Tales by a campfire

Harry was lying on his back. The nothingness he was surrounded by was filled with heavy chakra. "Harry-san, I have deactivated all nerve-endings, you should feel nothing now, correct?"

It was aweinspiring to witness the sheer brilliance Shizune displayed in her medical jutsu. In just two seconds she had, with her chakra alone, manipulated his brain into thinking he had no feeling, anywhere. "Correct."

"Good, then I shall proceed with the surgery. First I will open the eye-socket with two incissions. If at any point you feel discomfort warn me." It was strange, no strange wasn't the word. It was otherworldly, he couldn't see, he couldn't feel. Yet he was awake. His brain couldn't quite wrap itself around its current state. Not even his time between this world and the one before could quite compare.

"Exenteration of your left eye has been completed. Are there any sensations you're feeling at this moment?" Shizune asked, her tone flat.

"None." Harry replied, it was weird; he could perfectly control his muscles, but he couldn't feel them.

It took Shizune a lot longer to extract his right eye. "You've done well Harry-san. There seem to be no complications."

"What's next?" Harry asked, Shizune was about to answer when the door opened.

A soft, high, yet polite sounding voice spoke up. "Shizune-sama, Tsunade-sama needs you in the other room." Without a word she left his side and Harry wasn't sure what to think.

Was something wrong with Tsunade? Itachi? Harry couldn't just lie still in this room if something was happening.

But what could possibly have happened, had Tsunade revealed her cards and actual mission? Something other than Itachi had requested? There was a chance, a small one, that this was Konoha's way of getting rid of the Uchiha for good.

But that would mean that their next target would be Sasuke. Besides; Shizune had been nothing but perfect during the procedure of extracting his eyes, even though there had been a thousand and one chances to kill him there; while he couldn't possibly defend himself.

No, betrayel didn't fit the situation he was in right now. So there must be something else.

Harry wanted to know what was happening but without his eyes he couldn't see and right now he couldn't get up either. Having no feeling in your body at all made it impossible to move around, even though he could move; he had no way to know whether he was moving. Harry vowed then and there never to let this happen to him again.

He strained his ears, adding chakra to make the tiny hairs in them hypersensitive. Harry quickly came to the discovery that he had neglected this sense, for all he heard were soft murmerings. Not sounds of panic, nor the sound of battle.

Harry laid still for a good hour, which was the time it took Shizune to return.

"What happend?" Harry asked when the woman stepped into the room.

"Your brother has been ill for quite some time."

Harry silently begged the woman to continue. "When Tsunade-sama started the same surgery you underwent, she discovered a tumor that had spread."

"Your brother is currently being monitored by Tsunade-sama and appears to be stable. We have cut the tumors out of his body, however it wasn't just that."

Harry heard her sit down. "Cancer doesn't appear in ninja families. The body's immune system is aided by chakra and is usually strong enough to keep the body healthy. That is why I was summoned, Tsunade-sama had me perform diagnostics, to confirm what she suspected."

"What?"

"Itachi-san suffers from arsenic-induced-leukemia. Tsunade-sama is currently filtering the arsenic out of his system, but that is not enough the damage has already been done. Because of the leukemia he will need a bone marrow transplant."

"What are the odds of him surviving?" Harry asked with a clarity of mind he shouldn't be having right now.

"If we give him the transplant, the odds would still be stacked against him. One in the three people undergoing this-"

"I understand." Harry interupted cooly. "You can use mine, right? Because we're brothers."

"There is only a one in four chance that you're a match..."

A form of desperation and powerlessness seeped in. "Then you should test me."

Shizune nodded- not that Harry could see that. "I will need you to lie on your side." Harry knew, more than felt, that Shizune turned his body so she could acces the small of his back.

When he heard the tell-tale sound of flesh being penetrated by metal he had to remind himself not to move.

It was hours later that Harry, who was awaiting the results for the test that Shizune was conducting, stood at his brother's bedside. His own surgery had been succesful, Tsunade had given him Itachi's eyes. Bandaged him and told him to take it easy for the next week and a half.

Harry searched for Itachi's hand with his own and found it, cold and frail.

It didn't match with his recollection of Itachi's hands. He was supposed to be strong and warm... It was wrong; itachi was not weak, he was the strongest boy Harry had ever met.

And now he was sick..?

Harry let go and climbed onto the bed to lay down next to Itachi. His own hands tangled around Itachi's.

Anko was going through the paperstack on her desk, in front of her a genin stood patiently waiting for her to give the girl her file. "Argh, asking me for shit like that, as if I don't have anything better to do." Anko gave the genin a dirty look. "What does Kakashi need it for anyways?"

The genin, a girl with pink haired, braided tightly in two tails, raised her shoulders in a non-committal way.

The stack she was going through came dangerously close to falling a few times, there must've been hundreds of files placed on top of eachother. Just when she reached the last file Anko looked up, eyeing the girl suspiciously and took the file out. "This is the list, make sure Kakashi knows to give it back to me before next week."

Sollemnly the genin nodded. "I will."

Anko handed over the file, but before she let go she licked her lips. "If he doesn't give it back on time, I, will, hunt him down."

With great precision the girl opened her vest and put the file inside before zipping it up again.

As the genin left, Anko waited for the door to close before she reached down and withdrew her breakfast dango sticks.

Sakura walked towards the trainingfield, their sensei, Kakashi, had given her team the entire month to prepare for chuunin exams. To get to know the Forest of Death and come up with strategies for when they would be faced with their opponents.

The first week had been intense, they had trained non-stop, using the Forest of Death as their warzone. It had been a free for all, it had been Naruto's idea and initially she protested against it. But Naruto had thought about it quite thoroughly and his reasoning was, surprisingly, good. What better way to get to know the forest than having to live in it for a week with all senses on sharp?

It had been the first time Sakura had hunted her own food, and cleansed the water in the few lakes the Forest of Death hid under it's foliage to drink. The week had been tiring; trying to remain hidden while also trying to capture her teammates. But after seven full days she did feel accomplished, she had been caught once by Sasuke, but had managed to escape when Naruto attacked Sasuke. Both boys fought until they couldn't fight anymore, and that was when she had struck.

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto had been willing to admit defeat and so they had teamed up against her. In the end they had all collapsed to the ground, when after a good hour they were too tired to continue. But that was when the Forest of Death itself decided to join in. Two giant bears suddenly came out of the dark. If it hadn't been for Sasuke's wire being tripped they wouldn't have survived the night.

Sakura smiled, thinking back to that. How different this team felt than to the first day, she was no longer the outsider.

When she finally reached the edges of the Forest of Death Naruto heartily greeted her.

"Did you get the list?" Sasuke asked her, his eyes searching for the file Sakura had been sent for.

Sakura zipped her vest open and took out the list. Meanwhile Sasuke searched through a backpack he had brought with him. "Anko didn't suspect a thing. We have to give it back in a week though.

Naruto nodded, taking the file out of her hands. "No problem, I'll copy it." Unrolling the scroll on his back with his chakra, Naruto let the paper float in front of him and placed the file on top of it. With his hands he formed the snake seal and slowly the ink seemed to flow off the pages and onto his scroll, reforming, glowing and flowing back into the pages Sakura had gotten from Anko. "They're copied."

"Good, tomorrow you can give Anko the files back, Sakura. Naruto can you give us each a copy?" Sasuke apparently found what he searched for in his backpack as he retrieved a small book. "Also, can you create three copies of this? This is Harry's, when he gets back I don't want him to know we used his."

"Sure, but what is it?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke started to answer but Sakura beat him to it. "That is a Bingo-book! Only chuunin and Jounin get those." Sakura looked in awe at the small book. "I didn't know your brother was a high ranked shinobi? I thought he was younger than you were…"

Naruto looked from Sasuke to Sakura and back again. "Harry is chuunin, he was in the chuunin exams when Kumo hosted them last."

"He is in the team that Kakashi trained before us." Sasuke added.

"Then perhaps he could help us? I know Kakashi-sensei wanted us to figure it out on our own, without his help, because that is against the rules… But the help of a certified chuunin would be-"

"He can't." Sasuke cut Sakura off, looking sideways, as if to avoid eye-contact. "He's on a long-term mission…"

"Oh… I'm sorry." Perhaps she was more of an outsider than she had felt?

"It's okay, you didn't know. Besides, Harry wouldn't help us even if he was here… He's always like 'let me give you a clue but go figure it out on your own'." Naruto said giving a copy of the lists to both Sakura and Sasuke, clearing the tension that had built. "I swear, he's like an adult sometimes."

Sasuke nodded. "hnn."

"Remember that time when I came over, and Harry had cooked this really weird dish but really tasty one; and he told us he was going to give us a mission?" Naruto's smile was infectious as Sakura couldn't help herself smiling herself. "And he told us it would be a S-rank mission?"

Sasuke smiled aswell. "A sink-class mission he called it."

"We ended up doing the dishes…" Naruto gave Sasuke a pet on his back. "He'll be back. I'm sure of it."

Sakura smiled. She didn't share their history, but she was defintly not an outsider, not when they so obviously pulled her into their world, their memories. Their friendship.

"Anyways, we need to crossreverence the names and clannames on this list with the ones in this book. So if we all have a copy we can go through them faster." Sasuke eyed Naruto, as if to make him hurry.

"Yeah, yeah; I'm on it."

Sakura went through her own copy that Naruto had given her, and noticed something odd. "There are no Konoha entries here?"

"That's strange, are we not on it either?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura went through the list once more and shook her head. "No, we're not."

Sasuke frowned. "Perhaps they only list foreign names?"

"It's probably because the Jounin have yet to sign us up… I mean; Kakashi-sensei hasn't registered us yet. So maybe the other Jounin haven't registered their teams either… Maybe people outside of Konoha have to administer earlier than us." Naruto said giving both Sakura and Sasuke a stack of paper, having copied the bingo-book.

Sasuke took out some ninja-wire and started to bind the pages together, Sakura seeing Sasuke do this copied him and did the same. "I guess you're right on the money Naruto. It does sound logical."

"Indeed, but it also means we do not know who we'll be facing when it comes to people from Konoha. And we already know that we aren't the only ones to enter." Sakura finished binding the copied bingo-book and placed it on the ground, sitting down herself aswell to start crossreverencing.

"Some of these names aren't in the Bingo-book, I mean, their family names." Naruto said ten minutes in.

"Well, after the third shinobi-world-war a lot of the clans had withered down in numbers so villages started to train civilian children if they had developed chakra pathways." Sakura looked at Sasuke for confirmation, but he was buried deep in his list and bingo-book. "Besides, a bingo-book doesn't include some of the smaller clans and villages. If we really want to do this thoroughly we would have to go to the military records. But I doubt we have the clearance to get those documents."

"Couldn't we do the same trick as we did with Anko?" Naruto asked.

Sakura seemed to think it over but sighed and shook her head. "A personal favour doesn't work with an institution like that, Naruto. We would have to fill out forms and I doubt Kakashi-sensei would be very forgiving if we got caught forging his signature and such."

"We don't need the military records; The Uchiha kept track of the big and small clans, as well as the jutsu's they could and couldn't copy from them. Though it would take too long to search through all of it." Sasuke said looking up from his bingo-book. "There must be thousands of logs."

"Not necessarily… Naruto could do it."

Naruto looked at Sakura with a dumbfounded expression. "I could?"

"Of course! Kage-bunshin?" At this both boys looked in surprise at Sakura. "I mean, you can use them to read things right? It is supposed to be the most usefull jutsu in information gathering for a reason right?"

"Uhmm, I guess…" Naruto asked more then said. "I mean, we could try."

Sasuke spoke up, a sort of finality in his voice. "Let's first finish this. And mark those whom we cannot find anything about down for Naruto to find later. Besides, I think the big clans will provide the biggest problems. Most first generation shinobi don't have any special jutsu" He looked Sakura right in the eyes as if saying she was not one of them... "Let's inventorize and come up with some plans for them first. If we have time left; I think it would be best spend practicing those plans."

Tsunade stood next to Itachi's bed, the young man looked better than he had when he had lied on her operation table. The surgery she had performed had essentially blocked his chakra which meant that his body couldn't fake being healthy any longer. The first time she had seen him she could clearly see he wasn't in tip top condition; but the severity of his illness had eluded even her keen eyes.

Arsenic induced leukemia, it wasn't something a ninja develop naturally… which meant there was foul-play at hand in Itachi's case. And being the controversial shinobi that he was, the list of potential people that had both the resources and will to do this was long.

The cancer so far had been kept at bay by the sheer amount of chakra the Uchiha had, if she hadn't performed her surgery he could've survived for years, maybe four or five. But now… he had months at most.

The time he had left if there wasn't a donor available, she had already ruled out his youngest brother. They weren't a match.

It had been one of a few diseases she hadn't found a cure to yet, and so dispite this case of leukemia being incredibly sad for the boy and his loved ones; Tsunade was not above using it for medical studying. She woke the Uchiha boy up and explained to him that she was going to extract some of his bone marrow to study it further.

Tsunade turned the boy around, his face down so she could acces his back, it was the easiest place to extract the bone marrow. She placed her right hand, laced with chakra, on the small of his back and numbed all nerves; the boy didn't have to feel a thing. Ten minutes later Tsunade left his side of the bed with a sample, perhaps the Uchiha boy's sickness could be helpful to others.

It was a few days later while she was testing the effects of manipulating her own stemcell into acting like one compatible with the sample she had retrieved from the Uchicha that her door opened with a loud slam.

In walked the small frame of the younger Uchiha. "I'm sorry Tsunade-sama, I told him you didn't want to be disturbed, but he wouldn't listen." The small boy, bandages still wrapped around his face, sighed.

"I need just a moment with her, she's been holed up in here for days; you can't keep telling me she will come out soon!" He threw his arm out in Tsunade's direction and pointed his finger quite irritated, something Tsunade didn't know was possible.

Tsunade pressed her lips and gave Shizune a confirming nod, letting her slowly walk back after closing the door. "Wait" she said when the Uchiha inhaled to start and speak.

Tsunade turned back to her poject, grabbed a pencil and started writing on one of the many notebooks she had scattered around her. After a minute she looked up again. "Did you know that that it takes more chakra to change the nature of one cell than it takes to run from here to Suna using shunshins?"

"Uhm, no?"

"Now you do." Tsunade closed the notebook she had used last and placed it on top of a pile of other notebooks. "So, why'd you rush in here?"

"Shizune won't tell me, so I'm going to ask you; was I a match for him?"

"No."

"Damn it."

"Is that all you wanted to ask me?" She asked, knowing that this boy's world was slowly falling apart, but he was a ninja, he would endure. Besides, she had more tests to do. No time to waste on meaningless chit chat.

He stood still for a while before he removed the bandage on his head. "I've always healed fast, can you check if I'm ready to go?"

Tsunade told him to sit down in her chair and used her mystic palm technique to read his vitals, they were good. The bones he had broken had mended, the flesh wounds he had received had healed up even before she had arrived. His tenketsu points were not in the best shape, whatever he had done in his fight with Orochimaru had taxed his body far more than it could handle, but nothing time wouldn't heal if left to slowly heal on its own. Letting her chakra surge through the boy she noticed that his eyes had healed perfectly. As if there never had been anything wrong.

"The Sharingan, it really is quite something. It's like there was never any surgery, interesting." Tsunade took some more time to check the rest of his body, his muscles had repaired themselves quite nicely. All in all she couldn't hold him here much longer. "You have an extraordinary body, you haven't just healed; you have regenerated. Mostly. I'd say if you take it easy, especially on the chakra expidenture you're as good to go as any."

The boy nodded, gratitude being evident in his smile. His eyes were still closed. "You should check if your sight has been restored, Itachi was certain that it would."

Slowly his eyes opened, there wasn't much light in this room, aside from the light her microscope generated. He held his hand in front of his eyes, he blinked a few times and squinted. Confusion settled on his face before he started to smile.

"Yes, great; you can see. Now get out of here and let me do the work I was hired for."

"But you weren't hired to heal Itachi, were you?" The boy said suggestively. "You were hired by him to heal me; as much as you're acting like you don't care, you actually do." The last of his words sounded, like he just realised the truth behind them as he said it.

"Semantics boy, now get out."

He turned around, grabbed the doorhandle and muttered two words she refused to hear and left her to do her thing.

Sakura ran through the forest, she was being chased by two thick steel cables, every turn she made she could hear the wires whistle and rattle as Sasuke made them bend to his will. She was about to run up a tree when out of nowhere a third cable wrapped itself around her left ankle, Sakura tried to find her balance but it was too late. She fell, hard, face first to the ground, gratefull for the soft and gooey mud she fell in that didn't break her nose. The other two wires quickly went for her wrists and pulled her up.

"You're getting faster Sasuke." She said between gasping for air and wiping the mud out of her eyes. Training for the chuunin exams these past few days had been tiring, but se had learned a lot. She'd actually managed to get to the next stage in genjutsu; the double layered ones.

"So are you, how many illusions did you place on me? Twenty?" Sasuke retracted his wires, the spools making the tell-tale sound of rattling metal.

"Actually, just nineteen, but the last one was a double layer; which made me lose track of your third cable. It's still hard to make them." Sakura, almost done getting rid of the mud, walked towards Naruto, who was sitting on a thick branch next to Sasuke. "I guess I should release him…"

Placing her hand on his forehead Sakura lifted the genjutsu she had placed Naruto under. "Oh damn! Not again! When did you get me?"

Sasuke answered the question for Sakura. "Right at the start, before you got to make a shadow clone."

"Aw, Sakura; how do you expect me to lift a genjutsu if I don't even have a clone yet?" Naruto asked undignified.

Sakura raised her shoulders. "Just stop your chakra on your own, you can't always rely on clones to do the work for you."

Naruto looked away. "Easier said than done."

Sasuke sighed. "As long as we're together you don't have to worry about it, but it is one of your biggest weaknesses Naruto. You can't rely on a trick like letting a shadow clone dissipate itself to jolt you back into reality."

Sakura saw Naruto redden. "Even if it is a very good trick." She added. "Anyways, I'm tired, perhaps we should call it quits for today?"

"All right, but it is your turn to get something to eat." Sasuke stood up and started to open his backpack, a few seconds later he retrieved a kunai which he threw towards Sakura, who in turn caught it. "Naruto and I will set up camp for tonight."

Naruto just finished making the campfire when Sasuke decided the improvised beds were as neatly made as they could and sat beside him. "Hnn?" Sasuke prodded.

Naruto looked at Sasuke to see what he meant, he had three fish on sticks in his hands which he offered to Naruto. Naruto grabbed them and placed the sticks between two of Sakura's magnetic poles that had not yet been sealed away. "I like this." Naruto said sitting back down and stretching out. "Training and just surviving I mean."

"It's not bad." Sasuke decided to follow Naruto's example and stretched himself out aswell, he groaned as the tension between his shoulderblades released. "Certainly beats sitting at home and coming up with strategies."

Grabbing a flask filled with water Naruto carried on the conversation. "And Sakura's isn't bad either." He paused to take a few sips and quench his thirst. "It really feels like we're a team, you know? Like good friends."

"Friends…" Sasuke repeated softly.

"Best friends." Naruto murmered, his head hanging low as he was suddenly very interested in a splinter of charred wood lying at his feet.

It was then that Sakura joined them. "Ah good, you already got the fish going; I also found some Oyster Mushroom, I thought that would be a nice starter while the fish is getting ready." She had a basket, filled with the funghi, in her hand.

She gave both of them a big one while she settled on two smaller ones. They didn't need to stay near the fire for long to be ready to eat and soon she had finished her first and was ready to devour the second one, they tasted really good. "You know." She said between bites. "If we get to the survival test, I don't think we can make campfires in the open like this."

Naruto looked up at that. "Argh, another problem that's need fixing. My brains are tired."

Sasuke quirked his eyebrow. "Hnn."

"Hey!"

Sakura spoke up, before the boys could really start their bantering. "The solution is simple… We stockpile on Ration Pills and Ninja Barrs."

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's scroll, seeing as he sat closest to it and gave it to the blonde. "Add it to the list."

Naruto opened his scroll with a little bit of chakra, the paper unrolled itself and ink started to seep in. Three names appeared and under each name Naruto added the pills and barrs. "Anything else while I'm at it?"

Neither Sasuke nor Sakura had anything to add so Naruto let the scroll roll itself up again.

After eating their fish the three genin went to sleep. Well, two went to sleep while one was the unlucky boy that had to start the night shift of keeping guard.

Naruto was perched on the highest tree he could find close to their little camp. It wasn't all that interesting; there weren't any other chuunin-hopefulls that would be after them yet. But still, it had been his idea to take Kakashi-sensei's words to heart and actually survive in this forest.
Sakura hadn't agreed with him, but this was one of the arguments he had used. They had to be prepared to go at it all day and than not take it easy at night. Like an actual mission.

Naruto unsealed his scroll. And started to practice with it. Because it was night and he had to be stealthy he decided not to practice his explosions, he was sure neither Sakura nor Sasuke would be sleeping if he did.

The amount of paper he could unroll was unlimited, whenever he reached the end of what was actually stored inside the scroll, the scroll replenished itself taking just a bit of chakra. It was a strange weapon his teacher had given him. But Naruto liked it, with his chakra he could meet the requirements the scroll set each time he had to release another few meters of paper.

As high above the ground as he was Naruto let the paper roll all the way to the ground and let it start to wrap the paper around itself continuously; creating a dome. Paper rushed around trees and bushes and he could see and hear some animals running away from their shelters.

It was something he had done before; on a much smaller scale. Mostly he used it to defend himself, but perhaps if he made it big enough he could also protect his teammates. Or in this case a small opening in the forest.

Halfway through though the paper started to become harder to control, it became slower. He hadn't pushed himself or the scroll to this extent yet. He panicked when he felt the walls he had created wobble. It was shaking? But what was the problem? He had used his chakra to fortify the paper, and it wasn't as if he wasn't using enough chakra… He used the same amount as always.

Naruto let the paper roll up the scroll again, and slowly restarted the process; waiting for the walls to wobble again, and surely when he reached two meters in height the wind was able to make it move.

Pushing more chakra into the paper Naruto noticed the dome stabilizing. "Hmm, so the bigger it is, the more chakra it needs…" But if being only halfway through required so much chakra, how much would the entire dome need? So far he had spent about twenty clones worth of chakra on it, while normaly it didn't need more than five.

As the night went on Naruto experimented with his dome. When he had finaly finished making the dome of paper he had spent nearly all his chakra on the construct. It wasn't nearly as stable as the smaller domes he normally made; but it looked… "Impressive, Naruto."

Naruto smiled as Sakura complimented him. He had send a clone to wake her up, it was her turn to guard the camp after him. "Thanks." He said, scratching his neck in emberrasment.

Sakura looked around her; the entire clearing had been encapsuled by Naruto's chakra paper. She didn't feel any wind; nor did she see any light from outside of the dome. "I didn't know you could do this… The scale…"

"Well, I've been practicing."

"How much chakra does it take to keep this up?" She asked him.

Naruto's face reddened, he still hadn't told his team about the Kyuubi. Using this much chakra; how could he explain that? "It takes nearly everything I have."

"Wow, Naruto. Like I said, impressive. I can't imagine how hard it is to have to control all that chakra at once." She narrowed her eyes. "Is the density still the same as your smaller ones?"

"Density?"

"Does it still have as many layers of paper? Or does it the amount of layers increase when you increase the size?" Sakura looked at the paper dome with prying eyes, she jumped off the tree and walked towards it. With her index finger she poked it, the wall didn't give in but Naruto felt that more force than that could easily dent it.

"I'm not sure… Perhaps if I hadn't wasted so much chakra rebuilding it over and over again until I got it right… But right now it can't even take a few good kicks." Naruto looked down to the ground. "I had hoped to be able to use this to defend us…"

Sakura placed her hand on his shoulder. "You're still learning how to use this tool, you've done great so far. I'm sure you'll be able to use this technique properly if you keep practicing." Sakura had come back to sit beside Naruto. "Perhaps you should try to increase the amount of layers in proportion to the size of it?"

Naruto's brows furrowed, obviously not understanding what Sakura was hinting at. Naruto smiled. "Thanks Sakura… That makes sense I guess…"

"Now time for you to go to bed Naruto, get some sleep. I'll keep watch from now on."

Harry was pacing outside of the large wooden home his brother had managed to secure for his healing. He was almost back to traveling strength; but inside his brother was losing his life to a sickness. His mind was being crowded by too many thoughts; but he couldn't get himself to clear them out, because Harry knew that once he did that each and every one of those thoughts would become clear. And they would hurt.

Hurt in the way physical pain couldn't come close to.

But his brother was dying. And the famous Slug Princess couldn't heal him. Itachi needed him. So he would endure. After he was done pacing, for now walking in circles felt good.

Step for step he kept the same pace. Routine would keep him from thinking of more than their names. The people he cared about. The people he had let down, the people he was letting down. His friends…

Yuugi, Itachi, Koh, Sasuke, Naruto… Yuugi, Itachi, Koh, Sasuke, Naruto…

He rushed his hands through the fringe of his hair.

Yuugi's neck twisting like an owl's.

Itachi pale and weak.

Koh ripped to shreds.

Sasuke left alone.

Naruto taken advantage of.

He kept walking, circles. If he stopped… no he couldn't think about that.

Yuugi's grandmother.

Koh's father.

How could he face them?

'Stop thinking about that...' his hands turned into and trembled. He had stopped walking.

'I can't think… I must do something… Itachi is dying… He needs Sasuke…' He jumped, he ran. Going south; where Konoha was. His legs were strong, he could make it there in time. He could save Itachi. He made it to the top of a hill, using his Sharingan he soaked up how everything looked and, with his tenkutsu points aflame, body popped as far away as he could see.

He crashed into a sea of white. Snow softened the fall; but the cold bit him hard and deep. Harry shook his head and ran towards the highest point.

He would make it in time. He would get Sasuke before Itachi died.

AN:

Ok, so life slapped me in the face. And this chapter became so much more difficult to write. Because suddenly someone dying wasn't just a plot-thing. Suddenly someone dying actually hurt and it sucks. And the pain hits at moments you least expect it and trying to write about someone with cancer, because that's what you've plotted for, suddenly becomes nigh impossible.

So yeah... I'm unsure of what I shall do with Itachi. Things were simple before march 10 2014 but personal life made it difficult.

Anyways, hopefuly writing will come easier now, if not then 5k worth of words isn't too short I hope. Besides, December is a busy month, Monday is my birthday, the 13th is my mothers' birthday, then come the festivities at school. I'm sure the kids will love Christmas but dear baby Jesus the amount of work it will give me... Anyways, hope to update soon.

AN #2:

Also working on rewriting the -painful- first 20 something chapters. The first eight have been done and the prologue has been revamped entirely. The rest of the chapters just got a paint over.