Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP and Kodansha. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Don't steal and don't sue. Thank you *Phantomness bows*

Chapter 5: Meetings

Well, Sasuke thought. This week was just getting worse and worse, wasn't it? At least they'd gotten four days of rest and recuperation and mainly just guarding Tazuna and his workers while they worked on the bridge but now Gatou had called in the big guns, which just so happened to consist of his brother and this human shark and then the shark had mentioned something about capturing Naruto which had caused him to lose his temper and charge at them leaving Sakura and himself to guard Tazuna and Sakura was completely paralyzed by the sheer force of killing intent and Naruto had been knocked out and Kakashi was dealing with Kisame, was it, and his sword could absorb chakra, and now Itachi was walking towards him and the terrified Tazuna and Sasuke really couldn't be in two places at once. He sighed.

He bit his thumb, slammed his hand into the ground. There was an obligatory puff of smoke. Cerberus appeared in all his glory. "Please guard Tazuna, Cerberus," Sasuke requested. Cerberus nodded, motioned for the bridge builder to get on his back. Tazuna gulped, before mounting the winged lion, who took to the skies. Itachi looked faintly puzzled, and vaguely amused.

"You have a summoning contract already, little brother?" He asked.

Sasuke's response was to reach into his weapons pouch and hurl down what was some sort of a flash-bang. Itachi instinctively closed his eyes and leapt back. Years of experience warned him not to land just yet, he opened his eyes in surprise to see what were unmistakably tendrils of his own shadow trying to grab him – how had Sasuke managed to copy what was obviously a Nara Clan specialty – and skidded to a halt yards away. He saw Sasuke helping his pink-haired teammate up, and frowned. Perhaps killing her in front of his little brother would give him the proper incentive to become stronger…

As though Sasuke had sensed his thoughts, a circular barrier sprung up around the pink-haired girl, who had passed out. Itachi frowned. He hadn't seen Sasuke weave any seals, so how… Or had he prepared that technique in advance and only just activated it now? He met Sasuke's Sharingan with his Mangekyo, seeing three tomoe in each eye, and for a brief second, saw Sasuke's eyes morph into the Mangekyo as well, before it faded. Interesting, he thought.

"Niisan," Sasuke said, very calmly. "I don't want to hurt you. Please surrender."

Itachi almost choked. "Sasuke," He said calmly. "You couldn't hurt me if you tried. You lack hatred."

Sasuke paused. "That's true," He admitted. "I do lack hatred. I love you, niisan. I want you to come home."

"Foolish little brother," Itachi clung to his composure. What had happened to Sasuke? "Have you forgotten what I did?" His Mangekyo spun. "Perhaps you need a reminder." He activated the Tsukuyomi. To his complete and utter shock, nothing happened, except for the extreme pain splitting his skull apart as he suddenly experienced the mother of all headaches.

"Niisan," Sasuke said, kneeling down next to him and cradling him in his arms, "I told you that I didn't want to hurt you. Would you like a glass of water and some painkillers? You really shouldn't abuse your Mangekyo like that, you know. It'll make you go blind so much sooner."

This was ridiculous! Itachi shoved Sasuke away, opened his right eye. He heard Sasuke scream as the black flames of Amaterasu blazed forth at his command, greedily licking at his little brother's flesh. It hurt to make Sasuke suffer like this, but he had to learn his lesson, and he had to hate, or else all his plans would fall apart…Itachi's eyes widened in shock when he saw the burnt corpse of his partner a few seconds later, next to a panting Kakashi and an unharmed Sasuke.

"Maybe you could consider surrendering now?" Sasuke asked kindly.

Itachi gave Kakashi a Tsukuyomi-filled glare. At least it worked this time, he thought savagely, incapacitating the copy ninja and rendering him comatose. Then, he turned to Sasuke, and summoned Susanoo. Sasuke attempted a good two dozen A and B-rank ninjutsu of all five elements. Itachi was pleased, but none of them made it past Susanoo's Yata Mirror and he cut a few of the other attacks apart with the Blade of Totsuka. He saw Sasuke frown, and then summon a sword he didn't recognize, a thin, straight blade. Itachi felt somewhat alarmed when Sasuke charged his Susanoo head on.

That shield is like Mirror, Sasuke thought. But Sword is supposed to cut through anything, so, let's test it. Then, he paused. Wait, if it's like Mirror, it could conceivably reflect Sword's powers perfectly. That would get us nowhere. So I'll just have to cut somewhere that isn't covered by that shield. That sword it's waving around doesn't look too safe either as it seems like some sort of sealing item. Sasuke body flickered himself behind Itachi's Susanoo, and then slashed apart its spine. Success!

He saw Itachi's eyes widen, and his eyes flashed. Not this time, he thought viciously. If Itachi wasn't going to surrender peacefully, he would have to force him. There were no other witnesses. In an instant, time stopped.

"Yue," Sasuke gently woke his moon guardian. "He's the one."

Yue studied Itachi, gently feeling his latent magic. "Wind and Water," He confirmed. "And so much darkness, even deeper than yours… I accept." Sasuke watched as Yue embraced his brother, before merging with him, fading into the back of his mind. Itachi would not even realize what had happened. Now what to do? Utilizing Time was a huge drain on his energy. He swallowed two handfuls of soldier pills and reached for Mist next. Corrosive mist spewed forth, dissolving the armored warrior. Sasuke was no sealing expert, but he did have Lock, so between the two of them they worked up a nifty seal to suppress Itachi's chakra and secure him before Time ran out.

Fortunately, Sakura and Naruto were awake and in condition to fight by the time Gatou's mob of mercenaries showed up, because Sasuke was certainly not in the mood. And Tazuna and Inari, still guarded by Cerberus, had managed to round up the villagers to help. Perhaps having Thunder tear Gatou limb to limb had been unnecessary, but Windy, Watery, Firey and Earthy had already emptied out the contents of his vault that morning and slaughtered any mercenaries that got in their way at his base of operations so his manpower had been cut in half without his knowledge. Certainly, having half of his army disappear in midair when Illusion flickered out of existence was sobering.

"Y-you brought your family with you?" Sakura almost whimpered.

"They like to keep an eye on me," Sasuke replied.

A confused Itachi turned to Naruto. "Naruto-kun, what are they talking about?"

"You can't see them?" Naruto asked Itachi. "I would have thought you'd be able to, since they're your family too…"

Itachi looked even more perplexed.

"Sasuke lives with your family's ghosts, dattebayo!"

What, Itachi thought in disbelief.

When the mercenaries finally surrendered, Itachi watched as Sasuke took command and directed the citizens of Wave to deal with them. He sealed away Kisame's body, took care of the comatose Kakashi, collected the new contract from Tazuna, and of course, took Itachi and the other two Genin back to Tazuna's house. He looked at the other two genin. They were wholly clueless. Sasuke then deferred to Naruto, who decided that they should all have ramen and didn't need any more patrols. Itachi was certain he was the only one who noticed Sasuke had made shadow clones and sent them out earlier. Once the two of them were alone in a room upstairs, he summoned a hawk and sent it back to Konoha with a mission update. Itachi's eyes narrowed. He recognized that type of hawk. It was not something a genin or even a chuunin should have access to. "Sasuke…"

"Yes, niisan," Sasuke asked.

Cerberus was perched on the desk next to Sasuke, in his reduced form, that of a winged lion cub. Itachi wondered what type of summon he was.

"We need to talk."

Sasuke stroked Cerberus' head. "I'm listening, niisan."

"How long," Itachi gazed at him. "Has our family been with you?"

Sasuke smiled. "They've been with me since the day I returned from the hospital." He paused. "And they're not our family anymore, niisan. Technically, they're my family, although… that's not a hundred percent correct either." Cerberus seemed to be laughing, as though he was privy to some inside joke.

"And Cerberus," Itachi asked.

"He's a part of our family too, of course," Sasuke kept stroking his fur.

Itachi frowned. The lion cub blew a puff of flame towards him. Fire, Itachi thought. Fine, he could accept that. The Uchiha did contract with cats… perhaps he was an experiment of some sort.

"What about…"

"This is my first mission," Sasuke answered the second question before Itachi finished asking. He took off his breastplate and shirt, letting Itachi see his bare chest and shoulders, no tattoo yet. Itachi couldn't help studying Sasuke for perhaps a few seconds longer than he should have. Sasuke simply smiled inwardly, before putting his shirt back on. He took off his armor and sandals, and got ready for bed.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" Itachi asked.

"No," Sasuke replied simply.

"I could kill you in your sleep."

"If you had wanted to kill me, you would have done it four years ago."

"I could pluck out your eyes."

"You could try," Sasuke stated bluntly. "Niisan, the bed's large enough for two."

Itachi stared at him.

"I'll sleep on the floor."

"Your loss," Sasuke told him. He handed him a pillow and one of the blankets. "Sleep well, niisan."

And without even bothering to tie him up, Sasuke was fast asleep in minutes.

Itachi could not believe the foolishness of his little brother. True, Sasuke had sealed his chakra, and taken his weapons, but did he truly believe he was helpless? He looked at Cerberus.

Cerberus was smiling at him as he watched Itachi leave through the window.

Six hours later, Itachi finally admitted to himself that whatever hellish illusory maze Sasuke had put up outside was beyond his capabilities to break at the moment and he had underestimated his little brother again.

He was frowning, though, because no matter how much training Sasuke had been doing, this level of genjutsu mastery should not have been possible. Itachi knew he had been hailed as a genius, but this was beyond Tsukuyomi. This was not Uchiha-style Sharingan-based genjutsu. This was something else altogether… this was almost at the level of Izanagi, but Sasuke clearly still had both eyes, and he would have noticed if Sasuke had Sharingan implanted in other parts of his body. And the way Sasuke had said my family…

What secrets was his little brother hiding?

Naruto and Sakura were somewhat shocked when the four-man Anbu squad arrived three days later to escort them home. They took Itachi into custody, collected the contract from a terrified Tazuna, picked up Kakashi, and got them back to Konoha at record speeds. Sasuke delivered his report to the Hokage, and was informed that once Itachi was released from Torture and Interrogation, he would be in charge of him. He had expected it, and thanked the Sandaime Hokage. Hiruzen watched Sasuke leave, thoughtfully puffing on his pipe. It was as though Sasuke already knew… Well, at least the boy didn't seem terribly unstable or about to revolt. Now, what to do about Danzo…

Sasuke had finished cleaning Itachi's room and completely furnishing his new wardrobe with plenty of help from Create. He smiled and hugged the card spirit. "Thank you."

Create hugged him back. "You're welcome."

He glanced around the room again. The bed had clean sheets, the floor had been swept and mopped, the windows had been washed, and the room had been aired out… that should be everything…

"Lunch is ready," Flower said kindly.

"Thank you," Sasuke and Create headed for the kitchen.

End Chapter

Started 3/25/16

Completed 3/26/16

Sword from CCS can cut through anything, even Shield. That being said, the Yata Mirror is supposed to be able to reflect any attack, so I had Sasuke attack from the back.