Chapter Three

Three weeks went by in the blink of an eye. In those three weeks I had become a part of the Uchiha family. I helped around the house by cleaning, putting away groceries, and going shopping with Itachi, among various other tasks. Sasuke went to school five days a week, and didn't return until late afternoon. Itachi promised to enroll me in school the following semester since the current semester was almost over. Whenever Sasuke was in school, I would follow Itachi around. If he was at school or work, I'd end up by myself in the house. I sometimes wandered out to the park behind the house.

It was weird having a key to a house. A house I lived in. It was also weird to think how much Itachi and Sasuke trusted me in having full access to their house while they were gone. I had the liberty of coming and going as I pleased. I had no idea people could be this trusting with a complete stranger.

Friday came around in that third week and Sasuke was in school. Itachi was getting ready to go to work. He had just come back from school to get his things together. I was walking into the kitchen when Itachi called out to me.

“Naruto, could you do me a favor?”

I turned around to follow the sound of Itachi's voice. He was in the study, stuffing papers into his bag. “Yeah?”

“There you are. I told Sasuke I'd walk with him home, but I was called into to work to cover for someone. Could you walk with Sasuke? I know he'll still be mad I didn't show up, but at least he won't be by himself,” he explained, shouldering his bag.

“Yeah, I can do that!” I told him, brightly smiling.

“Thanks, Naruto. Here,” he said, handing me a piece of paper. “I wasn't sure you'd remember where his school was, so I wrote down some directions for you.”

I looked down at the paper, reading the instructions in Itachi's neat handwriting. “Okay. What time does he get out?”

He looked at the clock hanging on the wall. “In about another two hours. I would leave at twenty 'til.”

“All right, then I'll go pick up Sasuke!”

Itachi smiled and played with my hair. “Thanks so much. I'll see you two later.”

I nodded and saw him off, waving at the door. Once he was gone, I went back to the kitchen, stuffing his directions in my pocket. I made myself a sandwich, keeping an eye on the time. I decided to watch some TV until it was time for me to leave. Before I knew it, I had to get going.

I made sure to lock the house and take my wallet with me. I pulled out the directions Itachi had given me and got going. It was a good thing he told me to leave twenty minutes early because it took me fifteen to make it to Sasuke's school. The gate was still closed and there weren't any people around outside. The buildings composing the school were huge. All of them were at least three stories high; one of them was actually five stories high. The courtyard beyond the gate was neat and clean. Beyond one of the buildings I could see a basketball and tennis court. I wondered what kinds of clubs the school had. Which one Sasuke was in.

As I admired the school, the bell rang, releasing the students. Almost immediately the courtyard filled up with students, both boys and girls, kids my age, some younger, some older. The gates opened up and the students began pouring out. There were plenty of kids gathering into groups and wandering home, happily talking to each other and goofing off.

Sasuke popped out among the crowd, followed by a girl with flaming red hair and another with bubble gum pink hair, swooning over him. Sasuke seemed annoyed by their presence. His eyes widened when they locked on me. He walked faster toward me, leaving the girls behind him dismayed.

“What are you doing here?”

I shrugged. “Itachi asked me to come for him,” I said with a smile.

“Where is he?”

“He was called into work to cover for someone.”

Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed. “Typical.”

“He sent me to walk home with you.”

His eyes opened to stare back at me. For a moment he was silent. Then, he scoffed. “Hn. Let's go.”

I brightly smiled, jumping a little and we walked home. “So, uh, who were those two girls back there?”

He glanced at me before looking ahead of him again. “Karin and Sakura.”

“Friends of yours?”

“Classmates,” he corrected.

“Do they like you?”

“Hn. It's annoying,” he huffed.

“You don't like them?”

“Hn.”

“The pink haired one was cute,” I thought aloud.

He scoffed again. “I figured you'd say that. You moron.”

“What?” I screamed. “How am I a moron?”

“You just are.”

“Yeah, well you're nothing but a jerk!” I retaliated.

He smirked at me. That only made me want to punch him. I was about to protest, but he took my arm and made me run across the street. “Hey, where the hell are we going? Home is the other way!”

“Shut up and just come with me. There's something we need to do.”

I wanted to say something back, but he didn't give me a chance as we ran into a store. The store was full of people wandering around and talking to sales representatives. Sasuke walked straight to the back of the store. I followed him and it wasn't until we stopped in front of the merchandise that I realized, where we were.

“Why are we here?”

“Itachi and I were talking about getting you a phone. I figured we could do it now and tell Itachi later.”

“You want to get a phone for me? Why?”

“You ask a lot of questions.”

“Bite me!”

He sighed. “We figured it was the best way to keep in touch with you. Once you start school, there's no guarantee of getting a hold of you by calling home.”

I was silent for a moment. “Oh.”

Sasuke looked around and picked up an iPhone. “How about this one?”

I took it from him and examined it. It was okay, but I didn't really like it. “Is that what you have now?”

“No. I used to have an iPhone, but with our recent upgrade, Itachi and I got Samsungs. He got a Galaxy Note, and I went for the S series.”

“What do you like better?”

He was thoughtful for a moment, and he walked over to the Samsung section. “iPhone has been having issues, and it gets expensive having to buy most apps. I think Samsung could be better at this point. It's not always responsive and the display is of lower quality, but it is easier to use as a whole, and a lot of the apps are free, or there are free versions.”

“You're such a geek.”

“Shut up and pick a phone, dobe.”

“Shut up, stupid, Sasuke.”

I looked around. I didn't know much about phones. I wasn't sure if Sasuke could sense my uneasiness, because he picked a phone for me. “Forget it. You can use what I use. It'll be easier to show you how to use it anyway.”

I wanted to complain, but he had already gone to the front desk. He had the authority to change their plan and was well on his way to adding a line and getting me a number. The teller was very warm and welcoming as she made the adjustments. When she was done, she thanked Sasuke, telling him to have a nice day. Sasuke took the bag containing the cell phone box with other papers. Sasuke started playing with the phone. I didn't know what he was doing to it.

“Here,” he said after a few minutes, handing me the phone. “I added my number and Itachi's. You should probably memorize them if you haven't already.”

“Okay.”

“You can also text us with this. I already added your number to my phone.”

I looked down at my phone. It was interesting to have Sasuke so talkative over something so trivial. I decided to take advantage of it. “What else can I do with it?”

The rest of the way home, Sasuke explained to me how to work my phone, change my background picture, take pictures, text him and Itachi, play games, download apps, access the Internet, and several other things. They were all things I could have figured out, but it was nice to hear Sasuke talk so much since he didn't do so unless it was with Itachi. As annoying as he could be, he was actually very helpful and patient in helping me learn how to use a cell phone.

When we got home, Itachi still wasn't back. Sasuke gave me the bag that contained the box to my phone, telling me to keep it in case we needed to return it. He went up to his room, once more being silent. Great. I went up to my room, and stashed my bag in my closet at the back of the top shelf. I didn't know where else to put it for now. At least that way, it wouldn't get lost.

“Hey, Itachi just told me he won't be home until late. He said we could make something or go out to eat. He'll be ordering take out at work,” Sasuke informed me. He was standing in the doorway, wearing different clothes, leaning against the frame. “What do you want to do?”

I shrugged. “I don't know what do you want to do?”

He looked down at the ground. “Let's make something. Itachi might be hungry again when he gets back.”

“Don't you have homework to do?”

He smirked. “Oh? You think you can handle cooking all by yourself, dobe?”

This guy really knew how to piss me off. “I can follow instructions!”

He crossed his arms, giving me a smug smile. “Sure you can. Come on, I don't have homework today.” Sasuke moved from the door frame and headed downstairs.

I growled, hating how he talked down to me the way he did. Even so, it was better than dealing with his silence. Down in the kitchen, Sasuke was rummaging through the fridge. I pushed the door slightly so that it hit Sasuke. Seeing him cringe was hilarious. He moved back to glare at me. I snickered and walked by to the stove.

He walked over to the sink and placed some vegetables in it to wash. On the counter he put thawed chicken that was in a bag and eggs. He told me to bring out some flour to make a batter for the chicken so we could fry it. He went on to wash the vegetables while I got started on the batter. I opened Itachi's cookbook to look for instructions on how to make batter.

We worked in silence, save for the noises we made in using the dishes and clinking utensils. I was stirring the batter, when Sasuke bumped into me, making me spill some of the batter on my shirt.

“Teme! Look what you made me do!”

“That's your own fault, dobe.”

I got some on my fingers and smeared it on his face. He froze to glower at me. I couldn't help but laugh at how foolish he looked. Sasuke did something I didn't expect. The next minute my face was covered with flour. I coughed a bit, choking on what I had inhaled. Sasuke was smirking again, with crossed arms.

This was war.

I grabbed a handful of batter and threw it right at his face. He retaliated by throwing water at me, making the flour stick. I tackled him and we both fell to the floor, trying to subdue the other from reaching more food to attack with. I had managed to pin him down, sitting on his legs and holding them tightly. I was about to reach up toward the counter, when I heard someone clearing their throat.

Sasuke and I looked up at the doorway to find Itachi standing there with his briefcase and jacket on one arm. He had one eyebrow lifted as he continued to stare at us. “What are you two doing?”

I slowly put my arm down and backed off from Sasuke. I smiled sheepishly. “I guess we got carried away there.”

“Hn. You're the one who started it,” Sasuke seethed.

I rolled my eyes. “You would have ignored me the entire time otherwise.”

“Not true.”

“Telling me to give you something or to do something doesn't exactly count as conversation,” I shot back.

This time Sasuke rolled his eyes. He sat up, looking down at his shirt, his pants, and then the floor. We had made quite the mess with the batter and flour, not just on ourselves, but the floor and counter. He shook his head, allowing a thin cloud of flour escape his hair. I wondered how much batter and flour was mixed into my hair. He didn't bother to dust his clothes off. Instead he stood and sighed. I was sure he was debating continuing to cook with dirty clothes or changing into something clean.

“I thought you weren't coming until late,” I said to Itachi.

He gave me an apologetic smile. “Well, I will be. I just forgot a few folders here,” he explained.

“Nii-san, you always forget things,” Sasuke absentmindedly chided.

“Yes, yes, I know. Anyway, don't let me interrupt your, umm, cooking. I'll be out of your way soon enough,” he said, leaving the kitchen.

Sasuke was glaring after him. I wasn't sure what Sasuke was so pissy about this time. Unless there was some hidden meaning in Itachi's words that I didn't catch.