A/N: Hello everyone! As promised, I have written you all one more chapter of YOMO once before Sasuke's birthday because the next chapter will revolve mostly around him and it'll be half of my birthday present to him; the other half will be a one-shot dedication called 'Love Distraction'. I hope that will work out better than my Itachi one did… I'm sorry, Itachi senpai!

I do NOT OWN ANY of the Naruto characters or the story itself. Oh how I wished but 'wishing only wounds the heart' – and I quote that from the song I'm Not That Girl from the Broadway hit, Wicked. Sorry about that. Thank you all for those who have reviewed and are playing my little game. For those that haven't turned in their answers yet can still vote and, just a quick note, if this chapter feels a little rushed, I'm sorry. I actually have more inspiration for my next chapter than I do for this one. Heheh. Please enjoy!

Ch. 27: Paying You Back

"This is bad. This is bad. This is b-a-d…." Naruto repeats over and over as he walks in circles. Watching him is Suigetsu, Karin, Kimimaro, and Juugo. All of them have their eyes following him but Suigetsu is the only one with a raised brow while the others are just watching him. "This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. This is bad-"

"Naruto-sama, please," Suigetsu finally says, wanting the vampire god host to relax. "Walking around in circles isn't going to help or change anything."

At last, Naruto stops walking and he turns to face the group of people with him in one of the many rooms of the castle. "I can't help it!" he yells. "Right now, teme is inside his father's office, agreeing to-"

Quickly to stop him, Suigetsu goes up to him and covers his mouth to stop his words. "Shut it! Do you want the whole castle to hear you?"

He pulls his hand back as a precaution but Naruto just screams right in his ear, "It doesn't matter anyway! It's not going to be a secret once they held some huge, fancy dinner party and announce the big news! This is really, really bad!" Then for a moment, he starts walking around in circles again. Now this is really getting ridiculous. His panic and distress is plausible but the guy has to stop looking like he's going to have a panic attack any time soon.

Then Karin notices something.

"If you're going to act like this, then why didn't you stop him?" Suigetsu asks, trying to pull the blonde out of his anxiety. Didn't help.

"I tried!" he responds. "But the guy is a stubborn asshole who thinks he doesn't even deserve to live, let alone have some bit of happiness in his life! He kicked Itachi teme out of this castle!" Then he starts venting to himself. "Ugh! That guy! His brother was willing, wasn't he? And yet he just says 'no' and kicks him right out!"

'From what I heard, Itachi left of his own accord,' Suigetsu thinks, listening to this.

Then Karin exclaims, "You two, we got company!"

Pushing the front door open, it reminds Itachi a lot of when he came home after his victory against the Kaguya clan. He was greeted by the surprised and flabbergasted soldiers outside, the same reaction they used to have when they thought of the possibility of him being dead, and when he entered his home, all he's expecting now are his parents to come running into him and suffocating him with hugs and kisses. But of course, stuff like that can't happen two times in row exactly right?

"Itachi teme!"

Maybe not exactly but close enough.

Before the older Uchiha new it as soon as the doors behind him closed, he was 'attacked' by something that was yellow and tan. By 'attacked', it means that Naruto jumped on him and knocked him to the ground with his arms circling Itachi's neck. Thanks to the impact and the sudden surprise of the jinchuriki's incredible speed, the older prince didn't notice that the object he had in his pocket came flying out. Heck, none of them even heard the thing land on the ground since they had other things going on at the same time. The prince didn't even have half a second before Naruto kissed him in greeting. Well there's the hugs and kisses part. But if Itachi had to chose, he would rather have his parents be doing this instead of this vampire god host on top of him.

Naruto breaks the kiss after a while, greatly relieved to have the long haired Uchiha back in the castle. Hallelujah, Kyuubi has the power to answer prayers! He was truly hopeful and ecstatic when Karin told him that Itachi has come back. He went running to the front door as if he were Sasuke four or three days ago, leaving the others to eat his dust before they decide rather or not to follow. Even if they did decide to run after him, by the time they'll arrive Naruto would be sending Itachi off to stop his brother before then.

Looking down at the slightly stunned Uchiha, Naruto tells him in one breathe, "Thank goodness you're here! Do you have any idea what kind of hell I've been going through since you left? Wait! This isn't the time for me to be complaining to you! You need to be somewhere!" A lot to say in one breathe.

Quickly, he gets off of Itachi and helps him up as well; by helping him up it's grabbing his arm and pulling, or yanking him off the ground to get up. "You got no time to be sitting on your ass! You need to get up and go! Run like the wind, Itachi! Hurry!" During that saying, he turned the still confused and stunned vampire around and started pushing him towards the hallway; not the one that Naruto came running through. The one that will lead the older prince to Madara's office.

This was some 'welcome home' greeting…

After closing the glass doors behind him, Sasuke just casually walks his way through the royal garden. Twenty years ago, this part of the garden was bare with green grass and in some places hard dirt. But the only other living plant in that field was that tall willow tree. The tree the younger Uchiha prince would climb and give his brother a heart attack for being so high up and the tree the two of them had their last conversation spoke to each other before they parted. A tree with many memories besides just those and the one place Sasuke would go to clear his mind and have a small sense of peace. Now besides just that tree, there are other plants that have grown healthy and strong and big over the years. Most of those plants are the dominating ones that have covered the stone walls and stone rails with its veins. This area practically looks like a fortress with enough vegetation to match a forest. As it is now, it's the perfect place to just hide away from the world. Every time Sasuke comes here, that's how he feels. He feels hidden from everyone else and sometimes sent to a different world where there are no duties that include babysitting a vampire god host, no missing brother who've you hurt beyond forgiveness, and no other pestering responsibilities. Just him, the willow tree, and the battles in his head and heart.

Sasuke didn't admire anything as he passes by. Not the flowers that have grown splendidly, the freshly cut hedges, the fast-growing dominating plants that need to be trimmed before going out of control, or the way the sun peaks through the leaves to leave sparkling diamond shadows on the ground and anything below it as it slowly begins to say its goodbyes to the world. Has that much time already passed since his meeting with his parents? When he finally stopped, he wasn't far from the tree but he wasn't near it either. No, he would rather have some stone wall near him so he could punch it with his tightly grasped fist.

"So it's over then. Damnit!" he cursed, through gritted teeth and deep, heated voice. At this point, anger and frustration were understatements to describe how he feels. His fist is shaking against the cracked wall, which he just inflicted, and his body is hunched over just a bit with his teeth clench together in a snarl. The boy just loves breaking walls.

However, in truth he has no right to be feeling like this or reacting like this. He brought this on himself. No one else.

"Sulking and hating yourself isn't going to make you feel any better, little brother."

And just like that, Sasuke's head instantly shot up in shock, his eyes wide with that same emotion, and he sharply turns around with disbelief now mixed in. Standing not too far away from him is none other than Itachi and he looks exactly how the younger prince last saw him. His face blank of any emotions and his eyes just as empty but they're different. In a way, it appears that they have life in them instead of how it used to look before; dull and dead. At first, it shocked Sasuke because it couldn't…really be him, could it? It's too impossible for him to believe; at least so soon. Maybe it's just his mind playing tricks on him. But he wouldn't imagine his brother looking at him like that and the longer he stares at Itachi, the more impossible it is for him not to believe that he is really there, standing so close than how he would be miles and miles away. It almost left him paralyzed and speechless – if it weren't for the look in Itachi's eyes.

"Are you trying to tell me that you actually feel guilty for what you've done? What you've done to me?" he asks, his voice as cold as an ice blizzard. Hearing his words and hearing him speak like that, it snapped Sasuke from his shock.

Yep, this is it then.

Thinking like that brings a half smirk to the younger Uchiha's face. "Oh it's not that," he replies. He retracts his hand from the cracked railing and turns around to face his brother and how it looks, enemy. "Naruto's just giving me stressed again. You know how easily he can get on my nerves."

"Then would you like for me to relieve you of such an annoying pest?"

And that right there causes Sasuke to lose his smirk and his guard to rise up. He already assumed that Itachi has come now to kill him but to threaten Naruto's life? It made Sasuke upset for an entirely different reason.

"Oh? Do you plan on killing him after everything he's done for you? You ungrateful whore," he insults, his words dripping with venom and his eyes, not red yet but glaring hateful daggers at his brother.

All Itachi answers with that stoic empty voice of his, "It was my original mission."

Yes, Sasuke already knows this but what he doesn't quite understand is, "Then why appear before me? He's nowhere near this area."

"Because I have my own mission. I need to repay you for what you've done. Once I'm done with you, then I'll deal with him." To prove his point, Itachi raises one of his hands up and flexes his claws, his eyes colder and deadlier than before. He's serious

Seeing those eyes, in a way it causes Sasuke to feel pain to actually see those eyes looking at him. He thought he was prepared for those eyes. He was prepared before when they had the trial but now after everything that's happened, they sting. 'And to think, I was ready to accept something like this. Not like when it's presented like this.' But at the moment, he has other things to worry about then accepting death. He still has his duty – the duty he was destined to do. "Unfortunately, I can't let you do that then." Grabbing the sheath of his sword, he pulls it out ready for a fight. He knows that Itachi won their last one but this time they don't have a certain blonde telling them not to kill each other. "I'm not about to let you destroy our entire race because of your selfishness."

"Whoever said it was mine?"

"You want death, don't you? Can't live with the shame of never being able to do anything for your human mate, right?" Sasuke knows exactly what that's like. He sees it every time he looks at Kakashi and right now, that's all he can see on his brother's face. "This can go either ways. I fulfill my duty as the Kyuubi's Jinchuriki's protector and kill any threat or you can complete your mission and kill us all. Either way, you'll be dead in the end. Am I wrong?"

"No, little brother." Flexing his claws once more, fire bursts on his skin and Itachi's satin eyes are already bleeding red. "You're completely right."

This is really it. The end then. Seeing him like this, Sasuke takes a moment to compose himself. He needs to push it all aside. Any useless feelings that's going to distract him in this fight. This is the fight that will determine rather he will live with his pitiful existence or die just like the sick piece of shit he is. With that in his head, all the younger Uchiha could do was let out one chuckle.

"Then why are we just standing here talking? If you want my life, come and get it!"

"Please get there. Please, please, please, please, PLEASE get there!" Naruto now pleads to himself as he's walking in circles, again. Finally catching up with him, Suigetsu, Karin, Juugo, and Kimimaro are also once again watching him, looking the exact same way he did before in the other room. They practically just switched areas with the same situation happening; only different words and a different reason for Naruto to be acting like this.

"Naruto-sama, would you just calm down already?" Suigetsu asks, really getting tired of this. He even approaches the pacing blonde to finish saying, "Itachi is here and soon he's going to whisk Sasuke right off his feet and convince him not to accept the engagement."

But Naruto quickly bursts out at him, asking, "But what if he doesn't get there in time! Once the agreement has been made, there is no backing out of it! The Uchihas are not know for going back on their word! Ugh! I should have sent Itachi after him the second I saw him! Now my friend is doomed to mate Sakura!" Great, now he's being overdramatic.

Just then, a thought crosses his mind. All too quickly, he steps right in front of the only person who can give him reassurance right now. "Karin!" he exclaims, grasping her hand in a hopeful way. The sudden action even catches the aura detector off guard, and sometimes hard to do in her case. Suigetsu right now, he can care less what the blonde vampire's going to do. He knows that he can't do or saying anything to ease the blonde's nerves anyway. However, now that he doesn't have the vampire god host in front of him anymore, the silver haired man notices something out of place on the floor.

"Karin, I need you to do something for me," Naruto starts off, as if he's about to tell her a secret that no one in the whole wide world should know about for it is top, top secret. "This is a matter of life and death for Sasuke."

She raises a brow but replies, "Okay… Do you want me to check where they are right now?"

"Yes, please!"

Like it's hard to not guess what the guy is asking her.

"Alright, alright," she sighs, pulling her hand away from his grip. She closes his eyes and tells him, "Give me a second." Then she concentrates. With her hands on her temples, she widens her senses all around the castle. She can feel the movement of every little thing in the castle; from the workers walking down and up the hallways fulfilling their duties, the tiniest animals scurrying around in the gardens, and Sasuke's aura at his thinking spot in the castle's garden. "Sasuke's…standing?" She opens her eyes after confirming that and there's a confused look on her face.

Naruto just jumped in, asking, "Standing? What do you mean 'standing'? Standing as in he's talking to his parents? He's talking with Itachi? What?"

Now Karin is starting to feel the same thing as Suigetsu. He needs to calm down. "He's just standing in the garden, doing nothing! But…" Taking another moment to concentrate, she replies later, "He doesn't seem to be talking to anyone. He's frozen."

"Not talking to anyone? Then what about Itachi teme? Where's he?"

"He's…He's at the garden with Sasuke, but it's more like he's just sitting in the willow tree, watching." After she reports, the others understood why she looked confused because now they are too.

"Hey, Naruto-sama."

Well all except Suigetsu.

Capturing everyone's attention since he spoke up, they all look at the make human worker to see him…reading a book?

"Answer me this, will ya?" He takes his attention away from the book in his hands and he asks, "Did Itachi meet a human by any chance twenty years ago?"

"You don't learn, do you?"

Sitting on top of his brother's chest, Sasuke has his sword punctured right through Itachi's shoulder to keep him down. While the younger of the two brothers appears fine compared to the older one, they're both panting and sweating from the commotion of it all. A fight is still a fight and between these two, it makes both of them exhausted in the end. As they were fighting, Itachi had a short sword on him and he used that to match with his brother's. With only using weapons, physical abilities, and no Hidden Power, anyone watching would have been greatly confused because compared to the last fight Itachi was rushed and he was making mostly reckless attacks then he was making smart ones. That didn't sound like him at all but that's what happened to have caused his short sword to be thrown over the edge of the castle and he has a sword that went right through his shoulder pinning him down to the ground. This fight was way too easy and way too quick.

But Sasuke says to his brother, "Don't you remember our last fight? I'm faster than you. You may have won but that's because you use deceit and illusions to win your battles. But I just have one question for you." Using his incredibly quick speed, Sasuke yanks his sword out of his brother's flesh and without hesitation or a second's warning, he sliced Itachi's head right off his shoulders. But all he got instead of blood spewing everywhere on him and dying the ground red with his blood before his body exploded, it only just disperses into crows and scattered everywhere their beautiful black wings could take them. Sasuke remains in the same position he was in when he cut off the fake Itachi's head off and with his crimson red eyes wide and looking really pissed off, he asks, "How foolish do you think I am?"

"Very."

When Itachi answered, his voice came from behind.

Instantly the younger vampire prince turns around to face his brother once again to continue their fight but what felt like turning his whole body and lowering his sword for any kind of attack waiting for him was only the turn of the head to look over the shoulder. That confused Sasuke greatly. In just a blink of an eye, he was no longer kneeling on the ground but standing in the same spot he was in when he first talked to Itachi and now he's looking over his shoulder to look at the giant willow tree. This whole time…he was in an illusion?

Quickly realizing this was not quick enough. By the time turned his head back to face forward, Itachi's already in front of him and he grabbed Sasuke's shoulder so he could pin him to the tree the second he got a hold of him. Since the boy is still in fight mode, he could have easily just pushed his brother off when his backed hit the bark of the willow tree but what kept him in place was the feel of Itachi's claws on his neck – the very tips lightly pointed against his skin. One wrong move and his throat will get slashed. All the Jinchuriki protector could do is look up at the face of the vampire threatening him and see wide, red, cold yet excited eyes looking down at him like a predator who caught its prey. No way is Sasuke going to cower like a prey!

"An illusion within an illusion," he's able to say, despite having to be care that his neck doesn't get cut. "That's a new trick."

"It's not," his brother tells him, his voice still smooth and calm as it always was. "You've just never seen me use it on you till now."

Brilliant, just what he needs to rub his pride in the mud. Oh well. He'll be dead soon anyway.

Right now, Sasuke is stuck. Being pinned to the tree, Itachi's grip on his arm feels really strong like he's never ever going to let go and his body is too close for the young prince to really move if he tried. He knows that such attempts will only be useless and just a waste of energy. But how the heck did he move so fast that even Sasuke was unable to react in time? He could have moved out of the way even if he was taken off guard if Itachi was using the same speed as that time in their last fight. Besides the new speed, there's also this strength…Itachi must have had blood before he came here. That's the only explanation.

"So are you going to kill me or what?" Sasuke asks. As much as it already kills him, he knows when something is over, it's over. There's nothing else he can do about it. "If I were you, I would do it fast before that dope gets worried and looks for me."

Itachi doesn't say anything immediately after that. He just stares, observing his little brother's face. He knows that he can't do anything and like a grown up, he's going to accept the consequences to not only losing but his earlier actions. He's given up and he's not going to run away from them anymore. Going to face them head on then huh? But to just stand there like that, all it means is Sasuke wants death as well.

"That would be a problem, wouldn't it?"

"Then you better hurry your fat ass up, slut."

Though when he called him that, Itachi's eyes became darker and there's radiating a hint of annoyance in them as well. "You're so impatient and I would appreciate it if you would stop calling me that."

Sasuke scoffed at that. "I just think that if you're going to kill someone, kill them. Don't stand there buying time, or you'll miss your once in a life time opportunity."

Exactly. This is Itachi's only chance. It's now or never.

"I supposed you're right then."

Moving his claws, Sasuke gave them only a moment of his attention before looking back up at Itachi's face. It really is it then. He is going to die and by the hands of his elder brother. Even though he was acting all tough and was going to take it like the vampire he is, it made him sad to see it end like this. Maybe it's too naïve to wish and hope now but the younger prince still feels that small hint of himself wishing that it didn't have to end this way. He wished things were different. Maybe never sending that vampire attack on that village and just trying to confront his brother about his feelings. He wished he was thinking when that happened instead of just acting on his emotions. He wished he never did what he did. He wished that he said sorry and got down on his hands and knees to show how sorry he was. He wished…

He wished he could said 'I love you'.

"Sasuke…"

Dun Dun DUN!

So how was it? Good? Bad? Please let me know. I will reveal my winners for my game question in the next chapter. Till July 23rd!