Recap:

"Simple… you're always happier in the winter." Sasuke giggled and leaned back into Itachi's chest before looking up at the clear night sky.

"Things are just getting started." Itachi chuckled and tightened his hold but didn't say a word as the fireflies continued to blink around them.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Writing

Flashbacks

Announcements

"Kyuubi talking"

Love will never die

Chapter 4

X- 2 years later-X

Sasuke put on a fake smile as she left the Hokage's tower. Surprisingly the news about Itachi and her engagement hadn't gotten out and no one suspected a thing. She was happy about it and yet worry chewed at her. Itachi was still out on his mission, it was supposed to be a 2 month mission but that was three months ago, but she still believed in him. As she walked a loud voice called out to her.

"Sasuke-chan!" the raven turned around and saw Sakura waving at her to wait up. The pinkette was pulling along a man with black hair and a completely green ensemble. When she caught up Sasuke patiently waited for her to catch her breath.

"Are you doing any missions today?" Sasuke shook her head.

"No I was going to grab some lunch then go and train." Sakura's eyes sparkled.

"Oh do you mind if we join you?" Sasuke tilted her head in mild curiosity but shrugged. Over the years Sakura had lost her crush on Naruto and had become hesitant friends with Sasuke.

"I don't see why not, oh and it's nice to see you again Lee-kun." The green clad man smiled brightly and gave her a thumbs up.

"Oh most youthful Sasuke-chan I haven't seen you in a long time. It is indeed wonderful to see you out and about." Sasuke smiled but inwardly winced at his loud voice. Sakura quickly gave Lee's arm a sharp tug and the man quieted down.

"Lee-kun remember what I told you… you don't have to shout everything you say." Lee sheepishly smiled and nodded before lowering his voice.

"Sorry Sasuke-chan but it is nice to see you again." Sasuke smiled back, this time thankful his voice was normal.

"That's perfectly alright Lee-kun, so you two wish to join me for lunch?" Sakura nodded and led the other two down the street. They were about to enter the old dango shop when another loud voice called out to them.

"Oi! Sakura-chan! Come and have some ramen with us." Sakura hesitated but Lee's smile instantly brightened before he pulled the two girls over to the blond.

"Oh youthful Naruto-kun we will be glad to join you." Sasuke sighed but smiled as she was dragged into a place she never really liked. Naruto smiled and looked over everyone, seeing as he had finally caught up to his dad in height. When his gaze landed on Sasuke his eyes sparkled but he just turned back to the table.

"Come on guys, we're having a mini celebration about me finally making jounin." Sakura smiled as she took a seat next to Lee.

"Well it's about time; I thought you would never catch up to us." The blond whined at the joke but smiled and dug into his ramen. Sasuke finally looked around the group and saw that Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, and Sai were also sitting at the table enjoying their own ramen. Sai gave her a weird smile.

"So Sasuke-chan how have you been?" Sasuke smiled back and leaned her arms against the table.

"Alright I guess, I have a mission coming up in a few days but I'm going to ask Hokage-sama if I can postpone it until Itachi-kun gets back." Sakura frowned and looked over at the younger teen.

"Itachi-san still hasn't returned?" Sasuke sighed but shook her head, sadness briefly flashing across her features before being quickly replaced by a small smile.

"No but I'm sure he'll be back any day." Sakura bit her lip but didn't say anything. Sai just continued to smile.

"I'm sure he will return." Sasuke smiled back before standing up and gaining everyone's attention. Sakura pouted.

"Where are you going Sasuke-chan? You didn't even eat anything." The raven-haired teen gave her a strained smile.

"It's alright Sakura-chan… I don't really like ramen, I'll just eat something at home." The pinkette hesitated but nodded and let her leave.

X-X

Tsunade's gasped as she watched three blood covered ninja get carried through the hospital doors. A second later she jumped into action and began shouting orders. Nurses and medic ninja carried the injured bodies into separate operating rooms and quickly began working to save the three's lives.

Tsunade stayed with the worst of the three and immediately started healing what she could, there was so much damage and the man's blood was quickly draining from his body. Tsunade focused on stopping the bleeding and 3 hours later she sighed in relief as the blood began to clot. She turned to the nurses helping her.

"Bring me some blood tablets and set up a room in ICU, I've finally got him stable. How are the other two?" one of the nurses rushed out of the room only to return seconds later with the required items.

"Shin and Tara were stabilized roughly an hour ago and placed in standard rooms." Tsunade nodded but once the sentence sank in she paled and snapped her gaze up to the nurse.

"Who?" the poor nurse squeaked.

"Shin and Tara… the siblings." Tsunade paled and slowly dropped her gaze to the bloody mess in front of her. She gasped and her eyes saddened immensely.

"Oh Kami… Itachi… what happened?" the tall raven-haired ninja lay on the operation table blood staining his pale skin, the only signs of life being the brief rise and fall of his bloody chest. Tsunade kept her eyes on Itachi as she addressed the nurse. "Go inform the Hokage that Anbu team 1 has returned from its mission… I'll finish up here." The nurse slowly nodded and ran out of the room.

Tsunade sighed once she was gone and began to carefully clean the blood off Itachi before wrapping up his wounds in clean white bandages. A nurse came in with a clean bed and they moved Itachi over to it before attaching a new IV to his arm and rolling him into a room. Tsunade carefully checked Itachi's eyes and saw they looked… off so she placed a light cloth over his eyes and a breathing mask over his mouth and nose.

"Lady Tsunade… Tara is awake." Tsunade nodded and looked over the unconscious ninja once more before following the nurse from the room. When she entered Tara's room the brunette's eyes snapped to her and filled with relief.

"Thank Kami, Tsunade-san please tell me what's happening with Shin and Itachi." Tsunade sighed and checked over the girl's monitors.

"I haven't seen Shin yet but they told me he was stable… Itachi on the other hand… What happened?" Tara paled and instantly dropped her gaze to the sheet in front of her. A calm voice spoke from the doorway making them both look up.

"I would like to know that too." Minato stepped into the room and closed the door behind him after letting the nurse scurry out.

"Our mission went perfectly fine, everything went as we thought it would, it just took a little more time, but then Itachi thought it was too simple… nothing happened during the mission… it was on the way back that things went wrong." Minato nodded and sat down next to Tara's bed.

"What happened?" Tara took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"We were two and a half weeks over the dead line and we were still a day's travel away from Konoha when we were ambushed. We were able to defeat them without a problem but they were just a distraction… A man came out and began attacking us… he was so much stronger then we were, it was insane how easily he brushed off our attacks. Only Itachi's seemed to connect… he seemed more interested in him anyway but when we wouldn't let him fight Itachi directly he directed attacks toward us… I never saw anything like it…" She paused as if remembering the fight but quickly shook her head and continued.

"Itachi saved us from getting hit by the full force of the attacks but he got hit instead… the man went to make his next attack but Itachi did something… we never saw it before but he closed one eye and his sharingan changed then he… made black flames? I didn't know what they were but when they attached to the man him screamed and tried to put them out but nothing was working so he… vanished. He left us there and once he was gone the flames disappeared and Itachi collapsed." The two blonds looked worried but Minato turned extremely serious.

"Did he say what his name was?" Tara slowly nodded.

"Orochimaru." Tsunade paled and turned quickly to Minato.

"What are we going to do about this? If Orochimaru is after Itachi…" Minato sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"He's making us act now…" Tara looked lost at the conversation and Minato turned back to her.

"You three are lucky to be alive… I'm not surprised that you don't remember him; you all were young when he left the village. Orochimaru is one of the three Sanin, but he was banished from the village many years ago for human experimentation… he was obsessed with gaining power and living forever, which led him to going after children with special blood lines." Tara gasped.

"You mean he went after Itachi before?" Minato nodded.

"He tried but he underestimated Itachi's power and was chased from the village… he wants Itachi's sharingan and since Itachi is the last Uchiha… but I think now he understands that he will never be able to overpower Itachi." Tara sighed and leaned back against the bed.

"Should we worry about him?" Minato gave her a small smile.

"No, he's probably off licking his wounds. Who you should worry about is Sasuke; she has been worried sick since you three missed your dead line." Tara grimaced and looked at the ground.

"In all honesty I forgot completely about her… Shin and I were more worried about getting Itachi back here." Minato nodded in understanding.

"I understand, don't worry I've been keeping her distracted lately so that should give Tsunade time to heal him." Tara sighed again and suddenly she felt exhausted, she looked toward the other blond.

"Please take care of them." Tsunade smiled and nodded.

"I will… now get some rest." Tara nodded back and quickly slipped into unconsciousness. The two blonds left the room and closed the door behind them.

"Are you sure Orochimaru won't try anything?" Minato sighed.

"No but since Itachi was able to defeat him while protecting his teammates he should be put off enough to stay away for a while." Tsunade frowned and led the way back down the hall to Itachi's room.

"Let's just hope he doesn't find out about Sasuke… that's pretty much Itachi's only weakness." Minato softly shook his head as they entered the quiet room.

"If he does I'm sure Itachi won't let him near her." Tsunade nodded and gently removed the cloth from Itachi's eyes.

"Now I need to know what he did with his eyes." Minato frowned and watched as the medic examined Itachi's cloudy eyes, but frowned when he saw the red leaking through the bandages around his torso.

"He's still injured." Tsunade sighed and replaced the cloth over Itachi's eyes and followed Minato's gaze.

"I didn't even recognize him when he came in… if I kept going I would run out of chakra. Later I'll be able to heal him some more, but it'll still take a few days before he's completely healed… that is if I focus solely on him." Minato nodded.

"We can't do anything about his eyes until he wakes up and tells us what's going on." Tsunade growled and bit her lip.

"It's something to do with his sharingan but… I don't know what. This boy is nothing but trouble." Minato chuckled and patted her shoulder immediately lightening the atmosphere.

"But we wouldn't want him any other way." Tsunade smiled back and nodded, she gave Itachi one more look over before leaving the room with the Hokage. "Sasuke-chan is about to go on a mission… see if you can keep Itachi being here a secret. I don't need Sasuke worried and refusing missions." Tsunade nodded and looked up at Minato.

"If he wakes up I'll send word to you." Minato nodded and gently shook his head before leaving with "This job is gonna kill me one day." Thrown over his shoulder. Tsunade smiled and glanced back at Itachi's closed door before going to check on Shin.

X-X

Sasuke sighed again as she left another occupied training field. 'Looks like everyone is training today… I guess I'll go use the Uchiha ones, they should be empty.' The genin squad that was using the field snickered at her retreating back before returning back to their training.

The Uchiha section of the village, as it was now called, was peacefully empty as she walked down the street, it seemed like no one was home. Sadness suddenly flashed into her mind as she remembered walking with Itachi and how he always seemed to make her smile. But he wasn't here and from what she gathered he wouldn't be back for a while.

"There you are… I thought you'd never come here." Sasuke looked up, pulling herself from her thoughts as Naruto stepped off the wall of one of the houses and blocked her path. Sasuke tilted her head in confusion.

"Naruto-kun? What are you doing here?" the blond smiled as he came to a stop in front of Sasuke.

"I was looking for you." Sasuke's confusion turned to suspicion as she looked him over.

"And why would you be looking for me?" Naruto's smile widened and he put his hands in his pockets. Sasuke took a small step back and a dark voice spoke in her mind.

"I don't like this kit." Sasuke inwardly nodded her agreement as she stared at the blond suspiciously.

'I know… something is off about this. Kyuubi-san why is he here?'

"I'm not sure, but he's up to something… stay on your toes." Sasuke's eyes sharpened as Naruto slowly removed his hand from his pocket and held it in a fist before her.

"Oh I thought you'd be interested in what I found in the forest. I was on a patrol when I found it." Sasuke head tilted in curiosity once again as she suspiciously looked at Naruto's hand. The blonde's smile widened as he opened three of his finger so she could see what he was holding and he wouldn't drop it. Sasuke's eyes widened as her eyes landed on the necklace that she had given Itachi; from where she was standing she could see the dried blood that coated most of it.

"W-where did you…?" Naruto looked down at the bloody necklace and shrugged.

"I said I found it and I did, it was out in the forest next to a bloody tree." Sasuke gasped but Naruto ignored it. "I thought it looked familiar, it was Itachi's… and by the amount of blood I saw I'm guessing he didn't make it." Sasuke's eyes watered but she refused to let the tears fall.

"Why are you telling me this?" Naruto frowned and started tossing Itachi's necklace up and down in his hand.

"I figured since Itachi's gone you no longer have a body guard and I need some arm candy." Sasuke sadness quickly turned into disbelief as she stared at Naruto, watching him carelessly throw around the necklace. Her disbelief slowly churned in her heart until it morphed into anger, she closed her eyes and bit her lip as she tried to calm down.

"Kit you need to get to Minato, remember he told you to go to him if something like this happened again?" Sasuke clinched a slightly shaking hand and opened her eyes. Naruto gasped and took a few steps back as he looked into the red tinted eyes before him. He had never seen her eyes like that before, they weren't red enough and lacked the spinning black commas to be the sharingan, but they held the same intimidating gaze. Sasuke glared daggers are the blond and in a flash appeared behind him, holding the necklace tightly in both hands. Naruto frowned as he turned to the younger teen.

"What the hell are you?" Sasuke's shoulder barely shook as she continued to clutch Itachi's necklace but her voice came out much darker than normal.

"If you ever come near our home without your father's permission… I will kill you." Naruto immediately took five steps back and gaped at the visible red chakra that started to swirl around Sasuke. She slowly turned around and locked her reddish eyes with his blue ones. "Leave." Naruto gulped and quickly disappeared in a swirl of wind. Once he was gone Sasuke growled and clinched her fists tighter.

"Kit calm down… you don't need those idiot jounin thinking I broke the seal. I'm sure everything is fine, let's go see Minato and he'll clear everything up." Sasuke took several deep breaths before the red chakra lessened and her eyes returned to normal.

'You're right Kyuubi-san… I just can't handle the thought of something happening to Itachi-kun.' She mentally saw the giant fox nod its furry head before wrapping one of it imaginary tails around Sasuke's mind filling her with a soft and warm feeling. She smiled and took one more deep breath before turning and dashing toward the tower.

TBC

Ha you thought I'd never mention the awesome Kyuubi! Well I just proved you wrong! Hee hee.

I know you're wondering so Sasuke and the Kyuubi get along better than the eight tails and killer bee.

When they first spoke Kyuubi was mad and told Sasuke why but when she explained what happened out here he calmed down and after a few months accepted the facts and helped Sasuke anyway he could.

… OH OH! Yes I did so just have Naruto hit on Sasuke! I bet you didn't see that coming!

Anyways as always reviews!