Summary: His life can't get any worse. The dropout, abandoned by his parents, and bullied. Then his half-brother becomes of age and he now is under the legal care of Sasuke Uchiha. Moving to a new town, Naruto is now caught in a Konoha gang war, and busy having his world fall apart. So why is he falling in love with his egotistical half-brother, again? Sasunaru. AU.

This is something I've wanted to write for two years, though I never got around to doing it since I found excuses not to. Sincerely hope that you'll like reading it, although I think I might have written the first chapter as lagging too much into Naruto's thoughts.

Enjoy.

Break My Mind, Restart The Time

Written by Ko-Sensei.

part one entails of Iruka-made-healthy-vegetables-(YUCK) and an unwanted and absolutely unneeded discussion, dattebayo!

Demanding for a cleaned room was plausible.

Demanding for the stinking, dirty socks that were currently flung all over the fireplace to be taken care of ("Right this instant, Naruto!") was normal hygiene.

Demanding for the mayonnaise-poured-all-over-white-toilet-seat prank (which was currently eliciting some oh-so-lovely high-pitched screaming from the boys bathroom) was also just a part of perfectly normal, daily hygiene.

Demanding for (attempted and yeah, and totally failed) studying of his homework was a generally to-be-expected.

Demanding for him not to spend the next three hours hiding and peeking into the girl's bathroom (damn, how did he always know everything he always did all the time?) was also an expected response.

Even if his straight down, flat out FBI-sneaking skills, the skills were not being properly appreciated here ("Naruto!").

Demanding that he not get into any fights today was common sense.

Demanding that he actually get his ass down and do something productive for once which had just about a 0.001% of ever occurring was just mother-hen talking.

Demanding that he eat completely and utterly ramen-free and ramen-banned meals today was barely passable.

Demanding that he eat organic vegetable muck (it was healthy. Healthy as in, H-E-A-L-T-H-Y) was starting to go from passable to maybe-kinda-not-so-passable.

Demanding that he not wear one of his typical obnoxious trademark orange shirts today was just strange, since that was one thing that normally wasn't nagged on.

Demanding that he have Gaara leave and wait outside for some privacy was starting to go from just a bad day to something a little suspicious.

Nevertheless...

…. demanding to have this positively unwanted and absolutely unneeded discussion that only an idiot would take (had he mentioned unwanted?) in the first place was way, way past the line.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

Though most people wouldn't believe it with the way the hyperactive blond would act and behave, especially when snapping back and forth with the orphanage owner, Naruto was very attached to Iruka. And devoted, in his own way.

Although he would throw up a big fuss about just anything when dealing with Iruka-from things like the color of his socks ("But I like wearing them mismatched, Iruka-sensei!") to his curfew time, if one would think back to all of the events that had happened in his life, Naruto had never been one to turn Iruka down, though he wouldn't ever admit to it.

Never ever ever.

Had he had a choice? No, not really. As in... no, not at all.

But there was a reason for everything Iruka did, and he'd come to realize that.

He just really wasn't good with any of the intelligent /schoolwork/ end of the deal, and being forced to read Shakespeare, figure out Trigonometry and write reports was much a worse fate than failing in his opinion. There was no point in trying when no matter what he did, he'd always be a loser on this kind of playing field. No matter what people chalked up dreams to be, saying "You can be whatever you want to be!"

Load of lies.

Not everyone could go to college. Not everyone lead pleasant, happy lives. Not everyone lived their life free of debt. Not everyone had a nice, high-end job. Whether Iruka was holding it up as actual homework or actual physical abuse (a swat to the head), he honestly didn't know which was worse and hoped it wasn't the homework. It was in the statistics, and even in the news.

So it wasn't worth trying at all.

…... that was what most people would say.

Heheh, if he'd followed and just did whatever people had told him to do, long ago he would have been screwed over, probably.

Good thing he wasn't that prone to suggestions.

A light breeze swept throughout the room.

"Naruto."

Having been distracted, the blond glanced upwards.

Eeep. Uh, for some reason, Iruka didn't look mad this time... so he wasn't going to get scolded? But Iruka looked too serious and solemn for the news to be anything good.

He had to play it cool.

What was the day today... Friday. He'd skipped school, and surprisingly, Iruka hadn't said anything about it, though he'd called him up to his "professional office" in the orphanage. He'd been waiting in here for about half an hour, absentmindedly rearranging the pens that had been scattered on Iruka's desk to amuse himself.

He... wasn't in trouble, was he?

Going for an enthusiastic smile and energetic wave, Naruto straightened up and tried to cut into the serious atmosphere Iruka had on. "Look what I found," he said, and picked up a grape off the floor. "What did the grape say when it was stepped on?" Wiping his palm on a nearby tissue, he grinned and tossed the dirty tissue and the grape into the trash can lazily, pausing for dramatics.

Then he dropped the bucket.

"It let out a little wine."

With the expression on his face, you would have thought that he had found the cure to cancer.

He snorted-before realizing that laughing at his own joke was lame. Really, really lame. "Get it? Get it?"

No such luck. Iruka didn't even crack a small smile-which was really weird.

But even so, Iruka continued looking at him seriously, which started to worry Naruto. Iruka was tough in his own way, he knew, and was no drama queen or pushover. If there was something worrying him to this amount-then there was some deep shit that had gone down.

"Naruto, I... I'm not really sure how to tell you this. How to start." Sighing, the orphanage owner slided down into a chair while motioning for Naruto to do the same.

He did.

Okay, so he wasn't in trouble. Probably. Naruto marked that off of his list.

He wondered if Iruka had found out that he had been the one that had done the graffiti on the City Hall, or found that he'd been selling his illegal stash of candy bars from his locker at school, or he'd found out that Naruto had been forging his signature on the failed tests his teachers kept on sending home, or maybe he'd discovered that Naruto had never read any of the school course traditional Japanese literature throughout the year, using online notes and summaries to scrape by, and was going to make him be an honest man and turn himself in.

Or worse, he was actually going to make Naruto read them.

But then his mind wandered to Gaara, who Naruto knew was waiting for him outside of the room, and suddenly, his breath hitched as he remembered that 'Wait, wasn't the date Friday and he hadn't walked with Gaara to school and since there wasn't school tomorrow and without him there the bullies would have had nothing to hold them back-'

As if he'd seen the alarm in Naruto's eyes and read his thoughts, Iruka sighed again. "I already told Gaara that he'd have to wait for you an hour, but he came anyways. He's resting in my office."

Resting. Iruka had said resting. Like he knew... which he probably did.

Then again, Naruto had to marvel at that keen intuitive instinct that Iruka always had on 24/7.

Though Gaara and him had always hidden their injuries, refusing tautly to show them to anyone or get help from Iruka especially, there always seemed to be that haphazardly placed first aid kit or bandaging wraps and ointment left on the counter or table whenever they needed them. Once, it had even been placed under the Naruto's bed when the two of them had spent the night in the orphanage. And in his office, Naruto knew, there was a cabinet full of the first aid materials. Which was where Iruka had let Gaara stay.

He calmed down somewhat, but was kind of uneasy. Naruto kind of understood where Iruka's mother-hen nature sprouted from as he himself felt this urge to go check on the fragile redhead and make sure that he wasn't hurt too badly.

Gaara was his friend, dammit.

Iruka's eyes softened, like he knew what was going through the blond's head-but they chalked up again quickly as the orphanage owner seemed to remember the topic at hand.

This was not okay.

By now, Naruto was scared out of his wits. He'd seen Iruka get angry before (hundreds and hundreds of times), like he always would whenever Naruto misbehaved or did something really bad or inappropriate (like the graffiti incident). Never had he seen Iruka get really solemn or serious, and it was scaring the wits out of him.

The lone Uzumaki sitting in the room waited for the punch line.

Only, there would be no punch line.

Just a reality punch. In the face.

A smarting one, at that.

"Naruto, I... a week ago, your half-brother turned twenty-one."

Yeah, yeah, the usual-wait, what?!

This must have shown on his face, because Iruka sighed and passed a folder over to him gently.

"You know we talked about this, right? You knew that once Uchiha Sasuke turned twenty-one..."

Iruka didn't finish the sentence and trailed off, but it was enough.

And Uzumaki Naruto could already guess what the end of this discussion was going to be, and he really wasn't liking it so far.

"I'm sure it'll be fine, Naruto," Iruka tried again, but Naruto grimaced.

It'd be fine as in, he'd be living with pure evil.

Naruto had hardly been able to do a decent job in any of his foster homes, ever, and if there was some legal issues that would force him to go to his apparent real family, then there was no way that he'd get along with them, then he loved Iruka and the orphanage and what would.. what would Gaara do without him, or rather, what would he do without Gaara-?

What the hell was he supposed to do with his apparent "family?" Smile? "Hey, I'm your half-brother, the living, painful reminder of why your family was torn apart and ended with everyone dying, and now you have to take me in, even though you probably hate me. How ya doing, and where's my room?"

What were they going to go to "bond", if it ever came to that? Play video games? Watch TV? Go on camping trips? Eat at diners? Even if Uchiha Sasuke wasn't pure evil and actually for some weird reason wanted Naruto to come live with him, it'd still be awkward. And weird, because of the entire family situation thing.

And with the two of them being the only two survivors-or people living today.

"Is he fine with it?" The blond tried, not daring to hope for at this much.

"...Not really," Iruka admitted, and neither were surprised by that.

Then from going through this topic in previous years, Naruto already knew the details. Sasuke Uchiha lived in an apartment complex in Ikebukuro, a district in Tokyo. He could get there in a few hours by the subway. Iruka had already arranged for his school records to be transferred to a public high school over there, and school had just started a week ago-which meant that he'd be a little late.

Well.

…...Damn.

And for once in his life, Naruto didn't put up a fight or start arguing back like he normally would because he knew there was absolutely nothing Iruka could do about it and he didn't want to give him unnecessary trouble, and also it wasn't like Iruka wanted him to go either.

It was the contrary, of all things. And Naruto knew that best of all.

"...I'll go pack," He said reluctantly, and left the office to head towards his room, fingers lingering on the doorknob, as if to reminisce something that he'd never get to look at again

That, and the sad look Iruka had in his eyes was starting to get to him.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

Left by his parents as a child, a dropout in school, bullied, and uncool. Uchiha Sasuke was just going to be thrilled at being forced to take care of some abandoned illegitimate child, wasn't he.

Naruto grinned at this thought.

His background story wasn't all that unusual, though in his opinion, it was certainly miserable and tear-jerking enough to make the lead hero in some movie. What had actually happened was he'd grown up at Iruka's orphanage (and that was all he could ever remember), and he honestly didn't care since he'd loved Iruka, but as the years went by, with Iruka putting out searches and requests in the government and courts, his real family had turned up.

So he'd go home to his long-lost parents, have a tearful reunion and have a happily ever after, right?

At least, that's what the script writers would write in. His parents would be these famous celebrity movie actors, or rich owners of some company, or maybe even some regular commonplace loving parents.

God had most definitely been in a shitty mood when he'd come around, Naruto reasoned.

But all jokes aside, his predicament kind of really sucked.

It turned out that Naruto was an illegitimate child.

Stunning, marvelous, perfect fucking field day.

He wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but the gist of it was, he was somehow the child of Fugaku Uchiha. And his mother-even to this day, he didn't know.

Naruto had barely turned two when Iruka had found out about Fugaku Uchiha through some friends that he had working in a detective foundation (someone named Jiraiya and Tsunade... Iruka always talked of them fondly), so Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha had driven down to the small country town where Iruka's orphanage was-in Saitama, Japan, to come pick up Naruto, right?

Then here, God must have been in the most shitiest of moods, because right then, Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha had gotten into a car accident-

And both died two days later.

Hallelujah.

But what caught at him more was the aftermath of the accident.

Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha had two children- that were hardly grown up.

Sasuke Uchiha had been three, Itachi Uchiha had been six.

…... Six. Fucking six years old... and it wasn't like eight was much better.

He winced. That... would have seriously sucked. A lot.

Iruka had told them that the two brothers had then been raised by some other Uchiha relatives with a decent fortune left to them, so it wouldn't be that bad, right?

No, who was he kidding.

Their lawyers had absolutely stood fast on not giving anything to Naruto, and persisted with this, though honestly, Naruto didn't really care as he'd gotten along fine and didn't want to leech off of some spoiled star child's for-life funds. Especially since it was kind of his fault in the first place that they were parentless. If he'd been them, he would have resented himself too.

So the plan was for Naruto and Sasuke to be taken care of Itachi as their legal guardian when Itachi turned twenty-one. And for a few years, that was what Naruto had expected would happen.

Which he also (shamelessly) had been very vehement against, and by some forsaken miracle (though he felt bad about being elated at this), Itachi Uchiha had gone missing at the age of fifteen.

Now, Naruto was seventeen, and Sasuke had just turned twenty-one, which meant...

Like it or not,

He was now saddled with a rich half-brother that most likely hated him with a passion. Fun.

This was really, really not okay, and if they could please just rewind an hour back and pretend none of this had ever happened-

Naruto stripped off his jacket and flung it at the hangers, feeling really hot as really, it was still summer and he had a lot to think about. Running a hand through his blond spikes, Naruto started to make out through the orphanage door, kicking over the old, beaten up shoe stand lying in his way, before remembering...

Shit, how could he have forgotten?

"Gaara!"

《 Hey. Ko signing in here. This is not technically my first post, but starting from here on out, it is, isn't it.? There will definitely be much more plot with the Konoha gangs and Sasuke being Naruto's older half-brother than is in the summary, just couldn't fit it all in.

So far, if you didn't catch on, Naruto and Gaara are best friends. Naruto lives at Iruka's orphanage, or he did, but now that Sasuke's become of age, now Sasuke is his legal guardian. Which means, he's going to move in with him.

Shouldn't have to say this, but leave a review, s'il vous plait.

Reviews make my fingers move faster. Then hearing from you makes me happy.

Au revoir...~ 》