Itachi braced against the wall; more blood than air exited his mouth. He should have been more perceptive of the things around him. Of Orochimaru's depravity, his influence, and his obsession. He had lacked the foresight to see the attack on his home in its entirety.

Minutes ago he had been on the edge of his seat watching Naruto and Sasuke battle in the chunin exams. He had to give Shisui credit for all his meddling in love lifes and general annoying tendencies, his friend knew how to bring out the best in people.

And yet even now neither of them had seen the true depth of traitors among their numbers. Never before had Itachi regretted the notion that using Shisui's ability on all of Konoha would be both morally wrong, and taxing on his friend. Still, as Itachi stared at Kabuto Yakushi he couldn't help but feel that pang of regret.

"So this is your doing then?" Itachi asked as he wiped away a bit of blood that clung to his mouth like a thick red sap. There was much he could tell about a man from a glance with his Sharingan, and yet Kabuto remained a mystery. He only hoped the man had an ego for playing down his skills for years.

Kabuto pushed up on his glasses and smiled coldly at Itachi. Much was revealed to Itachi in that moment; details about Kabuto's true personality. He looked down on everybody like they were simply stepping stones along his path. "Yes, my adoptive father was all too willing to allow his son to work alongside him in finding a way to stall your disease. It was all too simple to reverse the effects."

"Once, Lord Orochimaru found out about your condition, we knew we had to act, once Danzo knew of your condition he was quick to join outside, I wager even now he's pulling out Shisui's eyes from his skull." Kabuto a cackle of a plan well put together. As though he was the sole mastermind behind everything and not some mad man's pawn.

Another spurt of blood alerted Itachi that he was running short on time. Still, it was rather foolish to think that even as his body failed him he would be weaker. The use of his techniques were strenuous, but the real danger was in the prolonged aftereffects on his body.

If he was going to die anyways he could go all out and not worry about the consequences.

Freed from his shackles and desperate to defend his home, his friends, his family Itachi unleashed his entire arsenal at once. Before Kabuto knew what had happened he was trapped in by Itachi's genjutsu while the black flames of Amaterasu engulfed his body and Susano ran him through.

The clone vanished in a puff of smoke. The terrible thing about Shadow clones and Tsukuyomi was that the memory transfer was forced, wherever Kabuto was he would be forced to go through the memories of nearly seventy hours of torture.

Surrounded by Susano's armor, Itachi felt his life force began to fade faster than before. Resolute that he would spend his last day fighting so that Konoha may see another day Itachi couldn't help but smile. Shame he wouldn't be able to see Naruto become Hokage.

XXXX

For a time Itachi drifted; balanced between life and death. He had pushed his body too hard or not hard enough. He couldn't move at all and his heartbeat felt like a distant echo. He tried to lean towards life at times and others towards death but something was stubbornly keeping him on that Narrow line between the two.

At times he was able to see the world outside of him, everything was covered in a murky fog from his nearly blind eyes. Only forms and colors remained to him dulled to the point where he was barely able to make his mother from the other Uchiha.

For the brief moments, Naruto was there her blond hair still shined with more clarity than it should have. His eyes were drawn to her. She was frustrated and stayed in the room less than his family did. Not because they sent her away, but because she couldn't stand just sitting around seeing him like this.

He could understand that. She visited twice more before she disappeared along with Sasuke. One by one by one his family disappeared from the room, others came and went, their voices sounded like the roaring of distant waves. Soon only his mother remained.

Sleep claimed much of his time, or what could be considered sleep; for it didn't restore what little energy he still had, merely a time when he was unaware or could not remember what had passed.

He blinked his eye and found himself falling into nothing. Then there was red and he landed next to a familiar table; It was one he hadn't seen in a long time and only vague memories of the place splashed into his mind. This was the table that he and Kushina had sat at when she babysat him a few times.

"Well, I didn't really babysit you I just kidnapped you and forced you to hang out with me." Itachi looked up to see Kushina kneeling opposite him on the table, a warm cup of tea was in her hand.

Itachi blinked in confusion, of all the people to greet him in the afterlife why this woman? Was it because of Naruto? "Aren't you dead?"

Kushina snorted and placed her cup down. "Mostly, but anyways as much as I would like to say I'm here for Naruto I'm technically not, and as for why me… well, normally its supposed to be somebody you have unfinished business with or have respect for preferably somebody that hasn't moved on yet either."

Apparently, she could read his mind.

"No, you're just thinking out loud."

"Oh." Itachi had the grace to be embarrassed by that, he took a cup of tea that he wasn't certain if it had been there the entire time or not. It didn't taste like anything. "So why you?"

"Well, you see," Kushina sighed and pushed a bit of her hair back. "It was supposed to be Sarutobi, but he went and got himself sealed in the stomach of the shinigami, then it was supposed to be Minato but he's in the same place, then there was the 2nd and 1st Hokage but I guess Hokage's have an affinity for being eaten by the Shinigami, so yea after all them the dead person you had the most respect for that also wasn't quite passed over was little old me."

"How have you not passed on yet?"

"Oh a bit of me is still sealed in my little girl," Kushina beamed happily. "I'm looking forward to seeing her Ya know? But I guess I'll have to settle for her future husband for a bit."

Itachi choked on his tea and felt his eyes ready to bulge from his head. Was everybody trying to set him up with a girl five years younger than him?

"I ship Itanaru; Besides your mom's like six years younger than your dad, so it runs in the family or something." Kushina waved her hands as though it was no big deal. Her gaze turned sharp and Itachi felt the temperature drop. "But if you do anything before she's a woman I'll come back from the grave and stomp on your balls."

He did not doubt in the woman's ability to do so. "Anyways why am I here? To fill time until I die?"

Kushina gave him a deep sigh and then scratched the back of the head so much like Naruto often did. "Well you see I'm kind of supposed to make you a better person with some words or something, but I'm not good at that so I'm just going to be blunt with you."

Itachi could only watch as Kushina mused over her thoughts. A silent eternity seemed to pass before Kushina exploded. "Right so basically all this whining about being a great Hokage is super annoying so you should stop it. Also, you worry far too much about little details. You think with your head first but you haven't listened to your heart in so long that you've locked it up and forgot the key to it. Thank goodness Naruto stumbled upon it. In short, stop worrying about being the Hokage you think everybody wants you to be and start being the Hokage you want to be."

When Kushina paused for a moment to catch her breath Itachi asked. "Is that all?"

She gave him a gaze so filled with fire that he could feel his skin burning under it. He wondered if Naruto would be like this when she grew up. Actually, wait, she was like that now.

"Not it is not all!" Kushina snapped at him, she slammed both hands onto the table. "Stop with this bullshit I'll give my life for the things I believe in. Do you think the people you'd save would want you to die dammit? Just how do you think Makoto or Sasuke would act to your passing! So stop trying to die for Konoha and start living for her you pansy!"

Naruto had made him realize that fact months ago, but it had been buried under the news that he was going to die. Now, the girl's dead mother was telling him the same thing. And the truth resonated within him. He had used his sickness as an excuse to start trying to die for a cause.

It was too much for him and Itachi found himself laughing at his own foolishness. "I believe Naruto had taught me that lesson once before, but I had forgotten about it."

"Leave it to an Uzumaki to listen to their heart first." Kushina pounded on her chest and smiled brightly. "Hard not to with the damn thing shouting at us all the time."

Itachi could only nod, the Uchiha suffered from a similar plight. "Kushina, thank you for this, but if you don't mind me asking, how do I get out of here?"

Kushina blushed and refused to meet his gaze instead finding her cup of tea once again. "No idea, I'm new at this ya know."

XXXX

Life was violently thrust upon him, everything hurt a dull ache that seemed to spike at the slightest motion as though his entire body was bruised. Sleep seemed a welcoming temptress luring promising solace from the pain.

"I don't understand what the big deal is!" Futaba's voice sounded near and he became aware of her hands being pressed against the foot of his bed. She sounded upset.

Curiosity and concern drove Itachi into awareness as he embraced the pain of his body. When he opened his eyes he found them wrapped in a thick cloth, even what little light came through the bandages burned. He'd keep them shut for the time being.

"Because of you damn brat." An older womanly voice sounded raspy from years of shouting and commanding. He didn't recognize the voice. "I'm not going to let some wet behind the ears, nobody, perform an experimental operation on a patient of mine that has only just recovered. The fact that you went behind my back and did the operation anyways makes me want to put you through the wall."

"You said he was as good as blind anyways!" Naruto's voice sounded the closest and he felt her press her hands onto the bed so near his arms. "And Futaba said she could fix most of it."

"What'd you do to me?" Itachi gave a soft groan as he sat up. The silence that filled the room was deafening. And then like a volcano Naruto exploded.

"Itachi!" he could picture her face with tears in her eyes as she hugged him fiercely; pulling him up further.

Itachi returned the hug with one arm despite the searing pain that shot through his body. "Nice to see you're okay Naruto."

A snort came from near, it was the familiar snort that Shisui gave when he found something mildly funny. "Was that a sight joke because your eyes are bound?"

"No."

"I cannot begin to describe how disappointed I am in you." Shisui sounded actually wounded.

"His wit stat isn't high enough to make jokes like that anyways." Futaba's footsteps sounded on the floor as she bounced over to Shisui's side.

If Itachi would have rolled his eyes he could have. Naruto finally released him from her hug, he hadn't realized just how long the girl had been embracing him. "My inability to joke aside, could somebody explain what happened."

A moment of silence drifted into the room.

"Don't look at me," The older woman said mildly offended. "I saved his life, you brats can explain what happened."

"And you are?" Itachi asked, still having no idea who the woman was.

She gave a heavy sigh and muttered a curse under her breath. "I'm Tsunade, your blond girlfriend and my perverted teammate found me and convinced me to come back to Konoha to save her boyfriend's life."

"We're not dating." Itachi did his best to appear unflustered.

Tsunade snorted. "Oh well, you should tell her that then because she came up to me crying. "Please I love him you have to save him please please please!" before she had even introduced herself."

"Granny!" Naruto shouted, her voice wavered with embarrassment. "You said you wouldn't tell anybody about that."

"And I told you not to call me granny."

Itachi coughed, to gain their attention. "I thank you for coming to my aid Lady Tsunade, but what was that argument with Futaba about."

A sigh that weighed a thousand pounds filled the room with silence. "You explain what you did short stack."

"You're not that much taller than me," Futaba mumbled, she stepped forward and let out a breath. "Okay, so although Tsunade saved your life she said that there was far too much damage done to your eyes and you're likely blind now. As you know I'd been doing research on the Sharingan for awhile, long story short, in order to make it so you could see I swapped your eyes."

Itachi had to shake his head back in surprise, somebody else had his Sharingan now? Who? Sasuke? His father? Shisui? "With who?"

"Yourself duh," Futaba explained, he could practically hear the eye roll. "I took your left eye and switched it with your right eye."

"And that will work?"

"No idea!" Futaba clapped loudly. "We'll find out after they heal; in the meantime it's late and I hunger!"

AN: Regular Beta is sick, so wish her wellness! Yangster gave it a look over but he's like me and bad at grammar.

Last semi-sad chapter and now I get to spam fluff and funny scenes! yay!