Fudo knew where Ryuu would be, so he went right there. If Ryuu couldn't be found, and he wasn't at the river, he was always there. Fudo looks up at their old tree house and smiles.

"Ryuu-chan? I know you're in there. Would you let down the ladder for me?"

Silence.

"I could just jump up there, but where's the fun in that?"

More silence.

Fudo frowns. Had he been wrong? Is Ryuu not here? "Ryuu-chan, please. I came alone. No one is here with me. I promise." There is a slight rustling, then a ladder slowly makes it's way down the tree. Fudo grabs onto it and slowly climbs up.

Once to the top, he sees Ryuu laying on his back with an arm over his face. Fudo stays silent for a while, slowly pulling the ladder back up. Ryuu sighs, sadly. "What do you want, Fudo-kun?" Fudo smiles a bit. "I just wanted to talk. I wanted to make sure you're okay. I won't talk if you don't want me to."

Ryuu stays silent for a few minutes. Fudo waits patiently, then smiles when the Uchiha waves the hand not coving his face. "Proceed." "How are you doing?" Ryuu stays silent. "Okay, I know how upset you are, but would you allow me to explain what those idiots were trying to accomplish?" Ryuu growls under his breath, but makes no move to stop the man.

"My uh...genius of a brother," Ryuu chuckles. Fudo's smile widens. That's a good sign. "thought it would be a great idea to try to make you jealous. For some strange reason, he thought it best to use your sister for such a thing."

Ryuu shot up, eyes wide and angry. "What?! That's not going to make me jealous! That's going to make me mad! What the hell is his problem?!" Fudo sighs. "I know. That's what I told them. I told Jomei-baka that even if he had picked a different girl, you still wouldn't be jealous. You still wouldn't look twice at him if that girl he got pregnant was still having his child."

Ryuu huffs. "Damn right." "Hanae also wanted me to tell you that she's sorry, and there's nothing going on between her and Jomei." Ryuu rolls his eyes. They sit in silence for a while, then there's a distant flicker of chakra. Ryuu sighs. "Can you tell who's chakra it is? I'm still not very good at that."

Fudo closes his eyes, growling a bit. "It's Jomei. Can you cast genjutsu on him? I'll move him somewhere else." The Uchiha sighs, glaring at the ground. He activates his sharingan and waits for Jomei to get closer. Once he is, Ryuu jumps down, catching Jomei's attention. "Ryuu!"

Jomei runs up and hugs him. "Kami, I've been looking everywhere for you!!" Ryuu's eyes soften, before hardening with a fierce sharingan. Jomei pulls back to look into Ryuu's eyes and he's instantly put under genjutsu. His arms slowly slide off of Ryuu's shoulders and hang limply by his sides. Fudo jumps down and lifts the white haired male over his shoulder, before taking off in a different direction. Ryuu sighs, waiting for his friend to return.

Fudo runs far away from where Ryuu is. As soon as he's far enough, he drops Jomei. The white haired male snaps out of his daze. "Ryuu? Where'd you go? I could've sworn..." he looks up, noticing his brother, "Fudo? I thought Ryuu was here. We were talking and he forgave me. Then we..." Jomei's face turns a bright red. Fudo raises an eyebrow.

Jomei begins fidgeting while grinning like an idiot. "Then we kissed and it was...amazing." Fudo sighs, actually feeling a bit sorry for his brother. "I hate to tell you this bro, but you were asleep." He decided not to mention the genjutsu, fearing Jomei would figure out that Fudo knew where Ryuu was. Jomei sighs. 'It was a dream?'

Fudo frowns. "What...exactly do you feel for Ryuu?" Jomei blushes again. "I...I love him. I can never show him, or rather, I don't know how to show him. He hates me. I know he does. He has to. He deserves so much more than what I give him. I've put him through so much pain just because I'm an idiot."

Fudo sighs. "While you are indeed an idiot, I think you're just going about it wrong. Focus on your baby mama and your child. Ryuu doesn't want to come between that." Jomei laughs bitterly. "I was going to tell him that I found out it's not even my baby." Fudo's eyes widen. "It's not? How do you know?" Jomei sighs.

"We went to get the baby checked out. Turns out it was on the verge of becoming a miscarriage. Tsunade-san said that she needed a blood transfer, because apperently she doesn't have enough blood in her or some shit like that. So she takes some of my blood, but it wasn't a match. Then some random fucking water ninja shows up out of god damn nowhere, claiming to be the father. Tsunade runs the same test on him, and he's a match. Yumi tried to get me to stay, trying to explain, but I wanted nothing more than to get away from her. So I left and immediately started looking for Ryuu."

Fudo pinches the bridge of his nose. What did Ryuu do to deserve all this drama? "I'll talk to him when I see him. Until then, try to keep your distance for a while, okay? I'll let you know when would be a good time to approach him." Jomei nods and smiles weakly. "Thanks, bro."

Jomei is leaving the forest and accidently finds Ryuu before Fudo does. He approaches the smaller male cautiously. "Ryuu??" The Uchiha stiffens, but stops walking. "What do you want?" It was a question, but it was spoken as a statement. Jomei shifts uncomfortably. He's not sure if he should say something or just wait, like his brother said. "Uh...n-nothing. Sorry. I'll leave you alone."

Ryuu starts. Jomei has given up? Does that mean that he doesn't care anymore? Has being rejected so much gotten to him? Ryuu deflates further. "I don't care." Obviously if Jomei doesn't care, Ryuu shouldn't bother himself with caring either. Jomei rubs the back of his neck, self-consciously.

"There's...uh...there's actually a lot of things I would like to talk to you about, but I think I should let Fudo talk to you first. I don't want to make things worse between us. Uh...n-not that there is an us, I just...uh...well, I'll be going now." Ryuu frowns. Maybe it would be best to talk to Fudo first. Thinking about it by himself is making him very confused.

Fudo always knew what to do, and he's never steered him wrong before. Ryuu waits until Jomei leaves, then he begins to cry. For what, he was not sure. If his father would see him, he'd say that Uchihas never cry. He was sure of it. That thought only seems to make him cry harder. After a few minutes, Fudo finally finds him.

"Ryuu-chan?! What happened?!"

Ryuu doesn't answer, still trying to figure that out himself. Was it seeing Jomei? Or was it knowing that Jomei will never be truly his? He'd always belong to Yumi and the child. Jomei would never belong to Ryuu. Ryuu could never be truly Jomei's, not while knowing his heart will wander if someone is good looking enough while he's travelling.

Fudo wraps his arms around the crying Uchiha. "Ryuu-chan, it's okay. It's okay. I've got you." Ryuu buries his face into Fudo's chest. "P-please don't tell my father about this...I don't want him to remember I'm the defective Uchiha." Fudo sighs. He decides not to say anything and just let Ryuu get it off his chest. Fudo feels a familar chakra coming near.

A look down at the male in his arms lets him know that Ryuu hasn't noticed yet. The red haired male scoops him up and jumps into a tree. "Ryuu," he whispers, "someone is coming. Hide your chakra as best you can, and muffle your sounds. It's just a hunch, but I think it's your father."

Ryuu chokes on his tears, before covering his mouth and suppressing his chakra. Fudo jumps down from the tree, just as Sasuke enters the clearing with Yoshiko in his arms. Sasuke stops upon seeing Fudo. "What are you doing out here? Where's my son?"

Before Fudo could make up an excuse, Yoshiko begins crying and reaching towards the tree Ryuu was hiding in. Sasuke follows where she's reaching and soon finds Ryuu, curled up with tears streaming down his face.