A/N: This is an early upload I know! I got a whole bunch of spare time today and I've written several more chapters! woo!

Sasuke–

Ashes and ashes, dust to dust. Hinata says that sometimes when we visit Neji's grave together. The simplified version of a complicated philosophy.

I'm rambling again. Here's the point of why I'm writing. There are glowing arrows in the sky. You probably can't see them. I do. It started a couple of weeks after Kaguya's defeat.

There are dotted lines and arrows and circles. When I look up at the sky, it's like the sky is a chart that explains the entire world. The past, present, what could come to pass. But you can't see it. I know that. I explained it to Shikamaru once. He muttered something about it being troublesome. I never tried to explain it to him again. Is it because of Hagoromo's chakra?

No one listens when I talk. They hear, but…but they don't listen. Even now, maybe your attention is drifting. Why pay attention to me? Why pay attention to Uzumaki Naruto? "There he goes again, with his rambunctious rambling."

The world makes sense. I– I believe that. I– I do. It has to. Otherwise…it wouldn't make sense! And that would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. But I see them! I see the arrows in the sky. I understand what is happening and what could happen.

People smile and nod when I try to explain. They want to be polite. Often, they are not. We all, all of us, so often fail at what we want to do. That's OK, as long as we understand our failure. As long as we see it. I see my failure to help Konoha the way I would like to help it. I would like to guide it somewhere new, but the only people who listened to me was you and... Hinata. I'm not sure. I don't understand her as well as I do you. And then…well, then all the rest happened.

I told Guy-sensei at my wedding because you weren't there. Why weren't you there, Sasuke? You were gone for months, only bothering to send a hawk to tell me that you weren't coming. I wanted to explain it to you, Sasuke. You would've believed me. Poor choice of an audience, of course. He was very nice when I first told him. I had made some dango. Product of boredom with the added benefit of reminding me of Itachi sometimes. It seemed right, in the midst of a formal celebration like that, to have a little touch of home, to remind people of the lifetime of simple gestures that this grand celebration was meant to launch.

"Oh," he said. "This is nice! This is the best dango I've ever had!"

He hasn't said anything like that in some time since the war.

We chatted for a while. I don't remember what about. Maybe the weather.

No, definitely the weather. I remember it was the weather, because we had to stand in awkward silence for a bit.

But then, it all turned. I tried to explain, gesturing to the sky and explaining the lines and arrows in the sky.

"Aah," he said. "Yes, well…" he said. He looked increasingly uncomfortable.

I can't blame him. He was raised in the tradition of silence. With the belief in the power of hierarchy and bureaucracy. I had been raised that way too, but it, well, it didn't stick. Because I could now see the arrows, and the dotted lines, and the circles laid out across the world. I could clearly see how things were and could be!

"Well, sure," I said.

I explained to Lee everything that ever happened, everything that was happened, everything that could come to pass. People could die for knowing these things. But it was like I've always known it. Like I could always just see it, how it all really was laid out...

The world would be better if more people saw the dotted lines and arrows in the sky. I can look out my window and see them! I'm doing that now. Are we staring at the same night sky, Sasuke?

Listen, Sasuke…how long have we been friends? Practically your whole life, that's the answer.

Not that you'd know it, because I do. I am getting away from the point. You are the point.

Is this how you want to live your life? Shuffling from one place to the next, never letting anything add up to anything else?

Sasuke, it's not my place to say, I know. My place is back in Konoha, my fingers almost brushing your hand each time you hand over another mission scroll and walking with you on your way home to another reserved night out with Sakura - Sakura who will make you more than you are.

But I'm not here to lecture you, Sasuke. I'm here to understand. Like, what's with all the mess? Your room was strewn with clothes like your dresser got sick from overeating when you left a couple of weeks ago; your room is usually spotless. That doesn't seem like you, Sasuke.

And the ring. That rich, glittering diamond ring that you had bought before you left and…you proposed, Sasuke? That doesn't seem like you either. What does it mean?

I've uncovered many secrets, Sasuke. Do not think that you are going to be able to keep anything from me. I know what is behind those cold eyes of yours. I know about the way you talk and sometimes cry in your sleep.

Yes, I know about the nightmares.

And I know about the dreams, Sasuke. During missions, I used to listen to your steady breathing and mumbling at night as you sleep. If you opened your eyes, I'm sure it would upset you.

So fragile, and yet so certain – your belief in the sanctity and privacy of your mindscape.

This is me, as a part of your life, trying to understand that life. And you, running off with your teammates, running off by yourself, running off at first daylight by yourself, smiling with your friends and smiling by yourself and then sitting dead-eyed and silent for hours alone inside your old apartment some nights, crying without making a sound or moving. A silence of tears down your slack, boyish face.

Sasuke, this is you, and I'm trying to understand.

You're on my mind and the things that you say hurt me most of the time. But I'm on your side. You had kept saying you never wanna be saved… well, that's okay because I don't think I wouldn't know how.

Just know that the best that I'll ever be is whatever you make of me and wherever you are.

The air is different now. Or…no. It is the way we are breathing that is different. The breathers, all of us, have changed. We've gone funny, you know, just…funny. Words can't capture it. But I have only words.

Listen, I love my wife, and she loves her cousin. And we both love our son, and my…cousin-in-law? Hmm…Well, I like to think that Neji would have loved his nephew. So that counts for a lot. That counts for most of it.

I don't hate Boruto the way he hates me. How could I? I understand him. He hates me because he doesn't understand me at all. Cannot see the dotted lines. He cannot see the arrows.

Before the academy entrance ceremony, I tried to explain it all to him. Since then, though, it's like he's never trusted me. It's all for him. It's because I want Boruto to understand the world the way I do. I want him to see the arrows and dotted lines, to know the world, not just repeat what has been told to him.

Hinata, as you might imagine, disagrees. "He's too young to learn these things" she explains to me regularly, and patiently. Sometimes, and I hate myself for it, I hate her infinite patience and kindness. Because I don't deserve it. Despite everyone saying the contrary.

Sakura disagrees as well. "What are you talking about, Naruto" she would huff at me, exasperatedly.

I don't know. Maybe they're both right. It's not like knowing has made my life easier. Quite the opposite.

Quite the opposite.

But every time I look up, I see them. Glowing arrows in the sky, dotted lines and circles, a great chart that explains it all, and I ask you, how can I know all of this? How can I understand, and not try to explain? How can I see the dotted lines so bright and tangible, and deny them?

I have to try, even if it means that everyone – even my wife, or even Boruto – grows to hate me. What should I do, Sasuke? You would say that the truth is more important than all that. It has to be.

Or else, why would it shine so clear above?

–Naruto

A/N: Please read and review!