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chapter sixteen

"A friend is someone who helps you up when you're down, and if they can't, they lay down beside you and listen."

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Sasuke, Kakashi, Naruto and Obito arrived back in Konoha safely, a few days after that, and were immediately greeted at the gate by Sakura. She looked at each of them with deep concern in her green eyes. Sasuke left Naruto to tell the story, instead vouching to go home. He'd stayed up all night for two nights in a row, and even his mind couldn't process the unexpected emotional discomfort and strain on his mind without crashing. He wanted a pillow, blanket, and an easy sleep.

When he got home, he smiled at his mom, remembering that Sakura was keeping up his clone for him while he was gone. Hopefully she'd managed to keep Clone Sasuke in character enough to fool Itachi. Fugaku wasn't around enough to tell, and Mikoto, bless her, was so used to her sons spontaneously having mood swings, she often didn't think of it. But Itachi was actively suspicious of his brother.

Mikoto greeted him at the door with a loving smile. She patted him on the head and took his backpack for him, reminding him to leave his shoes neatly by the door. Sasuke smiled softly and did so, retrieving the pack from where she'd left it and following her into the kitchen. She was making dinner, apparently. She hummed while she worked, and jumped a little when her son hugged her from behind. Sasuke buried his face into his mom's shirt, wondering how he went so long without Mikoto.

It occasionally hit him that losing her again would be devastating. He'd loved Mikoto before, but now that he'd experienced growing up without a mother, he appreciated her so much more.

"You're beautiful, mom," he told her, because she didn't hear it nearly enough. She smiled at him, looking like she was going to cry, and turned around to scoop him into a tight hug.

He hugged his mother back, because he hadn't seen her in a while, and then went to his room to drop his backpack off. He slid open the door, and Itachi was sitting cross legged on his bed, meditating. Sasuke froze, wondering what the heck was going on, and why Itachi in his room.

"Ohayo, nii-san." He said to Itachi, who opened one eye to look at him.

"Ohayo, otouto." Itachi replied, voice flat and emotionless.

Sasuke frowned, dropping his backpack and climbing on his bed. He gave Itachi a quick look, and proceeded to wordlessly join him in his meditation. No words were spoken between the brothers for hours on end, until Itachi finally broke the silence.

"I'm happy you're back, Sasuke."

Sasuke choked.

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Kakashi gave Itachi the cover story- he had been training Sasuke at the boy's request. He and Obito had taken him and Naruto on a mini field trip to the Valley of the End to get a mini history lesson. Itachi asked why Kakashi didn't bother telling the family, and Kakashi had no answer for him. Itachi rolled his eyes, and told Kakashi to tell him the next time he spontaneously took his brother on a 'field trip'. Yes. He used finger quotes.

Itachi doesn't buy our bullshit, but won't ask more about it until we mess up again. Let's not mess up again, huh? Perhaps we can keep the 'out of village expeditions' to a minimum until the three of you are genin?