An Itachi Fanfiction [EDITING]

Sasuke's Answer

I released a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding.

Sasuke was going to fight for the village.

After everything—after years of chasing him, fighting him, begging him, watching him disappear further and further into his hatred—he had finally chosen something other than revenge.

Maybe not forgiveness.

Maybe not the Hidden Leaf.

But something.

And right now, something was enough.

I turned toward my father.

He was already looking at me.

I didn't say anything.

I didn't need to.

I simply gave him the most pleading look I could manage.

His lips twitched.

"You truly haven't changed."

I widened my eyes innocently.

"Dad."

He sighed dramatically.

"We shall accompany him."

My face immediately lit up.

"Really?"

"Yes."

Before I could stop myself, I threw my arms around him.

Orochimaru stiffened.

For someone who had experimented on people, attacked villages and terrified generations of shinobi, my father was surprisingly incapable of handling affection from his own daughter.

I pulled away with a grin.

"Thank you."

He stared at me for a moment before something softer entered his expression.

"Don't thank me yet."

But I couldn't help it.

For the first time in what felt like forever, things were actually going the way I'd hoped.

Sasuke was going to the battlefield.

My father was coming with us.

And maybe—just maybe—when this was all over, neither of them would disappear again.

I wasn't foolish enough to believe everything would suddenly become perfect.

But I allowed myself to hope.

Just a little.

We emerged from beneath the shrine—

—and Suigetsu immediately attempted to escape.

He didn't get far.

A red blur shot across my vision.

Thud.

Suigetsu hit the ground.

I stared.

Then looked up.

"Karin?"

She stood over him furiously.

"YOU!"

Suigetsu groaned into the dirt.

I walked over and crouched beside him.

"That's what you get for trying to run away, coward."

He lifted his head.