I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you
'Cause I'll forget but I'll never forgive you
Don't you know, don't you know?
True friends stab you in the front
It's funny how, things work out
Such a bitter irony, like a kick right to the teeth

~ True Friends by Bring Me The Horizon

The Jinchuuriki Alliance (Naruto Fanfic) Chapter 39 - True Friends

Recap:

"Hey, Jiji," They all heard Naruto's voice drawl with a sliver of excitement in his tone, the ninja in the Hokage's office glanced at each other in slight panic because they were so not prepared for this. "You'll never guess what we found toda-"

Naruto stepped into the room and froze. He knew everyone in the room, except for two figures sporting long black coats with red clouds on them. He knew that those symbols were the symbols for the Akatsuki. And he instantly growled as he stared at them.

"Naruto?" Sasuke raised his eyebrow as he saw his teammate standing at the doorway and nudged him aside so he could enter. "What's wrong-"

His eyes landed on his brother.

"I-Itachi..."

His brother's eyes softened and he smiled at the shocked expression that he expected to receive.

"Hello, otouto."

End Recap

"Hello Otouto."

When Sasuke heard the voice of the sole person responsible for annihilating the entirety of his clan, he snapped out of the trance-like state that he was in and let out a roar.

A gust of wind blew around him as he focussed all of his chakra into his hand. The shocks of untamed electricity swarmed around his fist and he leapt into action, eager to slam the Chidori straight into Itachi's chest; he wanted to rupture his heart like Sasuke's heart was ruptured after the Uchiha massacre.

He wanted to murder his brother. "Who does he think he is?!" Sasuke thought angrily as he extended his arm. The expression on Itachi's face: a small smile gracing his lips as his eyes were filled with boredom, it made Sasuke want to murder him.

Sasuke didn't even notice the flash of silver in his way.

He was held by his wrist as the chakra of his Chidori dissipated, he was left pulling and trying to tear away his hand roughly, but Kakashi didn't let him move an inch. For an older man, he was still as strong as he was in his prime.

"Sasuke." Kakashi spoke, standing his ground against Sasuke's screams and cries for him to let go so he could kill him.

"I need to kill him, Kakashi! I need to fulfil my revenge!"

Sakura covered her mouth with her hand in shock at the situation and Naruto was standing, frozen, glancing from Itachi, to Sasuke, to Jiraiya and back to Itachi.

Kakashi shook his head, "Shinobi need to pay attention to their surroundings, Sasuke."

Sasuke pulled his hand back and stared at the sight before him. He did as Kakashi asked automatically and his jaw dropped slightly as he became even more confused.

"Why are you here?!"

Itachi chuckled, "Oh, my foolish little brother-"

"Don't you fucking call me that!" Sasuke snapped, itching to bring chakra in his hand again and create another Chidori just to wipe that smug expression off from Itachi's face.

Hiruzen pursed his lips and sighed, "I think you all need to sit down."

Sasuke clenched his teeth, "Not before you explain why Konoha's biggest traitor is in your office." He walked forward, ignoring the curious expression from Itachi, and slammed his hand down on the desk. "Talk."

Naruto pulled Sasuke away from the front and placed both hands on his shoulders, he leaned forward. "Look, it's not only you who has questions. I want to know why there's an unconscious member of the Akatsuki in the corner, and your brother, another member of the Akatsuki who's sole aim is to kill all of the Jinchuuriki, here." He started whispering to Sasuke.

The Uzumaki pushed his own calming blue chakra slowly into Sasuke's pores and watched him visibly relax, it was a technique that he used occasionally, and what Jounin used on their subordinates to help with the after-effects of being overwhelmed with killing intent.

Naruto stopped releasing his chakra. "But first, you'll do well to pull yourself together," He said harshly, "You don't want to look weak in front of Itachi," He paused, "do you?"

That sentence made something click in Sasuke's mind as he agreed, no, he didn't want to look weak. He hated looking weak. He would never look weak in front of his bastard of a brother.

Sasuke exhaled and pushed Naruto's hands off from his shoulders, watching as the blond Jinchuuriki nodded to Sakura as they all sat in some chairs that Kotetsu awkwardly brought at the command of the Hokage.

"Kinda want to thank Naruto for the ramen that he brought me earlier, kinda don't think it's the time for pleasantries." The gatekeeper thought to himself, leaving the ninja to it.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage, who was widely known as 'The Professor', suddenly didn't know how to start the conversation.

He cleared his throat, "Let's get right to it." At Sasuke's expectant glance and Naruto's raised eyebrow, he began. "Itachi is a double agent."

"Double agents don't usually massacre their own clan." Sasuke cut in, leaning his head on his hand and letting his eye twitch.

Itachi nodded, "Usually, they don't." Sasuke didn't want to hear his voice, but begrudgingly turned his head and met his brother's eyes. "Our father was going to help lead a rebellion against the Hokage."

Well, that was news to Team 7.

Sasuke scoffed, "No he wasn't, you're lying." He said with an edge.

"I'm not." Itachi replied simply, "I was ordered to stop the rebellion at any cost, and they were beyond hope."

Sasuke wasn't having it. He didn't think that Itachi was lying completely, by the expectant expressions by Jiraiya, Kakashi and Hiruzen, they were clearly already aware of this. But it was a bad reason to kill his whole family.

"What about Mother?" The younger Uchiha questioned, feeling heated once again before Naruto placed a hand on his thigh to calm him down. "What about the Uchiha civilians?"

Itachi looked to the side, "They all had their part to play." He looked back at his brother sadly, "Would you rather live with a family full of traitors, or have a single traitor for a brother?"

Sasuke thought about that. It just wasn't good enough; he was emotionally exhausted with everything that was just revealed, he just sighed and ran a hand through his onyx hair, and his eyes wavered but rested on, again, his brother's gaze.

"What I would rather is to not be an orphan." He wanted to just fold into himself and disappear and not deal with this lie that he had been told for so long. "What I would rather have is my brother to not abandon me and not tell me why."

Itachi felt his heart break at the helpless expression that Sasuke was showing. He clenched his hand and swallowed thick saliva. "We don't all get what we want, little brother." He glanced out of the window, "Orders were orders."

There was silence in the room for a bit until Naruto cleared his throat. "Itachi Uchiha," He spoke, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze." He introduced himself.

Itachi nodded in greeting, "I'm aware of your identity. I assure you, I mean no harm."

"This one's on me and Sensei." Jiraiya laughed awkwardly, "Itachi fuels my information network on the Akatsuki, we needed him to infiltrate and join them, so we were up to date on their activity."

"Why do you think that none of the Jinchuuriki have been captured yet?" Itachi questioned, showing how important his role was.

"Really?" Naruto raised an eyebrow, then crossed his legs and shoved a thumb towards Kisame. "So, who's he?"

Sakura giggled as the tension decreased and they all glanced at the hunk of blue in the corner, noticing a small and thin amount of drool slipping out of Kisame's mouth. "Is he part of this?"

Itachi shook his head, "That's Kisame Hoshigaki, my partner in the Akatsuki." He paused. "I knocked him out."

There was some silence again in the room and you could hear a pin drop; then Naruto, Sakura and Jiraiya burst into laughter as Hiruzen and Kakashi chuckled, Itachi staring blankly with a twinkle in his eye, and Sasuke alone had a scowl on his face, struggling not to join in.

After a while, Hiruzen stood and walked around his table to stand with everyone else. "I believe that it is time for Itachi to leave. You see, Naruto, his mission was to capture you." Naruto raised his eyebrow, "But obviously that isn't his aim."

"Yes, you are right, I've stayed longer than necessary." The older Uchiha nodded.

Sasuke practically jumped up and stood in front of Itachi. "You will explain everything, in excruciating detail." He grit his teeth together and knew that if he clenched them any harder, he would definitely be in pain.

Itachi smiled at Sasuke's antics and tossed him a scroll from his pocket. He knew to bring it just in case he ran into his younger brother. Sasuke caught it with one hand and quirked an eyebrow at the Uchiha crest on the seal.

Walking forward, Itachi raised his hand, pressing the tip of his finger against Sasuke's forehead. "Maybe next time, little brother."

~*~*~

After telling Itachi to stop going after Deidara, (because he might be part of the group soon), they bid him farewell and watched as he swung Kisame over his shoulder again and walked out of the village, giving Kotetsu - who knew who he was now - and Izumo a shock.

Jiraiya had updated Naruto on everything that was relevant to him; he told him how Itachi couldn't throw the Akatsuki off the Jinchuuriki's trail for much longer, and how they all agreed to help Naruto relocate. And soon.

"You should tell them all." Jiraiya said, referring to telling the Jinchuuriki, and whoever was 'in their little group', the information and other necessary things.

Naruto nodded and called upon Sumi and the rest of his messenger foxes, directing them to each Jinchuuriki's location.

As Naruto and his team walked quickly to Naruto's apartment, they all started strategizing.

"Are you saying that we need to go... now?!" Sakura gasped and picked up the pace.

Naruto shook his head, "No. We don't need to leave now, but instead within the next couple of months or year. We need to start wrapping everything up here and do everything that a-" He exhaled sharply, "-a village, needs to do, and learn it all."

He knew that Yagura would help him somewhat on that part, but if he was a 'leader' then he couldn't leave everything to his subordinates, and anyway, he didn't even know if he was ready for that.

But he couldn't think about those details now, he had to record how many people were going to join his village, who would help, mainly just everything which he had to do in order to revive Uzushiogakure.

Uzushiogakure was abandoned anyway, and if he brought it back to life, perhaps the remaining Uzumaki were going to be naturally attracted to it.

"I need to be somewhere else, but you guys head to my apartment." Naruto tossed his house keys and a sealing scroll to Sakura who caught them without batting an eyelash.

She tilted her head, "And where will you be?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck. "The Perv told me about some other... discarded and unwanted people," He sighed, "I'm going to talk to Orochimaru, see what I can find out."

Sasuke grimaced, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"The snake may have been experimenting on some people who will turn out useful. Plus, Orochimaru is here, and they're probably still trapped somewhere." Naruto shook his head, "It's not fair. I'll see you guys later."

On that note, Naruto turned left and started walking down towards a place that he never really wanted to go to.

"You don't know anything about making a village."

Naruto rolled his eyes at his Biju, who he hadn't heard from during the day time recently. "I'm well aware, that's why we're going to plan."

"Luckily you've got some good people on your side, they can help."

"Yeah." Naruto clenched his fists, feeling his nails dig into his skin. "Hopefully."

~*~*~

When Sasuke and Sakura arrived by themselves at Naruto's run-down apartment, they cleared the dining table, well, the only table that Naruto had, and pulled out paper and the unsealed the books from the scrolls that they gathered while in Uzushiogakure.

"Relax." Sasuke instructed Sakura, just like Naruto had made him relax when Itachi was with them.

Sakura sighed and nodded, he knew stressing wouldn't improve the situation. "It's just... I don't want to let Naruto down, you know?" Sasuke grunted in agreement, pulling out a book.

"Alright, what do we know so far?"

Clearing her throat, Sakura started writing in small handwriting. "We need a governing body, I'm assuming we're sticking with the classic Kage, Daimyo, Council, Civilians, Medics and Military."

Humming in agreement, Sasuke scanned the page he was reading, "We'll be in Uzushio, so I would say naming the person holding the highest position the Uzushiokage, but I don't think the Uzumaki clan called their leader a 'Kage'." He muttered. Flipping some further pages, "Who knew that we could find all of these books in that library..."

"Any mention of a leader?" Sakura questioned, turning a page in her own book.

Sasuke pushed his book towards Sakura and pointed at a paragraph. "Indeed. Ashina Uzumaki, a man who was the leader of the Uzumaki clan during the founding of Konoha."

"Leader, leader, leader, did they just call him a leader?" Sakura ran a hand through her bright pink hair. "When was the phrase 'Kage' created?"

"Well, Ashina and Hashirama Senju were friends, and he was the First Hokage at the time, but it seems like Uzushio didn't use that phrase at all." Sasuke answered.

Sakura put the book down and reached for her pen and paper. "What about allies for trade and politics?"

"Naruto has connections with Kirigakure and Yagura, we'll have to wait for the civil war to end though. We have Takigakure, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Due to A and Killer Bee, I'm sure Kumogakure is going to back us up, especially since Bee is coming with us to Uzushio." Sasuke paused and let his teammate catch up.

Sakura grunted to show that she had written all of that down.

Continuing, Sasuke exhaled. "We have the support of Suna, though I'm not sure who their current Kage is, I've heard rumours that they're going to be governed under a council until they train the next Kazekage."

"And obviously, Konoha."

Sasuke nodded, "Yes, and obviously Konoha."

They stopped, and both sighed in exasperation.

Sakura fake cried and whined, slamming her head onto the desk and closing her eyes. "This is going to be harder than I thought."

OMAKE! (With help from STMinecraftFanGirl)

"Hello Otouto."

When Sasuke heard the voice of the sole person responsible for annihilating the entirety of his clan, he snapped out of the trance like state that he was in and he let out a roar.

A gust of wind blew around him as he focussed all of his chakra into his hand as he held his wrist, the shocks of untamed electricity swarmed around his fist and he leapt into action, eager to hit Itachi straight in the chest, to rupture his heart like Sasuke's was after the Uchiha massacre.

"Why?!" Sasuke screamed. "Why did you do it?!"

Itachi shrugged. "Little brother, the reason why I killed the clan was because the father that you were always trying to impress planned a coup de 'tat to overthrow Konoha. I put you into the Tsukuyomi because I wanted you to hate me, kill me, get my eyes and go on a rampage which took at least 400 manga chapters to drag your ass back to the village just for you to leave on a journey again."

Sasuke's jaw dropped and hit the ground.

"Also, please deactivate the Chidori before I snap your arm off like in the original timeline."

OMAKE 2! (With food names from STMinecraftFanGirl)

"I'm hungry." Kakashi muttered.

All of the ninja in the Hokage's office stared at him, confused. "Liiiiterally, an S-Rank missing-nin who killed the entirety of the Uchiha clan, save for one, is standing here. His group's aim is also to kill your other student to take over the world."

Kakashi nodded at Hiruzen. "Yes, It's tragic, but I'm hungry."

Naruto quirked a smirk, "What about Shark-Fin Soup?" He wagged his eyebrows in the direction of the knocked-out Kisame Hoshigaki.

"You are not killing my partner, we went over this last chapter. And you most certainly aren't eating him!" Itachi slammed his hands down on Hiruzen's desk.

"Or Grilled Shark Steak with Blood Sauce." Kakashi smiled under his mask, nearly drooling.

Itachi groaned, "Stop it! You aren't eating him! That is final." He scowled, "Insane cannibals."

Eyes lingering, on that thick, juicy, blue skin, Kakashi whispered.

"Pain au Sharkolat."

_________________________________

Here we go, this chapter had lots of planning and thinking, I'm already researching and writing out the council, positions and etc. of the village. Who knows? Maybe something will halt their progress?

I heard some great favourite characters! I agree, Naruto, Gaara, Deidara and Samui are pretty badass.

Questions of the Week: What name should the leader of Uzushiogakure be called?

And what do you think about process of the long revival of the village?