Stitches
by hachico.
Disclaimer: "Naruto" and all characters derived from said series are the creation and thereby intellectual property of Masashi Kishimoto. No profits are being made from the creation of this work of fan-made fiction.
Itachi was a man of curious habit, Sasuke thought, hopping up onto the kitchen counter.
That was not to say that his brother went around doing odd things in order to fill what spare time he had. But rather, Itachi had one curious pasttime, which never failed to bemuse his little brother.
Itachi liked to sew.
Well, he did sew. The truth was, other than tease his little brother mercilessly, Sasuke was not entirely sure what Itachi liked. Still, he had an inkling that his brother found some modicum of joy in the pursuit, because despite the fact that their mother was a skilled hand at mending and embroidery herself, Itachi insisted upon tending to the care of his and Sasuke's clothes personally.
In fact, there were many days when Sasuke would come home from school to find his brother, recently returned from a mission, sitting in sunbathed solemnity at their kitchen table and doing just that. Although this wasn't conclusive evidence that the quiet young Uchiha enjoyed sewing, as an aspiring Itachi expert, Sasuke liked to think that it was compelling enough for him to build a good case on if ever anyone happened to question his stance on the matter.
"Mother told you not to climb up there. Why didn't you listen?" came the level tones of his brother's voice, as he reached for the small white box he knew their mother kept stashed away above the kitchen sink for just such occasions. Though the pain was not unbearable, there was still an itchy ache nagging at the corners of his eyes as Itachi's calm voice laved about his ears, laced with disapproval and some other unidentifiable emotion.
His heart jumped at the realization that he had somehow caused a reaction in his older brother, be it disappointment or otherwise, and Sasuke felt his chest suffused with excitement.
You know why I did it, he wanted to say, You climbed that cliff face when you were barely five years old.
"I'm fine," he insisted, ignoring the sharp, medicinal sting of the chemical that Itachi was using to swab at his wound. As if to affirm his point, Sasuke tilted his small, rounded chin upward a little to meet his brother's gaze of concern with one of pure childish bravado.
"You really opened your elbow up," Itachi half-whispered in the same slightly uncharacteristicly distressed tone, as his eyes were drawn back to the source of the metallic smell seeping softly into the air. Yes, there was definitely something strange about the way that his brother was addressing him just then. He hadn't known Itachi to become upset very often, and yet just now he seemed slightly unhinged. But why? Surely he had seen a hundred, hundred injuries in his young life, much more grave than this. He was a shinobi. Not just a shinobi, he was an Uchiha.
Sasuke almost said as much, but as he gazed upon Itachi's supple features, mouth drawn taut, eyes focused on sewing up the pale, marred flesh just right, the thought fled from his mind.
"I'm sorry, Nii-san," Sasuke said abruptly, lowering his tone to match his brother's, though he knew not why.
For a moment or two the apology hung between them, as though stalled in its passage from his lips to the other's ear.
"No," Itachi said just as softly, the emotion all but gone from his voice, "You're not."
Upon confirming that the wound was thoroughly cleansed, his brother's hands carefully moved to pluck the stitching needle and thread from their family's first-aid kit. Sasuke's breath was calm and his frame forcibly steady as he watched Itachi begin sewing him up. But inwardly, right down to his guts, the youngest Uchiha shuddered.
He had never seen his brother's hands rise to a more malicious intent than when those deft fingers closed around neither a kunai nor a sword, but a needle.
Author Talk: A little divergence from my usual writing. - It's good to do these kinds of things every once in a while! I'd always wondered who had monogrammed the Uchiha crest onto all Sasuke's clothes. Could it be Mikoto? Or...