DISCLAIMER: No matter how much I want it, I do not own Naruto. I am still only borrowing the characters and only killing off a few…I promise to return them in good condition – well, maybe slightly battered!

AN:

At last we come back to the first chapter in a full circle. Not a lot of new things happen because this is more like a recap - don't be angry with me please, as I promise I will release the next chapter on Friday (And it's a bit twisted! Yay!). Thank you to everyone for putting up with the back story. Some things just needed to be said before we got to the present. Sai and Sasuke are thirteen and Naruto is twelve (and a half!). Everything will be the present from here on - that means no more Omakes.

Chapter Thirteen:

Full Circle

I am clearly broken

And no one knows what to do

Pieces of the puzzle don't fit,

So, I pound them into you

~Korn~

~Kakashi & Ayame~

It was still pretty early in the evening when Kakashi completed his mission and returned home. Ayame was in the living room sipping on a steaming mug of tea when he wearily walked in. His tension eased automatically when he saw her happy face. She practically flew across the room with two letters in hand.

"Open them. I want to know how he's doing." She exclaimed, waving the papers.

Kakashi smiled at her enthusiasm and dropped his bags. He sat down on the couch, pulled her down next to him and chided, "Why didn't you just read them earlier when they came?"

"Because they're not addressed to me this time; only you."

"What?" That was unusual. The copy-nin flipped the envelopes over to see that Ayame was right. The letters from Jiraiya and Naruto were addressed to him only. He opened the one from Naruto first, only for his confusion to increase.

It was a list; a list of thirty-two names. He absentmindedly handed it to Ayame, opened the one from Jiraiya, and scanned it.

Ayame felt his body stiffen and knew in an instant that something was wrong. "What is it?" she fearfully asked. "Is Naruto alright? Are Sai and Sasuke okay?"

"Nothing," he casually assured her. "There is nothing wrong. The boys are all safe and sound and coming home."

"You're lying to me."

He gave her a reassuring smile and said, "I would never lie to you."

Ayame repressed a snort. She pulled him close, kissed him gently, and whispered in his ear, "Liar." She pulled back and looked him in the eye. "You and I both know that you would lie if you had too; you're a shinobi, and a damned fine one at that."

He sighed and patted her in that maddening way – as if she were a fragile piece of glass. "I just didn't want you to worry."

Ayame pushed his hand away and stood up in front of him. "I may be a civilian, but I'm strong too." She pointed her finger and stabbed him in the chest with it. "It's too late if you don't want me to worry because now I am. If something happened to my little Naruto, I want to know."

Kakashi made her sit back down and told her the truth; a much edited version of it anyways. Although she knew he was still not telling her everything, she said nothing. What he told her was bad enough. She looked at the list in her hand. "I thought I recognized some of these names…they're from his past letters. They're people who lived in Waterfall."

He took the paper and looked at it closer. Next to each name in tiny, barely legible characters was the cause of death. Burned and stabbed were next to most names, however, one said Rasengan.

He folded the letter and put it in his pocket before Ayame could see it again. Kakashi barely repressed a sigh, trying not to further worry Ayame. "My poor little puppy," he thought, "No one ever deserves to have their innocence ripped away like that."

~~O~~

Very late that same night, a light flickered on. A shadow in the window could be seen slowly moving back and forth in a restless manner. The door opened and Ayame entered the room. Kakashi stilled his aimless movements. "I couldn't sleep. I got lost in my thoughts." He turned and looked at her; remorse clear and evident on his face. "What was I thinking?" he asked her.

"You were thinking that it was a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him and that it was time for you to let go." She pointed to the letter crumpled in his hand and added, "He'll be alright in time. You must believe that."

Kakashi didn't answer. He just gave a small shrug and looked out the window.

Although she knew that gesture meant that he didn't want to talk about it, she pressed on anyways to get him to express himself. "He's twelve; a genin, and adult by shinobi standards."

"He's twelve; a child by a father's standards. He is feeling such horrible guilt and sadness," he snapped harshly. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "It's just…just…"

"Waterfall…" they said at the same time.

She strode over to him and took his hand. "I know how much you love him Kakashi, but there is nothing we can do until he comes home. We will help him heal."

~Mikoto & Itachi~

The highlight of Mikoto Uchiha's life was not a date with the man she had been seeing for the past year as most would assume; although that did score pretty high. It was not seeing her students at the academy achieve success, which again ranked pretty high in her book. The highlight of Mikoto Uchiha's life was when a letter arrived from Sasuke.

This week was no different. She stopped by Ichiraku on her way home to get the latest one. It had been several weeks since he had written last and she missed her youngest son terribly.

The last correspondence from him had certainly kept her amused. Sasuke described Naruto's transvestite toad summons in such excruciating detail that she could almost see it. She could almost feel its long sticky tongue wrap around her and hear it flirt with her. Her boy was very thorough.

Mikoto serenely greeted Teuchi and inquired about her mail. Itachi had already picked it up. She hurried home.

Finding the letter on the table in the kitchen, she made a cup of tea to drink while she read it. Within a few minutes, she became baffled then angry.

~~O~~

Itachi sighed when he heard his mother calling him. Although he knew it was foolish to believe anything would get past his mother, he had held hope she would be content with the letter. He placed the letters in his pocket and slowly strolled into the kitchen where Mikoto sat fuming.

"Do you know what's going on?" she asked rhetorically. She held out the letter and scowled at Itachi. "This may be Sasuke's handwriting, but it doesn't have his voice. I know my son."

"What's wrong with it?" he asked blandly.

She gave him an incredulous look. "I know you too son. Something very bad must have happened for you to do something ridiculous like this. The Sasuke I knew is strong willed, decisive, and confidant. He can be conservative and inflexible at times, yes, but this paper has none of him in it. You maybe his brother and very close to him as well, but you aren't close enough to truly impersonate him."

"Hn."

"Now, where's the actual letter?"

Itachi sighed and reluctantly handed the crumpled letters over. He should have figured his little ruse wouldn't last. "I'm sorry mother," Itachi said sincerely. "I did not want you to worry."

Her eyes flashed and mouth tightened. She scowled at her son. "I was a jonin before I retired, Itachi Uchiha – never forget that…"

"Yes mother."

"They don't just give that rank to anyone, regardless if they have the Sharingan or not. I don't need you to protect me."

"No mother.

"I am not weak."

"Yes mother."

"I don't need you to protect me from being a mother, understand?"

"Absolutely."

~~O~~

That night, Mikoto sat reading the letter again. Sensing the silent approach of her eldest son, she wiped the tears away and tried to stuff the letter in her pocket. Itachi's hand covered hers gently and withdrew the letter.

"This will not break him," he said, opening the letter and nodding towards it.

"I can't help but feel that it's tearing him apart. I should be with him. No child should go through any of that, much less without his mother."

Itachi sat down next to Mikoto, took her hand and caressed it. "You are with him mother. You gave him the Will of Fire and it burns brightly from within."

She gave her son a shrewd glance. "I know this is hurting you just as much as it is him, my son, and yet you comfort me. Thank you." Softly, she added, "I know that Jiraiya didn't purposely place the children in such a dangerous situation, but I still feel such anger towards him."

Itachi was silent as he carefully chose his words. "Sasuke and the other two are shinobi now, not children. You know better than anyone what that kind of life entails. Jiraiya claimed that those rogue ninja were at least S rank and yet they survived. Sasuke survived against Orochimaru. That is quite a feat. He is no longer my foolish little brother. He is my comrade."

Although she knew Itachi was right, her heart still shouted, "He's my child!"

"Go back to sleep mother," said Itachi softly, "He will arrive soon. Sasuke would not wish to see you in this state."

Mikoto wiped her face and nodded.

~Ibiki & Anko~

Anko was away when an Anbu operative delivered Sai's letter to Ibiki. He was about to begin an interrogation at the time. He felt the weight of it in his hands and knew it was going to be another long and informative one. He debated whether or not to read it now or at his leisure later.

Sai's letters always left him in such a mellow mood; not that anybody could tell, as he always looked stern and forbidding. Still…this prisoner was going to take a lot of patience. "I'll let him wait awhile," he mused, "I'll make him sweat a bit more." He strolled back into his office, removed his black leather trench coat, sat down at his desk, and opened the correspondence.

Ibiki wore an easy, carefree look that would have shocked anyone at Anbu headquarters, had they seen it. It swiftly changed…hard…murderous… brutal… remorseless…

That was the look everyone knew well. That was the terrifying visage that gave the man his reputation. He carefully folded the paper, placed it back in the envelope, and put it into his desk for safekeeping. He felt the anger rise within him and knew what he needed to do. He needed to unleash it before he exploded…and luckily he had just the thing.

He looked neither right nor left, but straight ahead while he marched down into the deepest, darkest depths of the Anbu building to the room where the prisoner was waiting. He waved away the guards and said, "So, I hear you have nothing to say."

The man spat at the scarred shinobi and said nothing.

Ibiki smiled. "Oh good," he said serenely as he began to remove his clothes. "I was hoping that would be the case." Catching the look in the man's eyes, he added, "I wouldn't worry about this. You will not be receiving that kind of pleasure today. My wife gets a bit irritated when I get blood all over my clothes. She refuses to clean them, you know." He sighed, "I can't tell you how many times I've had to buy new ones because of the stains, but what's a man to do?"

"For starters, you could release me."

"We both know that's not possible." Ibiki folded his clothes neatly and placed them on a chair in the corner of the room then walked over to a table covered in a large sheet. He threw it off and inspected the gleaming metal instruments. Finally, he picked up the thumbscrew and fingered the sharp, pointed end with a blank look.

"Lets see how long it takes until you scream for me, shall we?"

~~O~~

Much later, the door silently opened to a grisly scene. Ibiki stood in the corner of the room calmly cleaning his stained hands. Anko skirted the lump of flesh on the floor and walked up to her husband. She raised her brows at him and asked, "Why didn't you let me play? What's going on with you?"

"What do you mean," he asked, trying to avoid her eyes.

She pointed to the captive who still miraculously alive. "Don't give me that Morino. You have always been a bit more subtle than that. You've always preferred to destroy a man from the inside. So let me repeat myself, what's going on with you?" She ran her finger from his blood spattered neck down his torso and sucked on it.

"It's what I do, Anko. You know that."

"No, that's what I do."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really?" she asked in a sultry voice. Her hands moved lower and she cupped the only soft part on his body and squeezed. "Liar," she whispered.

"I…ah…not so rough…I…what was I saying?" Ibiki's mouth went dry and his mind completely blank.

"You were telling me the truth."

Ibiki Morino had once suffered unimaginable pain and suffering by torture. He never told one secret. He endured. But, as Anko stroked him, he blurted out, "I just didn't want you to worry."

"Do I look delicate to you?!" Her hand tightened. Ibiki moaned.

"Yes…no…"

Sweat beaded along his upper lip as she stoked the fire within him. Two can play that game. He grabbed her arms and roughly spun her over to the table. His arm swept the instruments to the floor before he shoved her down on it and covered her body with his much larger one. "Why dare question me. I am in charge in this room, not you," he hissed.

She laughed hard as she pushed them off the table and landed on top of him. "And when are you going to learn that I am always in charge, Morino?"

The prisoner on the floor moaned out, "Please, for the love of Kami, I'm bleeding out here. You said I could get a medic."

"Shut up you," snarled Anko, "We're busy here." She threw the man a towel to staunch the bleeding, stared into Ibiki's eyes, and asked, "Aren't we?"

"Very busy…"

~~O~~

As Anko was putting her clothes back on she asked, "So what happened that you thought would make me upset Ibiki? You might as well tell me the truth because I won't let up otherwise."

"I'll tell you when we get home."

"Good boy," she purred. "Now go get all that blood cleaned off."

"Have you looked at yourself? You're now covered too."

She looked down and frowned. "I'm never going to get all that off. You owe me a new coat."

"It was worth it."

~~O~~

Later that night, a crumpled letter was fisted in Anko's hand. "I'm going to kill that bastard! How dare he expose my angel to this?"

"Anko, listen to yourself," began the man patiently, "The Sannin did nothing wrong. It wasn't his fault."

"Nothing wrong…?" she asked sarcastically.

"Nothing wrong…!" she shouted.

Anko growled, "He shouldn't have been anywhere near Waterfall. They should have come straight home after the islands."

Ibiki tried to placate her again, "Waterfall is a peaceful place. How could he have possibly known?" Anko's eye twitched dangerously which caused Ibiki to quickly back up. "Well, you know…it used to be," he said defensively.

"All I have to say is that my little angel had better be okay or Jiraiya is a dead man."

"Yes," agreed Ibiki with a sadistic smile. He vividly remembered the way Sai was when he first adopted him. There was no way he wanted to see the boy in that state ever again. He rubbed his hands together and said gravely, "And I'll help."

~Jiraiya~

Across the Land of Fire, the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya, the Great Toad Sage, awoke with a start. He wiped the pouring sweat from his brow and shakily got to his feet. He paced around the room in confusion, trying to recall what had scared him so badly. With no recollections of any nightmares, he shrugged and decided to check on the boys before going back to sleep.

~~O~~

Naruto began to jerk in his sleep. His dreams still pursued him with a relentless intensity that petrified him. He couldn't get the betrayed, accusing faces to stop haunting him. They went with him everywhere, day and night.

"I heard you let Suien go."

"I think he learned not to mess with us…"

"We totally kicked his ass!"

"Come on Aho, bad decisions make for really good stories…"

"So, are you done yelling at us yet, Pervy Sage? We're sorry we didn't stay out of the way like good little boys and joined in the fight instead…"

"I see Suien's information was correct."

Sai curled up in a tight ball. A small whimper escaped his lips as that same dream began to start anew. The same dream he had every night.

"I heard you let Suien go."

"Should we not go after him? He might still be alive..."

"We made him our female with a malicious or spiteful attitude."

"Should we not stay and protect the villagers?"

"I can't help but think this is a bad decision…"

"I see Suien's information was correct."

A single tear streamed down from the corner of Sasuke's eye as his nightmare slowly devoured him again. No matter how many times Jiraiya told them all that they were not at fault; he saw the devastation again and again. He wasn't strong enough to protect them.

"I heard you let Suien go."

"Well, he probably died…"

"Jiraiya is a Sannin; there is no way we will leave him. I want to join in his fight!"

"I see Suien's information was correct."

AN:

Again, my thanks to everyone that has favorited/followed/reviewed my latest chapter, lets just say that ya'll inspire me to keep going and I appreciate it. And a huge shout out to my beta COOKIEMONSTER77. You are absolutely brilliant, talented, gifted, accomplished, and smart! There are many more adjectives that describe your genius…too many to list!

As I said before, we are now in the present. It is six months past the academy graduation - so you probably know what that means - chunin exam time. We are at the point of the first chapter and the boys are on their way home. Two years have passed and although the boys are only genin, but I believe they are much better than a normal one. How much you ask – why, you'll just have to wait and see!

dzk87 - No offense taken! I totally agree with you on all points - I just hate how she is made to look so weak and useless...and the crying - don't even get me started! These girls are supposed to be ninja, not susie-homemakers. That always bothered me, that they weren't a bit tougher. I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I was in Shippuden when she kicked Sasor's butt! One word...AWESOME! That's my Sakura - brave, focused, and intense. The same goes for Hinata and Ino as well.

Ja Ne

AZFAERYDUST