Chapter 18 Long Voyage home

"I don't' understand why Kisame was so interested if I missed my former home. I didn't miss it. Not at all"

"I should politely warn him to stop bothering me with foolish questions"

Uchiha Itachi

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Sasuke was running, while the storm still raged. He had done everything faultlessly: Avoiding the ANBU that were watching his home, jumping through the village's walls, avoiding the usual roads to Sound Country, taking a detour and using the storm to hide his trail...

The only thing flaw that he had in an otherwise perfect escape was climbing a high mountain, wasting a time he didn't have and raising the risk of being caught by the Hunter-nins that were probably already chasing him. On the mountain he did another totally useless thing: He waited until there was lighting. Using the very small cover of a thunder, he roared with all his strength. It was a roar of frustration and pain. He kept running.

He didn't have the right to have her. He shouldn't even think about her. He had made a promise. He had said he would spend the rest of his life fulfilling his revenge. However, he was too unskilled against the powerful Uchiha Itachi. To beat him, he had to play the one awful card that had been dealt to him. He had to use the route of chaos and total abandon. Going to Orochimaru was what he was born to do.

He had promised himself that nothing else would be important to him. In that way, he would never feel that loneliness again. However, there were some things that had become important, that had become unintentionally precious to him, without his knowledge and certainly without his consent.

Still, he was skilled in the art of destroying those kinds of sentiments so he was able move forward without them, wasn't he?

Shit!

Kakashi was not listening Naruto's complaints about "that lazy bastard chuunin-Sasuke", not even the questions directed to him if being a latecomer was contagious. He was worried. He was really, really worried because Sakura and Sasuke were late. Sakura had arrived late only once or twice. Sasuke had never, ever arrived late.

They weren't meeting on the bridge, as always. In case of very bad weather, they had previously agreed to meet in the "Roof where I told you for the first time that I would become the Hokage" as Naruto had said or "Roof of dreams" as Sakura's had called it. However, that roof had a bad taste for him since he had heard that on that same roof Sasuke had asked Sakura to marry him.

Finally, Sakura appeared, and that was a good thing. However, she was alone, and that was a bad thing, a very bad thing.

"Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan! You are late! Where is Sasuke?" asked excitedly Naruto

"He is training alone" she said "He commented that he had created a new jutsu, and he wanted to practice it for himself."

"That chuunin-bastard is just afraid of being beaten by me!" yelled Naruto

Kakashi was not answering. He was paying a lot of attention at Sakura. He was staring hard at her eyes. Even if she had tried to hide it, she had been crying.

"Where is Sasuke?" Kakashi asked brusquely

"I told you;" she answered with a calm voice "He wanted to train on his own today."

Kakashi didn't even wait to listen. He was already rushing to check on the ANBU that should be making sure that Sasuke didn't escape from the Leaf. If Sasuke had escaped, they would need to form a hunting party immediately. At least the Leaf was almost with his former strength already. They would have no trouble forming a strong party.

Then, there was the trouble of what to do with Sasuke. They could try to convince him to go back to the Leaf, but Sasuke had decided to go to the Sound of his own accord. It was sad, but there was no choice: According to the laws of the Leaf, if Sasuke refused to go back, they would have to kill him.

Sakura watched Kakashi leave.

"I don't know why Kakashi is so worried." commented Sakura. "I said that Sasuke is training..."

Naruto glanced at Sakura. She was smiling widely, but her arms were trembling. Sakura looked at her own arms. He tried to hold the trembling, but it didn't stop. Oblivious to Naruto's presence, she hugged herself and started to tremble.

Naruto wanted to hug Sakura. He desperately wanted to hug her. If he did that, he knew that Sakura would thank him. She would even say that Naruto was really a good friend.

But he knew that he was not the person that Sakura truly wanted to be hugged by.

He didn't want to stay friends with her. He loved Sakura, damn it! He still loved her. He had watched her forever. He had watched and loved her since as long as he could remember. He wanted to hug her; he wanted to confess his feelings for her.

Hai, he also wanted to hit Sasuke really hard. He wanted to smash his face against concrete. He had promised to make Sakura happy! That bastard! He had Sakura. Sasuke had what he, Naruto, had wanted his whole life and Sasuke had rejected Sakura. Damn him!

"Sakura-chan" he said.

Sakura was watching the ground intensely.

"Sakura-chan" he repeated. He was afraid he was going to have a breakdown if she didn't answer him.

Finally she met his eyes.

He managed to smile.

"It's Itachi, right? Sasuke is going after him.

"I don't know what you are talking about. I told you Sasuke is going to train alone." She smiled again. She wasn't a good liar, though. Naruto was far better at hiding his emotions than she would ever be. He could hear her crying inside. At least he understood why she was lying. She was lying because she was in love with Sasuke.

Sakura picked the pen, and started signing her name, when a hand stopped her. Sasuke's

"Sakura, are you completely sure?"

"Hai" she said fearlessly.

"Sakura, you know I have a mission that I have to do. A duty I don't think I will survive. Even if we are married, I will not stop. Do you still want to marry me?

"Hai"

"Do you promise not to stop me in that duty, even if we are married?"

"Hai. In exchange..."

"Sakura-chan, don't worry, I'll bring him back. This is a lifetime promise, and I won't take back my words. That's my ninja way. I'll do what you promised not to do." Naruto promised raising his thumb

Sakura didn't answer. She just looked at the ground, and this time she was barely holding back her tears.

Naruto was still smiling while Sakura saw him running away from the village. The smile disappeared as soon as Sakura was out of sight. He felt the water running down his cheeks, but he wasn't sure if it was because the rain or something else.

Naruto remembered that Jiraiya had told him that whenever he wanted to get out of the Leaf Village, he would need some ANBU to escort him. Naruto looked right and left, and decided that since Jiraiya was not there, he could skip the ANBU part.

He left the Leaf Village and started running. Seven hundred meters later, he noticed that he didn't know where he was going. He tried to think on a place where Sasuke could have gone. He then remembered that Sakura had talked to him about Orochimaru and Sasuke's seal. A little time later Sasuke had trained really hard to learn to create Shadow clones. They had met a weird guy who Sasuke had commented that belonged to Orochimaru.

That was it! Sasuke had gone to join Orochimaru so he could concentrate on killing Itachi! That idiot!

He tried to remember the way to the Sound Village. It was at the... northwest, or north right... Oh, well. He would find it. He was a shinobi, he had good instincts.

He started running. Around him, the storm still raged, unabated by time or weariness. Still, he ran. He didn't exactly know where he was going, and still he ran. He didn't have the slightest idea of what to do when he reached Sound Village, and still he ran. He though after a few hours of running, that if he wanted to assault Sound Village, he would need somebody to help, maybe he could have gathered a few friends for help, but still he ran.

Sasuke was running really fast, but still keeping his energy. He had calculated the distance to the Sound Village, and he wanted to reach the outskirts to the Sound Village as soon as possible.

He soon reached the frontier between the Fire Country and the Sound Country. He panted while he recognized the Valley of the End, the place where two cherished friends had fought to death. The First Hokage of the Leaf Village had fought there against his best friend. The two of them were friends and the two of them had very good reasons to fight. None of them could back off, and the end there had been another little tragedy, so common in the shinobi world.

The two statues of the two most powerful shinobis of their time were staring at each other. It was actually a nice place. He should show it to Sakura sometime...

Sasuke bit his lip, hard, until he felt the blood moving down his throat. He couldn't show it to Sakura, because he had betrayed her. He had to leave that place immediately. If he just jumped to the other side of the river, he would be on Sound country.

He just needed to jump and he would be out of the Leaf Country

He just needed to jump and he would be out of Sakura's life

He could only go forward; He couldn't turn back. Turning back would mean that he would never be strong enough to fight Itachi.

Shit!

After hours of running, he reached a waterfall, which was silently watched by two huge statues. He recognized one of them as the First Hokage. He didn't recognize the second one. The rain was still falling, maybe gentler now.

He was thinking about resting there for a short time, when then he noticed somebody staring at the waterfall, motionless.

"SASUKE!"

For a second, the person didn't move. Finally he turned around. Sasuke, holding with the mouth a drenched and obviously unlit cigarette, looked at Naruto. He smiled, gently.

"I thought I had hidden my trail better, especially with the storm. How did you find me?"

"I just followed my instinct" yelled Naruto

Sasuke raised an eyebrow

"You found me just by instinct?"

"Of course, because I would always be able to find you. No matter how far you run, no matter where you hide, I would find you."

"That sounds creepy, you know?" said Sasuke that was quickly losing interest in the conversation.

"You promised you would try to make Sakura happy!" yelled Naruto.

"I lied. It was very easy to lie to you, and even easier to lie to Sakura. I just wanted to fuck with her." Sasuke said calmly

For a few seconds, there was no movement. Naruto just stared at Sasuke, surprised by the words. Sasuke just didn't move.

Then Naruto roared as he ran at him. Sasuke watched with keen interest as Naruto's chakra increased tenfold in one second. Not only his chakra, but also his bloodlust and his speed increased exponentially. Naruto's fist went straight into his abdomen. Sasuke confirmed that also Naruto's strength had increased.

When Sasuke fell to his knees, Naruto moved his leg back, and kicked Sasuke in the face with all his strength. Sasuke fell down, and Naruto was in a flash on top of him, raising one fist.

Sasuke smiled and didn't make a move to protect himself. After a few seconds, Naruto put down the fist.

"You are lying. You just said that to make me hit you." He accused, getting off Sasuke

Sasuke smiled and after a few seconds, he managed to sit on the ground.

"Getting smarter, uh? Well, I felt like I needed a pounding, but it would be too dumb to hit myself, so I manipulated you."

"You promised you would try to make Sakura happy" repeated Naruto

Sasuke sighed.

"I said I would try, but I made another promise before that one. Before any other promise, I said I'd kill my brother. He is the last of my family, he is the person I loved the most and I have to kill him" he sighed. "Oh well, you can tell everybody else to get out from their hide-outs. I am not going to fight any of the Leaf today".

"Everybody else? "

Sasuke looked at him

"Don't tell me you came alone?"

One second

Two seconds

"You came alone?" asked Sasuke. No, even Naruto would not be...

One second

Two seconds

"You came alone. Are you an idiot!. Baka! What if I were in the Sound Village already? What if had met with Sound reinforcements? You and I have similar strength. If I were to resist to be dragged back to the Sound, you would have a 50 chance at best.

"You wouldn't fight me. You are my best friend, remember?"

Sasuke stared at Naruto for ten seconds. He did the only thing he could do in that situation.

He laughed. He laughed really hard.

"You must kill your best friend" Itachi said, looking down on a powerless child. That was the day he had learned many things: The Strong live, the weak die. Even animals understood that. Watching all the shinobis that had died protecting their loved ones, along with those loved ones, he had also understood something else: Love is a weakness.

"You think you know me? Do you really think you know me?" Sasuke asked. He grabbed surreptitiously from behind a kunai. He was far faster than Naruto. If he were to strike fast, using a surprise attack, Naruto would be dead before he knew who had attacked him.

Naruto was not moving. He wasn't doing any defense movement either.

"Let me tell you about Itachi's terrifying power" continued Sasuke, getting closer to Naruto. Eight possible openings, nine possible openings "He has a gruesome power, the Mangekyou Sharingan. It's a jutsu really easy to get. The only thing you have to do..." Now Sasuke was getting really close. He was whispering the words directly into Naruto's ear. "... is to kill your best friend."

There was a forced silence. Sasuke waited until Naruto reacted.

"Itachi killed his best friend, didn't he? I should have known." Naruto commented.

Sasuke looked wordlessly at him.

"He was really cold, and I was scared of him, but" Naruto's bright eyes were locked on Sasuke's "you are not like him."

Sasuke smirked.

"You are just like Sakura. Still thinking I am a better person that I really am."

"Typical Sasuke-bastard," answered Naruto with the same tone "whatever Sasuke says is right and whatever everybody else says is wrong. Have you ever thought that we could be right? That you are a better person than what you actually think of yourself?"

Sasuke staggered, as if he had been hit.

"I suppose I know myself better than you."

"Then why are you still here?" Asked Naruto "Why haven't you reached Orochimaru already? You left hours before me."

Finally, Sasuke lowered his eyes. The rain had almost stopped

"I... couldn't. I was just passing here, and I thought that Sakura would like to see this. Then... for some weird reason... I couldn't go on... I started thinking on logical reasons why I shouldn't go to the Sound, and I managed to find a few. For example, Kimimaro told me that my desires would go to Orochimaru when he took over my body. However he was dying anyway, it could be a trap. Orochimaru is known as the lying snake, after all. Besides, I know Orochimaru has a new body right now. Maybe he is happy with the new body, and he will eliminate me as soon as I appear out of spite for killing the Sound Five. I don't mind dying, but I don't want to die without killing my brother. I can't turn back, but first I need more research on Orochimaru" Sasuke's voice was very low.

Naruto didn't understand Sasuke at all. He looked ashamed just because he didn't want to go to the Sound?

"And you stayed here for hours? Who is the baka here?"

"Shit!" Sasuke turned and launched the kunai he had been holding with all his strength toward the statue that marked the border of the Sound Country. Even at that distance, the kunai nailed right in the forehead of the statue. The rain was still falling "I can't go back to the Leaf either! By now the ANBU are probably tracking me down to execute me!"

"No, they aren't" Naruto smiled. "Well, they are, but they aren't."

"Of course, I understand." said Sasuke rolling his eyes. "I always thought all the dumb blondes were female."

"Sakura lied for you. She told Kakashi and everybody that you had gone to train alone. If nobody sees you, they won't have any proof to execute you."

"Sakura... lied for me. She kept... her promise... That annoying woman" Sasuke said, and for a few seconds, his face, always tense and serious, was relaxed, even smiling. That face was breaking Naruto's heart. He could see how much they loved each other.

"You married her. If you make her cry I am going to thrash you" warned Naruto

"It would be faster if you trashed me now. I don't know how our love story will end, but I doubt it is going to be a happy ending."

Naruto sighed.

"I really want to hit you now. You are not going to believe this, but you still have the right to be happy."

Sasuke was not answering. For a second he was back at the night of the Red Moon, at the Uchiha neighborhood, at the road of corpses... Suddenly he was back with Team 7 and Kakashi. Finally he was back at home with Sakura

"Maybe I do" commented Sasuke, that was thinking on a way to change topics "What would you have done if I had refused to go back to the Leaf?

"I would have broken your arms and your legs until you understood that I was right" smiled Naruto

"Beating me would not have proven that you were right." Sasuke was not smiling "It would just prove that you are stronger than me. If force proved right, then Itachi would be right too. How were you planning to keep me in the Leaf Village against my will? By breaking my arms periodically?

Naruto thought about it for a second

"I don't know. I didn't think about it."

Sasuke sighed.

"You are an idiot."

"We are standing far from home and drenched because a bastard wanted to go to a snake. Who is the idiot here?"

Sasuke smiled.

Naruto smiled too.

The rain almost stopped.

The storm had started again

Sasuke was standing in front of his home, hesitating if entering or not. He had made sure nobody had seen him. It would be very easy to slip into his house, and tell everybody that he didn't know the ANBU were looking for him, that he had really been training alone. Did he have to ask permission every single time he left the Leaf Village to train? It wasn't his problem if everybody got scared the first time he skipped training.

The question was, was entering back into Sakura's life a good idea? After all, he had betrayed her. Maybe she had already signed the divorce papers. If she had, he didn't have the right to enter her life again

He wanted her to be happy. Would she be happy with him? He was still an Avenger. No matter what happened, even if he stayed in the Leaf, he would still be an Avenger. He still had to kill Itachi.

If he were to die in the middle of his revenge, Sakura would be really sad, and it would all be his fault. Even if he were to renounce his vengeance, he was still a shinobi. There was always the chance he could be killed in action.

Also, what if his research about Orochimaru proved that there was an acceptable risk on going to him. Would he leave Sakura? That was maybe the greatest problem. He probably would.

What about his own strength. He was weak. He hadn't been able to protect his family. Could he be able to protect her? He didn't want to lose any of his cherished people ever again...

He then noticed that somebody, Sakura, according to her chakra signature was calmly walking towards him. She was holding an elegant umbrella, protecting herself from the storm that was still raging, stronger than ever.

His first thought was running away. He had betrayed her. He had left her. He lowered his head while she reached him and used the umbrella to protect the both of them.

"I forgive you" she said

He recoiled. He was remembering the notes he had left, where he had tried to apologize for leaving.

"I forgive you" she said again

He raised his eyes

"I forgive you" she repeated for the third time, and she smiled. She put a hand at his cheek "Have you been crying?"

"No." He confessed, touching her hand. "This is just the rain. My mother... my mother used to call the rain "Nature's tears"... Funny. I hadn't remembered that for a long time."

Sakura got closer and kissed his cheek. He put his hand on her cheek.

"Sakura, when I die, you will be sad. Don't you mind?"

Sakura smiled

"I love you, Sasuke-kun, but you need some therapy, some long, long years of therapy."

He finally smiled openly in front of her.

"I was afraid you would never be back" she confessed

"Me too" he said.

Holding hands, they both walked towards home.

It finally stopped raining. The rainy season apparently had ended.

It had taken him a lot of work and endless sessions of training, but finally Sasuke had finally been appointed as a jounin. He was widely considered the strongest among all the new jounins, even if there were some powerhouses as Rock Lee, Hyuga Neji, or even that surprising upstart Uzumaki Naruto.

After the celebration with his teammates, he had gone to celebrate it with his family. All those Uchiha parties were annoying. He had to stand in front of his whole clan, and make a speech about what he was going to do for this village and for his clan.

What did he know about speeches, anyway? Sure, he liked to talk, but a speech in front of his whole clan? Itachi could do it better. He was the next successor of the clan, after all.

He sighed, standing up, and hoping he didn't forget any part of the damn speech. His parents were in the front row, silently encouraging him. Itachi was at their right, also smiling. Sasuke watched his most cherished people, smile, at him, and immediately felt better.

"As a recently appointed jounin..." Sasuke started the speech.

Sasuke suddenly woke up, violently trembling.

That shouldn't be considered a nightmare, most people would say it was a nice dream, but it actually was worse than the usual nightmare. Because in the dream he was happy, and when he awoke, he had to remember that his whole clan had been butchered, and that the only one left was Itachi, the one that he had to kill for revenge. He had to remember that he was alone

He sighed. His hand quickly went to his hidden kunai when he heard breathing next to him. He smiled when he saw it was Sakura. That was right. He had married some months ago, and he wasn't alone anymore.

He kissed Sakura softly on the cheek; he hugged her. He went back to sleep with a smile.

His last thought, before he fell asleep, was to ask himself if he was going to end up hating Sakura for slowing down his revenge.

Well, here it is, another chapter. Well, 70 reviews for 18 chapters is not bad, I guess. At least people that have reviewed have said it's a good story.

In this chapter, I tried hard to show the differences between genius Sasuke, smart, calm and collected, and Naruto, that acts by instinct, following his heart, and trying to do the best thing. Also, I wanted to give a feeling of fleeting happiness. Sasuke is happy with Sakura, but even the last line shows that their happiness may be short

btw, Uchiha Sasuke was first in the popularity poll. Surprise there!

I was thinking, besides the Naruto's one sided love for Sakura, some reviewers have thought of a Itachi/Sakura/Sasuke pairing. I think it does sound interesting. What do you think? Anyway, very soon Hinata will appear in the story again.

Next chapter, be ready because there are going to be BIG surprises. Kukukuku (Jaime leaves laughing and leaving all the readers wondering what is evil plothe is planning)