Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I don't make any money with this story, and the rights of the owners are not touched in any way.

„You can still go back to Konoha, Kakashi", Sasuke said when he saw that I had finished talking to Yamato. „You can tell them that you have not been strong enough to overwhelm me and bind me and take me with you. And that I captured Naruto. Then everything will be fine for you, you can continue to live as a Jonin and carry out missions for the Hokage of Konoha."

With a dead heart, I thought. Just as it would have been the case with Naruto, if he had not agreed to join Sasuke.

„I have said it before: I am responsible for Naruto, and I won't let him alone with you before I have made sure that he is safe."

„He is safer with me than he is with you."

„You may be stronger now than I am, though I am not yet completely convinced of it. But that's not the point. The point is whether you can protect him against Itachi and whether you are willing to protect him against Itachi."

„I protect my companions with my life. You have taught me that, Kakashi."

„Well, I tried to teach you, but I never knew whether you were learning."

„I trust him", Naruto suddenly interrupted us. „It is as he said just when we arrived: I am not a child any more. I can judge for myself."

Sasuke looked at him and turned away quickly, and I realized that this was the game they had been playing for some time now: Naruto being silent, but not able to turn his eyes from his old friend, while Sasuke looked at him for a few seconds, until he could not bear it any longer, and then lowered his eyes or turned away, but after some time he could not resist trying and looking again.

„Well, yes, I hope that your trust is justified. But, Sasuke, even if you are willing to protect Naruto, the question remains whether you are able to protect him."

„Better than you are."

„This may be the case, but it is not enough."

„I did not waste the time I spent with Orochimaru."

„I don't doubt it."
„There is noone who can still teach me anything."

„If you behave like this, I doubt that there are many people who would still want to teach you anything. Tomorrow we will see if there is anything left that I can teach you... But this again is not the point. The point is whether you are strong enough to beat Itachi."

„If I am not, who is then?"

„The man you will be in the future."
„I cannot wait any longer. If I die, then at least I will die in the attempt to kill him instead of living any longer as a coward."

„That is childisch. You are not responsible only for yourself any more. It would mean certain death for Naruto, and probably for the rest of us as well, if you attack Itachi and lose against him. In fact, it will mean certain death for him if you have only accepted him as a companion without being able to fight off Itachi."

„You accepted him as a companion."

„First Jiraya – then me. We try to provide him with the best protection there is. The alternative would be to make him stay in Konoha for all the time."

For the first time he looked worried.

„Now he has chosen you as his protector", I continued. „Try and live up to it!" Suddenly I felt the need to comfort him. „Don't worry too much! Together we should be able to fight them off. That's why I am staying with you."
He had grown silent and thoughtful, and I thought that he might have begun to realize the full extent of the responsibility he had taken upon himself. The others had now stopped talking and were listening to us.

„I will check your fighting skills tomorrow", I said. „You know, with the bell test. The others did it as well. Tonight I have but one question: Do you know that Itachi has the Mangekyou Sharingan? Have you acquired it yourself? Or do you at least know how to counter it?"

It had been, obviously, the wrong question.

„I have know it for years", he said. „I don't have it. He used it to kill my family. He had killed his friend Uchiha Shisui some months before in order to obtain it. I haven't got it. I haven't killed Naruto. Itachi said that I had to kill my best friend in order to obtain it."

„That last one was a lie." I pitied him now, after having been angry at him for three years. „Itachi lied to you. I have the Mangekyou Sharingan, and I have not killed my best friend. Itachi wanted you to kill your best friend and to tear out your own heart, as he had done himself – that's all. Be glad that you did not kill Naruto."

„I am – I have always been since that day."

Sakura, Naruto, myself – this day all three of us had been overcome by our feelings at one point – now it was Sasuke's turn. Somehow he managed to get a grip on himself. He turned to Naruto and finally he was able to look him in the eyes for more than a few seconds:

„Can you forgive me?" he asked, „that I have attempted to kill you in the Valley of the End and that I pretended to want to kill you when we met at Orochimaru's lair? I have been glad that I did not kill you every single day since then, for your sake and for mine; it was thinking of you that kept me alive during the years I stayed with Orochimaru and that finally gave me the strength to turn on him and defeat him, and I am happy beyond words that you are with me again and have agreed to be my companion and accept my protection."

Naruto had listened breathless, amazed, speechless with wonder, as we all were, not having known before that Sasuke was able to speak so much in one go, and so emotionally, and when Naruto answered, his voice was without tone: „There is nothing to forgive, Sasuke, you did not kill me in the end", and as he was not good with words, he then simply opened his arms, and Sasuke, whom we had never believed to allow another person to touch him, accepted the embrace.