Oh. My. God. Canon Naruto shonen-ai! Manga scan... go look at it! I uploaded a pic into my livejournal, the link's in the website portion of my bio.

Yes, I am aware that this it's been two weeks since the last chapter. Yes, I'm aware this chapter is short. I really, really needed a break! But aside from that, I now have a beanie-baby racoon and a beanie-baby fox- I have decided to call them Gaara and Naruto. I am obsessed. Oh, and I found a manga pic of the Leader that really supports my theories about him. Hehehe.


Sunrise, Sunset: Part Nine

Weight of the World

A kunai whistled through the air at Naruto, who dodged it easily. He rocked back on his heels with a grin, blue eyes defiant. "Is that all you got? Maybe you're losing your touch."

"Perhaps we should work on whatever jutsu you took from the library," Itachi suggested evenly. Naruto's humor was something that he did not appreciate, no matter how "interesting" the Leader thought that it was.

Naruto scratched the back of his head ruefully. "Oh, that? Was I supposed to make it last? I suppose I could have tried less hard last night... Anyway, I totally nailed it. Got any others?"

Itachi looked completely impassive, but he was silent for several moments longer than he normally would have been. The Akatsuki library had only A-Class and S-Class scrolls. It didn't take Itachi any than Naruto to master one of them, though it depended on the scroll. He was more than surprised that someone like Naruto could figure one out in less than a day when Itachi, at least, used his Sharingan to memorize the words so he wouldn't have to keep looking back at it.

"Which scroll did you choose?"

Practically bouncing where he stood, Naruto said eagerly, "Well, see, the Leader-guy said that one of the soul transference or sealing jutsu would be the best, so I took a scroll that turned out to be kinda like those Yamanaka Mind-Transfer Jutsu. Except you don't go into another person's mind and shut them down and stuff, you sorta put a piece of your mind into an object." He smiled widely. "If I can manage to make the object move with my chakra and keep track of what I'm doing at the same time, I can totally whip Sasuke and Orochimaru without even blinking."

Itachi knew about the jutsu that Naruto was talking about, the Object-Mind Transfer Jutsu. He had never learned it because he had never seen the point, especially when one knew the Shadow Clone Jutsu and didn't need to rely on that sort of petty trick for reinforcements, but he had glanced over the scroll once. Knowing how difficult it was, he was, against all odds, starting to feel the slightest touch of respect for Naruto. Though Naruto's skills for planning ahead did appear somewhat lacking.

"How exactly could such a jutsu take down my little brother?"

The word choice had not been a wise one: calling Sasuke his little brother had reminded Naruto exactly who he was talking. "Se-cret," he said, still smiling despite his veiled eyes. Itachi studied him for a moment before looking away. Naruto wasn't going to tell.

"Choose another scroll." Naruto brightened, but he looked confused when he realized Itachi was following him. "I'm going with you." He wanted to know which one Naruto chose. If the fox kept choosing hard scrolls like that one and rushing the learning in one night, even if he was a genius like Itachi he would still break down or even die. Though that would solve many of Itachi's problems, he was willing to bet it would make Sasuke even angrier with him. Which was redundant, since the Leader was the one that wanted Naruto here, not Itachi.

Unfortunately, Sasuke wouldn't be likely to think that far ahead.


It was on their way out of the library that they met with the Leader. His sudden appearance was quite startling, and where Naruto actually jumped back, Itachi managed to avoid anything other than a slight flinch.

"What is it with you people and being all sneaky?" Naruto linked his hands behind his head, trying to calm his racing heart with seeming nonchalance. Fierce crimson eyes laughed at him.

"I want to look at the seal of the Nine-Tailed Fox." The words were said plainly and honestly instead of with the trickery that could have accompanied them. Naruto appreciated that, truly.

"No." He saw Itachi shift his weight back out of the corner of his eye so that he was as far away from his Leader as possible. It was good for a shinobi to be cautious. Naruto realized that, it just wasn't in his nature. "You'll be able to do something freaky with it and kill me or unleash the Kyuubi or something and since it won't be direct it won't violate the deal."

A fine red eyebrow arched. "Interesting, but no, I'm afraid not. The seal is imbedded into your chakra. It would be impossible to remove it without killing you."

Naruto huffed loudly. "Well, then, why do you want to see it?"

The Leader rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly, fingers gliding over the ball-ends of his bridge-piercings. "I wish to study it. I know the original jutsu, but this one was modified in a unique way for its purpose."

"And you just want to study it and not use it for evil."

"It sounds like you don't believe me. Why am I not surprised? If I used it, it would kill me. Why else would the Fourth be dead when he succeeded in his purpose?"

The grin that split Naruto's face was almost comical. Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, he said, "Okay, you've got a point. It probably wouldn't hurt too much to look at it. For a second. In which you don't put a creepy seal like Orochimaru did around the fox's seal. Are you sure you're not going to do something evil?"

The answering smile was not in the least comforting. "Of course I am. It shouldn't harm you, the Uchiha boy, or Konoha though."

"You're a scary man."

Naruto fell into step behind the Leader, Itachi following him without a word, and he muttered under his breath, "Though you probably just want to rub your creepy hands all over my stomach like everyone else."

The Leader started laughing. "Don't worry. I have absolutely no ulterior motives to want to touch your belly-button, Uzumaki."


It felt so strange to be nearly free of Orochimaru. The castle had been so unpleasant at times, full of the Sannin's experiments and his minions. Sasuke could do what he had always wanted to do now that he had killed the weakened Orochimaru. He would start searching for Itachi, picking up jutsu along the way until his powers could rival those of his brother's.

"Will you stop brooding, Uchiha-san? Your non-expression irks me." Suigetsu's voice was far too grating for Sasuke's taste, but the man would make a strong companion and, as Sasuke had said to him when they had first met, they wouldn't have to get along to work together.

"Are you sure we have to pick up those two?"

"Why do you always whine?" Sasuke snapped.

The other man snorted at him in response, crossing his arms over his chest. Sasuke sighed and wondered what Suigetsu would do if he realized that Orochimaru wasn't quite dead, as he had assumed. After all, Naruto got an extra passenger. There was no reason why Sasuke shouldn't have one too, despite how unwanted said "passenger" might be.

"Can't you go any faster? If we have to get those idiots I want to get them quickly."

Sasuke was being reminded, strongly, of another teammate who had whined. It was unfortunate that it didn't appear likely Suigetsu would change. Sasuke sped up and imagined tossing Suigetsu near a fire and seeing if he would steam like the water he could turn into at will. Imagining tossing Suigetsu anywhere was actually very soothing.

Karin and Juugo were the next he wanted to pick up for his team, and then they would be able to do what Sasuke wanted to do. He was not going to be held back with the losers anymore.


Itachi was practicing again late at night. The weapons swished through the air, thudded into the target, and were brought back by the flicker of motion from a strong, pale hand. He was good at it, but Naruto had known that before he had begun watching. Instead of actually paying attention to what he was doing, he appeared to be deep in thought. The motions of throwing and retrieving seemed to be more of a meditation than anything else; it was obvious that Itachi had no need for the practice.

Watching him was soothing as well. The light wavered against his long hair, which Naruto could see nearly reached the small of his back when he turned. Every move that he made was smooth and practiced, but looked graceful instead of rehearsed. There was only so much that Naruto could see in the dark, but it seemed like more emotions crossed Itachi's face here, in this private black place where all that existed was the swish and thud of kunai, than they did in the light of day.

Back in Konoha, they had been getting so nervous about letting Naruto leave the village. They were so worried about the Nine-Tailed Fox somehow getting loose or stolen by the Akatsuki, and here Naruto was, stolen by the Akatsuki and feeling more free than he had in some time.

He dropped his head onto his arms, folded against the window sill. The thought was a heavy one and brought Naruto into sleep as he watched Itachi mechanically loose a kunai at the target.

An even heavier thought, perhaps, was that he was starting to like Itachi. It wasn't much, but it was there and it added to the weight. Naruto slept badly that night.


You know, the "se-cret" doesn't exactly work if it's not in Japanese (which is "hi-mi-tsu" I think), but I had to do it. It begged me to, honest! In terms of Itachi's jutsu-learning abilties, the Sharingan can only copy jutsu or motions that it sees. I figured that any scroll learning Itachi would have to do himself, but since he graduated from the Academy so young, he's also smart enough to not really need the Sharingan to be amazing. Oh, and Suigetsu, Karin, and Juugo are canon, just in case you haven't seen Shippuden. I wish I knew what color hair/eyes were. S'not fair... Review and make me feel better!