Author's Note: And here we go with another arc! Just as a heads-up: between getting this thing beta'd and having a dissertation to work on, updates might be a little more sporadic from here on out. But I have a plan and plenty of drive left, so don't worry! I'm going to finish this thing if it kills me. ... and it's certainly threatening to.


9. got the smell of a local man

Team Seven finally had a day off, and Sasuke was spending it the way he'd spent most of his scarce free time for the last month: arguing with Naruto.

"But c'mon, Haku's really strong," Naruto said as they were leaving Ichiraku after lunch, "he'd be an awesome ally! He already knows lots about spying and Akatsuki and stuff, he could be really useful."

"I just don't think he'd be interested," Sasuke said, because he still hadn't figured out a tactful way to tell Naruto that he wasn't sure Haku was interested in being a shinobi at all anymore, let alone joining their Itachi investigation. The older boy trained with the team sometimes, mostly speed exercises with Sasuke, but otherwise he seemed content to stay at Naruto's apartment and drift around Konoha, working occasional shifts at Ichiraku and getting called "miss" a lot.

Besides, Haku had liked Zabuza. He'd probably end up getting a crush on Itachi and betraying them, and then Sasuke would have to kill him for real.

"He'd totally care!" Naruto insisted. "You're his friend too, yanno! You never want to let anyone help, even if they'd be good at it..."

Sasuke muttered, "I let you help," and, trying to head off further argument, said, "Is it still okay for me to stay over for a while?"

"Yeah, yeah, of course it's fine," said Naruto, instantly diverted. "Who's gonna complain, yanno? My place'll be kinda cramped with all three of us, but it'll be fun, and if the weather stays nice we can go camp out or something... Bet Haku'll love that!" He stretched his arms and said, "How long's Itachi gonna be gone, anyway? Must be a long time if he's okay with you staying over..."

Sasuke shrugged; he hadn't actually told Itachi that he was planning to stay with Naruto, he just didn't feel like staying in the apartment by himself if he didn't have to. "Depends on how long the teams from Suna stay, I think," he said. "At least a month, maybe two or three."

"Wow, that's long," Naruto said. "I'm gonna have to get lots more ramen!"

"I'm not eating ramen for three months, dumbass! Buy some other food, too, Haku can help you find it."

Despite the prospect of endless ramen ahead of him, Sasuke was already enjoying Itachi's absence. Ever since Sasuke had told him about the mission to Iwa - minus Naruto using the Kyuubi's chakra; Itachi almost certainly knew about Naruto already, but he didn't need to know that Sasuke knew - Itachi had been acting even weirder than usual. The night before he'd left for Suna, when they had been cleaning up after dinner, he'd said out of nowhere, "Sasuke, if you wanted to stop being a ninja - there's no shame in that."

Sasuke had almost dropped the glass he was drying. "What?" he'd said. "Why would I - just because Naruto and Sakura did better on one mission doesn't mean I'm going to quit! I'll beat them next time, I've been training, so I -"

"No, that isn't what I meant," Itachi had said calmly, rinsing off the last plate. "You did very well on that mission, you should be proud of yourself and your team. But it's a shameful job, to be a shinobi, and you'll have to do a lot of unpleasant things... Sasuke, if you didn't like it, if you wanted to quit and do something else - it wouldn't matter to me. I'll always be proud of you, no matter what you do."

Sasuke had grabbed the plate out of Itachi's hands and said, "Well, I'm not quitting - Naruto'd whine forever if I did. Besides, I already told Kakashi I was going into ANBU, like you."

He had been saving that bit of information for a while now, thinking that Itachi would be flattered enough by it to overlook any slips Sasuke made, but when he'd snuck a glance over at Itachi his brother had been staring down at the sink, letting the water run uselessly into the drain, and his face had looked drawn and distant.

Eventually Itachi had turned the tap off and said, "It's your decision, Sasuke. I'm sure you'll do very well, whatever you choose," and Sasuke had grumbled, "Stupid brother - you could've been a little happy about it," and Itachi had flicked his forehead with damp fingers and called him foolish, and that had ended the strange conversation.

Sasuke hoped the Suna teams stayed in Konoha for as long as possible. He could just about handle living with Itachi the clan-murderer because he didn't have a choice about it yet, but an Itachi who didn't even want him to be a shinobi was too bizarre to understand.

Anyway, Itachi had left and Sasuke was sick of worrying over it; he interrupted Naruto's rambling about the joys of ramen to say, "The Suna teams should get here today - if we hang out by the gates we can probably see them arrive."

Naruto grinned and said, "Haha, beat you to it," and Sasuke realized that their aimless wandering had led them to Konoha's main gates. Usually people didn't hang around the gates, which were a frequent target for raids, but Sasuke and Naruto weren't the only ones curious about the teams Suna had sent as aid; several vendors who normally set up near the Academy were there, as well as a couple of chuunin Sasuke recognized as some of Naruto's former watchers, and a bunch of civilian kids had apparently skipped school to crowd around and pester the gate guards. It was too crowded for a good view and too noisy to talk, so Naruto jumped up to the roof of an abandoned bar by the wall and Sasuke followed him.

People had beaten them there, too; Sakura's blonde friend with the bad taste in crushes, Ino or something, was there with the fat boy who'd sat in front of Sasuke at school, and a girl with the pale eyes of a Hyuuga was half-hidden behind a boy with a dog and another guy, both of whom Sasuke vaguely remembered as more former classmates. He was about to grab Naruto and find another, emptier roof when Naruto settled himself in the middle of them. "Hey, guys!" he said. "Did you come to see the Suna people too? Maybe there'll be strong ones we can fight with, that'll be fun!"

"As if you'd even stand a chance, loser," Sakura's friend said, flipping her hair. "And didn't you listen to your teacher at all? You can't fight them, they're here to like, help out with missions."

The Hyuuga girl was looking sideways at Naruto and blushing for some reason. Sasuke could barely hear her mumble, "I - I think Naruto-kun could -" before Naruto yelled, "Whatever, Konoha doesn't need help from any stupid Sand people! If they make any trouble I'll beat 'em up just like that!"

"Yeah, right! You just leave it to me and Akamaru, we'll take 'em out, no problem!"

"No one asked you, Kiba! If anyone's -"

Sasuke tuned them out and sat at the edge of the roof, as far from them as possible. It was stupid, but he got irritated when Naruto was friendly with other people. Those kids had mostly shunned Naruto for most of his life unless they wanted him to suck up to Sasuke for them, but now it was cool to hang out and goof around with him? They'd probably run away screaming if they knew about the Kyuubi...

"They're clearing civilians away from the gates," said a quiet voice next to him; Sasuke looked over and saw one of the boys who'd been with the Hyuuga, the one with the dark glasses and a long coat despite the heat. "The Suna teams must be close."

Sasuke nodded and watched the gates, trying to ignore the noise from the rest of the group.

The first people through the gates were a pair of lean women, one short brunette and one with dull red hair, who looked alert but not immediately threatening; Sasuke guessed they were chuunin, possibly from the same team or at least used to working together, judging by the way they moved almost in unison. Following them came a genin team and their teacher, none of whom Sasuke could get a good look at because Naruto nearly knocked him off the roof, saying, "Hey, hey, is that the Suna people? They don't look too tough, yanno!"

"Watch it, dumbass!" Sasuke said, after he'd gotten his balance back and shoved Naruto over. "Of course it's them, quit pushing."

The next people to come in looked like a genin team as well, but on a completely different level from the first; the guy with the painted face and the blonde girl looked tough enough, but it was the boy in front of them who caught Sasuke's attention. His hair was a deep, rich red that reminded Sasuke of Sasori, and he radiated a cold indifference to his team and his surroundings. Only two kinds of shinobi were that unconcerned in new territory, overconfident idiots and ones who really didn't have anything to worry about, and the redhead didn't look like an idiot. He looked strong, at least as strong as the jounin teacher with the team, and maybe stronger. A guy that powerful, with another village's knowledge and no special ties to Konoha - he could be useful.

As if he'd heard Sasuke's thoughts, the boy glanced up, and Sasuke saw deadly pale eyes ringed with black.

"Hey, Sasuke, let's not mess with that guy," Naruto said, his voice unusually quiet. "He's kinda - he gives me the creeps, yanno?"

"Don't be a coward," Sasuke said, "you handle being around Itachi all the time."

Naruto stuck his lip out and didn't answer immediately, which wasn't very Naruto-like either. Why was everyone acting weird lately? Even Sakura hadn't been as clingy, not that Sasuke minded.

Sasuke looked back down at the gates and saw one more shinobi from the Sand, a tall, slender person of indeterminate gender with short, straight-edged black hair and a stripe of white paint on each cheek. A third chuunin, maybe, or another jounin who didn't have to shepherd around a genin team. The chuunin Sasuke had recognized before stepped up to talk to the Suna shinobi; they were probably the official welcoming team, and Sasuke stood up to leave. He and Naruto had seen the Suna teams arrive, they should get back to training.

A couple of the civilian girls who'd been hanging around and giggling got a little too close, and one of them tripped on her own sandals, falling against the red-haired boy. "Oops, sorry!" she said too loudly, still giggling as she caught her balance. "I didn't mean to -"

A tendril of sand snaked out of the gourd on the boy's back and wrapped around her throat, cutting her off.

The scene exploded, the other Suna genin jumping back and the chuunin freezing as the blonde girl said nervously, "Gaara, cut it out, we're not supposed to -" and Sasuke's kunai sliced through the sand, breaking its grip long enough for the ashen-faced girl's friend to pull her away.

Sasuke jumped down after the kunai in case the redhead wanted to keep fighting, but the sand hovered in wait above the gourd, and the other boy - Gaara - stared at him and said, "Why did you interfere?"

"If you want a fight," Sasuke said, "don't waste your time picking on a civilian."

The blonde laughed. "Oh, you think you're a match for our Gaara, don't you?" she said. "Word of advice: We might've been sent here to help, but we aren't your friends. You'd better stay out of -"

"Whatever, we're totally strong!" Naruto said, from behind Sasuke's shoulder; he must have followed Sasuke off the roof without Sasuke noticing. "We've beaten super-strong guys already, you're the ones who better watch out for us, yanno!"

"Damn," grumbled the guy with the face paint, "if all the Konoha kids are this annoying, I'm going to start murdering them myself - I'd rather go fishing with Granny Chiyo."

Gaara was still staring at Sasuke and Naruto. Sasuke kept his face calm, but he thought Naruto might've had a point earlier; there was something unnerving about those pale green eyes, and he had almost killed a civilian just for accidentally falling on him...

He squashed his misgivings. Gaara wasn't any older than Sasuke or Naruto, he'd probably just overreacted, and anyway that sand jutsu had to be strong - just what Sasuke was looking for.

"You'll be an interesting opponent," Gaara said suddenly, and Naruto jumped as the sand condensed and poured back into the gourd. "What's your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto! And I'm gonna -"

"Not you," said Gaara. "The strong one."

Sasuke bit his cheek to keep from smirking; of course Gaara couldn't know about the Kyuubi, but it still felt good to be acknowledged. He said, "Uchiha Sasuke," ignoring Naruto kicking his shin. "I'll look forward to it - Gaara."

Gaara began to say something else, but the tall shinobi who'd come in last swooped between them, saying in a high voice, "How nice to see you making friends, Gaara-kun, but we shouldn't make so much trouble for our kind hosts - why don't we go ahead with the others, and you can socialize later..."

Gaara gave the tall shinobi the same flat stare he'd given Sasuke, but they - Sasuke still wasn't sure of their gender, and after Haku wasn't going to assume one way or the other - only smiled, immovable. After a moment Gaara said "Fine," and turned away to join the rest of the Suna shinobi, who had gathered around the Konoha chuunin.

The blonde girl hung back long enough to whisper to Sasuke, "You're cute, so here's one more piece of advice - stay away from Gaara if he wants to fight, or he'll plaster your pretty face all over a wall," and then she left him to catch up with the others.

"Okay can we go now," Naruto said in a rush, keeping his voice down, and Sasuke nodded. He assumed Naruto would want to go back to the bar roof and the annoying people, but instead Naruto dragged him a couple of streets over to an empty park. "Sasuke, you can't fight that guy," he said immediately. "He's too creepy, yanno!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You didn't seem too intimidated by the other ones," he pointed out. "Telling them to watch out for us - seriously?"

"Yeah, well, they weren't that scary," said Naruto, kicking a rock into the grass. "But that Gaara - he's not like us, he's kinda..." He trailed off, then shrugged. "He's just scary, yanno? Maybe you shouldn't fight him."

"We're only going to spar," Sasuke said, irritated by Naruto's sudden cautiousness. Since when did Naruto back off from a fight? "I want to find out how strong he is, that's all, then see if he'll help investigate - maybe Suna's had some run-ins with Akatsuki, he might have heard about something we haven't."

"Oh, no way," Naruto said, scrunching up his face into his most stubborn expression. "I'm not working with him! Why's it okay to ask that creepy guy when you won't even let Sakura-chan or Haku -"

"Oh, Sasuke-kun! You looked so cool!"

Damn. They'd been followed. Sakura's friend pounced on Sasuke and started gushing about how cool he'd been, just like her wonderful Itachi-san, while the boy with the dog started bragging to Naruto and the Hyuuga girl pushed her fingertips together and whispered, "N-Naruto-kun was brave, too..."

It was too much; Sasuke elbowed Ino away, touched Naruto's shoulder and muttered "We'll talk about it later" into his ear, and escaped.


He ended up outside the gate to the Uchiha compound. He'd been coming here on his own occasionally for the last month, just to look at it; of course the gate was locked, but that wasn't what had kept Sasuke out. Itachi wasn't in Konoha now, though, and after a moment of contemplation Sasuke focused, ran up the side of the gate, and vaulted over.

As his feet touched the ground he looked up automatically, but the sky was clear, the telephone pole empty. No silhouette. Sasuke took a deep breath and started walking.

The compound looked familiar and strange at the same time. He knew it all already - Aunt Rin's snack stand, Aunt and Uncle's shop, Shisui's house and the street that led to the training grounds - but it was all wrong, empty and quiet and broken and a little smaller than it had been. There were dead leaves in Aunt Rin's stand, she never would have allowed that; the Uchiha fans painted on the walls had faded, and cracks ran through the stonework. It should've felt welcoming, but all Sasuke felt was out of place. Everything was wrong; he shouldn't feel like a stranger when he was finally coming home.

After circling around it for a while, Sasuke turned onto the street to his own house. He hadn't seen it since he had run out that day, so unimaginably long ago, and at first glance it looked unchanged, as if three years passing hadn't damaged it at all. A sudden, stupid idea rose within him and he ran down the street - a lie, it's all been a lie - reaching for the door, knowing it was foolish but still hoping that he'd open it and Mother would be at the stove, Father at the table with tea and a newspaper, and they'd be so glad to see him, so proud that he'd gotten away from Itachi and come to find them at last -

But as soon as he touched the door-handles another image overwhelmed him: dark, silent rooms covered in dust, and if he opened the door Itachi would be there, not in Suna like he was supposed to be but standing in the shadows with his bloody sword, saying It's your turn now, little brother.

Sasuke yanked his hand back and turned away; his eyes fell on the crack in one of the Uchiha symbols, where Itachi had thrown a kunai at it and said he didn't care about a worthless clan, and he looked up at the house properly and saw the leaves clogging the gutters and the broken windows and the spiderwebs.

He leaned back against the door and shut his eyes. He didn't care if Itachi might be in there and about to stab him through the door, it didn't matter, he shouldn't have come here anyway. Seeing this dead, abandoned place that should have been full of his clan and family, busy and noisy and alive - it was too painful, and he hated it. It was all Itachi's fault, and Sasuke was going to kill him for it. He'd kill Itachi and then take back the compound, rebuild the clan somehow, and the Uchiha would be powerful and important again, not one barely-graduated genin, but he still wouldn't have his family back.

He was just being childish now; he rubbed his eyes and stepped away from the door. He should go find Naruto, or maybe Haku or Sakura, and see about -

"Fancy meeting you here," trilled a light, high voice. "What a pleasant surprise this is!"

Sasuke reached for a kunai and looked up to see the tall Suna shinobi from before sitting cross-legged on the wall. "What are you doing in here?" he demanded. "You're supposed to be meeting the Hokage."

The Suna-nin chuckled and said, "Yes, yes, my clone is having a lovely time being shown around, I'm sure. But I don't really need a tour of my own home village," and their voice cracked into a dry, familiar one, "do I - Uchiha Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke's fingers tightened around the kunai's hilt. "So you came back," he said, "Oro-"

"Ah, wait," said Orochimaru, holding up one finger, "there are little roots everywhere - please, call me Yashagoro."

Sasuke didn't care what Orochimaru wanted to call himself. He and Naruto had come up blank on Akatsuki itself, but they'd had better luck investigating Orochimaru, one of three legendary shinobi from Konoha - and then a legendary traitor who'd done experiments even Anko didn't want to talk about and left the village because he hadn't been made the Fourth Hokage. Sasuke hadn't been able to find out what he wanted from Sasuke and Itachi specifically, but one night when Anko had stayed over late getting drunk he'd overheard her talking to Itachi about Orochimaru and something involving seals. Sasuke still wasn't sure what to make of that, but he doubted that Orochimaru was interested in seals for any good reasons; Anko sometimes joked about her time as his apprentice, but always in a way that made Sasuke think it wasn't funny at all.

He thought about asking if Orochimaru was still looking for the Kyuubi's host, but he didn't want to let anything about Naruto slip by accident, so instead he asked, "Are you still looking for Itachi?"

"He certainly is tempting," Orochimaru said, "but no - it's you I came to see this time, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke really didn't like the way Orochimaru was looking at him with the Suna-nin's grey eyes; he almost activated the sharingan to see if the disguise was a transformation or something else before deciding he didn't want to know. Stupid day off - he didn't have any weapons bigger than the kunai he'd drawn, and of course there was no one close enough to hear anything happening. Still, he knew his way around the compound and Orochimaru didn't, so he should be able to get away if he needed to... "I'm not interested," he said. "You'd better get out before I let ANBU know that Akatsuki's snooping around again."

"You needn't worry about them," Orochimaru said, and waved a hand dismissively. "I've left those fools behind. I have my own ambitions to take care of - I'm sure you understand."

That didn't make Sasuke feel any better. If Orochimaru wasn't after Naruto and the Kyuubi anymore, what exactly had he come for?

The other shinobi leaped down from the wall and Sasuke took a step back, ready to run, but Orochimaru only looked around at the dilapidated walls. "So this is where they put the Uchiha after the Kyuubi incident," he said. "I can see why they would be upset..."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke said. The Uchiha had lived in their compound as long as he could remember - what did Orochimaru mean, they'd been "put" there? Why would that have anything to do with the Kyuubi?

Orochimaru laughed again. "Oh, Sasuke-kun," he said, "there's simply too much you don't know... It's almost charming," and he blinked once, lazily, and opened golden snake eyes and Sasuke froze at the killing intent. He had to run (he was already dead), he had to get out of here and he'd do anything to escape (but he'd die) -

He jammed the kunai into his thigh - not deeply, he could barely move as it was - and the pain jolted him out of the fear. He wasn't going to be intimidated by this snaky bastard - he was a shinobi, he was an Uchiha, and he wouldn't back down.

Orochimaru was still watching him, an amused look on his false face. Sasuke pulled the kunai out, deliberately wiped the blood off it, and said, "Then tell me."


The sun was getting low in the sky when Sasuke went looking for Naruto. He tried Naruto's apartment first, but no one answered, so he started to head for the training grounds near the memorial to check for Naruto and Haku there.

He'd barely left the apartment building when sand swirled around his feet; Sasuke jumped away and saw a familiar outline crouched on the roof of the building across the street.

"Still looking forward to our fight, Uchiha Sasuke?" said Gaara, and his cool voice betrayed a flicker of eagerness.

Sasuke thought about it for exactly half a second and then said, "No." He didn't care how much the guy freaked Naruto out, but he had a lot to think about and didn't feel like sparring.

Gaara's face didn't change, but the sand in the road rose up again, looming over Sasuke. "Why not?"

"I can already tell you're strong," Sasuke said, ignoring the sand. He'd had enough intimidation for one day. "And you know I am - we don't have to prove it in a fight."

Silence, except for the whispering sand; then Gaara said again, "Why not?"

Sasuke briefly wished he'd let the redhead choke that stupid girl and not gotten himself involved. "It's just pointless," he said. "Working together's better - once your team's done with missions tomorrow, you should come train with me and Naruto."

"I don't train," Gaara said, "I don't need to," but the hovering sand collapsed back into the road.

"You should," Sasuke said, relaxing slightly. "You can't get lazy just because you have a strong technique, there's always someone more powerful out there."

"Then I'll kill them," said Gaara, as if it was the most obvious response, but he looked a little thoughtful; after a few silent moments he said, "Maybe I'll come. Just to see. But," he added, "I still want to fight you, so don't be disappointing."

"Fine," Sasuke said. He was definitely going to rub this in Naruto's face later. Okay, so Gaara seemed a little bloodthirsty, but he couldn't be that different from Sasuke and Naruto; once they'd all trained together Naruto would see what a great idea this was. Maybe he'd even be nice and let Naruto pick another ally to balance things out, as long as it wasn't someone ridiculous.

Gaara stood up to leave and the blonde girl from his team appeared next to him. "There you are," she said, sounding slightly out of breath. "Don't just disappear, we thought you'd -"

"Shut up, Temari," Gaara said, and she closed her mouth immediately and glared down at Sasuke as if Gaara's rudeness was his fault somehow.

Sasuke didn't care about her; he said, "See you tomorrow, then."

Gaara hesitated, then nodded, and Temari's eyebrows shot up. "What are you two going to do, have a nice game of shogi?" she asked.

"Train," Gaara said coldly, turning away. "Let's go."

Temari shot Sasuke an incredulous glance and vanished with Gaara. Sasuke waited a minute to make sure they were gone and then started down the road again, but he'd only taken a few steps when he saw Naruto and Haku approaching.

Naruto looked kind of down, but he brightened when he saw Sasuke and ran up. "Hey, sorry about before!" he said. "I went to go wait at the training grounds but you weren't there, and then Sakura-chan and Haku showed up and we practiced for a while and then I thought maybe you meant you'd be here so we came back, except Sakura-chan had to go home, but -"

"It's fine, I had something to do," Sasuke said. Just looking at Naruto made him feel tired and a little ashamed; Naruto was the only person he didn't have to lie to about Itachi, but now that Sasuke finally had a new lead he couldn't tell Naruto about it...

"Are you feeling all right, Sasuke-kun?" Haku asked, looking at him closely.

Damn, Haku was too perceptive. "I'm fine," Sasuke said. "Naruto, about earlier -"

He hesitated, not sure how to bring up Gaara without tipping Haku off, but Haku smiled and said, "Sakura-chan invited me over to her house for dinner - I'm just going to clean up and change and then meet her."

He went ahead to Naruto's apartment as Naruto grumbled, "Aww, man, Haku's lucky - Sakura-chan never invites me over even though we're teammates, yanno! It's no fair."

"We need to talk, anyway," Sasuke said. "About Gaara - I just saw him, I think I can get him to help us." Gaara was obviously interested in fighting strong people, and Itachi was the strongest person Sasuke knew; it shouldn't be too hard to convince him to join the investigation, as long as he didn't get overeager and give them away.

"What, seriously?" said Naruto, looking skeptical. "You really asked that creepy guy to join up with us?"

"He's not that bad," Sasuke said confidently, "just kind of weird. Trust me, he'll be useful. Oh - and he said something about staying away from that Yashagoro guy."

"Huh? Who?"

Damn, right, Orochimaru hadn't mentioned his fake name earlier. "That tall Suna-nin who interfered before," Sasuke said. "He didn't say why, just to avoid him." He couldn't tell Naruto about Orochimaru, not yet, but at least he could try to keep them apart and protect Naruto that way; whether the snake bastard had really left Akatsuki or not, it'd be better if he never met Naruto.

Naruto began to ask something else, but then Haku came down to tell them he'd be back later and not to forget to clean up, and after that they fell naturally into their usual routine: complaining about boring missions, arguing over the dishes, swapping guesses about what was under Kakashi's mask, watching TV and fighting over the remote, and, after Haku got back, shoving all of Naruto's junk into the closet to make room for the sleeping mats, going to bed, and talking in disjointed half-conversations as they fell asleep.

Sasuke usually slept well at Naruto's, even with Naruto's snoring, but tonight he lay awake long after the other two, thinking about Orochimaru. He should tell ANBU that Orochimaru was back; he wasn't an idiot, he knew Orochimaru hadn't returned to Konoha to sight-see and make new friends. But he and Naruto had hit a dead end when it came to finding anything out about Itachi and Akatsuki, and even getting allies like Gaara could only help so much. Orochimaru knew things, even things that didn't make sense (Sasuke tried to imagine Itachi in an Akatsuki coat, making rice balls, and had to stifle a laugh), and if Sasuke could just get some of that knowledge...

Information has its price, Sasuke-kun, and Sasuke shuddered and rolled over and saw that Haku's eyes were open. "Is something wrong?" Haku whispered, his voice barely audible.

"No," Sasuke muttered, "'m fine," and he turned back over, curling up. Damn Haku, always noticing things.

Haku touched his shoulder gently and whispered, "If there's anything I can do to help, please tell me. You're one of my important friends, after all."

When Sasuke didn't answer Haku took his hand away, and soon Sasuke heard his breathing even out; Sasuke burrowed deeper under his blanket, even though it was a warm night. He didn't need anyone's help. Training with the snake bastard, that was barely a price - more like getting two free gifts instead of one. He'd learn all kinds of techniques that Itachi probably didn't know, he'd get information on Akatsuki and Itachi and the Uchiha, and it wouldn't cost him anything but some of his spare time. It was a great deal.

It would be easier to believe that if he could forget the way Orochimaru's fingers had gripped his face to force out the sharingan, and the cracked voice gloating, So much potential hiding in these eyes - more than Itachi, perhaps... Don't worry, Sasuke-kun, I'll unlock that power for you.

Naruto mumbled something loud but incoherent and rolled over, his arm flopping over the side of the bed. As if he were eight years old again Sasuke reached out and took his hand, and Naruto's fingers curled around his in an automatic grip. This is for you, too, Sasuke thought. We both have to be strong, and I won't let him touch you, or anyone else...

He carefully slid his hand out of Naruto's and, finally, fell asleep.