Chapter Two Recap: So, Family reunion. Sasuke knows why Itachi killed the family, a blurry link between Madara and Itachi is established, Madara climbs out of a puddle and all three skip happily to a gas station where Madara discovers slushees and scars a poor cashier for life. :)

Chapter Three~

What's Your Secret?

(Itachi POV)

After I buy gas it takes about fifteen minutes to get to the sushi bar. Before we exit the car, Sasuke takes the liberty of telling Madara to play it cool and stop looking so fascinated with everything because it was making our group look weird.

Translation: "Quit freaking out, bro, you're messin' my swag."

Oh yeah, I speak 'teenager'. I'm almost fluent.

While we walk, I observe my relatives. Sasuke seems suspicious of Madara, or maybe he's just annoyed. He's probably wondering how this 'dunce' could possibly be an Uchiha. I think for a bit about whether or not telling Sasuke about Madara would be a good idea. Sensei is a rather sensitive and secretive subject for me and I'm not exactly the most trusting person in the first place. Sensei is one thing that belongs to me and only me, he's the only one who understands how I think, so I'm not sure I'm ready to give anyone, even Sasuke, a glimpse into that part of my being...

I see Sasuke glaring at Madara while he balances on his toes, trying to find a comfortable way to walk.

I watch a little longer before I turn to Sasuke, Madara lagging behind, "He's not normally like that. He hasn't had a body outside of the Uchiha complex in centuries."

"What do you mean by 'outside of the Uchiha complex'?" Sasuke asks, narrowing his eyes.

Now its my turn to be suspicious. I'm unsure whether or not Sasuke's lack of knowledge of the Uchiha is due to Madara's with-holding of information or from all of the fucked up things I'm sure Orochimaru did to him.

Uchihas are capable of immortality, which is why I had to seal my family's souls into an urn. When you are born for the first time, you grow and begin what we call a freezing process anywhere from late teens to early thirties, whichever age you freeze at, you remain until something or someone kills you, then you reincarnate with your memories from past life intact.

Sasuke doesn't seem to have any memories of the past, and he's only been born once.

Madara and I should be very prominent in his memories.

"He had a real body for all of maybe three years before he tried to take down the whole demon empire with a tailed beast." We walk into the restaurant and Madara and I casually seat ourselves while Sasuke plops down wide-eyed, absorbing what seams to be new information. I figured Madara left out the 'little details' of his imprisonment. There was definitely going to be an argument...

I continue for the sake of Sasuke's mental health. "I became his student shortly before this incident, simply because I was still young and was the most powerful of all of the students and had already defeated most of the mentors within our complex. He was the only other Uchiha that was powerful enough to teach me anything new."

Then the council thought it would benefit the clan to bond us. We've been 'fiancés' since shortly before the Kyuubi incident seeing as how we were the only people who could handle one another, but like hell I was telling Sasuke that.

Come to think of it, I can feel the bond-mark tingling a bit, probably because my 'mate' is so near after such a long time. The mark was burned onto my neck with a strange metal utensil that had been set and heated with our clans fire technique, and when we… consummated the bond, we were to bite the other directly around the scar, placing irrevocable ownership.

I guess without knowing I did so, I put my hand upon the tattoo-like marking on my jugular.

"What's that?" Sasuke asks suspiciously. He wouldn't know anything about it but he didn't look like he was asking out of innocent curiosity. When I notice my hand is there I retract it as inconspicuously as possible, but someone else had decided to tune back into our conversation.

"What's what?" says Madara in an almost innocent voice.

I swear he has some kind of personality disorder because he was a very reserved, and serious teacher when I was younger.

He grabs my hand and looks back at my neck with narrowed eyes before they abruptly widen and he looks away with an awkward "Oh…". He seems to be really embarrassed about this because he's completely quiet as we are getting looking over at the sushi bar. Now Sasuke has a reason to wear a suspicious face.

We sit at a table that comes off of the bar, Sasuke and I sitting next to each other while Madara sat across from us looking at the selection. An annoyingly happy attendant there tells us that a cook will be with us shortly before walking away.

I watched as Madara looked hungrily at the other meals on the grills. He looked… 'cute' to me. The way he's been acting is slightly endearing in my opinion, probably just because of the fact that he's mine, because if he were another person, I would find this behavior annoying. This feeling was foreign to me, and I felt so awkward admiring a man, a relative, my sensei, this way.

I sat there observing his strange quirks, the way his hair fell into his face, or how he squinted his nose when he didn't like something, but then he bit his lip, that's when I had to turn away.

-Only to find Sasuke watching my every move. We stare at each other for a bit before he looks forward.

That's right, Aniki always wins.

I can still feel his eyes on me, on the mark to be exact. He narrowed his eyes and said, "You still haven't answered my question." Sasuke said, glaring. Since when is he this stubborn. He paused in his glare, before leaning forward, lifting his hand so he could feel it. " It looks painfu-"

"Don't touch it!" Was hissed across the table, but it wasn't me. Madara was holding Sasuke's wrist in an iron grip, teeth bared.

All eyes at the bar were wide.

Especially the cook's, who had just made his way over to our part of the bar.

The woman came back with a forced smile. "Is everything alright?" she asks, eyes wide with false-perkiness.

Madara's eyes are still trained on Sasuke, who's eyes are trained on Madara's bright red sharingan. He looked vicious and it for some reason made me feel good to know that someone didn't want to share me. I only belonged to Madara-sama. What an odd feeling.

"Madara-sama." Is all I have to say for him to let go of Sasuke and look to the waitress as if nothing is amiss. He puts on a casual, if not seductive, face and plays it off. It would have worked too… If the woman hadn't noticed that all Madara was wearing was a cloak.

"Excuse me sir, but are you… decent under tha-" Sasuke interrupts her, "Of course, ma'am, we just got back from a late dress rehearsal for a play, hence our clothing." He pops his collar a bit to show off his equally strange outfit, then activates sharingan. "I would appreciate if minimal attention was brought to our apparel." He finishes in a convincingly seductive voice.

Her eyes are a bit hazy, an effect of the illusion he set on her. "Yes sir…" She says in a light, breathy voice, walking away.

"Way to think on your feet, otouto."

The rest of the night went fairly well. We ate and drove back home in silence, if you don't count Madara's pleading for another slushee.

In this family, it is best to ignore any problems until it is a complete necessity to address them.

When we got back to the Uchiha complex I stopped them from going off into the house.

"We need to talk." I say, looking at them seriously. I look at Sasuke first. "What reason did you have to return him to his body ?" I knew it was insensitive to talk like Madara wasn't there, but when has Uchiha Itachi been all that sensitive anyway? I had to get my fierce name back.

Sasuke looked at me with a blank face, before opening his mouth. "Because he told me everything." He said quietly.

"Everything?" Everything? I can only hope that he kept our bond quiet...

"…Why you really eliminated the clan. He also kept Orochimaru from making me into anymore of a lab-rat. I was only re-paying him." He replies somberly. "Itachi, if I would have known-" I glare, cutting off his apology.

There was an awkward silence. I turned to Madara.

"You're not supposed to have a body. You manipulated Sasuke, you didn't tell him. Did you think I wouldn't notice your behavior? How paranoid you've been acting? 'Let's flee Japan!' Sure, Sasuke wouldn't notice, he doesn't know you like I do, but you can't hide from me.-"He lifts his head to meet my unhappy gaze. "This little 'resurrection' stunt has probably set off every emergency regimen that the council has. There will be search parties for 'The Great Uchiha Madara' by sunrise. You used Sasuke, manipulated him, tricked him into setting you free when he didn't even know why you were imprisoned in the first place." His expression went from a child-like timidness to an intimidating mask within seconds. Sasuke looked slightly betrayed but kept his face straight as well, probably no longer trusting Madara as much at the word 'manipulated'.

I continued, informing them about why I went to search for Sasuke in the first place, and how with the new situation they had gotten themselves into, relocation was mandatory.

Sasuke's eyes widened almost comically. "School? Are you serious?" He didn't seem to like this idea. "This is a joke, humans don't even take high school seriously! I know all about the human world, Orochimaru had me go out on missions all the fucking time. I've already been around half the world, I speak three languages, I know all about computers, maths, literature, I've lived through the history and it's impossible to live with Orochimaru and not know science like the back of your freaking hand. I hate humans. They are blind and stupid. I don't want to spend every business day with them."

He doesn't seem to understand the situation. This was getting frustrating. "Well I hope one of those languages is English, because we're going to America. It was simply an idea at first, but now since you've gone 'repaying debts'," I glanced at Madara before looking back to my brother. "-We have to go or face the council. As you know, last time they spoke to me, I killed our family, I don't feel like having them drop by to get what little 'family' I have left."

Exhale, Itachi, Breathe…

"Now, I have to go to California for personal reasons, Madara can't be in Japan, and Orochimaru is surely on his way here with an undead army of mutant-hell-snakes to come take back his favorite little Uchiha. Get together what little shit you have left here and get ready, we're catching a plane at six in the morning. Get packing."

With that, I walk off to my room leaving them to gather their things.

(Madara POV)

My first thought after I hear Itachi's door slam is: 'Damn, I like it when he's angry.'

I look to Sasuke to see him clenching his jaw. Poor kid, he comes home to his brother for the first time in years only for this to happen. Itachi is only stressed because of my arrival, and naturally this whole situation is my fault... Well, I guess I have to fix this…

I make up an excuse to go into Itachi's room. "I'll be back with some clothes you can wear."

The walk down this familiar hallway wasn't as comforting as I first thought. Itachi has been living in my house this whole time.

I got to his door, the same one he used as a charge in my care, and twisted the door knob.

"Itachi…" I spoke softly, walking over to his hunched figure.

He sat on the bed with his hair undone and his fingers running through it. I take a seat next to him and run my own hands through the soft locks, sighing as he leans into me. The last time we were this close was when I had my body for that short period of time before it was taken again as punishment. It had been three years that I had been returned to my body, and unleashed my plan to take over with the Kyuubi. The council as well as the Uchiha clan had decided to bond me and Itachi... Intimately I suppose you could say, or as 'mates', mostly for political reasons. With Itachi still being a youngling, all they could do was burn my insignia on him, and his on me. In the completed ceremony, one would bite the other directly around the mark while 'in bed'.

Now that Itachi has frozen in his aging process, his body is reacting to my presence.

He has grown tall and strong and it for some reason excites me to think that he could pose me a threat in battle, or in other situations, but I wasn't going to let him know that...

I moved my hand and when Itachi turned around, he had the eyes of someone who could strike fear in a God.

His face was a deadly blank mask, no muscles twitching, no expression in his lifeless eyes. It was so emotionless that it made you feel almost as if you were being taunted, like you weren't worth an expression. It wasn't calm and serene or even content. There was nothing-

And when he left this room and departed for the airport, Sasuke would recognize him not as his loving brother, but as the man who had killed his entire family without blinking.

I fought down a mirthful grin. That's my boy.

I told myself that I came in here to fix this, to fix Itachi, but there was no helping this situation. Apparently this reunion took a bit of a toll on Itachi's psych, a tad too emotionally draining for an Uchiha with little emotion to begin with.

He stalked to his closet and pulled out some black jeans, a crimson shirt with some strange tribal-like designs and threw them at me.

For some reason, I'm beginning to feel nauseous, but I mask my discomfort as Itachi approaches.

"Wear this, you and Sasuke will have to borrow my clothes for a while until we get everything settled into our next living establishment. You sure as hell can't live alone and I brought Sasuke back for a reason. You were an unexpected bump in the road." He states coldly, and it makes me shiver with delight.

Then he walked out of the room with another outfit for Sasuke.

Any lesser person probably would have stabbed themselves in the chest to stop the pain of Itachi's words, but I knew Itachi better than anyone else. He'll be back to teasing Sasuke and fighting with me in no time. He was just taking out his frustration on an easy target.

Fair enough, who's to say I didn't like a little pain, hmm?

(Sasuke POV)

I was looking at the floor from the couch, still in my sweaty mission uniform, when he walked in and carelessly tossed some outfit in my lap.

I looked up and saw the one thing that terrified me most; the look of nothingness, the complete expression, or lack thereof, of emptiness being aimed at me, his worthless shadow.

This wasn't going to work out.

As he walks away, I hear Karin's voice in the back of my mind. 'He's coming, Sasuke-kun.'

I thought for a bit. Well, if Itachi wanted me to blend in with humans, it was best to look like I had some friends, right?

So, I called the upon the only people who have ever watched my back.

'How do you and the rest of our team feel about California? Good? Good, because that's where you are going to be by tomorrow.'

It's best not to leave room for objection when dealing with people.

(Naruto POV)

"Sakura, my love for you is like a thousand- wait,- Burns like- Pfft! Hahaha!" I couldn't hold in my laughter, and apparently, neither could Gaara or Sakura.

"No! That's not how you say it! Okay, my turn." Gaara said, barely holding in his chuckles. He took a deep breath and let his sea foam green eyes turn into a dull yellow, letting the raccoon's psychotic voice ring through Sakura's room.

"Sakura! My love for you burns with a passion of a thousand suns! Kekke ke!" Oh yeah, all of us had drank at least seven too many, everything felt so warm and hazy.

The three of us were sitting in Sakura's room, all clad in goofy sleep wear. We had decided to switch pajamas. Sakura with her long pink hair pulled into a messy bun with her bangs framing her pretty, alcohol-blushed face didn't quite mesh well with my bright orange and grey camouflage boxers. She had my grey wife beater falling off her shoulder, giggly madly at the voice of our demons confessing love to her.

I was wearing Gaara's black 'I'm not a freaking emo.' shirt and his sand-castle print PJ pants (I bought them for him at Christmas as a joke because he was the sand raccoon demon. It's funny. Yeah, he didn't laugh much either…).

Honestly, Gaara had to be the funniest looking person out of all of us. He was wearing Sakura's black and pink Lady Gaga tank top with some hot pink booty shorts and Sakura's kitty slippers. He had to have drank the most out of all of us. Apparently he and Kankurou had gotten into an argument and he decided to leave, only to run into his cousin Sasori and almost get into a physical fight. This just wasn't his night.

We usually crash at Sakura's when one of us is down. As lame as it sounds, these guys are my best friends and know everything about me, and vice-verse. Sakura knew all about us being hosts, our home-lives, school lives and just about everything good and bad, and she still accepted us.

And here she was getting completely shit-faced with us in order to comfort our friend. What a pal.

"Okay, I wanna go!" She clears her throat, "Sakura, my love for you- wait, nothing happened! And I'm Sakura!" Her confused high-pitched voice squeaked with a hiccup. "That's not fair!"

She pouted.

"That's because you don't have monsters in your brain, bubblegum-head!" Gaara teased drunkenly. His normal voice was raspy and slightly underused giving him a scary edge when talking to others.

I laughed a bit and she pouted harder, only to look up and meet my eyes grinning that beautiful smile of hers. I met Sakura through Granny Tsunade. Sakura had been blessed with the strength of a beast and healing power from the same Japanese medicine man, Sarutobi, that Tsunade had.

He said that as long as her mind stayed strong and sweet, her body would as well, but the minute she betrayed a loved one for selfish intentions, her beauty would quickly fade and her body would deteriorate to its true form.

Which by now would probably be a corpse because she was about ninety years old. Who lived that long now-a-days, especially in L.A.?

I have to start calling her granny as well.

Sakura wasn't even her real name. She was of mixed culture so one couldn't really place her with a certain accent, and like many in our line of work, she was multilingual. All we knew about her was that Sarutobi had named her after the nature of her spirit. She couldn't tell anyone her real name or she would deteriorate just like if she betrayed us. After she was blessed, she said her skin had whitened, her eyes had turned green and her hair had turned bright pink. I always thought her features looked odd on her, but hey, who looked natural with pink hair anyways?

When I look up, I see a flash of red as Gaara glomps me. "Hey, big boy. 'ya lookin' fuh' a good time?" He slurred, breaking off into tired giggles. That statement would be a bit odd if we were strangers to casual sex with one another. He slurred something before letting his head fall between my legs. I yawned, not really in a very sexual mood. I had to admit, my eyes were getting heavy and the fox was getting tired of watching us be stupid.

Gaara giggled one last time before passing out on my stomach, his body slightly between my legs.

Sakura smiled lazily, her eyes almost closed. "We should hit the hay soon, too." I nod and tell her to grab the spare pillows out of the closet.

I carry Gaara's unconscious form to the queen sized bed, thinking about how this is probably the first time he's slept in weeks. I lay him back on top of me, his head lulling against my chest on my right side as Sakura climbs in the bed with the comforter, draping it over all of us.

She snuggled into my left side, slightly imitating Gaara before wishing a soft 'G'night, Nar'to' to me and passing out.

It was moments like this where I felt guilty about keeping things from Sakura. She was so sweet and understanding, but for some reason, I don't feel like she could ever understand why I hide my beasts true nature. I feel she would be scared if she knew I had triggers. That it talked to me all the time... Gaara understood my triggers because he was a vessel like me, but even he was weary when I told him the things Kyuubi showed me in my head... Everything I went through as the Kyuubi's body...

Yeah, Sakura would still love me, but I had more than one reason to keep my lips zipped...

I put my arm around her and snuggled my two most precious people close to me.

"Good night, guys." Falling asleep to Kyuubi's irritated grumblings and Gaara's soft snores.

Oh no... Haha, yay. New Chapter! Anyways, what do you think? Theres gonna be some happy moments with these three, and probably some sad ones... -And secrets are going to come out! But when? Read and review? ~SaLEm