Uchiha Sasuke loved looking at the full moon. It was such a beautiful thing, hanging in the sky, casting a soft light upon the earth. He would look up at it often, searching for the beautiful woman hidden in the silver orb, grinning in delight when he finally found her.
His mother, when she tucked him in, would often laugh when he demanded to see the moon before he settled into bed.
"You shouldn't watch Selene so intently," she would tell him, gently pushing him down and dragging the covers over his body. "Or else the gods will confuse you with Endymion and cast you into eternal sleep."
"I dun wanna sleep f'ever," Sasuke would tell her, drowsiness slurring his words.
She would kiss him on the forehead and smile as she told him, "Then awaken tomorrow, and live your life vigilantly."
But Sasuke would always be asleep by then, never hearing his mother's last words. Only the soft tone of her voice would echo in his dreams, enticing him back into life every morning.
Sasuke laughed as he bounded though the streets of the Uchiha compound, his way lit by the paper lanterns his aunt made and sold daily. He'd passed, he'd passed!
He couldn't wait to show his father the grade he had made!
His eyes trailed upwards, and he caught himself grinning at the sight of the moon.
"I did it, Selene!" he called to it, feeling slightly foolish for acknowledging his mother's stories at his age. But he couldn't bring himself to care about that. All he wanted was to go home and –
"Niisan?"
Sasuke came to a halt suddenly, his momentum almost causing him to fall forward, but he caught himself. He turned his face to the electric pole that had suddenly risen to caress the bottom of the moon. There was a shadow perched there – or had been one anyway.
Sasuke bit into his bottom lip, bringing his hands to rest at his sides, suddenly feeling extremely uncomfortable.
"What's going on?" he mumbled to himself. "Why would niisan…?" He gasped. Maybe his mother was in trouble! That would be the reason that his big brother would be… perched… on a pole in the middle of the night.
"Mama!" he cried into the night. "I'm coming mama!"
He clenched his hands and ran as fast as he could toward his house, not noticing how the moon suddenly turned blood red.
Iruka pressed a fist to his mouth, trying to keep from gagging at the scent drenching the air around him. He swallowed roughly to keep the bile down, jumping when he felt a hand fall heavily on his shoulder. He turned around to look into the single visible eye of Hatake Kakashi that was watching him with the same boredom it regarded everything with.
"If you're going to be sick, don't do it in here," Kakashi told him coldly.
Iruka bit his lip to keep from frowning at the other man, and instead nodded. "I can control myself. It's just…"
He turned his eyes to the red-washed streets all around them. There were bodies everywhere, most dismembered and strewn all over the compound. He couldn't help but turn away when he saw a head staring up at him with wide, frightened eyes, blood streaming down its cheeks like crimson tears.
"How could one person do all this…?" Iruka continued, not expecting a response.
Kakashi sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Easily. We're just lucky he's not after us."
Iruka frowned and was about to say something, when a soft whimper emerged from behind a small stand they were next to. He heard Kakashi silently pull out a kunai and he himself felt his fingers twitch toward his shuriken. He exchanged ready glances with the silver haired man, vaguely surprised that Kakashi's eye was showing actual emotion, and took a slow, steady step forward.
Sasuke couldn't help but whimper. His body was in pain from his brother's eyes, and his head hurt from the constant stench of blood, and his feet were numb from having his knees being pulled tightly to his chest, and he couldn't breathe without feeling like he was going to throw up.
He felt tears prick the backs of his eyelids, and pulled his legs closer to himself, as though it would stop him from acting like a baby.
He could hear the rumble of voices, but he was too scared to go back out in the street.
Itachi could get him again if he went back out there.
Or, worse, he would just see his family there, lifeless bodies begging him to do something, anything.
Something hot and wet rolled down one cheek and he buried his face into his knees. He bit into the once-soft cloth, now rough with dirt and blood, to muffle any other sound that might have escaped.
The sound of footsteps reached his ears and he froze, willing his heart to stop pounding if only so that it wouldn't make so much noise.
A hand reached out to touch his shoulder.
And he screamed.
Iruka held the child in his arms, running his hand up and down the small back, making soothing nonsense sounds that managed to permeate the loud, wailing sobs. The small body was shuddering and he felt a pair of hands grasping the front of his vest so tightly, he was sure that the only way he was going to get them off was to cut the fabric. The ANBU next to him finished a quick overview of the child for any lingering jutsu, nodded once upon finding none, and then left in search of the Hokage.
Kakashi approached the Chuunin, watching dully as the child shrunk away from his presence only to press closer into Iruka's chest. "Has he been looked over?"
"Just now."
"Take him to the hospital."
And with that, the silver-haired man left, again prowling through the dead houses in search of any other living thing.
Iruka began to rock the child, humming the same nonsense melody he used to calm Naruto and Gaara whenever they decided to have a fit, and began to move away carefully so as not to jar the child too much. He passed by another ANBU in a dog mask who pointed him in a safe direction that would lead him to the inner-city once more.
Gaara sat on the windowsill and looked solemnly outside, green eyes focusing intently on the sky above him, as though daring a cloud to appear and mar the pure blue that stretched on forever. Naruto was babbling on the chair next to him, waving his hands around animatedly for Iruka and Haku's benefits as though they wouldn't understand the story without his movement.
It had been three days since Iruka had vanished in the middle of the night, coming back five hours later reeking of death and tears, and he still carried that same far-off look in his eyes. It was as though he were expecting something to happen. Naruto hadn't noticed, Gaara was sure, but Haku had. And Haku was scared for his new father.
"And then- And then, you know what I did, niisan?" Naruto was laughing, flailing his fists. "I took the gum and I spit it in his hair!"
Iruka laughed against his will. "Naurto, that wasn't a very nice thing to do."
Naruto ducked his head in an attempt to hide the grin that spread across his face. "I know – that's what made it so fun to do."
Iruka reached out and ruffled the child's hair, unable to be mad at such an adorable figure. The child beamed under the attention and playfully stuck his tongue out at Haku. "Hey, let's go play oneesan!"
The dark haired boy glowered and reached out to tug on Naruto's hair, but the blonde was too fast and he had leapt away just in time. "Don't call me that!"
"Oneesan, oneesan!" Naruto chanted, teasing his brother into a game of tag.
Iruka laughed at the children's antics, warning the two not to break anything as they darted down the hallway. Calling Haku "big sister" had become a joke between the two when Naruto had sleepily called the dark haired boy "'neesan" during their ritual good-night's.
A crash resonated down the hall and Iruka groaned, leaning his head back against the plush of the chair he sat in. He contemplated getting up and yelling at the boys, but he heard Haku's loud, stern voice he smiled. If that kept up, Haku was going to be mature enough to take care of all of them. But Iruka would still have to spoil the child to let him know that he was still little and didn't need to carry around the weight of the world as he did.
The chuunin's eyes flickered over to Gaara as the thought of stern children crossed his mind. It had been a while since the redhead had joined the village of the leaf – almost six months now – and Iruka had only seen the child smile three times. Once when Naruto and Haku had found him, the second when he had finally understood the meaning of the adoption papers now stored safely in the attic, and the final time when Iruka had asked if any of the boys had wanted to take his surname as their own.
The child turned away from the window, as though sensing Iruka's thoughts about him, and began to stare into the kitchen. Iruka quirked an eyebrow and was about to ask what Gaara wanted when the boy spoke.
"Phone."
Iruka blinked and suddenly the telephone in the kitchen burst into life, singing a loud, riling tune. The man jumped up to answer the device as Gaara continued to stare unblinkingly.
"Hello?" Iruka spoke one he had the phone in his hands.
"Umino-san?"
"Yes?"
"This is Kana with the hospital. We request that you come down right away."
Iruka linked. "Of course. I'll be right there."
"Thank you." And with that, the call ended. Iruka turned away from the kitchen and looked at Gaara who had moved to stand in the doorway.
"Gaara, I'm going to go now. I'll be back soon. You and Haku make sure Naruto doesn't break anything else, all right?"
Gaara nodded dreamily and began to walk away toward the sound of yelling that revealed where his two brothers were. Iruka, now confident in the knowledge that Naruto wouldn't be so wild, hurriedly fled the house to reach the hospital that stood in the center of the village.
A doctor was waiting at the reception desk for Iruka, looking up as the man entered the lobby. He was a tall man, with curly dark hair and worried eyes.
"Umino-san?" he questioned as Iruka approached.
"That's me. Is something wrong?"
The doctor frowned, the expression looking out-of-place on his features. "The child that you brought in a few days ago – Uchiha Sasuke – has awoken."
"That's good," Iruka sighed. He had been worried about the child who had, upon arriving at the hospital, passed out and refused to awaken again. "What's wrong with him?"
"He refuses to allow anyone near him. We had a psychologist examine him as best as she could, and she figured that you might be able to get to him."
"Me?" Iruka blinked. "Why me?"
"You were the one that brought him in, correct?" Iruka nodded and the doctor continued. "Then perhaps Sasuke would be more comfortable with you."
Iruka bit his lip and looked around. He jumped slightly when he noticed that, as he had been talking with the doctor, they had been walking up to the room where the child was. The Chuunin was about to say something, but a sudden scream from within the room startled him.
He turned to watch a young nurse suddenly back out of the room, looking fairly frightened. The doctor turned to her and asked, "What happened?"
"The child was asleep and I went in to check his charts," the nurse began. "But when I got closer, he woke up and started screaming at me. Scared the hell out of me, if I may say so."
The doctor sighed and looked at Iruka as the child within the room quieted. "Umino-san? If you wouldn't mind."
Iruka refused to wring his hands together. If Sasuke hadn't appreciated the nurse's being in there, what made any of them think that he would be better suited for the job? Instead of protesting – he knew it would continue to get him nowhere – he took a breath and entered the room cautiously.
The child looked up suddenly, black eyes flashing behind the veil of dirty hair that hung in his face. His hands were clenched and he seemed to be trying to vanish into the white sheets surrounding him. He looked about ready to start screaming again, but when he saw that it was Iruka, he leapt from the bed and threw himself into Iruka's stomach, clutching at the soft fabric of his shirt and sobbing. Without even thinking about it, Iruka wrapped his arms about the child's small frame and began humming gently.
The doctor, slipping into the room unnoticed by the child, quietly informed Iruka that, to release Sasuke from the hospital, there was a form waiting for him to sign down at the reception desk. Iruka nodded and gently hefted Sasuke into his arms, still continuing to hum as he began to make his way back to the front desk. The child quieted at the feel of Iruka's warmth, but he still continued to hold on as tight as he possibly could.
Naruto pouted and muttered, "Stupid Gaara. Don't you ever close your eyes?"
As though to mock him, Gaara blinked slowly with a cat-like grace. Haku had managed to calm Naruto down just as Iruka had left, only to have his work come undone when Gaara announced that the dark-haired boy was in charge for the next hour or so. Naruto had thrown another fit, demanding to know why Haku was given the responsibility and practically letting the entire neighborhood know that he was old enough to be responsible too.
Finally, Haku had convinced Naruto to get into a staring contest with his other brother, which seemed to work. The blonde was no longer babbling or even moving so long as he was occupied with trying to beat Gaara. They had been staring silently at each other for almost an hour now, with only the occasional complaints from Naruto whenever he lost.
Just as the blonde was about to demand another contest, Gaara looked away and stated simply, "Sensei's home."
Just as the words finished leaving his mouth, there was the sound of the door opening and Iruka's voice called out, "Boys? Are you still here?"
Naruto jumped up and cheered, "We're alive!" And with that he bounded out of the room to tell his big brother everything that had happened since he had left. Haku pouted, knowing that his baby brother was going to add his own embellishments to everything and followed to make sure that Naruto was telling Iruka something at vaguely resembled the truth.
Gaara watched his brothers leave and carefully gathered himself into a standing position. Carefully, he picked his way down the hall, coming t a halt when he saw Iruka kneeling on the ground, the other two children huddled around him, looking curiously at the being in his arms.
"What's his name?" Gaara asked softly. "And how long is he going to stay here?"
Iruka looked up, not all that surprised that Gaara knew what was going on – he seemed to have a spark that allowed him to acknowledge things he shouldn't have ever known.
"His name is Sasuke."
The child in the chuunins's arms was looking about the room, large dark eyes peering owlishly at every little thing as though it were about to leapt out and attack him.
"Why is Sasuke here?" Naruto asked, grinning at the boy as he looked at him. Sasuke stared at the blonde's teeth for a moment before turning away with a shudder.
"He's gong to be staying with us for a while," Iruka informed the children seriously. "I'm expecting you all to help take good care of your new brother."
Haku looked up curiously. "Brother?"
"Yes," Iruka confirmed with a nod.
"Yay!" Naruto cheered. "We'll be sure to take good care of our baby brother, 'niisan!"
Iruka smiled. "He's still older than you, Naruto."
The blonde mock-pouted, but couldn't help smiling at the dark-haired boy as he turned to Naruto once more. "I'll be sure to protect him, even if he is older than me."
The End
There! It's done! I wash my hands of this! -goes to the bathroom to wash hands- Are you people happy now?
Nine: -laughs at her-
Angel: I hate you. Anyway, now that I've completed this, I don't think I'll be touching this again. If, however, any of you out there want to write more on this, just give me an email (put the title of this fic in the subject, or I'll just end up deleting it) or a PM to let me know and then just give me some credit. So, till next time!