Search For Truth

Silver: Hey there, everyone! Sorry that the other fanfictions have been…Uh…Slow.

Gaara: Idiot.

Silver: So mean…Anyway…Hinata! Take it away!

Hinata: All Naruto characters do NOT belong to Silver Kiramoto in any way outside of this fanfiction. All events portrayed here are completely fictional and in no way associated with real/published events. Thank you and enjoy.

Mustang/Shoots Silver/

Silver: X.x

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Sasuke stared vaguely at the cloud filled sky, gray and dull during the few moments before the first bell of school. Today was the day he had left five years before. Naruto Uzumaki. He remembered when they had met…

The little three-year-old walked in, bright blue eyes wandering without much emotion, thumb stuck in his mouth. Strange whisker marks were on his cheeks, drawing the attention of the Uchiha.

"He says his name is Naruto Uzumaki, but there's nothing on file for that name," an attendant for the orphanage explained to someone, Sasuke didn't know who it was. "Nothing except that his legal guardian is Itachi Uchiha."

"Itachi?! Sasuke's brother?" The other person exclaimed. "But no one has contacted him in years!" Sasuke stared at the others, but he couldn't remember his brother. He had left when Sasuke was still a baby

No longer interested, the raven-haired youth looked again at the little blonde, Naruto, who was determined to keep his thumb in place. "Who are you?" Sasuke had asked, black eyes expressionless. The blonde paused, as if trying to remember. He was wondering if he should remove the thumb that gave him comfort.

"Namumo," he said, thumb still in place, with a smile and a little bit of spit sliding down his chin. Sasuke's eyes furrowed

"Dobe."

Tears stung at his eyes, and he wiped them away in surprise. The bell rang, then, and he walked to homeroom with Iruka-sensei. He sat in his usual spot, barely paying attention to the room around him. He only ever gave mind to two people; his best friends Gaara Subakuno and Hinata Hyuuga. As he rummaged about in his backpack, Iruka-sensei began to take roll. Sasuke only heard a few of the names, of which were:

"Lee Rock?"

"Present!"

"Hyuuga Hinata?"

"Here, Sensei."

"Hyuuga Neji?"

"Present…"

"Subakuno Gaara?"

"….Yea…"

"Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Here."

"Uzumaki Naruto?"

Sasuke looked up at the sound of that familiar name, and wasn't sure if he had heard right. He scanned the room, and quickly spotted the spiky-haired blonde with the whisker marks on his face. The boy looked bored and uninterested, his vest hung over his shoulder as he said, "You were talking to me five seconds ago. Do you have to call me, Sensei?"

As Iruka-sensei began to lecture him, Naruto had allowed his eyes to wander and, eventually, land on the raven-hair who watched him. There was a moment of surprise that Sasuke saw in which Naruto had realized who he was. Then a look of disappointment-or was it sadness?-before he looked away.

/Why did he turn?/ Sasuke wondered when he noticed Hinata was staring at him intently. "What?" He asked, eyebrow raise din question.

Hinata laughed, shrugging. "Just sort of wondering what you were thinking," she replied. "Since your boyfriend is back and all." Sasuke's only reaction was to playfully glare at his friend.

"I think I liked you better when you were shy and talked quietly," he growled back. Then his face grew solemn and slightly worried. "But I think something's wrong with him. He doesn't look at me."

Hinata and Gaara were the only two people he trusted enough to tell that he and Naruto had been in the same orphanage together until they were about thirteen. Sasuke's parents had been mysteriously murdered, and Naruto had no birth records to begin with. After the blonde had left to search for his secret life, a man named Orochimaru and his son, Kabuto, had adopted Sasuke, who was heir to a large fortune, business, and estate.

"This might be the lack of sleep talking," Gaara muttered, eyes half-closed. "But I think you need to find what's up. I mean, you two haven't seen each other in, what, five years? Damn it, and you've been friends since you were just out of diapers."

Sasuke sighed, shrugging. He had a feeling Naruto would obviously try to avoid him today; that was just his personality. He turned as he heard the girl, Sakura, begin speaking to Naruto.

"Oh no!" She cried. "Naruto, I left my pencil at home and I really need to finish this assignment. Could you ask Iruka-sensei for one for me? I've asked too many times for him to be patient with me anymore."

Naruto was frozen for a moment, for he noticed there was no way for him to slip past Sasuke, since the raven-hair sat in the front of the class. Sighing, he stood and walked towards sensei's desk, so far avoiding contact with the boy who stared at him so intently. But as he made his way back, Sasuke took hold of his wrist, and forced the blonde to face him.

Silence engulfed those around them, who stared in curiosity at their class rep, Sasuke, and the new, temperamental blonde whose face was suddenly filled with surprise and nervousness.

Finally, Sasuke broke the silence. "Dobe," he said. And that was all. Smiling, though it seemed to be with some regret, Naruto laughed.

"Teme," he replied, and walked back to Sakura.

For most of the day until lunch, that was all the contact Sasuke could seem to make with Naruto. They had two other classes during this time; math and history. Both of which, Naruto was titled a complete and total dumbass. Still, the blonde ignored his past friend as if something was troubling him.

When the lunch bell rang, Sasuke followed Naruto outside, where the blonde was about to run off towards a café for the lunch period. However, Sasuke pulled the boy into the shadows, where he trapped him against the wall by placing his arms on both sides of him.

"Okay, Naruto," Sasuke growled with irritation. "You've been avoiding me all day. What the crap is going on?! I haven't seen your happy self in five freaking years, and then you come off as if you don't know me?"

"It's hard to explain, Sasuke," Naruto muttered, looking away.

"How the hell is it hard to explain?" Sasuke was almost screaming at the blonde, his rage that had built up taking him over. "How hard is it to say, "Sasuke, how's it going?" or, "Sasuke, I don't want to talk about things right now?" I mean, seriously! You're such a freaking idiot sometimes!"

"You don't even know what the hell you're talking about!" Naruto snapped back, annoyed himself. "Things are just a little hard to explain right now, at this moment. Meet me after school, and things will be easier, okay?" There was a moment of silence, where the only sound was cars driving past and students gossiping.

"Promise you wont run?" Sasuke asked, eyebrows furrowed. Naruto nodded. "Cause you know I'll hunt your ass down, don't you? I'm almost eighteen, I'll have the money to sick a freaking detective squad on you."

"Chill, Sasuke," Naruto said, laughing with happiness once again. "I wont run off. I have something too important I need to show you." At that moment Sasuke planted a small kiss on the blonde, who turned beet red at the action. When he pulled away, Naruto muttered, "Please don't start that up again now, Sasuke."

Sasuke shrugged and released his captive, allowing the boy to get himself some lunch before the bell rang. "Meet me at the flag pole, okay, dobe?" Naruto only waved him off as he rushed towards the café. The Uchiha shook his head, chuckling. "Same old Naruto. Food first, talk later."

Once the sixth period bell rang, Sasuke was out of the door and texting Hinata and Orochimaru on his cell phone. To Hinata he explained that he had to cut out on their study session today; midterms were coming up, after all. To Orochimaru, he explained he was staying at a friend's house that night; he had decided he would either spend the night checking out Naruto's place or, if he was somehow kicked out, he would head over to Gaara's.

Naruto stood outside, leaning casually against the flagpole. Sasuke was interested in how the school's uniform seemed to clash greatly with the boy's spiky blonde hair, but went perfectly with his bright blue eyes.

The boy's uniform was a soft sky blue, with dark green lining the sleeves, collar, and end of the shirt. A red tie and tan pants completed it. An ugly thing, really. The girls wore basically the same thing, except instead of pants they wore dark green skirts.

"Naruto," Sasuke called out, pulling the boy out of his daydreaming state of mind. "Lets go, dobe." The blonde stared at him crossly for a moment before leading him away. They walked all the way to an old market area, where the buildings were ancient and the paint was chipping off in places. It made the Uchiha, who was used to a life of finery, cringe at the thought that his friend lived in such a place.

But it was one building that caught his interest. Though it was old like the structures surrounding it, the off-white paint was still new. A large sign was above the door. In red letters against a black background, cursive letters spelled out:

Akatsuki Clothing and Design

Looking away from the sign, he could see that the door to the shop was open, and girls ranging from middle school to college crowded around beautifully hand-made clothes. Judging by the designs, it was easy for him to tell that at least the owner must be of Japanese heritage.

Suddenly, a lovely woman with blonde hair and dark eyes tackled Naruto, causing the younger blonde to laugh. "Hey, Deidara!" He said happily as the older blonde ruffled his hair. If Sasuke was confused before, he was shocked when he heard the woman's voice next.

"Naru-chan, who's your friend?" This fair person was not a woman, but a man!

"This is Sasuke, Itachi's brother," the younger boy replied. Sasuke blinked, having lost memory of what Naruto was talking about for the moment. Then…

"Where's niisan?" Sasuke had been two, and just entered the orphanage. "Itachi-niisan, where is he?" The social worker looked at the boy sympathetically as he rambled in his family's native tongue.

"We're looking for him," she replied kindly. "Then you'll go to live with him and Itachi will take care of you."

But he never did come. No one could find him, he moved around far too much. Itachi had never known the fate of the family he left behind, nor the brother who would be put up for adoption.

"I….Itachi?" Sasuke whispered, as if it weren't true. Naruto nodded solemnly.

"I found him after I left," the blonde explained. Sasuke wanted to question further, but Naruto had already run up the stairs to the second floor. Following, Sasuke found himself in a large bedroom with a balcony that looked over the marketplace.

Naruto was pulling off his shirt, an orange man's kimono with a red fox wrapping around sat on the bed. Sasuke's head tilted slightly to the side when his friend spoke. "I work here as the cashier," Naruto explained as he began to put the kimono on. "Itachi and Deidara are teaching me how to make clothes, so soon I'll be taking orders myself. We're already swamped, it seems, and Sasori and Kisame have been working all night."

"Can I help?" Sasuke didn't really know why he asked, but it seemed to be the right idea. Naruto nodded and tossed a dark blue kimono with a black, red-eyed dragon wrapping around. "So you all wear the clothes for advertisement, right?" The blonde nodded, leading the raven-hair back down the stairs.

There was no time for talking right then, because customers from all over the city had flooded the small shop. Deidara gave orders to Sasuke, saying, "Do you know how to take measurements?" "Can you handle that girl, you know, the one with the red hair and pony-tail? Thanks." "Oh, crap…Sasuke, could you help this little girl? Her mom's somewhere around here."

Sasuke was exhausted by the time the last string of customers left. Naruto looked a little tired, but he seemed so used to the work that it didn't look like it phased him at all. The door's bell chimed, causing the boy to snap his attention to what looked like an older version of himself.

Itachi didn't give notice to his younger brother, but instead strode past him. Depositing his gray trench coat, he began to ask Naruto and Deidara how many orders were for him, sorry that he was missing, there was something about a new shipment of fabric that needed to be cleared up, and, oh, is dinner ready yet?

Deidara began chuckling slightly as Itachi continued, causing the older raven-hair to stop. "What's with you?" He asked, glaring slightly.

"Well, if I had a carbon copy in the room, I'd pay a bit more attention," he replied sharply. Itachi blinked, then looked over at Sasuke, who stared holes through his older brother.

"Oh," he remarked. "I see. This isn't good. I'll be hiding now." And thus the Uchiha walked off rather swiftly, and the sound of a door being shut stopped Sasuke from his idea of running after.

"Don't worry about him, he's just surprised and a bit nervous," Deidara reassured him. "He'll talk to you eventually, so don't get upset or anything." Sasuke nodded, and began to stare at the floor. "Why don't you stay the night, Hun? It's pretty late, and dinners almost ready anyway. Hey! Sasori! Kisame! Get your lazy asses out here and help me!"

Deidara disappeared into the door labeled "Employees Only", which Sasuke guessed must be part of the main living area. A red hair man, who the Uchiha had believed to be Gaara for a moment, emerged from the stairs with an irritated look on his face, followed by a black hair man with pale, almost blue, skin. They, too, disappeared behind the door and, soon, he could hear Deidara arguing with the redhead.

Naruto and Sasuke looked to each other, and silence cursed them once again for that day. Finally, Sasuke said, "So you found my brother, huh?"

"Yea…"

"How long have you been living with him and this bunch?"

"About five years, I think…"

Sasuke sighed and stood, causing Naruto to only stare in slight curiosity before being pulled into the Uchiha's embrace. "You know how freaking worried I was for you?" Sasuke hissed in the blonde's ear. "Not a letter or anything. I wanted to go with you so much, but you left anyway…"

Naruto was crimson in the face as his friend held him there for seconds, minutes…Sasuke leaned down to kiss him, and was inches away when…

"Dinner's ready!" Deidara was beaming with pride and delight before pausing to stare at the situation: Sasuke, angry and steaming, and Naruto, bright red and muttering. "What'd you do, Sasuke, propose to the kid?"

"Did not!" The boys snapped in perfect unison, causing the older blonde to laugh and shrug.

"Naru-chan, you shouldn't be ashamed to be gay," he said, only causing Naruto to turn a deeper shade of red. "I mean, look at Itachi and me. We're perfectly happy and—"

SMACK! Deidara was clutching his head with an angry Sasori behind him. "We do NOT need the details, Dei," he growled. "Every time you start talking like that, I end up with more images than I need!" Storming back into the kitchen, Deidara followed, shouting his anger at the redhead.

"Um, yea…" Naruto shrugged, chuckling nervously, looking over at Sasuke. "Itachi and Deidara are a couple, but Sasori and Kisame are straight. I think Sasori has a girlfriend or something." Sasuke sighed, walking into the kitchen, a confused blonde following him.

"Can we talk after dinner, Naruto?" He asked, glancing back just as he reached the door. Naruto hesitated before nodding grimly.

Dinner in this household was chaotic. And messy. Nothing at all like Sasuke's home life, where he usually ate with only Kabuto or no one at all. Here, it was necessary that EVERYONE eat together. It was frightening, but kind of fun, too.

Dinner was delicious, too, if not a strange combination of different food cultures. There was Japanese cuisine, along with Italian and French. Drinks ranged from sake to soda. Truth be told, it was more like a restaurant setting than just dinner for six people.

Good and drunk, Itachi was basically closed off from the real world so Sasuke couldn't talk to him at all. Instead, he almost died of laughter the way his older brother kept watching Deidara move about, coming in with new servings or drink for everyone. Occasionally Deidara would wink at the older Uchiha, and Naruto would shake his head and groan with embarrassment.

When Deidara and Itachi snuck off upstairs, and Sasori and Kisame disappeared into their rooms, Naruto and Sasuke began to clean up. "Naruto," Sasuke said after about ten minutes of silence. "What did you find out? I mean, about your family?" Naruto sighed, and looked down.

"Not a lot," he replied, putting a plate into the cupboard. "Just basically what Itachi told me. What he said was…"

It had been a warm day when Yondaime Uzumaki walked into the Uchiha home, where Itachi, Deidara, Sasori, and Kisame were talking with each other about the three month old, Sasuke. They turned their attention immediately to the eighteen-year-old and the blonde infant he carried.

"This is Naruto?" Itachi asked, peering at the face, not yet marked by whiskers, covered by blankets. "So Kono's really…?" Yondaime nodded, tears stinging his eyes.

"She died during childbirth," Yondaime muttered. "But I'm afraid it wasn't natural." When the children, only ten at this time, looked back with concern, Yondaime added, "I can't explain right now, but Naruto and I are in grave danger. I'm working on finding safety for Naruto, but…"

"Yondaime," Deidara looked worried. "You'll be okay, wont you, Yondaime?" The young man looked at his young friends gravely.

"I don't know," he said at last. "But, Itachi, there's something I have to ask you…" The group quietly left the room, allowing Itachi and their beloved Yondaime to speak. "Itachi. Will you be Naruto's godfather? I know you're young, but I also know you'll be good for him. And with Sasuke here, Naruto will have someone his own age to play with and grow up with."

"Yondaime—"

"Itachi, please." Yondaime was crying now, and Itachi could tell that it was not fear that gripped his friend, but a great sadness. "Naruto is all I have left. I want him to be safe and happy, even if I can't…so…please…"

Itachi agreed, and the others returned. They all cried together, for wasn't this the last time they would ever see their friend?

Yondaime left with Naruto, smiling back at Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, and Kisame. And with a chuckle, he said, "Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki," they replied gravely. And finally, he was gone forever.

Sasuke didn't know what to say as he stared at his friend. "Naruto…" He wanted to form a sentence, but he couldn't. The desperate and despaired look on the blonde's face stopped all form of thought and speech.

"It's okay, Sasuke," he replied, smiling lightly. "It's good enough, for now." Somehow, this angered Sasuke.

"How can it be good enough?!" He shouted. "Five years, with only that small bit of information? It's not good enough, Naru-chan!" There was a pause, it seemed, as Sasuke breathed heavily for a moment. Then Naruto began to laugh. "What's so damn funny?"

"You called me Naru-chan!" He replied through fits of laughter. "I'm sorry. It's been so long since I've heard that name! ... Sasu-chan." The name was supposed to tease the Uchiha, but only caused him to embrace the blonde again, only more tightly. "S-Sasuke! What're you—"

"I told you," the raven-hair growled. "I told you a long time ago. No matter what happens, I love you, and I'll never let anyone else have you. Got it?" Naruto was blushing again, and was silent as Sasuke kissed his forehead, smoothing his spiky bangs back. "And that's how it'll always be…"

Silver: And there's chapter one for all of you! -

Mustang: Didn't I kill you?

Silver: I always bounce back, sweety. Anywho, it's kind of sketchy right now, at least I think so. I originally had, like, seven chapters typed up. But then my dad went and accidentally erased them all, and I had to start all over again. So…yea… /Shot by Mustang/

Mustang/Walks off/

Gaara: TT /Sweat drop/

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