This fanfiction is a rewriting, under the same title, of my first Itachi/Sasuke fanfiction. The plot hasn't changed at all but Itachi and Sasuke's dynamic has. It used to be a Sasuita/Itasasu fic, now it's just Itasasu, because I see their relationship differently compared to how I used to.

It's connected to my darkfic"In The Dark" (oneshot, about Sasuke's jailtime in ep. 479) that I consider a prequel for this, although because of its peculiar plot the connection is vague, so reading it is not necessary, in order to read this story.

Every fanfiction is an AU. Even if it's set in canon universe, the author changes events according to their own taste. One of the many purposes of fanfictions is to rewrite what wasn't liked and explore new possibilities. I hated the ending and its pairings so my story reflects my opinion. It's a way, together with In The Dark, to fill in the blanks between the plotholes and inconsistencies, and explain myself why canon happened, although this fic will diverge from canon (luckily).

In short, if you don't want to see canon depicted in a negative light, don't read my story.

More notes below.

"You can tie my hands to the walls
But you can't tie my dreams to this place" (White Lies, E.S.T.)

Sasuke is where everybody wants him to be: in Konoha.

With the battle and the arm he also lost the urge to fight. He's had enough of traveling. He's tired of chasing and being chased. So tired that even if he meant every word about starting a revolution, being the Hokage and build a new era, he had wondered, though only for a moment, if he would be able to really accomplish such tasks all by himself.

He was lonely. Meeting his beloved brother again, being praised and protected by him, fighting by his side as an equal for the first -and only- time, and finally being told the truth before losing him again, this time forever, left him vulnerable.

Joining the battlefield, where his old comrades were fatigued and scared but together, praising and protecting each other, only added to the excruciating pain for the loss of his most important person.

He felt so lonely that suddenly Naruto's words, although the same as the previous time, didn't sound childish and shallow anymore.

He is brought to Konoha Hospital.

The room he shares with his rival is always crowded. People come and go to see their friend and savior. They are nice to him too. Soon he feels part of the group, even if he doesn't talk much and he glares at those who come too close.

Sakura visits almost every day. He doesn't throw away the apples she gives him, but he doesn't listen to her stories either.

Kakashi is the Sixth Hokage.

His first official act is signing Orochimaru's permanent exile. Even if he helped during the war the Sannin had destroyed Konoha and killed Hiruzen, he can't be pardoned. Team Taka is asked to choose between him and a new life in the village, as Leaf shinobi.

Unexpectedly they all choose their former master.

They all agree that they have no roots there, nor someone to stay for, as Karin adds with a tinge of regret.

Sasuke has something important to stay for, instead: rehabilitating Itachi's memory.

He has already told the truth about him and the massacre to as many people as possible –those were the only times when the usually silent Uchiha Sasuke became talkative–but it's not enough.

He wants everybody to know. He wants a memorial. He wants to face the remaining elders and ask them how they managed to sleep at night since that day they forced a 13 years old boy to kill his whole clan. He wants to hear their apologies.

Nevertheless, none of this happens. Kakashi explains it would create chaos and disorder, which cannot be allowed in the aftermath of a war.

Besides, Itachi didn't want it to be public, Naruto reminds him.

He adds that Konoha is his family. Team 7 is his family.

They are alive, right beside him, and they love him as much as his real family did.

The blond cannot forget that Itachi entrusted him with Sasuke's care. He wanted his little brother to live in the village, surrounded by friends and comrades.

Sasuke insists, more and more vehemently. Kakashi lets him talk, but his answer is firm.

He is in charge of the village now; he cannot treat him differently only because he has been his pupil. So he forces the boy to consider the facts.

The massacre would have never happened if the Uchiha clan had not planned a coup. As horrible as it may have been there was no better option. Itachi himself, a prodigy and a genius, had agreed for the same reason.

His brother had willingly decided to stay in the shadows to protect the village. The acknowledgment of the truth would mean dishonoring the clan, destroying everything he had worked for.

The system is already changing, although less dramatically than how he wanted. Besides, Kakashi adds with a stern voice, the last Uchiha is in no position to claim any rights.

The list of his crimes is long. Just like Orochimaru, even if he had been undeniably essential to win the war it doesn't mean he has been pardoned. His friends may have forgiven him despite the pain he had always put them through, but what he did, to them, to the village and to the whole ninja world, was still there.

He must look ahead, not behind. Instead of focusing of what the others can do for him he should ask himself what he can do for the others, and start fixing his errors. This is what Itachi wanted.

Kakashi's speech reminds him of his father's scolding, severe but for his own good, as Itachi and his mother used to say, and suddenly Sasuke feels like the little child he had been, facing Uchiha Fugaku, chief of Konoha Police, fearing his authority and wanting to make him proud.

His good will isn't enough though, not after the multiple subversive exhortations to destabilize a village that is still recovering from a war, that's why both his best friend and his former sensei suggested him to keep quiet, that's why he's arrested and put in isolation, because he hasn't listened to them, as always, that's why, once released, the copy ninja suggests him to leave for a while and come back when his journey of redemption has cleared any doubts on his resolve and loyalty.

Sasuke accepts. He wants to see with his own eyes how the world is changing for the better, and help where needed.

He apologizes to Naruto, thanking him for everything. From saving him to letting him live in his dirty and cramped house. He was alone and starved of love –they both were –while now he might remember what being part of a family means.

The blond gives him back his old forehead protector. He kept the promise made to Itachi. His brother is leaving, but he will come back.

Sakura begs him to bring her along. It is not the first time she says she'll renounce to everything she worked for, just to follow him. She doesn't understand that he's not going on a leisure trip.

He's not starting an adventure; there would not be a place it in for her anyway.

Her pleading look though reminds him of his childhood, when he was constantly seeking his brother's attention. He didn't imagine that his beloved brother was spying both the Hokage and the Uchiha, trying to stop a coup d'état, losing his best friend for the cause, and sacrificing everything for his future. He was too young and ignorant to understand why his brother always kept him away.

Unlike the child he was, Sakura is not so young and she's not ignorant anymore.

Her feelings for him are not a mystery. His lack of isn't, either. He has never been interested in her.

Not romantically. Not even as a comrade, for most of the time they had been in the same team.

Now that he has come back he has learned to feel gratitude towards her, who forgave him for every single time she had been mistreated. She is family too, like Naruto and Kakashi.

Something close to a little sister craving for attentions.

That's why he makes a gesture he has only received: he pokes the girl's forehead saying he will come back.

It's not exactly what his brother used to tell him. Itachi tried to spend time with him, but he was called back to more important matters almost every time, so he would jokingly poke his forehead, promising to make up "next time". It was his gentle way of keeping him at distance, of shielding his little brother from the terrible situation he was living.

It's not that he cares or wants to protect Sakura, unlike Itachi did to him. He surely doesn't love her like Itachi loved him, like he loved –and loves- Itachi.

Kakashi said he should start giving back to his friends, show them gratitude. This is the right moment to do it.

Not having received much kindness in his life, he can only imitate Itachi's, even if it doesn't have the same meaning.

His brother entrusted him to Naruto to make him live in Konoha, surrounded by friends and comrades. It's what he wanted, and he cannot fail him.

Itachi was perfect. Therefore, he acts like him.

It was about time, says Naruto, the Seventh Hokage, when Sasuke's journey of redemption is over.

He traveled so much. He traveled so alone. He's tired and lonely.

He saw the world and its people, parents, friends, sisters, brothers –brother –and he was always alone.

He looked for team Taka and Orochimaru, but he never managed to find them. The world was bigger than he expected. His route had been set with indications to guide him, even after he had taken some wrong turns, after all.

Konoha is bigger and more prosperous than ever. The atmosphere is different too. Shinobi look more relaxed, almost happy. After all the deaths they want to think about life, they all say. That's why many of his friends and comrades are married.

Like Naruto.

Kakashi, who retired early but is still a precious advisor, tells him that it's time to settle down like the others.

That there is someone who has waited for him since he left the village –to kill his own brother and learn too late that everything he knew about him was a lie. To change his path and destroy the village that turned his brother's life into living hell and made him miserable –in spite of all the times he mistreated her.

She deserves to be loved back. It's his responsibility to make her happy.

His redemption journey may be over, but he still has to make things right with the ones he hurt the most, adds Naruto.

It's weird to hear him talk like this, not only because he was the one always in love with Sakura, when they were younger. He's the Hokage and his words sound like an order.

Itachi would have wanted him in Konoha living a normal life, which is also made of this.

He never paid attention to girls. He had no time for petty thoughts. He was an avenger.

He only thought about his brother.

He always thought about his brother.

This is for him. This is what he wanted, Sasuke tells himself when he asks Sakura to marry him.

She is confused, and delighted, even if there is no holding hands or kisses under the moonlight.

Sasuke is not that kind of person anyway. He finally accepted to stay with her. He will be hers forever, that only matters.

The Seventh Hokage rebuilds the Uchiha shrine as Konoha's tribute to his lost family.

There is no secret room underground. And the truth is still unknown to most of the people. And those who know aren't interest in it.

During the ceremony an old memory resurfaces in Sasuke's mind: his father, saying that marriage was a serious thing that had nothing to do with love. His mother, half jokingly scolding him for his words. Itachi, bowing his head. He had been betrothed and had no right to object.

In a week they would all be dead anyway.

Kakashi's speech was not so different, the young men muses. He owes Sakura happiness, and he owes Konoha peace. This way he can do what's expected of him and get something in exchange.

The restoration of the Uchiha clan. Didn't he say he wanted it?

Sasuke is bound to the village not only as a shinobi but also as a husband and a father.

If the massacre hadn't been forced upon Itachi's shoulders this is how he would live too. Even if Sasuke has no clan to lead, and his daughter would change her name when married.

Nobody cared anymore about keeping the bloodline pure and strong, in the aftermath of the war, when everybody only wanted to live, and love.

If Itachi had lived, if nobody had been killed, he would have been a wonderful clan leader. His wife would have had the same blood. His children…

He doesn't know why the thought of his brother with a family makes him uncomfortable.

Is it because he's afraid that, just like Naruto, Itachi would not be close to him anymore if he had a family?

Is the thought of his brother being intimate with someone disturbing?

Sakura is a mother and a housewife now.

She's mature; she doesn't complain when Sasuke volunteers to patrol borders and outer areas, that take him far away from home most of the time.

She doesn't smother him with her undying love when her husband is more silent than usual.

She doesn't even ask what's wrong. She wouldn't listen anyway. She never did.

He wouldn't answer. Or would he?

Would Sasuke tell her that suddenly when he was alone in the woods he felt like his life was one of those dreams where one sees himself falling down a precipice knowing that it's not real but still being terrified, not being able to save himself and not being able to wake up either?

But he is awake and things are painfully clear.

He's trapped.

He's bound to the village and to a woman he never cared for.

He's thrown away his ideals. He's living a lie.

The friend who promised to change the system with him –if he stopped rebelling –is the symbol of that very system and the only thing that he changed is their friendship.

Naruto gets angry at him for talking like that.

Is it because Sasuke is disrespecting him, or because he doesn't love Sakura?

With a stern look the Kyuubi vessel says that the Hyuuga clan could be dangerous if unsatisfied. Their heiress married to the Hokage was a peaceful way to keep them loyal to the village.

Not all revolutions are violent and chaotic. Some are slow paced and silent.

Sasuke wonders when Naruto has become so pragmatic. So much to give up on his special person and chose a more convenient one.

He doesn't know that it wasn't his idea.

The sixth Hokage Hatake Kakashi was not just smart. He was cunning.

He had forced into the Uchiha the idea that the truth about Itachi was not as important as Konoha's safety, that he had to redeem himself for having tried to change things, even if it was so that no Uchiha massacre would happen again.

He knew that it was useless to fight against Sasuke, for he was too strong. He also knew that it was a risk to put their trust in him, for he was too unpredictable. The only way to manage him was to weaken him, or, since that option was out of his reach, to make him feel weak.

Kakashi was Anbu. He was a keen observer and a fine strategist, and just as he knew Naruto's need to be constantly acknowledged from every single person he met, he knew Sasuke's loneliness and his need to stop running, so he guilt-tripped him into becoming the person he wanted. Someone who wouldn't be a liability for Konoha, the same village for which he turned Naruto and Sakura into pawns.

The Copy Ninja loved Konoha more than his pupils.

Danzo died claiming he always loved Konoha. Kakashi isn't different.

Both alone, both manipulators, one hid in the shadows and killed swiftly, leaving a trail of blood, the other hid behind a mask of lies, and killed slowly, leaving a trail of minds and hearts unable to properly function anymore.

A/N:

I make clear distinctions between "who tops" and "who bottoms", not just because of sex, but because they mean much more: Domination, submission, power, control. I'm talking about these.

This fic used to be my first and last attempt to write Sasuita.

Before I wrote my own fics I was heavily into this dynamic but once I started writing it, my understanding of both Sasuke and Itachi became sharper and different. Writing is amazing, if done with the right concentration, even after the plot is thoroughly planned out, the characters move on their own, explaining themselves in a way the author didn't expect at first. So the more I wrote the more I thought about canon moments, the more I understood them better and the more I changed my mind about this dynamic.

Yet this was the first fic I wrote for Itachi and Sasuke, and it was also about an ending that had made me feel really bad, and it was uploaded after the ending, when Gaiden was being released, and I had friends and readers with strong Sasuita-ish opinions, and I used to write the same opinions on my blog. Somehow I felt a sort of pressure to write what they expected because it was what I expected from myself too, because it was what I initially planned out. Back then I used to hate Itasasu clichés but I wasn't satisfied with the average Sasuita fic either, so in my writing I tried to fix what I felt as flaws of this dynamic, but the more I kept writing the more I felt like I was forcing unneeded Sasuita into the story.

For a long time I felt uncomfortable thinking about this story. I first wrote and uploaded it after the ending, during Gaiden; I later rejected all that period because it brings bad personal memories of my life in and out of the fandom. I ended up associating this fic with that period and those people and it's wrong, since this is my work, so working on it again also meant taking back something that belongs to me only, and cleaning it from everything that taints it. Now I feel it's fitting for how I see Itachi and Sasuke's bond, finally. And I also feel that I took the story back to myself, taking it away from awful memories of a few awful people.

Back to Itachi and Sasuke though!

This observation is not meant to bash other authors, but to justify my choices.

The reason I was into Sasuita was mostly because I disliked most Itasasu fanfics where Itachi is possessive, jealous and vain, while Sasuke whiny and slutty. I think that Sasuke is naive in a different way, and Itachi is protective to the point of being harsh if he deems it necessary, but not possessive. He growled, in the original onomatopeia, when Kabuto mentions Sasuke as his prey (thanks to Blueviolin on tumblr for pointing this out!), which speaks volumes on how protective he is, but it's not jealousy and not possessiveness.

As for Sasuita, it's a common fan opinion that Sasuke telling Danzo "don't you dare talk about Itachi" is a proof of how possessive he is over him, and I kind of fell into that cliché too, for a while. Actually Sasuke was protecting Itachi's name and honor from being disrespected. There was no jealousy or possessiveness in him, not as a kid, when Itachi spent more time with Shisui than with him and he only lived on Itachi's crumbs of attention, not as an avenger, when he was about to attack those who spoke ill of his brother, not when Edo Tensei Itachi himself is leaving him, when at first he yells at him, trying to tell him that he is his responsibility, because he wants Itachi to take care of him, but then he accepts his will, with great sadness but respectfully, without jealousy. His love is not possessive at all. He adores Itachi, he put him on a pedestal and he put himself below, not at the same level.

The way I see it, Sasuke wants Itachi to take care of him, to lead him. Not the other way round. Sasuke accepts Itachi's lead against Kabuto so naturally, and Itachi just as naturally gives him orders. Sasuke is Itachi's younger brother, he has been raised as such. As a subordinate, sort of. Itachi has been raised to lead, his brother, his team, his clan. Sasukerespects force, and he respects his brother and would accept the submission because he accepts Itachi's role. Because he doesn't really want to lead. He wants Itachi to lead instead. He wants Itachi to show his dominance, his strength, because he respects, admires and loves strength, and he respects, admires and loves Itachi. I don't think Sasuke wants to be in control either because why would he, when Itachi is with him?

Another misconception, in my opinion, is that Itachi is not passive and Sasuke is not assertive: Itachi is actually very assertive, as he has always controlled the environment and engaged with it actively, so much that he controlled every single aspect of Sasuke's life, so much that he literally decided when and how to die. He is calm and polite, thus many see him as passive. On the contrary they see Sasuke as assertive because he acts bratty and arrogant, and he always moves around. But it's wrong. He is passive. His many actions are actually reactions to what life (Itachi mostly) throws at him, he doesn't engage the environment or try to control things first. He has strong goals and he's determined, but that aside he's constantly swung around by new truths and circumstances, and especially in relationships he always lets the others take control.

Another misconception, again, is the whole arrogant Sasuke and humble-weakling-dorky Itachi. While I like if it's done for fun, in serious stories it's just...nope. Itachi is not weak, it's pretty obvious. And he's extremely self-confident and self-reliant. He did everything on his own because he was a genius who always saw himself as better than others. And he hated to lose it's said. Sasuke had self-esteem problems on the contrary. He acts bratty and arrogant at times but he doesn't have the same confidence that Itachi, or Naruto, have in themselves. He constantly improves but he never deems himself enough, because he has been neglected by Fugaku, because to everyone he used to be not as good as Itachi, because Itachi called him worthless, because Naruto got stronger in short time.

And I am tired of this psycho Sasuke/submissive Itachi. I just can't see it anymore...I like mentally disturbed Sasuke, and Itachi who submits to a "figure of authority" but this is different. I can't help but see Sasuke as having a masochistic side, not a sadistic dominating one, and I can't help but see Itachi's controlling side and his old brother side stronger than his submissive side.

This is another reason why I think Itasasu is a better choice, for how I see them.

About this chapter. The ending left too many plot holes and didn't do justice not only to my beloved Sasuke but also to Naruto and Sakura. I don't hate her but I hate her with Sasuke.

The main idea for this story came to my mind a few months ago before the ending, the original idea was that Sasuke came back to Konoha and didn't obtain justice, and Naruto more or less "abandoned" him to his destiny, much like it seems in canon, not defending him against Kakashi's scolding and not preventing him to leave again. In my story though, Sakura got over him and went on with her own life, before the plot developed.

I am really angry at how Sakura regressed to her old self, and since I used to be (and I still am) a kakasasu shipper since the start, I'm really angry at Kakashi for how he talked to Sasuke, he really seemed a part of the old system, that's why I turned him into a new Danzo.

I think that he might have made the difference in the way Sasuke was treated in the end. He knew everything about him, he met Obito again, and Minato too, so he should have come out of the war totally changed, his views on everything challenged and matured, instead he stayed the same, or rather he shut down from everyone. It's a sort of retraumatization instead of a healing. He got attached to the old rules instead of evolving for the best, and that's bad for its consequences on others like Sasuke and Naruto but also on him.