I know this story starts out sad, but it gets better later on, so yeah.

DISCLAIMER:

Naruto (anime/manga), Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Itachi, Pein, Tsunade, and any other characters afterwards mentioned in the story with the exception of Hiromi do not belong to me. They belong to Mashashi Kishimoto. This disclaimer conts for all chapters of the story, since I'm too lazy to type it over again.

Thanks for reading. Owari.


When Uchiha Sasuke got up one morning, he knew very well something was not right. He felt dizzy and his stomach was heaving. He also felt like he was burning up. It was possible to be sick but this was crazy. Sasuke struggled to crawl out of bed, having to go train with the rest of his team. He saw the bathroom door blurring. He felt his knees crashing into the hard wooden floor. Then he didn't feel anything at all.

---A half hour later---

"Kakashi-sensei! If you're here this late and there's no Sasuke, where is he?" Sakura inquired. Kakashi gave them a blank, surprised look.

"You mean he didn't show up?" Kakashi asked.

"No! Stupid teme is late!" Naruto screamed.

The three ninja went to go find him. Arriving at his apartment door, they knocked on the door.

"Sasuke. Are you there?" Kakashi asked. He knew very well Sasuke NEVER missed training.

There was no answer.

"For Kami's sake! Teme, you better be dying!" Naruto screamed, going at the door." Naruto screamed.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed. But it was too late. The enraged, blonde ninja had already smashed down Sasuke's door. Then he screamed.

"AH! Sasuke, I take it back! Don't die! Don't die!" Naruto screamed, shaking the near-comatose Uchiha. No response. Kakashi and Sakura ran into the room, and the jounin of the two checked Sasuke's vital signs.

"He's alive. But we need to get him to the hospital now. Let's go!" Kakashi said, lifting Sasuke onto his back. The three ninja heard a few raspy noises from Sasuke.

"Don't...don't go...you can't leave...me..." Sasuke whispered. Sakura wondered just who he was talking about, but she had a good feeling it was someone that was long dead from Sasuke's past.

---A week later---

The wind blew in the warm climate of the outskirts of the Rock Village. Itachi had just quit the Akatsuki, after realizing that Pein was intending to kill him and the other Akatsuki, with the exception of Konan and Tobi, after all nine-tails were sealed. He wasn't intending on anything that happened to lead to today.

When he saw Sasuke standing there and not at the training grounds, Itachi remembered how much he wanted to just kill himself. He was intending for Sasuke to be at the training grounds after the massacre. He wanted to just take Sasuke away somewhere else. He wanted to raise Sasuke so he'd never have to live in his nii-san's shadow. Both of them would be free from the life of an Uchiha. They could live life somewhere far away, and Sasuke would never have to be considered a failure by his own perfectionist father. His own family.

Itachi also hadn't forgiven himself for putting such an impact on Sasuke's mind. Ok, he wanted Sasuke to hate him for what he had done. But he didn't want Sasuke to actually decide to kill him. He also didn't want for Sasuke to have to put that over his own life. After all, Sasuke deserved so much more than Itachi. As he walked around in disguise, he heard a rumor that would haunt him.

"Hey, did you hear about what happened in Konoha?" A man said.

"No." The woman next to him said.

"Well I'm sure you've heard of the Uchiha clan." This caught Itachi's attention.

"Yes, what about them?"

"Well, the older heir killed off his known family, all except his brother. And I heard that the younger brother...is dying." Itachi snapped. Sasuke was dying?! No. He wasn't going to let his brother slip away. Not after everything that he had done to him. Itachi knew very well that if he went to go help, he'd probably be killed, but it didn't matter. If he could just last long enough to help his brother live, it would lift off at least some of the guilt.

---That same moment----

"Well?" Kakashi asked, standing with Naruto and Sakura. Tsunade had just walked out the door from Sasuke's hospital room.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. The medical team in his room is the top in Konoha. We're all really trying here, but at the rate the fever is increasing, Sasuke will probably die within a few days.

The rest of Team 7 stood speechless.