Fire: Chapter 7! Time for celebration!

Sasuke: Is it the end of the story?

Fire: (throws confetti in Sasuke's hair) No.

Sasuke: Then, no party!

Fire: Okay…then, reviews! (turns to Kakashi) Reviews!

Kakashi: (drags out the Bag of Reviews) Aren't you spoiled this chapter?

Fire: I'm not spoiled!

Kakashi: Just read this review. (hands Fire a review)

Fire: I know some of the readers out there don't like ItaNaru, but it's completely necessary to the story, at least this story. If I have completely nauseated anyone out there, gomen nasai. There's just a little more ItaNaru, then I'll get back to the SasuNaru. But I want to remind everyone out there that this story does run into the first book of the Wait for Me series so you should really be reading Wait for Me: Leaving if you want SasuNaru.

Sasuke: But there will be SasuNaru in this story, right?

Fire: Yes, but not to the extent that the other books have. The SasuNaru in this story just sets up the SasuNaru in the next book and the books after that.

Sasuke: I hate you.

Fire: And I won't be copyrighting the "dirty work" or "crude work" only done by Kisame. That was something I came across while analyzing Itachi's character from the anime and manga so it really does belong to Kishimoto-sensei. I just happened to put it in those words. If anyone out there wants to use it, then go ahead although I'm sure that you'll have to put it in other words than mine. That might be called plagiarism and plagiarism is illegal. And I will sue, even if it's only a fanfic.

Kakashi: Enough threats. Roll chapter 7!

Unseen staff: (mumbling as they pull up chapter 7) Roll it yourself, slave driver.

---------------------------

Chapter 7: Facets of Apprehension

In truth, Sasuke had arrived in Konoha first. He should have been the first one to enter that sickroom...except he couldn't bring himself to walk through those gates. He had stood on that rise for what seemed like hours, staring at the village below. But somehow, he couldn't quell the uneasy feeling in his stomach enough to go.

However, he couldn't not go home. He had come all this way just to see them...just to see him. Naruto was still on his mind.

It wasn't as if he didn't know where the blond was. While in Otogakure, he had his own personal spy to keep an eye on Naruto. There was unimaginable frustration storming inside him when he discovered that the jinchuuriki was in the hospital...for no other reason than that he had collapsed. The spy didn't tell him why he had collapsed. And it was killing him not knowing.

Sasuke had wanted to run to the hospital, had wanted to grab Naruto by the shoulders, had wanted to hug him and tell him that he would be fine...even though he had no idea what was wrong with him. As long as he was with Naruto, nothing bad could happen to them.

But he couldn't leave. Not then. That was one of the reasons why he couldn't bring himself to walk through those gates. It had been such a long time since Naruto first collapsed. It had been an entire month and a week. Even if Naruto had recovered by now, Sasuke couldn't help but feel that the blond would be angry with him for not coming sooner. He was supposed to be his best friend. He should have come running.

'Chikusho!' The dark-haired nin grabbed the Oto hitai-ate on his forehead and threw it aside before making his way down toward the village. If he didn't go now, when was he supposed to go?

But, the nukenin wasn't stupid enough to just walk through the front gates. He didn't have a shinobi passport...although without a hitai-ate, they wouldn't even know that he was a shinobi. However, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that he was an Uchiha.

He had never wanted to be someone else more than at that moment. He had wished for it before, more than once. He wanted an easier life, without all these obligations. He didn't used to have all these obligations before, although it was still hard. Being ignored by his parents wasn't exactly easy...but he wanted to be ignored now. Even if they didn't know that he was a shinobi, he had the Uchiha air about him. They would know right away that he was Uchiha Sasuke. He looked like Uchiha Sasuke.

But, there was more than one way to get inside the village. He wasn't here to cause trouble. He wasn't here to wander around the village. He was here to see Naruto. All he needed to do was get to the hospital.

So, he shunshin-ed. It was the easiest thing he could think of that would get him where he wanted to go. That was what it was for anyway. Shunshin no jutsu was created for spying. It was supposed to allow spies to get in and out of places without being noticed. And that was exactly what he needed.

Sasuke found himself within the hospital walls soon enough, and of course no one had seen him. He didn't need anyone to take him there. He could feel where Naruto was...not to mention his spy had told him exactly which room Naruto was staying in. At least the spy was good for something.

The younger Uchiha had expected the room to be empty. He had expected that Naruto would be better by now. No matter how injured he was...no matter how much he was in pain...Naruto always sprang back to perfect health after a little rest. He had thought that this was no different. He had thought that Naruto was just tired.

He didn't know about the genjutsu. He didn't know about Itachi.

All he knew was that there was the sound of a muffled familiar name as his hand reached for the doorknob. And he knew that someone was in there. In fact, there were two people in there.

For a moment, he was curious about who could be with Naruto. The second person hadn't said a word. All Sasuke knew as he threw the door open was that this person had managed to silence the loudmouth ninja with ease.

And as the door swung away from him, the sight that met his eyes made his blood boil with sudden anger. Shaking hands hovered over his shuriken pouches as his dark eyes burrowed through the entwined figure. Naruto was hugging Itachi so tightly, his head tilted back in a kiss so gratingly annoying so as to blind Sasuke. This wasn't the chaste kiss of children, the sweet kiss shared between lovers at hello. This was the horribly deep, ravenously seductive kiss of two people needing, wanting each other. This was the kind of kiss that gouged at the eyes and tore at the soul, a kiss that was enjoyable only when participating in it.

The sight of Naruto clinging to his brother in such a way was burning Sasuke inside.

"Itachi!" He screamed out in fury as his hands came away from his shuriken pouches, a kunai in one hand and a shuriken in the other. Before he could even make his way across the room, the shuriken was already embedded in the far wall, Naruto was thrown onto the bed and Itachi had come up to meet him, a kunai in hand.

The kunai shook in Itachi's hand as he stared at his brother. There was something different about him, although he couldn't exactly place what that difference was. But he figured it out after a short while. As Itachi flicked the shining kunai from his brother's hand, he could see exactly what it was. Sasuke was actually angry. There was that killer intent that was always there...but there was anger there now too. And it somehow filled Itachi with a peaceful calm that he hadn't felt within his chest for a long time. He had finally succeeded in destroying his little brother.

But, in a forgotten part of the room, there was someone whose heart was anything but calm. Naruto stared at the two figures standing in opposition to each other, a kunai in each of their hands, as similar as if Sasuke was fighting his mirror image. And Sasuke was fighting his mirror image!

"Agh!" Naruto's head dropped to the side as he felt a huge rusty nail smash through his head...not literally, but that was what it felt like. His hand flew up to catch his head, but the headache wouldn't stop.

The Kyuubi was clawing at Naruto's mind. Kit! Kit! You hear me now? The Kyuubi was shouting at him in such an urgent tone that it confused Naruto even more.

'Why wouldn't I hear you, damned kitsune? You're yelling so loudly!'

A small smile graced the Kyuubi's face. Seems as if you broke out of that damned genjutsu finally, the kitsune said as he looked around. For a moment, he really thought that the ice would get him, that he would be sealed away forever. He was relieved, but he wasn't going to tell Naruto any of that. Knowing the blond shinobi, the Kyuubi was likely to never hear the end of it if he told him.

"Gen...j't...su?" Naruto hadn't even realized...

But as he looked across the room to where the two Sasuke's were standing only a moment before, there was only one Sasuke, and one older Sasuke with long black hair and a black cloak.

Naruto's mind allowed itself a moment to stared at the unknown man before he remembered the shout with which he had been thrown away. "Itachi!"

And in that sudden outburst, the elder Uchiha pulled his hand away, Sasuke's kunai catching on his hand. A stream of blood flew in a trail marking the hand's arc as Itachi turned to Naruto with wide eyes. The calm that had entered his chest was gone. There was only panic now, and a strange disappointment...and a foreign need to explain himself. "Naruto...I–" But he couldn't finish his explanation.

Sasuke threw himself at his brother with a horrific wordless shout, with such intense anger so as to shake the entire village.

Within the Hokage tower, in an area that not even the most powerful of tokubetsu jounin could tread freely, Tsunade sat up suddenly in her bed. Her entire body felt constricted, was tight with a heavy presence. Every muscle in her body throbbed with cold sweat, with irrational fear. And she knew, something was wrong. There was no mistaking it. She could tell that something was very wrong. Even the night's still falling snow outside her window couldn't be causing the intense force that weighed her limbs so completely.

'Naruto!' The first thought, the only thought that flew into her mind was Naruto. This heavy dread that anchored her to the ground...this thick scent of murderous chakra could only be here for one person. Naruto.

The woman jumped out of bed, ignoring the fact that she was in her pyjamas and it was freezing outside. She needed to get people to the hospital. She needed to get to the hospital. Now!

"Shizune!" Even if she couldn't get to the hospital immediately, she could still send the ANBU there. "Shizune!"

But the dark-haired woman was already up and running toward the exit. She came by only to tell the Hokage of their situation, and only stopped long enough to say a short sentence to Tsunade. "The ANBU are on their way, Tsunade-sama." And Shizune ran after her team.

She had felt that ominous chakra as well, long before Tsunade had woken from her sleep. And she had readied her team. She knew that it was probably too late to be of much use, but she could try. She had to try. She wouldn't allow them to take Naruto and the Kyuubi without a fight.

End Chapter 7

---------------------------

Itachi's Genjutsu Explained: Supplementary

Fire: This is a supplementary to the supplementary. Yes, this is frequent in real reports. Ongoing missions will have this especially.

Sasuke: Mendokuse.

Fire: I'm going to start calling you Shikamaru.

Sasuke: Just go on with it so that we can get to the English tidbits.

---

The advanced genjutsu has a secondary ability that can be activated if the need arises. Although the illusion is based solely within the victim's subconscious mind, the secondary ability allows the user to create the illusion outside the subconscious. But this can only happen after the initial ability—rendering the victim unconscious and establishing an illusion—has taken place, and at least approximately a month of time has passed since the initial onset of the genjutsu.

A month's time is necessary to make sure that the user's chakra has infiltrated the victim's chakra circulatory system completely. If not enough time has passed, the already fragile illusion would be even more unstable, and the genjutsu might not take place. For this same reason, the initial ability must also take place. It allows the user's chakra to establish a strong foothold within the chakra circulatory system of the victim so that the illusion can take place more easily.

An illusion outside the subconscious is not a new idea. Most genjutsu is based on this same principle. Kokohi no jutsu, Magen narakumi no jutsu, and Kori shinchuu no jutsu are all based on seeing a genjutsu based in the real world. The secondary ability of the advanced genjutsu especially takes its cues from Kokohi no jutsu which changes the appearance of a nearby object.

This difference between the secondary ability and Kokohi no jutsu is that the secondary ability is much more fragile. The reason is because the object on which the illusion is cast is a living person, and the genjutsu is continued from the victim's mind. If there is anything in reality that can prove that it is a genjutsu, the illusion will break. In this case, the only thing in reality that can prove to Naruto that he is under a genjutsu will be Sasuke since Naruto sees Itachi as Sasuke and if Sasuke was to stand beside Itachi, it would look like there were two Sasuke's. And there couldn't possibly be two Sasuke's. This is as opposed to Kokohi no jutsu which continues even after the illusion is discovered until the user decides to end the illusion.

Another main difference between the advanced genjutsu and regular genjutsu is that usually, when a living person is imitated, there is no real substance to it. There isn't actually a person there. If the victim was to touch the illusion, the victim's hand will just go through it. With the secondary ability, the illusion is cast over a real person, so there is form to the genjutsu. If the victim tries to touch the illusion, his hand won't just go through it. In reality, the victim will be touching the object on which the genjutsu was cast, but what he sees and what he feels will be still be within the confines of the illusion. So, if Sasuke was wearing a hitai-ate in the illusion and Itachi wasn't wearing a hitai-ate in reality, and Naruto was to touch Itachi's forehead, as long as he is under the genjutsu, Naruto will feel a hitai-ate there, even if there isn't one there in reality. This is because all five senses are still under the user's control, even if the victim is no longer unconscious.

In total, the secondary ability of the advanced genjutsu allows the user to directly pull the illusion from the subconscious into reality, and make it so real that it confuses reality with fantasy. The only way to break the illusion is to prove the existence of the genjutsu by creating a situation that couldn't happen in reality, like two Sasuke's standing side by side. However, in order to activate this secondary ability, at least a month's time must have passed since the initial onset of the advanced genjutsu so that the user's chakra has created a strong hold on the victim, and so that the illusion doesn't shatter due to chakra deficiency.

In addition to all these things, there is an ability unknown even to Itachi. The advanced genjutsu has a negative effect when reacting to the double chakra of a jinchuuriki. A jinchuuriki has two chakra sources: the actually jinchuuriki and the bijuu. As such, when the advanced genjutsu takes control of the chakra circulatory system of the jinchuuriki, a barrier appears between the source of two chakras. The bijuu sees this barrier as different manifestations of threats. In this case, the Kyuubi saw it as approaching ice seeking to restrain him. In reality, the user's chakra has completely severed the bijuu's ability to connect to the jinchuuriki's chakra circulatory system. The bijuu was restrained completely. Prolonged exposure might even have resulted in the permanent sealing of the bijuu's chakra. And since a bijuu is made of chakra, this might have become a problem for Itachi. If he had known of this negative effect, Itachi wouldn't have used this technique to incapacitate Naruto. It would have been too risky since they really did want the bijuu, not the jinchuuriki.

---

Fire: And that's the end of the explanations.

Sasuke: Wow. That was long! I thought I'd fall asleep.

Fire: Was it really that boring?

Sasuke: Yes.

Fire: Well, you won't have to sit through another one of those again. Good thing you're not Hokage. You'd have to read these all day. No wonder Tsunade can't stay awake.

Sasuke: Have some English tidbits! (pulls up the English tidbits)

---------------------------

Fire's English tidbits for those who care:

Everyone must be scratching their heads over what continuity is. If you've figured it out, you don't have to read this, but for the editors and betas out there, this is important. And it's even more important if you're a writer. Continuity is one of the properties of a story. It helps make a good story. You certainly won't learn this in school or writing classes, so listen carefully. A story has several primary components: plot, character, setting, etc. I'm sure you've learned about all this, even if it's only implied in your subconscious. However, there are additional properties separate from these primary components: continuity, character development (separate from character), grammar, devices, etc. The first set of components is basic to a story. The best example is in children's stories which don't employ any of the additional properties. Additional properties come in more complicated storylines like general fiction and really, really good SF or fantasy. Continuity can be one of the most important properties of a story. It is the flow of a story akin to plot. This means that foreshadowing actually foreshadows something. Continuity means that the storyline is consistent, the development of plot is consistent, the development of all characters is consistent, and all sentences run into each other and make sense together as a whole. Read one section of a chapter, then read it with all the sections of a chapter—read the chapter as a whole—and finally read it all together with the entire story. Or at least read the chapter before it and the chapter after it together. If it flows into each other naturally, you've developed continuity. If your answer is, "Huh? What is it trying to say?" then you should go back and add or take out whatever is necessary to revise your work. The people who create manga and anime certainly know what I'm talking about. If you read the credits of an anime, they actually have entire lists of names dedicated to continuity, so it must be important, right? I'll be going through the entire list of additional properties before going to parentheses so next week is character development. Until then, don't hate me for these long tidbits. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep them short.

Fire's babbling:

Naruto: Waah! Why are there two Sasuke's! That's not possible!

Sasuke: …

Fire: Naruto, calm down.

Naruto: Waah! Why was Itachi kissing me! Waah!

Itachi: …

Fire: Naruto, calm down!

Naruto: Waah! Why was Itachi kissing me like that! Waah!

Kakashi: (punches Naruto in the head) I knew he'd freak out like this.

Fire: It seems as if Naruto forgot what happened. (sighs)

Itachi: I wanted to completely destroy Sasuke's social life.

Fire: All part of the plan, right? (smiles at Itachi)

Sasuke: You can't take Naruto from me. You'll never take Naruto away from me!

Fire: Well, while we give them a little family therapy… (dodges a shuriken) …please send us a review.

Sasuke: I'll kill you before then! (charges toward Itachi)

Itachi: (shunshins away) …

Kisame: (slumps pathetically) Why am I missing?

Fire: Samehada's hungry.

Kisame: Oh. (shunshins after Itachi)

Fire: Review and tell us what you think. I want to know everything!

Kakashi: Still the review freak...

Fire: And I'll just beat up Kakashi while we wait for the next chapter.

Kakashi: You're not strong enough to do that. (dodges all of Fire's attacks) Besides, you're done with the entire story, just load everything!

Fire: (stops and thinks for a moment) Hmm…load everything? No. I think it's best to just load one chapter every week like I've been doing. Nice try though, Kakashi. (smiles)

Kakashi: Well, see you next chapter. Send all your complaints and requests to Fire.

Sasuke: Hey! Don't I get to say anything!

Fire: You were yelling at Itachi. We're done.

Sasuke: Chikusho!

Kakashi: Ja ne!

---------------------------