Friends and Fireworks

Itachi sat on the ground beside his younger brother, who was coloring wildly on a piece of construction paper.  Two-year-old Sasuke was a miniature hellion that seemed bent on the absolute destruction of everything breakable in the Uchiha household, and several pieces of china and picture frames had already fallen victim to his endeavors.  To prevent further carnage, the other Uchihas typically tried to distract the boy with positive outlets, like making mud pies or playing tag with Itachi.  Neither of those activities were options at the moment, since the backyard and kitchen were being prepped for a summer barbecue, complete with fireworks and homemade ice cream.  It was the Uchiha corporation’s Fourth of July picnic, and since it was actually the Uchiha family’s turn to host this year (Fugaku rotated the duty among the board of his corporation, including himself), and everything had to be perfect.  And in order to make sure that everything did turn out perfectly, Sasuke had to be kept under constant watch.

A knock at the front door alerted Mikoto that the first of the guests had arrived, and she quickly hurried into the foyer to open the door. “Sorry for the wait-oh, Hana!  Thank goodness you’re here.”

Hana Hoshigaki smiled and showed herself and Kisame inside.  The Hoshigaki and Uchiha families had grown incredibly close over the past few years, and although the barbecue might technically be a company affair, there was no way that the Hoshigakis could or would be left out of the festivities.  Particularly not since Hana’s baking and cooking skills were vital to the success of the barbecue.  “Need some help cooking?” she asked, already heading into the kitchen.

“You’re a life saver Hana, you know that?”  Mikoto quickly popped her head into the living room to check on her sons, followed by Kisame.  So far, nothing appeared to be broken. “Itachi, could you please put Sasuke down for his nap?  Otherwise he’ll be cranky when we set off the fireworks.”

Itachi nodded and quickly pulled his brother to his feet, eager to be free of his babysitting so he could play with Kisame instead.  Kisame seemed just as eager, though he tried to restrain his excitement in front of Mikoto and his mother.

It took a while to get Sasuke to sleep (he couldn’t find his teddy bear first, and then demanded a story after), but eventually Itachi was able to leave his brother alone and give Kisame his full attention.  The shark was positively bouncing on his heels now, giving Itachi a very sharky grin. “Let’s go play in the treehouse!” he begged in a hushed whisper, not wanting to wakeup Sasuke and have to start the whole naptime process over again.

Itachi smiled and nodded before the pair of them took off down the hall, out the patio door, across the backyard and up the wooden steps nailed into a sturdy oak tree.  For Itachi’s tenth birthday a few weeks earlier, his father had erected a treehouse in the backyard.  Well, technically he’d hired several burly construction workers to actually build the treehouse, but it was the thought that counted.  Since then, Itachi and Kisame had spent nearly every waking moment of their summer days playing in the treehouse, and only came down because they weren’t allowed to spend the night up there.  But the night was a long way off right now, and there was playing to be done!

Itachi scrambled up the ladder first with Kisame following behind.  They entered through a trapdoor in the floor of the treehouse, which could be shut and locked for safety.  The actual treehouse itself had windows looking out over the yard (open aired, but they could be covered by screens in the event of rain), a small table and chairs, a few posters on the walls, and various odds and ends to make the treehouse feel more homey.  Kisame snatched a pair of binoculars off the table and hurried over to one of the windows, scouting out the backyard. “Let’s see…our dads are having trouble getting the barbecue going, so it might be a while before we get to eat.”

Itachi frowned at the statement; he’d eaten very little at lunch specifically so he could stuff himself silly at dinner, and was now beginning to regret it.

“Hm, mom’s setting up the snack area…oh, it looks like your mom made banana pudding!  We’re gonna have to get a lot of that!  But mom’s making ice cream later, so we have to save some room, I guess…”

“Wow, this place is awesome, un!”

Itachi and Kisame both turned around to see a new person rising up through the trapdoor.  The newcomer was a boy about their age with long blond hair and bright blue eyes.  He grinned at the duo and waved, clearly not feeling any anxiety about suddenly barging into a stranger’s treehouse. “Hi!  I’m Deidara, un!”

Itachi frowned and moved to hide behind Kisame.  He didn’t like meeting new people, particularly ones that crashed into his life without any sort of warning.  Furthermore, this blond was far too chipper for his liking, and he was loud to boot.

Kisame, on the other hand, had never met a stranger.  He already liked the kid for not teasing him about his blue skin, and offered him and smile and a handshake. “I’m Kisame!  And this (here he moved to the side to expose his best friend) is Itachi.” Itachi nodded once and immediately ducked back behind Kisame. “Don’t mind him, Itachi gets nervous around new people.  Ouch!” Kisame frowned at his best friend, who had just poked him rather sharply in the side. “You know I’m right.”

Deidara giggled. “You two are funny, un!”

Kisame grinned; it was rare to find someone this upbeat and kind to the duo. “So, how come you’re in our treehouse?  Usually people ask before barging in.” Or at least they would if anyone ever asked Kisame and Itachi to play…

“I’m trying to find my danna, un!”

“Ok, ah…what’s a danna, Itachi?” Kisame asked, since Itachi tended to be the authority figure on all things unknown by Kisame.

Itachi whispered something into Kisame’s ear, making the shark quirk a brow at Deidara. “You’re trying to find your husband?”

“Well we’re not married yet, but danna says when we get older we can have a big wedding, un!”

Itachi was getting annoyed by Deidara now, and was convinced that the blond was a liar on top of being an annoying idiot.  Kisame, however, seemed willing to play along with the blond’s game. “What’s he look like?”

Itachi shot Kisame a look, but Deidara either didn’t notice or care. “He’s a year older than me, with messy red hair!  He doesn’t smile much, and his name is Sasori Akasuna.”

“Well that sounds like enough to go on.  Let’s look around; the treehouse has a great view of the whole yard!”  And so Kisame and Deidara began to peer out the windows of the treehouse while Itachi sat nearby reading a book.  After a good ten minutes of looking and not finding a single hint of this Sasori person, Deidara had the brilliant idea of going outside the treehouse and asking some of the adults if they knew when Sasori would arrive.  Kisame agreed, but Itachi stayed seated on his cushion.

“C’mon guys!” Deidara exclaimed as he began descending the ladder. “We have to find Sasori before the fireworks!”

“Itachi, you coming?” Kisame asked.  The weasel shook his head and turned around in his seat, but did it too quickly to make it look natural. “Itachi, don’t be so grouchy,” Kisame ordered as he walked up to his friend and pulled the book out of Itachi’s unresisting hands. “Look, I know Deidara’s a lot louder and more energetic than you like, but we need to make more friends, you know?  It’d be a lot more fun to play tag or hide ‘n seek if we had other kids around to tag or seek.”

Itachi remained unconvinced.

“Besides, when was the last time you met someone that didn’t make fun of me for being blue, or you for being so quiet?  And Sasori can’t be all bad if he’s willing to play along with this danna thing.  This is a good thing.  Cross my heart.”

Itachi gave an extremely dramatic sigh and roll of his eyes, but still rose to his feet and followed after Deidara down the ladder.  He’d try to be nice to the blond for Kisame’s sake, but that didn’t mean he was going to like it.

-n-

The search went on for half an hour with no luck.  Most of the adults had no idea when Sasori and his family would be arriving.  One old man thought that Sasori had already arrived, but a quick search of the yard proved that to be false within minutes.  Finally they approached Mikoto with their question, to which Mikoto said that the Akasunas were running behind and wouldn’t arrive until dinnertime.

Deidara started to mope soon after the news. “Dinner’s forever and ever from now, un!”

Kisame attempted to console the depressed blond, whereas Itachi wandered off in the direction of the garage.  The weasel returned a few moments later with a handful of sparklers clutched in one fist and a lighter in the other.  “Where’d you get those?” Kisame inquired, being temporarily distracted from his task of consoling Deidara.

The blond immediately perked up at the sight of the sparklers and squeezed Itachi tightly in a hug. “Sparklers are my favorite, un!  Thank you, un!”

Itachi quickly pushed a few sparklers into the blond’s waiting hand and then ducked behind Kisame.  “Err, Deidara, be careful.  Itachi’s not really big on hugs and touching people.”

“Oops.  Sorry, un!”

Itachi stuck his head out from behind Kisame just long enough to nod at the blond, indicating that the apology had been accepted.  The three of them quickly lit their sparklers after that and spent a good part of the afternoon running around with the brightly colored fire hazards, doing their best to make sure that nothing was set ablaze.

Right around the time that the last of the sparklers were burning out, Mikoto and Hana came outside and informed their families and guests that dinner was ready.  Deidara and Kisame made a beeline for the table, with Deidara making sure to save a spot between Kisame and himself.  Itachi took the seat without a word, but there was a small smile on his face.  Ok, so maybe the super annoying blond wasn’t all bad.

This thought went flying across the lawn and over the fence, never to be seen or heard from again, when Deidara let out a shriek and bolted across the lawn, toppling a glass of juice and nearly knocking over Itachi’s chair in the process. “Danna danna DANNA!”

Kisame and Itachi both looked towards the patio door.  An old woman and a young couple had just stepped out the door with a small redheaded boy in tow.   The boy didn’t try to run or get out of Deidara’s way, but rather seemed resigned to his fate and merely braced himself for impact.  Deidara squealed with joy and glomped the redhead. “Guess he wasn’t kidding about the danna,” Kisame said with a smirk as he helped Itachi dab up the juice that had been spilled during Deidara’s rush.

The adults, thankfully, seemed willing to laugh off the child’s outburst and went back to their own conversations.  Deidara dragged the new boy towards Kisame and Deidara, like he was a new toy that the blond was eager to show off. “Kisame, Itachi, this is Sasori danna!”

Sasori politely nodded towards the duo. “Forgive me for being late.  Grandmother had to pick up her dry cleaning.  I hope the brat wasn’t too much of a hassle in my absence.”

“Danna, don’t call me a brat, un!”

“Oh, that reminds me.  I brought these for you.”

“Gummy bears!” Deidara squealed and wrapped Sasori in a hug again. “Thank you danna!”

As Deidara began to stuff his face full of candy, Sasori climbed onto a chair beside Itachi and looked to him. “I suppose introductions are in order, although you already know my name by now.”

“I’m Kisame, and this is Itachi!” the shark chimed in.

Sasori raised a brow. “You’re a talkative one.”

“Er, well, Itachi doesn’t really like talking to people, especially ones he’s just met.” Itachi nodded in agreement. “But he really doesn’t mind when I introduce him, do you?” This time Itachi shook his head.

Sasori seemed to accept this answer. “I see.  Well then; shall we go back to dinner?”

The rest of the evening passed by in a blur.  After dinner there was homemade ice cream to eat, followed by more sparklers and poppers, a game of basketball (played by Deidara and Kisame and watched by Itachi and Sasori), and at last the fireworks.  Kisame insisted that they watch the show from the treehouse, and the other kids obliged.  By the time the first fireworks went off, the kids were full, tired, and happy.

“So, I guess the new kids aren’t too bad, huh?” Kisame whispered to Itachi.

Itachi was inclined to agree.