Disclaimer: Naruto, his friends and the world he lives in don't belong to me but to Masashi Kishimoto. I write this story only for my pleasure and I don't make any money with it.

Dedication: The story is dedicated to eowyn unquendor who has also beta-read it. Her encouragement, her thoughts on the story and her helping me with typos and style were helped me a lot to write such a long story in such a short time.

Warnings: I am not a native speaker. I have done my best, and eowyn unquendor, who has beta-read the story, has helped me a lot (thanks to her - maybe you can have a look at her stories) but she is not a native speaker either, so I guess that true native readers will read my story and think: Well, this is mostly correct English but no one talks like this.

If there are any native speakers who like the story well enough to beta-read it, I will very grateful.

All comments, positive or negative, constructive of destructive, are appreciated.

The story is complete except for some minor editing. I plan to upload one chapter a day.

A/N: As with my previous fanfic, I chose a point of the canon and departed in a different direction. This time I chose chapter 368, and if you are very familiar with the manga or if you like stories that go medias in res, you may skip the rest of the introduction and go straight to the story itself.

For the rest of you some words about the situation where my story starts. (I have considered including the information into the story itself, but decided against it because most summaries of the original that I have found in fanfics feel rather awkward to me.)

After the fight against Deidara, Sasuke and his team set off to check the Akatsuki hideouts Juugo has learnt about from his birds. Even in the first one Sasuke finds a kagebunshin of Itachi, and not knowing that it's a kagebunshin, he attacks and defeats him. Dissolving, the kagebunshin invites him to meet him in the Uchiha hideout where they would „settle things".

At the same time Naruto and his team pursue Sasuke. They have already picked up his trail, but at one point it splits up because Juugo's bird have carried pieces of Sasuke's torn-up shirt into different directions in order to confuse the Leaf ninjas. Naruto sends his kagebunshin to look everywhere at once and in chapter 371 one of them meets Sasuke, which in the original sets the team back on track.

I wrote the story during the Pein-versus-Jiraya-arc. Now that this arc is luckily over, I can return to the original and look forward to the new events. I am just sad to leave „my" team Hebi...

I wish you fun with this story-

Chapter One: Mutiny

„We're moving! Follow me!"

Sasuke rushed out of the cave where he had just fought his brother's kagebunshin, trusting his crew to follow him. He heard their steps behind him, so he did not look back; only when he was some hundred meters from the cave's exit, he realized that he could no longer hear them. When he turned round, he saw that Juugo and Suigetsu were standing on the open place in front of the entrance, obviously waiting for Karin. Why was she lingering behind?

He waited as well, impatient and angry about their disobedience. He thought of shouting at them, but while this might have made Juugo and Suigetsu catch up with him, it would not make Karin go any faster. He was annoyed. If it had not been for her special chakra-sensing talent, he would never have put up with her.

Finally she came, a crow's feather in her hand, looking at it every now and then. She did not seem to notice Juugo or Suigetsu, but she saw Sasuke and went towards him, at the same, unnervingly slow pace, and the other two followed her. Sasuke waited until they had approached him to a distance of some ten metres and dashed ahead.

They did not go any faster, so after some time, when he cared to look back, he realized that he had to wait for them again.

After having played that game several times more he gave in. It had been a game for power, and he had lost, though he did not yet want to admit it.

„What's up? Did I not tell you to follow me?"

„You did", Suigetsu answered.

„So why don't you do it?"

„We are following you, aren't we?"

„At a rate of one millimetre per second. What are you thinking – if you think at all?"

„We do think. That's why we go slowly. It's you who does not think but rather rushes ahead."

The insult hurt. Sasuke had always considered himself someone who would think before acting. It had always been the dobe who would rush into a fight first and think later.

„There's not much to think in this case", he said. „I met Itachi's kagebunshin, and he told me to meet him Hideout of the Uchiha clan."

„Ah. And there is nothing to think about this?"

„Why? What do you mean?"

„Now you are at least beginning to think. What do you believe, if we go to that hiding place, what will happen there?"

„Itachi will be waiting for me. We will fight, and then we will see who of the two of us is now stronger than the other one."

„And when you have found out you will shake hands and part and look forward to the next fight. Still a Leaf Ninja, are you, believing in honorable fights to see who is stronger."

„No", Sasuke answered. „I won't shake his hand. I will kill him."

The words felt like a cold stone – the stone upon which he had built his life.

„And if you lose?"

„Then he will take my life. It will be the price I pay for being too weak."

„A fair fight, and at the end of it, one of you will die. So this is what you think will happen."

„Yes", Sasuke answered, though now he strongly doubted it himself. „He told me to come alone", he continued.

„And you will obey him. What makes you so sure that he will be alone as well?"

„I don't care. I am strong enough. I am not a coward."

„But a fool, obviously."

Sasuke's pride was hurt again, as again he was reminded of how Naruto had always charged in without considering the odds or even the respective numbers of his side and the opponents'. He, Sasuke, would not do that.

„It's not just anyone you want to take out", Suigetsu went on. „It's Uchiha Itachi.

Sasuke was silent. He had been defeated.

„There's no need to hurry", Suigetsu said. „We will find a place for the night, where we can talk some more and come to a wise decision. Itachi won't mind if you kill him a day later."

When they travelled on, he was the slowest of the four of them.