you do?" Itachi gripped the joined askew bang over his brother's eyes to make him face him.

"Nothing yet. Now get off me!" Sasuke shouted this time and forced himself to move now that he'd lost feeling in his hands.

"I don't think so. I'm not going to pay for this mess you've caused." Itachi let go of his brother's hair to wave down an employee of the establishment that had walked over to see the ruckus.

"Heh-heh I was going to pay for them. I always pay for things I take. How do you think I got Naruto from you?" Sasuke groaned out more with his throat and let his provoking smirk add to the fire.

"If you're trying to say you paid Naruto to choose you, you are pathetic." Itachi glanced down at his brother with disappointment that he'd fallen this badly.

"Take it however you want."

The employee came over and was informed shortly after on what had happened by Itachi. The worker then left to get the cleaning crew to fix the younger brothers mess.

"So are they yours?"

Itachi rolled his eyes and looked around for something else to look at than the mournful man beneath him. He heard Sasuke ask again and he still ignored him letting his silence speak for itself.

"He's kind of like wine."

"What?" Itachi had shut his little brother out since the beginning of the first stupid repeated question but this statement caught his attention.

"Naruto, he's like wine."

"You're drunk."

"He's sweet, bitter and addicting till you reach the bottom and you realize it was never going to last in the first place. It was a complete waste of time...and money."

"Sasuke." Itachi hoped the stern menace he'd put behind his voice would have been hint enough to shut up but alas the younger Uchiha carried on.

"The only thing left is to put the top back on and throw it in the trash. Then the next morning you're left with a terrible headache or is it heartache? You don't have time to figure it out when you come to find your brother searching through your garbage and stealing that used empty ass bottle hoping there's something left." Sasuke had an apathetic expression to rival his sadistic heavy voice.

Itachi was luckily trained in this area of restraint or he would have wailed on his brother non-stop for that affronting nonsense. At the same time he was also taught strategy. He knew that this was what Sasuke would want since he couldn't inflict any other pain on himself other than drinking.

"You're still jealous after all these years?"

"What's to be jealous of? You have an empty ass bottle not me."

"Really? Then why are you crying?"

Sasuke blinked and his vision blurred a little to show what had been stated was true.

"Nothing can make someone addicted to it Sasuke. I've tried a few times myself, but only a person with weak willpower can become addicted to that sweet and bitter taste you speak of. They choose to crave and hunt for that feeling other than 'buying' another bottle because they can't let go. They're afraid that they'll never find that special delicate taste that fills them with life anywhere else but within that one source. So when it becomes empty from constant abuse they blame the bottle and throw it away. But late the next morning they wake up in pain and confusion to find themselves in front of their mirror covered in garbage realizing they were too late. That empty abused bottle had been taken away from them to be cleaned and remade into something even more exquisite so it can have another chance to be 'treated and admired' properly. So tell me little brother, have you looked in the mirror lately?"