6 Rebirth of the Uchiha Chapter 6

Sasuke stared at the blond-haired idiot who had casually agreed to become a clan retainer. "O-ok then. Come to the compound tomorrow and we'll make everything official, I guess..." The blond just hummed happily as he stuffed his mouth with noodles before a dark-eyed girl and the waitress of the stand grabbed him in a tight hug, squealing madly. Sasuke glanced at his saner companions. Neko was looking back and forth, pointing at Sasuke and sputtering. Hinata, meanwhile, was staring red-faced at Naruto and seemingly attempting to retreat into her jacket. "That's right, she's fallen for Uzumaki as well. Huh. Interesting."

"Ayame-neechan! Stop that!" groaned Naruto as the older girl ruffled his hair, leaving it even more unkempt than usual. The girl's face fell and she pouted. "Aww... but you're such a cute chibi..." "I am not a chibi! I just haven't hit a growth spurt yet!" argued the boy, jumping out of reach, before the waitress gasped audibly. "Naruto-kun! Is that blood?" she whispered, gazing at his red-stained jumpsuit.

"Wha- oh, yeah, but I'm fine, nee-chan! It's not even sore anymore!" he insisted. "Uzumaki Naruto! You take that off right now! You can't walk around the village like that." Hearing the tone, the boy's grin slipped and he muttered something inaudible. "What was that?" the stall owner asked, eyebrows knitted in concern. Naruto sighed, a defeated expression on his face.

"I said I don't have anything else to wear. I brought my stuff to the dry-cleaner's, and it kinda got... damaged." he murmured dejectedly. Sasuke looked on in concern. "Damn, seems like Rei was right. He really does have some problems." Speaking of, his cousin was sending him a pleading look... as was the Hyuuga... and Neko, somehow. Sasuke clutched the bridge of his nose as he accepted his defeat.

"Come on, we'll find something at the compound for now, and then tomorrow, you can pick up something else." Naruto stared blankly. "A-are you sure?" he asked quietly, the sound seeming completely out of place coming from the boisterous academy student. "Yeah, yeah, now let's get going, the rest of the kids'll be waiting... for... dinner..." he groaned, before several large takeout bags were plonked on the counter behind him.

"Here you go, Uchiha-sama!" boomed the chef as he pushed them over to Neko. "Consider it a gift to reward your first proper mission!" Naruto beamed as he grabbed one of the bags. "Thanks, Teuchi-jiisan! They're gonna love it!" Sasuke bowed deeply, once again surprising everyone. "I will be sure to repay your kindness, Ichiraku-san." he offered, before the five of them exited the stand, Naruto and Rei chatting excitedly. "Ah well, at least the worst part of today is over..."

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"Just pick something already, Uzumaki! You've been in the closet for hours now! Jus- Daiki, I can hear you laughing and you know what I meant! Just grab the closest thing to you and throw it on!" the young clan head groaned, already feeling the migraine looming over him. The Uzumaki was just the tip of the iceberg, with him being glomped by eight kids and an ANBU as soon as he reached the compound, all demanding to know who and where and what happened, Niisan, not to mention the mad scramble for food.

"Alright, but you really need more orange in here. Your stuff is pretty lame..." came the response as Naruto stepped out, now clad in a blue short-sleeved shirt and white shorts. "Kami, he's thin." mused Sasuke as his guest entered the room, looking uncharacteristically self-conscious.

"Alright, sorry to interrupt your little fashion show, but if you want to be at the academy tomorrow, you'd all best turn in for the night." interjected Inu, slouching against the wall. Sasuke and Naruto glared at the man before the younger kids scattered, most of them bursting into the hallway, only to find themselves in a wooden cage, with Neko waving cheerily at them from outside. Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose as Daiki and Rei shrugged at Naruto's confusion. "...every night. Every damn night. Uzumaki, if you want, there's a sleeping mat in the closet. Just grab it and set it up wherever." Naruto nodded dumbly as he watched the chaos of two ANBU and three academy students trying to corral seven ninja children into bedrooms. "This place seems... kinda weird..."

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Sasuke placed a hand against his face as he heard crying coming from the next room. With the ANBU trying to watch multiple buildings, they had bundled the kids together into three of the homesteads in the compound. Sasuke's neighbours just so happened to be Rei-chan on one side and Megumi-chan on the other. While Rei had more or less passed out immediately after the day's events, the youngest member of the clan had become upset on hearing about 'the bad man who hurt Niisan and scared Rei-nee'.

The sound of feet shuffling in the hall outside caught his attention. By the time he heard a low voice speaking, he was standing outside his cousin's door, kunai in hand. In one motion, he threw the door open and launched the knife at the figure his mind registered only as Not-Megumi.

"What the fuck, teme?!" came the hissed response. Sasuke blinked, deactivating his bloodline. Sitting next to the bed was his unplanned houseguest, the young girl curled in against him, shivering. The older Uchiha stared blankly as Naruto hushed and comforted the girl, rocking her slowly from side to side, glaring at Sasuke. As Megumi relaxed, the blond surprised Sasuke yet again by singing to her. "And now the dead last is in my house, singing. I guess this is my life now. Wonderful."

As he lowered the now-sleeping toddler onto her bed, the whiskered student gestured wildly. Despite his limited knowledge of 'hyperactive idiot' sign language, Sasuke got the gist and the two stepped out into the hall.

"First off, you can never tell anyone about me... singing, alright, teme? Second of all, what the hell was with that whole random knife attack shit? Third, where is the bathroom, cos I've been walking around like an idiot for ages..."

a quick bathroom break later

"Uzumaki. I want to apologise for attacking you earlier." "Nah, 'snot like ya actually hit me, right? Anyway, Rei-chan mentioned you get 'specially weird and aggressive when it comes to Megumi-chan. It's cool, dattebayo." Sasuke just stared. "This guy can just shrug off something like that. He's either a lot braver or a lot stupider than I thought." Watching the blond stroll back towards the staircase, he revised his opinion. "Both. Definitely both."

"Hey, Uzu- er, Naruto." he started again, determined to find out some information about his newest retainer. "Where'd you learn... that? The singing and rocking thing, I mean." "Tch, where do you think? The carers used to do that kinda stuff all the time for the little kids back in the orphanage. I figured it was worth a shot." Sasuke nodded thoughtfully as the shorter boy bounded downstairs again. "You really are a mystery, Uzumaki."

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"-and how did you get a zero? We covered half that stuff in our first year, for Log's sakes!" nagged Sasuke, much to the confusion of the assembled parents. The youngest clan head, willingly associating with the Demon Brat? Something was rotten in the Village of Konoha, clearly. The Orange Monster rolled his eyes and scoffed. "C'mon, you saw how often I turned up for the boring stuff like geography 'n' languages. Like it makes a difference." Several parents had to hide their smirks as Uchiha-sama swatted the Brat across the back of the head.

"Baka, if you want to be a ninja, you have to know that stuff. What'll happen if you go to spy on another village and screw up because you don't speak the language? Or if you can't even find the village in the first place? That's it, come on." The sight of the usually stoic boy dragging the troublemaker by the scruff of his neck was enough to break the facades of the parents as several of them openly smirked or sneered. "Leggo, teme!" "No, you are coming to the compound and you are going to learn all of this. I will not have you failing when you represent the Uchiha clan." It would be several hours before anyone realised what he meant. "The Kyuubi Brat is part of the Uchiha clan?" The Shinobi of the village had only one addendum to add. "Oh, Shit."

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"Come on, Uzumaki! Just read the damn page." groaned a vexed Sasuke. "You can't just drop everything and say 'I'm bored'. That's not how this works." Naruto, red-faced, slammed the book closed and stood up. "Damnit, teme! It's not even your problem, anyway! Just leave me alone!" he barked, before replacing himself with a chair and taking the opportunity to escape. Rei and Daiki slowly made their way out of the room as Sasuke tried to massage away the headache building up. "What is it, Neko?" he murmured, the ANBU sitting casually to one side.

"Nothing too important, Sasuke-san. But maybe you'd be as well off looking at the work he left behind, see if anything interesting is there." he said lightly. "Who knows? You might even learn something new." Sasuke nodded slowly, before opening the books Naruto had left. "Right then, let's see just what the dead last knows." Poring over the books, Sasuke found himself growing more and more frustrated. What was supposed to be a study of the Hokage mountain turned into a barely legible discussion of the 'awesomeness' of the Sandaime and Yondaime; his mathematical scores were all over the place, some near-perfect, some atrocious; worst of all was his spelling. Every other word was spelt phonetically. It was like he didn't even know what he was supposed to be doing half the time. And with that last thought, he finally realised the issue.

Knock, Knock. "Okay, hang on, Iruka-sensei, I'm coming." drawled Naruto as he opened the door to his apartment. "Wh- Teme? What are you doing here? Wait, how do you know where I live?" he asked, perplexed. Sasuke stared at him blankly. "You can't read." "W-what are you talking about?" "That's why you got a zero for the test this morning. That's why your record is so spotty at the academy. How have you been in the academy for three years and not learned how to read?" Again, Naruto's body language shifted, from wary confidence to complete dejection.

"You're half-right, teme. I-I can't read too well. I mean, I know basic stuff, like my name, the alphabet, but... nobody ever tried to teach me. In the orphanage, they had a ton of kids, 'n' I was kinda ignored. By the time I got to the academy, I just assumed everyone was the same way and that I could learn how there. And I figured I'd at least be able to do the number stuff, but they had all word problems and I couldn't follow it and..." the boy was babbling now, taking advantage of a captive audience, probably the first time he'd explained all this to anyone. "...and Iruka-sensei thinks I'm just not trying and I don't wanna let Jiji down and..." "Okay, okay, Naruto- Naruto, breathe." Sasuke offered, trying to calm the now hyperventilating blond. "Listen, we both saw that I'm not exactly... keyed for teaching. If you trust me, I can find someone to help." The shorter boy breathed deeply, staring at him. "...you won't tell people, will you?" he pleaded, looking so small and innocent that betraying him would feel somewhat like kicking an especially cute puppy.

"No, not unless I absolutely have to." Sasuke offered, being rewarded with a small smile. "Okay, I'll sort something out and talk to you tomorrow." The boy nodded, hesitating before he shut the door. The Uchiha turned to leave, thoughts running through his head. "Now, who to find..."

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Sasuke glanced around the class, weighing up the pros and cons of each classmate. Iruka-sensei was out, since Naruto didn't want to admit his failing there. Mizuki-sensei was more of a 'learning by doing kind of guy', so he was out. Most of the other teachers were in the 'hates Naruto for no reason group', no help there. Besides, the guy could likely benefit from spending time with his classmates. Most civilian kids were out for the same reason as the teachers. On to the clan kids. Aburame Shino was too much an introvert, and his speech pattern would get on the blond's nerves. Inuzuka Kiba, Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chouji were almost as bad at classwork as Naruto. Yamanaka Ino, zero patience. That left only one person.

Sidling into a seat at the back of the class, he turned to his intended target. "Hyuuga-san? I'd like your help with something."