This Chapter is told from Naruto's POV.

Chapter 3-The Gift

"Man," Naruto said, pulling out a cup of ramen from his cabinet. "I'm beat."

Naruto had been working on mastering the sage techniques all day and finally had time to sit down. Fukasaku allowed him to take a break, saying that he was mostly done with his training. Naruto felt confident enough that he could maybe even surpass Jiraiya. While heating up the water, Naruto frowned at the thought that his teacher had really been killed. He almost knew what Sasu—

He shook his head roughly, not ever wanting to think about him again. He had to come to terms with himself. He's not coming back.

The microwave chimed and Naruto came out of his reverie with delight as he poured the water into the cup. The smell of the noodles filled the room. Naruto breathed in the heavenly scent as he started gobbling down his food.

"Doing sage techniques all that time sure does make you hungry." Naruto said, slurping up the last noodle in less than a minute. He glanced at the clock above the cabinets and saw that it was already after ten.

The blond ninja sighed as he retreated to his bedchamber where he changed into his pajamas and pulled his nightcap over his head. He felt confident in what he was working on now, but even so, the lump he felt in the pit of his chest wasn't easily healed. Then again, with Jiraiya's passing, the lump felt like it was never going to heal. And the start of it all…

Naruto shut his eyes tight, not wanting to start again. Whenever he thought of his old friend, he always ended up crying. It's because he left. He left because he wanted to kill his stupid brother. Well, his brother's dead now, so what the hell is taking him so long?

Naruto always had hope that he would return someday. He didn't know when and he had no idea if his prediction was right. But something lingered there that gave Naruto hope still. He wasn't expecting to see him soon or even tonight, but he still imagined that he needed to see him one more time, at least before he died. He guessed it was inevitable that he would have to fight with him to the death. That's what it came down to. Itachi had told him that of all people. At the time, Naruto was confused and didn't ever want to hurt him, Sasuke, who was so dear to him that he wanted to strangle him for leaving in the first place.

Naruto's eyes popped open. He had thought about him, Sasuke.

"No!" Naruto cried into his pillow, trying his hardest not to cry now. "I have to stop thinking about him. It's unhealthy."

And it was too. After he left, Naruto had saved everything that reminded him of his friend and had stored it in a box under his bed. He hardly looked at it anymore, but sometimes, he would just take it out to feel that the bond had not yet been broken. Sasuke may have said it was, but Naruto didn't believe it. He would never believe it until he found himself killed by Sasuke. He had been close to being killed, but his old friend had also been bloodthirsty and was convinced that he could attain more power by killing him.

Naruto let the tears fall and stifled a cry into his pillow. "Sasuke," he whimpered. He could never get over the shock that his best friend, his first love, just left like that and when Naruto wanted him to come back, he refused. It hurt Naruto deep inside that Sasuke left. He didn't feel the same way. Sasuke had changed. He was now more egotistical and cruel than Naruto would have ever thought possible of his friend.

"Sasuke…" Naruto said softly, "Why?"

It was a question he asked often when he was alone. Why? Why did Sasuke leave him? Why did Sasuke think it was better if their bonds were broken? Why had Sasuke not returned? Why did Naruto still love him after all the trauma the Uchiha put him through?

It was completely sadistic of Sasuke to torture Naruto for so long. Even though Sai had "replaced" Sasuke, he could never be an exact replacement. No one could replace Sasuke. Naruto knew that. Sai was just a friend. He had nothing special with Sai. But with Sasuke…

A sharp sound came from beyond his room and Naruto bolted up in his bed. Someone was at the door. Naruto rubbed his eyes, mainly to hide the evidence that he was crying, and went to open the door. It was Sai. Speak of the devil.

"Hi, Naruto," Sai said with his phony smile that got on Naruto's nerves.

"Sai!" Naruto said, somewhat shocked to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"I came by because Kakashi-sensei wanted me to give you something." Sai told him.

Naruto stared at him. "And you had to come here to deliver it now?"

"I was in the neighborhood and I decided to stop by." Sai explained quickly. "He said he thought you would want it or something along those lines."

Naruto gave him a puzzled look and suddenly realized that Sai had not come inside the room. He didn't want to seem rude (though he really wanted Sai to just leave), so he invited Sai inside and closed the door.

Naruto observed Sai as the dark-haired boy looked around idly. Naruto cleared his throat.

"Oh, sorry," Sai said, as if he had forgotten why he was bothering Naruto so late at night. "Right," he started digging around in his pockets until he presented a piece of folded cloth. He then held it out with both hands to Naruto.

The blond took the cloth hesitantly and started unfolding it, until Sai interrupted him.

"Ah, I should go." Sai said quickly.

"Wha—?"

"Kakashi-sensei instructed me that the contents were for your eyes only, so I ought to leave."

"I'm the only one who can see it?" Naruto asked, now more suspicious than curious.

"Apparently." Sai said, shrugging. "I'll see you later."

Sai waved to him as he crinkled his eyes and headed toward the door. Naruto returned a half-wave and grimaced.

Once the door was closed, Naruto stared at the cloth in his hands. It hardly felt like anything was underneath. Was Kakashi-sensei pulling his leg? There was only one way to find out.

Naruto brought the cloth over to the kitchen table and unfolded it systematically, making sure that he could see anything that would be revealed at the corners. That was when he saw a spot of white. Almost immediately, his heart pounded as he unfolded further to reveal a spot of red. No, he thought to himself, it couldn't be…

But it was. After unfolding the entire cloth, under the folds was the Uchiha crest. It had been ripped from a dark blue piece of fabric. Naruto held his breath for a moment as he came to his senses. Why did Kakashi-sensei give this to me? Did he think that after all this time without the ass, I would actually want something of his?

In his anger, he threw the fabric across the room where it landed on the floor not too far away. Naruto came over to it and stomped on it hard. He wanted to scream at it, pretend that the crest was actually Sasuke and that he ought to get pounded into the dirt for thinking he could just do that to Naruto. But he resisted, because in his heart, he knew that if he did see Sasuke again, it wouldn't be fury that he would show, but happiness and relief. The fury would come later after realizing what the Uchiha had actually done to him.

Slowly, he bent down and picked the fabric up as he examined it closely. It looked like it belonged to the same shirt that Sasuke wore after they fought at the Valley of the End. He wondered what had happened to it. He rather liked that outfit on Sasuke, even when they were fighting. He remembered he had made a comment about it and immediately got hit in the face. Sasuke was brutal that day.

But then, how did Kakashi come to get it? Naruto wanted to go to his place right now and demand what it meant, but knew that it wouldn't do any good. Kakashi was skilled in hiding and in creating clones. Plus, if he really wanted Naruto to know, he would have told him. Naruto guessed it was a secret of how he managed to get it, but still, for some reason, the Uchiha crest, knowing that it once was on the shirt that Sasuke wore, made Naruto happy.

Naruto took the crest-laden fabric into his bedroom and set it down beside him in the bed. It represented Sasuke, as much of him as he could get he supposed, now that Sasuke was gone. Still, the idea kept him at ease and Naruto drifted off to sleep, thanking Kakashi from the bottom of his heart for giving it to him.

A/N: It took a while...sorry...um, yeah, for this particular fic, I wanted Naruto to be in Konoha so as of the moment, he's done sage training...so please no criticism because this isn't totally true to what's going on in the manga at the moment (obviously). Hope you enjoyed it though,