Love never dies

Chapter 14

When they left, Naruto slumped in her seat and pulled off her face mask. "That was so scary." Naruto whispered as Itachi gathered her into his arms, she breathed in his scent, feeling a little tension leaving her. "Sasuke looked so frightened when I said Naruto was dead." Naruto said quietly to Itachi.
"Maybe otouto doesn't want the bond to be broken, it had been fragile but both of you knew that it was a bond never to be broken. He had been so angry at me that whoever else mentioned me as a good person would be automatically dubbed a traitor." Itachi mumbled into Naruto's hair. Naruto hummed in agreement, she almost 'hn'ed like what the Uchihas usually does but she caught herself in time. Itachi left a while later because he had something to do, Naruto reassured him that she would be fine and she can protect herself as she has sent the other members to rest. Many ninjas came and went to hand in a report before they just backed out the room quietly after they have received their pay.
It was almost dinner time and the sunset was just sitting on the horizon, Naruto was just gonna finish up her paperwork when she heard the knocking on her door. She tensed slightly at the familiar chakra signature she felt. "Come in." Naruto said, pulling her hood up to shade her face. The door opened quietly and a raven stepped in before shutting the door behind himself. "What can I do for you?" Naruto asked as she watched Sasuke bow in respect and she jumped up to stop him from kneeling. "Do not kneel, I am not God therefore there is no point in kneeling." Naruto said as she gripped his arm. "Come, sit down. I will be done in a few minutes, we can talk outside later."
Naruto quickly finished up the remaining paper work and looked over to see Sasuke still waiting patiently, not at all looking annoyed. He in fact looked kinda sad, not that his face betrayed anything but his eyes did. Naruto dug out a cloak and held it out to Sasuke who gave her a look of confusion but he wasn't sure if it was seen as he couldn't see the face of whoever that was under the hood except for knowing the fact now that the person has amazing looking lips and a nice face shape. "Put it on, you wouldn't want your friends questioning why you were chatting to an Uzu nin do you?" Sasuke shot her a grateful look as he took the cloak and swung it over himself, securing the hood over his head. Naruto gestured for Sasuke to follow her and she led him out to the streets of Uzu and into a dango shop. It was something to eat before dinner and neither wanted to become too full that they couldn't eat dinner.
"What is troubling you?" Sasuke jerked, looking up and peering behind the hood towards the still unidentifiable nin. "Your face might not tell a story but your eyes never lie. I can see you are upset and something is bothering you. Does it have anything to do with why you have sudden came to see me?" Sasuke was silent for a moment as he just took a sip of his tea gingerly. Naruto could see his hands trembling and she was dying to just comfort him.
"Yes... I wish to know more about... About Naruto."
"Why may I ask? And what made you think I would know anymore than I have told you?" Sasuke chewed on his lips and he took a deep breath to keep his emotions in check. He didn't want to burst out crying in front of this stranger, especially not in public. "I-I really miss him... I wish that I could rewind time so that I could change the way he was being treated, even if I can't rewind that far... Maybe just maybe I might have been able to prevent that banishment and prevented his death. It was all my fault. I wanna know more about him so I have some more memories of him left.... I think you would have more because... Because you knew more than we did." Sasuke whispered, his head bowing slightly in hopes that his face would be obscured just in case he cried. His hands were trembling just thinking about Naruto. Sasuke jerked when he felt a hand on his. Long elegant fingers rested on his, gripping his hand firmly as if for reassurance. "I can't believe you couldn't sense my chakra signature... Teme." Sasuke's head snapped up so hard and so fast she was surprise it hasn't broken off his neck. Naruto raised her head and pulled the hood back a little to show a bit more of her feature but not completely that everyone could see her. "Na-Naruto?" Sasuke whispered the name in shock.
"Isn't that Naruto? What's she doing with some random ninja and holding his hand, un? Itachi is sitting beside us so that can't be Itachi un!" Deidara asked, looking at the rest of the group sitting just two tables away. Naruto probably already sensed them but she ignored them. "That's Sasuke. They are now trying to reignite the bond that has dimmed but never broken." Itachi said, eating his stick of dango.
Sasuke reached a shaky hand towards Naruto's face to trace her features. "You look so different..."
"I look more like a girl?"
"Yeah."
"Probably because I have been one my whole life?" Naruto suggested and Sasuke stared at her incredulously.
"How? I didn't sense any henge." Sasuke asked, as his eyebrows furrowed whilst searching his memories. His fingers continued to trace her face, going over each bumps and indents made by the eye lids and eyebrows and many others - it was like she didn't have a single pimple, her face was so smooth. "I didn't use henge. I kept my hair short and my chest bind, unlike that pinky that wore a lace bra, that would have been so freaking painful when she was running around chasing after you. Imagine how it would have felt jumping from tree to tree?" The two laughed, both cringing at their creative thinking, they swore they felt the pain too. Sasuke dropped his hand and Naruto raised hers to trace his face, which he didn't object to and he tried to memorise the feeling of the touch knowing he might never be this close to his best friend ever again.
"But you said you were dead just then..." Naruto sighed as she shook her hood back into place while still caressing Sasuke's flawless face.
"Let's start from when you threw me out the window, ne?" Sasuke winced at the reminder but Naruto just ploughed through his expression. "I got up and left, Tsunade tried chasing me but I brushed her off. I had known the moment I brought you back that I would be banished. The council had been finding ways to get rid of me. When assassinations didn't work, they tried to control what mission was given to me. So I either died from injuries received on mission or I got killed straight away."
"But the mission we received were not dangerous at all. You can't get killed from... Pulling out weed." Sasuke said, making a face, feeling completely relax in his best friend's company. Naruto had dropped her hand and Sasuke had taken that hand to caress it. The two laughed slightly and Naruto gave him a weak smile. "After you left and I failed to retrieve you the first time... Sakura had ignored me and took an apprenticeship with Tsunade, not like she learnt much. I was pulled into back to back missions. I was lucky that I could still stand during one of the back to back missions. They were all A-ranked but I was still technically ranked a genin so I was only suppose to do D-rank but those missions were assigned behind Tsunade's back and I can't do anything about it or I'll get Tsunade into trouble." Sasuke blinked back tears at the tired look that suddenly overcame Naruto's face. Her unusual eyes dulled slightly and her smile didn't even reach her eyes. "Even if I was badly injured, they still sent me on my way to a mission. After ten of those mission, they finally gave me a break due to the fact that they didn't want Tsunade suspicious. I... I couldn't even move... One of my injuries had gotten infected badly and it was one that I had been injured by a sword with poison. The man that stabbed me had twisted the sword either ways before pulling it out. Kyuubi was trying hard but couldn't do it faster than she already was, I couldn't go to a hospital for treatment or even painkillers... I was convulsing in pain and I had thought about just giving up. Kyuubi had told me my heart had given out twice and she managed to start it back up before it was too late... I had tried searching for you during missions but I was already too weak to even try anything."
"What about when we actually fought? We met up when you were alone and you seemed like you were on a mission."
"I was. That was my fifth one in a row, I believe I could have fallen asleep fighting you. I had wanted to bring you back even though I would be banished because I had hurt you."
"Bullshit! But you didn't!"
"They wouldn't care. Even if you had a speck of blood on you, it would be my fault and you were drenched in blood."
"But, but that was all... Your blood." Sasuke's hands shook again as he remembered the feeling when his hand actually went through Naruto, breaking all the bones and tearing through the muscles. Naruto held his hands and gave it a squeeze.
"It's okay. I had forced that experience upon you. I was tired already and I knew it would kill two birds with one stone. If I had died, you would have gained the mangekyo sharingan."
"But I would have killed him without ever knowing he was ordered to do whatever he did!"
"You wouldn't have, I have planned it so that if I had died before I could help Itachi, a scroll would be delivered to you and you would discover the truth and bring it up to the hokage, she would definitely help you." Naruto said.
"What happened after you had brushed hokage-sama off? How come no one knew of your banishment until the two elders walked in looking so smug? They even said the council has voted it and their votes had more say than the hokage herself."
"I'm going to change the way they are. Anyways. I... Had met a few of the other rookie 12 along the way..." Sasuke could feel Naruto's shaky breath as she struggled to continue.
"It's okay... You can skip whatever you don't want to talk about."
"No, it's okay... You're my best friend you deserve to know." Sasuke smiled at that statement. "They said mean things... They called me... Called me a monster. Not all of them, Hinata, neji, Shikamaru, Shino, lee, Tenten didn't approach me. Kakashi and jiraiya... Said they were disappointed in me trying to kill a teammate." Sasuke's sharingan swirled to life and he was about to storm to the direction he knows the others would be but Naruto stopped him.
"I was then beaten up and on the brink of death they dragged me out of the village, took my headband and said I was banished, if I were to be seen in the fire country I would be executed."
"Then what about meeting Hokage-sama?"
"Who said I can't go? Uzumaki Naruto never existed and if you looked it up, my records are gone and even if you found traces, I am no longer a citizen of Konoha. I am Namikaze-Uzumaki Naruto, the first Uzukage. They can't execute me, it would be the wrong person and it would be declaring war by assassinating a kage." Sasuke smiled at the sly tone Naruto was using. That's the unpredictable ninja he knew.
"... Your brother isn't a citizen anymore either." Sasuke blinked.
"Say what?"
"I managed to get Tsunade to sign a document to declare Itachi Uchiha as no longer being a citizen of Konoha." Sasuke facepalmed. She must have either messed up her must sign pile with her do not sign pile and she wasn't even reading the document.
"Then where is he now? Akatsuki has disbanded."
"The akatsuki are all here." Sasuke's face contorted into a many emotions until he settled on that 'okay...' Expression. "I have been getting missing nins off the list by proving they are innocent, I cleared half the akatsuki's crimes and the rest I just struck a deal with their kage saying I'll take the missing nins into my hands if they sign a document saying the nin is no longer a citizen. That way, I can legally house a missing nin in the country, they are not missing nins anymore."
"So Itachi is here?" Naruto was about to answer when they were interrupted. Naruto has never seen Sasuke's face contort into such a weirded out expression ever.