Summary: After all, he came back with a purpose: to regain honor to the Uchiha name by rebuilding his clan in Konoha. He just wasn't sure if his current situation was supposed to make it easier or more difficult. Either way, Sasuke was annoyed.

A/N: Whoa what what is this I'm back. I got the new Naruto game for the Playstation and totally got hooked again, in case anyone was wondering. I'm going to try to make it as canon as possible which is difficult seeing as I seriously skipped around a lot. I'm mostly caught up till the Great Ninja War and I have soooome ideas of what's up in the most recent chapters.

Oh yeah that also means there shall be major spoilers so either catch up or be spoiled!

One: Things Decided

Sasuke sat atop a tree branch near the Waterfall of Truth a few miles away from the his home village. He sighed. He was still contemplating whether or not he should follow through with coming back. When he looked ahead he could see the large gates of Konoha in the distance.

Despite staring right at his very origins, he felt like a complete outsider at this point. And no matter how many times Naruto and Sakura told him they would accept him with open arms no problem, he still found it hard to take another step forward. So he stomped off to the waterfall, frustrated at his own indecisiveness and fear.

He had been arguing with himself for at least three hours now. He was so sure of himself before he made his way towards Konohagakure after a month of wandering around, but now that he stood merely miles away, he began reevaluating his life decisions yet again. There was a part of him that was extremely hesitant about making the right choice because he hadn't exactly chosen the "right path" in years. He just wasn't that sure of himself anymore.

What would he be doing back in Konoha anyway?

Now that he was thinking about it, Sasuke wasn't sure why he was so afraid of stepping foot back into the village. First of all the great Uchiha Sasuke had never been afraid of doing anything in his whole life. He always faced dangers of every level head on. Second, it's not like he was still considered Konoha's number one public enemy. Towards the end of the war he had established some unspoken truce with Naruto and the rest of the Shinobi Alliance. He knew- he just felt it- that in that battle where they all stood united, all his wrongs were erased in their eyes. Well, almost all of them.

A month had passed since the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. The weather began to become chilly. The sudden breeze that blew at him told him autumn was just leaving and winter was about to settle in. The last time he saw the faces of his former friends was a month ago.

He entered the battle field gracefully, his remarkable timing was able to save Naruto and a few of his comrades. He stood up to full height in front of his blonde friend.

"S-Sasuke." the jinchuriki called out, his voice oozing with surprise and another emotion he couldn't quite recognize. A few more gasps and an, "Is that Sasuke?" accompanied his arrival.

He craned his neck slightly, enough to make eye contact. The corner of his lips turned up in a smirk, before he grunted, his infamous "Hn."

At once, Naruto's surprised face morphed into one of utter happiness and his resolve to defeat the enemy grew tenfold. A large grin formed on his face as both young men turned to face Kaguya once again.

He fought alongside Konoha against his own, Madara, and aided in the defeat of the legendary Ten Tails. At first some speculated that Sasuke was just in it for his own personal benefits: he probably wanted the power of Shinju for himself, or more fear and supremacy to his name. But as the war ended people began to realize that, like the once feuding villages, the war had changed everyone's motives. They were all human.

Even the cold avenger, Uchiha Sasuke.

He was panting hard. There was a strip of blood that ran down the side of his face. The entire left side of his body was aching as he tried to get back up. When he laid back instead, he let out a breath he had been holding and closed his eyes.

It was over.

Kaguya and Madara were finally defeated. When he turned to his right he saw a familiar face laying next to him, also breathing heavily.

"We did it." The blonde panted, turning to look at him. He tried to move his face into a smile but the pain radiating through his entire body made him grimace instead. There was a moment of silence before he regained enough energy to speak again. "Does this mean you're…"

Sasuke turned away from Naruto and looked up, frowning. No. No, of course not. There was no way he was returning to Konoha and he knew it. He had no reason to and he certainly did not want to return to the place it all started. Absolutely not.

"Yes."

At this Naruto sat up and looked at him, trying to fight off yet another large grin on his face. Sasuke followed, grunting at the pain as he sat up. He glimpsed at his best friend's stupidly large smile and scoffed. There was no way out of this one anymore.

"Hn."

Sasuke took off without another word, and without talking to anyone else. He needed some time to himself. He didn't need to tell him when he would be back. They didn't need to know that right now. But after the war ended he pretty much disappeared again. He wasn't exactly sure how people would take his seemingly indecisive attitude either.

"Man, why can't he just make up his mind!?"

"Uchiha? He probably won't even stay. Give him a few months."

"I wonder if he knows it's bad for his reputation."

He sighed and hopped down from the tree and sat in the middle of the clearing. The sound of the rushing waterfall seemed to calm his nerves a little.

Although his whereabouts have been unknown for the last month he wasn't just dicking around. Sasuke had been wandering the outskirts of Konoha and enjoying the peaceful forests (or what was left of it), contemplating his life so far. Just last week he attempted to tap into the chakra deep inside him to contact his older brother- to no avail. He ended up destroying a tree in anger instead.

He thought about his encounters with Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi since he left Konoha five years ago. He remembered the first time they met again and they had looked like they hadn't even changed since he left.

"Sasuke-teme! I'm taking you back no matter what!"

"Sasuke-kun please come home!"

The voices of these kids that held him back when he was 12 echoed in his mind. He shut his eyes tighter trying to shake those memories off.

He remembered the next few times they met. Something seemed different about them then. Perhaps it was just the fact that he lost his own cool and wasn't exactly focused on the wellbeing of his former teammates. He was too busy spiraling into the madness and succumbing to the darkness of revenge.

"Sakura, you were planning to kill Sasuke on your own, weren't you?"

"Fight me, Sasuke." Naruto stepped closer and Sasuke activated his sharingan. His eyes throbbed. "I need to know what to do now," He pulled out a kunai from his pouch "and you have the answer."

Pain and anger filled his heart for a moment. He gritted his teeth angrily.

Sasuke backed up into a corner, eyes widened with fear. He could barely move from exhaustion and was fighting to hold onto dear life. Everything hurt, but his mind was focused on his slowly approaching brother. Itachi continued to advance, slowly but surely, until he was merely two feet away.

He reached up with two fingers and Sasuke gasped loudly. When his bloodied fingers made contact with his little brother's forehead, he breathed out slowly.

"Sorry, Sasuke...but this is it."

The youngest Uchiha became desperate to calm himself down now as painful memories began flooding his conscious. Voices of people he ever cared about called out to him.

"Sasuke…why?" Karin uttered her last words to her as she fell beside Danzo.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke." His older brother fell ungracefully beside him.

"Sasuke, don't!" Kakashi frantically yelled as he grabbed Sakura's collar, preparing to kill her.

Naruto stepped forward. "Don't do this, Sasuke."

He wasn't facing her but he heard her quiet sobs, "Sasuke-kun, please don't go."

He felt his heart sink and his stomach flip upside down before his eyes quickly shot open. What used to be a waterfall in front of him was now a blinding white light. He stood up frantically and turned around.

"Itachi…"

Sasuke froze in fear and disbelief when he saw none other than his older brother standing before him. He was dressed in his old ninja clothes, without the Akatsuki cloak and headband. His eyes were brighter than he remembered, and he wore a small smile on his face.

"It's been a while, Sasuke." The young man was at loss for words. Not only was he not sure where he was and why his brother was here, but he had a hundred thousand things to tell Itachi, and he wasn't sure where to start.

Sasuke opened his mouth to yell at him. Anger swelled in his heart as he truly felt like Itachi caused him to live a life of poor decisions and hatred, all for nothing. But instead, his voice softened and desperation escaped his lips, "What do I do?"

Itachi closed his eyes and chuckled, earning a confused and annoyed look from his brother. "Tell me, Otouto," he walked towards him slowly. Sasuke made no move to retreat. "Why have you done the things you have done?"

"Hatred and vengeance." He answered easily, frowning. In retrospect, he wasn't exactly proud of his lifestyle recently.

"And where has that gotten you?" He closed his eyes and didn't answer. Itachi stood two feet from him, looking down softly. He seemed so calm and happy Sasuke wasn't sure how to react to all of this. He wasn't used to people talking so softly to him anymore. Especially not his brother. "My goal from the beginning was your safety and your life. Maybe some of the things I did along the way are not things I should be proud of, but in the end, I got what I wanted. You're okay."

Sasuke looked up at him. "Well, mostly." He laughed softly again.

Then something in him clicked. The reason Itachi had went through all the trouble just to protect his little brother was a simple one. He loved him. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. The older man seemed to understand Sasuke's sudden epiphany. He lifted his fingers and gently poked his forehead. A strange sense of nostalgia filled Sasuke.

"Let love guide your path from here." Sasuke seemed to stop breathing. "Don't let any more hatred cause you to lose sight of that."

"Nii-san…"

"Take care, Sasuke." The image of his brother began to fade into the white light and Sasuke reached forward. Itachi smiled warmly, "I'm proud of you."

When he opened his eyes again he was back in front of the rushing waters. He inhaled deeply and finally relaxed, as sense of peace flowing through him. To be honest he truly was tired of making decisions based on sticking his sword through all his problems and acting so spontaneously.

One thing was for sure though. Sasuke decided to come back with a purpose: to regain honor to the Uchiha name by rebuilding the clan in Konoha. Not through eradicating the entire shinobi population out of anger and hate. Not through ending the Uchiha bloodline by removing the last member from Earth, himself…but through starting new and showing everyone there are such things as new beginnings.

He exited the clearing and began walking slowly towards the gates.

Unfortunately like most of his spontaneous ideas, he wasn't exactly sure how to go about living of love and peace. It was a selfless and constructive mission and he had learned to associate life with selfishness and destruction for the past twelve years. But with each step he took, his pace quickened and his determination to right all his wrongs grew. He continued to pick up the pace, Itachi's words and smile replaying in his head, and before he knew it he reached the gates. He immediately halted and took a deep breath.

"Sasuke-kun you're back!" genin Sakura ran towards him at full speed, tears streaming down her face. She was intercepted by a small blonde in orange also screaming his name.

When he opened his eyes again he exhaled slowly and pushed the large gate open.

Disclaimer: Yeah 5 years later and I still don't own Naruto. I know, guys, I'm sorry. I tried. I will truly try to finish this one though. So yay show me some love and review (: