Naruto had come home to tell Shanan and Sasuke about his mission with Jiraiya before packing, but they were both asleep. Shanan had her head on Sasuke's chest and Sasuke seemed to be breathing in the scent of Shanan's hair. Normally, Naruto would be grossed out by their affection, but he knew they were both feeling generally unwell lately, so he let them be and opted to write them a note instead. He wouldn't be gone that long anyway.

He went to his apartment to pack and wrote his note out. He had been excited at how much he'd been learning lately, so didn't feel too bad about leaving. He had also been promised a new powerful jutsu while they were on their journey and he couldn't wait to do something cool. He went back to Shanan's and left his note on the counter before leaving.

Shanan and Sasuke ended up sleeping through the night as they both needed the rest. When they woke up, Sasuke made them a big breakfast and read to Shanan as they ate together.

"Do you want the rest of my food?" she asked him. He always made too much. Bacon, eggs and pancakes. She could barely finish half of it.

Sasuke was already done eating and was always happy to finish anything that Shanan couldn't. "Yeah," he said as he handed her the book. "And since you're not doing anything..."

"Fine, fine," she said as she rolled her eyes. She continued to read until he was done eating, but handed the book back as soon as he was done and he took over reading again.

"How's your head today?" he asked an hour or so after breakfast.

"It's good. So far. It only hurts a little."

"Good," he said as he went back to reading. Shanan had her head in his lap and he was brushing his fingers through her hair mindlessly as she listened.

They had had a really nice day of relaxing together and it was late afternoon when Sasuke finally noticed Naruto's note.

"I guess Naruto stopped by while we were still sleeping," he said as he unfolded the note. He read through it silently at first, just in case it contained anything that might upset Shanan for some reason, but it didn't. "Oh, he left with Master Jiraiya. They're looking for a replacement for Hokage."

Shanan looked disappointed. "Oh. Well I feel bad we didn't get to say goodbye to him."

"He'll be alright, Shanan. He's with a legendary Sannin." He thought for a moment and started to feel a bit jealous. "No doubt he'll be learning some new technique in the meantime."

Shanan looked at him sympathetically. "You're both gonna learn different things. I know it's hard if it feels uneven, but you got to learn Chidori and he didn't." She tried to sound reassuring.

Sasuke considered her words for a moment. "Yeah, you're right," he said as he half-smiled at her. "We should go and ask Kakashi what he knows about it, though. I'm sure Naruto left out a few details. What do you think?" he asked even though he didn't really want to leave.

"He probably did. I'm sure he would've told us everything had we been awake, but I'd be surprised if he remembered everything for a note."

They both got up reluctantly and got ready to go, as neither had been out since the funeral and were still in their pajamas.

They held hands the whole way and walked very slowly. The village had taken so much damage and they were lucky their building didn't need any repairs. They stopped to talk to a few people along the way and even saw Sakura on her way to Ino's. She was always hesitant to speak with Sasuke when Shanan was around, but Shanan still thought she was nice enough.

They finally made it to Kakashi's and found a room full of Jonin. There was Guy Sensei, Asuma Sensei and Kurenai Sensei and they all seemed to be in mid-conversation as Kakashi was asleep.

"What's wrong with Kakashi?" Shanan asked as she ran over to the side of his bed and put her hand on his forehead.

"What the hell is going on here?" Sasuke demanded a little too boldly.

Just then, a fourth Jonin showed up in the doorway. "Is it true that Itachi Uchiha was here and that he's after Naruto? Is that what happened to Kakashi?"

Sasuke froze in place at the mention of Itachi's name. He turned around slowly to look at the guy. "Did you just say Itachi Uchiha?"

The guy realized his mistake immediately upon seeing Sasuke and the other three Jonin looked on in disbelief at the loudmouth.

Sasuke looked back to the rest of the room. "What would he want with Naruto?" he asked impatiently.

Asuma stepped forward, "Look, kid-"

Sasuke looked at Shanan apologetically.

"I'm coming with you," Shanan interrupted Asuma as she bolted towards Sasuke.

Sasuke grabbed her hand and they both ran out of the room.

Whatever Naruto may have forgotten to include in his letter, he at least told them where he was headed. Sasuke knew that if Itachi got ahold of Naruto then Naruto would probably die and he couldn't let that happen. He couldn't let his old brother hurt his new one like he had done to the rest of his family.