Chapter 2:

I am a fan of contrast and a lover softness; blending sharp edges into things that look like home.

~*~

It wasn't long before Sasuke realized that it was going to be a very long time before he would be left alone and he kicked himself for cutting it so close to the village in his haste to get as far away from Sound as possible. He most definitely wasn't accustomed to having eyes on him every second of the day and it was constantly putting him on edge. Spending such a long time in sound had drilled paranoia and hyperawareness into him and he was growing to positively ,detest the ever vigilant guard. The fact that the village was having him watched 24/7 wasn't surprising in the least and he suspected things were going to get much harder, but of course that didn't stop him from constantly searching for opportunities of escape. He deduced that it could be worse, they could've thrown him into some rank cell somewhere and left him to rot, but at least he wouldn't have had to share it with a damned guard.

Now that the idiot and Sakura had him and he had a hunter-nin practically attached at his hip, he doubted he wasn't going to get away without claw marks or even at all, but as of yet, Sasuke had never shied from a challenge. It might take a while, years even, but eventually there would be an opportunity and Sasuke would seize it. He positively seethed at the thought of putting off pursing Itachi for a few months much less years and not only that but he'd be betraying the village yet again and he knew that if they caught him a second time they wouldn't be so merciless. Their justice would be swift and precise and no amount of pleading from old teammates would stop his execution. However at this point, Sasuke didn't see any other alternative. He did hope however, that the Akatsuki would make a nuisance of itself by the time he was given mission privileges and he could take care of Itachi without breaking the law for a second time. He was in deep enough as it was.

The sound of Naruto's raucous voice echoed through the hall outside his room and he cursed silently. He didn't really want to deal with the blond, mostly because he had no idea how to even act around him. Naruto's behavior toward him wasn't altered in the slightest, in fact the blond acted as if he'd never even left. He was a bit more excitable at having his friend back, but that was about it and Sasuke despised him for it. He expected the moron to at least be cross or irritable with him or carry on an intense monologue about bonds and friendship. He wanted him to do something besides smile at him all the time and ramble on for hours about things that Sasuke didn't care about in the slightest. He expected some kind of retribution from the blond for abandoning him, but all he got were smiles and stories and playful insults. The boy was a goddamn ray of sunshine and it drove Sasuke mad.

Sakura however, was a different story. Much to his surprise he found he was much more comfortable around her than around the ever-hyper Uzumaki. She almost never smiled in his presence unless Naruto was there, and it was never at him. When he caught her staring at him, her emerald eyes were filled with distrust and slight suspicion, as if she were trying to figure out why he wasn't trying to leave and why he even let Naruto drag him back in the first place. He found out some days after he was back that she was apprenticed to the Hokage and had excelled in medical ninjutsu and (most regrettably) Tsunade's famed Iron Fist. He'd always known she had talent in chakra control and (his pride would never allow for him to say it out loud) was smarter than him. He commended her on her strength, however giving a girl who had a very short and very violent temper the ability to wield inhuman strength was—in his opinion—in very poor taste.

So far the days passed without incident, but Sasuke figured that was much do to his injuries. Once his recuperation was over, he'd probably be grilled mercilessly. He was already on Tsunade's bad side, hell he was on everyone's bad side save for Naruto. For once the idiot's blind faith in him was probably the best thing he had going for him right now. He never thought he'd see the day when he'd have to fully depend on Naruto. Sasuke felt absolutely defeated; he felt like he was going to boil alive in a cauldron of his own humiliation.

Sasuke could hear said boy arguing heatedly with someone in the hall, and judging by blond's voice, there was a lot of jumping around and wild gesturing. He heard his name once or twice, but Naruto was speaking so fast he didn't really bother to try and sort out the words.

There was a firm: "No!" And then Tsunade strode into his room, heels clacking determinedly on the hard floor.

"Come on baa-chan! Where else is he gonna stay?!" Naruto protested, following after her, his face scrunched up in irritation.

"Jail, if you don't get off my ass!" The Hokage snapped, spinning mid step to face him. She jabbed a finger at his chest "Your ludicrous demands are going to do nothing but anger the council and they'll shove his ass in prison with no chance of parole. He's a goddamn rogue ninja and if it weren't for his last name he'd probably be dead already. I've barely managed to convince them to let him stay in the hospital. I'm doing everything I can so stop being a little shit about it!"

Naruto blinked a couple of times, then he lowered his eyes into a pensive expression.

"It's really that bad?" He asked, his voice much lower.

"Probably worse. We're going to have to play this very delicately if we want to avoid a death sentence. The Land of Fire and Konoha takes traitors very seriously. Especially ones who go running off to work for the enemy." Tsunade replied, shooting a very pointed look at Sasuke, who sat calmly listening to their conversation.

She then went over to check the monitor that measured his vitals and lifted a few papers attached to a clipboard on the side before telling him to sit up.

"Does it still hurt to breathe?" She asked, hands roving his bandaged chest, glowing green and then that peculiar probing feeling of her chakra invaded his body.

"No."

She gave him a rather disbelieving look and intentionally jabbed his ribs. She grunted and shook her head when he winced in pain.

"Don't lie, I can't heal you properly if you lie to me. You and the idiot over there are one in the same, you both are stubborn and proud to the point of idiocy. You could be holding your entrails in and you'd insist it was just a flesh wound."

Naruto scoffed at that remark.

"We've got a little more sense than that baa-chan." He grumbled, obviously offended.

"Oh really? When you came home with a shattered femur and swore up and down that you were okay and it was just a "little bruise", that was good sense?"

Naruto scratched at the back of his head nervously and avoided her eyes. "Ah, well…"

"How did you manage to shatter your femur idiot?" Sasuke interjected, he didn't really mean to voice the question out loud, but it was significantly hard to shatter a bone that thick and his curiosity overcame his reserved and indifferent nature.

Tsunade's face took on an amused look and Naruto glared at the both of them.

"Just don't worry about it!" He said, crossing his arms, but Tsunade had other ideas.

"A tree fell on him." She said, a smirk playing at her lips as she eyed her favorite shinobi.

"Baa-chan!" Naruto exclaimed.

"…A tree? How did…" Sasuke said, raising an eyebrow at Naruto.

"Nevermind." Naruto snapped, cheeks flushed in embarrassment and eyes staring hard at the wall beside him.

Sasuke was silent for exactly three seconds before he practically started convulsing with barely contained, hysterical laughter. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he laughed, but the simple notion of a tree falling on Naruto was just so humiliatingly funny that he couldn't really help himself. That and the pain meds did weird things with his emotions.

"Stop laughing!"

Sasuke's "laughing" turned to grunts of pain as his ribs vehemently protested the action.

"Okay okay." Tsunade said, "Enough of that you're going to make it worse."

"It's your fault dobe." Sasuke said through clenched teeth as he managed to lie back without jarring his ribs too much. "You didn't have to kick me so hard."

"Yeah, well you didn't have to be such a pretentious asshole."

Sasuke shot him a glare for that, mildly surprised that Naruto even knew the meaning of pretentious. Maybe the blond idiot wasn't an idiot anymore.

"Well if you weren't so dense I wouldn't need to be."

"I'm not dense."

"No one is denser than you."

"Yeah well, no one is…more assholic than you!"

Nope. Still an idiot.

"That's not a word."

"That's not the point!"

Sasuke's voice stayed flat and low, but Naruto's went up a notch as the argument continued. He had a scowl on his face, but with the way his blue eyes were twinkling, it was evident that he was enjoying himself immensely.

Jiraiya then poked his head into the room, his expression imploring.

"What's going on in here, I can hear Naruto all the way down the hall."

"The children are playing." Tsunade said in irritated voice as she wrote on her clipboard trying her best to ignore the bickering between the two boys.

"Sensei!" Naruto shouted, a smile engulfing his face as the grizzly bear of a man entered the room.

"So I see my idiot of a student finally dragged you back home huh?" He remarked, looking from Sasuke to Naruto with eyebrows raised. "Probably kicking and screaming eh?"

"Like a little girl throwing a tantrum." Naruto retorted, looking over at Sasuke, who sat glaring at him.

"Don't exaggerate things up dobe." He shot, and then the argument commenced.

~*~

Sakura didn't trust Sasuke, and she knew that he could tell when she felt that reserved gaze on her. It was surprising really, how agreeable he was being. She had honestly expected him to fight and try and leave at the first chance he got, but there had been at least three separate times when he could've made a break for it, yet he had taken none. She highly doubted he wanted to be in the village, but Sasuke was smart, and he knew that trying to break free was certainly not in his best interest when he was facing imprisonment or worse. Sakura didn't think that they'd hand down a death sentence, not for him. She knew that none of the village elders cared for him as a person, but they needed his blood. The Sharingan was just too important to the village to lose. There were only two Uchiha members remaining and Itachi was inaccessible. They'd be harsh with him, perhaps even give him some kind of jail time, but they wouldn't execute him.

She visited him periodically either with Naruto or to check his recovery. His injuries had been extensive, and Sakura figured that the reason Naruto was treating their teammate so well was because he had taken all of his anger out on Sasuke's bones. In her opinion, Naruto hadn't beaten him enough. It sounded harsh, but they couldn't make Sasuke pay for his misdeeds with words, he was too indifferent to anyone but himself so he wouldn't feel bad, but they could make him understand by turning emotional pain into physical pain. It completely eluded her how a boy who was bent on revenge because his brother had betrayed his family, couldn't understand why his two teammates were so hurt by his own betrayal. What really made her blood boil, was the fact that he didn't seem to equate it as the same kind of pain and she wanted to punch his teeth in for it. He could be as dense and oblivious as Naruto, no matter how much he denied it.

When she got the Hokage's office at 3 in the morning, Naruto's injuries were already healing on account of the Kyuubi's chakra but Sasuke's bruises were barely beginning to show vividly and from the look on his face he was in what could only be described as a towering fury. That was probably one of the only times she'd been able to tell what he was feeling. Naruto looked as though he'd barely taken any hits, but Sasuke looked as though he'd been bested thoroughly. At first, she didn't really know what to say so she had scolded Naruto, but ignored Sasuke...that is until she discovered he'd been walking on a shattered patella. Then she shouted and cursed at him with much more intensity than she had at Naruto. She now realized that she hadn't really been screaming at him because of the injury, but because of...everything else he'd done. He had listened quietly while she ranted and swore, his face totally unreadable as always, so she didn't know if her words had made any kind of impact. That's what really drove her mad about Sasuke, she just didn't know when it came to him. That's something that hadn't changed about him. She never knew what he was thinking and she never knew what he was feeling. Whenever she looked at him, she was met with what felt like a towering cement wall thirty feet thick. Naruto's emotions showed clearly all over his face and in his movements, but Sasuke was the complete opposite and she didn't know which one of them was worse.

Whenever Sakura was feeling particularly troubled, she went to Ino.

"I don't even know what to do with him!" Sakura shouted, throwing her arms in air as she paced in front of Ino, who sat on a couch in the hospital break room, patiently enduring Sakura's extravagant rant.

"I mean I really am glad he's back, but I'm just so scared because…"

"He's going to leave again." Ino finished the sentence for her.

At that Sakura stop her pacing and dropped onto the couch, shoulders slumped.

"Yeah." She affirmed quietly.

"Naruto acts like he hasn't realized it, but I think he has, he just doesn't want to face reality yet. He's just so happy and when I think about how destroyed he—we were when that bastard left the first time I just..."

Ino looked at her friend with a sympathetic expression. She couldn't imagine what it must be like to lose a teammate and get them back after so long, only to know that they're going to leave again.

"Maybe he won't leave. Maybe you can convince him to stay and wait and go after Itachi with the village's okay. You know as well as I do that the Akatsuki are becoming more and more of a threat, and eventually we're going to have eliminate them."

"I don't know…you know how Sasuke is. Besides no one else can touch Itachi." Sakura replied, eyes downcast.

"I heard he was strong but…" Ino began, but Sakura cut her off.

"No," She said with a shake of her head, "That's not what I meant. Itachi is Sasuke's to kill, if anyone takes that away from him…I mean it's all he's lived for the past eight years."

Ino frowned, just like everyone else, a good solution that would benefit everyone was beyond her.

"What does Tsunade-sama think?" She asked

Sakura's eyes were distant as the moon as she looked out the window to observe the children playing in the courtyard.

"She said, and I quote 'I don't know what to fucking do about any of this.'"

Ino chuckled and let out a deep sigh.

"I think the best thing to do right now forehead, is to just do nothing. Let things settle down, let the elders get a hold of their anger. No one can think rationally when they're full of anger and shock. He's an Uchiha, what matters is that they won't kill him. They won't let him off scott-clean either, so it's safe to say they'll decide on something in between."

Sakura turned her head to her oldest friend and gave her a small smile.

"Thanks Ino, you're right."

"I know. Now get out of here! Some of us actually have work to do."

~*~

Rena met Sakura on her way up to Sasuke's room.

"Oh," The girl said, evaluating the lack of uniform.

"I was told it was okay to wear normal gear. It's too dangerous for me to be in that uniform for long periods of time, and it's apparent that Sasuke isn't going to try anything."

Sakura nodded in understanding, and pressed the button for floor 3. She noticed that Rena had a troubled look on her face, but nearly all ANBU members had a perpetual troubled expression and normally it was about issues that they couldn't disclose, so Sakura said nothing.

While they made their way up, Rena fought with her nerves. It had been so long, or it felt that way.

She had been informed this morning by the night guard that the Hunter get up was no longer necessary, they just wanted Sasuke to be aware of the kind of security he was under. They had given her the choice to either remain wearing the uniform (but to exercise extreme caution when doing so) or to wear her normal ninja attire which was just a standard issue ANBU uniform. She had chosen to lose the Hunter attire, moving through the village was much easier, but she struggled with whether or not to don the mask.

Was it too early? Should she wait until Sasuke was out of the hospital? She fought with the two questions until the elevator dinged and the doors opened for the third floor.

There was no point in waiting she decided, clipping the mask to her belt and focused getting her scrambled nerves in order before they reached his room.

As they moved down the hall, Rena reached out, and felt the warm, light buzz of Naruto's aura and the similar one belonging to Tsunade. Sasuke's aura was smooth as always, but there was a subtle edge to it, signifying that he was agitated.

The discussion that was going on cut off when they entered the room.

~*~

The Hokage had been talking about the court dates, and Sasuke had been pinching the bridge of his nose in an attempt to quell the headache that was beginning to form just behind his eyes when the door to the room slid open. There were the footsteps of two people, but he didn't bother opening his eyes, he didn't really care who it was.

"Rena!" Naruto shouted, "Man it's been forever! Since….since…" Naruto said excitedly.

"Since last week." A quiet, reserved voice responded, and Sasuke's eyes flew open. He knew that voice. His eyes snapped to the door.

The girl who Naruto had called Rena stood next to Sakura, clad in an ANBU uniform, pale hair pulled up and hands shoved in her pockets. He almost didn't recognize her. It was Dante, but at the same time, it wasn't.

For one, her appearance had changed drastically. Her skin was darker, almost a golden color. Her hair, which before, had been as black as his, was now a brilliant silvery white and she had that strong, thin physique that only intense training could produce. But there was more than that, her demeanor and air was totally different, instead of the outgoing, exuberant air he knew, she now radiated the kind of calm lethality that all highly trained shinobi emitted. She held herself higher, with more confidence and the way she stood looked casual, but he could see the very subtle taught, alert tensing of someone who had their guard up despite being surrounded by trusted individuals. He suspected that was a result of ANBU training.

The only thing that hadn't changed were the color of her eyes. They were very same golden color that he remembered, but as they moved to his they were filled nothing but flint. As she looked at him, there was no trace of recognition or even relative interest and she quickly moved them back to the speaking Hokage. Either she had been warped by the village, or she didn't want show that she knew him. Sasuke found himself hoping on the latter.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Sasuke felt pangs of surprise.

"The elders want to hold multiple court dates and don't seem to think it's total bullshit." Tsunade said in an exasperated voice as the two girls entered.

Rena had entered the room after Sakura, but avoided looking at Sasuke right away, she couldn't afford to let on that she knew him as anything but a traitor to the village. So she quickly scanned the rest of the room before finally bringing her eyes to him. Luckily he sat up with his eyes closed and pinching the bridge of his nose, which is what he always did when he was irritated about something.

"Rena!" Naruto shouted, moving to look around Tsunade and throw her a huge smile. "Man it's been forever! Since…since…"

"Since last week." She responded quietly, and though she wasn't looking at him, she didn't miss Sasuke's eyes opening and darting in her direction, clearly recognizing her voice.

She chose then to look at him, but let nothing show through. There was not a flash of recognition or acknowledgement despite the fact that she was exulting inside. She regarded him with disinterest and then moved her eyes to Tsunade.

It felt absolutely wonderful to finally see him and suddenly it felt like she could breathe again. It felt as though she had been sick for so long and her sinuses finally cleared. Being away from him had put a huge weight on her and having him in the same room lifted that weight.

~*~

The battle against the elders regarding the trial went on for days. Tsunade was ready to pull out her hair in frustration, so Naruto and Sakura both avoided her when they could.

As it was getting closer to Sasuke's court date, Sakura decided it was time to get Naruto back on ground level, and it didn't take long before she cornered him at Ichiraku.

"Naruto, I have to talk to you about something." She said, sitting down.

The blond boy turned to her, cheeks full of ramen and eyebrows raised.

"Oh, ey akura-an!"

"Oh swallow your food!" She said, face scrunched up in mild disgust.

Naruto gulped down what was in his mouth and wiped the broth from his chin with his sleeve. She really needed to sit him down and work on his manners…like it would do any good…

"Sorry Sakura-chan. What's up?" He asked, his tone lighthearted.

"It's about Sasuke-kun."

Naruto paused his chopsticks midair, muttered "what about him?" and then continued slurping the noodles.

"I think you know Naruto." She said firmly. "And we need to talk about it. You can't avoid it forever."

The blond sighed and lowered his bit of pork back into the bowl.

"I thought it was gonna be a good night too…" He uttered, looking forlornly down at his bowl.

"Naruto!"

"Okay, okay. This is about the teme leaving again isn't it?"

"Yeah. Are you prepared for it?"

Naruto's brow furrowed. "Yeah. I just…if he leaves I'm gonna go after him and break both his legs. Then I'm gonna drag him right back."

Sakura sighed, she should've guessed as much.

"Naruto, if he leaves again and we bring him back, they'll kill him." She said quietly.

His head shot up and his blue eyes were filled with disbelief.

"No…"

"Yes Naruto. They won't forgive a second offense, Sharingan or no Sharingan. If he defects again, we're going to have to let him go unless we want to watch him die."

Naruto bristled with anger.

"But if the bastard goes after Itachi he could die anyway!"

"Then…" Sakura began, but she found she didn't have a response.

"I'm not saying he will leave, the village is going to keep him under a magnifying glass for god knows how long. I'm just saying we need to be prepared to face reality in case he does."

Naruto grew silent for a moment.

"Stupid laws, stupid Sasuke, stupid clan, stupid fucking Itachi." Naruto cursed under his breath as he dug around in his pockets for money. Finding it, he threw it on the counter and slid off the stool.

"I'm gonna go home Sakura-chan," His voice deflated and distant, "I'll see ya later."

Sakura watched his back before he rounded a corner, shoulders slumped and head bowed. She hated upsetting him, but there wasn't any other way. He had to start thinking about what would happen should their teammate decide to leave again. She started to think that Sasuke's return was causing more pain than anything else.

~*~

Naruto roamed the streets of Konoha aimlessly, mind racing with what Sakura had told him. Although it sounded awful, it did make sense. Forgiveness wasn't typically handed down to traitors the first time around, much less the second and Naruto figured Sasuke knew that too. He also had the feeling that Sasuke didn't really give a shit. Revenge was all the bastard cared about and Naruto knew he'd do whatever it took to get to Itachi, no matter who it hurt.

Naruto shook his head, he just didn't understand it, and so he went looking for someone who might be able to shed some light everything.

He found Kakashi lounging on the rooftop of a bakery with a wheat donut in one hand and his pervy book in the other.

~*~
Kakashi had fully planned on ignoring his former student when he felt his chakra jump onto the awning beside him, but one look at the kid's haunted expression, and he put his book down.

Before he could even ask what was going on, Naruto dropped down into a cross-legged position and spilled everything. He was completely uncertain about what do concerning their dearly returned teammate and Naruto hated being unsure of anything.

For the first half hour or so, Naruto did all the talking, ranting more like it, and Kakashi just listened. When it was apparent that Naruto wasn't going to stop anytime soon, he resumed reading where he left off.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed, stopping mid-rant with a scowl on his face.

"What? I can do two things at once Naruto, if you'll remember the first time we trained together. I'm still listening."

The blond frowned and eyed his teacher's book hatefully, but continued.

"I just don't understand why he's so bent on it. I mean it won't really make anything better, he has to know that, and Itachi could kill him! He could have such a good life here and he's willing to throw it all away. I just don't get it."

Kakashi pursed his lips under his mask.

"A man who has never walked a mile has no real conception of what a mile is." He said cryptically.

"Kakashi-sensei, that doesn't make any sense." Naruto responded irritably, his face clearly showing that the expression went right over his head.

The man sighed heavily and tried a different route. No one ever understood his expressions. He didn't even know why he tried with Naruto at all. Nothing but direct, blunt wording would work with this kid; put any kind of deeper phrasing or roundabout explanations in there and it was like explaining wind theory to a monkey. So he put the book down, sat up and got down to business. This was a monologue that was far overdue.

"Naruto, you didn't have to watch the death of your family by the one person you trusted and loved more than anyone. That's an entire other universe of betrayal that you've had the good fortune to never experience. Sasuke knows that revenge won't bring anything more than fleeting satisfaction and he knows full well what he could have here, but what you two don't seem to realize, is that he doesn't care. Look at this way, Sasuke wants to kill his brother the way that you want to become Hokage. Don't you always say that you'll stop at nothing until you reach that goal?" Kakashi paused expectantly, wanting interaction from his student to make sure he was understanding.

"Yeah of course!"

"Well that's how it is for Sasuke, but perhaps a little more deep seated; you wouldn't kill anyone to be Hokage, but Sasuke wouldn't think twice. You and Sakura are—and have always been—completely selfish when it comes to him. You want him back in the village because you, want it, but have you ever looked at what he wants? Naruto, Sasuke doesn't want the same life that you want and he certainly doesn't want it here. I'm not even sure he knows what he's going to do after he kills Itachi, he probably hasn't even thought about it. To be frank, Sasuke probably doesn't expect to survive the encounter. Your purpose in life is to become Hokage, to nurture and protect the village, his purpose is to kill his brother and that's it, no more. Your teammate has had everything he ever loved ripped away from him by his own brother, so you'll have to forgive him for being a little cold-hearted. You don't understand because you've had a different set of experiences, and you should be glad you don't understand. Sasuke carries a pain that you don't ever want to feel. Like I've always said Naruto, you've got to look underneath the underneath."

Kakashi finished what he had to say, and resumed reading, while keeping Naruto's face in his peripheral vision. The blond was frowning.

"I…." He began, but stopped and frowned again.

"That and Sasuke is an Uchiha." Kakashi added. "They're so sentimental it's almost sickening."

"Sentimental?" Naruto lifted his eyes to his teacher, "Sasuke is not sentimental."

"Oh really? If that's how you feel." Kakashi replied absently, not taking his eye from the book.

Naruto ground his teeth. The last remark was most definitely a dismissal, Kakashi had said everything he had to say on the subject and had decided, as always, to leave the decision making up to him.

"Stupid books." Naruto muttered under his breath before moving to jump from the roof.

A moment after he had jumped out of sight, his blond head popped back up momentarily.

"Thanks Kakashi-sensei." He said.

The copy ninja saluted in response, and then Naruto was gone. It didn't escape Kakashi that he was headed in the direction of the hospital.