Disclaimer: I don't own "Naruto", I don't make any money with the story and naturally the owner's rights are not touched.

All his progress dissolved into nothing when I began to use the Mangekyou Sharingan.

I hated it and he feared it, we had talked about it, but in the end it was no use – we both knew that there was no alternative. If he wanted to defeat Itachi, he had to know how to defend himself against it, even if he could not acquire it himself in time.

So when we sparred again I entered his mind. I felt that I was an intruder, but I had to do it – he made a weak attempt to keep me out, but I pushed him aside without an effort. I walked into a long, dark hallway, as in an ancient castle – a labyrinth of hallways in fact, with chests and cupboards standing along the walls. He followed me, but he was a child again, and he was obviously afraid. I opened some of the chests and drawers and saw what they contained: memories. He tried to hinder me, but I easily fought off his feeble attempts at resistance.

Suddenly I did not feel bad any more. I felt great.

When I found a hurtful memory – the day when the envoys of the police of Konoha had come to question Itachi about the death of Uchiha Shisui – he broke down.

Naruto ran to him to hold him in his arms.

„What did you do to him?"

„Nothing worse than Itachi will do when you meet him."

„Then we can't fight him! This is too much for him!"

„He will to learn to cope with it. The alternative is that the two of you will have to be on the run or stay behind the walls of Konoha, for the rest of your lives."

Sasuke opened his eyes: „Try again! This time I will keep you out!"

I shook my head. „Tomorrow!"

„Do you really have to?" Naruto asked.

„We do", Sasuke and myself answered in unison.

He did not manage to keep me out, instead it was me who was getting better: Learning to know his mind, learning where he kept his minor bad memories as those of his father not seeing his achievements and caring only for Itachi, and the terrible ones, as the fight against Itachi when he was twelve, or when his father was telling off his brother for not attending the meeting of the clan, foreshadowing Itachi's betrayal, and even the worst one, how he had returned from training and had found the entire clan lying dead in the street or in their houses.

„You should stop it", Naruto said. „We will find other means to defeat Itachi."

I shook my head. „That exactly is the point: Itachi will use his Mangekyou Sharingan to prevent him from using any other means he has. We have met him more than once and know his fighting style: He relies almost completely on his manipulative techniques, disabling his enemies rather than fighting them. If Sasuke learns to counter the Mangekyou Sharingan, the rest will be easy."

„Isn't there a way for me to help him?"

„You? You would get caught in a simple genjutsu the moment you begin to fight."

Sasuke did not learn to counter the Mangekyou Sharingan: Time after time he broke down, sometimes crying, sometimes just hiding his head between his arms and his knees. Naruto would then try to comfort him, putting his arms around him, talking to him softly, until he knew again that the past was the past and the present was the present, where he had Naruto with him and a bunch of other people who liked and supported him.

He grew more and more desperate, doubting his ability to finally defeat Itachi.

„You should stop it", Sakura now told me as well. „You are torturing him, and you achieve nothing. He is not getting any stronger, only weaker. You should take a break and try to think of something that can help him."

I was torturing him indeed, and I hated it, but every morning he came to me and asked me to try again.

The other problem was that by now my ninja-dogs had found Itachi and Kisame. They were still far away, but they were approaching.

I took counsel with Suigetsu.

„Hide it from our lovebirds" he said. „At the moment Sasuke is in no state to fight. Let us put some distance between them and us."

„Hide it from the rest as well", I answered. „No need to worry them."

We had been moving some kilometres every day, not really knowing in which direction to go, yet not wanting to stay put at one place either. We kept moving at the same pace, but now we did not change direction any more.

Itachi and Kisame drew nearer. They were now close enough to reach our camp in a day's march, or a night's march, and it worried me, because the boys were still sleeping outside the camp. I confided in Naruto.

„The two of you should return to sleeping among us. We will put up with your love-making. Try and find a way to trick Sasuke into it without telling him that we have found Itachi and that Itachi has found us: He is desperate enough at it is, and I don't want him to do anything stupid. Tell him what you want, but if you don't find a way, tell him the truth. Safety comes first."

He shook his head. „Safety comes first, but I think you are doing the wrong thing. Itachi does not need to know that we have problems. Since he killed Orochimaru, Sasuke has not fled, but pursued him – changing this will make him notice that something has gone wrong."
„So what do you suggest?"

„Follow Itachi. And we will keep sleeping by ourselves. We are not so far away that you cannot come to our aid if it's necessary."

A new thought appeared in my head: Maybe it was not we who would have to come to their aid, but them having to come to help us. I shook my head – not before Sasuke could counter the Mangekyou Sharingan.

„Our little bird has a point", Suigetsu said, and so we changed direction again, no longer moving away from Itachi, but towards him.

They moved sidewards, so that the distance remained the same.

I don't know whether Juugo or the girls noticed the change of direction. They did not ask about plans or want to discuss strategies, as little as Sasuke, who in these days had returned to his old, gloomy self, talking little and seeming to be far away from the rest of us.

Not even Suigetsu or Naruto came to me to ask how things were going, they had come to rely on me to work out the strategy. Sometimes I wondered about the three original members of Hebi; they had accepted me as the one in charge rather quickly, as if they were happy that Sasuke was not their captain any more.