First chapter's rewritten, for anyone who cares to read it~
Warnings and disclaimers on first chapter.

ooooooooooooooooooo

Itachi felt his lips quirk upward, unsure exactly of the emotion he should feel. There was relief, a subtle, surprising response that bubbled up involuntarily with Naruto's ultimatum.
-Shock.-
He reeled in the thought of what he just asked of the blond boy, telling him to abandon his ninja dream, or never see Itachi again. To the Uchiha himself, perhaps the outcome seemed simple. But as he watched the boy ponder, staring at the headband he prided himself upon owning with a profound gaze that he wasn't aware that Naruto was even capable of, let alone to take in the staggering choice that was not weighed upon him.
-Shame.-
And how could he, exactly, push that upon the boy? Naruto was certainly not him. He had always been the pride of his clan, a prodigy. While Naruto was not without his prodigal moments, the blond could never comprehend the amount of times that Itachi had been forced to make such a descision by the time he was half the boy's age.
Naruto was frail. The childishly arrogant front that he so haughtily waved about was merely a membrane to the deep rooted hurt that thorned its way across his skin. He wasn't so different from Itachi himself and at times, the Uchiha could swear he saw his own thorns of fragility sprout off and intertwine with Naruto's own.

There was a sound that cut him short, something subtle, almost helpless, hidden behind a pitiful attempt to mask what was undoubtedly a sob. Itachi looked down at his charge, sharp eyes catching sight of the liquid crystal that fell from his eyes.
The boy had started to cry.
Itachi frowned, his actions and expressions unhindered by the cloak he normally wore. Akatsuki's trademark long but abandoned, he had taken to controlling them himself, rather than using the collar as a proxy to impede his inevitable humanity.
But years of apathy could not prepare him for this.

The tears of a young boy, devoted by a feeling he could not comprehend, to a man who had, put brusquely, kidnapped and raped him senseless. He had abandoned his dreams, for the man of his nightmares.
Itachi looked off to the side, purposely averting his eyes from the surface of the river. He couldn't bear to see his reflection, not with Naruto so horrendously crestfallen.

He took care not to disturb the surface of the headband as he knelt down to pick it up, though held it as if the surface burned him. It knew the touch of a traitor. Perhaps Naruto could forgive but the spirit of Konoha would never forgive him.
"I will never see the inside of my birth village again." He murmured, holding the object as close to his chest as he would allow himself.
This seemed to grab Naruto's attention. Focused suddenly on something outside the gravity of his descisions, he watched as the older man's oddly cryptic words and even more unorthodox emotional gestures thrust him into a surrounding parallel to Naruto's own.
Was this….remorse? He could hear the man's voice echo in his mind, effortlessly stating that there was not a single thing he had done that he regretted, but there had to have been something. No one, not even Itachi, lived without regret.

"Are you alright..?"
His words seemed to shock Itachi, his expression for a moment forgetting altogether that Naruto was even there. There was something strangely unexplainable written across his face, something that could have vaguely resembled embarrassment.
Itachi cleared his throat, getting to his feet with enough swiftness to cover his odd behavior.
"I'm fine." He spoke, handing the headband to the blond and turning before Naruto could register his face. Confused, Naruto squeezed his hands around the metal gently, feeling the edges impress into his skin.
Itachi didn't wait for a response, "You don't need to martyr away your prized possessions. Keep it with you, for memories."

If nothing else, his words seemed to reassure Naruto somewhat. The tears had all but vanished, leaving only twin trails that shimmered in sunlight on his cheeks.
It was somewhat…cute.
Itachi stifled a chuckle. He must have no words left to describe.
"Kaipeitan's in the North. If we start now, we can make it within two days."
As he spoke, Itachi reached up and unwraveled the ties to his slashed headband, becoming a traitor to the traitors. Naruto watched him with awe as he blew flames onto the material, crumbling the fabric to dust. Before it reached the metal surface, Itachi dropped it, watching the fire lap the sides of the steel, and singe it beyond restoration.
"There's no going back for me. But you, I won't force to stay. If at any time, you wish to leave, and return to your ninja ways, I will not stop you. You are no longer my captive. You are my companion, bound to me only by your own free will."
"I know."
"I just thought I would emphasize."

Naruto trotted up beside Itachi, smiling with a softness that blurred away his rough edged personality. He could see far beyond the surface of his former captor. It scared Itachi to the point where he almost hoped Naruto would change his mind. No one, not even Sasuke, had ever grown to know him so well inside.
"Well!" The blond began, stretching his arms high above his head, "The longer we wait, the quicker they'll catch up to us! So what do you say we head off?"
His nomadic mentor let himself show the faintest trace of amusement.
"Best idea I've heard all day."

oooooooooooo

The sun had far past set, by the time Sakura Haruno made her way back to a crackling campfire, situated in the cramped clearing of trees. Her group was awkwardly positioned around it, with the exception of Tsukuru, who had suspiciously kept to himself since the ordeal had even begun.
"That guy isn't right."
Eerily mimicking her thought, Sakura turned to face the rotund Chouji, eyeing the solitary shinobi between fistfuls of food. "I've got a gut feeling that guy isn't right."
"You've got gut feelings about everything Chouji." Shikamaru mused, lazily slumping his body beside the worn bark of the closest tree. "But I do agree. There's something suspicious about him."
Sakura made her presence known to the gathering, settling into the bare space beside Neji, and wrapping her knees close to her chest. "I think there's something off about ROOT in general, with the exception of Sai of course."
Sai seemed unfazed by her words, unsurprisingly. He raised his calm, onyx eyes from the book in his lap, a faint smile the only window into his mind. "I have never even heard of this man before, in all my years of ROOT."
There was a stilled silence after that, though the unanimous look of concern swept over them like a thick musk fog.
"There's someone watching us."
Always the silent one, all eyes were upon Neji, the raised veins around his eyes indicative of Byakugan's activation. Sakura cautiously reached for a kunai in her holster, eyeing her teammates similar battle preparations.
Within the fastest blink of an eye, before any of them could even register the shock, a breathtakingly inhuman movement had nearly formed before them. Smooth like an apparition, Tsukuru was upon the movement, axe in hand. He swung it without hesitation upon a large tree, effortlessly splitting the massive bark wide open, and forcing a figure upward. They followed the movement of the exposed form, watching it manifest into a form that—put simply—shocked the younger shinobi.

Towering above the now standing group, a sharp toothed grin spread wide across the scaled skin, threatening to split his head in two. Neji above all seemed the most surprised, taking a step back with unobstructed horror.
"You! You're the fish man we battled in the desert!"
Kisame chuckled, having no more room to grin. "Yes, I remember you as well. Bloodline boy. You were that ridiculous man's student. But I have no business with you all today. I'm here on a search mission. And by the looks of things, we're after the same targets.
Sakura seemed confused "Wait, we're after the same targets?"
"Of course, since I'm sure you don't want to assist me in their capture, I am only here to warn you all. Do not mess with Akatsuki's affairs. We don't have time for childish hide-and-seek. Should any one of you get in my way, I will murder you all."
As if to accentuate his point, the blade of Tsukuru's hammer smashed into the ground, severed at its base. Tsukuru himself made no indicative of shock, only staring at the splintered remnants of what was once a weapon.
Kisame heaved the sword none had seen him unsheathe over his back, smirking at the dumbfounded looks upon the shinobi's faces.
"Child's play." He murmured, and was gone in an instant.

They were at a loss for words. The wind, gentle and stagnant on that particular night suddenly felt as if it howled with unparalleled ferocity. Shikamaru slumped against the tree, looking shocked out of all cohesive sound.
It was Chouji who broke the mold of silence, only then realizing that in his surprise, he had crumbled the chips in his food bag within his impressive grip.
"So he's looking for Itachi?"
"Which means something isn't right." Neji finished, returning to his poised composure. "They were a team, and both of them should be in possession of Naruto."
Sakura pulled back strands of hair from her sweaty forehead, surprised at how the disparity of the situation weighed thick on her conscience. Kisame seemed stronger than normal, to a frightening degree.
"So…" she began, "you think that Itachi defected somehow?"
"Maybe. But why? And why take Naruto, if he's not a part of Akatsuki?"
"Maybe it's a trap." Sai quipped, spiraling the group into another convoluted train of thought.
Shikamaru sighed loudly, sliding his body onto the rocky ground. "The more we think about this, the more troublesome it gets."

Sakura didn't want to admit that he was right. Turning away from the crowd to hide her frown, she wandered towards the edge of the clearing, overstepping the abandoned ruins of Tsukuru's axe. The mysterious ROOT ninja poised himself upon the branch of a tree, peering deeply into the black expanse of forest, as if to see movement.
"I want to thank you for flushing Kisame out of the clearing like that. You saved us from what could have been a big crisis."
Tsukuru said nothing, hardly acknowledging Sakura's presence. Mildly annoyed, she stepped closer to the tree, placing herself directly under the branch at which he sat.
"You know you don't have to be up there all alone. You can join us if you want. It's a lot warmer over there and-"
"You damn idiot."
The cherry blossom blinked, taken aback at his words. It was the first thing she'd heard him speak, since he had mentioned his name to Tsunade back at the village. "Pardon me?"
Tsukuru jumped from the branch, landing only inches from Sakura's face. His steely eyes were even more frigid with scorn, like the raging torrent of a tundra.
"What the hell do you think this is, playtime? You're on a mission against some of the most powerful shinobi in the nation, and you want to sit around nonchalantly in front of a campfire? Had I not done anything, we would have had a casualty in the first night, and while I don't particularly care for your lives, it's your skills in this mission that I can't afford to lose."
Rage bubbled up within the short fused kunoichi, her fingers digging sharply into her palms, "Why the fuck are you even here then? We're here to save a friend. A good friend. Someone near and dear to all our hearts. You? You're just following this for your group's own personal gain, because I sincerely doubt Danzo would offer his services to us because of his generousity."
"Lord Danzo's objectives are none of our concern. I am to see that Uzumaki is returned to the village, and Uchiha is apprehended properly. Whether or not you all live to help me is up to yourselves. I won't be playing hero any further."
Quick as he'd come, Tsukuru regained his previous position upon the tree. Sakura stood, rooted in place, arms quivering with frustration. The trail of patience only carried the cherry blossom so far. She wheeled around to an unoccupied tree beside her, splitting the bark in two with a mighty roar. She didn't care that Tsukuru was directly beside her, and she hadn't even heard her friends' cries of surprise as the now demolished tree fell, sending a snap echoing through the forest.
She'd never been so angry in her entire life.

The other men didn't bother to question why she had been muttering with a seething rage upon her return. It was easy enough to guess why, and the fury of Sakura Haruno was one they never wanted to envoke.
Leaving her to her devices, Shikamaru pulled himself up from his resting position, letting his eyes watch the flames dance across the slowly shriveling firewood. He wasn't sure how, but it was at that moment that the dire situation came full circle in his mind.
They truly were up the creek.
"We should rest until morning. We've got to get up early to keep pursuit." He suggested. It was hardly a solution, but anything was better than watching the morale drop any further.
No one had any qualms with that.

oooooooooooooooooo

"Itachi."
"Yes?"
"What do you think of me?"
The crimson renegade lifted his head toward the younger speaker, the spit in which he roasted their dinner stilling movement.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean…do you think I'm stupid?"
An obsidian brow quirked, genuine confusion flickered across a glossy, carmine surface.
"Why would I?"
"Well, I honestly don't think my friends consider me all that smart. Most of them usually think I'm just a moron and…I don't know…I just wanted to see what you felt."
"This is an odd topic to bring up."
Naruto smiled softly, though there was a somewhat melancholy thorn piercing a normally idealistic expression. The cheery child Itachi was used to hearing about disappeared with the last of his ninja life.
"It's actually been bothering me for a while…"
"Well, if it helps any, I don't."
"I'm not stupid Itachi, I promise."
He peered through the ebony curtain of fringe at his sullen charge, coming to his side quicker than Naruto could register. There was a tension that hung among them, though not an uncomfortable tension. It felt almost expectant.
The eerie chorus of crickets over took their silence, accompanied only by the crackle of the fire at their feet.
Comfortingly, Itachi slid his arm around the boy's shoulder, letting the blond head come to rest on his shoulder. He closed his eyes and moved no more, letting Naruto himself settle into the position.
"Itachi…"
Another troubled tone. Itachi gently let his palm rest on the apex of Naruto's head, tilting his head closer.
"Yes?" He questioned, not unkindly.
"Will you be weirded out if I said I loved you?"
"I…"

For the first time in years, Itachi had been rendered speechless. He watched Naruto—who for reason of embarrassment or some other emotion, refused to look Itachi in the eye—still his movement, waiting for a response. The boy's fists clenched tightly, his body hunched in anticipation of stark rejection.
But Itachi had no idea what to say.
He had been horrible to the boy. The lingering sentiment of what he once was to Naruto would always remain, no matter how long it would take time to mend the wounds. The fear in a young boy's eyes as he looked upon him with terror…Itachi could never forget that.

Perhaps love was the answer to why he stayed. Why—even after all Itachi had put him through—he abandoned the one thing that kept him going, and rose him from a world of loneliness, into a world of hatred.
Naruto had a new thing to keep him going.
There was a fondness Itachi had for the sun-kissed boy that he could simply not explain. Something that ran deeper through his heart than any other.
Was it love?
Could he, in the short time he'd journeyed with the boy, have truly fallen for him?

"I'd never be weirded out Naruto."
His words seemed to evoke a shivering sigh from the blond, stiffened joints relaxing near simultaneously. The strange emotional turbulence unnerved the Uchiha, who had long since boxed away his feelings.
"It does confuse me though." He continued "I've done terrible things to you. I even forced myself on you. But you don't fear me. You don't even dislike me. Now you're telling me you love me?"
"I can't explain it. You did scare me those nights…and I don't think I could ever see myself under you comfortably for some time, but I just…want to be around you. It's this autonomous feeling. Just earlier, the thought of coming back to the village, and never see you again…it felt awful. I never want it to happen. I never want to never see you again."
"Well then Naruto, would it weird you out if I told you I loved you too?"
The blond fox perked his head up, staring into his companion's eyes. For the first time since he'd met Itachi, there was a calm gentleness about them. A serene confirmation that the man truly meant what he said.
Naruto snuggled in closer to the Uchiha, staring up into the blanket of stars strewn about above them.
"Of course not."