Itachi watched the newest addition to their small group of runaways.

Now was a good time to assess him. They camped for the night outside a small village to restock on their food supply.

They couldn't just walk into a village randomly now. Not when they're a rather peculiar group of children all less than fourteen. And not when one of them was an infamous jinchuuriki who was the son of a live Kage.

It's been five days since Gaara has joined them.

And what interesting five days it has been.

For one, Naruto finally met his prisoner.

Flashback

'I met the kyuubi, dattebayo,' the blond randomly said while they were on the run. 'I could feel his hatred but he healed me up. I think something's bothering him.'

Leave it to the bubbly boy bursting with happiness to sweeten everything and find good in everyone.

'Why do you think so?' Itachi asked him after a while of silence. Rin had started talking gibberish, probably trying to talk to her blond brother. It was a futile attempt and Itachi decided to speak to Naruto himself.

'I'm not sure,' the seven-year old answered. 'But he healed me. Even though he said its just because he won't lose to Shukaku.'

'Shukaku?' Itachi questioned.

'It's my tailed-beast,' Gaara answered. 'The kyuubi knows his name?'

'Well, I didn't know who Shukaku was,' Naruto tilted his head. 'But now I know. I wonder why he knows your tailed-beast though, dattebayo.'

'Gaara,' Itachi turned to the redhead. 'Have you spoken to Shukaku?'

'I won't say that I have spoken to it,' Gaara answered. When he was returned with confused expressions, he added, 'Shukaku talks to me but I doubt that he listens to me.'

'Does he know about my tailed-beast, dattebayo?' Naruto asked rather excitedly.

'Yes,' Gaara answered, a spark in his eyes. 'Just before you spoke to me, Shukaku told me that he could sense the stink of a fox. Kurama, that's the name he said after.'

'Kurama?' Naruto had a wide grin on his face. 'That's a cute name, dattebayo! And so is Shukaku! Hey Gaara, what do you say someday we make friends with Shukaku and Kurama and let's make them be friends with each other, too, dattebayo?'

'Sure, Naruto,' Gaara answered with a smile.

End of Flashback

Itachi studied the redheaded boy further.

Gaara seemed to be happy. He looked happy. He was at ease most of the time but Itachi knew that he still had his troubles.

Who wouldn't?

He had only been with them for a week.

Sasuki still had her doubts. Itachi still had his doubts.

And on their defense, he was a young, impulsive jinchuuriki who has killed without much thinking.

On the contrary, Itachi held deep sympathy for the lonely boy.

The fact that he can't sleep because of the monster, or rather, he chose not to sleep as to not let it run loose, was even more saddening.

One night, especially, broke Itachi's heart for the little redhead.

Flashback no. 2

Itachi sat down as dawn's first lights broke in.

It was a beautiful sight, really. How the darkness starts to flee at the touch of the rising sun. How the bright, vivid colors, red, orange, and yellows would slowly start to spread across the sky.

It gave him hope.

Each and everyday, however dark the night might have been, the sun would always shine again.

"Sasuki," he silently called out to his sister.

She was a mere foot away, her back turned against him and her black hair covering her face.

"Do not pretend to be asleep. I know that you are not," Itachi told her as he looked back again at the sunrise. He heard a groan but that was it.

"Tell me what has happened," he said after a while.

He knew that Sasuki hasn't had a wink of sleep in the past two days that they've left Suna. He was the one who sat up all night watching.

He had thought that Sasuki would have come and told him about it on her own but she still hasn't.

She was one to endure restless nights especially well since the terrible events. But that didn't mean that she could go on without sleep. Even after their parents' deaths, Sasuki would still get at least an hour of slumber.

But lately, her restless nights had become 'no sleep at all.' And it had started showing.

She has tripped on twigs and rocks more often. She was getting tired more easily. She hasn't even been talking to any of them. And in a few more days, the bags under her eyes could rival Gaara's.

Gaara.

"Tell me about Gaara," Itachi said only to have Sasuki sit straight up and start to shake a bit.

"Nii-san," the raven could barely mutter as she looked up, her normally dark eyes blazing a luminous red, at her older brother.

Itachi's own pitch black eyes widened at the thought of her sister acquiring the sharingan at her age. She hadn't even turned eight. Even he had his eighth birthday when he had gained them.

"Tell me," he urged his sister on as she closed her eyes. She sat in such a way that she was hugging her legs. No doubt that the scene was replaying in her mind. The sharingan does that.

"I-I... I looked at Gaara wrong," Sasuki started. "He atttacked. And then..."

As Itachi thought, it was Sasuki who had produced the smoke.

"Well, Naruto... He got in the way," Sasuki took a deep breath. "I thought he was dead! He was bleeding and he was crushed and he wasn't moving! He wasn't breathing! I was sure he was dead, Nii-san..."

Sasuki said it all so fast that if Itachi was a normal civilian, he wouldn't have caught on. And her eyes squeezed shut now. Her hands came from being wrapped around her legs to her sleeping bag, her knuckles turning white.

And just as fast as she said it, she stopped talking.

"Sasuki,"

"Nii-san," Sasuki suddenly buried her face on Itachi's chest, something she hasn't done in a very long time.

Itachi got over his shock and started patting Sasuki's hair, murmuring thinks like 'It's alright.' He ignored the dampness starting to seep into his shirt.

Sasuki never let anyone see her cry when their parents died. He knew and she knew that he knew, but she never told him anyway.

"Nii-san," Sasuki said again. "I don't want to lose anyone ever again. Tou-san and Kaa-san are already gone. I don't want to lose you, too...or Naruto or Rin..."

"I'm sorry," another voice suddenly said.

Itachi turned around to see their new friend awake.

"I'm sorry for making you feel that way," the boy continued quietly. Then he stood up and did the unexpected. He lowered his head in a bow. Then he spoke again in a hushed tone only ninja would hear. "Please forgive me."

"I have lost someone close to me, too. I know how terrible it feels," he said. "I never really met my mother but my heart aches for her. The way Yashamaru-oji-san told me of her, I felt how much she loved me. And it hurts knowing that she's not here, especially when I see other children with their mothers. If it had been different, I would have appreciated very much that my mother would keep me away from the monster all the other mothers keep their children away from. That she'd want me safe."

"But I never knew her, and it hurts," Gaara kept his head low. "But it hurt more when Yashamaru-oji-san told me that everything has been a lie and I killed him. He was the only one who was there for me. The only one who I thought cared for me. And he went and broke that. Thinking about it now, I know that what he said last was the only lie,"

"Naruto made me realize that. That if I felt the warmth, the happiness, then it was real. And that what I felt with Naruto. He's real. Unlike all the cold stares everyone pointed at me in Suna. Not even the frigid way my father treated me or the way he kept my sibling away from me. Yashamaru-oji-san made me feel happy but he's gone now. I realized that no one there made me feel even warm there anymore,"

"I know it's selfish, but I wanted to feel the warmth that nobody in the place I used to call home can give me anymore. Naruto said that if I worked hard enough to earn their trusts, they'd start to warm up eventually. But I know that any hope of that for me is far too gone. I've killed there, men, women, children. But Naruto, h-he would give me another chance, I know that. And it's selfish but I wanted to take that chance,"

"And I want you to know that I'll do anything for you to forgive me, to accept me. Please, this is my only chance," Gaara shifted and then he was kneeling on the ground, his hands palm-down with his head resting on them. It was a total act of submission, of repentance. "Please."

Just as Itachi was about to tell him to get up, Sasuki spoke.

"I'm sorry, Gaara," she started, her eyes showed no sign of crying and back to being their being piercing and dark. "Even if it wasn't you who attacked, I would feel this way. But it was you. And it's hard for me to say this, but its harder to forgive what you've done."

"Sasuki," Itachi said. He knew forgiving was hard for his sister but Gaara had given up even his pride.

"It's okay, Itachi-san," Gaara interrupted. "I understand her reasons. But I will not stop until I get forgiveness."

Then, there was terrible silence and so much tension in the air. Gaara stayed in his place and Sasuki looked down upon him with no emotion.

"Sasuki, you should go to sleep," Itachi stated. "Gaara, stand up and have your rest. The sun has risen and in a few hours, we shall start moving again."

The two obeyed after a wile and lied down on their bags, with Gaara using Itachi's since he didn't have his own.

But Itachi knew the ones who were sleeping were only the ones who had slept through the confrontation. Naruto and Rin were snoring quietly in their own world of dreams.

It's alarming how sound Naruto slept, when Sasuki had just clearly stated that he seemed to have been dead.

Itachi stood watch until the last streaks of the gray of the night disappeared from the morning sky. And he hoped that the issue that had just unraveled itself moments ago found its own daybreak soon.

End of Flashback no. 2

Itachi sighed as Gaara happened to glance at Sasuki and an instant drop of sadness fell on the redhead's eyes.

Sasuki had started to talk again, making witty remarks. But she would only answer to something said not by Gaara.

Worse was, Naruto talked less randomly. He was holding onto Rin just as he had stated he would do so. And because of that, he was now saying 'Aniki' more often than anything else.

Itachi hoped Rin would start repeating after him soon because with all the attention his blond brother was giving her, Naruto was missing out on making everybody else's days brighter.

"Niki," Rin suddenly said, much to everybody's surprise.

"She said 'Aniki, dattebayo!" Naruto squealed after a second. "Rin said 'Aniki!"

"Yes, she did," Itachi smiled at the blond boy and ruffled his hair. "Now, would you let me hold her so that we may continue on our way?"

Naruto pouted but seemed to think about it.

"You know, Jiraiya-sama had already sent us our next mission scroll," Itachi told the blond. Itachi had sent one of his crows to report to the sannin of the events that happened in Suna and Jiraiya had replied with two scrolls. One contained their last mission that was deemed a failure and was swallowed by the frog that bought it as soon as Itachi finished reading it. The other was a new mission scroll. "We may get there on time and complete the said mission. But only if you let me hold Rin."

Finally, Naruto handed Rin, who was giggling and saying 'Niki' and 'Tachi' all the while, to the raven-haired ninja.

"Where are we going anyway?" Sasuki spoke for the first time in what seemed like eternity.

"We are supposed to look for a certain lake," Itachi answered. "Jiraiya-sama have said that rumors have spread lately about people mysteriously disappearing and reappearing after a few days of going to the said lake. He thinks that maybe one of his teammates might be behind said disappearances."

"Is it Orochimaru?" Naruto asked. "Kaa-san told me about him and he's horribly creepy, dattebayo!"

"It is only a speculation," Itachi answered.

"Who is Orochimaru?" Sasuki asked.

"One of the Three Legendary Sannin?" Gaara suddenly asked. "Are we looking for him? And for one of the other sannin, too?"

"Yes," Itachi answered the redheaded boy as he took a bottle of formula milk to feed another redhead. Rin had started whining loudly, reaching up and slapping Itachi. "Naruto must have told you about what we have taken to doing."

Gaara looked expectantly at Naruto who then scratched the back of his head with a nervous laugh.

"Who is Orochimaru?" Sasuki asked again. She looked a bit peeved at being ignored.

"Have I not told you his stories?" Itachi asked her with one of his thin brows raised.

Sasuki squinted her eyes, in a 'thinking' manner.

"Well," she started. "I might have forgotten."

"Foolish Sasuki," Itachi shook his head with a small laugh. "You should remember what I tell you. I tell you of them for they will be of use to you later on."

"I just forgot."

Itachi sighed. "Well..."

"Orochimaru is Jiraiya-sama's former friend and teammate. He defected from the village before you were born, just before Yondaime-sama became Hokage. He was a genius gone mad, having experimented on humans. Countless lives have been lost to his curiosities," Itachi said while dancing Rin asleep.

"Tou-san often worried about the snake's whereabouts because he caused trouble wherever he goes, dattebayo," Naruto said.

"Snake?" Sasuki asked even more confused.

"Orochimaru could summon snakes as well as Jiraiya-sama could summon frogs. Their other teammate I have told you about, Tsunade-hime could summon slugs," Itachi answered. "These are what made them known throughout the Elemental Nations in the Third Ninja War, Sasuki. Have you forgotten everything?"

"And Tou-san said rumors of Orochimaru changing skins were spreading. Like a snake, dattebayo," Naruto added. "He's creepy."

Sasuki looked the least interested in what they were saying but she was good at hiding her feelings. She refrained from blushing from embarrassment and mentally scolded herself for not remembering what Itachi had said.

"If he was so great and creepy," she started. "Why do we have to find him? Why don't Jiraiya-sama do that?"

"And that's what he's been doing," Naruto said innocently. "For almost ten years, dattebayo!"

"Jiraiya-sama can't watch everything everywhere," Itachi stated. "That's why we are working for him as spies."

Sasuki said no more as Itachi handed a sleeping Rin back to Naruto.

"I'm going into the village now to buy food," Itachi told them. "Let Rin sleep but prepare to leave as soon as I return. No fighting and be wary of strangers."

Itachi felt like a parent saying that. But then again, he's been saying that since he became a brother.

Itachi felt worried leaving the children alone. But he knew Gaara won't hurt anyone now. And they could protect each other.

He just had to buy the supplies alone. The village won't be suspicious of one ninja who looked older that he really was. But they would be if that one ninja brought three seven-year olds and a baby with him.

He decided to buy what they needed as fast as he could and return to the children promptly. And he did.

As soon as he returned, Naruto was still holding unto a sleeping Rin and Gaara and Sasuki had prepared on leaving.

Itachi put down the scroll he used to carry the food and took Rin from the blond. Naruto took the scroll and carried his own backpack.

Then, they were off.

"Naruto, you baka," Sasuki scolded after the blond who had just jumped into the lake. Naruto payed her no heed as he swam around the cool waters along the warm, grassy shore.

"We were supposed to spy, not swim," Sasuki added. With the sun setting low on the horizon, the lights it gave off gave off wonderful colors on the lake and Naruto looked like he was swimming in a kind of pool filled with colors. The dark outlines of the surrounding forest was reflected with more color by the sparkling waters and the overgrowth of shrubs and various water plants completed the portrait of a beautiful lake.

Itachi, holding the still-sleeping Rin, stood from behind Sasuki. He surveyed the scenery. Nothing seemed amiss but that was what ninja do. Leave nothing suspicious.

Gaara was about a foot away, feeling earth between his hands. The soil here was damp and that should make him think.

"Naruto get out from there," Sasuki said. "This lake is mysterious remember?"

Naruto suddenly stopped swimming as he looked at Sasuke with a bewildered expression on his face. His mouth moved but no sound came out.

Hah. Itachi has so many flashbacks its cray cray. :3

Anyway, I hope Gaara's too-fast joining was reasoned out in this chapter... Or was it?

Please review and tell me what you think :3