Persuadés de ne plus se revoir
Ai-je quitté mon insomnie quand j'crois voir dans le noir?

Persuaded to never sleep again
Have I left my insomnia when I believe to see into the night?

Kakashi placed a hand on the empty spot on the bed beside him. He could still see the imprint that Sasuke's body made on the bed sheets. Except he was gone.

Immediately putting two and two together, Kakashi sat up in bed. He was breathing hardly. No…no….

Kakashi ran out of the bedroom, naked except for the bed sheets he had wrapped around his waist. When it was apparent that Sasuke was not in the kitchen cooking like he thought he would be, he ran to the front door (Sasuke's shoes were gone….) and opened the door.

Sunlight pierced his eyes painfully and Kakashi squinted, covering his eyes with an arm. Walking down the outdoor corridor in his slippers, he looked over the balcony….

He was both relieved and alarmed to see Sasuke hailing a taxi down below. "Sasuke!" Kakashi shouted. He didn't think he'd ever shouted louder in his life.

Sasuke looked up upon hearing Kakashi's scratchy voice. But this just egged him on and made him rush into the taxi even faster. Sasuke looked out the back window of the taxi as it drove away. Kakashi kept staring after it hopelessly until it made a turn on the street ahead, heading towards the slums.

Kakashi rushed back to his apartment and his neighbour, in her bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, screamed. Kakashi rushed into his place without even bothering to close the door behind him.

First of all, he had to calm down. The kid was sixteen. He would be able to take care of himself, he'd done this many times before…. It was the last thought that really tore at him. Why?

Kakashi was having a mental breakdown. Where were his smokes? His smokes…. Spotting the package on the table, he shakily lit up, but his trembling fingers wouldn't work the way they should. He threw the lighter at the fridge and it bounced off and clattered onto the floor. Kakashi ran a hand through his hair. He had to calm down.

First things first, who in the world was Orochimaru? And how could he have known Itachi? Orochimaru could be anyone! Itachi's drug dealer, accomplice or, more likely, a random pervert who's lying to Sasuke…. But Sasuke wouldn't fall for just anyone, would he? Sasuke said he was getting close, so it must be someone that Sasuke knew, or someone he knew was associated with Itachi. He was pretty sure that Sasuke wouldn't just…let himself be used by a random guy.

Whipping on a business suit, he made himself half-presentable to the world, then ran downstairs and started his car. Driving out, he took the exact same turn that the taxi made. From there, it was off to the slums.

Kakashi walked along the abandoned streets, pieces of paper blowing in circles by his feet. The buildings beside him were about to be torn down, windows smashed with pieces of tape fluttering down its concrete walls. He was back at the place where he and Zabuza first started.

When had the place come to this? Kakashi hadn't come back here in years. From the time they signed on and became Insomnie, they had moved out of this dump, and proceeded to bigger things, hope of the better. And now he was back. It was all coming full circle now.

Kakashi kicked at an empty soda can. From the dark shadows of the empty, underground parking lots, he could sense someone watching him. Kakashi gazed into the shadows, and saw several kids staring at him, the whites of their eyes peering suspiciously from the dark. It was then that he realized that he wasn't alone. This place was full of kids, kids who, like him, called this place home and who didn't have the company of anyone to call family except each other.

"Yo," Kakashi said, bending over and staring into the shadows. "It's Kakashi." Kakashi had no idea if the old kids would still be here. He was just randomly guessing in the hopes that someone here would be able to help him.

A rock was thrown from the shadows and Kakashi deftly dodged it, old reflexes unforgotten. "Konohamaru!" he heard a voice scold from the shadows, then a slap. Then someone stood up and slowly walked towards him.

He didn't recognize the face at first, but its familiar shape and particular gait brought back a rush of memories. "Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru glared at him. He was a lot older, but he was definitely the same. His hair was still tied back in its punk ponytail and twin earrings gleamed from both ears. He had grown taller, almost as tall as Kakashi. He stood there, staring Kakashi up and down. "I see you've lived well," he said, noting the business suit.

"Not really," Kakashi said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. He was both happy yet nostalgic that he ran into someone from the old days. Although he and Shikamaru were never that close because of the age difference, he had treated Shikamaru like a younger brother, much like the rest of the other little ones.

"So, I heard that you and Zabuza are making lots of money now, eh? That you guys finally formed a successful band." It sounded almost accusing.

Kakashi slowly nodded. He wasn't sure if Shikamaru's definition of success was the same as his own. All that mattered to him now was that he find Sasuke.

"So, what are you doing back here?" Shikamaru always had a tendency to get right to the point.

"I'm looking for someone," Kakashi replied, eyes pained. Shikamaru looked shocked. This wasn't a side of Kakashi that he'd seen before. Kakashi supposed that he'd changed a lot. At Shikamaru's silence, Kakashi continued on. "I'm looking for a boy with messy, dark hair and eyes as deep as darkest night. He should be a little younger than you, and he's pale. A schoolboy."

Shikamaru stared at him carefully before answering. "No," he said slowly. "Never seen him."

"Then have you seen Itachi?" Kakashi asked desperately. It still pained him to even say the former friend's name.

"What do you want with him?" Shikamaru asked, scowling.

"So you know where he is," Kakashi began slowly.

"Everyone SUSPECTS they know where he is, but no one's actually seen him. After he signed his life away to that devil manager, he never came back. They never do," Shikamru said, glaring accusingly at Kakashi.

"What's he up to now?"

"The same, I guess." Shikamaru shrugged. "As I said, no one's actually seen him. All we ever get to see is his stupid manager, Mr. O."

"O? As in, Orochimaru?"

Shikamaru shrugged again. "Who cares? All managers are evil."

That was when a little kid ran out. He looked like a miniature version of Shikamaru. A tattered make-believe cape flowed along behind him and he wore a cracked helmet on his head. He had a toothy grin. "Mr. O is gross! He always tries to get me and the others to play with him, but we all know he's an evil man who took Itachi away!" He puffed out his little chest defiantly.

"Konohamaru, get back in there," Shikamaru said sternly, pointing back in the direction from which he came. Konohamaru stuck out his tongue at him and Kakashi crouched down, suddenly interested.

"This Mister O," he said to Konohamaru, trying to get some information out of the little one. "Where does he stay?"

"I'll show you!" Konohamaru said angrily. He ran off.

Shikamaru shook his head. "It's good to see you back," he said, in his poker-faced way.

Kakashi turned and smiled. "You, too." He took Shikamaru's fist in his own. "You've grown into a fine young man."

"Tsch. Whatever," Shikamaru said, waving Kakashi away. Kakashi turned around and dashed after Konohamaru. "Dig the earrings."

Kakashi smiled through his mask. Some things never changed.

Konohamaru dashed in and out of the concrete boulders and it was all Kakashi could do to not lose sight of him or smash a shin into one of the bricks. The place was getting tattier and more menacing. He thought he saw a couple of hypodermic needles lying around, but he guessed he shouldn't be surprised.

Konohamaru finally stopped at a side street in front of a nondistinct building. He pointed at the door. "Mister O always stays here when he visits. I don't wanna go any further." He crossed his arms and stayed put.

"Thanks," Kakashi said, scratching the boy on the top of his head. He looked up. The place was about three stories and had several rooms, one of which he knew would contain Orochimaru…or Sasuke. He had already wasted a lot of valuable time in the slums. Opening the door, he stepped into the dirty hallway.

Like the others, this building was abandoned. The only people who ever lived here were bums or drug addicts, not a place where you would raise a family. Parts of the wall facing the hallway were torn down, and he could see various dirty individuals living in makeshift rooms. Ignoring them, Kakashi rapidly made his way down the hallway and towards the staircase at the very end. An old woman sitting at the bottom of the stairs asked him if he'd seen her daughter. He shook his head, no, jumped over her, and started running up the stairs.

The hallway on the second floor appeared to be much of the same. It wasn't until he reached the third floor that the place began to look cleaner. Sunlight poured through a window at the top of the stairs, contrasting ironically with the dank living environments below. He thought he heard something….

In the middle of the hallway, two big men, obviously bodyguards, were chatting to each other about nonsensical things. Women. How much she'd drink before she slept with them. Kakashi quietly stepped into the hallway and they both looked towards him. Then they began stalking over, cocky grins on their faces.

"And what do we have here? Someone who's wandered up too far? Maybe you should go back downstairs where you belong," one of them said, picking at Kakashi's shoulder.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulder away, glaring. "Mr. O wanted to see me," he hazarded.

"Mr. O ain't accepting any visitors today. He's very busy," the other one said, leering and glancing over his shoulder at one of the closed doorways.

These men were wasting his time. "Sasuke!" he shouted.

Behind a closed doorway, Kakashi thought he could hear Sasuke's voice being muffled, then a slap. Alarmed, Kakashi charged forward but the two burly bodyguards formed a human wall, disallowing passage. "Sasuke!"

Nothing that he did would ever be able to get through to these idiots. Their necks were the size of small tree trunks. Kakashi looked around helplessly, searching for some sort of weapon….

Then he spotted it, lying among bloodied paper towels in the corner of an empty room. Charging in, he hesitated only slightly before picking it up. The guards did not bother stopping him.

Kakashi brandished the empty syringe point-first towards one of the bodyguards and the man raised his arms up, not wanting bodily contact with that thing. The other one wasn't so smart.

"What're you gonna do with that?" he asked. "Poke me?"

Kakashi casually walked forward until the syringe was pointed at the stupid guy's neck. "HIV," he mouthed, and rapidly stabbed the syringe into the guy's arm.

The bodyguard paled and raised his eyes up to Kakashi imploringly as he fell to his knees and on the floor. He would probably be fine. There was a chance that the needle wasn't infected, but he had to rely on shock right now. Slipping past, Kakashi braced himself and kicked the closed door open. The door was rusting on its hinges anyway, and broken splinters blew inwards, scattering all over the floorboards. When he saw the sight before him, he almost cried.

Sasuke was completely naked. His pale, frail body was kneeling at the foot of a dirty bed, bruised all over. He could see blood pooling where Sasuke sat, bleeding from his anus. Wet streaks, from either salty tears or semen was streaking down his pretty face, leaving behind dried marks and, right now, his mouth was forced open at its maximum, almost choking as the man who could only be Orochimaru grabbed the top of Sasuke's messy hair and forced himself into Sasuke's mouth. Orochimaru was sitting back naked on his bed, an absolutely elated yet smug look on his face, pale, skinny body slick with fluids as his long, dark hair stuck to it. He licked his lips with a sharp tongue, yelling at Sasuke to work harder.

That was all that Kakashi needed to see in that one instant. Rushing forward, Orochimaru barely had time to look up before Kakashi brutally punched Orochimaru in his sick face, sending him flying towards the edge of the bed. Sasuke blinked and gazed up blearily.

Kakashi wasn't done. Leaping on the bed, he grabbed Orochimaru's head up by his long, stringy hair and punched him again. Blood was coming out of Orochimaru's nose now. He towered over Orochimaru and continued punching him in the face, the formerly suave manager now rendered helpless beneath Kakashi's mad onslaught. Kakashi could feel Sasuke's hands wrapping around his arms, telling him to stop. Sasuke's voice was so distant now. It wasn't until Sasuke gently hugged his body from behind that he let his fist fall.

"You'll never find out where Itachi is now," Orochimaru spitted, still grinning among a mouthful of blood. "He's mine."

Kakashi stood up, wrapping an arm protectively around Sasuke. "Itachi died from the moment he signed his life away with you. It does not matter where he is now." Taking off his jacket, he wrapped it around Sasuke's naked body and lead him out. They stepped casually over the still fearful bodyguards, down the stairs, and then back to the first floor. It wasn't until they were alone that Kakashi bent down and hugged Sasuke. Sasuke, finally letting his emotions release at the touch of a warm body, started crying. Sasuke cried and cried and Kakashi reached up to cradle his precious head, rubbing his hand reassuringly down the boy's back. Kakashi didn't scold. Didn't say anything, just let the boy hold him. Sometimes, that's all someone needed.

Kakashi looked into Sasuke's dirty face. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you," he whispered.

Sasuke shook his head, then said the words that he needed to hear. "I'll never run away from you ever again."

"Come," Kakashi said, holding Sasuke's hand. "Let's go home."

They picked their way through the rubble when a voice croaked out weakly from among the shadows of one of the makeshift homes. "Kakashi."

Kakashi stopped. He knew that voice. Even though it sounded scratchy and very faint, there was only one man he knew who had a voice like that. Kakashi slowly turned towards the source.

A figure, whom he had passed by absently before, on his search for Sasuke, was sitting among the shadows, dirty blankets surrounding his figure. Kakashi slowly stepped forward into the makeshift home of the bums and stopped.

Itachi. Uchiha Itachi. Kakashi could not believe his eyes. Not because he was actually reuniting with someone whom he hasn't seen in too many years, but because the person staring nearly blindly up at him could possibly be the person that he once knew.

Itachi looked ten years older than he should have been. Deep seams ran down his unnaturally pointy face, angular because of the lack of meat. Dirt piled relentlessly in those seams, dirt that could only be gathered by staying outdoors without the touch of a wash for years, too many years to ever be properly removed. Hair that was once shiny and vibrant and black was now dull with dust, dust clinging in clumps almost like dreadlocks over the skinny face. Itachi's eyes were unfocused, gaze darting back and forth but never directly at his friend, never at Kakashi.

Kakashi told Sasuke to stay at the doorway. He bent down and looked into Itachi's face.

Itachi's wandering eyes finally spotted Kakashi. "Long time no see, brother." Even though he conversed to Kakashi, his mind was off somewhere else.

"Hi, Itachi," Kakashi said quietly. "How've you been doing?"

Itachi's eyes darted back and forth. "Have you seen it?"

"Seen what?" Kakashi answered, even though he knew it was pointless. Talking to a drugged up person was like trying to humour yourself.

Itachi was too weak to even raise his arm. Kakashi knew that he would be gone soon.

Kakashi took Itachi's blankets and wrapped it firmly around his old friend. Itachi had slumped sideways. His once sparkling eyes, now dull, could barely stay open as the lids half covered them. "Do you remember when we were kids?" Kakashi asked, falsely cheerful, a lump in his throat. "We were always saying we would conquer the world. Just you, me, and Zabuza. Remember?"

Itachi closed his eyes. He had fallen into a sleep in which he would never wake up.

Kakashi continued staring for awhile, he wasn't sure how long, until he could hear Sasuke's feet ruffling on the concrete.

Looking up, with tears stained in his eyes, Kakashi blinked and smiled. He had someone he needed to take care of.

Blocking Sasuke's view, he led him out the door of the building and back into sunshine. "Was that your friend?" Sasuke asked, gazing up at him innocently.

"No. Just someone I once knew." Leading Sasuke back to his car, he waved at Konohamaru, who was waiting curiously outside the building, Shikamaru behind him. "I don't think Mr. O will return to bug you again."

Shikamaru nodded while Konohamaru stoutly puffed up his little chest and grinned toothily. Kakashi shook his head. It was good to be back.

Kakashi stood in front of Yondaime's grave, smoking a cigarette. The white lilies he had placed there splayed across the gravestone, and Yondaime's youthful face would be forever smiling, telling Kakashi to continue on. Another of the rock star greats lost to the abuse of drugs.

Kakashi could hear someone trudging up the path behind him and he turned around. It was Zabuza, wearing a formal black suit, much like his own. "Still up here reminiscing?"

"No. Just passing on." They both stared at Yondaime's grave for awhile, lost in thought.

"You know, you really shouldn't be smoking up here."

Kakashi shrugged. Far off, old friends were mourning at Itachi's funeral. He could spot Sasuke at the forefront, kneeling down and respecting the brother that he never knew. Kakashi had given his respects a while ago, but he knew that the most important part of Itachi had been gone long before he died in that building. He was glad that Itachi did not die alone.

A ways off, Gaara and his girls stood, watching respectfully. Gaara, spotting them, waved them over.

"Although I am not closely affiliated with Itachi," Gaara began, "I am curious as to what Sasuke is doing there."

"Itachi is Sasuke's older brother," Kakashi replied. Everyone, including Zabuza, gave Kakashi a wide-eyed stare.

"Little Itachi," Zabuza said, gazing at Sasuke.

"I heard that Itachi's manager went to jail," Sakura piped up.

Behind her black veil, Ino nodded. "Apparently, he was corrupt and found guilty of numerous charges, including murder, dealing with illegal drugs, and prostitution, among other things," she said offhandedly, as if she encountered these things every day.

Kakashi nodded. Sasuke would be glad to hear this. Far off, he could see little Konohamaru tugging on Sasuke's sleeve and asking him questions.

A car horn honked and they could see Kurenai waving from the driver's seat. Zabuza started walking towards her.

"Off so soon?" Kakashi asked, smiling.

"Wedding arrangements," Zabuza replied, waving his arm as his friends laughed at him. He was glad that Zabuza and Kurenai were back together again.

"If you had to pick between us, who would you marry?" Sakura asked Gaara, clinging onto his arm.

Gaara scowled at both of them. "It's too early to think about that now." Behind her black veil, Ino smiled.

Sasuke was just about done. Sasuke walked over quietly just as Gaara and his cats left. Kakashi smiled at him.

Taking Sasuke's hand, they walked away across the field, the tall grass blowing at their feet. For the first time in a long time, Kakashi did not see grey.

THE END

Credits: Top verse from Les Nubians – Insomnie

Hope you liked the ending! I just want to give a big, fat warm thank you to Sakaba Sharpie. Without your reviews from the very beginning, I would never have gotten this far. Thank you also to Queen of Vegetasei: I think we're on the same wavelength, girl! I'm so glad I have found someone from whom I could illicit that kind of response! (It was actually what I originally intended and you hit everything on the button!) To everyone else, thank you so much for reading and I just hope a little part of this story has found a place in your heart :)

I was thinking of doing an arc about Gaara & his cats...you know, history with a little bit of the present. Anyone up for it? Or is it too out of character that it would make you cringe? If so, I'll try to make it more tasteful and not plain porn, know what I mean? Anyway...hope to see you soon! - luv, Echidna