Sealed
XV

Author: Ms. Trick

Note: Reviews make my life. No seriously.

Chapter 15

The array of sneaky, snapping, tripping, exploding traps and ambushes that had had to be avoided left Hinata's seven pursuers with no illusions that their presence would be a surprise to the girl's escorts. It also let them know that the four Sound nin had to be resting.

The sun was now approaching its apogee, all traces of morning freshness vanishing into the hot sunlight. In a humid spot of shade hidden by a cluster of monstrous petunia bushes, Shikamaru casually sat on his heels while the rest of his team waited around him.

After a pause, Neji said, "I found them." His byakugen was activated and his was posture was rigid.

"Alright, alright! Let's bring Hinata back!" Naruto crowed.

"Don't rush it," Shikamaru intoned.

"Describe the Sound nins' appearances, Neji," Sasuke requested quietly.

There was another pause and then Neji said: "There are four of them: three male, one female. One male seems to have four arms, one appears to have two chakra systems, and the other is rather large in stature. The girl is sitting on a large barrel. I'm assuming Hinata-sama is encased within it."

Sasuke absorbed this information without comment and then gave a short nod.

"Care to share, Uchiha?" Kiba barked tersely.

"It's Uchiha-Uzumaki," Naruto muttered.

Sasuke didn't flinch at Kiba's exclamation. Instead he turned to Shikamaru and calmly began speaking.

"The kunoichi uses a flute to cast genjutsu though of the group, she's the weakest in close combat. The shinobi with four arms can produce a spiderweb-like substance that can either act as an inhibiting webbing or solidify into a rock hard weapon. The shinobi with two chakra systems is actually two brothers that share a body but can separate at will. The large shinobi utilizes mostly earth jutsus and his own brute strength in battle."

Sasuke absently thought it was a good thing the entire Sound Five weren't there. He apathetically wondered if the sickly Kimimaro had died.

"They've all got the cursed seal?" Chouji inserted.

Sasuke nodded again.

"How do you know all this?" Naruto interrupted, eyes narrowed.

The rest blinked in obvious surprise and the same thought flashed into their minds: Sasuke hadn't told him?

Naruto wasn't stupid. He caught the stunned reactions of his team mates and knew there was something he didn't know, something that concerned Sasuke and now by default concerned him.

"I'll tell you later," Sasuke decreed clearly, meeting Naruto's suspicious eyes without hesitation. "Right now, I figure you'd rather save Hinata than chitchat."

Naruto grit his teeth, recognising the change in topic for what it was. He saw that Sasuke's dark eyes were absolutely devoid of emotion, no glint of guilt at keeping secrets, no sparkle of excitement for the upcoming mission. Just another wall that Naruto would have to prepare to climb. But that was for later. Sasuke was right; they had a mission.

Sasuke glared at the thick wall of dirt in front of him. This was not supposed to happen.

Shikamaru had decided an ambush would make the most sense and no one disagreed. So they had--at Sasuke's warning--taken care to avoid rustling any bushes with spider webs attached to them and approached the resting spot of the four Sound nin.

When the one identified as Sakon hurled a kunai sporting three explosive tags at their precise location, they knew their plan had failed. And Sasuke, who had been instructed by their squad commander to keep himself hidden from view unless absolutely necessary, found himself being drawn into battle prematurely.

Unfortunately, they'd been had.

In mid-wrestle, Jiroubou wrenched into existence a large dome of earth that promptly engulfed all the Konoha nin (save Shikamaru and Neji) in addition to their supposed Sound opponents. A couple basic attacks later revealed an old trick that never got easier to detect: all but the hefty Jiroubou had been kage bunshin.

And now, Sasuke was left glaring at a chakra-sucking wall of dirt, remembering Jiroubou's smirk of recognition.

Outside, a somewhat subdued Shikamaru (last Naruto saw him, he was buried up to his neck in the solid ground) commanded Neji to go ahead with instructions not let the group get Hinata across Fire Country's borders.

Still glaring, Sasuke summoned the Sharingan and indicated to the rest of the trapped ninja where the dome's thick dirt walls were weakest. Chouji took his position before stilling and Naruto and Sasuke stood back to back as Kiba and Akamaru flew around them in devastating gatsuugas that ripped messy chunks out of the dome's interior. It wasn't long before a muddy crack appeared in the identified weak point. Then Chouji spun into a meat tank and cannonballed said crack, and dome's back wall exploded.

The fight that ensued wasn't so much a battle as it was the highly-trained Konoha ninja running around in circles, dodging torrents of mud and rock as it was hurled at them in all forms and from all directions with great force.

Chouji spun out of the way as a column of rock and mud burst upwards. As the dirt flew around him, he very clearly heard Jiroubou make a snide remark about the recently-unearthed Shikamaru's leadership skills. Chouji screeched to a dead stop. Naruto, who was right behind him avoiding an avalanche of boulders, nearly tripped over himself stopping in time too.

"What--" Naruto started.

Sasuke appeared at his side, looking thoroughly irritated, and Shikamaru appeared next to Chouji. The Akimichi heir clamped a hand on Shikamaru's shoulder and yelled, "We don't have time for this, I'll fight him."

"Chouji..."

"Shikamaru. Don't be an ass. Go!'

Their clothes a little dirtier and their tempers a little shorter, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, Kiba, and Akamaru disappeared into the trees. Behind them, thunder rumbled as the two titans slammed into each other.

As the late morning sun beat down, Gaara walked up the main road, trying to act casual. The shops in the market had been open a few hours already so it wasn't like he was the only one on the street. Still, he felt like he had a spotlight on him.

Usually it was Lee who went to the weekly market. This week however, the spandex-clad ninja wouldn't be back from his mission until noon at the earliest. And while Gaara knew Lee could always hit the market in the afternoon, he wanted to do something...nice for his energetic husband. The redhead knew this was out of character for him. And thus the spotlight. He was sure everyone in the market was watching to see how he did in his small shopping mission.

Looking at Gaara, you wouldn't know it though. He appeared calm, even a little bored, as he made his way through the crowds. He inhaled deeply, letting himself take in the juicy scents of ripe fruit and the warm smell of freshly baked bread.

Because of his dedication to his physical wellbeing, Lee wasn't a big fan of sugary foods. He did, however, have a weakness for fruit. Over the last three years, Gaara had seen Lee clear through entire bushels of apples and bags of nectarines and bunches of bananas and cartons of strawberries by himself in impossible speeds.

Knowing that the in-season peaches would sell out quickly, Gaara followed his nose to the mountains of colourful fruit piled onto the vendor's stands. However, before he could start perusing, he caught sight of Shizune racing by with TonTon at her heels.

When the harried medic nin noticed Gaara out of the corner of her eye, she paused, as if struck with inspiration. The redhead restrained the urge to sigh and he got the feeling he wouldn't be buying any fruit today.

Chouji just breathed. The tree trunk against his back was rough but seemed like the most comfortable thing in the world right now. He glanced over at the still body of Jiroubou, which lay in the crater of cracked and crushed earth. He vaguely wondered how the rest of team were doing. He assumed they'd caught up to Neji and the other Sound shinobi. Covered in mud and sweat, Chouji looked down at the clear case of his family's pills, thankful he hadn't been forced to take the red one.

Unbeknownst to him, further on, Neji was also slumped in the shade of a tree amid the aftermath of his own battle with Kidoumaru, the four-armed Sound nin. Neji's head was resting on one of the tree's thick roots, his long hair falling in tangles over his shoulders and face. He was clutching his forehead protector in his hand and eying the lifeless body of his opponent, which lay a few feet away. Vexed, Neji made to brush the strands out of his eyes but stopped immediately. A searing burn inflamed his entire left side at the small movement.

He grunted and his head fell back. He then raised it again so as to get a clear view of the thick, gold-coloured arrow protruding violently through the soft muscle above his armpit. Feeling dizzy, he lay his head back down and made an assessment. The wound wasn't fatal, not by a long shot. And if he didn't pull out the arrow, he had little fear of blood loss.

Still, he probably shouldn't move, Neji thought as the dizziness slowly began melting into darkness.

Before completely passing out from exhaustion and injury, two sets of feet came into Neji's view. A cool hand smoothed the hair off his face and came to rest on his forehead.

"Where are the others?" A familiar voice inquired.

"They went on ahead, after Hinata-sama. I volunteered to...stay behind," Neji said breathlessly.

Only when a wash of healing chakra flooded his system did he finally allow himself the luxury of unconsciousness.

Let's see, Shikamaru thought as he dodged a shower of woodchips that was once a branch. When did my plan go wrong?

Another of Tayuya's three summonses appeared in the midst of raining splinters and leaves and the chuunin let gravity pull him backwards and out of harm's way before the demon's club crashed down with ghastly force. Shikamaru felt the woods shudder as he flipped and landed neatly on another branch.

Probably when that guy, Kimimaro, showed up out of nowhere, Shikamaru concluded, recalling how the mysterious ninja had retrieved the fat barrel containing Hinata from them with appalling ease only minutes after they had managed to lay their hands on it.

Then Kiba took off after him before I could give him an order and before this horrible woman could try and stop him.

The enraged snarl that had escaped Kiba at the sight of Hinata being taken out of his reach had very nearly startled the lazy squad leader. Akamaru's rumbling bass growl had then underscored it and without thinking, shinobi and dog had given chase.

A melodious string of notes let Shikamaru know that his temporary hiding spot had probably been located. He dove out from the branch's leafy netting just as the entire limb was ripped off the tree.

Then before that there was that whole mishap with the exploding note, Shikamaru recalled wryly as he surreptitiously glanced in the direction of the cliff the last two members of his squad had gone over.

The untimely explosion from a malfunctioning trap they themselves had laid had caught Sasuke and the two-in-one Sound nin in its blast, hurling them into the chasm's gaping drop. Of course, Naruto leapt after Sasuke without preamble.

As he flew over the cliff's rocky ledge, Naruto had twisted and slapped a palm down on the crumbling stones. A hollered "kuchiyose no jutsu" later, and a hefty red and orange toad about the size of the Ichiraku Ramen stand had appeared. The toad's long, rough tongue had immediately shot out and latched onto Naruto, who had managed to latch onto Sasuke in mid-air.

They dangled like that for a minute. Then as the toad slung the two ninja onto its bumpy back, Naruto had called back to Shikamaru, yelling that he and Sasuke were going to take their fight now. Then the toad had disappeared down into the dark, cold canyon that opened like a wound in the forest floor.

I guess you could say my plan went wrong in a lot of places, Shikamaru thought, somewhat bored and still evading his opponent's song-dictated attacks. Bummer.

Sakon's face, demonized by his Stage Two transformation, was marred by a sneer that was filled with layers of sharp teeth. His temper's fuse had long since burnt out since he and his brother had been forcibly separated thanks to a nasty combination of Sasuke's katana and the Chidori Nagashi.

Ukon's temper wasn't much better. As soon he had awoken and realised that Sasuke was their opponent, his stomach had burned with a gritty anger. They had been told to retrieve Sasuke if possible but Ukon was sure he'd rather just destroy him.

"We should hurry," Naruto managed to say between ducking and weaving Sakon's swipes.

"You heard Kimimaro," Sasuke replied, his sword and eyes steady and pointed at Ukon. "Our time limit's been nullified. Orochimaru had to transfer bodies already."

"Still, Hinata-chan needs us!"

One of Naruto's clones had been marked with an exploding tag under its orange and black jacket. At that moment, in mid-attack, it exploded in Sakon's personal space. Smoke and dust was blasted in all directions around the damp canyon, temporarily hiding everyone from one another.

"Naruto, look out!" Sasuke suddenly yelled, his red eyes the only specks of colour in the dissipating grey smoke.

But when Naruto spun around, there wasn't a soul behind him. He frowned and turned back around to shout at Sasuke for messing with him in the middle of a battle but Sasuke already had his hands full dodging a bitter Sakon's rapid attacks.

"Yo," a voice far too close to Naruto's ear suddenly drawled. "Who are you looking for?"

Naruto's eyes widened and he choked when he realised that Ukon's head was growing out of his shoulder. He automatically flung a fist at it but a spiny arm sprung out of his other shoulder and twisted his own arm around himself.

He then half-listened as Ukon bragged about the details of his unique ability, only clinging to a key phrase or two. Like "Basically, we're in the same body." Already bored of the science lesson, Naruto stopped struggling and a short huff of laughter escaped him. Ukon grunted in confusion and tightened his pull on the blonde's arm.

"The same body, you said? Of all the people for you to share bodies with..." Naruto choked out over his strained torso.

He awkwardly dug into the weapon's pouch on his hip with his free left arm and raised the kunai high enough that the ninja invading his body could see it in the grim, watery light. Ukon didn't have time to react before Naruto plunged the kunai deep into his stomach.

Both ninja gasped at the sudden volt of pain. But Naruto, well versed in pain because of Kyuubi's destructive chakra, was already shoving the agony to the back of his mind and didn't hesitate long before wrenching the kunai out. Blood spilled freely from the wound and the blonde dropped to his knees.

"Suicide?! Impossible!" Ukon screamed in Naruto's ear. He was obviously shaken, his anger thinly covering the immense pain.

"Not quite," Naruto said, a terrifying grin spreading across his face. "Of all the people for you to share bodies with...you pick the one that heals ten times faster than you."

Horrified, Ukon found himself trapped under the gaze of Naruto's suddenly red eyes. And then Naruto tilted the sharp point of the kunai upwards and jammed it viciously between his ribs. It pierced messily through skin, organ, and tissue, and more blood--too much blood--gushed out in spurts and splashes. Howling in pain and shock, Ukon flung himself backwards out of Naruto's body.

He collapsed onto the ground, desperately gasping in air as the bloody wounds in his stomach spread wetly and dribbled down his sides. Naruto was also gasping. He could feel his body's violent reaction to the kunai lodged tightly between his lungs. With one more intake of breath, he grasped the hilt in his now claw-like hands and jerked it out. A river of red gushed across Naruto's knees and stained his orange clothes. He doubled over, barely able to choke air in and out of his lungs. His heartbeat grew sluggish.

Stupid brat, a voice floated to him as his vision swam.

Then the familiar burn of Kyuubi's chakra swallowed his limbs and encased him whole. His hands curled as his nails sharpened further and he knew his whisker-marks would be raised off his skin like scars. He felt a chakra foxtail form behind him and swish dangerously. Naruto's eyes flew open, still blood red, and he sucked in more air, letting himself soak in the chakra before summoning a second tail.

Both the demon and the shinobi knew that the self-inflicted wound was fatal. Theoretically anyway. As Naruto tightened his grip on the kunai's slippery hilt, he could feel the wounds being nurtured and soothed by the low burn of the red chakra. A sensation of being underwater engulfed him and even though he saw Ukon take a fighting stance, he seemed to be drifting away.

In his crouched position, the blonde suddenly corkscrewed around and took in the figure of the taken aback Sound nin. Kyuubi was wide-awake and eager to have an opponent to sink its claws into.

Gradually, his eyes began to refocus. It took a couple blinks for Naruto to realise that his eyes were back under his control and he could see.

He sat with his exhausted legs in front of him, his arms loose at his side, and his gaze on his mutilated stomach. He was slumped against a tall rock and he could almost physically hear Kyuubi's frustrated snarls concerning the openings created by the broken seal. But to the fox's misfortune and Naruto's morbid curiosity, as the taut skin near his navel began to slowly regenerate, the markings did too.

As Naruto groggily regained control over his aching limbs, he noted that the wide blotches of blood covering his clothes had increased and he had to assume that it wasn't all his. He tiredly raised his head and struggled for breath at the sight of Ukon's shredded and lifeless body. The Sound nin was much smaller when not in the Stage Two form. Naruto could see a nasty claw mark swiping across Ukon's cheek and into his blood-matted silver hair. It oozed across the bridge of his nose and onto a puddle on the damp ground.

Naruto automatically looked down at his hands. The sharp claws had vanished as though they were never there but to his disgust, there was still a good helping of red underneath his fingernails.

The clashing of metal and fists suddenly stopped and Naruto blinked; he hadn't realised he had been listening to Sasuke's fight the whole time. His body still felt too heavy to move but he looked around, searching for the battle. Finding nothing in his entire span of vision, he figured the other two ninja were directly behind the large rock he had his back pressed to.

"Traitor," he heard Sakon hiss.

Naruto frowned and tilted his head to hear better.

"Using the Kusanagi sword Orochimaru-sama gave you...why not just go to Stage Two!" Sakon snarled before launching into a growling battle cry that, from the sound of it, accompanied an attack.

Naruto heard Sasuke's icy voice state the Hidden Snake Hands Jutsu (1) and something tightened in Naruto's chest.

The blonde sat still and numbly listened as the snakes shot out and bound and throttled Sakon. All the while, Naruto began piecing together all the small clues about Sasuke that were now heartbreakingly obvious. Where would Sasuke have learned that jutsu? Why was Sasuke only a chuunin when he was clearly jounin level? Why had Sasuke said he hadn't been training with Kakashi as much as Naruto had assumed? Why had the furniture in their apartment barely been used (let alone rearranged)?

"He went to Orochimaru," Naruto whispered to himself, his head falling back and hitting the rock. His eyes closed as though this new awareness was causing him physical pain.

He had been wrong.

Seal or no seal, Sasuke wouldn't accept that bastard's invitation. He doesn't need to since he's really strong already. Hadn't he said that to Sakura?

But he had been wrong.

He barely registered the sound of Sasuke's roaring fireball and Sakon's howls of pain as he was blackened and burnt to a crisp. There were a few moments of silence after the Sound nin's body fell like dead weight to the ground.

At the light thud of a pair of feet landing on the rock above him, Naruto's eyes opened. From upside-down, he searched the red eyes locked on his. It was only then that Naruto realised Sasuke's Sharingan had the third drop, and it was two completed mitsu tomoe he was looking at. (2)

Sasuke looked down into Naruto's wide blue eyes and casually retracted the heaven seal's black sprawl from his wintry skin. When it was once again curled into the mark on his neck, it burned bright for a minute before quieting. It was uninhibited by the protective seal Kakashi had netted it with when they were twelve.

His abdominal wounds healing but were still in bad shape. Nevertheless, Naruto hauled himself to his feet and out of Sasuke's shadow. He narrowed his eyes shrewdly at the dark-haired teen.

"You went to Orochimaru," he accused.

Sasuke's gaze immediately wandered away from Naruto's and he leapt off the rock, noting that the jinchuuriki was clutching hard at his bloody stomach. Sasuke wasn't in prime condition either. Sakon had managed to land a few nasty shots. Sasuke's right shoulder had three freely-bleeding gouges that would obviously need stitches. And his slightly pained landing let Naruto know that one of Sasuke's legs had to have taken heavy hits.

Sasuke casually wiped the blade of his katana on the thigh of his black pants before returning it to the sheath tucked into the back of the red rope looped several times around his waist.

He could feel the wave of anger and hurt Naruto was directing at him. And while Sasuke had felt guilty for a few fleeting seconds, he now grew insolent and angry himself. He had no reason to feel guilty on Naruto's behalf. He had left the village with his own future and goals in mind and if the blonde took Sasuke's betrayal personally, that was Naruto's problem.

So instead of an apology, all Sasuke finally said was, "You and Sakura got to be personally trained by a member of the sannin. I figured I did too."

"Do they know? Does everyone else know?"

"Of course they know. I was gone for over a year."

"A year? Was no one going to tell me?"

"You know now."

"Did you plan to come back?"

"No," Sasuke said honestly.

"Then why did you? Did you get dragged home? Did Orochimaru kick you out?" Naruto sneered.

"I left!"

"Why?"

Their voices, though loud, didn't echo in the canyon. The damp walls, the grim audience of boulders, the dead bodies of their two opponents, and the shallow river merely absorbed every sound into itself. It almost felt claustrophobic.

"Why what? What are you questioning, Naruto? My motives? My morals?"

"Your spine," Naruto gritted out.

Sasuke gave him an ugly look and neither spoke for a few minutes. The tension settled like a weight in the air.

"Why did you come back?"

"I don't know!" Sasuke finally yelled in desperation.

He immediately regretted yelling. When had he allowed himself to get this worked up? How did Naruto do that to him so quickly when no one else could?

"You don't know or you don't want to tell me?" Naruto asked in a cold, shrewd voice.

"Ch," Sasuke said between his teeth.

His gaze flew sideways and Naruto knew he had guessed right.

"Itachi is looking for the nine-tailed fox," Sasuke admitted quietly.

Naruto went completely stiff, gaping wounds in his middle forgotten. He stared at Sasuke with unbelieving eyes.

"So this...all this...is just about Itachi?" He gasped out incredulously.

There was a pregnant pause where Sasuke seemed to be chewing on his tongue.

"...it used to be," he finally answered in a voice that seemed far too small for the Sasuke Naruto knew.

Naruto frowned. "Oh, come off it. It's still about your brother."

Sasuke's eyes snapped to Naruto's angrily. Both could feel the fight brewing between them like the grumbling of an oncoming thunderstorm. But when they tensed, readying their bodies for the much-desired battle, Naruto nearly doubled over and Sasuke's hand flew to cover his bleeding shoulder while he winced about the deep bruising on his leg.

Sasuke recovered his wits quickly and hurled his agitation at Naruto in insults instead.

"What the hell would you know about brothers? What the hell would you know about me when you've never had siblings or parents?"

"Sasuke!" Naruto barked out in an angry warning.

"You've been alone from the start. How could you possibly understand what it felt like to lose them? What it...what it feels like."

The puncture wounds in Naruto's middle burned in a stinging ache and the sudden pain erased anything he was about to say. Plunged into involuntary speechlessness, Naruto found himself actually concentrating on what the other ninja was saying. He looked at the dark-haired teen through bleary eyes and tried to understand.

He imagined, really imagined, what would happen if someone killed Sasuke. What if Naruto returned to Konoha one day and Sasuke and Sakura and Kakashi and Iruka and everyone Naruto considered family...what if he found them all dead? Naruto's chest tightened in panic and he found he couldn't truly imagine the heart-shredding, head-splitting, complete agonizing grief that would engulf him.

As he looked at Sasuke, the vicious ninja he had been arguing to the death with a second ago suddenly wasn't real. For the first time in his life, Naruto saw straight through the Sasuke's prickly attacks and spiny defences and instead, saw the child that had strived with his whole heart to make his parents proud, the child that had gotten his world destroyed and that whole heart ripped to pieces. And Naruto realised with a pang of despair that froze his centre that no, he didn't understand what Sasuke had been through. And what was worse...he couldn't fix it.

Sasuke was still yelling. It sounded like he'd wanted to scream all this at the world for years.

As Naruto silently listened, he watched Sasuke's livid face and found with a sad sense of awe that this was a side of Sasuke that maybe no one had been allowed see before: the damaged, frightened child that lived at Sasuke's core. What the hell could Naruto possibly do? What the hell could Naruto possibly say?

"You've always been alone! You don't know the slightest thing!" Sasuke shouted.

He panted harshly, his chest heaving. A trickle of blood oozed out of his shoulder, unnoticed. Meanwhile, his dark eyes were defensive and frustrated and fixed on Naruto's own helpless gaze.

"...okay," Naruto whispered.

Sasuke stopped breathing. "What?" He asked, his voice disbelieving.

"Okay," Naruto said more clearly. "I don't understand. Not completely."

Sasuke frowned, the unexpected prickle of tears grating over the back of his eyes. He blinked in an attempt to ward them away. Forgetting his painful shoulder and injured leg and disregarding Naruto's serious injuries, he barrelled into the blond teen and grabbed two fistfuls of Naruto's blood-stained jacket before yanking him close.

"Don't you get it?! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" He yelled into Naruto's face.

"I know," Naruto said sadly, his arms gingerly unfolding from his stomach. His hands lightly landed on Sasuke's elbows and Sasuke's frown got deeper.

"You don't understand. You don't understand me. You don't know."

"Okay."

"You don't!"

"Okay."

"You don't know."

"Okay."

Unsaid by Sasuke but heard nonetheless by Naruto was the small, lost question, "Then why are you still here?"

Sasuke seemed completely lost at Naruto's reaction. His energy seemed to drain out of him all at once and all he could do was breathe. His facial expression was the most vulnerable Naruto had ever seen it and his obsidian eyes were wet with frustrated, unshed tears.

Naruto's arms crept up and cautiously settled around Sasuke's shoulders, being careful not to aggravate the deep gashes on Sasuke's right. And slowly Sasuke collapsed into him. His face and hands were buried in Naruto's chest and Naruto, disregarding the throbbing of his abdominal injuries, hugged Sasuke as tightly as he could.

He pressed his lips into the side of Sasuke's head and just held him closer, trying to communicate without words that as long as he was there, Sasuke would never have to face the world as that lonely, frightened child ever again.

Author's Note:

(1) Used by Anko in Episode 30.

(2) Courtesy of A tomoe (巴) is a Japaneseabstractshape (i.e. a swirl) that resembles a comma or the usual form of magatama. It is a common design element in and corporatelogos, particularly in triplicate whorls known as mitsu tomoe.

Thanks so much to Mrs.NarutoUzumaki, TimeForTea, KunochiDreamer, dustori, Tirra Lirra, Hasamaki, Gonrie, HoshitheHorse, Ichihime, FREAKSHOW1, KatDemonLizzy-Kun, megsjedi, michelerene, YueYoukaiEclipse, DramaQueen1193,

yaoi loveing wolf, Frost Princess xX, Smexikitsune4884, and YueYoukaiEclipse for your glorious reviews!

Itachi'sEBILcuppycake – Uh...thanks/sorry? ;)

Clemen – You're a peach. Good luck on your story!

Kitarin – Thank you so much! Your review totally made my entire week.

asylum-bound – Cookie points for referencing End of the World and also just in general for being an awesome reviewer.

Alley-Oop and Luna! – Honestly, I'm hoping to make this story a balance between SasuNaru and NaruSasu because as far as I'm concerned, relationships never quite work out unless both parties are on the same level. Now it's just a question of whether or not I can pull that off adequately. ;) Thanks for the reviews!

-Ms Trick