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On Thursday, Naruto comes in to find one of Sasuke's walls covered in Post-It notes.
Sasuke himself was kneeling on his bed, writing something on one of the yellow stickies.
"Whatcha doing?" Naruto asked.
"Hang on a minute."
Sasuke was chewing his lip, which meant he was thinking hard. Naruto knew he was on edge about something. He stayed quiet and let his eyes roam over the notes. Sasuke's usually perfect handwriting had dissolved into frantic scribbles, though it was far more legible than Naruto's penmanship.
My mother's hair came to a few inches above her waist.
I have four five cousins?
My father didn't smile often but I loved it when he did.
Naruto swallowed the lump in his throat and turned back to Sasuke. He waited until Sasuke looked up before he spoke.
"Sorry," Sasuke said, pulling off a newly finished note and sticking it to the wall. "I had to write something down before I forgot it."
"What's with all the…" Naruto waved an arm at the wall in lieu of a proper phrase.
Sasuke leaned his chin on one raised knee and Naruto sat down on the bed across from him. "It's stupid," Sasuke said quietly.
"Sasuke, it's me." Naruto pointed at himself. "Moron of all morons. Like my stupid could even compare to your stupid."
A little smile peaked Sasuke's lips. "You're right about that." He ran his hand through the bangs on his forehead and Naruto noticed he looked tired. "When I woke up this morning, I realized I couldn't remember what color ribbon my mom used to wear. You know, the one she tied her ponytails with?"
Naruto grinned, thinking back to how his eight-year-old self had blushed upon first meeting Mikoto Uchiha. Sasuke's mother had been beautiful and Sasuke looked just like her.
"She wore that ribbon almost all the time," Sasuke went on, "but I couldn't remember what color it was." His fingers dug into the fabric of his jeans. "I was worried that I'd forget other things, since it's been so long. So I started writing them down, to help me remember."
"Your mom's ribbon was white," Naruto said. "It looked really nice because her hair was so dark."
Sasuke stared at him for a moment and chuckled, shaking his head. "I can't believe you remember that."
Naruto didn't mention that the reason he remembered was because of the glaring picture in the news report that people still whispered about. That photo of an innocently smiling Sasuke held in his mother's arms, his small fingers wrapped around the ribbon in her hair, still haunted him ever since it had appeared on TV.
"Let me help you with some of these." Naruto got up to get another pen and Sasuke peeled apart a few notes for him to use. This was good for Sasuke, Naruto thought, though there was one thing that worried him.
In all of the notes, there is no mention of Sasuke's brother.