Sakura couldn't hold back her sobs as she watched Naruto and Minato. Naruto didn't deserve this pain. Why was fate so cruel?

    Sakura's body moved on its own to kneel beside Naruto. The pinkette said nothing as she wrapped her arms around the blonde in a sisterly embrace.

    Naruto's grief ridden expression soon morphed into a blank one. The only clue to his true feelings were the tear stains on his cheeks. The blonde took a shaky breath and stood up, making Sakura's arms drop to her sides.

    "Arigatou, Sakura. I needed that." The pinkette smiled and nodded, lifting herself to stand beside Naruto.

    "Anytime."

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.

The three of them exited the Root HQ soon after that. And despite his shaky legs and tear-stained face, Naruto insisted that he carry Minato's body, and neither Sakura nor Kurama had the heart to refuse him.

    "Jiraiya-senpai! Teach me your ways!" This was the first thing they heard once they exited the HQ. Neither of the two Sannin present or Kakashi had noticed them yet, seeing as Jiraiya was trying to shake Kakashi off his leg, and Tsunade was laughing at the Toad Sage's expense.

    "Are we interrupting something?" Kurama said after clearing his throat, making the three of them freeze.

    "Huh? Naruto, Sakura, when did you get here?" Kakashi asked. Sakura was about to reply but was cut off by Naruto.

    "The Yondaime's dead. Danzo's life wasn't linked to the Root Headquarters, it was linked to Minato." Kakashi let go of Jiraiya's leg, still processing what his student had just said.

    Minato was dead.

    His sensei was dead. 

And when that reality set in, Kakashi noticed the limp body that was in Naruto's arms. The masked jounin collapsed to his knees as a few tears dripped down his face, "Nobody blames you Kakashi. It was that bastard Danzo's fault." Tsunade said, patting the jounin's back comfortingly.

    Jiraiya, who had been quiet this whole time, spoke up. "We should get going now since we have no other business here."

    Hearing this, Naruto turned to the Toad Sage, "How can you be so calm about this 'ttebayo! Did Minato mean anything to you?"

    Jiraiya's face remained stoic, "Of course he did, he was my student. But I refuse to mourn this close to Danzo's soil." He turned to Kurama. "Why aren't Orochimaru and Sasuke here?"

    The Kyuubi pursed his lips. "I was meaning to tell you this before, but seeing as..." The fox demon trailed off, his eyes quickly darting to Minato. "Anyway, both of them aren't here yet," Sakura looked at Kurama with a raised eyebrow.

    "Did you try materializing near them?" Kurama quickly shot down her proposal.

"Well, I can only materialize a certain distance away from Naruto...."

     Kurama trailed off before his face took on an alarmed expression. "Sakura, can you lift Minato? We need to find Sasuke and Orochimaru." The pinkette willed the late Hokage's body to levitate next to her.

    "What's going on Kurama?" The fox demon didn't reply as he quickly dropped down into the Root HQ once again.

    "I can usually sense any chakra, and I should be able to since Sasuke isn't that far away. Not many things can block my senses. Only one thing actually, genjutsu. Most of the time I can dispel it beforehand, but the person who cast this one is no amateur."

"Hurry up and get to the point dattebayo! We don't have all day!"

"The only person capable of casting a genjutsu of this caliber is someone who's mastered the Sharingan." Kurama blurted out, and nobody said anything until Tsunade spoke up.

    "Are you saying that Sasuke turned on Orochimaru?" Sakura glared at Tsunade,

    "If anything, I bet Orochimaru tried to make a move on Sasuke." She said while clenching her fist, nobody would accuse her teammate of betrayal and get away with it. Kakashi placed his hand on Sakura's shoulder, getting her attention.

    "Sakura, calm down. Why would Sasuke put himself in a genjutsu? There must've been another Uchiha." But that theory may have been even more terrifying.

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    Sasuke's face remained stoic, but on the inside, he was panicking. Orochimaru had just disintegrated, leaving the ex-Uchiha alone. Whoever cast this genjutsu was about to make their move.

"Hello, little otouto."  A voice said from behind Sasuke, making him inhale sharply. He then turned to the direction the voice came from and prepared himself to face someone he knew all too well. Because standing directly across from him was Uchiha Itachi.

"Why are you here?" Sasuke growled, having regained his dignity.

"Now, is that any way to talk to me after all that I've done for you?" The ex-Uchiha let out a humorless chuckle.

"Of course it is. You let them all do that. You let them walk all over me, and when they were done, you did too!" Itachi's expression remained stoic as Sasuke continued, 

"Hell, you laughed. You had everything, yet you still had to take what I had...And I had nothing! Mikoto hated me, Fugaku hated me, and you were the worst...you had this superiority complex yet they both fawned over you." Sasuke smiled humorlessly,

"So what do you want now? Are your parents not pampering you enough? Have they finally realized how much of a spoiled brat you are? You don't know what it's like..." Itachi's heart broke a little bit more after every pained word that came out of his little brother's mouth. 

Sasuke's voice began to crack, "And what's even more pathetic is that even though I was treated as the scapegoat, I still looked up to you. The only reason I didn't cry myself to sleep every night was that I thought that everything was going to be okay because you were around." Sasuke sighed and wiped his teary cheeks. "But now, looking at you makes me sick-"

"I've come to warn you!" Itachi said, cutting his brother off. The Uchiha heir didn't want to hear about any more of his brother's pain, and he knew that was selfish, but now was not the time, "Konoha isn't safe for you or your team anymore." Hearing this, Sasuke scoffed.

"It never was. I don't know why you care all of a sudden but I've taken care of myself for seven fucking years and I sure as hell don't need any of you now." Itachi's heart broke even more when his brother said that, but he knew it was true. 

"I've always cared, I just couldn't be vocal about it. How do you think you and that Suna nin got out of the Uchiha compound? Because it definitely wasn't by luck. And what about that scroll you still have? Did you think that the head of the Police Department just forgot about you?" The Uchiha heir sighed, remembering he wasn't here to lecture his brother. "Anyway, our clan-" Sasuke promptly cut him off.

"Your clan." Itachi sighed.

"The Uchiha know that Danzo was impersonating the Hokage. But nobody else other than the Hyuuga clan believes them. Therefore the council is going to have you, your team and the Sannin executed as soon as you leave this place."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Sasuke hissed, and Itachi paused for a moment before sighing.

"You can't," He said simply, making his younger brother scoff.

"Say you're telling the truth, why would you come all the way here to tell me this?" Itachi sighed and looked down at his feet. This would be hard to justify.

"I realize I haven't been the best older brother." Sasuke cut off the Uchiha with a humorless snort.

"No shit," Itachi frowned, ignoring his sibling's blatant hatred toward him.

"I'm trying, Sasuke. Just give me a chance." Despite his evident smirk, the ex-Uchiha was less than amused.

"Why should I? You never gave me one." And with that, Sasuke turned on his heel, taking advantage of Itachi's shock and releasing the genjutsu. "Kai." As soon as those words left his lips he ran back to the main entrance, where the others were.

"Sasuke-teme! Where were you dattebayo? We were about to go looking for you!" Sasuke turned to his blonde haired teammate with an expressionless face.

"It's not important. Now I don't know about you but I want to get out of here." Everyone followed the ex-Uchiha as he climbed out. Kakashi went last, scanning the room one last time. Despite the ex-Uchiha's attempt to be discreet about it, Kakashi did notice that Sasuke had his Sharingan activated. What was his student so wary about?

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Holy crap I completely forgot about Kushina... Sorry about that.😅

Because of this, I will be reviewing all my previous chapters to make sure I don't have any more plot holes. I hope I didn't confuse you all too much XD

Don't worry about re-reading the previous chapters, the Kushina situation will be explained soon!!

-Isabelle