sunshineverse | It's not love without bruises

Entry tags:

zz old game: naruto

It's not love without bruises

Where: Various places in and around Konoha
When: April 19th-30th (End date only approximate)
Notes: Closed to Sasuke at the moment. Itachi decides to test his little brother and see if he's ready to try for Jounin.

Despite the bone grating exhaustion and the lingering head-ache, Itachi wasn't going to allow himself to put this off. He had already gotten leave for a few weeks from Obito. It hadn't been hard to get, between the reason for asking for leave and Obito's concern about his health. It didn't help that Itachi had definitely lost any and all weight he gained after catching some kind of stomach sickness in a small, remote village. It didn't really show, except on a scale. In any case, he'd slept for the majority of the past twenty hours, which seemed like more than enough rest for now.

Itachi took the time to make himself tea and eat breakfast. That also meant the assortment of vitamins and supplements he was supposed to be taking. ~~Wasn't he a good kid?~~ It wasn't even dawn yet, and the light across the garden was an eerie grey. Itachi's sleep schedule was, perhaps, a little messed up. Then again, he never really had a set sleep schedule anyway, but it did mean Sasuke was most likely to be in his room, sleeping. Itachi still had to formally ask Sasuke if he still wanted to be recommended for Jounin. It seemed like an obvious question, but Itachi still needed to ask.

Maybe he should let Sasuke sleep until after sunrise.

Itachi slid open Sasuke door, mug of tea still in hand.

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The unhappy ache of the mission had dulled as the month took its course and first Hinata, then Adela lost their bandages and stopped walking around with the slightly cautious movements of people recently injured. Itachi disappearing for another mission had been a jolting reminder that Sasuke was supposed to be making sure that his brother was following the medic's instructions -- not that Sasuke thought Itachi would deliberately ignore them, but shinobi were notoriously bad patients.

There were multiple reasons that Sasuke hadn't wanted to follow the medic-nin's path completely, and at least some of them had cropped up after his first interaction with patients at a ninja hospital.

One of the other reasons was the early hours. In some ways Sasuke was a true teenager, sleeping like a particularly dead log in the comfortable safety of his own room until whenever external factors woke him. In this case, external factors was the very vague awareness that his door was open. Stronger than that was still the sense that he was home and home was perfectly safe, so rather than startling awake, he rolled over with a groan.

"Mom," he mumbled into the pillow without opening his eyes. "I set my alarm, you don't need to wake me."

Itachi smirked. Sasuke was so much cuter when he was asleep. Itachi leaned against the door frame and sipped his tea, considering all the wonderful things he could do to his brother right now.

"I'm significantly heavier than our mother. You should be able to tell by how much more I make the floor creak." Actually, Itachi didn't know if he weighed more than his mother anymore. Hopefully he did.

Sasuke had very nearly fallen back asleep when his brother's voice registered -- but as soon as it did, he bolted awake, blankets tumbling off his back in a haphazard sprawl.

"Brother?!" He blinked several times in a row, giving one bleary eye a good rub before ascertaining that Itachi was indeed the one who had wandered into his room, looking more domestic than he had in a long time. "Wh- is there a situation?"

Trained as he was to jump to instant alertness, Sasuke tended toward negative assumptions when woken unexpectedly; his mind could only come up with terrible reasons Itachi might be casually sipping tea at his door.

Itachi sighed. "I suppose I only have myself to blame for your reaction, but do you think I would be drinking tea if there were an emergency?" Itachi asked. Should he take this as a hint and work on Sasuke's assessment of situations? Perhaps.

"I wanted to talk to you about something." Itachi stayed at the door and considered his brother. "We should probably talk about it over breakfast. If you feel like getting up, I'll make some."

No, Itachi probably wouldn't be drinking tea, but it had been long enough since he'd been woken by his actual brother and not a note or some other thing Itachi left before disappearing on yet another ages-long mission that the unusual nature of the waking had been enough to catapult Sasuke into action. Now that the actual situation was clear enough, Sasuke shot Itachi a more suspicious look as he shoved the rest of his sheets aside: talk about something rarely meant something good, in Sasuke's experience.

"You're going to make breakfast?" He scrubbed both hands through his hair, shoving as much of it out of his face as would stay, and rifled through his dresser for a clean shirt. "Or are you going to reheat whatever Mom made?"

"I'm twenty, do you really think I can't cook breakfast?" Itachi asked with a mild raising of his eyebrow. Breakfasts were generally simple, so he could cook them. Itachi didn't see a reason to invest heavily in learning how to cook more complicated things.

"And you really need to do something about your hair," Itachi added as he turned to head back to the kitchen.

"Last I saw, I wouldn't be wrong," Sasuke said with a barely-stifled yawn, giving one final stretch before tugging clean clothes on and allowing himself a grin out of Itachi's sight. It wasn't usual that Itachi willingly spent time not just at home but doing something as simple as sitting down to breakfast with him, and Sasuke gave himself just a few seconds of childish glee before forcibly reminding himself that there was likely something bigger on the table and he should be ready to face it.

That didn't mean that he didn't pad out into the hallway after Itachi with a bit of a smirk, jostling him on their way downstairs. "Now you really sound like Mom."

"It could be worse, I could sound like father," Itachi pointed out as he wandered into the kitchen. He actually was going to heat up what had already made because it was made and it shouldn't be wasted. That and if Mikoto had made it, it would be better than anything Itachi could make.

Itachi glanced back at his brother as he set his cup of tea down. "Have you been well?" He didn't want to get into heavy training if Sasuke was injured or recovering.

"You kind of do sometimes," Sasuke muttered, settling down at the table and stifling a last yawn. The truth was that for the most part, Itachi was Itachi -- but sometimes there was an annoying amount of similarity in his all-too-serious Sasuke, I'm busy right now and Fugaku's Sasuke, you need to use your time more wisely.

The question threw him, though, confusion creasing his forehead as he turned to watch Itachi heat up Mikoto's food -- ha, he'd called it. "I'm fine."

A pause, and then more stiffly: "I wasn't one of the ones injured on that last mission you saw me on."

"I am supposed to take over for him one day. Unless you feel the need to usurp me." The clan would probably be disappointed. Everyone would probably be disappointed, except Itachi. Not being clan head wouldn't be so bad. Maybe he should try to talk Sasuke into it. After all, Hinata was going to be clan head, and Naruto would probably be something important, so maybe Sasuke should have just as weighty a position as his friends for symmetry and balance.

Maybe Itachi needed another cup of coffee. He'd picked up some very nice coffee in his travels. He might as well enjoy it.

Itachi glanced back at his brother. "I am aware you were not physically injured, which is why I'm asking how you are. Physical wounds are the quickest healed and easiest to see if they are mending or simply festering."

Sasuke scoffed at the notion of taking over instead of Itachi, picking up his tea with a roll of his eyes. They were both fully aware that the majority of the clan would stage a coup to overthrow anyone that wasn't the family genius at head of the clan. That, and Sasuke's purpose was to defend against the very possibility of someone trying to take Itachi's position, let alone do it himself.

The pointed words that followed made him tense, though, gaze snapping more sharply to his brother. "... Obito already talked to me about the whole thing." Yelled, really, but: "I'm fine."

The emphasis on the last two words was perhaps more deliberate than he intended, but Sasuke wasn't about to put his failures on the mission onto Itachi's plate.

Itachi nodded. "I guess the question is did you really listen, or just glaze over and nod in the pauses--or let it all run in one ear and out the other," Itachi kept his tone light. If Sasuke said he was fine, then he was fine. If he were not, Itachi would discover that for himself in the coming days. Itachi intended his tests to be extremely thorough.

"I've been thinking about recommending your for Jounin." Perhaps he should have had a little more lead-up to that, really, but at least he'd get an interesting reaction. "If you're ready." Which Itachi wasn't sure of. He needed Sasuke to be more than ready.

It was hard to deny that there were times with Obito when Sasuke might actually have glazed over and just let words wash over him without particularly absorbing the meaning, but those times were by and large when the topic wasn't important -- he sent Itachi an aggrieved look for suggesting it.

That look that vanished into open shock when Itachi continued, however, Sasuke setting his tea down with an audible clatter: "What? Finally? Now?"

"Sasuke, don't break the cup," Itachi admonished as he took his time setting out the warmed food for his brother.

"Finally? You're only going to be sixteen this year. That's hardly old for being made Jounin," Itachi replied as he sat down, face perfectly neutral as if they were discussing the weather. "And only if I think you're ready. Consider the next few days a pre-test of sorts."

Itachi was already thinking he should wait until next year. Sasuke was still young, and would it really hurt him to take another year as Chuunin?

"I didn't," he answered, on auto-pilot, and lifted it to check without any real registering of the actual state of the cup. The information actually settled in a moment later and he could feel the beginning of a grin starting on his face, Itachi's less-than-encouraging deadpan notwithstanding.

"That's more than a year older than you were," he countered, spirits only slightly dampened by the added knowledge that Itachi intended to level some kind of test at him first.

"So what's the test?"

Itachi had been in ANBU by Sasuke's age. He should drop a small hint to Obito about what would happen if the man ever put Sasuke in ANBU. He loved his cousin, but Sasuke was not going into ANBU as long as Itachi had a say in things.

"I was, and you were there when the medic gave me a run-down of everything wrong with me," Itachi replied a little tartly.

"The test is everything you do for...let's say a week. Or more." Itachi looked at his little brother, wondering if Sasuke would ever be taller than Itachi. "I've set up a training ground for us for today, after that initial test, I should know better what we need to focus on." After all, it wouldn't just be a test. It would be a learning experience.

"Yeah, but you don't take care of yourself," Sasuke said, waving Itachi's words off with the blithe unconcern of someone who had much more important things on the table for the day. The somewhat cryptic explanation of the test was nothing unexpected from both Itachi and a jounin assessment, and the fact that today would be starting with a practical assessment was only an encouragement.

"That's perfect," he said, starting up from the table with every intention of heading out without remembering to eat the food that Itachi had set down. "I've been stuck helping out at the hospital for a few days in a row; being outdoors will be good for me."

"Breakfast will also be good for you," Itachi pointed out. He was bother pleased and guilty Sasuke seemed ready to spend time with him. He should spend more time with his brother, but at the same time, he probably wasn't the best influence on him.

"It's unfortunate I lack the expertise to test your medical skills," Itachi added.

Breakfast -- right, Sasuke remembered late, sitting back down with something approaching embarrassment. Even the reddened tips of his ears didn't dampen his mood, though, and he tucked into the reheated food with every sign of teenage gusto.

"My medical skills get tested just fine," he muttered in between bites, giving an expressive look in the direction of the hospital. "You know what medic-nin are like. I'd get kicked out of the third-floor windows of the hospital if I weren't keeping up."

"So if I should happen to forget some pills and go into cardiac arrest, I should be assured you'll be more than capable of saving me from my own incompetence?" Itachi asked, more to see Sasuke's reaction than anything else. Itachi liked having a regular heart-beat. He never missed his calcium.

"You're not likely to go into cardiac arrest with the symptoms you've been presenting," Sasuke pointed out absently, figuring that Itachi would have assumed long ago that he'd be checking in on Itachi's progress with Tsukiko at the hospital. "It'd be more likely that you'd get faint or go into seizure, in which case the only thing any medic can do is remove sharp things from you and wait it out."

He paused, then, reflecting on the fact that this was supposed to be a test, and added after polishing off his miso: "But if you were to go into cardiac arrest, I could resuscitate you."

"You obsessive concern and knowledge of my health is heart warming," Itachi responded a little dryly. Then again, he would be doing the same thing if he were in Sasuke's situation, wouldn't he?

"Maybe we can find a volunteer so I can observe your technique," Itachi suggested with the same sarcasm, only because he was sure no one would let him so that to them, sadly.

Sasuke shrugged one shoulder, as much as to say obviously I keep tabs on you, wolfing down the remaining portion of his breakfast with teenage gusto before turning his full attention back on Itachi.

"If you seriously want to find out about my progress at the hospital, you can talk to the people I've been working with," he said, tone serious despite the sarcastic edge in Itachi's voice. "I'm not a full medic-nin, but I don't intend to be. Cous- sensei suggested I turn my medical knowledge to combat use, and that's what I've been studying to do."

"I'll let them know you're going through testing," Itachi said. He was sure the medics could think of some creative ways to test Sasuke skill and tell him how he was doing mentally. Itachi chased down the last bit of rice in his bowl and ate it.

"Go get your things and we'll go. The training ground is already set up." Iatchi stood up slowly, then paused. "And bring a medical kit."

If there was a way to look excited about what medic-nin thought was an assessment, Sasuke didn't want to know it. He was reasonably certain that even Tsunade had hated it. That had to be the reason she was so delighted to administer testing when she was around.

The prospect of a practical examination on his combat skills -- by Itachi, no less -- easily outshone the dread of what the medic-nin would cook up, however. Sasuke was already halfway up the stairs by the time Itachi added the his last sentence, shouting a wordless acknowledgement down as he scrambled into his usual gear and packed a medkit. He was back downstairs in just a few minutes, grateful that missions had so quickly taught him how to be prepared in as little time as possible.

"I'm ready."

"Are you really?" Itachi replied automatically as he tied off his hair with a hair tie that still smelled a little of lavender.

"I'm not going to go easy on you," Itachi warned as he grabbed his own bag of supplies.

"I wouldn't expect you to," Sasuke retorted, traces of a grin still on his face before he turned toward the training fields, standard-issue sword slung comfortably over his shoulders. "That's why I wanted you to be the one to recommend me."

That, and -- if he couldn't meet Itachi's standards to rank as jounin, what right did he have to eventually serve as his brother's protector and backup? Sasuke had never had any other path before him but to support Itachi; it stood to perfect reason that Itachi had to be the one to decide whether he was worthy or not.

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It's not love without bruises

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