They tell me you're still alive and well, but I don't know if I believe them. They won't let me in to see you. They won't even let Sasuke in to see you. It seems suspicious to me. Or maybe I'm just scared, because I am. I'm terrified for you. Why did you do this, Itachi? Why did you come back here knowing what they would do? You could have come to me or Sasuke and we could have brought Kakashi back to the village! You didn't have to let yourself be caught! I've only just got you back, what am I supposed to do if they take you from me again? You won't come back this time, and I can't bear to even think of that.
I'm doing what I can to make Tsunade listen, but I think my pleas and threats are falling on deaf ears. I have a feeling she's made her decision and what I do or say has absolutely no bearing on the situation. I went to her again and again and was turned away every time, but today I didn't listen to their lies, I just went into her office and confronted her. She's not busy, she's just ignoring me, avoiding me. I gave her back my headband and gave her the choice of doing the right thing, or being the cause of the downfall of the village. Apparently Sasuke and Kakashi gave her the same choice before I arrived. I've not seen Sasuke to ask him about it. She offered to deliver a note to you from me, so I came straight home to write one. I'll go to him after, but I am just so scared that three ninjas aren't enough to make a difference.
Please don't give up hope, Itachi. If she makes the wrong decision I will come for you. I will find you somehow and I will break you out. We'll leave the village together. We'll go off and start our life somewhere else. We don't need this village. As long as I have you, I could never need anything else. Sasuke would come with is, you know he would, so you wouldn't have to ever return here again. Only, just don't give up on me. I will come for you if she doesn't release you soon.
I hate writing this, I don't even want to think of it, but you must know. If I can't find you, if I'm not in time. If the worst happens and you're taken from me, know that you will be avenged. Your murder will not go unpunished. But now I must hurry back to the Hokage's mansion. The sooner I get this note to them, the sooner you will be able to hold my words in your hands. Don't give up hope yet, my love, for I haven't. We will be together again soon, I feel it in my heart. I love you, Itachi. Since we were young, and until we are old.
Itachi lowers the letter to the small, battered table before him. Closing his eyes, he listens to the sound of Kyousuke's voice in his head, speaking the words of his note. Glancing up, he watches the Anbu agent standing by the door a few paces away, watching him intently. Itachi smiles to himself, wondering what the man thought he might do that required such close scrutiny. As if with paper, pen and his wits, he would escape. Trying not to laugh at this thought, Itachi pushes Kyousuke's note aside and pulls blank paper in front of himself to write a reply.
~*~*~
Please don't do anything foolish. Don't even think such threats to the village. I wouldn't want to find you in the position I'm in now. I understand your frustration, and your concern, but getting yourself in trouble would help neither of us. Please tell my foolish little brother the same thing. I will get out of this cell, I have no doubt of that, and when I do I want to be able to come see you both again, and not in a similar cell. All I can ask is that you have faith in the fifth Hokage, she is a wise woman, I'm certain she'll make the best decision. If the worst should happen, please do not blame her or the village. All that the Hokage does is for the best interest of the village as a whole. One ninja can not be held up as more important than the rest of the village, you know that. If I should die, I will wait for you, because one day we will be together again in the next life.
We had such a short time together, but in that time I grew to love you so much more than I could have ever imagined I would. It is that love that keeps me holding on, and you should know, it is that love that made me do what I did. I can't ask you to sneak around with a wanted man, or forsake the village so that we can be together. I knew that the only thing there was for me to do was to try to clear my name. Going into this, I knew there was a chance it wouldn't work, but I also knew that even the smallest chance was enough if it meant we could be together. I also wanted to try to make things up to Sasuke. So many years I let him hate me, believing the lies and hurting because I was a coward that couldn't bring him the truth of my weakness. Words can only do so much.
I've known all along that Sasuke and Kakashi loved one another. The first time I saw him walk into Kakashi's room and not come out until the next morning, smiling as if nothing bad had ever happened in his world. I watched from a distance as the both struggled their way through to the end. I wasn't happy about it, I admit it willingly. I thought Kakashi was too old for Sasuke, but then when they moved in together I began to accept it. That afternoon in the village when you first saw me again, I started to form another idea that solidified when I talked to Sasuke about Kakashi. What difference did age make in a relationship founded on love? I am older than you, but still I love you, and you me. Age has no bearing on that, so it shouldn't have any bearing on the love my brother has. And it doesn't.
When Sasuke told me the whole story of his relationship with Kakashi, and then his worries for the older man, I knew then what I had to do. I knew that I would risk myself to bring Kakashi back to this village for Sasuke. Dead or alive, he was coming home so that Sasuke would no longer have to wonder and worry. I was going to risk it all for Sasuke, and for you. Given the chance, I'd not make a different decision. I did the right thing and have no regrets.
Kyousuke, if I should die tomorrow, remember that. I have no regrets. What I once regretted, I have been able to make right, because of you. You've made me a whole man again for the first time in more years than I care to remember. Your love completes me. Thank you for everything. No matter what, never doubt that I love you and will always love you, even in death.
Dropping the note into his lap, Kyousuke covers his face with his hands, a sob ripping from his throat. He doesn't even notice when Sasuke reaches out and takes the note, or when Kakashi reaches out and places a comforting hand on his shoulder. Relief made him cry. Fear that it would all end wrong made him cry. Love made him cry. But, as he cried a new determination began to fill his soul until it left no room for any doubt, any fear. In Kyousuke's mind, Itachi was already free, because there would be no other outcome. He'd see this end no other way.
When Sasuke hands the note to Kakashi and turns to look at Kyousuke, his own tears flowing anew, Kyousuke nods and wraps his arms around his friend. He understood Sasuke's pain, his fear, but he also understood that Itachi's words would reach into Sasuke's soul and fill him with that same determination. Neither of them were going to give up because Itachi wasn't going to give up, no matter what he said. The ifs were a matter of practicality, nothing more. Itachi would be freed, and he knew it. Through his note, both Kyousuke and Sasuke came to know it as well.
"We'll have him home soon, Sasuke," Kyousuke said, his words muffled against his friend's shoulder.
Neither of them saw the look Kakashi turned on them briefly. Neither knew that he couldn't hold the same determined hope, because neither of them knew just how much the desire of the village was bound to drive the Hokage in her decision. When they did pull back from their embrace and look at Kakashi once more, he'd schooled his face into a neutral mask that neither noticed. Kakashi was as determined as they were, but for a very different reason. He was determined not to break their hope, and he was determined to be there for them both if his fears came to be.