"Last call for bets! Everybody! Last call! One..."

"Oh seriously Tadashi, stop making a big deal out of this!"

"Shut it Luna. This is a very serious matter. Now, I repeat, last call! Place in your bets everybody! Two–"

Two boys surrounded his friend. Neither one of them him. Sasuke Uchiha was not pleased.

It was his first time going to the public playground because Sakura told him the day before that it was fun. More fun than playing at his house, which he wants to emphasize, is the largest and grandest house in their village. So, not wanting to miss out, he told his aniki to drop him off here, instead of going with him to watch him train, like what he usually does during the weekends.

The first thing he sees when the playground came into view are orange and green blobs hovering around his friend in the middle of the sandbox. Playgrounds are not fun. At all.

The worst part is that he had been there for almost five minutes and Sakura still hasn't noticed him. No, her attention was held by the two idiots dressed in puke-worthy colored clothes standing in front of her. Sasuke could feel his ears go red.

He stomped his way towards the sandbox. Since Sakura's back was to him, she never noticed his presence. But she's Sakura and he's Sasuke, she should have noticed him.

But those two viruses kept talking to his Sakura.

"Sakura-chan! I wanna give you this pretty flower as a sign of my love!" The green-clothed boy declared, waving his arms in a grand gesture.

Sasuke decided right then and there that he hated the color green. And fuzzy eyebrows. And disgustingly dying daisies.

"Sakura-chan! I'll buy you the most delicious ramen in the world!" The blonde kid who looks like a cat shouted, grinning widely.

Ramen is disgusting, Sasuke thinks. Sakura should not be eating food as unhealthy as that. Tomatoes, however. . .

Sasuke was now behind the kneeling pink-haired girl and the orange and green weirdos continue yapping stupid love declarations for the world to hear. He could not see what Sakura's expression is.

He grunted, trying to get Sakura's attention, but the loud voices that belonged to the two boys sitting in front of his friend overpowered his signature grunt.

"You should see my ninja moves Sakura-chan! Nobody could beat. . ."

Sasuke stomped his feet. Still, Sakura's attention was towards them.

". . .will use the power of youth to save you from snakes and evil ninjas! No one should harm. . ."

He coughed out loud; and yet she still didn't turn to him.

". . .and someday I'm gonna be Hokage, Sakura-chan! And I will protect. . ."

He started snapping his fingers, only to realise that he looked silly. And Uchihas never look silly.

Sasuke Uchiha was certainly not amused. He just wanted to whine and stomp his feet until Sakura ignored those monkeys (Yes, monkeys is a very applicable word for them) and notice him. But Sasuke doesn't want to stoop down to those monkeys' level who desperately scream just to get Sakura's attention.

No. He's an Uchiha, and Uchihas never stoop down. So he did the only thing he could.

He glared at her back.

Look at at at at at me.

"You know, Sakura-chan, it would be so cool if- ah. . .um Sakura-chan. . .there's a scary looking boy glaring behind you."

One second, his intense gaze was directed at pink hair; then the next, onyx clashed with emerald. Finally, Sasuke cheered inside his head. Not that he would let it out. Uchihas never cheer.

His green-eyed friend twisted her body to look at him in surprise. "Sasuke-kun? What are you doing here?"

Sasuke then realized that her eyes might be green like one of the annoying monkey's clothes, but hers was a different shade. More like the color of the sun-reflected leaves he could see whenever he sits on top of his aniki's shoulders. Her green was even brighter, fuller.

He preferred her green.

"Hey! Who are you? Are you one of Sakura's bullies? We won't let you hurt our youthful Sakura-chan!"

The little Uchiha was snapped out of his thoughts when the words of the green monkey registered in his mind. His fists clenched from inside his pocket. Did he just call Sakura theirs?

"Lee's right! We won't let you hurt our Sakura-chan!" And then the orange monkey decided to be stupid and moved to stand on the space between Sasuke and Sakura, blocking his view of her.

Wrong. Move.

"Move." Sasuke growled, narrowing his eyes at them. And then, with the thought that it will look cool for Sakura if they protect her from the bully, the green monkey named Lee moved to stand guard beside the orange one; effectively cutting Sasuke's sight of Sakura. How dare they?!

He set his stance, took out his clenched fists from his pocket and lifted them to his shoulders, ready to attack. He would show them what happens to those who mess with Sasuke Uchiha.

In turn, the monkeys also imitated him, although with more reluctance.

"STOP!"

A little irritated voice made the three boys freeze. They all turned to see that the little girl they're fighting over with has now stood up, hands on her hips and eyes glaring at them.

"I can't believe you guys! We're in a playground! Everybody here is supposed to get along and have fun! Okaa-chan always says that fighting is bad! Nobody is allowed to fight in a playground! What if one of you gets hurt?! Would you know what to do?! Huh?!" Sakura screamed, pointing a finger in aggravation at the three frozen boys.

For the first time in his life, somebody else aside from his father and aniki made Sasuke feel scared.

"If this is how you will act, I'm never gonna play with any of you again!" Sakura exclaimed with finality before turning her back to the three chastised boys, walking away.

No no no no, Sasuke thought. He couldn't let Sakura leave him. It's just not done. This isn't what he thought would happen when he came here. This couldn't be happening. No no no no. . .

He watched, frozen, as his pink-haired friend stomped farther away from them while the two monkeys cried out desperate words after her.

Sasuke was left with no choice. There's only one thing he could do. He only did this technique twice to his aniki, and on both instances, the technique worked successfully. He closed his eyes to prepare himself. He took a deep breath. And. . .

Itachi was halfway to the training grounds when he remembered that the tomatoes his otouto usually eat as a snack were still inside his personal pack. He quickly raced back to the playground knowing how grumpy Sasuke would get once he realized he wouldn't be able to eat his favourite snack. Grumpy Sasuke was never a good Sasuke.

When he arrived at the playground he was not exactly surprised by the scene that greeted him.

Itachi Uchiha, for the first time of his existence, was dumbfounded.

In fact, it was something so shocking that it made his jaw uncharacteristically drop open. It was that staggering.

Yes, it was not a secret that Sasuke wasn't really fond of people older, younger, and of the same age as him (except for family and a particular cherry blossom). However, Itachi has never, ever, seen his little brother seriously fight with anybody before. He knows his otouto have a short fuse (something he finds quite endearing) and prone to having multiple tantrums a day (still half-endearing, sometimes), but he has never seen Sasuke shaking in fury with such hate-filled eyes directed at another person. Until now.

When the three boys standing in the middle of the sandbox started raising their arms in a fighting stance he was quite familiar with, Itachi briefly wondered if he should interfere. After all, if his otouto was acting this way, those two boys with utter disregard for socially acceptable colors for clothes must have done something very, very wrong.

And, of course, someone might get hurt. He added as an afterthought.

But before he could even start moving, a loud feminine voice halted anything violent that was about to erupt between his otouto and the two other boys. He didn't see her before since the two other boys were blocking his view of her, but now that he could see little Sakura, his eyebrows rose way up his forehead.

He never knew Sasuke's sweet friend could be such a spitfire.

He watched as tiny Sakura started screaming and glaring, a finger sternly pointed at the boys, while they in turn stood there, frozen in fear. Looking utterly chastised.

It was so priceless that he couldn't hold the snort that came out of his mouth. One-half of him was amused as hell by the show he was watching, while the other half was curious – curious on how his otouto would react to the spitfire's fury.

Itachi was watching tiny Sakura walk away after her speech with an impressed smirk on his face when he heard somebody started sniffing. Then a familiar cry rang throughout the playground. An extremely familiar cry.

His very proud, full of dignity, little brother was crying. His face scrunched in pain, tears falling freely down his face.

Wait, no. Sasuke was sobbing.

Itachi blinked. He only saw his otouto cry twice before (after he surpassed the clueless baby stage, of course). And on both occasions, it was just the two of them; when there were no witnesses. But now he's watching Sasuke sob in a very public place, with other people around.

(Itachi tried to squish the urge to take Sasuke up in his arms and take care of the person who made his otouto cry.)

It looks like he was not the only one affected by Sasuke's cries because Sakura stopped walking and turned to look at the crying boy with wide eyes.

"Sasuke-kun. . ."

"I-I'm sorry Sakura-chan! I just wanted to play with you."

Whispered sweetness.

Tearful, dejected eyes.

Pouting lips.

Irresistible sniffing.

Itachi blinked again and watched Sakura's determined look melt. He continued to watch as Sakura ran towards his otouto to hug him with assurances ("Don't worry Sasuke-kun, I'll play with you. I'm not mad at you anymore. It's gonna be okay.")

And because he continued to watch, he saw it. He saw it when Sasuke hugged Sakura back, his arms clinging around her possessively. He also saw it when Sasuke put his chin on Sakura's shoulder and smirked at the two other gaping boys.

And because third time's the charm, Itachi finally understood.

When Itachi Uchiha arrived late at the training grounds, the other members immediately forgot to ask why he was late. Because for the first time in their lives, they saw him laughing heartily while clutching a small bag of tomatoes.

Itachi figured Sasuke would be okay without his tomatoes. After all, he seemed to prefer cherries now.