Darkness swirls and ebbs, and he can hear himself breathing. Faint echoes return to his ears; he's inside, in a small room. He's flat on his back, and he's alive.

"Wake up already, bastard," someone mutters. The voice is deeper and quieter than he remembers, but still unmistakable. Besides, Sasuke thinks as he flexes his muscles without actually moving, nobody but Naruto is stupid enough to call him bastard to his face.

Nobody but Naruto is stupid enough to leave him alive, either, and Sasuke isn't dead. Instead, he can feel restraints around his wrists, arms, legs, ankles, and chest, strapping him to a flat, minimally padded surface, and something is indefinably off with his chakra, so he's probably being held prisoner. Which is just like the moron -- too stupid to believe that they're not friends anymore, too stupid to realize that there's no going back, too stupid to go for the quick kill when he has the chance. But if Naruto still thinks he can fix things, Sasuke decides he might as well work with that. He's always been able to push the moron's buttons, and after three years he's learned not to respond when people push his own. Maybe he's tied up, but he still has the advantage.

He groans, softly, and lets his eyelids flutter as he tips his head to the right, toward Naruto's voice. Any decent shinobi can scan a room in seconds and the Sharingan lets Sasuke fill in the fuzzy areas and memorize everything in less than half a heartbeat.

Sakura stands next to Naruto. Sasuke isn't surprised.

What does surprise him is how three years have changed and yet not changed his old teammates. Logically he knew time wouldn't pass them by, no more than it passed over him, but seeing the changes, seeing them taller and harder, seeing their hands hovering near weapons as they watch him, stirs an odd feeling in his gut. Sasuke suppresses the sensation, whatever it is, and studies the image trapped on the backs of his eyelids.

Naruto isn't seeping chakra anymore; instead, his power is wrapped and wound and poised, ready to lash out under control for once. Now that the moron's finally standing still, now that his face isn't distorted by any of his violent emotions and his blue eyes are steady and cool, Naruto almost looks like the worthy opponent he turned out to be. (Even if he did cheat. Fox demons were not part of the bargain.) And he's still wearing orange, but less of it these days -- he's added some black to the mix. Naruto looks... stained, Sasuke thinks. Was he the cause of that?

He refocuses and dismisses the thought as an aftereffect of unconsciousness, a lingering dream fragment. His dreams are always dark, even when they end in bloody satisfaction.

Sakura is still as pink and superficially pretty as ever, somehow rescuing herself from drabness by a subtle trick of posture and the gleam in her green eyes. She's always looked best when she doesn't try, when she drops her frilly masks and lets her rage and determination shine through -- not that Sasuke had ever been looking, exactly, and not that she liked showing that side to him, but it wasn't easy to ignore a person who constantly danced around the edges of his personal space, and Naruto could always bring down her masks.

They're down now and she's frowning. One hand holds a scroll, and from the way Sakura's tapping it against her thigh, thumb ready to flick it open and forefinger ready to draw blood and activate the jutsu, she's treating it as a weapon. Sasuke's fairly sure he doesn't want to learn firsthand what sort of summoning or seal it contains.

He starts tensing and relaxing his muscles, preparing for a fast break, and wonders what sort of situation he's landed in. He can't read either of his former teammates. Sasuke doesn't like that -- he's always been able to read people when he wants to bother, more so since he mastered the Sharingan and suffered through Kabuto's psychology lessons. But somewhere, somehow, Naruto's learned to blank his face, and Sakura's cycling through emotions too fast for him to keep up and analyze how they fit together.

All he can read is determination. They have a plan, and if he doesn't like it, whatever it is, he'll probably have to kill them to stop them from carrying it out.

He... doesn't exactly want to kill them. It would be wasteful. And they never exactly hurt him, not in any ways that matter. They just didn't understand that they were standing in his way.

He might as well find out their plan. Who knows? He might actually agree to it. The sky might also fall, but there's rarely any harm in playing for time.

Sasuke raises his head the inch or two he's allowed and focuses on his former teammates; he feels an odd thrill when they don't flinch from the Sharingan whirling in his eyes. "Where are we, why am I alive, and who has the authority to release me?"

"Bastard. Can't even say thanks or threaten to kill us," Naruto grumbles, and sidesteps Sakura's backhand slap.

She frowns at him, then slips her scroll into a pocket as she steps toward the bed. "It's good to see you awake, Sasuke. We're in the recovery room of the interrogation center. The council is deciding whether to offer you reinstatement; Kakashi and Tsunade are pleading your case."

Kakashi? Sasuke blinks, rapidly puts several pieces together, and opens his mouth.

"Yes, your curse seal is warded," Sakura says before he can ask.

He nods, the tingling imbalance in his chakra now explained. "Why are you here? Why would I stay? And again, why am I alive?"

Annoyance flashes across Naruto's face, and he strides across the room to poke Sasuke in the shoulder. "Because you're our friend, bastard. Because you shouldn't have left in the first place. And because we want Akatsuki as much as you want Itachi -- it'll be easier if we work together."

Sasuke blinks again, and scowls. He hasn't blinked in surprise in nearly two years -- for a ninja whose bloodline limit depends on his eyes, unnecessary blinking is a dangerous weakness. But... they want to work with him?

No. That man is his.

Sakura seems to sense his anger, and she grabs his hair, pulling his head forward until his spine screams against the restraints. "Listen to me, Sasuke. You. Are. Our. Teammate. Your missions are our missions. You want Itachi? Well, Itachi wants Naruto. Stick with us and your brother will come to you." She slams his head against the thin mattress and Sasuke wonders, idly, just when the unfocused kunoichi he remembers grew so strong.

She's talking again. "If you want to kill Itachi all by yourself, we won't stop you. But we can stop his partner and any other Akatsuki members he has with him. Just because you're an avenger doesn't mean you have to do everything on your own. It doesn't make you any less than that twisted psychopath.

"Maybe he killed your clan all by himself, but he had the element of surprise on his side. He's expecting you to attack, and to attack alone -- he's spent years convincing you to think that way. If Naruto and I come with you, we'll be your element of surprise. We can make him play the game your way instead of letting him force you into his game."

Sakura shakes Sasuke's head one last time and lets him drop back to the bed, mind spinning.

They want to work with him? Make Itachi play his game? Sasuke finds himself blinking yet again, and ruthlessly wrenches his eyes back open. This entire encounter makes no sense.

"Yeah, what Sakura-chan said -- that goes for me too," Naruto adds, beaming at Sakura. "We make better deals than the snake-freak. He wants your body. We just want you not to die like an idiot." He grins, eyes crinkling upward into mocking crescents. "Besides, I'm the one who brought you here. If you still can't beat me after three years, how are yougonna beat Itachi all by yourself?"

"I'm not an idiot, you moron," Sasuke snaps instinctively, "and you cheated. The Kyuubi isn't--" Then he notices what he's saying and scowls. What is it about Naruto that makes him lose all his control and fall back into acting like a sulky toddler? He's better than this.

Naruto snorts. "Hey, hey, which one of us agreed to turn into a monster?"

Sakura backhands Naruto again, and this time the moron doesn't dodge. He falls back a step, rubbing the red handprint on his whiskered cheek. Sakura scowls. "Stop it, both of you. Now listen, Sasuke. If they agree to reinstate you, you'll be under guard for at least half a year while they test your loyalty. If they don't agree, or you don't accept, you'll be executed tomorrow."

Sasuke returns her questioning glance with a blank, red stare. He already knows this. Everyone knows that missing-nin are only accepted back under heavy guard. Everyone knows it's easier to stay angry and execute traitors instead of welcoming them home.

Sakura sighs. "Maybe you are an idiot. You're our teammate, remember? You want Itachi. We want all his partners. And we don't want to lose you again. So... will you accept reinstatement, or will you run?"

Sasuke turns his face away. "The moron's infected you. There's nothing for me in Konoha."

"Liar," Naruto growls, and a clawed hand seizes Sasuke's cheek and twists his head back to face Sakura and the door. Naruto stares down with burning, animalistic eyes, the whisker marks on his cheeks darkened and blurred wide, and his teeth bared in a fanged snarl. "We're in Konoha, me and Kakashi and Sakura-chan and all the others. If they can accept me, what the hell makes you think we won't accept you, you bastard?"

"Naruto."

Sakura's voice slices through the hypnotic intensity of Naruto's glare, and the claws pull back from Sasuke's face, retreating into soft fingernails as Naruto shoves his hand into his pocket. "Yeah, yeah, I know, don't push it, stay in control."

"Good." Tension seeps out of Sakura's shoulders and she slides her scroll away again. Sasuke manages not to blink -- and congratulates himself -- despite realizing that the scroll is as much to contain Naruto as to contain himself.

Maybe the Kyuubi isn't as perfect a cheat as he'd thought.

In any case, the point remains. Sasuke has no reason to stay in Konoha and every reason to leave. However... he doesn't necessarily have to return to the Sound. Orochimaru must know of his capture by now, and Orochimaru will most likely assume that he's dead -- will assume that Tsunade was willing to kill a traitor to deny him his favored host -- unless Sasuke provides convincing evidence otherwise.

He's learned a lot in three years. He'd like to kill that man while he's in control of his own body. All he has to do is keep his escape quiet.

"You're gonna leave, aren't you," Naruto says. It isn't a question; his blue eyes are hard and sharp when Sasuke looks up to meet them. Maybe the moron's learned useful things of his own in three years.

"Yes," Sasuke says. Why deny what all three of them know is true?

Sakura and Naruto exchange a glance, and then Sakura nods decisively. "All right. Naruto, get the clone ready. I'll set the seal and the genjutsu."

Sasuke restrains the urge to blink. What are they planning. And why can't he read these two?

Sakura mutters to herself as her fingers fly through seals; a strange, hollow feeling settles over the room. 'Nothing is happening, nobody's here,' it whispers. 'This isn't the chakra you're looking for.'

A soft pop and a gust of air wash from the far corner, and Sasuke raises his head to see Naruto glancing between the bed and a tall, pale, black-haired figure. It takes him nearly two full seconds to realize Naruto has created a clone and disguised it to mimic Sasuke. And mimic him perfectly.

He snorts quietly to himself. He shouldn't be surprised that the moron can pull off this disguise; it certainly isn't the first time he's tried it. But what does Naruto need a second Uchiha for? Theories spin through Sasuke's mind, but the only one that makes any sense is completely illogical. They can't be doing what he thinks they're doing. Not even these two can be that stupid.

...Can they?

"I'm sorry about this, Sasuke, but we can't take any extra risks until we're well away from Konoha," Sakura says from behind him.

Sasuke jerks his eyes upward as her bloody fingers descend and press against his forehead. His breath is suddenly loud in his ears, and he's losing contact with his body. He grasps for his chakra but it slips through his control, weaving into foreign patterns.

"You'd better be worth this, bastard," Naruto says.

Yes, Sasuke thinks as he tumbles back into the depths, this madness had better be worth the price. Or somebody is going to die, and it won't be him.

Darkness swirls and he drowns.

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