Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto . . . what would I do with ninjas?!

Author's Note: Ladies and gentlemen . . . I think we only have one more chapter left.

I'm almost positive the next chapter will be the last (not including the bonus). I haven't finished it yet, and don't quote me, but it could be.

So brace yourselves.

In the mean time, things in life seem to be getting better on this side as well. It's 2:41 in the morning, I have to work with kids at my school at 8 in the morning, and my best friend is finally arriving from New York. I am too excited.

Second to last chapter (probably), here it comes!

Chapter 29
:::All You Wanted:::…
Michelle Branch

WARNING: Real emotions. Some people call it "OOC".

Words?

What were words?

Sasuke couldn't remember. Words were useless. They could not express his feelings. The words had been taken from his open mouth to never return, leaving him in a breathless, doubtful, paralyzed state. He was unmoving, unfeeling, unhearing, unbelieving.

Was she there?

Was his mother really in front of him, or was it his hopeful mind simply playing tricks with his consciousness? He had had enough of crushed hopes. Enough.

The world around him was silent; there was screaming and shouting and cheering, but to Sasuke, there was only an eerie silence that pressed against his ears as he slowly, slowly, slowly moved forwards to the surreal image affront of him.

Mikoto did not move. She only watched her son with weary eyes.

A thin, shaking hand reached out. Sasuke's fingers grazed his mother's cheek, feeling the smooth skin with his fingertips, the prominence of her cheekbone, feeling reality. When Mikoto's smile widened, he felt her muscles move.

He felt it.

So she had to be real.

"Mom . . ." he whispered breathlessly, and in a flash of movement, he was embracing her.

He squeezed her tightly, his face buried in the crook of her shoulder. He wasn't going to let go of her ever again. He felt her hands move to embrace him weakly in return.

His fingers struggled to grasp her clothing as he continued to hold her, his shoulders shaking dangerously from the tears that were shamelessly falling from his healing eyes.

"Mom," he repeated, his voice muffled in her shoulder. "Mom. Mom!"

"Sasuke," she replied with equal breathlessness. One of her hands was repeatedly stroking his hair as her own tears fell. "Oh honey, oh God . . ."

Even her words had betrayed her. They had flown far away to be replaced with overwhelming emotion. She kissed the top of his head.

"It's you," Sasuke managed to say. "I've waited so long, Mom. I . . . You . . . I . . ."

He pulled back, his expression devoid of any smiles, his eyes overflowing with tears as he took his mother's face in his hands. Her eyes were bright and filled with life, contrasting sharply with the sallow complexion of her taut skin. But she was there, and alive, and well, and that was all Sasuke needed. He hugged her once more.

The sound around him came back all at once all of a sudden. More runners had crossed the finish line; Naruto was one of them. He was running with all the might his tired legs propelled him to, running to the Uchiha family with a look of shock written all over his sun-kissed features.

"Mrs. Uchiha . . .?" he whispered, his sapphire eyes still wide.

Mikoto looked at Naruto from over Sasuke's shoulder. Her smile only grew and her scrunching eyes created more falling tears. Sasuke pulled away and wiped at his eyes to clear his vision. He felt someone grab his shoulders suddenly as the noise carried on in the background.

"You won!" Naruto shouted at him, shaking him. "Sasuke, you won!"

"I got second, you idiot," Sasuke said, but his current emotions did not allow him to place in any bitterness.

"No, no, you won! Your mom's back!"

Sasuke turned back to his mother and gave a watery smile, his teeth shining brightly in the lights of the street as he ignored the spoken cliché. "Yeah," he said, his hand reaching out to touch his mother's face again. "I won."

Naruto took his own turn to briefly hug Mikoto, laughing his chime-like chortle. Before Sasuke could return to his mother's arms, someone else was grabbing him from behind and pulling him close.

"I'm really proud of you, Sasuke," was the whisper.

Kakashi.

"Sabaku Gaara, Uchiha Sasuke, and Rock Lee, please come to the finish line," an anonymous voice spoke over a megaphone.

Worst timing ever.

Sasuke turned back to his mother. "I . . ."

He stopped when her bony hand stroked his cheek tenderly. "Go," she said. "I'm not going anywhere anymore."

"Come on, Sasuke," said Naruto, pushing the Uchiha slightly forwards. "Make your mother proud."

With second place?

His legs reluctantly left, his eyes never leaving his mother's figure until they were forced away by a woman at the placing stands. She turned him around and guided him to the number two, telling him to stand as she placed a medal around his neck.

Gaara stood on the first place stand, elevated higher than Sasuke by a few inches, his face emotionless as he looked out into the crowd. In a brief instant, he turned to stare at the red-eyed Uchiha.

"I didn't go easy on you," he said as the cameras flashed.

"I wouldn't have had it any other way," was the reply.

Lee turned to the side and flashed a grin and thumbs up. "Your youth is sparkling like never before, Sasuke!" he exclaimed. "Such beauty in your tears!"

Shut up, Lee, Sasuke thought, because he could not bring himself to say the words out loud.

Voices were speaking around him, over the megaphone, explaining how Gaara was the first place winner, Sasuke was the second, and Lee was the third, and about the money going to charity, about the tournament in general. . . .

Sasuke wasn't listening.

He found his mother and Itachi in the crowds. Itachi's face of indifference was missing; in its place was an expression of pride, an expression of admiration, of congratulations. Sasuke remembered the redness his eyes had once held and his mind immediately began to piece together the events into a story that finally made sense.

Was this the secret Itachi had been keeping from him?

It wasn't possible for his mother to wake up from a coma, be able to move and speak freely, and fly from England to Konoha in a single day. It would have had to have taken at least a week.

And if Sasuke recalled correctly, Itachi had begun his nightmarish nights a little over a week ago.

But why had he kept something as important as his mother's awakening a secret?

"Mr. Uchiha?"

The same woman that had placed the medal around his neck was waiting for him to accept the paper in her hands. He took it and examined it closely.

It was a check for two thousand five hundred dollars.

"Ladies and gentlemen, one last round for our marathon winners!"

The result was a deafening roar of applause and cheers. Even Mikoto, Sasuke could see, was clapping her hands with as much strength as her frail figure would allow her, her smile revealing both rows of her teeth and her eyes scrunched to the point of disappearance.

Sasuke hopped down from his placement stand with the full intention of returning to his mother and brother, but someone held him back with the tug of his wrist. He turned around to be greeted wit fuchsia hair.

Tayuya.

Sasuke's spirits fell immediately and he turned around again, trying to wrench from her grasp.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, struggling to break free. "I'm really sorry, Tayuya. I couldn't win the tournament for him."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" she said. Her tone was lacking even the slightest hint of anger. "You won the tournament for Konoha. Fuck that Gaara kid. You're a Konoha man." She released his wrist and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "At least you've got more fucking expressions than that stony-faced bastard. You knew how to make Kimimaro laugh. That's enough, isn't it?"

Sasuke smirked to humor her. He officially knew Kakashi's therapist powers were contagious.

"I have to get back to someone really important to me," he said. "And so do you. I'll see you around."

Tayuya looked into the crowd, her amber eyes catching a glimpse of a concerned-looking Mikoto. She smirked at the woman before returning to Sasuke and nodding her head in understanding.

"Count on it."

Sasuke practically ran back to where his miniature entourage stood. He held up the check to his brother.

"Have I finally made you proud?" he asked.

Itachi did not take the check.

"I was always proud of you, Sasuke," he said. "I suppose you want an explanation."
"I'd like that."

Home at last, thought Sasuke. We're going home at last – all of us. Together.

"We need, however, to return mother to the hospital. She has not been dispatched yet and it was only on a few pulled strings that I have managed to bring her to this tournament."

Or not.

Naruto offered to drive the group to the hospital since he was heading there to see his grandmother, but the decision was to take their own cars to the hospital. Itachi wheeled his mother past the thinning crowd, Sasuke close to their side. He had given his mother his medal to look over as he spoke to her.

"There's so much to tell you," he said excitedly. "A lot went on while you were gone. It'll take years to explain."

Mikoto laughed. Sasuke missed the melodic sound and yearned to hear it once more.

"Itachi told me a bit of your antics, but nothing in detail. I'm sure they'll make great bedtime stories."

"And breakfast stories, and lunch stories, and dinner stories, and . . ."

He spoke rapidly. He was excited all of a sudden. The tournament was nothing but a trace of memory. Now that his mother was in the picture, the marathon and the second place victory had been pushed back.

Itachi smirked inwardly.

He asked Sasuke to open the car door as he picked his mother up from her wheelchair.

"I can walk, dear," Mikoto said with laughter in her voice as Itachi placed her onto the seat in the back.

"Nonsense, mother. You need all the rest you can get. Sasuke, fold the chair and put it in the back while I start the car."

Having had experience with a wheelchair, Sasuke deftly did as he was told, sliding into the seat next to his mother when he was done. She leaned against his shoulder teasingly.

"You seem to be so much happier since I last saw you," she told him as Itachi drove. "But you're still too skinny!"

"Mother, if he was a hundred pounds heavier, you would still say he is too skinny."

"You shouldn't be the one to talk. You're taller than he is and probably weigh less."

Sasuke smiled inwardly. It seemed so surreal to have his mother suddenly leaning against his shoulder after having been in a coma for so long. Too surreal. He didn't know how to act. He didn't know where to start. He had so many things to tell her. So many events to describe, so many feelings.

"When did you get here?" he asked at last. "To Konoha."

"The day before yesterday," she replied.

"Remember when I was late picking you up from Naruto's house? I had gone to see mother upon her arrival," Itachi said from the front seat. "The day I came in asking you if you could trust me was the day the doctors in England had called me with the news that she had woken from her coma."

"I thought you'd taken drugs again."

"Again?!" Mikoto's smile disappeared suddenly and she pulled herself closer to Itachi's seat. "What does he mean 'again'?"

"You didn't tell her that, did you?" Sasuke said with a grimace.

Itachi flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. "I was planning on telling her that lovely story when she had not just come to Konoha."

"Boys."

"I shall kill you later for this, Sasuke. Mother, I promise to tell the story in due time. Let us think about the positive things. For example, if you would look to your left."

Mikoto and Sasuke simultaneously turned to stare out of the window to the left. Kisame's blue Chevrolet® was passing and the man, almost equally as blue, peered from the window and waved brightly.

"Kissy-face, watch the road!" Mikoto said worriedly from her window.

Nice distraction, Itachi, Sasuke thought to himself, smirking inwardly. He could tell Itachi was reading his thoughts. The older Uchiha smirked as well and caught Sasuke's glance in the mirror.

Mikoto, however, knew her sons all too well. When she made sure Kisame was in no danger of hitting an unsuspecting tree, she turned back to the Uchiha brothers and sighed.

"You boys have a lot of explaining to do when we get to the hospital."

Itachi parked close to the entrance of the hospital. Sasuke quickly sidled from his seat to unfold the wheelchair in the back and helped his mother into it. She swatted his aiding arms away, but Itachi took over and lifted her into the seat.

"I am not crippled," she said with a huff.

"I can see where Sasuke gets his stubbornness."

Naruto had appeared after having ridden with Kakashi. His usual grin was plastered on with full power. Kakashi stood next to him in silence.

"Where's Kisame?" Itachi asked as they wheeled Mikoto into the brightly lit lobby. He stared around, but the bluish man was nowhere in sight.

Mikoto put a hand to her mouth. "I hope he's alright," she said. "I told him to watch the road."

"He's going to pop in randomly, mother. It's Kisame."

A certain silver-haired man paid no attention to the conversation. His single eye was transfixed upon the younger Uchiha who was walking in silence with an unreadable expression on his face.

"So what are you thinking about?" he whispered, leaning in close to the boy.

Sasuke looked up at him without the slightest hint of surprise. His expression softened and he smirked.

"You've been my therapist for way too long," he said.

"I find that a good thing. Now tell me."

They were maneuvering through the halls to get to the room Mikoto had been held in. Sasuke recognized the all-too-familiar hallways. Something told him his mother's room wasn't even close; he remembered being sent to a room deep into the hospital when he had woken from his coma and moved to Konoha.

"I don't know," he began in a whisper. "It's just . . . this is too good, you know? My mom's back. It's almost too good to be true. It's a lot to take in and think about, and then there are all the explanations I want to get to, but I don't know where to start."

Kakashi put a hand around his shoulders as they walked on. "Maybe someone thought you needed a break. You can have good things happen in your life, you know. You've just got to hold onto them as long as you can."

He pushed him a little towards his mother.

"So go hold on."

Sasuke looked back at him and smiled ever-so-slightly, but it was there. Kakashi smiled beneath his mask. He missed that look on his student. His footsteps soon stopped and he stared at the figures that continued to move on.

It wasn't his time to spend with them. He said goodbye mentally and turned around to head out of the hospital, knowing to return when he knew he was needed.

The room Itachi pushed Mikoto into was all the way at the end of a rather lengthy hallway. It was small, but it was a private room, with a few unhooked machines and a closed window on the back wall.

Kisame was, surprisingly, there. He grinned and waved. Sasuke was disturbed at the fact that he did not feel surprised in the least. Tsunade was there as well. She turned around and was absolutely beaming. Naruto moved forwards to hug her and show her his participation certificate. She took it with pride and put it on her clipboard before turning to the other arrivals.

"What did his face look like?" she teased, taking Mikoto from Itachi.

"Kind of like what I look like when I see you in the morning. Shocked," Sasuke retorted with a smirk.

"Sasuke!"

"It's alright, Miki," said Tsunade. "Your little black sheep over here has been even more cynical and sarcastic since you've left."

She helped Mikoto into her bed and immediately began to attach the monitors and machines to her frail body. Sasuke was familiar with each and every single one of them. He had been there, had done that.

"So do I get an explanation now?" he asked the settling occupants. "If she's been awake for a week, why wasn't I told about it?"

He didn't feel angry. Quite frankly, he wasn't sure what he would have done if he had known a week earlier. He would have tried to fly to England himself; he would have been too excited every day, unable to sleep, trying his best for the tournament knowing so much was at stake.

Suddenly, though, he felt he knew why Itachi hadn't told him.

"Mother is here," Itachi began. "And you got second place in the tournament, yet you do not seem the least bit saddened."

Sasuke cocked his head to the side. He saw Naruto do just the same out of the corner of his eyes.

"Even with all of the growth you have been doing mentally, Sasuke, you still would have fallen into the slightest state of depression. Please do not deny it," he said quickly, seeing his brother's mouth open to speak. "You cannot predict the future, and neither can I, but I can at least base my predictions on things that have happened. You thought you had so much at stake to win the tournament, and even getting second place would not suffice."

Sasuke did not want to think his brother was right, even though his conscience told him he was. He hated his conscience.

"But now, the tournament has not crossed your mind since you have seen mother. Think about what would have happened if I had told you about her before. You would have been so happy, and your need to win the tournament would have risen. We would be sedating you for hysteria by now.

"Showing you mother now took out the risk of letting you fall into depression. You were neutral before the tournament, unhappy after the tournament, and now you are happy and not thinking about the sadness. Do you understand now?"

Sasuke took the information in and processed it for a few moments. It was confusing, yet somewhat true. Itachi's logical reasoning made sense. Perhaps he had been spending too much time around Kakashi.

The more Sasuke thought about it, the more it made sense.

He would have been the way Itachi predicted. He would have felt the urge – the need – to win the tournament for his mother. And now that he had only gotten second place, the events of the last tournament would have replayed, and he would be the one in the hospital bed instead of his mother.

He wasn't angry Itachi hadn't told him.

He didn't care about anything anymore, really. Not for a while.

Because his mother was in front of his very eyes and that was all that mattered at the moment.

"You're a good brother," Naruto told Itachi all of a sudden, smiling sadly, but not staring at anyone in particular. "To think that far ahead for him is amazing."

Sasuke frowned and put a mental asterisk next to Naruto's name on his list of broken lives.

Itachi smirked. "Kakashi told me I was having nightmares because of the guilt."

"Now it's my turn for an explanation," Mikoto interrupted softly. "What's this about taking drugs, Itachi?"

The room turned silent. Tsunade said she would be right back and quickly left, her heels clicking sharply in the stillness. Naruto turned away, rubbing the back of his neck.

Kisame suddenly jumped up from his seat and put his arms out dramatically. "Hey, I know! Why don't we tell her about that time Sasuke tried to fend me off with a shoebox. Huh? Huh?!"

Itachi smirked and patted his close friend on the shoulder. "Nice try, Hoshigake. Mother, that story is not a pleasant one, and I really wish to save this for another time. Perhaps never at all."

"I have an idea."

Sasuke took the clipboard Tsunade had left and took out a blank sheet of paper.

"We're going to make a list of all the events we can think of, okay? And we'll keep it here. Mom closes her eyes and picks one event at a time and we'll cross it off and explain. This way, we don't leave anything out."

The plan worked out successfully. Even Kisame and Naruto contributed to the list as the clipboard was passed around in a square. Sasuke had so many things to tell his mother that his hand shook in confusion.

He looked at the list he had created beneath Itachi's and realized that he barely had any happy even to explain. With reluctance, he wrote down being drunk . . . and being kidnapped . . . and beating up a fellow student . . .

His mother was going to have a cow. And a horse. And a chicken, and a pig, and the whole barn, farm, and country.

"Well, if it helps," Sasuke said as he passed the clipboard to Kisame, "Naruto knows everything about me now."

"Everything?" Mikoto said with a smile, her eyebrows rising with implication.

"Yeah," continued the youngest Uchiha. "And so do I."

o.o.O.O.o.o

They spent an hour in the hospital, half of the time with Mikoto explaining what had happened after she had woken up and the other half with Sasuke explaining about the Chalk O' Lit Café, the gigs he did, and why he did them.

Naruto was the first to doze off. He practically fell from his chair had Sasuke not noticed his falling head and caught him first. The blond stared blearily at him with a drunken smile and thanked him as he rubbed his eyes. Tsunade shook her head.

"You have school tomorrow," she told him. "Mikoto's going to be here when you get back. Uchiha, you should head home as well. I understand wanting to stay with your mother, but she needs her rest, too."

"I do not!" Mikoto protested from behind lidded eyelids. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes quickly.

Itachi smirked. "I shall drive you home, Naruto. Kisame, kindly push Sasuke from the room. I know he will leave with protest."

Sasuke shook his head and stared at the tired figure of his mother. He knew when to push things too far, but he wanted her to rest. He wanted her to be fully energetic when he came around the next time so that they could talk for hours on end. And so he leaned against her bed for one last time that night.

"I'll be here first thing in the morning tomorrow," he said, getting ready to finally turn around.

"Whoa there, little brother."

Itachi put a hand on his shoulder and stared down at him, his eyes filled with the utmost seriousness.

"You're not going to skip a day of school tomorrow, understand? You have enough absences as it is. Mother needs her rest as well."

Sasuke allowed a twisted frown to make its debut into his expressions, but he did not object. Perhaps he could let her sleep for a few more hours. Then she would be closer to returning home and they could carry out their lives without worry hanging onto their every move.

"Fine," he said quietly.

He stole one last hug from his mother, feeling her lengthened hair tickle his nose. She kissed him of the forehead and rather than pulling away in mock disgust as he always had, he was silent and relished in the long-awaited tenderness.

"I love you, Sasuke," she said to him.

And at last, he could return the statement.

"I love you, too, Mom."

The first thing he did when he walked out of the hospital was jerk his head back to stare at the sable sky, outstretch his arms, and scream without the slightest care in the world,

"She's back!"

o.o.O.O.o.o

Sasuke woke from his own excitement.

The alarm clock had yet to ring. He stared at it, counting down the seconds before swinging off of his bed to enter the shower. The thought of shaving crossed his mind when he saw the annoyance of his teenage stubble across his chin, but he soon found that he could not steady his hand enough to move his razor without cutting off his bottom lip. He was shaking with excitement. The thought of his mother just moments away from him, alive and well, was enough to send him into a walking daze.

Breakfast was already waiting for him out on the table. Sasuke looked expectantly at his waffle, wondering what Itachi had left in the syrup this time. Nothing. A glob of the sticky liquid was drowning the waffle in its center, but there were no words.

Sasuke frowned slightly and sat down to eat. The cherry tomato slices caught his eyes when he went to reach for one minutes later. He smirked and let out a bout of laughter.

I WAS BORED was spelled out using the slices.

Someone had a lot of time on his hands, Sasuke agreed as he ate the "I" of the message.

Naruto did not come and so Sasuke went looking – at school. The blond greeted him brightly in Chemistry.

"How're you feeling today?" he asked.

Sasuke could finally say that he felt on top of the world at that very moment. He did not notice Naruto staring at him as class went on. The whiskered boy cocked his head to the side and let a small smile play with his features.

Sasuke looked . . . different, he thought. His complexion was still too white to be humanly possible, and his eyes were still too dark to see beyond, but Naruto found himself seeing a change. A brighter change. The depths of Sasuke's eyes had lightened, no longer filled with a dull sheen that marred his expressions.

Yeah. Naruto thought he looked a lot better today. He hoped he would look the same every day.

"Congrats, Uchiha," Asuma's voice interrupted his thoughts. The older man sat on the desk affront of Sasuke, smirking. "You even managed to beat Lee. That kid's been winning it for Konoha for too long. I was wondering when someone else would be stepping in."

He stood up to greet the other students coming in, but he seemed to remember something and turned around. "Oh yeah, and don't listen to that phooey those kids are going on about, okay? You won fair and square."

"What phooey?" asked Sasuke, raising an eyebrow.

Asuma hesitated. "Nothing."

Nothing meant something. Sasuke would know.

He stood up for a few moments, having three minutes before class would begin, and stood outside in the hallways. He knew whatever the students had to say, they would be whispering it in the hallways to each other. News traveled fast.

"Of course it was his prosthetic leg. That guy's too weak to do anything."

Bingo.

"That handicap just made him win."

"It's a super-leg!"

"They think my prosthetic leg was the reason I won," he told Naruto when he returned to his seat, anger now evident in his expression. Naruto struggled to find the change he had seen in the dark, dark eyes.

"That news will die down, just like last tournament's news did."

Your mother's here, Sasuke tried to tell himself. Don't ruin your thoughts. Don't spoil the excitement.

Too late.

"But they're going to think I didn't get second place fairly for the rest of their lives."

"Ooh!"

Sakura suddenly stormed in, her eyebrows drawn together as she let out a growl of anger once more and sat down close to Naruto.

"The people here are just such insignificant, good-for-nothing jerks who just make me want to – urgh!"

She broke the poor, unsuspecting pencil in her hands.

Twice.

Her emerald eyes were suddenly turned to Sasuke's. "They don't know how much effort you put into that tournament!"

Oh.

"It's alright, Sakura," Sasuke told her calmly despite his conscience jumping up and down and agreeing with her every word. "Their opinions don't matter, anyway."

"But they need to know they're wrong!"

"Sakura, really. It's okay. Don't worry about it."

But Naruto, watching the conversation with interest, knew Sakura wasn't going to let it go. And he was right.

Sasuke had listened to the same whispers for the first three periods until P.E. finally came along. The boys in the locker room did not bat an eyelash in his direction. They did not care that he ran in the tournament or that he won second place. They were even starting to care less about his prosthetic leg. Akira did not even say anything, nor did he glance in Sasuke's direction.

Lee was going on about the youth, Sai was fixing his belly shirt, Kiba was grumbling about how he wanted to play, Neji was tying his hair, Shikamaru was sleeping, Chouji was munching, and Naruto was being Naruto.

Sasuke wouldn't have it any other way.

He quickly undressed (out of sight, still; he was comfortable with his leg, but he wasn't about to flaunt it) and made it back with minutes to spare. Neji was his target and he aimed to hit it.

"You said you'd tell me about your secrets after the marathon," he said with a hint of mockery. He could see Neji smirk in the mirror he was staring into.

"I said maybe."

"I'll find a way to make you tell me, Hyuuga."

Neji's smirk only widened. He took the hidden challenge of the Uchiha.

Sasuke set his plan into action when the game of Capture the Flag – extreme style – began. Neji and Kiba were sitting out on the sides, watching. Kiba had a disgruntled expression on his face, whining about how he loved playing Capture the Flag.

Sasuke licked his lips and stared at the chaos of screaming boys that had unfolded before his very eyes. He bounced in place for a few moments.

And suddenly, he was running.

"Uchiha, that's suicide!" Kiba shouted at him from the sidelines, to which Shikamaru mumbled, "So troublesome."

Exclamations suddenly erupted around him.

"Get him!"

"Grab him!"

"He's going to get the flag!"

He swerved between every hand, past every finger. It wasn't until the very end did he purposely tilt his body slightly to the left and felt the graze of a palm. Someone yelled triumphantly. A whistle blew.

"I got Uchiha Sasuke! I got Uchiha Sasuke!"

Sasuke smirked.

His plan had worked.

"Such sparkling youth!" Gai screamed. "But not enough! To the sidelines, Uchiha!"

Sasuke walked with his head held high to sit directly next to Neji. The Hyuuga smirked and chuckled darkly.

"You have got to be kidding me," he said, amused.

Sasuke smirked as well. "Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," he said nonchalantly.

Neji's pale, pale eyes were filled with absolute mirth when they turned to stare at the Uchiha. "You amuse me. I guess you're worth an explanation."

"Oh, I'm worth a lot more than that," Sasuke said cockily, "but I guess an explanation is fine, too."

Kiba rolled his eyes. "You top-of-the-class losers are all confusing," he said before returning his attention to the game.

Neji fell back so that he lay on the mat, staring up at the sun and placing his bandaged leg on Kiba's knee. The latter did not seem to mind; he was too immersed in the game, screaming directions at any passerby. Sasuke sat back, joining the Hyuuga.

"There's nothing to it," Neji said in a quiet, low tone. "Hinata's father, or my uncle, simply does not like me. End of story."

"Why doesn't he like you?" Sasuke asked with too much curiosity to hold back.

"My father and he were twins who owned a single company. You know it, correct?"

Who didn't?

"But my father was the one making the decisions in the company, and Hiashi did not like that. And so he set up his own branch of the company that gradually began to take control."

"To make a long story short, without all the details, it was a matter of business?" Sasuke said when he pieced the hints together. "Your uncle hated your father, so he indirectly hated you."

"Yes. And now that my father has passed away, I am beneath the control of Hiashi for another three months until I turn eighteen. His hatred is very subtle, however. I am not abused, if that is what you think. He simply grounds me for stupid reasons, has me doing a majority of the work, etcetera."

"And your leg?"

"We hosted an argument at the top of the stairs, he pushed me, I pushed him back, he pushed me once more, I simply tripped, and down the stairs I went."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the Hyuuga's nonchalant, trying not to imagine Neji tumbling down a flight of steps.

"Are you happy now?"

"Not with the knowledge, no." Sasuke frowned, thinking about the source of the hatred and its stupidity. "Why don't you fight back? You know, defy him or something."

"I sneak out of the house to see TenTen on occasion when I am grounded, but sometimes, it is better to be the bigger man than to stoop down to his low level. I am waiting patiently for July 3rd to come and pass and then I shall leave for college close by."

"What about Hinata?"

The game was ending. Sasuke was trying to pry out as many answers as he could. He knew Neji would not be as open to answering questions again.

"Hiashi certainly does not favor her since she has no interest in the business and so he treats her with almost equal dislike, but it is not so bad. She can put up with another year. She has Naruto, after all."

Sasuke smirked at this and ended the conversation. He knew of the crush the female Hyuuga harbored for the blond. If only the blond was not so oblivious.

"Naruto's a special kind of person, isn't he?" he asked out of the blue, not expecting an answer. He got one anyway.

"Special, indeed."

o.o.O.O.o.o

Lunch finally came around. Sasuke's growling stomach told him to spend a dollar on a snack from lunch, but his mother's face in his vision told him to save up as much as he could until their finances turned stable. And so he walked from the P.E. locker room with no intention of heading to the cafeteria.

But there was something odd about the student body. Every single teenage walking by had a newspaper in his or her hands, theirs heads hidden unless they peered over the paper to stare around, stopping when their eyes landed on the Uchiha. Sasuke raised an eyebrow and turned to Naruto for an explanation.

"What are they reading?" he asked, trying to catch the title with little success.

"The school newspaper," replied Naruto.

"We have a school newspaper?"

"Yeah, but everyone usually just takes it home to read. I've never seen people actually walking in the halls like this since Ino's last scoop about Kurenai and Asuma getting engaged. There must be something really interesting."

Naruto disappeared briefly in the crowd of students to grab a newspaper from the stands and returned, sharing it with Sasuke. Their eyes skimmed the front page.

Trouble at the Marathon? the title read. Naruto quickly opened to page six as the front page instructed and Sasuke was the first to finish reading the article.

It spoke of the winners: Gaara, Sasuke, and Lee. It explained how Gaara had been training for competitions since he was six years old and that his victories were not merely out of luck. His mother had been a famous track competitor before passing away and Gaara raced in her honor.

It explained how Lee simply raced with the advice of Gai on his side. He harnessed his youth in a sport he loved and he went for it.

And then it explained how Sasuke did not win simply because he had a prosthetic leg.

Sasuke's heartbeat began to increase as his eyes hastily made it across every letter, every word, every sentence. The author explained of his struggle to train for the marathon, of how he had to cope with his own anonymous troubles and a major bruise on his side. Then there was a scientific explanation – a scientific explanation in full detail! – of why having a prosthetic leg should have hindered his chances of winning rather than helping him.

Sasuke's eyes searched desperately for a name.

By Haruno Sakura.

Why did he suddenly have the urge to run around the entire school looking for her?

He did just that. He left Naruto with the newspaper and burst through the cafeteria, looking for any sign of peculiar pink hair or emerald eyes. She was there, sitting with Ino, TenTen, and Hinata, chatting away happily. He walked to stand behind her.

"Why did you do that?" he asked.

Why were people being so kind to him? They were supposed to be fake. People were supposed to be afraid, and fake, and stupid. So why were the ones he met so nice, and logical, and real?

Sakura turned around. She seemed to know what he meant. She smiled.

"People needed to know," she whispered.

The familiar, unidentifiable feeling returned to bubble in his chest and he stood there awkwardly, words of gratitude trying to force their way past his lips.

"This is the part where you thank her and give her a hug, silly," Ino said from the side, giggling. "Stupid boys and their stupid pride."

Sasuke was not some stupid boy. He did not believe hugging another being did anything to damage pride at all. And so he thanked Sakura. And then he hugged her. Briefly. Ino, TenTen, and even Hinata gave a simultaneous "Aww."

"Any time," Sakura said.

When Sasuke returned to Naruto, his mouth was twitching.

"Smile, Uchiha," the blond said to him. "It won't kill you."

o.o.O.O.o.o

Sasuke raced to the hospital the second the school bell rang. He didn't even stop to properly greet Shizune. He simply flashed a smirk, greeted her hastily, and ran away with her laughter echoing in his ears.

Mikoto was awake and lively. She laughed when Sasuke entered and placed her cup of orange juice on the table.

"I'm willing to bet that you ran all the way here," she said, flattening the wild strands of Sasuke's hair.

"Where's Itachi?"

"He stepped out to get something. He should be right over." Mikoto grabbed the list from the other table to her side and looked it over, unsure whether to smile at some events or frown at others. "Now what's this about getting drunk?" she asked. "And kidnapped?"

"Close your eyes and pick, mom," Sasuke said, his mood unfazed.

Mikoto pouted.

Sasuke shook his head.

She deepened her pout.

Sasuke was a stone.

"Oh, foofie," Mikoto said at last with a mock huff. "I'm your mother. I'm supposed to be the one in charge."

But she closed her eyes and her slender fingers swept across the paper several times. Sasuke hoped it would land on something nice. Something good. Something jovial.

It landed on the Sound 5.

"Alright," she said. "What is this and what did it do to you?"

Sasuke finally smiled, but it was a sad one. The memories suddenly flooded his mind. He thought he would begin with their first meeting, and possibly make it to the drunk experience he had, and then to Kimimaro.

Good, he thought. It was something nice to begin with. He moved in closer next to his mother and relished in the warmth of her body.

"They're a gang," he said. "And they were out to get me. But not anymore."

He didn't try to think about how for once, everything was fine. He was afraid he'd jinx himself. And so he told himself that everything wasn't fine.

But maybe, just maybe, it could be.

------------------------------------------------------------------

You love me.

I know you do.