Disclaimer: Don't own!

Author's Note: I am so sorry that I haven't written or updated anything. My laptop got a virus and all of my files were erased. I have yet to get it fixed and I don't trust it not to eat my files again, so that's why nothing's been done. I'm currently sick and writing from a borrowed computer.

I went to go see On Stranger Tides with my brother last weekend. Those mermaids were terrifying, let me tell you. But overall, a wonderful movie. Sadly, it's my least favorite of the PotC series, but I would still go see it again. That should tell you something.

This fic was written on a request from fallenangel9413.

-/-/-/

"You know why big brothers are born first? To protect the little ones that comes after them." – Ichigo (Bleach)

-/-/-

A voice in the back of his mind was telling him that he should be afraid, should be running in the other direction, should be doing anything but standing there frozen.

But that was what shock did to you. And really, the shock was justified this time because he'd been doing nothing wrong, simply taking a walk because Jiraiya had given him the day off from training(Or rather, he'd sort of-kind of-not really bullied him into one because Naruto was naturally stubborn and didn't want to take a day off because all he can see in his mind is Sasuke disappearing into darkness) and he didn't really want to be around people.

Of course, the world liked to mess with him and made a person be on his meandering path around the small town that he and Jiraiya had stopped in for a few days. And, of all people, it had to be him. The crux of the problem.

At first, Naruto had seen someone else because his eyes were more accustomed to seeing sharp angles and black spikes rather than paler dark and smooth lines. But really, they were very much alike, even as they were a study in differences.

Sasuke was sharp-edged and tense, never able to sit very still very long—not because of lack of ability, but because he hated sitting and doing nothing. And, while Naruto didn't know Itachi (His mind has warning flags up at high mast because Itachi is dangerous in a way that he's never known before), Itachi seemed to be quite the opposite. He was sitting with an uncommon stillness beneath a tree. At first, Naruto thought he might have been injured, but he can't smell blood and this isn't the stillness of pain, but rather a more peaceful one.

There were a hundred and one things he could've done at the moment. He could've walked away, or run, or started a fight (Not one of the more brilliant ideas, but it was an option nonetheless). But instead of all that, his mouth worked faster than his mind—as it often tended to do—and he blurted out, "What're you doing here?"

Those eyes suddenly focused on him (Unnatural eyes. Bloody and stained with ink blackness) would have made an entire slew of people go running and screaming. But those eyes didn't frighten Naruto anymore. Not like they had the first few times he'd seen Sasuke's eyes go from dark to darkbright red.

"Perhaps I should be asking you the same question." Itachi's voice was quiet, with an odd cadence, and it was slightly hoarse, as though he didn't use it often. In other circumstances, it would've been a rather pleasant voice. "You found me, remember?"

"I was walking."

"Then please, don't let me interrupt. Continue on your way." There was a gentle, dry sarcasm there that Naruto wouldn't have expected from him.

Naruto should've taken the opportunity to walk, should've gone and not looked back. But his feet are rooted firmly to the ground. "Shouldn't you be trying to capture me or something?"

Itachi stood without making a sound. "I came out here to take a break from Akatsuki. If I did try and capture you again, it would be counterproductive."

"A break?"

The eyes were on him again. Unthreatening, but too old and knowing for the face. "Isn't that why you're out here?"

Naruto wasn't sure why he wasn't afraid, even though he had every reason to be. He wasn't sure how Itachi could both remind him of Sasuke and yet be so very little like him. "None of your business." It's something he would have said to Sasuke, if he'd been here rather than his brother and he doesn't know why he said it.

"I suppose it isn't." Itachi walked away, his feet seeming not to even disturb the grass, like he was a ghost or a spectre of times long gone.

"I want to ask you something."

Itachi didn't turn, didn't acknowledge Naruto's words in any way other than stopping.

"Why'd you do it?"

There could be no mistake of the 'it' to which Naruto referred. There was only ever one 'it' where Uchiha Itachi was concerned.

"Because I had to."

"Why?"

Itachi considered telling him the lie that everyone had been told, that he needed some way to test himself. But Naruto reminded him very much of another Uchiha, one who'd been just as stubborn and just as intuitive. ("You're going to have to kill me, 'Tachi." "I won't." "It's me or your brother." And that had settled that.)

"To protect him."

And, much like the 'it', there was only one 'him' in Itachi's mind.

"From?"

"The village. Our clan was planning an uprising, was planning to rebel against the Sandaime and his rule. I had to stop them." Itachi wouldn't tell Naruto about every detail, wouldn't say that it was on the Sandaime's orders that he had had to kill his family. It would shatter Naruto's image of Konoha, could even shatter his trust in is. He wouldn't tell him about Madara or about Shisui either. There were two other people still alive who knew the truth. Kakashi could tell him the rest, if he thought it best.

"Seems a little overdramatic, killing everyone because of rebellion." Naruto's voice was as carefully neutral as he could make it.

"The Uchiha had the resources and the power to begin another war."

"And you left one of them alive."

"It wasn't part of the plan." Or rather, his orders.

"You couldn't kill him…could you?"

But Itachi was already walking away.

-/-/-/-

He found him in the ruins of the Uchiha compound, the ruins of a home and life. He was staring at a spot on the wall, where cracks radiated from a hole. If Naruto looked closer, he could see the faint outline of where the Uchiha fan had once been painted.

"…He did it for you, y'know."

Sasuke showed no signs of having heard him.

"You listening, teme?'

"I heard."

"They were planning an uprising."

"I know the story, dobe."

"Do you know that he had planned on killing you? That he couldn't do it?"

Sasuke remained silent for long heartbeats. "Where did you hear about it?"

"He told me."

Naruto's eyes caught the reflexive clenching of Sasuke's fists, could feel the sudden spike in temper. "And he didn't think I was worthy of the same consideration?"

"You wouldn't have believed him. You know you wouldn't have."

"It doesn't change anything." They were all gone and he was still left standing here.

"It changes the way you feel about him."

Sasuke snorted, a quietly scornful noise. "You would come up with something like that."

"…You're lucky."

They don't start the argument that they've had before, the one that has them arguing in circles around each other, snapping and snarling until their emotions and energy are spent.

"Your brother loved you. He loved you enough to kill for you, to stay alive to make sure you were okay."

Because they're both old enough now to know that dying for someone isn't noble, isn't difficult. Living for someone, that was the difficult part.

"I still want to hate him." Sasuke admitted.

"But you don't."

"I don't think I ever really did." Sasuke has felt the real hatred, where it pounds through his veins like hot lead. He'd never had that for Itachi. He had wondered why for a long time, had looked for all the explanations and searched for the right answer. And really, it was simple. "He's my brother."

-/-/-/-

"Do you think love just goes away? Pops out of existence when it becomes too painful or inconvenient, as if you never felt it? If only it did. If only it could be turned off. It's not a faucet. Love's a bloody river with level-five rapids. Only a catastrophic act of nature or a dam has any chance of stopping it—and t hen usually only succeeds in diverting it. Both measures are extreme and change the terrain so much you end up wondering why you bothered. No landmarks to gauge your position when it's done. Only way to survive is to devise new ways to map out your live. You loved her yesterday, you love her today. And she did something that devastates you. You'll love her tomorrow."

-Jericho Barrons (Shadowfever)