Brothers' Birthday: What Are These Weird Gifts?

"Happy birthday, Sasuke!"

A Luo returned to the Uchiha clan and, seeing Sasuke training in the courtyard, pounced on him without hesitation.

Then Sasuke, who had been training with his soul half out of his body, caught his younger brother as he came flying over.

"Happy birthday, A Luo!"

Sasuke looked at his younger brother, who was now nearly as tall as him but had a gentler appearance, and smiled brightly.

"You're really not having dinner tonight?"

A Luo let go of Sasuke and circled the cross-legged Sasuke twice. Wasn't it a bit bad not to eat on your birthday?

But if he made Sasuke eat while he watched from the side, that did not seem very good either...

After thinking about it, A Luo decided not to dwell on the matter.

"I'll go back to my room first. I prepared a birthday gift for you."

Sasuke glanced in the direction where the ANBU was stationed, then returned the upper half of his body, which had run out, to his body.

Getting up from the ground, Sasuke lowered his head in sorrow and staggered slightly as he returned to his bedroom.

Dinner was definitely out of the question.

Once they were back inside, the door closed, cutting off the outside gaze.

A Luo, who had followed him into the room, began taking out all the gifts he had brought back from the system space.

"This is the birthday gift Teacher Orochimaru prepared for you. This is the one I prepared, and this is from Big Brother. Oh, and Naruto prepared a gift for you too. He said I should go get it. Sasuke, put these away first. I'll go see what that guy Naruto could possibly have prepared."

After taking out Sasuke's gifts, A Luo casually put away the one Sasuke had just taken out of his ninja tool pouch, then slipped out.

He moved so fast that Izuna, who had just returned, looked utterly bewildered, unable to understand what that brat was doing.

"He went to get a gift. It seems that idiot Naruto Uzumaki prepared it in advance."

Sasuke looked out the window. That ANBU could slack off for now.

Right now, he was going to open his gifts.

Orochimaru...

A teacher he had never met...

Sasuke still felt unable to call him that.

But he could tell that the man had taken very good care of A Luo.

"What is this?"

Izuna could now use a little simple genjutsu on people. When he saw A Luo return earlier, he had hypnotized that ANBU so he would not pay attention to Sasuke for the time being.

Looking at the opened scroll and all these bottles and jars, were they pills?

Pills as a birthday present?

What did Orochimaru mean by this?!

"They aren't pills. This one protects the eyes, this one supplements calcium, and this one is... this one protects hair?"

Sasuke seriously suspected that his teacher, whom he had never met, had some kind of mental problem.

The eye protection was understandable. The Uchiha Clan suffered wear and tear from using the Sharingan, so eye care had to begin young.

The calcium supplements were fine too. His and A Luo's heights were fairly average among children their age, so calcium could help them grow taller and become healthier...

None of that was strange, but what was with the hair protection?

He was still a child, wasn't he? He did not have hair loss or hair care problems. That was something old... middle-aged and elderly people had, wasn't it?!

"Maybe he thinks your hair is too stiff?"

Izuna looked at Sasuke's hair. It was not especially stiff, but he could not think of any other possibility.

"Is it possible that Teacher Orochimaru is worried our hair will turn out like Big Brother's..."

A Luo had left quickly and returned just as fast.

Seeing the medicine bottle in Sasuke's hand when he came back, A Luo sighed sadly.

This hair-care research had started because one day, he had wanted to see what his slightly spiky hair would look like if it became smooth and soft.

Then Orochimaru saw it and suspected that the Uchiha family's hair might show signs of becoming softer. In less than three days, he had developed medicine to protect hair quality.

It was not for drinking. It was dissolved in water for washing hair.

Later, when A Luo asked why he had researched it, Orochimaru said that he did not want to see a second Itachi Uchiha...

Because of that incident, Itachi Uchiha went to fight Orochimaru again. The fight was rather brutal, and they nearly demolished several nearby mountains...

"There's no need for this. I could never become..."

Although Sasuke no longer wanted to kill Itachi Uchiha every moment out of hatred, some things could never return to how they had been.

But he would not get angry over the way A Luo addressed him either. He knew that A Luo's feelings about certain family bonds differed from his own.

Looking at the medicine bottle in his hand, Sasuke still carefully read the instructions, then haughtily packed the bottles and jars back into the storage scroll and stuffed it into his ninja tool pouch.

He did not look at the gift Itachi Uchiha had sent and simply put it away.

Next was A Luo's gift...

"What is this...?"

Sasuke picked up a necklace. The cord was ordinary enough, but this wooden pendant shaped like a little cat...

Surely A Luo had not carved it himself?

"I made it. There's a chakra storage device inside."

A Luo felt that the Uchiha family had an affinity with cats, and that Sasuke sometimes resembled this proud, prickly little cat.

So he had spent 200 points to buy two chakra storage devices from the shop, while he had made their outer appearance himself.

"I really like it!"

Sasuke wore it as a necklace, tying the cord around his neck.

The little cat pendant rested against his body, carrying a faint warmth.

"It originally only held some chakra I stored in it, but now we can store a lot more."

A Luo smiled and waved at Sasuke. Then, after Sasuke cupped his hands together, a small fox formed from condensed orange chakra appeared.

This was the birthday gift Naruto had given them.

In Naruto's own words, he had no money and could not make anything himself, while ANBU watched him all the time. So he had borrowed some chakra from the Nine-Tails and given it to him and Sasuke as a present.

The Nine-Tails cursed Naruto out again over it, but it gave the chakra quite readily. It could be considered a gift from Naruto and the Nine-Tails together.

"That guy... It's only because the Nine-Tails can't come out. Otherwise, it would definitely beat him up first..."

Sasuke and Naruto actually got along rather well now, though they always looked like they had a terrible relationship on the surface.

Their interactions had begun one time when Naruto slept during class and tried to send his soul out of his body, only for one arm to separate.

Feeling that he had made progress, Naruto mischievously slapped Sasuke a few times.

Sasuke continued listening to the lesson with a normal expression, but where no one could see, he extended an arm as well. First, he grabbed Naruto's arm and shoved it back, then delivered a flurry of palm strikes to the back of Naruto's head.

From that day on, whenever others could see them, the two despised each other and never gave the other a proper look.

But in private, their fights were truly lively.

Sometimes they would pass along a little information, but most of the time they still preferred sneak attacks. Whoever succeeded in ambushing the other would be in a great mood, until the next time they were ambushed in return.