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Chapter 1:A Proposal

Sasuke stared angrily at the white ceiling. He was back in Konoha, dragged back there by the dobe. The very thought of it made him grind his teeth, especially when Itachi was still alive.

He had killed Orochimaru, that bastard, when he had tried to transfer into Sasuke's body. The Uchiha sneered mentally – as if he'd ever allow anyone to take over his body. Orochimaru was a first-class idiot to have believed that Sasuke would actually give up his body for power.

After disposing of the snake, he had searched for the perfect opportunity to kill Itachi for almost three years. Itachi was slippery – he was hard to find, and the few times Sasuke did see him, Itachi was either with his partner, or would disappear quickly. Finally, he managed to find his brother at the Konoha-Suna border.

Itachi had been alone at the time. Sasuke had attacked quickly and brutally, and was pleased to note he had grown stronger under Orochimaru's tutelage. He had managed to land a few hits on his aniki, but Itachi had distracted him, then tried to use Tsukiyomi on him, but this time Sasuke's own Sharingan had matured enough for him to fight back, although the result of him trying to keep out of Tsukiyomi had been very draining to his chakra. Before he collapsed, though, he had slashed a satisfyingly deep cut through the front of Itachi's torso that would take a long time to heal, and would definitely leave a scar to remind the older Uchiha of his brother.

His brother's blue-skinned partner had appeared a few minutes after both the Uchiha had collapsed. The shark-man had quickly assessed the situation, picked up Itachi carefully, and vanished from sight, leaving Sasuke in a heap on the somewhat sandy ground. It took a lot of effort on Sasuke's part to remain conscious after the Akatsuki duo left, to guard against any sneak retaliation.

Just as he was about to black out, he heard a voice, one he hadn't heard in nearly six years, shouting loudly, and an orange-clad figure came crashing into view. Bright blonde hair, whisker-scarred cheeks and crystal-blue eyes, the likes of which he had never seen in anyone else, appeared in his shrinking vision range, and he watched the somewhat familiar yet different features look down at him with concern etched into them, and he blacked out.

And when he woke up, he found himself staring at the ceiling unable to move his limbs due to chakra restraints. Looking at the table under the window to his right, he could see two small transparent glass vases. Both vases held a single flower each in varying states of freshness. The vase on the right held a fresh daffodil and the other vase had a thoroughly wilted wildflower – a flower that one could sometimes see growing in fields or by the side of the road. He wondered who they were from. He knew the fresh one was probably from Sakura, but he couldn't figure out who the wilted flower might be from. It couldn't be just another fangirl – they probably didn't have high enough security clearance to visit him, let alone know that he was back.

The sound of the door sliding open caught his attention, but he kept his eyes on the flowers. A powerful chakra signature entered, followed by two weaker ones. He could recognize the weakest one to be Sakura, although he hadn't come into contact with her since the pathetic 'rescue' attempt at Kusa no Kuni. Judging by the chakra signature alone, he could tell that she had grown.

"Uchiha Sasuke," stated a terse voice. A spike of chakra, and he could feel the chakra restraints dissolved. Slowly, he turned towards the voice.

Renowned medic nin and Hokage of Konoha, Tsunade, stood there with Sakura and a dark brown haired lady flanking her. He refused to look at Sakura, and focused his eyes on the blonde lady, who didn't look any older than what he remembered. The Hokage's face was serious, with a very slight curl of her upper lip.

"Your body has healed fine; no debilitating injuries were observed when you were first brought in eleven days ago. You will be discharged today, but Morino Ibiki has a few questions to ask. Get dressed, and the ANBU outside your door will escort you to the Torture and Interrogation Unit building," Tsunade said. She then whirled and said to Sakura, "You have five minutes," and left with the other woman.