Walking a Mile

Sasuke was up before Naruto again, but it was far, far too early. Sasuke turned on the kitchen light to relieve the strain on his eyes. He packed everything dear to him, surprising little. Two sets of closes and a few Uchiha artifacts. That depressed him further, he had little to take, but at least it didn't look like he was planning on leaving. Not even Naruto would be able to tell he was leaving without planning to return.

He made breakfast, not knowing the next time he'd have a full meal. It was still over an hour before dawn.

The smell of food woke Naruto like a puppy. "Sasuke? Why are you up so early?"

"I've got to see Itachi. I need him to tell me the truth." Sasuke was lucky he didn't have any expressions to school.

"You're going to search for him? You don't know where he went. Do you?"

"No. But I'll find him."

"You're not leaving for good, are you?" Sasuke didn't respond. "Well I'm going with you."

Sasuke looked at him for a minute and nodded. "I want to leave before dawn."

Naruto sprang up and dressed. Sasuke cleaned up the kitchen, knowing he was never coming back, though Naruto might think it was because he planning on not coming back for a week or so.

Sasuke waited as Naruto strapped on the last of his pouches. Sasuke strapped his knapsack to his back. He was about to say something to Naruto when there was a knock on his door. He went over and opened it.

"Ready to go?" Kakashi asked. He was dressed in his old ANBU uniform, minus the animal mask.

"What?"

"I'm going with you. You'll need help finding Itachi."

Sasuke almost laughed. All three left, going over the wall rather than through the gates.

Kakashi summoned his hounds and sent them looking for Itachi. The trio walked silently until the hounds returned as the sky lightened. Pakkun led them to Itachi.

Itachi was sitting against a tree, his Akatsuki cloak pulled around him like a blanket, but he was awake and deep in thought. Sensing them, he stood and readied himself for battle. Even when he saw Sasuke and Naruto, not knowing which was his brother at the moment, he did not back down. Then he saw Kakashi.

"I'm not here as an enemy," Kakashi said.

"Me either," Naruto said.

Itachi's eyes settled on Sasuke. "Just tell me, were you lying to me that night. Tell me the truth."

"The Uchiha were planning a coup that would lead to another destructive war. I'd seen enough war by the time I was thirteen. I wanted to save the village and save you from the same horror I experienced. I left you alive because, even though I killed our clan for the safety of the village, your life was more precious to me than the village. I love you, I always have."

"I'm leaving with you."

"I didn't think there was any persuading you," Itachi said with a smile.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. "What, you're really leaving?"

"I knew there was no persuading you," Sasuke said with a smile, echoing his brother's words. "You wouldn't have let me leave."

"Damn right."

"I'm sorry Naruto. I'll never be happy in Konoha. All my life, since that night, I've had to choose between my past and my future. Every time I chose my past. And that's what I've chosen this time. You always look to your future, to being Hokage. I can't do that. My future is blank. Even if I did kill Itachi. Kakashi warned me, and I believe him, that revenge would leave me empty. It has left me empty. The village will never trust me or accept me. I have no future here. I'm going with Itachi."

"I don't want to lose you again."

Sasuke hugged Naruto. "I'll miss you. I think your association with me will only hurt your chances at becoming Hokage. And anything else. I love you, but I have to leave." They kissed one last time.

"And I'm coming too," Kakashi said. All three of them turned to look at him. "I'm still in love with you, Itachi. All my dearest friends are dead. Naruto and Sakura are being taught more by Tsunade and Jiraiya than by me. I've missed you so much, Itachi, despite what I've heard about you. Now knowing why you did it, I can't go back."

Itachi smiled at him a sad, tolerant smile Sasuke recognized from their childhood. Kakashi recognized it too. Sasuke felt vindicated, the brother he thought died the night he killed their clan wasn't dead.

"You'll have to tell us everything," Sasuke said to Itachi. Itachi nodded.

Sasuke turned to Naruto and spoke to stop him from declaring he was leaving with them too. "Naruto, you will become Hokage one day, I believe that. You have a lot of friends in Konoha. And Suna."

Naruto forced a smile. "Yeah. But if they think you left, they'll come looking for you."

"Tell them we're dead," Kakashi said. "Say Sasuke went after Itachi and you and I followed to help or stop him."

"And tell them I feared for your safety and kept you out of the fight with my Sharingan."

"Itachi killed me and Sasuke killed Itachi."

"Then I drop dead from my wounds, releasing you from my genjutsu."

"What about your bodies?"

Itachi contributed. "Say a man in an Akatsuki cloak that looked like a Venus flytrap came along. He eats corpses and usually does the clean up for our missions."

Sasuke took off his headband, he looked at it for a second, and threw it to the ground. He took out several kunai and threw them into the headband, ripping the fabric and scarring the metal. Kakashi and Itachi did the same. Kakashi and Itachi picked their's up and added a little blood. Sasuke did the same.

Sasuke took the three headbands and gave them to Naruto. "Take these with you."

"And this," Itachi threw him his Akatsuki robe. "I won't need it anymore. Not damaged since I took it off to fight more freely." Sasuke took the shuriken and kunai and threw a few of them into the ground and trees like a battle happened here.

"And assure them that Sasuke destroyed our Sharingans to keep them out of Akatsuki's hands," Kakashi said. "That will be the Hokage's greatest concern."

Naruto nodded.

"I guess the ultimate proof that I'm dead would be this," Kakashi touched his mask. Naruto and Sasuke held their breath and Itachi's eyes were dreamily fastened to Kakashi's face. Kakashi pulled the mask down to reveal a face almost as beautiful as Sasuke's. With a kunai, he cut it at the throat then pulled it free. He squeezed at few more drops of blood from his hand and soaked the frayed cloth. He threw it to Naruto as well.

"If you're taking mementoes . . ." Sasuke pulled the back of his collar up and cut a swatch from it that contained his Uchiha crest. He handed it to Naruto. "I could just use my Sharingan to make you believe that's what you really saw, but I don't want to do that to you."

"It might be better. I can't go looking for you in the underworld."

"I respect you too much. Goodbye, Naruto." Sasuke turned away.

"Sasuke."

Sasuke looked back and Naruto saw tears forming in his eyes. "Good luck."

"Goodbye."

Kakashi nodded to Naruto and the three of them disappeared. Naruto loitered for a few minutes then went back to Konoha.

—

Naruto was utterly disheartened as he walked toward the Konoha gates. Izumo and Kotetsu stood up, knowing Naruto hadn't gone by them that morning.

"Naruto?" Izumo prompted him.

"They're gone."

"What? Who's gone?"

"Sasuke and Kakashi. They're gone."

"What do you mean?"

"Itachi."

There was no rushing Naruto to go anywhere. Kotetsu hurried to report to the Hokage while Naruto made his way toward the Hokage mansion. Tsunade met him nearly half way.

"Naruto, what happened?"

"Sasuke was fed up with people treating him like a traitor and he just missed his chance at Itachi. Sasuke went after him. Kakashi and I followed. We found Itachi. Itachi killed Kakashi and nearly killed Sasuke, but Sasuke killed him. But Sasuke didn't survive. Sasuke used his Sharingan to keep me out of the fight, wanting to protect me because of the Kyubi. They're all dead." Naruto held up the bunched up Akatsuki robe, letting it open, and let the three headbands fall to the ground along with the ripped mask and Uchiha crest.

"Not Kakashi too."

Naruto narrowed his eyes; she didn't care about Sasuke. "It's your fault." Tsunade was taken back. Several people including shinobi gathered around. "It's all your fault," Naruto accused everyone around him. "If you hadn't treated Sasuke like a traitor, he wouldn't have run off again after Itachi and he and Kakashi would still be alive!"

The accusation really hit some of them.

It took Tsunade a moment to come back to herself. "Naruto, take us to the sight. We need to . . ."

"Dispose of the Sharingan?" Naruto asked bitterly. "Sasuke dealt with that. The last thing he did was . . . gouge out their eyes, disposing of the Sharingan. I think he sensed the other Akatsuki. He looked like a Venus flytrap. I saw him as I was getting the headbands. I ran, but he didn't come after me. I looked back. He was . . . eating them. I don't think there's anything left."

"Nevertheless, take us there."

Naruto led a group of shinobi to the sight of the 'battle.' He was surprised to see the ground scuffed, blood on the ground, and burns on the ground and trees. The trio had come back and created a more convincing battlefield. Naruto started to doubt that the lie was a lie. Naruto turned away and walked back to the village.

—

Ino and Shikamaru were shocked to have Sasuke die so soon after they helped him. The one thing that heartened Naruto was Neji's condolences and his apology for not trusting Sasuke.

Sakura was hit the hardest, still in love with the Uchiha no matter how many times he shot her down. She turned to the only person she could: Naruto. Misery loves company and though he was comforter her, he felt better doing it even though she would beat his chest for not being able to save Sasuke one minute then sob against him the next.

It wasn't like any shinobi dying on a normal mission, Kakashi's death, trying to save or support a student, hit everyone hard. Looking around at his funeral made Naruto angry. Not that Kakashi didn't deserve their grief, but Sasuke received no such funeral. Sasuke was right; he would never have been accepted here. He wished them well and wished he could follow. He took the six mementoes home with him. It would be a year before he recovered his native cheer again.