Author's Notes: It can stand alone, or it can be read as a sequel to "The Path of Brotherhood." Either way, Sasuke is probably around 22 or so, so it's now so far from the series that you could call it AU or OOC. It was written to be a sequel, though -- it expands on the original idea and universe of the first. But while I'm sure it'll give you less of a headache to read this than "Brotherhood," I really doubt that this will help you to understand "Brotherhood" in any way. Sorry.

It's also less in Sasuke's point of view this time and more third person omnicient, even though he still is the main character of the story.

Oh yeah, and because I forgot it last time, disclaimer. Whoo.

Memoirs by Firelight

It took much longer than just "a few years" for Sasuke to forgive Itachi. In fact, it took even longer than that for Sasuke to forgive Naruto for not letting him live down the fact that he got his hair tied into pigtails in Sound as punishment. It, however, took a fewer years than that before Sasuke would stop trying to set Naruto's hair on fire for even mentioning it. (And Naruto being Naruto, he mentioned it often.)

There were days that the ex-missing nin would tell a little bit of what he lived through in Sound. Most of the time, being in Sound was a lot like being under Kakashi's command. Ridiculous, unpredictable, and overall entertaining. Unless you were Sasuke.

Sometimes he just forgot that there was anything worth remembering. Still, for the most part, he did remember. And he listened to Naruto's stories of how his teammates did in his absence. He heard about the story of black curry from Hinata, though, of all people. And he heard about the deal with the water dancing from Neji... which was just strange, he had thought.

Sometimes, it was hard to believe that he could relate his experiences to Naruto -- his worst enemy, his best friend -- nevermind the shock that he was relating them to begin with. It was always a private surprise when he would tell Naruto a story about Sound's thoughtfulness towards him without hearing a snarl at the mention of Orochimaru or Kabuto's name. Or without a sad look when he would tell him a story about his brother, relating what his mother had told him (because Itachi never did talk about himself).

It was even harder to believe, given that their own teacher could not handle stories about the past very well. Kakashi, who dealt with the past better than Sasuke himself did. Kakashi, however, never did bear responsibility very well, and so no matter how serious he got, always kept his book handy. But Naruto bore it all, and all without a flinch. In these and other ways, Naruto was Sasuke's stability and inspiration. He remembered, he didn't hide under his cloak, and he didn't use missions to hide his feelings.

Sometimes, he wondered how they could be killers at all when they would remember so much more than just their chosen targets' names.

Especially when it came to times in which Naruto would run into such a horrible mission that Sasuke thought he might actually break, just this once. But he never did. He just spent his time cleaning the classrooms (he called it community service after all those years of practical jokes -- not that he ever stopped pulling them), cloudwatching with Shikamaru, helping Iruka grade papers, and overall, mostly pestering Tsunade until she threw a mission at him, flying him out the door until the wall or Shizune caught him.

In some other ways, Naruto was one of the more horrible pieces of human existance to rely on. He was barely on time for everything, forgot important mission details too easily, and most of all, when Sasuke was in a pissy mood, spent most of his time simply standing there, neither provoking him nor stop trying to get his attention even though he wanted to brood in peace. And he refused to go away. It was as if he were saying, "I'm here. You're better than this. Talk." But Sasuke had no idea what talking meant, so communication was always difficult at first, to say the least. As if it wasn't already bad with Sakura, with whom he had even less of an idea how to relate to.

Not that Kakashi helped at all either, since their ex-teacher didn't really understand them. Not really. He may have had a similar mindset and feeling as the two boys did, but Kakashi really wasn't like either of them at all, and so couldn't understand. Because they tried and he didn't.

That was unfair, Naruto said later. Maybe it was because he wasn't them that he didn't know what to do about his past.

But one day, Kakashi sat down and joined in on their storytelling. It originally began with just the two of them -- Naruto and Sasuke, but they added Sakura when Naruto had finally taught them how to behave towards each other. It involved Sakura being absolutely quiet when Sasuke spoke, because Sasuke simply couldn't be interrupted at some points of his storytelling. Or prompted, for that matter (which had Naruto visibly keeping his mouth shut at some points). And for Sakura, it involved Sasuke not "being an ass," as Naruto had so tactfully put it.

Naruto's style depended on the story, but it mostly involved lots of noise, like a party. Naruto was always like that... except when he wasn't. Sasuke would look away then, while Sakura stared head-on at the light in her teammate's eyes, then at Sasuke, then down at her feet. Kakashi usually showed no reaction at all.

Sakura's was like a lullaby, but not because it didn't really say much about her life; It didn't have to. She had a normal childhood, and so told them about stories that almost any child would have heard from their parents, of faraway lands, of monsters, mothers, and childhood squabbles with friends... things the other three all lacked in their lives. Naruto's monsters were too real to be monsters and Sasuke's were too real to be real. Kakashi had similar experiences to both. Still, there was no cohesion to their weeks without Sakura's stories, and the mood got too dark too easily without her... even if she was the one who was the most easily depressed.

Not that anything ever got to Naruto, who absolutely refused to let the rest of his team turn morose before him. And after all those times Naruto tried to aim kicks at his head when he wanted to be alone, Sasuke would be damned if he let Naruto have the satisfaction of getting moody on him. At least, not until he had the satisfaction of grinding his face into the ground.

Kakashi's stories were usually humorous, but often filled with distance. It seemed as if Kakashi heard much but never experienced much for himself directly. Perhaps he never let himself experience it. It was the times that he told stories that really were about himself did they finally learn what Kakashi had spent all those years of his life doing besides being a pervert, as Sakura had once put it. They learned about Sharingan Kakashi, the legend, his former teammates, his teacher, and even a few of the missions that they took together. He even went so far as to tell them about his Adventures With Maito Gai.

One day, he told them about Iruka.

Naruto's expression was that of a person so flattered that they didn't know what to do except smile and blink while Sakura's was simply of a hidden gasp and rounded eyes. Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow, but let the story be told without any negatives looks.

"It's cute when you hear about it now, but I was quite annoyed then," Kakashi had said as he poked the fire that they surrounded. For some reason, they always had a campfire for their weekly sessions, which sometimes meant that they spent their night at a yakiniku restaurant instead. (Naruto could always be counted on to burn something edible.)

There was little to hide by this point -- they all knew each other's past, fears, joys, and even guilty pleasures. That didn't stop them from being embarassed or annoyed when something was said out of turn or unexpectedly (or when said information was used to get extra helpings of ramen).

Like now.

"I wonder if we'll laugh this way again, if we run into something like that in the future," Naruto mused, eyes glowing in the fire. Then he seemed to realize that what he said didn't make much sense. Not that his clarification was much better. "I mean, that if we see it happen again before it becomes the past like this when we're talking like this and--"

Sakura stopped him before it got too convulted. "We got it the first time, Naruto."

"Hey, I was just checking!"

Naturally Sasuke had just the reply for that. "I can always just kick your ass into gear if your memory doesn't catch up in time."

"Or vice versa."

Sasuke didn't even bother to glare at Kakashi. He continued to stare at the fire as Sakura took her turn in the storytelling.

It was when Sasuke finally killed Itachi, or rather, when Itachi allowed himself to be killed, that the firechat sessions expand to fit a whole lot more of the rookie nine (plus Gai's team). The rules were dropped then, simply because the others couldn't be expected to understand everything in Team 7's interninja dynamics. Sasuke missed the time that they had spent then, quietly (or loudly) talking around the campfire, but he also knew that things weren't like that anymore. Couldn't be like that anymore.

For one, Kakashi was no longer around. Naruto was a lot taller, Sakura was Tsunade's personal secretary (and therefore constantly busy), and Sasuke was just quiet, not morose. He rarely said anything to anyone, and if he did, it was usually something only Team 7 would understand, like an offhand insult. After all those years, Ino and Kiba still didn't know what to do about those, much less Lee, who never failed to butt head first into them.

At least Iruka had come to join them. Naruto complained that it was like having your parents hang out with you at a slumber party. Sakura, with words as sharp as ever, told him that he didn't have any parents to compare to, so he shouldn't complain. Sasuke pretty much said the same thing in his own way -- he slid over his log to let the former teacher sit next to him. Kiba asked Naruto what difference did that make from Kakashi.

"He's more like the big brother that left to go out on a mission," Sasuke said, and there was silence as he began his story.

It would be a simple one this time -- just about him, his brother, and the time he pestered Itachi so much about shuriken practice that he tied him up and locked him in the closet, although not without first giving instructions on how to get out.

-

Author's comment: Before I hear any "You Killed Kakashi!" comments, uh, no, Kakashi's not dead. Just not there. He's a busy guy and they can take care of themselves.