Everyone's staring at me. I don't really blame them, I'm sure that no one ever expected me to be on these streets again unless I was attacking someone. I don't think I was even expecting to ever find myself here again. I'm pretty sure that Naruto is the only one who held out hope for my return. He's an idiot. He shouldn't have chased after me all these years instead of going for his dream. I'm sure that if he didn't concentrate on me, he would be Hokage already.

But, even so, I can't help but be happy that he still followed me. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. I would be the new body of some crazy perverted freak.

"Where do you want to go Sasuke?" Naruto asks me. He's completely ignoring the other villagers. Although, I guess he does have some practice with it after the way that they've treated him for almost all his life.

"I don't care." Anywhere with you, Naruto.

"Let's go to Ichiraku!" Of course that's where Naruto wants to go. It's so familiar that I can't help but roll my eyes. In this moment it feels as though I never left. I never betrayed Naruto. But I did and I need to live with that.

"What are you thinking about Sasuke?" Naruto asks.

"It's nothing," I shake my head. I can't bring up a topic like that right now. I'll probably never bring it up for as long as I live. I don't want to have to live with the look that Naruto gets whenever we talk about something like that.

Naruto just shrugs. Of course he does. He doesn't want to push me. He doesn't want me to leave him again. Come on Naruto, you have the right to be angry with me. Yell at me. Hurt me. Just do something to get rid of this pain that I have in my chest from hurting you. Please.

"This kind of reminds me of how it used to be," Naruto says as we sit at the ramen bar. The chef looks at me with a skeptical eye. I know that he's always had a soft spot for Naruto and that he would have been able to tell how my disappearance affected Naruto so I'm not really surprised that he's wary of me.

"Me too." Apparently Naruto know what I'm thinking even if I don't voice it. Naruto always seemed to have that ability to just know exactly the right thing to say. Most of the times, he used it to anger people, but every now and then he would use it to comfort others. I don't even think he knows that he does it.

This is not what I need, though. I don't want to just go back to the way it was. The way it was, was me being a sulking teenager and doing everything that I could to take down my brother while also carelessly hurting anyone, including my team, who ever got in my way. I don't want to go back to that. I need something different. I need you to straighten me out, Naruto. Will you do that for me? Or will you allow this to just slide and me to become that horrible person that I would have become if I had stayed with Orochimaru.

I don't think I'll be able to stand it if I try to do that again. I don't think I'll ever be able to face you again. I don't want that. I never wanted that, but what I did almost made it so. I can't allow it to happen again. Even if I have to take my own life.

That's why you need to make sure that I am straightened out Naruto. You're the only one who can do it.