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chapter thirteen

"Plans are nothing: planning is everything."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Sasuke returned to the village later that day. Pretending to be dead had definitely run its course. He didn't want to deal with Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura, but it was inevitable that he'd have to. What he'd done was unacceptable in their eyes, and he was sure they'd want him to hear it from them. He went to the people whose house was closest to his while closest to the river- that ended up being Naruto. He pretended to show up shivering and tired, while Kushina called Mikoto and Itachi over immediately. Fugaku was at work, and didn't know about much, but he did come home when he realized his previously drowned son had returned.

Itachi looked at Sasuke and cried. He grabbed his little brother and hugged him, not letting him go. Sasuke pretended not to notice it, but when Itachi was done hugging him, his shoulder was a little bit more wet than it had been when he'd arrived. Naruto, watching from the sidelines, looked away with tears in his eyes. This was a visual representation of how much Itachi loved Sasuke. Sasuke, himself, sank into Itachi. The comfort he felt was radiating off him in waves.

"I'm sorry I scared you, nii-san! I tried to find you, and I heard your voice a couple times, but... whenever I looked for you, you weren't there. When I couldn't find you, I headed for home." Sasuke said, putting a scared, innocent face on. Itachi pulled back to look at him, then closed his eyes, pressing Sasuke to him.

"Never, ever, get too close to a cliff again, little brother. You scared me to death." Itachi told him, scrutinizing his condition. He shook his head, and backed off, and spent the remainder of the night alone. He never allowed Sasuke to leave his line of sight for more than a few minutes, though. Sasuke thought he might've just instilled a paranoia in his big brother that might be complicated.

Sasuke, of course, was passed on to his mother. Then to Aunt Kushina. Eventually he ended up with Naruto, who gave him the most terrible glare Sasuke had ever gotten from him.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was when Sasuke Uchiha knew he fucked up.

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"Sasuke what the hell-?"

Just as he predicted, Sakura, Kakashi and Naruto were standing in front of him, perfectly ready to chew him out. Sakura and Naruto looked like they were about to physically explode, and Kakashi looked silent. Sasuke was scared of Kakashi's silence. That usually meant death followed for his enemies. Sasuke wasn't an enemy, of course, but Sasuke learned long ago that Kakashi's temper was not to be tested. He had done this knowing the consequences, he had known that his team was going to destroy him for it, but he still did it, because it needed to be done.

"What the hell." Sakura said it more like a statement, that time. She buried her hands in her hair and looked at Sasuke like he was an alien.

"I heard you the first time." Sasuke said stiffly. He was mentally preparing himself for Sakura's explosion, then had to check again when he realized she wasn't exploding. She was handling herself calmly, or as calmly as one could be when one of her closest friends was pronounced dead in the middle of the night, and then miraculously came back to life in the early morning.

"You're a complete asshole, Sasuke. You clearly have no emotional understanding at all, because otherwise you wouldn't have done that. Kami. Poor Itachi. Living in the same house as you must be terrible." Naruto exclaimed, frustrated. He paced around the floor, running his hands through his hair and groaning loudly. "How could you do that?! To your own brother?!"