Woops, I make you wait ages and ages and ages for one update and then give you two in a week; there really must be something in the air.

Disclainer - Me no own.

Your reviews are so helpful, I was humming and haring about Itachi but it seems that people want him in and you have Celestialfae to thank for the scene 'tween Itachi and Pein, they gave me the idea and then it just wouldn't go away.

Enjoy.

Naruto woke with a groan. For ten minutes he lay in bed, not moving, not yet ready to get up. With a sigh he heaved himself up and swung his feet to the floor. Now that he was sat up it was just a case of actually standing. He did so with a grunt. He pulled on his orange jacket to ward of the chill of the night and shuffled from the bedroom to the main room of the flat.

Kakashi was lounging on the sofa, one arm slung over the back, his long legs stretched out and his head lolling back. His head lifted as he heard the bedroom door click open and he sat straighter, although he was still slumped comfortably. Naruto joined him quietly.

Naruto sat hunched forwards, his hands fiddling absentmindedly with the hem of his shirt. He seemed nervous about something and Kakashi could tell that he had something he wanted to say. He did not move to prompt him, however, thinking that it would be best if he spoke of his own accord.

"Why do people have to die?" Naruto asked, his voice a quiet whisper.

That caused Kakashi to pause, for the softly spoken question was totally different to anything he could have imagined. It tore his heart in two just to hear it asked and he thought of the times that he asked himself the same things. He sighed heavily. Naruto's head turned slightly so that he could see him out of the corner of his eye, though his face was still pointed towards the floor, yellow strands of hair having fallen into his face, curtaining it.

"That's a difficult question to answer." Kakashi started. He stared at the wall opposite them for a while, gathering his thoughts.

Without speaking, Kakashi swiftly moved from sitting to standing and made his way to the door. When Naruto looked up at him questioningly he gestured to the door with his head. Naruto lumbered to his feet and followed.

Kakashi led him from the flat to the outskirts of Konoha. Naruto did not pay any attention to where they were going and almost walked into Kakashi when he eventually stopped. He looked around himself and it took a moment to realise where they were, but when he did he couldn't help but to smile, remembering a different time, a different Naruto.

Kakashi had taken him to the training grounds where Team Seven had done the bell test when they had first become Genin.

"Why did you bring me here?" He asked. But there was no answer forth coming from Kakashi and when Naruto looked down he realised with a pang why this was. Before them was the small, simple stone engraved the multitudes of names of those that had died in action. Kakashi was staring at it sadly.

"These people," he began, his voice softer than Naruto could ever remember hearing it before, "These people died for Konoha, for their people, for what they believed and sometimes for something which they didn't." He turned back to look at Naruto, before plonking himself on the ground before the memorial, he patted the ground next to him, inviting Naruto to join him. Naruto did so.

"People die because they must. It's nature. People die, people live, they laugh, they cry, they hate. They love. It's the way of the world. It's horrible and it's ugly, that so many lives are cut so short, but that's what makes it so beautiful, that it's so fleeting."

He looked down at Naruto, who was staring intently at the stone, as if absorbing the names, making them a part of him.

"You know, I like to think that my mum died." Naruto said, his face marred by a deep frown. "'Cause it's easier then thinking that she didn't want me. Is that horrible?"

"No." Kakashi responded, without pausing.

"Do you know what happened to my mum?" Naruto asked, hopeful and nervous all at once.

"No, sorry." Kakashi said softly, relieved that he could tell the truth regarding this matter.

"I didn't really expect you to."

They sat in companionable silence before awhile. Eventually Kakashi reached out a hand and brushed it over the stone.

"He was my best friend." He said softly, although his hand still covered the name itself. "We were just kids when he died."

Itachi pushed the heavy stone door open and marched into the room that he had claimed as his in the present Akatsuki hideout. In it there was nothing more than a desk, a chair and a bed, all made out of the same dark wood. He swept his cloak off and threw it over the back of the chair.

He sat on the edge of the bed and was just reclining back when there was a knock on the door. It opened a fraction of a second later. Kisame stood in the doorway, the corner of his blue lips quirked up in a smirk.

"Pein-sama wishes to see you." He said.

Itachi sighed deeply and pushed himself to his feet. Kisame moved out of the way of the door when he reached it, stepping back to allow him through. Itachi strolled down the corridor, Kisame following him a few steps behind.

"So, what d'ya do?" he asked, without looking at him Itachi could tell that he had a jovial spring in his step. Kisame waited expectantly, he was like a kid in the academy, watching a miscreant do the walk of shame out of a classroom.

"I did not do anything." He answered stiffly.

Kisame fell quiet and stopped following, halting at the end of the corridor so that he could watch as Itachi knocked on the impressive double doors and wait for the deep voice of their leader to admit him entrance.

A voice rang true ordering him to enter. He pushed both of the doors open. They led to a hall, empty other than two wooden chairs and a trestle table. Pein was sat on neither of the chairs though; he was stood before the table, his back to the door, hunched forwards.

He turned around as the door clicked closed.

"Ahh, Itachi." He said the words as if he had not been expecting Itachi to be there, as if he had not been the one that had summoned him.

Pein sat in one of the chairs, gesturing for Itachi to take the other. He shook his head, motioning that he'd prefer to stand. Pein shrugged, it was no matter to him. He leant back, swing one leg to cross over the other and took a sip of the amber liquid in the glass he held.

The silence stretched while Itachi stared at Pein staring at the drink. Now it was his turn to feel like a child at the academy.

Eventually Pein sighed and swung his leg down. He put the glass down on the table and lent forwards, balancing his elbows on his knees and propping his head on the palms of his hands.

"Itachi, we can trust each other, can't we?" He asked, his voice saccharine.

Itachi eyed him warily, sensing a trap but not sure what. "Yes." It almost sounded more of a question, but he held in his uncertainty, knowing that his leader would certainly pick up on it.

"Then tell me, why were you in Konoha yesterday?" Pein's deadly smile slipped and his eyes became cold, hard.

"Reconnaissance."

You were talking to the Nine-Tails. Why?" his voice was as cold as ice.

Itachi felt himself droop. He dropped into the chair, heavily and it skidded back an inch.

"He's the last of my family." Itachi muttered.

At this Pein raised an arched eyebrow. "Not another brother." He sounded exasperated.

Itachi's lips twitched. "No, Sasuke knocked him up, only to go and get himself killed."

"Ah."

Itachi appealed to his leader "The kid'll be my only family." He knew that Pein had grown up craving a family and he could never understand how Itachi could have killed his own; he did however, understand the pain of missing them and seemed to understand that Itachi did not want them dead. Akatsuki was their family now.

"And think about it, if we can get on Naruto's good side we'll be on Konoha's good side. He may not be the most popular of people but he's loved dearly by those that matter. Enough that they would kill the last Uchiha, as they believed him to be at the time." Itachi next appealed to the strategic side of Pein.

Pein sighed, as if it pained him to speak the next words. "The boy's safe."

Thanks for reading.