Sasuke doesn't get a chance to practice leading his teammates in the right direction too much. They only have a few more days – during which Sasuke goads Naruto into training even more, and Sakura reads through a book a day (which, if he's honest, kind of impresses him) – and then Naruto throws a fit about their mission.

Sasuke... kinda agrees. Yeah, it makes sense that genin are sent on these missions. He likes having the money – the less he has to pull out of the Clan Savings, the better. (He's kept a total of how much he's used, because his orphan stipend doesn't cover everything, and he's started to slowly put it back.) But he was the top of the class! Sakura was high, too, he knew that, even if he didn't know how high, and Sasuke wonders how much they're being held back by having Naruto on their team.

…At least, he would wonder, but Naruto is turning out to be surprising. He just wishes they would do more training, because all it seems Kakashi is focused on is team formations and correcting stances and making sure their throwing is accurate and-

Sasuke isn't going to get any stronger at this rate.

So he welcomes the opportunity that Naruto's tantrum brings them, welcomes the fact that now they get to leave Konoha and escort someone, even if it's a drunken bridgebuilder. Maybe bandits will attack, or- or SOMETHING, and he'll be able to do something. Anything. He impressed Kakashi, once, and maybe he could impress him again and then actually LEARN something IMPORTANT and-

He catches Sakura by the elbow before they part ways to pack, though, and levels her with an intent look. She blushes. "Bring some books," he instructs her, noting the way she perks up under the attention. "You'll probably have time to learn."

"Of course, Sasuke!" she chirps, flashing him a pleased smile, and he lets her go.

He turns to Naruto, next, and squints at him. "Oy. Idiot. Do you know how to pack a bag for a mission?" He doubts it. Sakura does. Sasuke does. Kakashi definitely does. Naruto? Probably not.

Naruto takes it like the insult it is and bristles. "O-Of course I do! You'll see!" Sasuke rolls his eyes and opens his mouth but before he can, the idiot's taken off after Sakura.

…Probably to ask her how to pack one, if he knows him at all.

He looks up at Kakashi. Kakashi eye-smiles back down. Sasuke frowns. Kakashi's eye crinkles more. Sasuke's lips fall into what is decidedly NOT a pout, and Kakashi ruffles the boy's hair. "Maa, maa, I'll go check up on him. You're a good teammate, Sasuke."

The drunk bridgebuilder laughs and laughs at the way Sasuke's face turns red, and it's only the fact that this is their Civilian Client that stops him from punching him. Instead, Sasuke marches off towards his compound, trying to ignore his teacher's words. That hadn't been what he meant by it at all.

Sasuke manages to hold his own against two chunin until Kakashi shows up, and it's a welcome fact. He can face two chunin and hold his own – maybe he would have beat them with more time, maybe not, but he can hold his own.

His teammates were useless, though. He can give Sakura a little credit, he supposes – she was in position, maybe she could have done something. But Naruto? Naruto did nothing.

And then he almost bled to death. The moron.

But that makes him think about Naruto, at least. And thinking about Naruto makes him remember how the idiot hadn't known a single thing about anything, hadn't understood about Wave or the Kages or anything. He waits a little bit, until Naruto is all patched up and they're moving again, and he contemplates his words and-

"Naruto, if you don't know basic information, you need to ask one of us."

Naruto stares at Sasuke. Sasuke stares back. Sakura stares at Sasuke. Kakashi does that thing where he pretends he's not paying any attention but actually he's analyzing every bit of the conversation and eye-smiling fit to burst. Tazuna stares at Sasuke, cause everyone else is. Naruto swallows – as if something's caught in his throat, something painful lodged there and choking him. "You… What?"

There's something pained in his voice, and Sasuke is- is abruptly reminded of himself, of how he used to be fragile glass held together by force and will and nothing else, and he looks away. Stares straight ahead and doesn't meet anyone's eyes and lets Naruto pull himself together. "If I'm going to fight with you, I won't let you drag me down. So ask one of us." He pauses, and before anyone can speak, continues. "Maybe ask Sakura first, though. She's the most booksmart."

It's not really a compliment – and… it is at the same time – but he can see Sakura blush from the corner of his eye. She nods. "Y-Yeah, sure, I'll answer your questions!"

Sasuke makes himself glance at Naruto, and while there's still something fragile in his face, it's overshadowed by a large beam he's directing at the girl. "Thanks, Sakura!"

He pesters her with questions (even the next day) until they have to be quiet on the boat, and Sasuke is proud that Sakura didn't snap and punch Naruto a single time. (Not that he disapproves of her punching Naruto. He really doesn't. Shinobi hit their comrades all the time, even from birth, getting them used to dispatching violence. It's never been discouraged.) She answers all of his questions and Sasuke is unsurprised that Naruto has not even a simple understanding of what chakra is and something leads her into explaining the Hyuugas and then the Yamanakas and so on and so forth.

She's finished with the Akimichis and is about to go onto the Naras before they hit the boat, and Sasuke has never seen Naruto so attentive before. Huh. He'll have to capitalize on that.

Then everything goes to hell. They almost die. Naruto proves to be very good at strategizing – must capitalize on that later – and seriously, someone needs to teach Sakura how to fight.

And-

And-

And Kakashi has the Sharingan.

They sit by his bedside after they've brought him to Tazuna's house, Naruto's clones helping the trio to carry him, and they stare.

Well. Sasuke stares. He stares at the way Kakashi's forehead protector tilts, how it covers one eye. He had thought, previously, that his teacher only had one eye. But he… he has the Sharingan. From the way a scar covers it, and he only hasone, AND he can't de-activate it, it seems like it was a transplant but that is-

It is-

It. Hurts. Seeing one after so long, even if it suddenly makes so much sense as to why Kakashi is his teacher. Maybe he actually can learn something from him, once he activates his own Sharingan…

"Hey, hey." Naruto speaks up, and the two awake ninja dully turn their eyes on him. He's frowning, staring at their teacher, and apparently in deep contemplation. "You told me to ask if I didn't get something, so I'm asking! What's up with Kakashi-sensei's eye?"

Sakura- doesn't answer. She glances over at him, and Sasuke has never been grateful that she's his teammate, but he is in this instance. He inhales. Exhales. Swallows sharply. Speaks. "It's… called the Sharingan. It's a dojutsu unique to the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke knows the only reason Naruto knows what a dojutsu is is from Sakura telling him about the Hyuuga yesterday, but the blonde nods as if he's known all along. "But Kakashi-sensei's not an Uchiha, right? So how he'd get it?"

Sakura fields this one. Sasuke's grateful again. "I think… it's probably a transplant, Naruto. Someone else had it first, and now Kakashi-sensei does."

Naruto frowns. "So where'd he get it?"

He snaps. "From a dead Uchiha." He sneers, and doesn't feel bad about how his teammates pale, how his fists curl into tight balls on his lap and how he shakes, shakes with anger and something deeper he refuses to acknowledge exists. "They're all dead now, where the hell else would he get it from?"

The other boy scowls at him. "Bastard! Why are they all dead, huh, are you sure? Maybe there's more!"

Sakura bashes her fist on Naruto's head, and Sasuke realizes he's trembling. "Idiot! Leave Sasuke alone!" She yells, and she grabs him and she yanks. Sakura is probably the only one Naruto will listen to, and even if he doesn't she certainly has the strength to pull him along, and she does.

They leave and they're loud and they slowly get out of the range of his hearing and-

Sasuke breathes. In, out. Inhale, exhale. And he stares at his teacher's eye once more. Because- Because Naruto's question, while it's wrong, is also right. Did- Did Kakashi pluck his eye from one of his dead relatives, post-Massacre? The thought makes his heart clench. He hadn't burned the bodies. He hadn't burned them or disposed of them properly and-

Could… could people have taken their eyes?

He doesn't ask Kakashi about the eye, when he gets up.

He doesn't ask Kakashi or say a single word about it.

Sasuke accepts that Zabuza is alive, accepts they need to work harder, and he does. He throws himself into his training – though not as recklessly as Naruto – ashamed that Sakura has managed to beat him, ashamed that he doesn't have Perfect Chakra Control, ashamed that he doesn't have his Sharingan even though someone else does, someone else who isn't from his team and probably a thief and-

And then they fight. He gets his Sharingan, he gets that thing he had desired so much, so much in this world-

And Sasuke dies.

He remembers his body moving, realizing Naruto was down and there was no way to stop the masked boy. There was no way to stop him, there was nothing, there was-

I'm an Avenger, he thinks. He needs to survive. He should let the boy attack Naruto and then attack him while he's distracted and take him down but. But.

Sasuke can't let someone else die in front of him.

He moves and it hurts hurts hurts but Naruto is safe, Naruto is safe and- "I don't… know," he says, he says to Naruto, but he does.

Kakashi was right the whole time, and it's a burning, unpleasant thought.

He had pretended like he was manipulating them, pretended like he was just raising up his team to be stronger. There were no emotional attachments, he had lied to himself. He didn't care. They could be replaced tomorrow by more competent team members and he wouldn't bat an eye, he told himself.

But he couldn't let- he couldn't let Naruto die.

"I… I hated you," he whispers, he whispers even as he can't feel his body. The lie falls from his lips so easily – or maybe it was a truth, once upon a time, but he can't admit it's true now.

"Why?" Naruto demands, and he can feel the pain in the other's voice, feel the glass of his voice and of his being start to fracture. "Why? Why me? I didn't ask for your help!"

No one asks to have someone die in front of them. Especially not if Naruto likes him. Does it hurt as much as family does? Does it?

Sasuke can't make the guilt any greater. "I don't know…" he whispers, even as he feels his body fade. "My body… moved on its own…" He's crying, he realizes then, he's crying and he's going to die. "Idiot…"

He collapses. Naruto- Naruto catches him.

His arms are warm. Sasuke wonders when the last time he was held was. Held like this – not the hugs his fangirls flung on him before, that he tried to avoid, not the holds some people gained on him in sparring before he beat them, but like this. Naruto's arms are warm, and gentle, and he's oh-so-careful with Sasuke.

The other yells, and Sasuke tries not to cry more. He's dying, here. He gave his life for his teammate, and he'll never be able to kill his brother. Avenge his clan.

Somehow, that's never seemed less important.

Naruto's eyes are wide and big and blue, blue like the sky, and Sasuke tries to talk. Tries to tell him. "That man…" he whispers, staring at the blue, drowning in the blue. There's nothing left but the teary eyes of his teammate. "Until I… killed my brother… I absolutely refused to die… That's what I decided, but…"

But he decided to give his life for Naruto. He can't help it. Tears well up in his tired, black eyes and he tries to lift his hand. He wants to touch him, wants to touch Naruto, whose blue eyes now hide from him and he can't see them and please, please-

His arm is tired. He's not… he's not going to last.

"You… please…" He whispers, soft and quiet. "Don't… don't die." He thinks of the other. Thinks of this loud, boisterous boy who had been put on his team and who never gave up, who always bounced back, who wanted so desperately to be Hokage someday. His lips would curve into a smile if they could, but he's so tired. Too tired.

"Don't let your precious dream die."

Sasuke wakes up.

He doesn't talk about his "death". His teammates don't talk about his "death". Kakashi doesn't talk about his "death".

That's the way that Sasuke would prefer to have it, honestly. He doesn't want to talk about it. He doesn't want to talk about how he gave up on his dream, how he was willing to die for Naruto, how he gave his life in an instant and could only think of how he didn't want him to die, please please Naruto don't die live on live on and dream and

No. He doesn't really want to talk about it.

After a few days, though, Naruto has gotten over his Treat Sasuke Like He's Glass attitude and approaches him about a different question. One that Sasuke would prefer to talk to about even less.

It's all three of them. Sasuke is sharpening a kunai. Sakura is reading a book. Naruto- Naruto comes and plops down next to Sasuke. For a moment, the two of them ignore each other. Then-

"Sasuke, why… why do you want to kill your brother?"

Sasuke stiffens. Sakura stops reading. Naruto stares at his teammate with wide, wide blue eyes, blue enough to drown in. The Uchiha- Stops.

Breathes.

Stares at the wall.

"He… he killed my entire clan." It's been a long time since he's verbalized this, it's been a long time since he's spoken of this, and it feels so fragile. Tenterhooks. "I'm going to kill him."

Naruto doesn't react like any of the others. No pity, no 'I'm sorry', no none of that bullshit. Naruto has never reacted like the others. He never has. Never will.

He's scowling, instead. "Damn right you are! We'll help you. Right, Sakura?"

The girl starts at being addressed, but after a moment, meets Naruto's determined look with one of her own. "Yeah. We'll help you. We're… we're a team, right?"

Sasuke stares at them both with wide, wide eyes and then snaps. "He'll kill you!" He lunges to his feet, drops his kunai and snarls at them both. "He'll kill you! He'll kill you both, and I couldn't- I can't let you die, Naruto, I-"

He needs to stop talking. He shuts his mouth and he stalks out of the room and he slams the door behind them. No. No, they can't help. Itachi will kill them. Itachi will kill them just for being close to him, because Itachi wants him to have nothing in the world and

Sasuke won't let Naruto or Sakura die in front of him. Not if he can help it.