Eek. So, well. Here's the second chapter for those who want to read! To the 2 peoplewho replied: Arigato gozaimasu! Itachi's really.. hard to write because, well. He's Itachi. And that so cool about him. We hardly know anything about him.. Overall, this chapter took me ages because.. it's a fighting scene, mostly. And I SUCK at that. Future chapters will follow soon :)

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, never will, either. And please flame if you want to, I can take it. But meh, not about the pairing, because I warned you. (future) SasuNaru, NaruSasu. One-sided SakuSasu. And like, minor hints of KakaIru. Because Suus wanted to. -cough-

Please review.

"Is he dead, Kabuto?"

"I don't think so, Orochimaru-sama," said man whispered, checking the boy's pulse. "Just unconscious. Don't you think we underestimated Itachi, Orochimaru-sama?"

"No, I don't. But we overestimated Sasuke's mental stability, though. That brother of him drives him up the walls as much as he drives him to his knees."

"Heal his worst wounds," Orochimaru ordered. "The minor we'll heal later, when we're back."

Orochimaru mentioned for Kabuto to pick the unconscious boy up, which he did. The body stayed limp in his arms, while they headed for Sound village.

After Itachi had left, the 2 had come from behind the bushes, having watched the whole fight, but not wanting to interfere. Actually, had wanted to, but knew if he were to interfere, Sasuke would've never let them live it down. This was Sasuke's battle, and he had to beat his brother on his own. Orochimaru's hands had itched to smash that pretty little face of his, when seeing Itachi's calm expression. (A/N: in the manga has been mentioned that Orochimaru once had Itachi as his target, but when he proposed to take over his body, Itachi kicked his sorry ass.)

Sasuke woke up, and hesitantly opened his eyes to stare at the white ceiling above him. It didn't last long before the memories of the past night came back wit full force. Painful memories. He closed his eyes again in a futile attempt to ban the images out of his head. Naruto..

A sudden wave of nausea washed over him, and he quickly rolled to the side of the bed to prevent throwing up on his sheets. He emptied his stomach on the ground, and coughed. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand when Kabuto came in, surprise visible on his face.

"Sasuke, are you okay?" the gray-haired medic-nin asked, still standing in the doorway. "You've been out for almost 4 days"

"Do I look like I'm okay?" Sasuke cynically replied. "I feel like shit"

Kabuto chose to ignore this comment, and turned around.

"I'm going to get Orochimaru-sama. Stay where you are." He said over his shoulder, before walking away.

Sasuke sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, careful to avoid his puke. He sure was going to get dressed before that bastard came in, or else he would have to change in his presence. No .Way. In. Hell.

He pulled some clean clothes on, while his thoughts drifted off to yesterday. He had officially ruined his last chance to beat his brother. He'd had Orochimaru's help, and he still hadn't been able to beat him. And now, he'd lost everything. His last meaning in life was gone, as was his second. And his third. He really felt like shit, though. Although physically, Kabuto had healed all his wounds, he didn't have anything to stick on to this time. He was lost. He felt.. Defeated. Dull. Empty. Hollow. Were there any more words to describe it? Of course he could blame Itachi for all this, for being his psycho brother. Or maybe himself, for being so weak. But at the moment, he mostly blamed Naruto.. for.. for.. being Naruto, for being stronger than he himself was. His stomach clenched painfully as he thought about Naruto. He had lost him, and that was final. The thoughts raged on inside his head, when Orochimaru who came in, accompanied by a gruff looking Kabuto interrupted his train of thoughts.

"Why hello, Sasuke-kun.. It seems we have some talking to do.."

----

Like, 10 minutes before all this

"Orochimaru-sama, Sasuke-kun is awake. How should we approach him?"

"Hm.. That's a good question.." Orochimaru answered thoughtfully. "Regarding from what we've heard, Sasuke's hatred has something to do with-"

"His brother, we knew that already, Orochimaru-sa-"

"Let me finish, Kabuto.. –The fox boy."
"-Naruto." Kabuto interrupted again.

"I know, just let me talk, Kabuto! As we all know, Itachi's organization, Akatsuki, as they call themselves, are after the Jinchuuriki. Including Naruto,"

"But what does that have to do with Sasuke-kun?"

"Well, it seems Sasuke holds.. strange feelings towards the fox boy. We can roughly distinguish two of them – love and hate. And although we know Sasuke's main weakness in battle is anger, we have to let one of the feelings take over."

Orochimaru paused to take a breath, and then continued:

"This will also hold benefits for us, because One: Sasuke-kun obtains the Mangekyou by killing his best friend and Two: With this, Itachi's target will be dead and we thwart Itachi's organization's plans."

Kabuto was stunned, and without speaking, he followed Orochimaru to Sasuke's room.

Sasuke sprinted through Sound's woods, not even being close to Konoha's borders, while the sun was going down already. He'd sure chosen the right timing for this..

At first, he'd been hesitant about this, but talking with Orochimaru made obvious he should obtain the Mangekyou, and that it was his last chance. The waves of anger and hatred towards the blond haired boy became more frequent, and he tried to convince himself that it was going to be all right. When he was 12, he'd often wondered if it was all worth it. And why.. Just why was it his fate, HIS destiny to live this life, and not someone else's. But now, he fully accepted his fate. He'd always been hiding behind a mask, because feelings were traitorous. If you succumbed to them, you were helpless.

"Sasuke. You can take leave of Sound on one condition; you have to wear this." Orochimaru took a dark object from his pocket and mentioned for Sasuke to come closer, and to turn around. Sasuke did as he was told, and felt a thing being tied around his head. A headband. From the village of sound. "Vow, that you will not take this off. Ever. You can go now, and I expect you back within a week. Then we can begin the ceremony."
It was getting dark, and he was within 1 kilometers of Konoha. He'd chosen to spend the night in a tree, so that he could enter Konoha while it was light. He was making up a plan to get into Konoha unseen, although it wouldn't be difficult.. He just had to get to Naruto without being seen.

------

The dark-haired boy stood in front of the gates of Konoha, looking up the giant doors. He closed his eyes and sighed. This was his final chance. He formed a seal with his hands, and when the smoke cleared up, a man with a scar on his nose and a slightly tanned skin appeared.

Iruka.

He knew his former teacher would be teaching classes around this time, so, even if he would be seen, he would have a good excuse. He pushed the huge door open, and behind it was a bored looking guard, who asked in a monotone voice: "Country, village, name please.. Iruka-sensei! What are you doing here so early?"

"I woke up early, and I decided it was time for a walk," Sasuke replied like his former teacher would, scratching his nose.

"Alright, have a good day, Iruka!"

"Same to you," he said, curled his eyes upwards and smiled, before walking further into the village. He had no clue where to find Naruto, so he started at the most logical place. Ichiraku's. When he walked past the ramen shop, the only man visible was the shopkeeper, whom he smiled at friendly. He decided he should just ask around if someone had seen the blond boy somewhere.

"Excuse me, have you seen a boy here? He's about.." Sasuke had to think about what Naruto's length would be around now, so he took a rough gamble and said: ".. About.. 1.75, 1.85. Blond, hyper, with 3 whisker marks on each cheek? No? Okay, thank you," he smiled again at the woman he'd asked, who blushed.

He asked a few more people, but none of them knew where the boy was, or just didn't want to tell him. He walked past the Hokage's office and saw Kakashi sitting there, listening to a long rant from Tsunade. He noticed the chuunin and smirked through his mask. He quickly said something to Tsunade to brush her off, and jumped out of the window.

"Iruka-chan, I thought you had to work today?" the gray-haired man said, and ignored Tsunade's yelling out of the window.

"Er.. Yes, but I took the day off. Someone else is teaching," he replied unsure, and dodged the hand that was about to wrap around his waist.

"But, er.. I have to go. Have you seen Naruto somewhere? I need to talk to him,"

"Er, yes.. He's somewhere in the building, he's just been assigned a mission with Sakura," Kakashi said disappointed because Iruka didn't want to play with him.

"Alright, thanks. And.. I think you should run," nodding at the furious Hokage that was coming after Kakashi, who disappeared with a poof.

Sasuke friendly nodded at Tsunade, and pushed the door open.

He waited patiently in the room next to Tsunade's, and looked up when the door opened, revealing 2 teens around 16 years. He was shocked to see them like that, after 3 years..

"Hey, Iruka-sensei, aren't you supposed to be teaching?" Naruto's voice sounded like music in his ears. He bet even Sakura's voice would make him happy. But he knew what he had to do.

"Um, no," he said and grinned while scratching his scar. "I took the day off. I need to talk with you, Naruto,"

"Er.. All right. The mission can wait for five more minutes. Do you mind if we take a walk, Sakura-chan?"

Flinch

Still Sakura-chan? Iruka's eyessuddenly flasheda pitch black. He quickly recovered himself before he would get discovered. He anxiously looked at Naruto, but the blond hadn't seen anything. He averted his eyes to Sakura. It looked like she still wasn't that observant.

"No, you guys to take that walk. I'll wait here, I think I'm going to check the details for the mission. Don't take too long, ne?"

Both guys nodded, walking out of the office, moving to a quieter place.

Then, the pink haired girl sighed and turned around. "Sasuke-kun.. Why does everything you say have to be a lie..?" she asked, and turned around into her mentor's office again. "Tsunade-sama, we need to prepare 2 hospital beds. Now."

"Sasuke?" the blonde-haired boy gasped when the smoke cleared. His blue eyes immediately filled with happy tears as he realised he was back. Sasuke was back. This boy, his best friend and even more, his rival.. They were all back.

He happily pulled the boy in a tight embrace, intending on never letting go again. He didn't notice the red orbs that were already spinning of emotion. Seeing the blond like this made a fierce crack in his resolve, which hadn't been too stable to begin with.

Naruto buried his face in the crook of the other's neck, inhaling the pleasant scent deeply. 'The reason he must've come back.. He beat Itachi?' Naruto thought, and looked at the dark-haired boy.

"You beat him!" he exclaimed happily. "You beat him, didn't you? I knew you wou-"

"Naruto," the deep voice interrupted him.

"I didn't."

"Of course you did, don't be stupid.." even Naruto was getting unsure now.

"Naruto, I didn't beat him."

"I- you what?" eyes wide open now.

Sasuke had shown up only half an hour ago, and he'd already managed to shock the blond twice. But.. he lost to Itachi.. that meant..

Naruto tightened his grip around the Uchiha, in a futile attempt to comfort him, but it made the crack in his resolve only bigger. In all that years, he'd tried to keep Naruto at distance, but no matter what, the hyper boy had kept showing him nothing but affection. He had always been the one to pry a reaction of of him, and had always been the one to get him talking. He was able to crawl under one's skin.. to become part of them.

He didn't understand why Naruto was still being so affectionate towards him, and that fact made it even harder to kill him.

While he leaned into the comfortable embrace he was in, his hand slowly slid to his weapon pouch. He silently took a kunai from it, and took one last inhale. He aimed without seeing what he was doing, and plunged the knife in Naruto's side.

At the same moment said boy moved away, and although he wasn't entirely able to dodge the kunai, he plunged a knife of his own in Sasuke's gut.

Facial expression shocked, Sasuke looked for words, and searched for the blond's eyes. When those met his, they were filled with sorrow and hurt.

"I'm sorry.. I-I don't want to hurt you, I.. I-"

Sasuke removed the kunai from his lower stomach, flinching as he pulled it out. He listened to the blond. "I don't want to fight.."

"I really don't."

Another crack in his resolve before he made up his mind when he realised what he was doing. His red, blood red eyes started spinning furiously again, but he tried to remain calm.

"But you seemed quite willing when you fought him, didn't you?" he sneered, while he felt his anger rise again.

"Who? I haven't fought anyone serious in ages, Sasuke! What are you talking about?"

"Don't act dumb, moron! You know damn well what I'm talking about!" the Uchiha snapped while starting his attack.

"Sasuke, stop it! I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about and it doesn't seem to penetrate through that pretty head of yours that I. Don't. Want. To. FIGHT YOU!" Naruto yelled, starting to get angry too.

"Well, I. Don't Care!" the other replied menacingly. "I'm going to kill you!"

"You've said that before, you asshole! So, what are you waiting for, then? Kill me. Kill me, you fucking bastard!" the blond yelled, angrily, desperately.

That was the only invitation Sasuke needed before he attacked, but Naruto wouldn't let him off that easily. They fought, but it was almost futile. Even after all those years, they still knew each other's moves too well. In sync they moved through the landscape, kicking, punching, aiming and dodging. It was just a matter of time before one of them would collapse.

Sasuke knew it wouldn't be him.

Naruto knew it wouldn't be him, either.

Even with Orochimaru's extra training he'd had, Sasuke's stamina had only improved a little, which gave him the feeling he'd been doing nothing at all, since Naruto was fully able to control the Kyuubi's chakra inside of him.

And when he was young.. When he was young he had been so good at denying facts. The fact that he hadn't improved, he'd always been shoving it away. But now he had to face it.

He was weak.

And now, he couldn't even deny the fact that he'd known that for months. Years. Ages.

So, with one final blown and his resolve fully shattered, he smacked against a tree and roughly fell to the ground, not bothering to catch himself when he hit the ground.

Naruto rushed up to him, face worried.
"Sasuke!"

His vision became blurry and he felt dizzy when Naruto kneeled down next to him.

"Sasuke, are you okay?"

Sasuke smirked and gathered his last stamina and sighed before replying:

"Hn, dobe? I've.. I've always known.. you were stronger.."

With that, he collapsed to the shocked blond's shoulder.