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Finding Home	By : TheDejectedStepsisters Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male > Itachi/Sasuke Views: 1940 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
Authors: KeairaxSeiaa & Wasurenaikara

Title: Finding Home

Warnings: Boy-love, brotherly love, spoilers up to the recent manga chapters involving the Uchiha, non-con, angst.

Rating: NC-17 (This chapter is worksafe.)

Characters: Primarily Sasuke and Itachi.

Pairings: Mainly SasuIta with eventual ItaSasu. This is not your usual Uchihacest fic. If you are looking for good, ol' fashioned ItaSasu, please try our other work, Dance With the Devil.

Summary: Sasuke has grown up knowing the truth about the clan massacre, but nothing has been made better for it. Rather than abandoning the village, Itachi has spent the last eight years of his life in ANBU. When he is suddenly discharged, he and Sasuke are forced to pick up life where they left off, but nothing is the same anymore. This is a story of the fine line between love and hate, of atonement, and of desperately trying to find your way back home.

Chapter Three: Happy Birthday

Sleeping in, for Sasuke, involved staying in bed until eight at the latest. This was a practice in which he only engaged when he had no missions and didn't feel the need to do any training - which meant it was incredibly rare. So he was understandably surprised when, the day after having his brother returned to him, he slept in until after nine.

His first thought, as he rolled over and groaned at the sight of the alarm clock next to his bed, was that the entire day before had been a dream. After all, everything had happened so suddenly; wasn't that how things always worked in dreams? He'd gotten the notice only a few hours before his brother's return, and by that night he'd been fucking his older brother against the family couch. Things like that just didn't happen in real life.

But his body was a little sore, suffering from an ache only brought on by using his muscles in a way he was unaccustomed to. He imagined having sex with his brother fell into that category.

He took a shower before going downstairs; he needed to get his thoughts together before he faced Itachi. He still had that comfortably numb feeling, tinged with guilt. The guilt was the reason he was putting off seeing Itachi. He just couldn't face him yet.

When he'd showered and dressed and brushed his teeth and could think of no other way to stall, he descended the stairs, catching the tell-tale sounds of someone moving around in the kitchen.

Nothing had changed in eight years. There was a little dust that had to be rinsed off the pots and pans and utensils, but everything in the kitchen was exactly the same as Itachi remembered. Briefly, it felt like only yesterday his mother had showed him how to make onigiri on the counter here.

Then the pain that steadily hummed through his entire body reminded him of where and when he was and he turned the kitchen knife over in his hand before returning to the task of making breakfast. He had stepped out at eight when he noticed that Sasuke was still asleep to get groceries as there was nothing he could use in the house. After wandering the marketplace a little bit aimlessly for the better part of half an hour, he had finally come back with a small bag of rice, about six pounds of tomatoes, half a dozen eggs, and some green onions to make omelets and rice with.

He had only just finished washing and cutting up all the tomatoes (of which he had bought about three pounds too many) when Sasuke came in, and he glanced at his brother over his shoulder before quickly looking away again. Just that brief glance had thrown the beat of his heart out of rhythm, as pathetic as that was. He had promised himself he would be okay by now, for Sasuke's sake.

"Sleep well?" he asked for lack of anything better to say, reaching into a cabinet for a bowl to beat the eggs in.

"...Yeah." Sasuke leaned against the counter on the other side of the kitchen, watching Itachi work. The way he moved about the kitchen was reminiscent of their mother. It was strange, since Sasuke had always thought that his brother more resembled their father, who would never have bothered helping out in the kitchen, much less cooking himself.

"I didn't know you could cook." What was more strange than his brother cooking was the way it all felt normal, somehow. As if he'd drained himself of all of his anger and hate the night before, leaving him free to have some semblance of a normal relationship with his brother.

Though it didn't seem to have had the same effect on Itachi.

"I mentioned the cafeteria food to you, didn't I?" Itachi's hand stilled briefly as they went dangerously close to mentioning ANBU and he took in a quiet breath, then resumed what he was doing. Not yet. It was an issue that had to be dealt with, but not yet. He couldn't face that just yet. Right now, all he could think about was making breakfast. Of looking Sasuke in the eye. After that, he could try to tackle the crisis of Sasuke being interested in ANBU.

"Right. I'm still a little hungover," Sasuke admitted. He'd had a slight headache since waking up, but hadn't paid it much attention. Breakfast and a glass of water would probably cure it. "Are you alright?"

It was as close as Sasuke would come to bringing up the night before. In his mind, Itachi was so... unshakable. It was hard to see him acting almost traumatized.

"I'm fine, Sasuke. I'm... home again, and..." Itachi sighed in response, answering another question entirely than what Sasuke was asking. "And if it could just stay that way, I..."

What had happened last night was... Itachi didn't know what it was, except that it was fine. He was not badly hurt, and all that remained of it was the lingering sense of shame that burned at the back of his neck whenever he remembered how Sasuke had spoken to him, what Sasuke had found out. It was fine. It was nothing more than what he deserved.

What did bother him was the thought of Sasuke falling into Danzou's lap. The very idea of it, of Sasuke all the places he had been, doing all of the wretched things he had done, suffering all the torments he had seen, it had demons screaming in his ears. There was already a plan, if Danzou tried to offer Sasuke the position in Root. Itachi would go back himself, sign away his soul if he had to.

Danzou didn't know about his Mangekyou. Sasuke didn't possess that and could not gain it through any normal means. If he offered that power to Danzou in exchange for Sasuke's safety, then--

Anything he had to do to keep Sasuke safe, he would do it. He had promised. She was counting on him.

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me. How many eggs do you want in your omelet?"

Sasuke sighed, pushing away from the counter. "Two. Thanks." He turned to leave the kitchen, but paused on his way out the door. "Do you want to go train a bit after breakfast? If you're up to it, that is." There was a challenge in his voice, put there specifically to mask any concern which might otherwise have been found in his tone.

"You're how old, sixteen...? Three eggs at the very least," Itachi mused to himself, deciding on it without allowing Sasuke any further input. He had the first omelet cooking on the pan before he answered Sasuke's question.

"It's... probably best if you train by yourself, Sasuke. I can spot you if you'd like, I just... ah... Don't make a terribly good sparring partner," he murmured a little apologetically. He had learned this fact after nearly killing one of his ANBU partners who came a little too close to his eyes with a kunai. Itachi's body couldn't really be trusted in that sort of situation anymore.

Again Sasuke sighed, eyeing Itachi with no small amount of brotherly irritation. "You think you'll hurt me, don't you?" he asked. "You realize it's been eight years since you last saw me. You might be surprised."

"I almost killed one of my ANBU squad members on accident, Sasuke. This is not about you. This is about me," Itachi sighed heavily, managing to meet Sasuke's gaze at this juncture. "I'm not the brother you remember either, but as I said. I would be happy to spot you. Regardless, eat your breakfast first. Your hangover won't get any better if you don't get enough to eat before training."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, wandering out of the kitchen. That was fine, he could work Itachi up to training with him. There was no possible way he was going to have the most powerful ninja in Konoha living with him and never get the benefit of training with him, even if they were brothers. He intended to take full advantage. What better way to prepare for ANBU than sparring with someone who'd already been in ANBU? Of course, he wouldn't mention that to Itachi - despite how drunk he'd been during that part of the night before, he remembered that Itachi had been very much against the idea of him joining ANBU. "Let me know when breakfast is done."

"Two minutes at best. Eggs cook quickly," Itachi called back, sighing at Sasuke's disappearing act before he turned to flip the omelet before he went on to put together the fixings for his own. "Do you want to set the table while you're waiting?"

"Fine." Sasuke hardly ever ate at the table anymore, mostly because there was never anyone to eat there with. What few 'friends' he had weren't exactly the type he would invite home. Actually, there wasn't much of anyone who Sasuke would invite to his home. Sometimes Naruto invited himself, but that was about it.

He set the table, then wandered back into the kitchen. When he neared the stove, Itachi handed him a plate piled with tomato omelet served over rice and gestured for him to sit and start without him, then poured the second bowl of omelet batter into the pan to make his own. There was far less in his, but that was only because he did not feel like he could stomach much in his current state. It wasn't long before he was finished cooking and joined Sasuke at the table.

"How is it?" he asked as he rather gracefully lowered himself to the floor, kneeling at the table with his legs tucked neatly under him, back straight. Their father had practically beaten good posture at the table into him and it lingered even now. It was true, what Sasuke had noticed. Itachi was their father's son, and it showed more and more the older he grew. Itachi hated that fact about himself, whereas the fact that Sasuke was their mother's child and took after her made him love him that much more.

Sasuke, already eating, glanced across the table at his brother. "Good," he said after swallowing his most recent bite. "Did you remember that I like tomatoes, or was that just a coincidence?" There was the slightest hint of what could almost pass for affection in his voice, surprising Sasuke himself. Somehow, what he had done the night before felt like it had wiped the slate-- for now.

"I wasn't sure if you still liked tomatoes after all this time, but, ah... you told me yesterday. That you liked them, so," Itachi replied with a slightly awkward smile, neatly cutting his omelet into pieces with his chopsticks. "I didn't forget, though," he added, as though he found that distinction important.

Sasuke nodded, making a soft noise that could almost pass as a 'thank you'. When he finished eating, he stood, gathering up his dishes. "I'm going to go train. You can join me if you'd like."

"I'll catch up once I've done the dishes," Itachi promised, still working on his own small portion of breakfast. "Do you still use the old grounds, or have you outgrown it somewhere along the way?"

"I don't always," Sasuke responded, carrying his dishes to the sink. "I usually train with Naruto, and we use a different spot. But I'll use ours today." He didn't want to run into Naruto or any of the others the first time he and Itachi were out training.

"I'll meet you there, then. I shouldn't be long, but don't wait for me." Itachi ate a little more quickly, but he wanted Sasuke to get at least a few steps ahead of him. He intended to watch his little brother train for a while, get a feel for Sasuke's style, his strengths and weaknesses. If Sasuke knew he was there, he would act differently, and Itachi didn't want that.

"Alright."

Sasuke left his family home and made the short walk to the old training grounds. Once there, he moved quickly through a few stretches before beginning intense training. He wouldn't put it past his brother to watch him in secret, so he figured he might as well go all-out. Besides, he'd been given a break from missions in order to help Itachi settle in, so he needed to make sure to keep himself in shape.

Itachi arrived perhaps ten minutes into Sasuke's training, finding a careful perch some distance away to spy from. He was a little surprised to see how much Sasuke had matured, as sometimes how long eight years really was slipped his mind. Still, he could see within the first few minutes that Sasuke lacked the level of discipline required to last in ANBU. Not that Itachi humored the idea of allowing him to enlist for a moment. He was just observing, noting things, studying Sasuke almost as he would study an enemy.

Then again, weren't all little brothers enemies in some respect?

Sasuke was so involved in his training that several minutes passed before he felt another presence nearby. When he did, he activated the Sharingan, glancing around. As soon as the red bled into his eyes, he felt the now-familiar pulse of the curse seal on his shoulder. He ignored it for the moment, eyes searching the trees.

Seeing Sasuke trying to spot him, Itachi thought to make a game of it. A test, even. To prove a point. That Sasuke was not, and would not ever be ready for ANBU. Masking his chakra signature completely, Itachi used Shisui's signature jutsu to transport himself to the trees opposite the clearing, teasing Sasuke with the glimpse of his shadow before he was carefully hidden, his own eyes Sharingan-red to keep himself one step ahead of his brother.

Sasuke's blood red eyes flicked to the other side of the clearing. Sasuke couldn't help but feel a little cautious - just what was Itachi doing? Was this some kind of test, or--? He just couldn't get rid of that tiny, nagging suspicion when it came to Itachi. He allowed the curse seal to spread a little, amplifying his chakra as his eyes searched the trees and he slowly pulled out a kunai.

Feeling an unbidden chill run through him at the sight of Sasuke arming himself, Itachi prayed that Sasuke would not try anything stupid and changed his location again, this time so that he was behind Sasuke, leaving absolutely no trail behind for his brother to follow. He intended to ambush his brother this way, immobilize him before he had a chance to react to drive in the point that he was simply not ready for ANBU--

It was then that Itachi noticed it, the slight warping of Sasuke's chakra. He narrowed his eyes, studying Sasuke, trying to find the source.

Sasuke's brows drew together as he lost his brother completely. He turned slowly, eyes studying the trees carefully, falling into a fighting stance with the kunai raised. All the while, he let the curse seal spread further until he could feel burning tendrils crawling towards his face. He'd lost Itachi, but the added help of the curse seal would speed his reaction time if his brother attempted a surprise attack.

There was something amiss in the air just then, though it was hard to pinpoint what. By the time Sasuke realized it was the complete absence of sound, Itachi was on him, knocking him to the ground. Itachi had Sasuke on his stomach, both arms twisted behind his back, and was kneeling over Sasuke's hands to keep him from getting back up, expression decidedly blank. He recognized this. It was in the archive room that Root had access too, documenting Mitarashi Anko and her deceased teammates.

"Sasuke." Itachi's voice was flat, empty, emotions shuttering off as they tended to when he neared his breaking point. "What have you done?"

Itachi's reputation was certainly well-earned. Sasuke's shock and anger resulted in the further expansion of the seal. He had to close his eyes and release the Sharingan in an attempt to force it back - in that state, he was likely to break his own arms to free himself from Itachi's grip. "What do you mean?" he gritted out.

"I was with Mom at the hospital the day you were born, and you were not born with a curse seal on the back of your neck," Itachi hissed back, watching on in nothing short of abject horror as the seal retreated to its source. "Don't play dumb with me. Tell me. What have you done?"

"I didn't do it!" Sasuke snapped, opening his eyes again. "Back when I was a Genin, during my first Chuunin exam, Orochimaru attacked me." Kakashi had put a seal on it at one point, but that had proved unsuccessful. In the end, Sasuke had decided that, since he couldn't find a way to get rid of it, his best option was to learn to control it and use it to his advantage.

"Orochi--" Itachi nearly choked on his breath, feeling guilt hit him of all things as he released Sasuke, eyes widening. He had never imagined that Orochimaru would infiltrate the village and attack his brother. He should have, but he hadn't. It was the only reason Orochimaru was still alive after the mission to scout the fledgling Sound country had led to Orochimaru attempting to have him captured. The ambush was about as poorly planned as Itachi had ever come across, and it led to Itachi underestimating Orochimaru's abilities. All of these were grave mistakes to make. Orochimaru had been one of the Sannin, after all, and Itachi should have known better than to underestimate someone who had founded his own village out of nothing more than sheer determination.

And now this had been done to his brother.

Everything, in the end, came down to being his fault.

Sasuke used Itachi's distraction to his advantage. He hooked his leg around Itachi's and twisted, knocking Itachi off-balance and using the opportunity to scramble to his feet. He took two steps back, facing Itachi, still defensive. "You know him?"

Itachi let himself his the ground, having forcefully locked all of his muscles the moment he saw Sasuke begin to move, afraid of doing real damage to his brother on instinct as he was barely a day and a half out of ANBU. He climbed back to his feet slowly, guard up now that he understood Sasuke was still looking for a fight. It was only then that he answered Sasuke's question, half unwillingly, the guilt apparent in his voice.

"He came after me years ago, four or five. I was scouting the place where Sound village is today and was ambushed. I knew he was after my Sharingan, he told me as much, but I-- I never thought he would go after you too."

Sasuke relaxed his stance a bit, shrugging his shoulders. "Why should you have?" he asked. "Anyway, it's not so bad. I can control it." Mostly. But he wouldn't tell Itachi that.

"Show me," Itachi invited, not believing Sasuke's words for a moment. The very idea of a curse seal unnerved him, and the fact that his brother possessed one unsettled him all the more. It was such an imperfect technique. There was so little research on it and Itachi was almost certain that Orochimaru had been using his brother as a test subject.

Sasuke considered disobeying; he wasn't even sure how Itachi expected him to demonstrate his control over the curse seal. But he wanted to prove himself to Itachi, to prove that he was capable of handling ANBU. So he activated the Sharingan again, feeling that familiar pulse at the junction of his neck and shoulder as the curse seal swirled to life and then began to spread.

"Does that happen every time you use Sharingan?" Itachi asked, eyes narrowing as he watched the progress of the seal. Danzou was aware of this too, Itachi imagined. He took in the new information, weighing it carefully. He didn't know how powerful the curse seal was, didn't know the extent of its side effects yet. All he knew was that he had to find out, make sure his backup plan could still be his backup plan.

"Not anymore," Sasuke answered as the curse seal continued to spread, covering his skin and beginning to creep over his face. "I can usually hold it back when I want to, now. But it amplifies my chakra and my reaction time if I'm using it, so I usually don't hold it back." He refrained from pointing out that it also affected his judgement.

"Are you being honest with me?" It was a challenge more than a question, as Itachi understood Sasuke's position entirely. For a long time, in ANBU, Itachi had told half truths about his Mangekyou. Saying that he had to rest after using it otherwise he simply passed out, never mentioning that his vision was slowly deteriorating with each use. The catch clause was information you simply never offered freely.

"Yes," Sasuke replied, the seal finally completing its slow crawl across his face, his eyes beginning to change color. He wasn't lying, he just wasn't telling the whole truth. He wasn't about to give Itachi, of all people, any of his weaknesses. Besides, he was making a lot of progress in learning to control himself while in that state.

He gasped and nearly stumbled forward a step as the wings began to form, threatening to break through his shirt. "...Just a moment," he hissed, tugging his shirt over his head and dropping it to the ground before allowing the wings to sprout. "See? I can control it."

"What," Itachi's voice was an indecisive sort of flat, as though he was not entirely sure how to react to this development, "the hell is that?"

Sasuke's eyebrow gave a very slight, but very definite twitch. "Shut up. I didn't pick what they look like."
"The curse seals are supposed to reflect their owners," Itachi supplied, remembering the detail from when Orochimaru had been monologuing at him shortly prior to his escape. Something clicked in his head then, and for a moment he even forgot to worry.

".........have you harbored a secret desire to wear makeup, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's twitch evolved into a full-blown scowl with a promise of violence if the topic was not quickly changed. "No. Don't make me stab you."

"Like you could," Itachi retorted, considering taking the conversation back to where it had been. Then he hesitated, glancing down at Sasuke's hands.

"...are you sure you don't want your aniki to teach you how to paint your nails?"

Sasuke tossed a shuriken in Itachi's general direction, if only to make good on his word. Meanwhile, he was pushing the curse seal back, having been poked fun at enough for one day. "It figures you would know how."

"At least my subconscious doesn't desire to have purple lipstick," Itachi sniped back, shaking his head. He was able to accept, for now, that Sasuke's curse seal was stable and so not an immediate danger to him. However, there was still the matter of Danzou, the mess with ANBU, and how he was going to have to hunt down Orochimaru now to see if that utter failure of a ninja had managed to get his damn seals under control yet.

"Neither does mine," Sasuke snapped, bending to pick up his shirt as the last of the seal faded back into the three tomoe on the back of his shoulder. "Do you want to spar with me or not?" he asked as he tugged his shirt back over his head. It wasn't even noon yet, they had the whole day ahead of them still, and Sasuke had no idea what to do with Itachi. At least sparring would take up some time.

"Fine," Itachi sighed heavily, taking two steps back to take a fighting stance. "We have to have a few ground rules, though. One, you don't put anything sharp near my eyes. Or your hands. Or-- Anything at all, really. Two, you can hide in by blind spot but don't attack me from it. To be fair, I'll do the same for you. Three, there will be no holding me down. Fair enough?" He tried to speak casually, as though he was laying down rules for a game they were playing rather than the grim reality of what it was.

Sasuke sighed, eyeing his brother with no small amount of annoyance. "How the hell are we supposed to spar under those conditions?" He could stick to the others, but not holding Itachi down would be a problem. He usually beat Naruto by pinning him - when he beat Naruto, but that was a nuisance he didn't want to think about at the moment. "Why don't we just agree to no attacking from blind spots and no weapons?"

"...fine," Itachi allowed at last, reluctant to admit exactly why he didn't react well to being held down. He would simply have to make sure he didn't let Sasuke get into a position where he had the opportunity to, that was all. "Let's go, then. You can have first move," he offered, figuring Sasuke would need it.

Training was a bit of a wake-up call for Sasuke. He did better than Itachi had anticipated, but he still had a lot of work to do if he wanted a chance at ANBU. His aching body afterward was evidence enough of that. When they'd finished for the day and both gotten cleaned up, Itachi went grocery shopping. Sasuke used the time to himself to take a nice, long, warm bath. This habit of his was not something he would ever admit to, but it cooled a bit of the sting in his aching muscles.

Once he'd gotten out of the tub and dried off, he padded into the kitchen, a white towel hanging low around his hips as he dug through the refrigerator. Itachi was taking a while and he was hungry; a quick snack wouldn't hurt anything.

Before going to get groceries, Itachi had taken a detour to check in at the mission desk as he was a regular Jounin now, and if today had taught him anything, it was that there was no getting back the world he'd once had. The best thing was to pick up a few more missions to give Sasuke some space. Not leave him alone again, never, but just... enough so that they didn't spend so much time not knowing what to do with each other.

Itachi took his time grocery shopping too, unable to quite decide what he wanted to make. Not knowing what Sasuke liked to eat beyond tomatoes, he bought the fixings to make hot pot to stay on the safe side. Then he found himself wandering into the merchant district, not exactly sure what he was looking for.

By the time he was home again, it was getting dark. (Such a funny little word, 'home'.) He barely had hands enough to open the door and ended up having to help slide it open with one foot, balancing the things he had bought rather precariously in his arms.

"Sasuke, I'm home!" he called as he set the bags heavily down just inside the door, listening for where Sasuke might currently be. He heard noises from the kitchen and headed on that way.

Sasuke glanced up before returning to digging through the refrigerator. "What did you get?" he asked absently, still unsuccessful in his snack search.

"Things for dinner, so don't ruin your appetite," Itachi managed to warn after a second or so of blank staring, feeling strangely warm at the back of his neck to see Sasuke leaned over like that, in the state of dress he was in. He supposed he shouldn't say anything, though, as it was Sasuke's house too. He didn't want to make things any harder for Sasuke, after all.

...it was really hard not to think less than appropriate things, though, things that drew his mind back to last night, and--

"I, um--" He struggled with his words briefly, glancing back at the door to try to remember what he had to say. "Oh-- I, ah... Bought things for you, too."

Sasuke blinked, shutting the refrigerator. He'd just wait until dinner since Itachi was back now. "What things?" he asked, walking over.

"Come take a look," Itachi invited, going back over to the bags to pick out the ones that didn't contain groceries. "Just, ah... take them, I guess." Inside each bag was a carefully gift-wrapped present, and there were eight separate bags in all. It was a stupidly sentimental thing, Itachi knew, but he'd thought about doing it since the first year he was in Root.

It had been a lot less nerve-wracking and terrifying in his daydreams.

"I... missed eight of your birthdays, didn't I?"

Sasuke stared down into the bags, eyes widening. Birthday presents, for all the birthdays Itachi had missed. "...Itachi..." he said slowly, not quite sure what to say. He felt a sudden, annoying lump in his throat and swallowed quickly. "...Thank you," he managed. He didn't say the words often, so he could only assume Itachi caught their significance.

He cleared his throat, trying to lighten the mood. "Which one should I open first?"

"They're all marked," Itachi answered, smiling almost beatifically just then even as the expression his eyes took on became a little bit pained. It was only in the best of ways. "Here, come sit at the table and I'll help you with them."

Once they were at the table, with Sasuke sitting like a proper birthday boy and Itachi standing beside him, Itachi took each present out of its bag and set the bag aside, then lined the presents up in chronological order.

"Start from whichever end you like."

Sasuke was vaguely uncomfortable with the entire production - he kind of had his stoic thing down and it was hard to hold on to that while playing the birthday boy opening up a line of presents. Still, Itachi seemed set on the entire thing, and to be perfectly honest Sasuke wasn't about to turn down birthday presents after eight years of not getting any (he'd worked very hard to keep Sakura and Naruto from finding out the date of his birthday).

He figured as long as Itachi wasn't making him wear some ridiculous party hat, his dignity could endure a tiny birthday party.

He began with the present for his ninth birthday, carefully unwrapping it. After opening the box beneath the paper, he found-- "...You're a dirty pervert."

--footie pajamas. And not just any footie pajamas. These ones were light blue, and featured a rather cute little ducky pattern.

Itachi turned extremely red at Sasuke's accusations and he choked a little on his breath, turning briefly away.

"It's not like that," he defended, cheeks aflame. "That... That one was for your ninth birthday. I'd... I'd had it all picked out and-- It's not the exact same one, but... The presents are for the birthdays I missed, so..."

As much as Sasuke hated to admit it, the pajamas were something he would have loved, as a child. He still, however, maintained that Itachi was a dirty pervert for giving them to him.

"You realize I'm never letting you live that down, right?" he said as he reached for the next present.

"There are a lot of things I will never live down, Sasuke," Itachi sighed, shaking his head a little as he self-consciously rubbed his cheeks with the back of his hand. "Giving you ducky pajamas will probably always be the least of them."

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that, so he just began unwrapping the next present. Once he'd gone through all of them, he sat back in his chair, a small smile on his lips despite himself. "I can't believe you bought all of those presents," he said, feeling almost... his age. Pursuing promotion as a ninja didn't leave one with much opportunity to enjoy normal activities - and even if it had, Sasuke wasn't normally one to engage in such activities, anyway. But this entire thing had been almost... fun. He wondered if that was because of the activity or the company.

"Get used to it," Itachi answered shortly, sounding almost embarrassed as he cleaned up the wrapping paper. "I still owe you a graduation present and two promotion presents. And this year, we'll celebrate your birthday properly. That's still a few months away so we can plan it when it comes closer to the time. Right now, though, I'm going to prep dinner. You should get dressed."

Itachi may or may not have gotten slightly more pink at the mention of Sasuke's state of dress, but he disappeared from the table too quickly for Sasuke to be certain.
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