A/N: Hiya!
While waiting impatiently for my ItaSaku muse to return so I can finish 'Torn In Two', this story has instead drawn its attention. I'll get back to the former after the new year, but for now, it's all about 'Dreams'. I've been in love with this story for a while now, so it feels good to finally get it started. Enjoy! ^_^

– Chapter 1 –
.:. For the Lonely .:.

Sasuke,
I wish you were here. I'm sorry I have nothing new to say except that. I dream about you sometimes, about when we were kids and you actually knew how to smile like you meant it. There were so many times I would just watch you while you trained and wonder what you'd become. With the last Shinobi war on my mind, I made a promise to myself that I would spare you that pain.
But as you know, the fates had other ideas. Our clan, having decided to forgo the will of fire, made their plans to take over Konoha.
I often wonder now, what would have happened had I just attacked them until they submitted not to take on the leaf. I look back and wonder if maybe you would still be alive if I'd taken a different path.
But then I remember how eager Danzou was to rid the world of our clan; he would have tried eventually. Did that excuse me? I don't think so. My regret runs deep, deeper than anyone knows – except perhaps the Hokage. And that story, the path to my freedom that is so strangely coveted by Lady Tsunade, is something I want to share with you. The darkness is only a conduit, and with your help, I'll find my light. I think I understand that now.
But people fear what they do not understand; locked away in their delusions of reality, what other path can they possibly take but their own? Please tell me what I'm supposed to do now…
Itachi.

He had spent the last six months dwelling on where he'd gone wrong, but more than anything, just wishing he could do it all over again. He would go back, save them, save himself and save Sasuke from the darkness. He would save everyone. But that was the bitch about hindsight: it taunted and tormented, but in the end was as useful as genjutsu training before a taijutsu only sparring lesson.

He always prepared himself for everything he needed to do with forethought and contemplation; right now, he had all the time in the world to contemplate his situation. Itachi Uchiha was left with nothing but regret and hindsight. Currently, he was sitting cross legged on the floor of his cell in the Konoha Maximum Security Prison, a chakra sealing jutsu on his wrists and a pen in his hand as he wrote his letter. He'd been writing them every day since his incarceration, each one an outpouring of the things he'd never said, the hopes he'd never shared and the dreams he had not been able to accomplish.

Sasuke would've appreciated that.

He had a sneaky suspicion it was keeping him somewhat sane.

There were shards of light reflecting against the burnished walls and he found a sort of strange contentment knowing the sun was bright today. He wouldn't see it until tomorrow unless there was more work needed, but he didn't mind.

Itachi knew, despite his acceptance of his fate, that he would soon leave this place anyway. The Hokage's efforts would never be in vain. She had fought for him. And he remembered it clearly.

"You can't be serious Lady Tsunade!"

Itachi was sitting in the middle of a courtroom inside the Interrogation Core. Apparently, he was too dangerous to move unless heading to his execution.

"I am very serious Namuna," the blonde Hokage stated evenly, glancing around the oval room at the councillors positioned in the bleachers, glaring down at the last Uchiha before settling her brown eyes on the woman who had shrieked at her. "I will not sign the documents to have Itachi Uchiha executed."

The councillors and ninja clan leaders were peering at her, some infuriated, some intrigued and one bored: Shikaku Nara.

"He's dangerous," Namuna said scathingly, narrowing her dark eyes at the Hokage and acting as though Itachi Uchiha wasn't tied to a chair in the middle of the room and listening to every word. "All Uchiha are a threat to this village! The third and his predecessors sacrificed to make sure that pathetic excuse for a clan never held the village in their greedy claws. You are putting us all at risk and for what, to spare the life of a man who would not hesitate to kill every single one of us?'

Tsunade let her gaze fall on Itachi. He wasn't glaring at Namuna, nor the councillors who were echoing her words. He seemed so apart from what was going on. She had pleaded with him before to defend himself, to offer up some sort of resolution: after all, his genius was legendary. But Sasuke's death had silenced his dreams. He did not care to save himself. He did not care to look beyond the moment, and she knew – he wanted to die. But for some reason, she couldn't let him give up. They had lost so much since the inception of the war, and on the brink of the collapse of the fighting, and now that there was peace, and the Akatsuki were being hunted appropriately, the Hokage wanted Itachi to dream again. She wanted him to live for himself this time.

But his expressionless face, that knowing stare and his handsome features… he would not hope to dream again. She sighed deeply.

'I will save you Itachi Uchiha, whether you like it or not.'

"The fact still remains," Tsunade said, tearing her eyes away from the silent Uchiha, "that in times past, the power of the Sharingan has saved this village. As the last Uchiha alive, Itachi has the right to claim sanctuary to restore the line."

"We don't need the Uchiha line restored," Namuna sneered.

"You mean you don't," Tsunade corrected her. "I am addressing these concerns to all the council, not just you, Namuna. I am well aware of your bitter distaste toward the Uchiha clan, but this is not about you. It is about the letter of the law, the right to reviving a clan that is in decline. And the law is very clear about this."

"We know the law you speak of," a man named Tetsuo said. "But Itachi Uchiha is a known killer. We can't just let him off. You as a ninja should recognise how this will make us look to other nations: so weak that we would let cold blooded killers walk all over us."

"It has already been stated before this council that Itachi Uchiha was under orders," Tsunade snarled. "So the cold blooded killer comment is unnecessary. He never came back to destroy the village personally. And might I remind you of two points – one: he gave himself up willingly, which should be taken into account, and two: this is a ninja issue, so the absence of the elders leaves this in my hands. The clan leaders are divided on this, so the execution of Itachi Uchiha will happen over my dead body."

"Yet he still needs to be punished," Tsume Inuzuka said, baring her teeth.

"Imprisonment then," Inoichi Yamanaka said. "I see no more point to holding him without trial, and there's no protocol here to delve into his mind, since he has nothing left to offer us, willingly or not."

Tsunade sighed. It was the best she was going to accomplish with this one meeting, but there would be more, and she was determined not to let the councillors or clan heads leave him there to rot.

The Hokage locked eyes with the dispirited Uchiha and he understood: this wasn't over.

So long ago, and yet so vividly imprinted on his mind.

He had no doubt that Lady Tsunade had fought tooth and nail to keep him alive, and was fighting even now to lessen his sentence. She had promised him he wouldn't be imprisoned for long, but the definition of that term was subject to interpretation. Really, he didn't mind. He had no plans for the future beyond the next letter, the next meal, and the next time he would be allowed into the yard to stretch his legs. He was allowed to join the other prisoners when they were taken to the yard, and had a measure of relative freedom even when breaking rocks.

He ignored the stares from his fellow inmates, didn't converse unless absolutely necessary, and kept his head down. On his loneliest days, his desire to keep fit, kept him vaguely sane, and he worked out within the confines of his one man cell – there was nothing else to do anyway. Kakashi had visited him, and offered up some reading material, but Itachi hadn't read Icha Icha for years and wasn't remotely interested in it now. He took the books however, as it wasn't in his nature to refuse an offer from an old friend.

And other than Tsunade, Kakashi was his only visitor (his guards didn't count, of course). The Hokage had visited twice in the last six months and he understood she was busy, trying to save him. Kakashi told him all about it – she wasn't going to let this go. She had lost her surrogate daughter, renowned medical specialist Sakura Haruno, as well as Shizune Kato and an array of ninja within the ranks she'd grown fond of. She didn't know Itachi very well, but she was determined not to lose anyone else.

And yet, still anticipating this possible scenario, it was still surprising to the last Uchiha when, six months, two weeks, four days, twelve hours and thirty-two minutes from the moment he was first incarcerated, that he received his third visitor. He hadn't expected Naruto Uzumaki would want anything to do with him, because of Sasuke – Kakashi had stated that the blonde was still in mourning for his lost team mates. And sure enough, the last jinchuriki wasn't the happy, bouncing blonde he used to be. He didn't snarl at Itachi as he came into view, peering through the bars at the man as he caught his attention. It was a few moments before the Uchiha realised Naruto had not come alone, and he looked past him to Kakashi, Tsunade, and several ANBU.

Itachi remained silent, waiting to be addressed.

"We need your help," Kakashi said.

Itachi inclined his head as though to ask, "with what?"

"Team Kakashi will be leaving Konoha soon," Tsunade said. "And you'll be helping them in their search for an old friend. We've received some disturbing intelligence, and in return for you helping us, the council and clan leaders will all vote to have you released with a full pardon."

Itachi mulled it over for a full two seconds and then nodded his head slowly. He wanted to ask what had happened, but his instinct was to shut up and do as he was told, even after years of not being under the authority of the Hokage. He moved his eyes from one blonde to another, settling on the younger of the two, and Naruto grimaced, like he was trying to smile but had forgotten how to. "As it turns out, Sakura-chan is still out there somewhere," he said, his voice hoarse as though from lack of use. "And your Akatsuki buddies know where."

X X X

A/N: Don't worry it gets better. I have a habit of making Itachi suffer in ItaSaku fics… I'm trying to break that habit, I swear. ;) So… this is the part where I say REVIEW, REVIEW! So yeah, review! n_n

R&R.

A quick poll:

If you could permanently revive any Naruto character in canon, who would it be?

A) Minato

B) Kushina

C) Itachi

D) Other ‒ who?