The Wind To His Fire

Itachi's Return

Sasuke was hurting. He was hurting in places he didn't know could hurt. He was hurting in places he didn't know he had.

Perhaps, in retrospect, it wasn't one of his best ideas to piss of Senju Tsunade

"Stop whining and start healing yourself, Sasuke-kun." Sakura admonished.

"I really can't concertrate enough to form healing chakra. Couldn't you heal me?"

"You know what happened when shisho found out last time."

Sasuke shuddered.

That was when Shizune appeared. "You've been summoned, Sasuke-kun." That was definitely a smirk that she was wearing. Having Tsunade as a shisho might have rubbed some sadistic tendencies on her.

Sasuke painfully and with much effort pulled himself on his feet. Shizune was not completely corrupted by Tsunade, as she was kind enough to heal him.

He entered Tsunade's office to find Itachi standing there, without his Akatsuki cloak.

Tsunade didn't wait for him to greet her. "I am going to blame the massacre on Danzo and announce that Itachi was not involved and took the blame in order to spy on Akatsuki. But, apparently, he thinks that your feelings on the subject are more important than his Kage's orders. So, tell him you are okay with this." she ordered.

"I'm okay with this." he said, looking at Itachi.

"Sasuke, are you sure?" Itachi asked, looking at him curiously, trying to figure him out by a glance.

Heh, good luck with that nii-san.

"Yes, of course." he answered, then looked at Tsunade. "If that's all?"

She nodded. "Get out of here, brat. And if you don't memorize the poison effects by tomorrow, today would seem like a picnic."

Sasuke nodded and shunshined to his apartment. He sat down on the bed and tried to comprehend what had happened.

Itachi had actually come back to Konoha.

Granted, he had told him to think about it and had exposed Danzo's actions to Tsunade, Sasuke really hadn't been expecting Itachi to actually return to Konoha as a Konoha ninja, with the massacre cleared off his record.

Would Itachi be living with him? We wasn't sure if he was ready for that. He had forgiven Itachi, but he still had nightmare about him, his Tsukiyomi, and his death. He would have been able to endure it had Naruto been here, but now.....

No, nii-san would have to get himself an apartment.

Wait, was Itachi still his nii-san? Mentally, he was a older than Itachi. He was Itachi's nii-san, then? Kuso, that made him feel old.

He decided to stop thinking about time travelling sibling relations and opened up a scroll to learn about different poisonous plants in fire country and their effects on human body. He resisted the urge to use his sharingan to memorize it. He backside was still sore from the kick Tsunade had given him, the first and last time he had done that.