Okay, so recently I've been watching a whole lot of Naruto, cause I found out that people uploaded episodes to youtube, and I've been having a grand ol' time, until Sasuke leaves. Grr on him. So, I decided to write this to make myself feel better. I'll be posting the next chapter soon, if you guys like it.

Only so I'm not like Itachi. That's why I let him live. Sasuke told himself as he ran through the forest. I don't care.

Suddenly, something slammed into his stomach and sent him flying into a tree. He bounced, splinters flying around him as he dropped to the ground, eyes searching for his attacker, even as he landed. Could Naruto. . . ? No. Naruto couldn't have recovered that fast.

A figure dropped down in front of him as he stood out of the crouch in which he'd landed, and just stood there.

"Who are you?!" He demanded. "Show yourself, coward!"

"Strange," The figure replied, stepping forward. The moonlight fell across the young woman's face, catching in her blue eyes. She was watching him carefully. "That you should be the one to call me a coward." Sasuke's eyes shot wide open, as she shifted, the moonlight illuminating her headband. A Konoha leaf symbol.

"What do you know about me?" He snapped. She lifted an eyebrow.

"Everyone in Konoha knows about you by now, Uchiha Sasuke." She said. "You're almost as famous as your brother." Sasuke growled low in his throat, but didn't respond. "And now, you're respected just about as much." She smirked, but the mirth didn't reach her eyes. They were still flat and cool as they watched him. As he stared at her, he could see something else behind the blank expression. Empathy. She had the same eyes as him.

"You're a coward, plain and simple." She went on. "You're running away from that which separates you from him. You're running away from your friends. You attacked your best friend, and left him for dead. You used him to test yourself, like Itachi did to your family." Sasuke's hands were clenching into fists, his entire body trembling with fury. She was comparing him to Itachi.

There was not comparison. I'm nothing like him!! His mind screamed. Nothing!

"You're becoming consumed in your quest for power. For vengeance." She moved forward, and Sasuke caught sight of the ANBU mask hanging from her belt, the two katana strapped in an X on her back. "You want power, but going to Orochimaru is just a quick fix. The Sound ninja all had the same power as you. They all had a bloodline limit, and the same curse seals. Yet, somehow, a handful of genin and a single chunnin from our village managed to defeat them. What makes you think that curse mark will make you powerful enough to kill Itachi?"

"Don't talk as if you know me." Sasuke said, his voice shaking. "You don't."

"You may be right." She said. "I don't know you, but I was once in you place, searching for vengeance for my parents, closure for me. I ignored the friends who were there to help me, left them behind. I left the only family I had left, the only one who could really understand me alone." She folded her arms over her chest. "So don't tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. I know exactly how much you thirst to see Itachi's blood spilt, how much you want enough power to kill him."

"Shut up!" He lunged at her, and hit only air with his chidori.

"A careless move." A katana was against his throat, the blade biting gently into the skin of his neck. Her half-gloved hand was pressed against the nape of his neck, preventing any movement. "That curse seal will not help you kill him." She said. The katana disappeared. "Your sensai could defeat you this way. What makes you think that you can kill Itachi this way?"

"Shut up!" She sheathed her katana in a flash, and knocked his blow to the side. It struck a tree, which splintered around his hand and fell. She didn't blink.

"You're just a little brat."

"Shut up!"

"You're no better than Naruto, that selfish, dead-last idiot."

"I said shut up!" The seal was taking over. He could feel the power flooding through him. "I'll make you!"

"Try." She said. "Go ahead and try and kill me, Uchiha. But remember one thing. If you somehow manage to kill me, you're destroying any chance you have of ever returning to Konoha. Any plans you thought you had, any dreams you planed on living, will be gone." Sasuke stared at her. "If you thought that you'd just get this power, kill Itachi and go back home to your village and your friends, you're wrong." Her eyes narrowed. "You're going to be declared a missing-nin, Uchiha, and then all those dreams you had, you made will be gone forever."

Awakened from my idiotic dreaming about a future, of staying with friends who are used to peace.

He had thought of that future, glimpsed it through the blinding hatred and painful loneliness. Those glimpses had come at the strangest times. When Sakura hugged him, not as a fan-girl, but as his friend. When Naruto shouted at his teasing, and when Kakashi-sensai had shown up late for training, and been chastised by Sakura.

He shook his head. No. She was making him question himself. The curse seal took over, and he leapt at her.

He didn't even see her move, but he was flat on his back, completely pinned, the tip of her katana pressed to his throat. She hadn't even broken a sweat.

"You've got three options, Uchiha." She said. "One; kill me, and go to Orochimaru." She folded her arms over her chest. "Two; come back to your village with me and apologize to everyone. Three; you attack me again, and I drag your lifeless body back to Konoha with me, before the last Uchiha is branded as a traitor, and besmirches your family name forever!" She got up off of him, sheathing her katana again.

"How did you do that?" Sasuke asked, rubbing his shoulder. He hadn't even seen her move, even with the sharingan.

"Training." She replied. "Long hours with lots of pain." She met his eyes. "I finally got my vengeance, quenched my thirst for blood. Do you want to satisfy yours?"

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if you come back with me, and let me train you-"

"You'll give me the power to defeat Itachi, right?"

"Wrong." His eyes narrowed. "The kind of power you want cannot be just given. If you kill Itachi with power from Orochimaru, you'll never feel satisfied. It wouldn't be you who defeated him. I will teach you how to get what you want." He nodded. "But there is one thing. You keep talking of power, but power alone is not going to defeat Itachi. If there is one thing he truly does not understand, it is the fierce need to protect, the strength that comes from that need." She walked over and stood right in front of him, peering down at him. She was actually rather short, for an adult, only about a head taller than he was.

"Ever wonder why your teammate was so strong?" She asked. "Naruto isn't that powerful, and he doesn't know as many jutsu as you. So how did he almost beat you?" Sasuke didn't have an answer, so she just kept going. "He just wouldn't give up, would he? He nearly beat you. An idiot nearly beat a genius Uchiha." Her face lost its hardness. "Do you know why?"

"No." He bit out.

"Because he cares. He cares about you, and he cares about his village. That is why he is always going to be stronger than you, at least until you realize it. Until then, you can never truly be strong." She sat back on her heels. "Even if you go to Orochimaru, there will still be people stronger than you because they care."

"How-"

"You were already on your way." She said, stepping away from him again. "You just couldn't see it. Naruto affected you more than you think. You were staring to care about the village, the people in it. That's why you couldn't bring yourself to kill him."

"How do you know so much?" He demanded.

"Because I watched it happen to another." She said. "Only in reverse." Her face dropped in grief and pain. "I watched a colleague sink away from me, and I did nothing to stop him."

"Itachi." She nodded.

"He was my ANBU squad leader for a while." She said. "I saw him take that plunge, and I will not watch another Uchiha tarnish the name so many heroes carry." Her face softened, and Sasuke watched as she stepped within arms reach of him again. "If you want, I will turn you into a hero. But you have to let me show you the way." She held out her hand. He stared at it for a long moment before grasping it with his own bloody one.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Kakashi was standing near the open window, his silver hair rippling in the breeze.

"Sensai. . ." Kakashi's eye shifted over to him. "Sasuke?" The jounin shook his head, and Naruto felt himself slipping into unconsciousness again.

The door slid open, and two figures stepped out of the shadows. He started in surprise, but made no other move.

"This is the evidence you asked for." The woman with him pointed to the bed. "If you had gone to Orochimaru, the next time you met Naruto, you would have killed him, instead of just leaving him like this." She watched her words sink in, well aware that the eye of the jounin in the corner was fixed on her and the boy. "I can teach you power, I can teach you control, but I cannot teach you to care. That is something that must be learned from a loved one, like this boy. It is something that Itachi never learned. He does not understand how fierce the need to protect another can really make a person." She looked back at Sasuke. "Come on." She set her jaw. "We need to see Lady Hokage so she doesn't declare you a missing-nin." She paused in the doorway.

"Kakashi-san, I hope you don't mind me taking your student." She gave him a small bow and slid the door shut.

Tsunade jerked up off her desk as her door opened without so much as a knock. She froze when the young woman entered though. "Masami." She blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"I think you lost something." The younger woman reached back into the hallway, and pulled a boy inside. Tsunade gasped. "You no longer have need to worry, Tsunade-sama. He's agreed to let me train him, and if he tries to leave the village again, you won't have to send the hunter-nin after him." Her blue eyes narrowed. "I'll will kill him myself."

"As long as you keep your promise to train me." Sasuke said. "I only have one purpose in life." He didn't have time to duck her hand as she slapped it against the back of his head. He flinched.

"That is the kind of talk that landed you here." She said sternly. "And I am going to change that." She suddenly smiled at him. "You are moving in with my family."

"What?!"

New chapter coming soon. Let me know what you thought.