Naruto 1. Not Like Another

Itachi stood just outside the wall of the tempered bar and club waiting for his snot nosed brat of a brother and his best friend. Of course they had a group with them but those were the only two bodies he was concerned with getting into his mustang to drive home. The others could fend for themselves. He sighed leaning against the bricked wall of the city street and listened to the drumming base beat of the club while looking up at the sky above. It was a smoggy night and few stars could be seen throughout its dark grip. There were sounds of people, cars, and general city noise filtering all around him but he tried to ignore it. It was a warm night so he hadn't had to worry about his hoodie and instead had opted for a slick active wear black t-shirt and a pair of dark washed jeans. The sinuous breeze flowed around his muscles and bare arms as the door to the club opened.

He glanced towards that general direction and was caught slightly off guard. A woman no taller than his shoulder stumbled out laughing with a security guard gripping her arm shoving her out. Her face was the slight shape on an oval with a sloped forehead that curved into slender cheekbones. Her eyes were almond shaped with accented dark orbs like the color of a mocha coffee; but none of that was what caught his attention. His eyes lingered over her long sinewy blonde tendrils laced with strands of purple and aqua. And that smile…the laugh that followed it…she was defiant that was for sure. She turned on the guard laughing gently and with an easy laid back tone before standing up the best she could.

"Ok sir, you can let go. I'm fine on my own." The burly man raised an eyebrow shaking his head letting go of her arm sighing.

"Little girls like you shouldn't walk the streets alone." He didn't mean it as bad as it came out but Itachi knew it was of concern.

"I'll be just fine." She nodded her head confidently and crossed her lithe arms across her flat chest.

"I don't want to leave a tiny thing like you with…"

"There you are." Itachi said casually striding over. He used his business persona that often got him bonus points from clients at work for his father's corporation to exude power over the guard's nerves.

"And who are you?" the guard snapped annoyed glancing the slender male over.

"Does that matter?" he rolled his eyes before tucking a strand of hair behind his ear and coolly sliding a hand into his pocket. "Look, I'm just here to pick up my play toy. You got a problem with that?" the guard narrowed his eyes before looking to the girl for reassurance.

"Play toy? That's what I get?" she snapped at him before smacking his shoulder hard. Itachi was slightly shocked at her choice of acting but he forced himself not to show it. He kept a stoic facial expression.

"Kids…" the man shook his head and opened the door to go back inside. Itachi grinned down at the girl standing within a hair's length from his arm.

"Thanks for getting him off my butt." She slurred a little.

"I suppose I could have used a better choice of words though." She laughed with that slow gentle drawl again and he couldn't help but reach a hand out to steady her so she stayed upright.

"You're lucky I didn't slap you." She chuckled leaning into his hand's touch on her elbow.

"Well…I guess…you'll be on your way then." Itachi started meeting her eyes.

"I should yeah…" she looked up at him. "My name's Aja." He could see a silver wisp of a dangling earing hanging in the refines of her hair.

"Itachi." He nodded to her his hand still lingering with his fingers ebbed over the crook of her elbow.

"Nii-san!" the door slammed open again and spilling from its mouth came a highly intoxicated Sasuke followed by the gentle young blonde hanging off his back. If Sasuke had forced Naruto off he doubted that the boy could walk without assistance. There was a crop of high blush on his tanned face whereas Sasuke's was redder than a tomato.

"We're ready to go…" the blonde hiccupped, "home." He finished biting his lip trying not to laugh.

"Catch you around sometime." The girl named Aja traced her fingers through his hand as she pulled away. Itachi felt a strong pang of regret that his brother had chosen this moment in its entirety to emerge from the club. However, as it had escaped his notice at the moment, he felt the strange feeling of crinkling in his hand. As he watched the young woman walk and occasionally stumble until she disappeared around the street corner he looked down to discover a small ripped piece of paper in his hand.

"Who the hell was that?" Sasuke yawned running into his brothers side laughing. "Sorry, you're closer than I thought you were. Can we go home now?" he put his head on Itachi's shoulder staring up at him. Itachi felt his lip quirk up in an amused smirk.

"You're unbelievably drunk." He poked his younger brother in the forehead. The reaction was to have the younger teen make a face before smacking his hand away. Itachi grabbed his car keys from his pocket and made carefully sure to replace them with the paper. On it he realized the girl had given him a phone number; when she'd managed to do that he didn't know.

"Whatever, just come on." Naruto grabbed his other arm and tried to pull him down the street towards the sleek model of a Mustang under the streetlight.

"I'm coming." He laughed and carted the two idiots towards his car. He had to stop several times while Naruto fell and Sasuke tried to grab him under his arms to heave the teen back up. In the end Itachi ended up pulling Sasuke by the back of his shirt to the car and had to go back to collect the blonde from the curb on the sidewalk where he'd fallen and laid. He made sure to lock them in the car so he had enough time to walk around and get in himself making sure that neither of them would fall out by accident.

"You look like a girl." Sasuke giggled from the backseat with Naruto laced over his lap sleeping already.

"Oh will you can it." He snapped starting up the car. "Or I won't be your DD again."

"Then cut your hair." The boy yawned long in the visor mirror. Itachi shook his head smirking and turned on the headlights before driving off towards the Uchiha mansion.


	2. Relax and Have Fun

Itachi sat idly staring at the blank screen of his computer as the cursor blinked back and forth at him while the excel spread sheet stood white and long. He'd been asked by his father to come up with a cost analysis and profit building scheme for a small covert business they had been considering buying offshore. He just couldn't concentrate enough to do so. An image of Aja stumbled into his brain and made him close his eyes in a vain attempt to capture the picture just right. He wanted to see her smiling at him from across the street when he walked out of here at the end of the day. He wanted to imagine that she'd be the kind of woman that could actually see past his lavish name brand business suit and underneath to the actual man wearing it. His father had taken a liking to dabbling in his affairs with women more than once trying to force his hand into offering a proposal to the girls in light of business affairs with their fathers. Itachi couldn't outright disrespect his father but he'd found one way or another to discredit their business's to cause the deals to fall through. Itachi, for all his heart, wanted to find a simple girl to settle down with; maybe even live outside the city. He didn't want much and in fact at any moment he could drop the entire company façade and leave this place. However, he always came back to Sasuke.

His annoying little brother was the highlight of his life and had been since his birth. The snot breath had always found a way to worm himself into his bed on storming rainy nights or interrupt him when he had been studying hard for final exams. He loved his brother. Itachi loved him so much so that he knew if he tried to leave the company this entire weight would fall to Sasuke and he didn't want that. His brother was one tough little brat but he didn't think he was mature enough to handle holding up the stress of the Uchiha Corporation just yet. A part of him suspected that he never would be. Sasuke had a sense of self-freedom. It was something Itachi had never tried to have or imagined having. He was a loyal and trusting soul that just wanted to take the path for others to be happy.

"Hey." Sasuke spoke from the doorway. Itachi opened one eye lazily and then rolled it back shut. His brother shouldn't have been at the office; he should have been at school.

"What do you want? I'm going to report you as skipping." Itachi dryly replied.

"No you won't because you don't want to hear dad gripe about it." Sasuke grinned sauntering into the room sitting across from his brother's grand glass and steel desk.

"What do you want?" he asked again growing slightly impatient. He opened both his eyes sitting up to stare at his younger sibling before folding his hands neatly and putting his chin on them. His sleek pony tail trailed over his suit's shoulder.

"I did some digging on the phone number you left laying on your nightstand." Itachi's eyes twitched. Why had that little snot been in his bedroom? He knew he should have put the number away this morning but he'd been in a hurry…

"Go on…what did you find?" he knew Sasuke would tell him anyway.

"That girl's pretty." He said smirking and nodding to Itachi. "But she'd got a little bit of a rough patch." He shrugged.

"And what do you mean by that?"

"I mean I have a surprise for you. We're going out tonight. You're going to tell dad that we're heading out with Naruto and Kiba around nine, got it?" Itachi rubbed his temples sighing.

"Sasuke…"

"Nope, shut up. You're going." He grinned and tapped his hand on the table before standing up. "I promise you won't be disappointed." And with that, he left.

Around nine that evening Itachi stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs to their elongated grand staircase for Sasuke. After another fifteen minutes ticked by he began to grow agitated. He had told him to wear normal street clothing that where they were headed wasn't fancy. He'd tried to keep his calm but Itachi didn't like going on escapades with Sasuke; they always ended up with close calls to arrests and speeding tickets. You could say that he was the wild card of the brothers.

"I'm coming." Sasuke called from his room upstairs before rushing out with his wallet in his mouth while he was looping his belt through his waistband. He trudged down the stairs and grinned at Itachi.

"You're always late." He raised an eyebrow.

"You always have a stick where the sun isn't shining." Itahci let out a breath annoyed.

"Where are we going?"

"A place. You'll see. Don't worry, _Aja _will be there." He chuckled side stepping Itachi as he punched his arm.

"I am in no mood for games tonight. I'm serious Sasuke." He warned gently as they climbed into Sasuke's bright orange Lambo.

"Stop complaining. You'll have fun." And as soon as the garage door opened the gas pedal hit the floor.

Itachi had nearly lost all control of his heart by the time Sasuke weaved his car into the back grunge parking lot of an old decapitated building in the more economically challenged part of town. He wondered vaguely if they should be parking a brand new Lamborghini on this particular side of town but his brother made his own decisions. He started to climb out when he noticed how many people were actually filtering into the building in front of them. It was the sort of crowd one expected to find on the lower side of a city; the kind of people that formed units and knew who to talk too. These were the underground lords of the streets and Itachi knew well that they smacked of money. These guys didn't make it legally but that didn't matter. They were a formidable force and his father often paid off deals with them to keep informants on the inside of businesses where they wanted information or to wipe them out. Sasuke loved hanging out down in these grunge holes where they supped up cars and raced against the police cars to make a getaway. Itachi hadn't much interest in this and was annoyed that this had been where they'd decided to come. He hardly could imagine why Aja would be here but her appearance did lean towards a more unrefined lifestyle.

"What the hell Sasuke?" his brother beeped his care doors locking them and walked beside Itachi as they headed for the buildings entrance.

"You'll see. Stop asking." There was blaring music escaping the front doors as people laughed and slid inside. The atmosphere was flooded with a sort of smoky dim light while an amped up version of rock and rap poured from speakers that had been hooked up to the ceiling. In the center of the garage floor they could see a fighting ring set up with faded black ropes stretched tight blocking out the public.

"Underground fights? We're here to see a fight…really…Sasuke…" His brother smirked and drug him by the arm through the crowd gathering around the ring.

"Are we ready my friends!?" A smooth burly man with slicked back blonde hair rapped into the microphone standing in the middle of the ring. "We gonna watch our matches and see some bodies bend!" There were women in slinky outfits hanging off men that oozed of illegal money around the ring's perimeter watching and cheering loudly. Itachi felt himself getting pressed up against the edge of the platform. There were street kids mixed into the crown; kids who were born on this side of life and lived for seeing some real gritty and dirty fighting. It was all a bit like MMA without regulations or proper refs.

"Bring out the fighters Bee!" a guy from Itachi's left shouted cupping his hand around his mouth.

"I'm getting there ya fool!" the man threw his hand out motioning towards the guy. He made a small grunting sound before nodding his head to the right and left sides of the ring as the fighters climbed up the side. People cheered and shouted. It was a little chaotic. "We got our champ, Stinging Syde and we got our newbie, Fresh Meat." He laughed. "More like dead meat ya fool, ya fool!" the crowd laughed with this horrible rapper.

Itachi watched as the Stining Syde man climbed the rings ropes agilely shifting his body through them to stand at the side designated to him. He was tall, muscular, and arrogant. The guy looked like he belonged in a gym and probably had been born lifting his own mother. Itachi pitied the opponent of this Goliath until his eyes flitted to the other side of the ring. Standing there clad in midnight dancers shorts and a blue striped sports bra Itachi's jaw dropped; Aja patted her hands together before pulling her mess of blonde hair tighter in a high ponytail.

"Told you it'd be fun." Itachi felt his chest tighten. She was easily the size of only one of this guy's arms.

"She's going to get killed!" he snapped through gritted teeth.

"Relax and enjoy the show." Sasuke smacked him in the back and laughed.


	3. Nitric Oxide

An onslaught of screaming erupted when Aja got smack hard in the jaw by the man's thick fist. Itachi watched as her head whipped sideways slanting her body in that direction. He cringed. Sasuke shouted throwing a fist in the air when Aja didn't fall. Instead, she shifted her stance, turning her shoulders with the momentum, and drew her arm back. She waited until the man came within a foot of her body and she put everything behind the hit. Her fist connected with flesh making a resounding thud. Her knuckles cracked over his nose smashing his face into itself. He stumbled back trying to raise his hands above his face. The two had both gotten leveled hits on one another, Itachi could barely believe that Aja was standing, but it was over. The giant man who towered over her stumbled backwards another step, swayed, and hit the floor falling backwards. His nose streamed blood down over his cheeks and Aja smirked shaking her head slightly loopy while standing over him. The rapping idiot in the ring grabbed her arm and stretched it over her head screaming about her being the winner. Itachi could hardly see how. Her eye was swelling, lumped in by that monster, and there was blood welling in the corner of her mouth. She spit rolling her tongue around her teeth making sure they were all still there. Yeah, they were. She grinned and bounced in the ring throwing her arms up. Sasuke yelled harder before slapping his brother on the back. Itachi glared at him.

"I TOLD YOU THIS WOULD BE AMAZING!" he grinned up at his brother. Itachi was not amused. His throat was dry and he was having a hard time dealing with everything. He liked order. He liked files. He liked computers. He was not Sasuke. He wanted to keep things in check.

"She could have gotten really hurt!" he snapped.

"You made it!" A voice trilled behind him. His heart felt like it jumped a thousand meters. He turned to find Aja sweaty and glorious standing there. Her eyes slid past him and found Sasuke.

"I said I would drag his lazy ass out didn't I?" Sasuke ruffled Itachi's hair. His brother ground his jaw shut and smoothed his long ebony locks back down.

"Oh, I wouldn't call him lazy." She took a step closer as a heavy Hispanic music began to drill the speakers mixed with underlying dance mix beats. "Ah! The real fun is about to start."

"What were you thinking doing that?" Somehow Sasuke had managed to disappear.

"I do this to pay for rent. Food…all that crap. Come on!" She snapped grabbing his arm. She wound her own through his and started tugging him towards the exit.

"Where are we going?" he asked practically jogging to keep up with her.

"The races are about to start." Aja's hair was sticking in places to her neck and shoulders. Itachi couldn't help but stare at the thin fabric barely covering her chest. As she breathed in and out, still slightly agitated from the excitement, he watched her collar bones move as she walked.

"Races?" she looked at him confused.

"The racing. The pink slips?" she paused rolling her eyes. "Your brother is racing tonight with my friend." She emphasized the word brother. Itachi snapped to attention wide eyed.

"The HELL he is!" he jerked his arm free from hers. He yanked her to a stop and she stared in disbelief.

"Excuse me? I didn't make the choice for him. Don't yell at me." She snapped. "He laid down the slip last week and declared war on himself. That's not my fault." Her eyes red anger.

"What slip? What car!?" he yelled back annoyed. His brother only had the one car…that he knew of.

"A supped up version Honda. Think of it as a barrel of monkeys on nitric oxide." Itachi's eyes got larger.

"He can't drive that. He can't drive for shit!" he took off in a run before realizing that he needed Aja to show him the way to the races.

"They're out back! He swore he knew what he was doing!" she scrambled taking Itachi's hand. She broke into a full run towards the back road of the building.

"He totaled my dad's Ferrari last summer trying to bank a turn Aja! He can't drive for shit!" he saw her bit her lip worried.

"I'm so sorry…these guys he's racing…they're good. He'll lose the car if he's lucky…" Itachi stumbled keeping up with her.

"What if he's not?" he asked as they crested the back parking lot of the building.

"They'll smoke him, crash him, and he'll be lucky to live." She didn't' meet his eyes. The way she said it…it sounded like she'd lived this.

"Pleas." He said with a final tone. "Get him back out of this." She groaned shoving him off her and away.

"I'll race for him. But that means we have to get him out of the damn car first. He'll be at the line any second…you grab him. I'll get in." she snapped and took off again. Itachi watched as her hair swayed down her back the muscles in her spine bunching as she sprinted forward.

"ITACHI!" She screamed bluntly. He nodded and took off after her.

By the time they hit the lines the crowd was thick. The bodies around the haul moved and pushed swaying to the same music that they'd started pumping downstairs. Aja fought her way through Itachi directly behind her. She elbowed and shoved her fingers into people's eyes jamming their heads back. Cuss words flew and she ended up slugging some guy kicking him to the ground. Itachi stared wide eyed as she didn't bat an eye. She continued to push forward fighting to reach the front lines. They could hear the rev of engines distinctly blurring over the crowd. There were screams and cheers and Itachi felt his heart drop. Just above some idiots head he could see his brother sitting inside a hot orange bullet car. Sasuke would get himself killed. Panic encased his chest reminding him of the wreck they'd pulled Sasuke out of last summer barely breathing. This couldn't happen again.

"LORENZE!" Aja shouted. The guy in between the cars didn't hear her. He raised one arm up. Aja heaved in a breath and barreled through two guys shoving one out into the track. She kicked past him and ran screaming into the raceway before it could begin.

"LORENZE! THE KID CAN'T DRIVE!" she shouted her body doubling in the effort. The guy put his first arm down and didn't signal the race. He jogged over to her being one of the only people who could hear her over the roar of the engines.

"What? Aja, what's going on?" he asked catching her shoulder as she coughed.

"The kid can't drive. His brother said he wrecked bad last year. We're pulling him out."

"Someone has to race Aja. It's a pinks." She rolled her eyes tossing her hair back over her shoulder.

"I'll race for the punk." She grinned staring at the ground unsure.

"Aja…are you sure? The last time you did this…" he left the sentence unfinished.

"I'm racing for him. Get him out." She snapped standing back up. Her adrenaline was going to be going full force tonight. Itachi threw open the car door and punched his brother. Sasuke struggled kicking and screaming but his older brother was easily able to pull him out throwing him to the ground. Itachi stood up, one hand still clutching Sasuke's shirt, and met Aja's eyes.

"Alright. It's done. You're in Aja." He tagged her right palm and threw her arm in the air. The crowd booed seeing the driver being pulled. She shook her head and made her way back towards the car.


End file.
