"I got to tell you – I got to tell you – I met Itachi"
"YOU MET HIM? HE WANTED TO KILL YOU! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! DEAD! AND I…"
"And I thought you were gone with that Orochimaru"
"Actually I think I'll go. I have to find –"
"NO NO NO listen to me – he told me everything – I KNOW IT ALL! It's not him, it's not his fault!"
Sasuke laughs:
"WHAT? You believed this? Of course he tried to deceive you -"
"He has let me escape.
To come here and prevent you from becoming 'a criminal on his fault' like he said.
If they haven't killed him now, he still isn't having a happy life.
Ok? This is all true, Sasuke.
Listen to me.
And I even think that that Orochimaru knows it all.
HE'S trying to deceive YOU"
Sasuke is wordless. Then he ends up saying:
"Ok, tell me. I listen"
To report him everything, Naruto spends some two hours.
Sasuke doesn't simply believe in any words he says – he has to repeat it thrice before Sasuke gets it.
It is all so strange.
The worst fact is that Sasuke was so little, he doesn't remember anything – and of course he didn't know the same.
In the end he just summarizes the matter thus:
"I won't go to Orochimaru. It's useless now. So I don't have to kill him?"
"If he's still alive. I don't know if that blond guy managed to save him…"
While he was speaking, before, something happened out of the room – they heard a kerfuffle which lasted kind of half an hour – someone screaming and glass breaking.
In the end Kakashi enters the room – and leans against the door. Naruto asks him:
"The guy…?"
"He's dead."
"WHAT?"
"I'll tell you later. Or well, don't care. He was ill. That's why he shielded you – he'd die the same. How are you?"
Sasuke answers:
"It's alright, NOW. I'm not going with Orochimaru anymore. And then, I was SO afraid, SO AFRAID you were dead…"
"You're really similar, you two. But you use normal voice tones…he's colder than you. He asked me 'How can Sasuke stand you?' And then I answered 'You're really like him!' "
Sasuke laughs. Naruto goes on:
"And I even told him that he's 'Cold as shit' like you! And –"
"What am I?"
"It IS actually TRUE!"
Naruto laughs. Sasuke laughs. Kakashi smiles. Then Sasuke turns suddenly serious and asks Naruto:
"You think he survived?"
Naruto is voiceless, for some moments, then he smiles and says:
"He's UCHIHA fucking ITACHI, Sasuke! Of course he's survived!"
Naruto waits for Sasuke to sleep, then brings Kakashi out of the room and wants a complete report of what happened to the guy.
Kakashi doesn't want him to know, but after he swears that he 'ABSOLUTELY WON'T TELL SASUKE', Kakashi ends up telling him it all.
"He was a self injurer"
Naruto's face meant: 'WHAT?'
"He was addicted to self-injury.
I never saw something like that.
The psychologists here say it's a thing we only saw in soldiers coming back from a serious war, until now.
His addiction was more powerful that the possession of Orochimaru.
It is even mightier that the possession of a demon.
We think that we wouldn't have been able to free him, neither with an exorcise, if we were to.
However, he freed himself alone.
That something you saw, the red figure, was the addiction – but once he put it out and left it there, he was without it.
He was completely gone mad.
He tried to kill himself and stopped in the last moment – he couldn't accept it.
In the end, he managed to – jumping through the window"
Naruto looks at the top of the tree right before him – they are on 3rd floor.
"I never heard of something like that. Wait, but you're afraid Sasuke – oh, he could, in truth, BEFORE. Now he has no reason to. We discovered – I discovered – or well, Itachi told me – come with me, I'll explain you"
Another pair of hours later, when it is already full evening, Kakashi has listened to it all and now replies:
"I'll check whatever I can. We'll gather information – if this is the truth, Itachi must be cancelled from the Nukenin list.
All right? You stay beside Sasuke. He needs you, now. I hope Itachi's still alive! I'd never say I could think this…"
"But, think, if he didn't get me…oh, well, where's Jiraya?"
"In this hospital. Sasuke hurt him a bit…"
Kakashi laughs.
"He was TOTALLY angry – I wondered, because he made me remember of a person – yeah – you never known, actually – but she must look more like you rather than him.
I think you've influenced him a lot, you know? Sometimes he acts and behaves like you – just like in this case. He was TOTALLY angry. He looked more like a tiger than a fox – just like your mother did…"
"MY MOTHER?... You KNEW my mother - WAIT"
"What? Wait wha- OH NO! NO NO no"
He laughs while repeating 'NO' in a loop.
"No, I fucking would have told you if I was – no, it was him!"
He points his finger, somewhere out of the window.
"He is – was – your father"
"THE FOURTH HOKAGE?"
"Yeeah. If only Sasuke knew it, he would SO envy you…"
And Kakashi laughs again. Naruto, serious, returns:
"Who rules the Akatsuki?"
Kakashi looks at him, baffled.