Letters between brothers:

Dear br-

Anik-

Itachi,

I am sending you this letter to inform you that Sakura yelled at me for 25 minutes about my broken wrist. I hope you are proud of yourself, truly. Me and my kicked shins both thank you for it. I have also been forced to host our monthly cooking lessons for Naruto, as punishment for my "reckless behavior", so if my apartment burns down and I become homeless, it'll be your fault!

I'm glad you agreed to keep in touch with me through those letters. Stay safe.

Signed,

Your bro-

Sasuke

Dear Sasuke,

I'm sorry to hear your friend yelled at you but I am glad to hear you are talking again. As for your apartment...thoughts and prayers. If Naruto is as horrible of a cook as Shisui was, I pray for your safety.

I am glad to hear from you. To express my apologies over the harm I have caused you, I sent you this scroll with a Raiton Jutsu from Kaminari no Kuni. It's not enough to make up for everything, but I hope it will aid you.

Love,

Itachi

Anik-

Itachi,

Training with Ibiki and Anko is hell. I honestly thought Sakura was exaggerating when she complained to us after the Chunin exam, but no. It is actual hell. Still it's going well. Me and my team went to Cha no Kuni on a mission and we fought this guy that stole the Raijin no Ken and we beat him. Tsunade let me keep it, so I guess I am learning kenjutsu now. Nidaime-sama is probably rolling in his grave right now.

Naruto and Sakura say hi. They are the only ones aside from Tsunade that know. It's not that I don't trust Kakashi but...Idk, I don't think we're close enough for me to tell him this. I know the two of you were close once, so what do you think?

Also Naruto keeps badgering me about the name of the crow you left with me, so please, for the love of the Sage tell me what it is so he can shut up!

Signed,

Sasuke

Dear Sasuke,

I am happy to hear from you. I hope your training goes well, even if it's tough I trust that you will excel. Kenjutsu is not my preferred manner of fighting, that was more Shisui's style, but I did learn it to join the ANBU. So if you want any tips, I will gladly provide them to you. I am glad to hear your mission in the Land of Tea went well, I hope you enjoyed some of their famous red berry tea. I remember trying some when I was there on one of my ANBU missions and it was delicious.

You are absolutely right, D- Nidaime-sama is definitely rolling in his grave right now.

Send my greetings to Naruto and Sakura as well. As about Kakashi, I suggest you do whatever makes you comfortable.

The crow's name is Benzaiten. It's female.

Love,

Itachi

Aniki!

Sakura's been taken. I don't know by who or why- Me and Naruto came to her apartment to find it destroyed! I don't know what happened. Have you heard anything? Did the Akatsuki do this to get close to Naruto? Nothing makes any sense...

We start the search in a few hours. Do you think you can lend us some of your crows to look for her?

Please Itachi, help us find her.

Signed,

Sasuke

Itachi,

We just came back from Sakura's funeral. I still can't believe she's gone...That I killed her. I...I don't know what to do.

Signed,

Sasuke

Itachi,

Naruto just left the village to train with Jiraiya. We talked and...it went pretty well. Naruto said he's not ready to forgive me, can't say I blame him, but he said he will one day.

So far I have neglected my training for a while but no more, I have to get stronger. Also Anko kicked down my door and dragged me to the Forest of Death for a "warm up". I swear that entire training ground is cursed. If I die via enourmous leech I hope you will avenge me by eradicating the place.

That's all I have to say for now, I'll send another letter soon. I plan to go through the clan archives and look for some new jutsus. Do you want me to send you some scrolls?

Signed,

Sasuke

Dear Sasuke,

I am happy to hear you and Naruto are working to repair your relationship. Bonds with the village is what makes us strong, I wish me and our clan could have learned this lesson before it was too late.

I hope your training with Anko is going well and I am happy to hear she isn't holding what happened against you. Of course I will avenge you Sasuke, if anything ever happens to you, I will burn Hi no Kuni to the ground. But I trust your skills will be able to keep you safe from the leeches.

Thank you for the offer, by my current skill set is enough that I can manage.

Love,

Itachi

Itachi,

I just sent you a scroll containing a powerful jutsu that apparently Madara was fond of. "I can manage" my ass, take the damn scroll and learn something to protect yourself with. I don't trust any of your Akatsuki buddies as far as I can throw them and I definitely don't trust them to protect you.

Signed,

Sasuke

Dear Sasuke,

Thank you. See you soon.

Love,

Itachi

Itachi,

Sorry for freaking out. You were just trying to help train me and I lashed out at you. The sight of your Mangekyō shouldn't bother me anymore, I know the truth, I know why you did it. I just...Honestly I don't know what came over me. Sorry for wasting your time.

Signed,

Sasuke

Dear Sasuke,

Never, and I mean NEVER. Apologise for something like this again. It is I who should be sorry for doing this to you. Your reaction was completely normal considering what I had done. There isn't enough ink and paper in the world for me to properly write my apologies to you on. What happened 4 days ago is no one's fault but my own. Please do not blame yourself otouto.

Love,

Itachi

Aniki!

I just made it to Chūnin! I'm sure you heard there was a Chūnin Exam held in Suna this year. I enrolled myself and I got placed on a team with one genin from the year above me and one that is a rookie. The guy a year above me is named Akemi Higurashi, and he's a dick. We almost lost in the second round because this guy just HAD to pick a fight with every genin team we came across. I hate him. Sakura had horrible taste in men. The rookie was nice though, his name's Kosei Yūhi and he's Kurenai-sensei's cousin or something. He also got promoted with me.

Akemi didn't though and I hope he takes this as a hint to quit.

Neji and Shikamaru ended up dragging me to suffer with them through the party all the other rookies threw to celebrate our promotion. Ino still hates me. It sucked.

Signed,

Sasuke

Dear Sasuke,

Congratulations on becoming Chūnin. I am incredibly proud of you, I always knew you will become an amazing ninja. I know our parents would have been proud too. I have sent a few crows with scrolls containing a few gifts for you, I hope they will aid you. Truly, I do not think I can properly express how proud I am of you. Congratulations Sasuke, you deserved it.

Regarding what you told me about your teammates...I unfortunately don't have any stories to share regarding my exam, but I remember as a genin, my teammate Shinko once managed to accidentally send all of our supplies down a stream during a C-rank. So I understand your grievances. Regardless, the fact that you passed even with one of your teammates actively working against you just proves how amazing you are. Once again, congratulations.

I'm sorry to hear you did not enjoy the party, but at least you got to spend some time with your friends.

I cannot wait to hear about your first mission as a Chūnin.

With love and pride,

Itachi

Aniki,

What the fuck am I supposed to do with 90 jutsu scrolls? Where the fuck did you even find all of these? Where did you keep them? How...THAT IS TOO MANY. When you said "a few gifts" I was expecting...I don't know what I was expecting actually but it wasn't this. Ninety scrolls...what the fuck Itachi?

Still, I appreciate them a lot, especially the kenjutsu ones. And, I suppose the recipe for the tomato soup was nice too. Thank you Itachi.

Signed,

Sasuke

Letters between cousins:

Kari-chan!

Guess who's in the Hi no Kuni capital! That's right, me and Ero-sennin. It's pretty cool I guess, it's a lot smaller than Konoha but still cool. There are a lot more civilians around but guess who we found at our inn? Guy-sensei! He's returning home from a solo mission. He didn't tell me what it was about though, which sucks. We went to eat at this stupid fancy restaurant that I hated. They didn't serve ramen! Can you believe it? I feel like that should be a crime...I think the only reason we went there was for Pervy Sage to flirt with the owner. They even went to the back to...honestly I don't want to know why.

But anyways, now I'm waiting for him to return from one of his "research sprees" so we can finally go and train! We worked a bit on the rasengan on the way, but not so much. So I'm super excited to finally do something! Also, I got you a souvenir from here, the lady that sold it to me said it's supposed to bring good luck and protection. I think she called it an omamori or something. I got you a red one, like your hair! I promise to get you more stuff from the next village we stop in.

But yeah, that's all I have to say for now. I'll write you again soon, Karin! Hope you write me back too...

Signed,

Naruto, Future Hokage, dattebayo!

My dear ball of sunshine of a cousin,

Hello! It's good to hear from you! I'm happy to hear you reached Ōujisama safely. I was a bit worried for you when I heard there were bandits near Nidaime Valley, but it seems you missed them. Did you know, that valley is where the Nidaime Tsuchikage, Mū and the Nidaime Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki killed each other? I learned last week from Tsunade-sama. Oh, I guess I didn't tell you, I decided to become an apprentice under Tsunade-sama. It's just...I feel like I could have done more to support you when Sakura went missing, maybe if I was stronger I could have joined you and Sasuke on your search for her and help...So I decided, I will also get stronger so I can support your dream and make sure no one else dies.

So yeah...Now I'm Tsunade-sama's apprentice, with Ino and Neji actually. Apparently Sakura was teaching him the basics of medical ninjutsu just like she was teaching Ino. He's actually doing a lot better than us, to be honest. Tsunade-sama said that if he keeps this up, he might be allowed to heal small cuts soon instead of fish. I'm happy for him.

That's all I have to say for now. I'm meeting with the girls for a training session later, I'll tell you how it goes in my next letter.

Love,

Karin, medic-in-training.

Kari-chan!

We just reached Yuki no Kuni. Remember, I told you how Team 7 took a mission here and we helped a princess regain her throne. Jiraiya said we can visit the capital soon and I hope I get to see Yukie again. Right now we are in a village, the healer took some pity on us and let us sleep at her house, since there's no inn. Apparently their village doesn't get many visitors because of the cold. I also got to help her pick some herbs from the forest, which was neat. Did you know marigold was good for infections?

Also, about your last letter, I talked with Ero-sennin and he agreed to send Tenten books and instructions about sealing. He also said she should ask Kaka-sensei of all people for help. Apparently he knows seals? Wild. He said she should just ask Katsuyu to send her questions directly to him, so that I won't have to play messenger between them, but I don't mind! I like Tenten. Still, I guess this would be easier for her.

Oh, yeah! I have more gifts for you. While we were in Shimo no Kuni we passed this weapon store that sold tessens. You said we share a Wind Affinity so I though this might be useful for you. I got you some with a sunset painted on. And the fabric is chakra resistant which means you don't have to change it. I hope you like it.

That's all I have to say for now, I'll write you again when we reach Kazahana.

Signed,

Naruto, Future Hokage, dattebayo!

My lovely cousin,

I'm glad to hear you reached the Land of Snow safely. It's a good thing you decided to go there during spring, that way I can be sure a blizzard won't catch you. I love the pair of tessen you sent me, I'll make sure to learn how to use them. The sunset painted on them is beautiful. Also, tell Jiraiya he doesn't have to worry about Tenten, I can show her the basics of sealing and we can learn the more advanced techniques together. I'm very lucky to still have my mother's journal. Her writings will aid us for now and I'm sure whatever Jiraiya sends will be helpful too.

Besides, Tsunade-sama said she plans a small excursion to the ruins of Uzushio soon, who knows, maybe we'll find some left behind scrolls that survived. Speaking of, have I told you I'm gonna shadow her tomorrow at the hospital? She has 2 brain surgeries she has to do and me and Ino are tagging along. Neji is unfortunately on a mission, so he had to miss it. I'm very excited. We only shadowed Shizune-senpai until now and never on something as major as a surgery. I hope I can learn a lot.

Our friends say hi and Sasuke asked me to give you a letter from him. But for now, that will be all. Stay safe.

Love,

Karin, medic-in-training.

Kari-chan!

We're in Dōkutsu no kuni, in Takigakure to be exact. I swear, this place is as shitty as Mizu no Kuni, it's full of mist and rain. You can barely see. The only good thing here is their ramen shop. It's almost as good as old man Teuchi's. Ero-sennin said we're not staying here for too long though, so at least there's that. It sucks here Karin, we can't even train because of the pouring rain. The dude at the inn said it always gets like this in autumn, I wish we visited during summer.

Also, how are things with Sasuke? I can't believe you two are dating. Like, seriously? Sasuke? Out of all of the people in Konoha, you pick him? You can do better than this Karin, come on. Still, I hope it goes better for you than the one with that chick, Tomone. But if he hurts you, I reserve the right to break his legs. That is, unless Ino doesn't get to him first.

But, more importantly, I have more gifts! Takigakure makes really pretty jewelry, y'know? Cuz there's a bunch of people here with Crystal Release, a whole clan of them actually and many of them that aren't ninjas use it to make jewelry. So I got you some earrings, you said you like purple so I made sure to pick a purple gem.

I hope you like them.

Signed,

Naruto, Future Hokage, dattebayo!

My moron of a cousin,

Thank you for the earrings, they are lovely. I will make sure to wear them on a date with Sasuke, because I am not breaking up with him, no matter what you and Ino say. We are happy together and that's all that should matter. I do not care what the two of you have to say on the matter so drop it.

I'm sorry to hear it rains so much in the Land of Caves, but I'm sure you two will figure something out. Maybe find one of those caverns the country is named after, I'm sure you can train there...maybe. Things are fine in Konoha, Neji took his Iryō-nin exam and passed! Me and Ino are taking ours soon too. Also, she and Hinata broke up unfortunately, but they decided to remain friends and that's all that matters in the end. I also think Neji and Tenten are dating, but you didn't hear it from me.

Tomorrow I have a training session with Guy-sensei's team for the Chūnin Exams. Wish me luck.

Love,

Karin, medic-in-training.

Naruto, my cousin, my best friend, my savior from Kusa, my only family, light of my life,

Sasuke and I broke up. Now before you turn into a vortex of rage and death and run to Konoha to pummel him, I want you to know, I broke up with him. So if anything, I broke his heart. He didn't do anything to hurt me, no he did not cheat, I just...fell out of love I guess. It was nice while it lasted I guess but...we just weren't meant to be. So please don't make a big deal out of this, do not send him threats via toads, just...let it be. I'm a big girl and I can handle myself, ok? Ok. Good, subject over.

I'm going to Kiri soon as part of the Diplomatic Corps. Our alliance with the Godaime Mizukage is shaky at best, so Tsunade-sama is sending me with another diplomatic party as a show of trust. Aside from negotiations I'm also supposed to take a look at their hospitals and see how I can improve them. I hear a few delegates from Suna are also coming so this might become a 3 part alliance.

I'll tell you how it goes and hopefully if I find that friend of yours Haku, I can tell him hello for you.

Love,

Karin, official Iryō-nin

Kari-chan!

Because you asked me so nicely, I promise not to break every bone in Sasuke's body and then feed the remains of his corpse to Kaka-sensei's dogs. Wow, Sakura-chan had a bigger influence on me than I thought. Anyways, I...won't lie and say I'm sad you two broke up...because you know I'm not. Like, teme is one of my closest friends, but you could have done better than that. And it seems you realized it too, so good for you.

Oh, yea, we're in Tane no Kuni right now, pretty close to Kusa actually. Pervy Sage said we're not going in though. We're so close to Konoha though, I hope we I get to come home now. It's been what? Almost three years since I left? I miss you. I'm glad I get to talk to you and Sasuke through letters but I want to see you and give you a hug! And maybe punch Sasuke. But mostly I just miss home. I want to see the new apartment you bought for us and eat some Ichiraku. I also want to see everyone else, like Sasuke, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Kaka-sensei, Iruka-sensei and Granny Tsunade! I really miss home.

I have a new gift for you though. While we were in Tsuchi no Kuni we found this place that sold a bunch of old books and they had a cookbook, about Uzu recipes! I know how sad you are that you couldn't take your mom's cookbook when you came to the Leaf and I know this won't replace it but...I hope you still like it.

Signed,

Naruto, Future Hokage, dattebayo!

Letter to the Wind:

My boys,

Hello, I am writing you a letter that you will never receive. Danzo put me on his research team and I found some spare paper around so I decided to write this. How are you? Are you eating well? Are you still training? I know Naruto left the village a year ago, but what about you Sasuke? Are you still talking to Itachi? Did the two of you meet again? I miss you, both of you. I wish I could come home, but I can't. I hate it, being so close yet so far from you. I wish this never happened. I hope Tsunade doesn't blame herself, I hope you two don't blame yourselves.

I wish I could see you again.

With all the love in the world, your friend,

Sakura

My boys,

Hello, it's me again. I heard Sasuke made it to Chūnin. Congratulations! I'm very proud of you. I saw the cenotaph shishō made to honor your clan. You weren't very subtle with the crow design, you know. Then again, I guess only Team 7 would know the true meaning of it. What about you, Naruto? How's traveling? I remember the stories you told me about the places you visited in my past life. Did you go through the same experiences? Or did you get into any new mischief? Do you miss home? I know I do.

Danzo is sending me to Takigakure soon, maybe we'll cross paths, though I doubt it. Who knows where you are in the world right now...

With all the love in the world, your friend,

Sakura

My boys,

Hello, I heard Naruto made it home. I'm so happy for you! I bet you missed it. Did you go eat ramen first or did you go see Karin first? Have you seen any of our other friends? Akamaru has gotten so big! I bet Sasuke's new look surprised you, I know it surprised me when I saw his file.

What about you, Sasuke? Are you happy to see Naruto? I bet you are but you just won't admit it! Though I know for a fact you are holding your Chūnin rank over his head. I know you, don't bother lying to me.

I hope you two are happy and I hope you stay safe.

I miss you.

With all the love in the world, your friend,

Sakura

...

Sakura sent a small Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu at the letter and watched as the ashes scattered to the wind. Once it was gone, she returned to the ROOT hideout.

(A\N: Ok, so before any hardcore shippers come for my head. The endgame is still Sasusaku, I just thought, as teenagers, it made sense for them to date around for a bit. That's it. So put those pitchforks down.

Also, I have an announcement to make. I will start a new fic called Stream of Past - Extra, where I will put one-shots regarding things that happened off-screen. Though, do note, that one will update even less frequently than this one. But if you want to see some things that happened in between chapter, than you can look forward to that! It's also a good way for me to add some content that I unfortunately had to cut due to consistency issues.)