"Oi, Sasuke, you still with us?"
Living up to his title as most irritating teammate, Naruto pestered him until he exhaled deeply and turned to the blonde idiot.
"What do you want?" He asked, taking in Naruto's incredulous reaction with only a single raised brow in response. "We're supposed to be putting a roof on this building. Or have you forgotten already?"
"He knows," Shikamaru called up, the Nara stuffing his hands in his pocket when Sasuke focused on him.
He had to get ahold of himself- he didn't even realize Shikamaru arrived.
"Hokage-sama is requesting to meet with us," Shikamaru said with a yawn, his one eye closed as he looked back up at Sasuke. "You don't want to keep your brother waiting, do you?"
"Tch," Sasuke grunted, getting up and landing beside the Nara while Naruto heaved himself off the roof.
"How come you responded to Shikamaru but not me?" Naruto asked as they started walking, pouring when Sasuke didn't respond. "I'm your favorite person ever! This is ridiculous!"
Shikamaru didn't bother to hide his snort, shaking his head and looking up at the cloud. Naruto, on the other hand, only got more irritating and stepped closer to the side of his face. His stupid best friend was making that ridiculous expression- the one that normally resulted in Sasuke punching him.
"You're acting all weird," Naruto told him. "Like weird weird. Not your normal brooding weird."
"Did that make sense to you?" Shikamaru asked, looking at Sasuke who sighed.
"Unfortunately, yes," He replied, shoving his friends face out of his general vicinity. "Do you know why Itachi wants to see us?"
"It's probably not a mission," Shikamaru responded, reaching up to scratch his cheek. "Only ANBU are currently being deployed for that stuff. I'm figuring it has to do with the invasion."
"You mean how Sasuke and I whooped Pain's ass?" Naruto said, forgetting about Sasuke's apparently odd behavior to smirk. "Well, really I beat him because I talked to Nagato. Teme, here, doesn't have the social skills to do what I do."
"You mean try to convince the enemy to stop being an enemy by talking about ramen?" Sasuke retorted, staring straight ahead when the blond pointed a finger at him.
"I got through to him, ya know!" Naruto yelled, then clutching his stomach as he looked longingly at the sky. "Ichiraku ramen hasn't opened again yet. They're supposed to. Even if the menu is limited, the old man said he'd treat me."
"My mother made you ramen last night," Sasuke pointed out, making Naruto pout.
"It's not the same!" Naruto defended, in a volume that caused both Sasuke and Shikamaru to lean away. "It's good, don't get me wrong, but Mikoto's ramen just isn't the same. I don't know how the old man does it, but I just know it isn't the same."
"Do your conversations always devolve into ramen rants?" Shikamaru muttered with a raised eyebrow as Naruto continued to grumble about the differences.
"It's either this or we end up literally fighting it out," Sasuke said with a shrug. "Be thankful it didn't escalate to that yet."
"Your team is odd," Shikamaru commented, putting his hands back in his pocket.
Sasuke rolled his eyes. That was quite a common phrase from Shikamaru apparently. He was particularly close with the Nara, but Sakura and Naruto were. Naruto came up with the brilliant idea to count how many times he had said it to them over the years. Apparently, Sakura remembered the amount. He was unsure what the number was, but it was a phrase the Nara uttered the most besides calling things troublesome. When they arrived at the Hokage tent, which was now the current so-called office until a space could be cleared and properly sealed within Hokage Mountain, Sasuke was greeted by his cousin and brother.
As soon as Shisui saw them enter, he grinned.
"Be right back," Shisui winked, vanishing from the room.
"Hey, where did Shisui-nii go?" Naruto asked, the blonde tilting his head as he looked at where the body-flicker ninja had just been.
"You'll see," He brother responded vaguely and before Sasuke could question why they were there in the first place, his cousin reappeared. With a red and pink figure beside him, of course.
Sakura hadn't even taken the rest of the tent's occupants into account yet; she took a single look at Itachi and turned on Shisui with an accusing finger.
"If you let me finish, I would have told you I wanted to get my scroll," Sakura scolded, her eyebrows narrowing while Shisui rubbed the back of his neck. "But you just placed a hand on my shoulder, apologized to your elders, and whisked me away. This is the second time my meeting with them has been interrupted. Seriously, Shisui-nii, I don't have the time for another meeting with them. At least bring me back so I can get my scroll."
"I was in a hurry?"
"Shisui-nii," Sakura started in a particularly low voice, the slightest bit threatening. And while Sasuke was normally irked by his cousin's fondness for Sakura, he couldn't help but also feel a twinge of pity towards him.
Sakura didn't use that tone very often. And when she did, Naruto wound up across a field or slammed into the side of a building for making a wildly inappropriate comment.
"Yeah, yeah, imouto," Shisui conceded quickly, at least being smart enough to accept defeat before he received one of Sakura's punches. Naruto was still learning. He placed a hand on her shoulder and saluted the new Hokage. "Be back in a jiffy!"
The two disappeared again, leaving Itachi mildly amused, Sasuke more or less annoyed, Naruto totally confused, and Shikamaru exhaling a deep sigh.
"Itachi-nii, I'm still not seeing," Naruto said bluntly and Sasuke shook his head. Naruto was still learning, after all. "I get he got Sakura-chan, but why are we here?"
"I'll tell you soon," Itachi told the blonde but this only made Naruto's features scrunch together.
"But I want to know now!"
"Are you always this loud in the morning?" Shikamaru asked with a yawn. Before Naruto could defend his annoying antics, Sakura and Shisui reappeared.
Shisui said something in a voice somehow too low for anyone else to hear and Sakura shook her head. She peered past his cousin and actually spotted them this time.
"Sasuke-kun!" She greeted with a bright smile, her attention drifting from him to Itachi. "If you could review this when you get a chance, Itachi-nii."
His brother nodded and took the scroll from Sakura's out-held hand.
"We're here too, ya know," Naruto grumbled, pouting in a way that made Sasuke roll his eyes but apparently tugged at Sakura's heart.
"You didn't give me the chance to say anything else," Sakura said soothingly, smiling at the blonde before she did the same with Shikamaru.
Sakura came up to stand beside him, the tracings of pink evident on her cheeks but she was as staring determinedly towards his brother and cousin.
He raised an eyebrow as he looked at her and he saw the slightest flicker of the green of her eyes, before the pink on her cheeks darkened a shade.
"Thank you all for coming so quickly," Itachi started, placing the scroll Sakura handed to him on the shabby desk. "With the recent attack, one of the main priorities for Konoha is rebuilding the village. Another is strengthening our forces. One of the first tasks I was handed was to identify young shinobi capable of more than their current status."
"The four of you have defeated an Akatsuki member, or two," Shisui added and Naruto laughed.
"More like four, Shisui-nii," The blonde corrected, before his brows furrowed together. He counted three fingers but wavered to raise the fourth. "Wait, does it count if I'm the, uh. . . Sakura-chan, what did you call it? I'm not the main reason Konan left but if it wasn't for me. . . Do you remember?"
"You swaying Nagato and defeating him was the catalyst for Konan's departure of the Akatsuki," Sakura answered him dutifully.
"Right!" Naruto affirmed proudly.
"Of course," Itachi agreed smoothly, a soft smile forming when Naruto elbowed Sasuke's sides. It took all of the restraint he had today not to shove the idiot away.
"And because of each of your victories and show of strength both in strategy and skill-wise, you're all suitable candidates for a promotion," Itachi finished calmly, silence following his statement.
Sasuke blinked a few times- he wasn't sure he heard his brother correctly. He's known for a while now that his skills were strengthening with every battle he faced. Hell, he took on a rinnegan wielder with his idiotic best friend and came out of it unscathed. Well, he came out of it better than Naruto. And Sakura, for that matter.
Because she had almost died because of some mutant freak and some guy with a toothy grin that oddly reminded him of a shark. Things have been too hectic for Sasuke to even process the fact that he would have lost both of his teammates had it not been for some conveniently sealed chakra on the Fourth Hokage's part and the purple diamond decorating Sakura's forehead.
And now they were getting promoted. Adding more to the high ranks meant they were preparing for battle.
"We're going to war, aren't we?" Shikamaru asked, apparently coming to the same conclusion as he did. When he felt Sakura shuffle her feet, he figured she had thought the same as well.
"There is no war officially," Shisui answered vaguely and Itachi's earlier smile fell into a thin line.
"Like it or not, we have been fighting a war with the Akatsuki ever since they came for Naruto all those years ago," Itachi explained. "This, of course, doesn't account for the attack sixteen years ago, nor the police station massacre. Now that we've unveiled the identity of the masked member as Uchiha Obito, we can assume it was him that ordered both."
The room fell into silence for a few moments again. Sakura stepped closer to him, reaching her hand behind his back to hold Naruto's sleeve. The blonde didn't seem to notice, pointedly looking at the ground with a grip on his stomach.
"He can't. . . He can't force the Kyuubi while he's sealed inside of me, can he?" Naruto asked in a worried whisper, finally looking up. Sasuke didn't miss how Naruto's hand moved up to cover Sakura's grip on his arm. So much for not noticing.
"He could possibly repress the chakra if it leaks out of the seal," Shisui answered after a few moments, tapping his chin with his finger. "Can't really control something that's sealed away, though. It's why it's so dangerous for you to even tap into that power."
Shisui paused again, making a face before he shrugged. "I guess the only way for you to access the Kyuubi's chakra without the risk of having it suppressed by Obito would be to form an alliance with the Kyuubi. Solves both issues."
Naruto waited at least a few moments before he repeated Shisui's words. His arms began to move to make his dramatic point, Sakura's hand falling from the idiot back down to her side. "Form. . . An alliance- the Kyuubi tried to take over my body! Like, a week or two ago! He knew I was desperate because Sakura-chan's chakra signature faltered and tried to manipulate me! He's been inside of me for sixteen years! You'd think we'd have an alliance by now but he's a stubborn ass and doesn't want to work with me!"
"Have you tried?" Itachi asked and Naruto faltered.
"Well, not really," He admitted, his frantic arm waving ceasing as he scratched the side of his head nervously. "Pervy-Sage said it was theoretically possible, but he said didn't have the tools to teach me."
"Interesting," Itachi noted, before he set his hands on the desk and looked at each of them. "Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura; you have all been promoted to jounin level. You'll need to brush up on these."
It was as though his cousin plucked numerous scrolls from the air, the objects miraculously appearing in his hand before he threw one to the each of them.
"What's this?" Sasuke asked, peering at the object in his hand.
"Jounin terms, village code, and need-to-know-personnel information," Shisui answered with a huff. "Jounin are not just shinobi for a village. They help lead us towards peace. Ensuring you're all on the same page as everyone else, especially now, is vital incase a war is actually declared."
"And as each of you have shown," Itachi continued. "Your efforts already have eliminated half of the Akatsuki. And your skill sets have surpassed skilled chūnin; it's about time your rank reflected your skills."
There was silence in the room for all of five seconds after his brother finished speaking before Naruto's mouth widened and let out a victorious shout. Sasuke's eye started to twitch when his ear began to ring.
"We're jounin!" Naruto yelled, pushing him aside to hug the only girl in the room. His arms wrapped tightly around her, his body almost completely engulfing hers besides her small hand patting Naruto's back. "Sakura-chan, do you know what that means? I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage! Oh, does this mean we get to go on super cool, intense missions now?"
Sasuke tugged him off their teammate, slightly irked that she hadn't even bothered to detach the clingy blond herself, but he could write it off as her own happiness clouding her judgement.
"I can't wait to tell Kiba, he was going on and on about how he could have defeated Pain- oh, I can already imagine the look on his face-"
"Naruto-kun," Itachi interrupted softly, and it was a wonder the idiot even heard his brother's low voice. "You, in particular, need to be careful. My aim is to keep either Kakashi-senpai or Yamato-senpai with you whenever you leave the village."
Naruto's mood soured quickly, a large pout growing on his features. "But, Itachi-nii, that's no fun."
Shisui snorted and rolled his eyes. "Naruto, war isn't supposed to be fun. You have the Kyuubi sealed within you. If we go to war, you're going to be the very thing we need to protect."
"Wait, you aren't promoting me to sideline me, are you?" Naruto asked seriously.
"The Akatsuki wants the Tailed-Beasts, so it's only natural for us to shield the very things they want," Shikamaru said with crossed arms. "It's actually a logical defense strategy, so long as we have a strong offensive unit. But we wouldn't have enough strength to go up against Obito as a village; he was behind the police station attack. Taking on that many Uchiha and coming out on top means he's on a different level than almost every person in the village. He's a tricky opponent."
"And he has help," Sakura added in a quiet tone. "Orochimaru has his own personal army of. . . shinobi. Altered shinobi, really. And we have to consider the rotten fruit here."
The tent fell into silence, all of them exchanging looks. Even Naruto kept his mouth shut surprisingly.
"We must tread carefully," Itachi decided, gesturing to the scrolls Shisui had thrown towards them earlier. "Read those. If you all could report back in the morning, that would be wonderful."
Shikamaru said his goodbyes first, with both himself and Naruto following suit. The two boys moved to leave but stopped when they noticed a distinct lack of pink trailing them.
"Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, causing her to look back at them.
Her smile was small, almost sad. He hated when her lips fashioned themselves in such a way.
"I've got some theories I want to run by Itachi-nii, and since I'm here. . . " She trailed off, trying her best to keep up the facade that everything was okay.
Sasuke hadn't known that look before. He still didn't understand it in its entirety, but he knew what it mean when his brother was involved. She's been listing chemical reactions and numerous theories of the effects of some treasured Konoha animal.
"It's medical stuff, dobe," Sasuke explained. "Let's go. We have to finish that building before Kakashi pushes off more of his responsibilities onto us."
"Crap, you're right," Naruto blanched, his blue eyes growing wide before he lifted the flap of the tent with his forearm. "We'll see you guys at dinner!"
Sasuke didn't get the chance to say goodbye before the idiot dragged him outside.
Sasuke was reading the scroll in his room later that afternoon. They had finished their project for the day and was granted the afternoon off to focus on their new status.
And so, he was actually doing what he was supposed to be doing and he found something rather interesting about the village code-- in particular, the word 'Gohō'. He vaguely remembered his brother greeting Tsunade with that term when asked about Sakura's condition way back when she was hospitalized.
It was a term used to indicate someone held information that should remain classified with no questions asked. Even the Hokage wasn't an exception if the person with said information deemed it so. And to use that with Sakura and all the things she has sworn to him that she has kept silent for him and Naruto. . . Sasuke had a feeling his brother was indeed right and Sakura was given a mission. It was the only explanation.
Sasuke shut his eyes, trying to sort through the little information he had on Sakura's sometimes odd and secretive behavior. But then he heard a string of curses and he frowned.
Naruto was training in the backyard, dutifully waiting for Sasuke or Sakura to read the scroll and tell him all about it. Sasuke wanted to scoff at his best friends allergy to studying- or that was what he called it.
Sakura was somewhere. Sasuke actually had no idea where she was. No, he knew where she was about an hour ago, when Naruto was training his Sage mode and loudly announced that she was still with Itachi and Shisui, despite the fact that it had been hours after their meeting. He hoped whatever theory she was discussing or even experimenting with had some positive results. He couldn't handle the idea that his brother would be taken from this world through a disease ravaging his body. His brother, in his eyes, was untouchable in the shinobi world, just like his cousin.
And for Itachi to be beaten by his own body, well. . . It was both fitting and terrifying.
"Sasuke," His father said, causing him to look up from the scroll. "Come with me."
He nodded, getting up silently before following his father out of their home. They remained silent for the entire walk and Sasuke wasn't sure what his father wanted with him. Usually, if it was about preparing for his upcoming role as clan head, they would sit in his father's meeting room. But no, they were taking a walk through the previously sparsely populated Uchiha district. Now, it was filled with Konoha citizens, who didn't seem to mind the Uchiha emblem painted onto the few walls left standing. Funnily enough, it was having the out skirted district lined with thick stone walls that stopped the majority of the damage done to his home.
His father led him deeper into the district, towards the elders home but then passed by the building. Sasuke wondered if Sakura had finished with his brother and cousin and was currently seated before the Uchiha elders.
Sasuke's attention was drawn back to his father when they stopped by a large stone slab, with some debris scattered atop of it.
"What is this?" He asked his father. Sasuke knew there were stone tablets scattered in hidden underground rooms within the compound, but all the ones he knew of were not located here.
"I'll explain," His father answered shortly, making a hand sign before the stone lifted itself. He walked down the stairs that were uncovered and Sasuke followed him, watching as the light was slowly overtaken by darkness again when the stone sat itself back in place.
His father lit nearby torches and the illumination revealed a room just like numerous others-- empty besides a stone tablet. Sasuke's eyes flickered red, but the writing carved upon the stone remained gibberish to him.
"Only those with the mangekyo can read this," Sasuke noted and his father nodded in agreement.
"Yes, and now only four Uchiha know of this particular stone," His father said, standing in front of the stone with crossed arms. "You're the heir, Sasuke. The elders have decided that your training will begin to lead the clan sooner rather than later."
"Does the state of Konoha have anything to do with that?" Sasuke questioned, holding back his frown.
"They have anticipated a war happening within the coming months," His father nodded. "And so, they wish for all the clan secrets to at least be known to you so you may be better prepared when we go to war."
"Wouldn't it make sense for this information to be revealed to me if I survive the war?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow when his father looked back at him.
"You'll survive," His father said simply, like it was a fact. But war was never certain. And the fact that his father seemed to be, it caused his eyes to widen at the realization.
His father had enough faith in him to survive a war.
It wasn't the same acknowledgment as the line, 'That's my boy' but somehow it was better. It was an acknowledgment of his strength and perseverance.
"This stone here is a testament that you'll survive," His father continued vaguely, resting a hand on it.
"What does it say?" Sasuke wondered, trying to think about how this stone was a so-called testament to his survival. Did it predict the future?
"This stone is only known to a handful of people for a reason, Sasuke," His father started, the light emitting from the fire flickering among the shadows on the walls. "It is a second chance, you could say. Theoretically, it could be used multiple times but only if the individual has the means to survive its effects and read it in the first place."
"So, you, Itachi, and Shisui," Sasuke took a guess and his father shook his head. "I thought you said only four Uchiha knew about this stone."
"There is one other who knows about this stone, though I'm sure it's but a distant memory now," His father continued and Sasuke was completely taken aback by the idea.
"But is it safe?" Sasuke asked. "For this other person to know?"
"I've spent years trying to decide that," His father admitted, turning around. Sasuke wasn't sure why his father had this knowing smile on his face-- he didn't understand almost everything happening.
"They've proven themselves loyal to the Uchiha and its future," Fugaku told him, the oddest expression on his father's face.
"How?" Sasuke pressed.
"It is very rare to see true love in the world nowadays," His father said. Sasuke's brows furrowed together at whatever the implication of that sentence meant. "This other person holds it towards one of our own, thankfully. Though, I'm sure it's the only reason they know of the stone in the first place."
Pieces started to fall in line and his features scrunched together. "Father, what does the stone say?"
"The stone describes a second chance for our world," His father answered. "A way to right the wrongs once committed. It is an incredibly powerful jutsu. However, it is too dangerous for just anyone to use. Once they do, the fate of reality rests upon them."
"The only other person who knows is that someone, isn't it?" Sasuke inquired, taking his father's passive expression as a confirmation. "We're living the second chance."
"You understand, then."
"I think I do."