Disclaimer: The original manga, Naruto, is the work of Kishimoto Masashi. Characters and settings have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use.

Operation: Why Not?

"I told you, give it up," Sasuke said. "I'm through in Konoha. There's no such thing as 'un-missing nin'."

Naruto was still jogging back and forth between himself and Sakura, talking non-stop... which would be a pleasant distraction if he weren't carrying on about going home... He hadn't shut up all the time Sasuke'd been walking towards Sound, with the two Konoha ninja tagging along for no good reason. Telling him he could go home was as good a reason to follow him to Sound Village as trying to put sand in a salt shaker because it came in grains. Sometimes, ideas were just wrong, and Naruto could never get that through his thick skull. Instead, he seemed to think it was the most natural thing in the world, the idea of un-betraying the whole damn village.

Not to mention him in particular.

"It's not like you're really missing nin, though. Come on!"

Sasuke turned on his heel, face to face and about two inches away from locking horns with his best friend. "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" He could see Sakura stop and sigh pointedly out of the corner of his eye, then sit down on a nearby rock. Naruto was staring him down, not giving an inch. He could recite their whole history at the blond, but it would be pointless. Sasuke could already see the words flying in one ear and out the other, never making a dent in Naruto's thoughts.

How that idiot, whose heart he'd tried to rip out once before -- and he'd do it again if he had to --

How Naruto could look at him like that and not consider him beyond forgiveness, he simply couldn't understand. He knew what it was like to be the one left behind.

He'd gone with Orochimaru anyway.

"I'm not missing nin? I left the village, went rogue, became an enemy. That's what 'missing nin' means." He ran his eyes over his friend from head to toe, with as derisive a look as he could manage. "Maybe you slept through that class."

The snarl on Naruto's mouth was classic. "No freaking way! There's no way you'd be my enemy. You're Sasuke, y'got it?! You're our teammate."

"All right, Moron," he scoffed. "Vocab quiz. What do you call a teammate who walks out on you? Who sells out his own village for power?"

It might have been the wrong choice, but it was the choice he'd made. So, sure, Orochimaru and Sound didn't have what it took after all. No one there was really good enough to prepare him to face the only other living Uchiha. That didn't mean he'd betrayed Konoha by mistake or some nonsense like that. And if someone walked up to him tomorrow with a way he really could grow strong enough to defeat his brother, he'd make the same choice again. No matter how dirty he got, it didn't matter as long as he killed Itachi in the end.

"Need a hint, Naruto?"

"You're my friend."

Well, that was Naruto for you. As stubborn as he was, insisting like that, it almost seemed like the blond was talking to someone else, about someone else. Someone he might have liked to be if things had been different, but he'd chosen to walk this path. Still his friend just had to hold on to those dreams, never realizing how much delusions like that could hurt.

Those hopes and dreams had a worse bite than anything Sound had put him through. Because given everything he'd become, no matter what he did from now on, he'd never measure up to the imaginary Sasuke that Naruto was seeing right now. The real him could never be that person. He actually wasn't certain if it hurt more like this, with Naruto dreaming about a Sasuke that was long gone, than it would going back and slowly watching the blond idiot realize what kind of a man had taken his place. Better for him to find out now, or never at all.

"Actually," Sasuke replied, shifting his bag on his shoulder, "the answer is a double-crossing piece of shit. Kakashi-sensei said about that much our first day. Remember?"

He caught Naruto's punch easily enough to know it was more rhetorical than serious. "You take that back!" the Konoha ninja yelled.

"That's what I am, Naruto. That's why I'm missing nin. Really missing nin."

"You fucking take it back!" The blond yanked his fist out of Sasuke's hand and caught a piece of his jaw on the way. Sasuke wiped away the trickle at the corner of his mouth and slowly turned his hand to look at the fresh blood on his fingers before meeting Naruto's eyes again. "That's not who you are. I know it. You're still Konoha."

"Pretend all you like," Sasuke told him and didn't rise to the punch. They'd already had that fight, and right now he couldn't summon the will to defend his place in a wretched little village like Sound. It was still the place he had, until the time came to do away with Orochimaru as well and move on by himself. "You can't save people who don't want to be saved. Didn't your Hokage tell you that?"

Naruto glanced over his shoulder back toward the east for a second, toward Konoha. It was a place he couldn't see without Naruto any more than he could see Naruto without the village. Even if he had a whim to involve someone else in this kind of a life, even if he thought he could have a friend at his side again, he wouldn't drag Naruto down like that. As sure as there wasn't a place for him to go back to, he couldn't ask Naruto to leave. Something about the world might break if he did, and there was no one else he'd want to have.

"Hey, Sasuke..." the Konoha ninja said in a quiet voice, a voice more mature than he remembered Naruto being able to manage. The pull of those eyes when his friend turned back to face him twisted like a knife in Sasuke's gut. Those were the eyes that always drew him in, made him wish he could be anyone other that who he was, as long as that someone could stay when Naruto asked. "Sound Village," he asked, nodding towards the horizon at Sasuke's back. "Do you really like it that much?"

Breathing out slowly, Sasuke tried to hide his relief. For a moment, he'd thought maybe Naruto would bring up last night. He had a right to do it, honestly. Sasuke had stupidly let himself go again in the glow of the campfire, after Sakura had gone to sleep - when it was just the two of them and the dark around them made the world seem as small as the flamelight. Even if the things you can't forget during the day still can't be forgotten at night, they had stopped seeming like reasons not to follow his instincts - at least on a distinctly personal level. He'd given in once before without getting burned, gotten a glimpse of the life he'd given up; by doing so he'd made it that much harder for himself to resist a second hint.

It had been slower than their first kisses; for most of the night, he'd managed to lose his sense of shame in the haze of familiarity. He hadn't recognized how one quiet evening by the fire could make goodbye that much harder to say.

When he'd woken up in the morning with Naruto's breath on his cheek -- and Sakura standing over them both, threateningly clearing her throat -- that was when he'd realized how much of a problem that connection was going to be. Still, at least he hadn't gone so far as to say anything rash. That meant no promises he'd have to break. If Naruto asked him why even that wouldn't make him want to come home... well, he'd have to find a way to lie, because three years ago he'd crossed a line and there was no going back.

It wasn't a lie he wanted to tell.

But Naruto would never ask if Sasuke wanted to be with him or not, so he didn't have to lie.

"What I like, what I don't like..." He lifted a hand to Naruto's face and ran the back of his finger over his friend's cheek with a bitter smirk. "Doesn't matter a bit." Everything had already been decided.

Naruto smacked his hand away. "Don't fuck around, Sasuke!" Those blue eyes narrowed. "Answer the question. Are you happy there? Is that what you want?" The Konoha ninja grabbed his collar hard, demanding to know, "Is it?"

"If I say yes?"

"You're lying."

"Why ask, if you already know?" He pulled Naruto's hands off his collar and tossed them away, smoothing out the wrinkled front of his kimono. "Besides, this road..." he said, pointing down the dirt path on the way to Sound Village. "This is the road to my revenge, and that is what I want." He would never be able to wipe the stain of his slaughtered family out of his memory. Their legacy was his, and he would find justice even if it meant killing his older brother with his own hands.

As if he'd let anyone get in the way... Even himself. No matter what happened, he couldn't give in to the ordinary desires for comfort and companionship that had once pulled him so far off the path leading to the man he and he alone had to kill. "I want vengeance, Naruto - that's my way of the ninja. And I can't have that in Konoha. Sound isn't the end; it's just a means."

He turned around and started walking again. This time, Naruto didn't run after him. He just yelled... Same as always. The idiot Naruto, world's loudest shinobi. "You know Orochimaru's gonna use you for his body! So what happens after that, huh? Where's your road go then?"

With a laugh, he paused. "I'm not planning to let him. I'll burn the village to the ground first." He didn't owe them a thing. Maybe that made him a consummate traitor, no loyalty even for the people he'd sold out to.

No loyalty, not to anything but his own single goal.

He thought he could hear Naruto's voice screaming in his head, saying 'No, you're wrong!' Sasuke breathed a wry, quiet chuckle at the idea: his first reaction just to thinking there was nothing left in himself to redeem would be that, wouldn't it? It would be to imagine Naruto telling him that there was something in him, buried, that still loved Konoha.

It wasn't even buried that far down. Sasuke knew it was there.

Knowingly betraying everything he cared for -- everything he had left -- to avenge a shadow from his past. That was what truly put him beyond redemption. That was the cause, not the way out.

Well, he knew what his old teammate would say if he ever tried to explain that. He wouldn't listen, he'd never admit it. Naruto would always insist that, somehow, wishing he could go back to his old life was enough to make it viable.

Just because it hurt to keep walking away, that didn't mean he cared what kind of monster he became or how many times he betrayed the people who trusted him, cared about him. He wouldn't do it without a good reason, but he had a reason, and what he'd done made him what he was... someone who could never take back the only thing that might have kept him at home in the first place.

He didn't deserve to hear that voice in his head telling him that, deep inside, there was something in him that could be true. Something worth all the trouble Naruto took to keep him from turning his back, not for the first time and perhaps not even for the last. But that voice was like a part of him.

It was half-pathetic that he was glad to have it there.

In the world outside his head, there was silence. For once, maybe Naruto had nothing to say. He might be angry still, angry enough to say, 'Fine, have it your way!' and let Sasuke walk off in spite of everything he'd said up to now. If he was lucky, his friend would give up on him. That kind of resignation was less likely, but it could happen, and they'd both be better off letting go. He'd even be willing to deal with Naruto hating him for walking away, the way anyone else would have done years before. It was the last thing he'd wish for, but if that's how this ended so be it.

Sasuke started down the road again, still half-hoping Naruto would surprise him with another way out. That's what his friend did best, after all. Finally, a resolved voice behind him said, "All right," trembling just a little.

He listened closely as Naruto breathed out, the tension speeding up his pulse.

"Let's do it."

Sasuke turned around slowly and narrowed his eyes at the glow of anticipation and the excited grin on his old friend's face. "Excuse me?"

"If that's what you want to do, then let's do it. Right now."

Taking a few steps closer, he wondered what the hell Naruto was thinking. Because it couldn't be about finding Itachi, immediately, together. It just couldn't. That would be stupid. "Do what?"

"Go back to Sound!" his old teammate replied, practically jumping off the ground in excitement. Sasuke blinked, taking a moment to process. Naruto couldn't possibly mean that either. That was possibly stupider than taking on Itachi. Not more dangerous, though, just... stupider. There was no way Orochimaru and Company would let him stay. And he'd hate it in Sound, even if they did.

"What the fuck would you want to do that for?" Sasuke asked, genuinely confused.

"You wanna burn it to the ground? I got your back, no problem! We'll be in an' out so fast old Snake-face won't know what hit 'im. This is gonna rock..."

More than a bit dumbfounded, Sasuke shook his head and tried to sort it all out while Naruto went on raving about how much ass they were about to kick. "You want to help me destr--" He cut himself off and thought back. "Wait, Naruto... Oi." That finally got the Konoha ninja's attention. "I never said I wanted to take down the village." It sounded appealing, he had to admit that much, but it was something he'd only planned to do in self-defense if he had to... Even if Sound was small, it was still a whole damn village full of people who would and could cut your throat to get ahead without a second thought.

Well, maybe not his throat.

"But you totally did!" Naruto yelled back. "And man, I'm there! Got it?"

"You want to go back to Sound with me, right now, and take down Orochimaru? Destroy the village? The two of us?"

"Hell yes, I do."

"And that's the three of us, Sasuke," Sakura reminded him, standing up with her hands on her hips. "If you forget about me one more time, I will kill the both of you. It's this way, right?" She shook out her hair with a sigh - Sasuke noted the dramatic lilt she'd added for effect - and started on down the road. "Are you two finished now? We should hurry before Tsunade-shishou sends out a search party."

"Sakura..." he whispered. Sakura. Of all the people he'd have figured would never want to see him again, let alone stand up for him against an entire enemy village. "You too?" was all he asked.

She paused with a quiet laugh. "Of course, you idiot. But..." the kunoichi said, turning to point at the young men still standing on the road. "Do tell me if you two feel compelled to start making out again, because we will be stopping at a town where you can damn well get a room."

It was strange watching her walk away, same as she always had, acting like there was nothing at all strange about the three of them standing around like this... like friends. Naruto slapped him on the shoulder with a grin, saying, "You heard the lady," and began to run off down the road toward Sound Village.

Sasuke reached out and grabbed the back of Naruto's jacket, stopping his friend in his tracks. "I never said I'd go back, Naruto." Some part of him had always known that he could never spend time with them like this again, for this very reason. No matter how much time passed or what happened, part of him would always wish there was a way to be in Konoha again... but every choice had its consequence. This was his consequence. "Even if... if... we do this together, this once. Going home..." His fist clenched in the orange fabric. It was a bit of a shock, listening to himself talk for once, hearing himself say that. Over the past three years, he'd managed to bury the fact that he still thought of Konoha as home. But he could bury it again and go back to reality when they finished saying goodbye. "I can't do that, Naruto. Give it up."

They stood in silence for a moment, their teammate waiting with a sad stare just a bit down the road. Finally, Naruto smiled. Even if he couldn't see his friend's face, he knew, just from looking at his stance and from hearing the sound of his voice. "Not a chance," Naruto replied, and started walking down the road without looking back. Sasuke let go his hold on the jacket as the man moved away, his arm falling to his side.

With a tiny smirk, he reached up and scratched the back of his neck. He was standing on the same old dirt path he'd been walking five minutes ago, but it wasn't the same road he'd started on this morning. Now, he was going back to Sound to flatten it just a little ahead of schedule, and for the moment his old friends were walking the same road. Who was he to argue if everything he'd given up just happened to be going his way for awhile?

Just because, for a second or an hour or a day, he got the chance to be happy... that wasn't really a reason to walk away from the road he'd decided to take three years ago.

"Tsch. The hell with it..." Sasuke said to himself, striding down the path behind the rest of his team and calling out to the two of them so they'd wait. "Oi! Which one of you half-wits thinks you know the way?"

Naruto turned around with a wide grin on his face and a laugh in his voice, resting his hands behind his head as he kept walking backwards. "Last one to Sound's a rotten egg!" he yelled, and broke off into a full run.

"Oh, how old are you?" Sakura called after him with an exasperated sigh, sprinting to catch up.

Well, Sasuke thought, chasing after them at a comfortable speed. That settles that.