foxkage:

@uchihasavior

Naruto offers Itachi a smile.

“Sasuke must be stoked you’re here,” he says scratching his cheek. The smile dims somewhat.  More than stoked he tells himself. Shaking that thought from his mind, Naruto finds himself unable to say anything for a moment. 

Until he finally remembers the question he wanted to ask when he found out somehow Uchiha Itachi was with them. 

“How did ya…yanno not go with the others by the way?” 

Itachi does not miss the falter in Naruto’s expression. Thinks about what it could mean, for a few moments, during the time Naruto seems stuck for his next question.

He’ll bring it up later, perhaps.

“I did. At least, for some time.’ He clearly remembers saying goodbye. Returning to the other world.

“I then found myself at the floor of the cave. At least two years have passed since then.” The village he once called his home, rebuilt. The war, over, hopefully for the last time. And his brother….traveling.

Though Itachi would stand by any decision his brother made, he was hoping that Sasuke would return, and make a home there, and stay. He hasn’t actually seen his brother, yet. 

But he also doesn’t plan on hiding.

“You wouldn’t happen to know his whereabouts, perhaps.” A rough answer is fine, he doesn’t expect an exact location. Itachi knows he can’t go back to the village. With asking Naruto to hide the truth, he’s just a criminal walking in, somehow still alive.