So one day I was watching some of the last episodes of naruto and i thought 'it's so sad itachi never got to see his brother back in the village again after everything'.

Hence this story was born because I wanted Itachi to see Sasuke post-series. Also because there are so few stories about the Uchiha brothers. It's sad, because I love them.

This takes place almost 4 years after the war, so Team 7 are about 20/21. Itachi is the same age he was when he died (21).

This story does take place after Naruto and Hinata's wedding, so there are a few references to NaruHina. There are also references to Sakura's feelings toward Sasuke, however neither pairings are actually in the story. This story won't contain any romance, it's focused on PLATONIC RELATIONSHIPS only.


Waking came as a surprise. He hadn't expected to ever open his eyes again.

Light flooded his vision immediately, and he slammed his eyes closed quickly. He could feel the warmth of the sun on his face and the hard ground against his back. His entire body felt weary, as if he'd just been through a lengthy battle.

What happened? he wondered. Where am I?

Years of training suppressed the instinctive urge to panic. He kept his eyes closed and his breathing even as he allowed his mind time to organize itself. What was the last thing he remembered?

His memory was hazy and not all there, but slowly it began to come back to him, blurred images solidifying and taking shape. He remembered the feeling of a warm forehead pressed against his own, of his fingers tangled in soft strands of hair; looking into familiar dark eyes, sorrowful and lost.

He remembered the smile that had curled at his lips, and the unshed glint of tears in Sasuke's eyes. I will love you always.

The Edo Tensei, one of Orochimaru's carefully-crafted reanimation jutsus. He and Sasuke had worked together to dispel it. And Itachi had gotten the chance to speak the truth for the first time in nearly ten years.

He had looked into his brother's eyes and had seen the darkness within them—the hatred that Itachi himself had nurtured. But he also looked within them and had seen a boy; a boy who was lost and in pain, and who wanted to go home but didn't know how.

Itachi had shown him the correct path, and had trusted Naruto enough to guide him down it. He'd been sure Sasuke's face would be the last thing he would ever see, and he'd been at peace with that. He'd said what needed to be said.

He hadn't expected to wake up again.

But how? How am I alive?

And he knew he was alive. This wasn't an attempt at another Edo Tensei. Under that jutsu he had felt like little more than a reanimated corpse; walking and talking, but still undeniably dead. Merely the shadow that Itachi Uchiha had left behind.

But now, he felt truly restored in a way the Edo Tensei had never accomplished. He could feel the brush of the wind against his skin and the tiny rocks digging into his back; he felt his lungs expand as he drew in breath, and felt the beat of his heart against his ribs.

The reanimation jutsu had awakened his mind and body, but it hadn't restarted his heart. That had stayed cold and dead in his chest.

Reviving the dead—truly reviving them, not just a temporary parlor trick—was supposed to be impossible. It couldn't be done.

And yet, here he was.

Pushing aside the questions whirling through his head—how, when, where, why, who—Itachi focused on searching for any nearby chakra signatures. He was surprised to feel how empty his chakra reserves were—another thing he couldn't explain—but he would still be able to sense if there were any threats close.

There were no traces of chakra in the air. He was alone. Reassured, Itachi finally opened his eyes and got to his feet. Too fast—his vision went fuzzy, the ground beneath him unsteady.

He stumbled, and tried quickly to rebalance, but his legs were too weak to hold his weight. He fell to his knees. He was completely depleted of chakra. The only time he could recall being so exhausted was when he and Sasuke had fought for that final time.

He wasn't going to last. He could feel himself slipping. He tried vainly to take in his surroundings, but all he could see was debris. The clear blue sky felt like a mockery.

He fell sideways back onto the ground. How had he gotten into this state? Had he been brought back to life just to die of chakra depletion? His vision darkened, but just before he lost consciousness, his eyes locked on the only speck of color around him—a very familiar symbol.

An uchiwa—a paper fan—bisected in two, the red and white paint old and faded. A crack ran through the cement wall where the symbol was painted.

Uchiha.


We shouldn't be here, Naruto thought.

He glanced around at the empty homes and buildings stretching out on the abandoned roads surrounding him. Only about half of the buildings were still standing, the other half crushed and falling apart. Sakura stood beside him, glancing around with a solemn expression on her face.

Tucked away and cordoned off from the rest of the village, the old Uchiha complex felt like a ghost town. Every step they took echoed loudly in the silence. Even in the bright light of day, there was something eerie about it; the entire place was steeped in tragedy.

"We shouldn't be here," Naruto repeated, this time out loud. "It doesn't feel right."

"We had to come," said Sakura, though she didn't look any better. There was something fragile about her eyes as she looked around her—perhaps she, like Naruto, was imagining the bodies that had once littered the streets. And how horrific that sight would look to a seven-year-old child. "That stone tablet could hold important knowledge about the Infinite Tsukoyomi. It's important we understand more about Kaguya and exactly what it was she was trying to do."

"It's not like we'll be able to read it. You need the Mangekyou to do that, and Sasuke's gone." Naruto sighed and kicked a splintered piece of wood at his feet, sending up a plume of dust. "I can't believe this place has just been sitting here like this since Pain invaded."

"They thought about turning it into a shopping district," Sakura said, "but Sasuke-kun refused. He said that people just wanted to paint over the massacre and deny it ever happened. And the property is his, even if he hasn't done anything with it, so he gets final say."

Naruto huffed, torn somewhere between fondness and frustration. "Sounds like something he'd say."

He wanted to say Sasuke was just clinging to old grudges, as he tended to do, but he knew this time there was truth in what he said. The Uchiha had been a problem previous hokages had tucked away rather than dealt with. The massacre had been quickly swept under the rug; even quicker now that the ugly truth behind it was known. Konoha didn't want to acknowledge they were culpable in something so awful.

That was one of the things that would change when he was Hokage. He wouldn't let the villagers bury their heads in the sand any longer.

As he and Sakura passed them, he took in the buildings. The clan's compound, which had been abandoned since Sasuke's departure from Konoha at thirteen, had been crushed in the invasion Pain had led four years ago. With no one living there, no one had found it necessary to rebuild the place—and while Sasuke still had yet to make any decisions regarding the property, he had refused to have the area levelled. It remained here, a somber reminder of Konoha's many mistakes.

Pain's attack had left destruction in its wake. In comparison, it seemed almost unfair that the massacre had caused so little physical damage, the true scar of these streets invisible to those who could not feel it for themselves.

Sasuke felt it, Naruto knew. He felt it every day. It was one of the reasons he stayed away.

"Naruto," said Sakura hesitantly, after the silence had lingered, "Sasuke-kun… Sasuke-kun is going to come back, isn't he?"

"I don't know." He frowned, looking around them with sad eyes. "This place holds a lot of memories for him."

"No, that's not…" Something in her voice made Naruto turn to look at her. "Not here. To Konoha."

Oh. Naruto straightened, uncertainty gone, replaced with the firm warmth of confidence. "Of course he's coming back! It's his home, after all."

Sakura still looked unsure, so Naruto flashed his bright trademark grin.

"Besides, he knows if he doesn't, I'll just chase after him and drag him back!"

That drew a smile from her, and she laughed. "Always running after him, huh? Even now."

"You bet! I always keep my word!"

Naruto laced his fingers together behind his head as he walked with Sakura, feeling a bit lighter than he had a few moments before. His grin came easier now, and the sun beating down from above seemed to wash away the darkness clinging to his surroundings. He could almost picture what this place had looked like before, back when Uchiha had mingled and chatted in the streets.

Naruto imagined it—shinobi with the clan crest on their back, smiling and waving hello to their neighbors; families walking home and children laughing, holding their parents' hands; a young Sasuke, smiling as he made his way home, happy in a way Naruto had never gotten to see.

Naruto imagined it, and for a moment it was so real that he forgot he was standing in a graveyard.

"Okay," said Naruto. "Where are these catacombs anyway? That's where the tablet's supposed to be, right?"

"That's what Sasuke-kun told Kakashi-sensei. They should be around here, he said there's a passage underground…"

Sakura searched among the wreckage, moving bigger pieces of debris. Naruto's eyes scanned around him, looking for any sort of underground entrance. His eyes landed on a stone wall not far from him, standing tall amidst the rest of the rubble. The Uchiha clan symbol was painted on it, though the color had faded with age. There was a small crack in the wall, barely noticeable, bisecting the image of the paper fan in half. Below it—

Naruto's eyes narrowed, and he walked forward to look closer. Is that…?

Beneath the clan symbol was a shape on the ground, the debris partially concealing it from view. Naruto grew closer and realized it was a man, collapsed and unmoving.

Naruto drew closer, and his eyes grew wide. His feet stopped in their tracks, his breath catching. Impossible.

It was impossible because he recognized the man - recognized him as someone who was long dead. Naruto shook his head violently, rubbing his eyes. But the sight before him didn't change, and with the sun shining so brightly, there could be no doubt in what he was seeing. Long, dark hair in a loose ponytail, a black cloak decorated with red clouds, bloodied nails that were painted purple…

"S-Sakura," called Naruto shakily, eyes glued to the body on the ground.

"What?" Sakura asked as she stepped up beside him. "Did you find it—?"

Naruto heard the gasp that escaped her lips, felt her go still and stare. Neither of them spoke, shock freezing their tongues.

Slowly, Naruto ventured forward. He stepped over a few pieces of rubble, then knelt down next to the body, taking in the impossibly familiar features.

Itachi Uchiha.

Naruto's head spun. He felt impossibly dumb and slow, like his head had been stuffed with cotton balls. On autopilot, he reached out and moved the man's hair away from his neck, pressing two fingers to his throat. His skin was cold, but not deathly so.

Sakura's voice was hushed as she asked, "Is… is he…?"

Naruto kept his fingers there for a few seconds, a jolt of shock going through him as he felt the steady thrum-thrum of a pulse. He jerked his hand away like it'd been burned, whipping his head in Sakura's direction.

"Get the Hokage. Now."


"Explain," Kakashi ordered.

His tone was brusque, demanding obedience in a way that was uncharacteristic of him. He stood in the doorway of the hospital room, and across from him were Sakura and Naruto. Sakura's hair was pulled out of her face, her pinched eyebrows showing her anxiety. Naruto just looked lost.

And laying unconscious on the hospital bed in front of him, breaths shallow but steady, was a very-much-alive Itachi Uchiha.

Kakashi was too tired for this shit.

"I… found him," Naruto said lamely.

"You found him." At Naruto's answering nod, Kakashi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Ok, Naruto, you're going to have to give me a bit more than that."

Naruto shrugged helplessly. "I don't have more than that," he said. He looked about as lost as Kakashi felt. "We went to the compound like you said, and he was just there on the ground. We don't know what happened."

Kakashi drew close to the hospital bed, eyes sharp. Even in sleep, Itachi Uchiha's face was guarded. He looked about the same as he had the last time Kakashi had seen him, during their brief altercation while pursuing Gaara. All hard edges and sharp angles, he managed to paint an intimidating picture even while unconscious. Sakura was knelt beside him, hands emitting a green glow as she ran them clinically over his body.

It was strange to stand so close to him - and not just because he was a dead man. Despite now knowing him to be loyal to the Leaf village, Kakashi still couldn't help but look at him and see an S-class missing-nin. Itachi Uchiha was deadly, and years of instinct were screaming at him not safe, not safe, not safe. It felt wrong to stand so close to him - to let his students stand so close - and not be poised to attack.

Naruto peered down at the bed closely - much too closely, Itachi could kill him in less than a second - and Kakashi's fingers twitched as he resisted the impulse to shove him away. "Do you think it's the Edo Tensei again?"

It was Sakura who answered, shaking her head without looking up. "The Edo Tensei restored the soul to its body, but it didn't bring the body back to life. The bodies still didn't function at all - there was no heartbeat, no blood pumping through the veins. There's a reason it's called the reanimation jutsu, not the resurrection jutsu."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know." She stared down at Itachi, eyes a mixture of awe and confusion. "Besides a lack of chakra, his body is functioning perfectly. As far as I can tell, he's as alive as you or me. If it's a reanimation jutsu, it's a kind I've never seen before."

Kakashi frowned, eyebrows furrowed as he stared down at the unconscious figure. Kakashi remembered clearly how those people under Kabuto's reanimation jutsu had looked. He would never forget the shock of seeing his sensei standing there, his hand wrapped around his wrist halting him from slashing open Obito's throat. Minato had been undeniably dead despite the fact that he had been walking around and talking. His skin had been grey and cracking apart, freezing cold to the touch; there had been no spark of light in his eyes. He hadn't been given life again, none of them had. They'd just been shoved back inside their rotting corpses.

Itachi Uchiha - if it was truly him - looked nothing like that. His skin was pale, but there was an unmistakable flush of life to his face. His chest rose and fell as he breathed, puffs of air escaping his lips. Kakashi looked down at him, at the lines around his eyes that made him look so much older than he was, and couldn't help but think mournfully of the young child who had worked under him in ANBU over a decade ago. There was not a hint of that child left in his face. Most people looked younger when they slept; Itachi looked even older.

"Maybe it's like what Nagato did?" Naruto wondered. "You know, when he brought everyone back who'd died?"

"But who would do that?" Sakura wondered. "That jutsu's super powerful. You need the Rinnegan to perform it. And you have to sacrifice your own life. Who would do that just to bring back Itachi?"

"Sasuke," said Naruto immediately, without hesitation. Then his eyes widened in horror as the implications of that sunk in. "Oh God, what if it was Sasuke!? What if he brought Itachi back and is lying dead somewhere and we don't even know because we haven't seen him in months and -"

"Naruto," Kakashi cut him off. "Breathe. It wasn't Sasuke. His Rinnegan doesn't possess the ability of the Outer Path."

"Oh," Naruto said, the single sound laced in relief as the panic began to slowly fade from his face. "You're sure?"

"Yes. And even if Sasuke could perform the technique, I doubt he would. A few years ago he probably would have done it. But he knows better now."

Naruto frowned. "But then who would have done it? Sasuke's the only one I can think of who'd want Itachi back that badly."

"We're getting ahead of ourselves. We don't know anything about what happened. We don't even know if it's really Itachi. I'm more concerned with confirming his identity before getting into the how."

"A disguise? You think it's a henge?"

"He has next to no chakra right now," Sakura answered before Kakashi could. She had finished examining the Uchiha and was now standing back up. "He wouldn't be able to sustain a henge in his state. Same with any type of genjutsu."

Naruto threw his hands up in frustration. "Well, if it's not that, then it's gotta be him, right? Right!?"

Kakashi closed his eyes. He could feel a migraine developing behind his eyes. This situation was unprecedented, and he didn't know how to proceed. But now his former students were looking at him searchingly; they expected him to know how to deal with this, not just because he was the Hokage, but because he was their sensei. They had grown into extraordinarily capable shinobi, but they still looked to him when they didn't know what to do. He needed to handle this.

"Sakura," he said. "Keep him here in a private ward and monitor him closely. Don't speak about this to anyone but me. Naruto, that includes you. Did anyone see you two bring him here?"

"I don't think so," said Sakura. "Or at least, I don't think anyone recognized him."

"What about Sasuke!?" Naruto burst out. "It's his brother! We can't not tell him! He deserves to know!"

Dammit. Sasuke. Kakashi hadn't even thought about what to do about him. He hadn't been home to the village in months - but Kakashi knew he'd race back to Konoha in a heartbeat if he knew what was happening. Was telling him now the best thing? Naruto was right, Sasuke deserved to know. But what if it wasn't Itachi, and was instead a part of some elaborate ruse? What would telling him do, other than rip open old wounds? Could Kakashi knowingly give him hope at the risk of watching it be crushed?

Naruto read the indecision on his face and grew indignant. "We're not keeping this from him! No way! He needs to be contacted -"

"Not yet," Kakashi said. He looked down at Itachi. "I want to talk with him when he wakes up. Then I'll contact Sasuke."

He only hoped Sasuke wouldn't be too pissed...


"He's gonna be pissed," Naruto said, standing outside of the hospital room.

"Oh, definitely," Sakura agreed. She pivoted her head to look down the hall where Kakashi had exited the building mere moments ago. "Still, I get where he's coming from. He doesn't want to get Sasuke-kun's hopes up."

"Yeah, I guess," he said halfheartedly. He still wasn't sure it was the correct decision. "Still, Sasuke's not gonna care about that. He's totally gonna kill him when he finds out."

He leaned his head against the wall, still having trouble processing the entire situation. Itachi Uchiha, back from the dead? It was crazy. It was impossible. How had it happened? Who had done it? Had he been truly revived, the way Madara had been? And if he was alive, if it was really Itachi Uchiha... what was going to happen?

Naruto worried about Sasuke's reaction to the news. He knew how much his friend missed his brother, and how haunted he was by all the sacrifices Itachi had made for his sake. But he also knew that there was a lot of unresolved issues there, a lot of pain Itachi had caused him that hadn't been worked through. Sasuke had finally gotten to an alright place after everything; the last thing Naruto wanted for his friend was for all of that pain to be dredged back up.

"Do you think it's safe, having him in there?" Sakura questioned.

"Sure. I don't see why anyone would be after him."

Sakura gave him a look. Oh, he thought. She didn't mean safe for Itachi. She meant safe from Itachi.

"Itachi's loyal to Konoha, remember?" he reminded her with a frown. "You know the truth about what happened."

"I know," she said uneasily. "It's just... I remember how dangerous he was. His eyes were so cold. It's hard to forget."

Naruto winced. It was understandable for Sakura to be wary of Itachi. She hadn't seen what he had. He had fought alongside Itachi briefly while he was under the reanimation jutsu, and in that short time he had come to respect the man. His devotion to Konoha had been obvious, and his concern for Sasuke had been even more so. But Sakura hadn't been there. The only memories she had of Itachi were of a ruthless S-class criminal - it would be difficult for her to see him as anything other than the man who had ruined Sasuke's life.

"I get that it's difficult to see after everything," he said. "But Itachi loves Konoha more than anyone. He'd never hurt any of the people living here. Especially not Sasuke."

"He hurt him before," Sakura pointed out, green eyes glistening with poorly-hidden concern.

Naruto went silent at the truth in those words, and remembered icy eyes and a ruthless hand around Sasuke's throat, remembered Sasuke screaming and screaming and screaming. He shivered.

"He didn't have a choice," he told her. "He had orders. It's horrible, but he had to do it."

Had to kill the clan, sure. But that day at the hotel - Sasuke had already been broken, was it really necessary to break him again?

Naruto shoved the thought away. He understood Itachi's decisions and the intentions behind them. He didn't necessary agree with all of them, but he understood them.

"At least this means Sasuke-kun will be back now," said Sakura. Naruto forced a grin.

"Yep! And I can finally yell at the bastard for being gone so long!"

There was a lapse in the conversation before Sakura asked hesitantly, "Do you think... Sasuke-kun will be happy if it's really his brother?"

Naruto paused to think. "I don't know," he said. "I think so." I hope so.


"Itachi, just promise me this."

His hands were shaking on the hilt of his sword, sticky with blood that wasn't his. He stared down at them, kneeling in front of him on the wooden floor, and his father's words wrapped around his chest and bound him like wire-string.

"Take care of Sasuke."

Tears filled his eyes. Grief and despair rose up in his throat, choking him. "I will," he promised. He thought he might be sick.

The tears spilled down his cheeks unchecked, fell onto his hands and washed away the blood like rain. He brought his sword down on their necks.

Blood splashed through the air, red droplets flying, and their bodies crumpled, lifeless at his feet. His father landed face-down against his mother's chest, his blood soaking into her shirt; red pooled around her head, seeping into her dark hair. Itachi shook and shook and shook, and there was a familiar presence beyond the doors, small footsteps against the wooden floor.

The door opened slowly, and his little brother stepped into a nightmare, his eyes wide and terrified and pleading. "Niisan - "

Itachi's eyes snapped open to a white ceiling and the smell of antiseptic, his heartbeat loud in his ears. Sasuke's expression, the sheer horror behind his eyes, was burned into the back of his eyelids. He closed his eyes tight, his hands clenching in the sheets of the bed he was laying on, but the memory refused to fade.

"Pleasant dreams?" said a cheery voice, and Itachi's eyes snapped back open to lock on the figure by his bedside. Kakashi Hatake was sitting in a chair against the wall to his left, a book held in his hand as he watched him.

At first glance the man looked relaxed, completely at ease, but Itachi knew him well enough to read the tension in his muscles, the defensive stance he hid behind an open expression and carefree slouch. He didn't look much different than last time Itachi had encountered him. Two dark eyes watched him carefully, and Itachi noted the absence of his Sharingan with some surprise.

His head was fuzzy and disoriented from his dream, his chest aching with a grief that was nearly a decade old. He shoved it down and refocused himself, quickly trying to gain some vigilance in his unfamiliar surroundings. The thought that he'd been so unguarded in someone else's presence made him uncomfortable.

He tried to push himself up from the cot he was laying on, quickly finding his arms to be much more weak than they should be. His unease increased, and he narrowed his eyes at the man in front of him. "What is going on?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that, actually." Kakashi snapped his book closed to give Itachi his full attention, leaning forward. "You were found near the Uchiha compound a few hours ago and brought to the hospital. You've exhausted all of your chakra, so you're probably feeling a bit weak."

That sparked a memory. He remembered now, waking up on the ground, chakra-less and weak as an untrained child. He'd seen the Uchiha clan crest before he'd passed out - he thought he'd only been hallucinating.

"Tell me," Kakashi said to him, his eyes sharp and locked on Itachi's face. "How exactly does a man come back from the dead?"

Itachi kept his face and eyes blank, revealing nothing of the confusion swirling inside his head. "I fail to see reason why I should offer any information to an enemy."

They locked eyes for a moment, neither of them budging. Then Kakashi sighed. "I don't have time for this, so I'm going to just cut straight to it. I know the truth. About the massacre, about the coup de'état, everything. I know that you were under orders. So let's drop the cloak and dagger shtick. I'm not your enemy."

Itachi wasn't exactly surprised Kakashi knew - he had no idea how much time had passed after all, and Sasuke wasn't likely to keep the information to himself - but he still felt a shock go through him, nonetheless. To hear such a taboo topic be spoken about so bluntly, so openly... it left him feeling unbalanced.

"You asked me what was going on," said Itachi. He kept his tone neutral, though not as cold as it had been previously. "This means you don't know?"

"No. We have no idea how this has happened. And from your confusion, I gather you don't either." His former senpai sank back into the chair, sighing in disappointment. "Damn."

Itachi remained silent for a moment, weighing his thoughts. "Kakashi-san - "

"Sama, actually," the man corrected, looking a bit sheepish. Upon catching Itachi's perplexed look, he clarified, "I'm Hokage now, it seems. I know, I was shocked as well. If I'd known I'd be dealing with mysterious resurrections, I might've considered turning down the position."

Itachi didn't react, though inwardly he felt a flash of surprise. It wasn't that he thought Kakashi Hatake incapable of being Hokage - quite the opposite - but rather, he'd never seemed like the type of man to want the position. Still, it explained why he was the one here talking to him instead of the Godaime.

He frowned slightly. "How long..."

"You've been dead for over four years now," said Kakashi. "The war's been over for nearly that long. We beat Madara, and the Akatsuki have disbanded. The Five Nations are at peace."

Itachi tried to process this - and failed. It was wonderful news, but it was too much at once. His head spun like crazy trying to take it all in. Still, one burning question rose above the noise, begging to be voiced. "And..." he hesitated, unwilling to make himself vulnerable in any way, but deciding there was no point if the truth was already known, "And Sasuke?"

Kakashi hesitated. Itachi could tell he was still suspicious of the situation. But then he said, "He's alive," and Itachi had to fight incredibly hard to conceal the wave of relief that crashed over him. "Not in the village currently, but I'll be contacting him."

An emotion he couldn't identify welled up in his chest at the thought - of seeing Sasuke, of speaking with him. He remembered once again how lost his brother had looked, how pained, when he'd pressed their foreheads together. I will love you always. He forced it away for now.

"I assume by your hesitance to give me information that you doubt my identity."

"One of the medical ninjas checked you over while you were unconscious, and nothing seemed off. However, until we have further proof of your identity, there are certain things I can't risk telling you."

Itachi inclined his head. "I understand."

Kakashi stood from his chair, stuffing his book in the front pocket of his vest. "Good. You are to remain here until I say otherwise. Your identity will need to be confirmed before we can decide how else to proceed."

Kakashi walked toward the door, but paused, hesitating just before he exited. He looked back, his eyes serious.

"This village is indebted to you," he said. "What was asked of you went far beyond the call of duty, and Konoha owes you its gratitude. Thank you."

Itachi had no idea what to say to that, struck silent. The door closed with a soft click, those last two words still echoing in Itachi's ears.