It wasn't like Sasuke to be late. He was never late. He was the golden boy, the person who was supposed to set an example for his rambunctious teammates. He. Was. Never. Late.

So why was he late today of all days?

Kakashi had sent him to find out.

To Sasuke's house—apartment, whatever it was. Kakashi had written the exact address onto his palm with a black marker, pointed him in a general direction, then sent him on his way.

He asked around a bit. 'Do you know where Uchiha Sasuke lives?' 'Do you know where Uchiha Sasuke lives?' 'Am I going in the right direction?' 'Do you know which street this is?'

Eventually, he found his way there.

No one would answer the door. He pounded and he pounded, he knocked politely, he even tried to peek through the crack at the bottom of the door to see if any lights were on. Nothing; not a peep, not even the scuff of a footstep on the other side.

He tried the windows, heading back out of the apartment complex and to the side, then funneling chakra to his legs to enable himself to leap up to the window. Those weren't locked—he pried one open, then slipped inside.

"Sasuke!" called the blonde boy. A break. "Sasuke!" he called again.

There was no answer. He stumbled around, turning on lights and peeking into windows, finding nothing until—

In Sasuke's bedroom, an older couple sat upon the end of his bed. There was a beautiful woman, with black hair and fair skin, though her beauty was marred by the fact that she was crying. An older man sat beside her, at least a decade her elder, and he seemed unable to do much aside from stare at the floor, an arm wrapped around his wife's shoulder.

Naruto blinked.

"Uh—do you two know where Sasuke is?"

There was a pause.

Slowly, both of them looked up at him. The woman was still crying; the man still looked lost. But what overtook both of those facts was the sheer surprise in their matching black eyes as they gazed at Naruto.

"You—you can see us…?" the woman whispered.

Naruto stared at them, a little perturbed.

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I be able to?"