Actual Summary: The knowledge of Naruto's status in the village has always been common knowledge to Sasuke, even before the massacre, he knew about him. With only three Uchiha left alive, how will Naruto, Team Seven and the Village fair against the looming threat of Orochimaru and the Akatsuki?

Idea behind the fic: Sasuke has always known that Naruto, the Dobe, the most hated child in the village of Konohagakure was different. Even before the Uchiha massacre occurred, he had watched and quietly acknowledged the blonde. Now, with only Itachi and their recently healed cousin Obito to take care of him; how will Team 7 fair with a lazy overprotective Jounin sensei, his equally lazy and protective teammate and one mother hen older brother that adopted his teammates?

Prolog: Coming Home

Despite his teammate telling him to leave, even after having their medic nin transfer his one good eye, the left one to him, Kakashi kept pushing on the large rock on top of his best friend. "I'm not going to let you die here Obito! What kind of comrade would I be? Weren't you the one that told me that 'though those that break the rules are trash, those that abandon their comrades are worse than trash?' I'm not going to let others think that I'm trash simply because I didn't try!" Kakashi panted as he pushed harder at the rock trapping his comrade, slowly killing him. "You told me that you thought that my dad was a hero for saving his teammates. What would he think of me if I didn't at least try to do the same? Minato-sensei is on his way Obito; we will get you out of this alive!"

"Kakashi-kun, Minato-sensei is here!" Rin called from a little ways away on a high point of the rubble. As lookout it was her job to inform the commander when Minato-sensei appeared. She scrambled down to Kakashi's side to help him push the rock off of their Dobe.

"Move; that is too heavy to move, we must destroy it!"

"Hai!" The Chuunin and new Jounin jumped away from the bolder to let their sensei handle it.

"Rasengan!" Minato lunged at the rock, destroying it in one go. "Now, let's dig Obito-kun out. We don't have much time. Rin, you need to work on him enough to get him stable so that we can move him. I'll go on ahead and inform Tsunade-hime that she is needed."

"Yes Minato-sensei."

Kakashi pulled out his summoning scroll. "Kuchiyose no jutsu! Ok. Let's dig Obito out!" He declared as his ninken appeared.

The eight dogs attacked the ruble pile having heard the urgency in their master's voice.

It took nearly ten minutes to dig Obito out from under what might have been his rocky grave and Rin got right to work on stabilizing the half-dead Uchiha.

"Kakashi-kun…" Rin looked up, almost sad.

"What is it Rin?"

"Obito might not survive, despite our efforts. And even if he does, it will take years for him to recover. On top of that he might never be able to return to active duty, even if he heals completely…"

"Rin."

"Yes Kakashi-kun?"

"Don't ever say something like that again. Especially not about our teammate."

Rin only nodded. They both knew how bad Obito looked. And, while Obito never being on their team again was something neither wanted to ever think about, at least he would be alive! Obito being alive but crippled was much better than Uchiha Obito being dead. "I'll try not to think about that."

Kakashi looked down at her. "Can we move him now?"

"Yes, he's as stable as I can get him."

"Then we need to move. Rin, you start heading home, I'll try to complete the mission."

"Can you handle it?"

"Yes."

"Then take my supplies and Obito's too."

"Hai."

"…And Kakashi-kun?"

"Yes Rin?"

"…Be careful. We almost lost Obito."

"...I will be Rin. That's a promise." He was going to be several times more careful now that this had happened. He would rather go home with Rin to make sure that Obito was still alive when they got home, but he didn't want to leave the mission unfinished if he didn't have to. He didn't want to be disgraced like his father had been for doing the right thing. Plus, he still had Minato-sensei's Hiraishin Kunai so if anything went wrong he'd be fine. But he had to scope out the bridge before he could decide what to do. Best case scenario: the bridge is unguarded or there are only one or two guards that he could take out with no problem, fast enough not to alert anyone letting him set the explosives and get out. Worst case scenario: The Bridge is guarded up the wazoo and he has to retreat, repeating history. "Rin?"

"Yes?" Rin had just put their fallen teammate on her back.

"I'll meet up with you and Obito back in Fire Country with a report."

Rin nodded. "Good luck."

"Thank you Rin. I hope we make it home in time to save Obito." Kakashi dashed off in the direction of their target.

Rin stayed there a moment, watching Kakashi. "You had better come back alive Kakashi… otherwise Obito's sacrifice will be in vane…" She ran off in the direction of Fire Country.