Chapter 6: Am I Rusty?

Itachi sat down next to Sasuke and leaned against him; he didn't pull away, he just turned and grabbed Itachi in his arms. Itachi froze; he thought that Sasuke hated him. He sat frozen for a moment before melting into the hug. Sasuke spoke again, "Are you my brother or my son?"

Itachi spoke, "I am both; what I said was true, Dumbledore unlocked my memories. There was a wall hiding them from me; he went into my mind and broke it down. The instant it broke, my past and my present merged; therefore I am both your brother and son, which is kinda weird if you think on it."

"I understand Itachi; I'm glad that you're back, I missed you. I avenged you, you know, but you weren't there to see it."

"Why are you so accepting? I thought that you hated me for what I did?"

"I learned the truth about what happened. When you died the second time, you told me that I didn't have to forgive you, but that you still loved me. I forgave you the moment I found out the truth about why you did it. Is that so hard to believe?"

Itachi smiled, "Maybe, hello is Sasuke there?"

"I am hurt that you don't believe me."

"I believe you; I've always believed in you Sasuke."

Sasuke smiled, "So, what am I going to call you now? Brother or son?"

Itachi got a thoughtful face, "I don't know, but I like the idea of brother. I will always be your son in this lifetime though, that won't change."

Sasuke gave a relieved smile; he had worried that he had lost his son, but it seemed he was still there, just different. "Well then Nii-san, are we going to tell Draco and Snape?"

"No, at least not right now I don't think." Itachi said and then yawned. He looked at the clock and saw that it was ten 'o'clock 'Where did the time go? Oh well, I'm tired.' He snuggled deeper into Sasuke's lap and closed his eyes; Sasuke just held him, happy that he still acted similar to his son. Itachi fell asleep quickly and Sasuke set him gently on the bed, and got up to sit at the end of the bed. He just watched over Itachi as he slept. 'Oh, Itachi, things will change now that you've started the game. I don't know how you've done it, but you came back to me and I still keep my role as a father.' He looked out the window at the lake; the windows were charmed to see the lakeside. He stared out the window for a while and then looked at his futon on the floor before ignoring it and lying down next to his brother. Itachi slept peacefully for the first time in days and Sasuke had his family back.

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Itachi woke up to see that he was clutching Sasuke's shirt and he was about to let go when he realized that he would wake up his brother by doing so. He stopped and glanced over at the clock; it was 6, he had a half an hour. He watched his brother and thought about the situation. He had all of his old memories back, but he also had the new. He realized that he felt more like the little brother than the older brother or son in this case. 'Hmm, you'd think that would feel weird but it just feels normal to me; though, I'm glad that he forgave me for what I did.'

He layed there for a while, his brother really was a comfortable pillow. But after about twenty minutes, he decided that it was time to get up. He sat up gently, so as not to wake Sasuke and went to the bathroom to get in the shower; once he got out; he went to grab his clothes and made a few changes. He summoned a low V-necked shirt and a necklace with three circles on it; he also summoned a fishnet no-sleeved shirt and some long pants. He put the fishnet shirt on and then the V-necked shirt over top; he grabbed the pants and put them on as well and then the Akatsuki cloak he had brought in with him. No wonder he had liked the cloak; it was part of his old wardrobe. The last thing he added was his necklace, then he summoned a red ribbon and tied his hair back. When he walked out, he saw that Sasuke was just waking up; he was rubbing his eyes and stretching when Itachi got a mischievous idea.

He flew at his brother full-speed, no Shunshin, and tackled him; Sasuke was startled for a moment before he grabbed Itachi and they fell to the ground together laughing. Itachi sat on Sasuke's chest, "Time to get up nii-san; I'm looking forward to having a big brother"

Sasuke's laughter slowed to chuckling and he looked at the excited eleven-year-old on top of him, "Little brother?"

"Yup; since we're brothers and father and son, you're my new Aniki"

"And you're my Ototo, I presume"

"Yup, now get dressed so we can get Draco and go to the training grounds; I want to see if my skills have rusted and I want a spar with you."

Sasuke chuckled, "That boy is already in awe of you, I don't know if he can get any more impressed"

Itachi got a glint in his eye, "We'll see about that" Sasuke just smiled and lifted Itachi off of him, before getting up and going to get his normal clothes on. He was done quickly and Itachi raced out of the room, silently of course, and down the hall to Draco's room. Sasuke easily caught up and they were soon at Draco's door; Itachi opened it silently and crept inside, Sasuke following. Draco was asleep on the bed; Sasuke transformed into his snake form and slithered into bed with the boy. He got right up in Draco's face before hissing loud enough to wake the boy. Draco shot up and upon seeing Sasuke jumped off the bed screaming; Itachi was glad he'd put that privacy charm up. Itachi started laughing and after a second Draco recognized Sasuke, "Don't do that again; I almost had a heart attack!"

Itachi was bent over in laughter clutching his side; it took him a minute to stop, "I haven't laughed like that in a while; that felt great. Plus, you sound like a girl when you scream; it's hilarious."

Draco got an insulted look on his face and crossed his arms, "Well, maybe I shouldn't go to practice then"

Itachi just shrugged, "Your loss; me and Aniki are having a real fight today, guess you'll miss it though."

Draco stuttered a moment and uncrossed his arms, "No! I want to see a real fight; that's no fair, you didn't tell me that before. Can I go?!" Itachi looked at his father, who was still in his Kage form, "What do you think nii-san? Should we let him?"

Sasuke deliberated a moment before nodding; Draco sighed in relief and Itachi spoke, "Well, what are you doing? Get dressed, let's go!" Draco scurried into the bathroom and was out in about five minutes, dressed in the clothes that he had set aside for training. Sasuke slithered onto Itachi's shoulder and Itachi grabbed Draco and performed the invisibility jutsu; then they were off in the direction of the seventh floor. Draco squirmed a bit on the way, "What are you doing? Why isn't the adult carrying me?"

Itachi looked at him, "I am just as skilled as my Aniki, do you not trust me?"

Draco stopped, "Wait, what? You're as strong as Sasuke?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"I thought that he was the more skilled one; you said he was a better fighter than you on our first morning warm-up."

"I said he was more experienced, not the better fighter"

"What, that's the same thing"

"No, it's not; if a prodigy does better than his peers and gets a high ranking, above even the teacher, though the teacher's more experienced the prodigy is the better fighter."

Draco just looked confused and Itachi clarified, "My Uncle Itachi was a prodigy. The teachers at the school were around c-rank, but Uncle was one of the best fighters in the village, a-rank, at the age of thirteen; he even joined the special ops, ANBU they were called. The teachers had more experience but he was the better fighter. Do you understand?"

"Yeah…I think so; wait, you're a prodigy? That story would make no sense if the concept doesn't apply to you as well."

"Yeah, kinda like that" Itachi said as he set Draco down; they were at the come-and-go room (CGR for short). Itachi walked in front of the door three times, 'something that can stand Susanoo, something that can stand Susanoo, something that can stand Susanoo'. A door appeared and they went in. The room had reformed to look like an outside scene of a large field filled with boulders. "Whoa, it changed" Draco said.

Itachi nodded, "I changed it for mine and Sasuke's fight." Sasuke slithered off his shoulder and transformed, "Are you sure Draco should be here? It could be dangerous."

Itachi shrugged, "Nah, we'll just avoid him" He looked at Draco, "When we fight, you have to listen to us or you could get killed."

Draco shivered, "Is it really gonna be that dangerous?"

Sasuke nodded, "Yup, so stay out of the way and listen." Draco stepped back and sat on a boulder.

Itachi smiled, "Great; now shall we start nii-chan?"

Sasuke nodded and they got into fighting stances across from each other. They stood this way for a few minutes and then Sasuke flew at Itachi full speed, while pulling Kusanagi out. Itachi blocked it with a kunai and jumped backwards. Kusanagi started glowing with lightning and Sasuke charged again, Itachi blocked. This went on for a while before Sasuke put his sword away and made the seals for chidori; his arm lit up and he shot a beam of lightning at Itachi, it hit him in the stomach…before he dissolved into a murder of crows that rejoined behind Sasuke unharmed. Sasuke dodged a barrage of kunai and went for Itachi again. Itachi jumped and Sasuke passed by underneath him. He started making seals and soon he was blowing a giant fireball at Sasuke. Sasuke saw and made his own seals for the Gokakyu no jutsu, firing back. The fireballs collided and the force sent Itachi flying backwards; just as he was about to hit the ground, he flipped and landed on his feet skidding.

He activated his Sharingan and Sasuke did the same. They stared each other down again and soon the battle restarted at a speed Draco could barely follow; all he saw was blurs as fire was tossed about like nothing. Then all of a sudden two giant figures loomed above him. One was red and the other was purple; they were giant warriors, covered in armor and wielding huge swords. They started a dance of death with their swords, throwing swings and blocking like experts. The purple one jumped back and a bow appeared in one hand, an arrow in the other. He aimed and fired at the red on which conjured a shield to block the arrow. All of a sudden the giants disappeared and the two ninjas once again stood across from each other; Draco could see that they had smiles on as they stared at each other. He saw Sasuke's mouth moving but couldn't hear what he said.

Sasuke spoke to Itachi once he was sure Draco couldn't hear them, "Well, you sure haven't gotten rusty, I see."

Itachi smirked, "Yeah, it looks like my Mangekyou are working perfectly. I only need to try the Amaterasu and then we can get back to Draco's training" He turned to a boulder about fifty feet away from them and called 'Amaterasu'. The boulder caught fire and burned until nothing remained but ash.

"Good, my eyes are at peak condition; now that I've checked my skills, we can train Draco; this time, together."

Sasuke grinned at the thought of working with his brother. Just to mess with him, he reached over and ruffled Itachi's hair. "HEY!" Itachi shouted indignantly and tried to grab Sasuke's hand, but it was gone. He looked over to see Sasuke smirking at him and pouted at him, "That's no fair, Aniki"

Sasuke's smirk got wider before he spoke, "Let's go over to Draco, he seems to be waiting quite impatiently, though I think we scared him a bit with the deadly fight thing, he's not moving from his spot."

Itachi looked over and saw Draco sitting there with an impatient face on. He walked over to the boy, "Hey, we're done; you can get up now."

Draco shook his head, "First, I want to know what those things were; the glowing giants were huge, and that boulder burned to ash."

"Ahh…those were special traits that only my father and I can use. The giants were called Susanoo; they are nigh impenetrable and the sword they carry puts whoever it cuts into a sleep that they will never wake from. The black flames were called Amaterasu; they burn the target completely to ash and can't be put out by anyone but the wielder of the flames."

"That's so cool; can Sasuke do the Amaterasu thing as well?

"Oh yes, he is quite capable of wielding the flames of Amaterasu"

"Will I ever be able to do that?"

"No, but we can teach you how to breath fire, walk on walls, walk on water, kill an opponent easily-"

"Okay, I get it; you can teach me anything but your special techniques."

"Yup, that about sums it up."

"Wait, you can walk on water?!"

"Sure can, though there is none here to show you."

"We can go out to the lake at the edge of the forbidden forest and you can show me!"

"After breakfast, I'll show you."

"Fine, are we gonna do our warm-ups before breakfast?"

"Not me and Sasuke, but definetely you"

"What, why not you two; that's not fair."

"A warm-up is used to prepare for fighting, but my father and I already fought, thus we are already warmed up" Draco grumbled for a bit, but then went to the normal routine; it consisted of sit-ups, push-ups, running laps, and chakra control via meditation. Once that was done, they went to breakfast and then to the lake; he would surprise Draco even more; this would be fun.