Iruka is grading papers at his kitchen table during his first day off in months, going over the work of his new batch of first-year students over a cup of oolong.

There's a sudden swish, a thud, a crunch that sounds suspiciously like the bottom frame of his window cracking, an Kakashi Hatake appears around the corner of Iruka's bedroom, single silver eye wild. "I need your help."

Iruka gives him a few stunned blinks, temporarily dumbstruck, taking in Kakashi's obviously less than critical distress before he remembers what day it is.

"Oh my god you passed them, didn't you?"

Kakashi slides down the doorframe with a defeated groan, dropping his head into his hands.

Another thud, the scratch of nails on his wood floors, and Pakkun comes around the corner as well, leaping onto the kitchen table with a skittering hop. "You gotta help us, teach. Boss can barely remember to water his plant, how is he supposed to take care of pups?"

Kakashi makes some sort of inarticulate noise halfway between a whine and a growl. "I'm not having this argument with you again." He snaps as he raises his head. "They're not cubs, they're Genin."

Pakkun snorts through his short nose, giving his ear a couple of careless swats with his back leg. "You seem to think there's a difference."

"There is a difference. Legally they're adults." Kakashi growls, but he sounds more like he's trying to convince himself more than anybody else.

Iruka reaches forward to absently scratch the ear Pakkun's been kicking and the ninken rumbles contentedly. "So let me get this straight. You, Hatake Kakashi, have passed a Genin team? Who did you get?" Iruka asks. He hadn't been the teacher in charge of the assignment this year, so he's uncharacteristically out of the loop. He figures they would have placed Sasuke with Kakashi, by virtue of a shared Kekkei Genkai, but outside of that he has no idea.

"Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto."

Iruka freezes, tongue balled up in the back of his throat for a long stretched out second, but then he can't help it anymore. He bursts into inappropriate uncontrolled laughter, the kind that makes your lungs sore and your eyes water, the kind that has him wrapping an arm around his middle a pressing a hand to his mouth in an effort to stifle his mirth. Kakashi's glare sharpens but that only makes him laugh harder, wiping the tears from his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"Did you know they were absolute fucking terrors?" Kakashi hisses. Iruka doesn't actually respond verbally, he's still laughing too hard to speak, but he does hold his hand up flat and seesaws it back and forth in a 'sorta' gesture. Kakashi groans. "I don't even know where the hell to start. Normally the beginning of training is based on building a fluid team dynamic, but it's a little obvious they skipped that part entirely. I thought that teams outside Ino-Shika-Cho weren't supposed to be predetermined."

Iruka manages to get himself under control at long last, occasional hiccups of laughter still escaping from his throat. "They're not, but I may or may not have accidentally told Sasuke about the Rule of Two-Thirds. For academic purposes, of course."

Kakashi doesn't actually call him on the bullshit, but his gaze says he's not convinced. Iruka sighs as Pakkun curls up under his arm. "Why don't you start from the beginning?"

~Four hours prior…~

Kakashi stares openly at his three new trainees on the green of training ground three, studying each of them individually. He knows the Uchiha already, or at least he should, but he can't help but notice that the dark haired boy looks very different from when he'd last seen him.

Uchiha Sasuke's eyes had been cold and jagged like sheet ice that night in the rain, cutting and fragile, broken and hiding it under layer upon frigid layer of hate.

These eyes hardly look the like they belong to the same person in comparison. It's like they've hardened and softened at the same time, burning instead of glacial, like some kind of inner fire has been melting down the ice and it's revealed nothing but iron underneath, ferrous metal rusty with disuse, but strong nonetheless.

He remembers Iruka saying some time ago that Sakura was something of a fangirl, an enamored duckling trailing in Sasuke's shadow in search of scraps of affection. This can't be the same girl he'd been talking about, this fiery-eyed Kunoichi hopping back and forth on the balls of her feel like she can't wait to get moving, get working, a serrated smile daring him to look down on her.

The only one of the three that Kakashi expected iron from had been Naruto– the boy has always been stronger than most people see, Kakashi knows this, but it's not just more iron that he sees in Naruto's eyes, it's confidence, surety, like he knows his worth now, and not a person on earth will be able to tell him otherwise.

So far? Definitely not the green little academy graduates he'd been counting on. Right off the bat he makes three mistakes.

Kakashi's first mistake was evaluating them separately.

His second mistake was assuming they'd play by his rules.

His third and most forgivable mistake? Assuming they would perform at an academy graduate level.

As soon as the skirmish starts it becomes very clear that these brats have been practicing techniques at a very not academy level thank you very fucking much, especially Naruto, who was supposed to have graduated with the lowest academy grades, who throws a Chunin level wind jutsu at him right off the bat.

His first bell gets snagged off his person a mere twenty minutes into the conflict, much to Kakashi's chagrin, by Naruto and Sasuke working in tandem, more in synch with each other than Kakashi has seem most strike teams, so much so in fact that even though he's sure Naruto is the one who snatched the bell off him, it ends up dangling in Sasuke's hands and Kakashi can't call them on it because he hadn't actually seen the switch.

He only pauses to glare at them for a mere few seconds, but it's yet another mistake on his part because Sakura, the sneaky brat, promptly swipes his second bell while his back is turned and Kakashi's brain does a field conditioned reboot and reassess.

These are not Genin, these are little monsters.

Kakashi has done this test before, he's failed academy student after academy student. None of them know what it means to look outside themselves, that the world means nothing without comrades at your back and friends at your side. In the first few minutes of his test, these three twelve-year-olds have demonstrated teamwork and ingenuity that could show conditioned Chunin teams a thing or two.

They'd planned this, Kakashi can see it in their eyes; the way Naruto is trying and failing not to smile the same way he would when he's pulled a prank he knows he'll get away with, the way Sasuke is glaring and grinning at the blond boy in turns like they're having a conversation with just facial expressions, the way Sakura puts her hands behind her back and gives him a smile so sweet and false it makes his teeth hurt.

He ties the blond brat to the post because he can't prove they'd broken his rules and tells them to break for lunch, minus Naruto, even though it's hardly eleven. He's floored again when the only person that pulls out any lunch is Sakura, and she comes out of her bag with not one bento, but three. She passes one to Sasuke and sets the other next to her, assuring Naruto that he can eat it later, patting the grass beside it reassuringly. When Naruto starts to whine about being starving anyway, Sasuke growls something that sounds like 'idiot' and starts giving Naruto bits out of his own lunch. Sakura catches into the loophole quickly and starts offering some of her own as well, and Kakashi gives up right around the time that Naruto wiggles an arm out of the ropes to take an offered rice ball.

There's something very unfair about this. Kakashi decides. He can't fail them now, even if he wanted to.

More surprising is the fact the he doesn't want to. The iron in their young souls is so painfully obvious, but for all its strength the metal is rough– untested and untried.

Unforged.

He's never seen more potential before in his life than he does now, staring at three twelve-year-old academy graduates sharing lunch together on the thick grass of training ground three. More than that, he sees a chance to break repeating history, a chance to make sure that this team never ends up like his did.

"I expect to see you three bright and early tomorrow morning." He tells them at the end. He doesn't bother mentioning that they passed. By the look in their eyes, they know.

"You gonna be late?" Naruto asks.

Kakashi smiles a little, hidden behind his mask. "Maybe, maybe not." he says casually.

He will be.

"I have no idea how to deal with them. Any idea I had about training went out the door this morning. They already know how to work their chakra and how to cloak their presence, and Sakura threw a punch today that almost broke a sapling."

Iruka doesn't seem to be sympathetic to Kakashi's distress; he's mostly just beaming proudly at the tale. "I thought Naruto might have been holding back in practice." Iruka muses. "Looks like you have your work cut out for you."

Kakashi glares at him again. Pakkun just rolls over for a belly rub, the traitor. "How am I supposed to know how to train them? This isn't a case-by-case prodigy assignment anymore. They're a team now."

"You'll just have to start from scratch then." Iruka says simply, like the answer is easy.

"From scratch?" Kakashi mutters. He's used to there being guidelines, expectations, rules to follow. He knows how to give orders not… nurture, not teach. That's Iruka's area of expertise. That's why he's here.

"They're people just like anyone else." Iruka explains. "They have weaknesses and strengths, doubts and dreams. They're yours now, like it or not, so if you don't know what they need to grow, you'll have to find out."

"But how?" Kakashi asks, pressing a palm into his unmasked eye. "Asking them?"

"You were an Anbu Captain, right? Watch. Assess. Find out where they're strong and where they need strength." He runs a hand down Pakkun's back as the ninken starts to doze. "And when they need a helping hand or a push, give them one."

Kakashi sighs, planting an elbow on his knee and running the other hand through his hair. "You make it sound so easy."

"It's not easy." Iruka says bluntly. "But it is more simple than you might think."

Kakashi mulls that over for a long moment, wondering how he's going to organize ability tests that won't be too much for Genin– he's used to training mature shinobi, Anbu, women and men who know already what's expected of them. In comparison Genin seem so fragile.

Or maybe not.

He's known these three kids for only a few hours, and they've already given him a run for his money. He's oddly eager to find out what they can do when pushed.

"There's another thing, Kakashi." Iruka says suddenly, and the tone of those words make him still; they're soft and serious, said with the same quiet intensity that he's heard the Hokage use when issuing an assassination contract. Kakashi's single eye fixes on him immediately, taking in how Iruka's eyes have drifted sideways, unfocused. Uh-oh.

He waits.

Iruka seems to be contemplating how exactly he's going to word what he's about to say, and the trepidation building in Kakashi's gut grows.

"There will come a point in time where these kids are going to need you for more than just training. It might be a week from now, might be a year. But you've gotten a group of kids that have been through more than most shinobi twice their age, two of which don't have parents, and one of which grew up with civilians. At some point in time every one of them is going to need you to be there for them, and you can't cut and run."

Iruka's words strike raw and deep, make his chest ache over unhealed wounds. He keeps quiet.

The Chunin's dark eyes flit up and catch his, sharp and sad at once, more intense than most would think him capable of. Kakashi is reminded, not for the first time, that Umino Iruka is a very dangerous individual, strong in a way that has nothing to do with chakra.

"It doesn't have to be right now, but sometime soon you are going to need to choose if you are going to let yourself care for these kids or not. You need to decide if you're going to see Sakura as more than a promising Kunoichi, see Sasuke as more than the last Uchiha, see Naruto as more than a remnant of Kushina and Minato."

The words are another hard punch to the chest, another ripple of pain over his ribs, but he keeps quiet. He waits, and he listens, because Iruka would never pull at his pain like this if the words didn't need to be said.

Iruka holds his gaze for the entirety of his speech, never so much as blinking. "You can't do this by halves, Kakashi, that's not how it works. Either let them in, or shut them out, but you need to choose."

At that he stands and moves to the kitchen, a snoozing Pakkun tucked securely in one arm, and busies himself with brewing something, leaving Kakashi to his thoughts. Even though the sun has set and the room had been washed in darkness while they talked, Iruka doesn't turn on any lights.

Kakashi's grateful for it.

When Iruka comes back, he sinks to the floor next to Kakashi, Pakkun still curled to his chest, and presses a warm cup of coffee into his numb hands. Sugarless with a splash of whole cream, just the way he likes it. Iruka turns his head away politely while Kakashi takes a long drink, turning back only when he places the half empty mug on the floor between them. He reaches across, gripping Kakashi's forearm firmly, grounding.

"There's a lot more left in you than you seem to think, Kakashi." Iruka says softly. "Don't make a decision you'll regret just because you're afraid."

The silence hangs for a long moment, but Iruka's grip below his elbow remains steady. Slowly, carefully, Kakashi leans into his side. He doesn't say thank you.

With Iruka, he doesn't need to.

It's nowhere near Friday when the assignments come to a close. They have curry that night anyway.

"Guys." Sakura says wistfully as she passes Sasuke some chopped flank steak to stir into bubbling pot of curry base. For once they're not fighting over flavorings, too giddy with accomplishment for petty arguments. "We're a team now. We passed. Hatake Kakashi passed us."

"Of course he passed us." Sasuke says archly, but Naruto can tell he's preening under the arrogance.

"Did you see his face when Sakura knocked that tree over?" Naruto snickers, adding more ground spice to the pot. "Priceless."

Sasuke hums in agreement and Sakura flushes proudly.

He hears the window smack open and Naruto, by virtue of having his hands free, ducks around Sasuke, placing a hand on the Uchiha's shoulder as he moves so that they don't accidently bump into each other and send ingredients flying. It's happened.

He turns the corner into his bedroom just in time to see Kiba thump to the floor on his back with a dreamy look on his face, literal drool pooling at the corner of his mouth. "What the hell kinda sorcery are you guys working in here? I can smell your flat from four blocks out."

Shikamaru materializes on the sill over him, raising an unimpressed brow at the dog-nin. "You," he drawls lowly, "Are a mess."

"Gimme a break Shika, I'm starving."

The Nara rolls his eyes. "You look alright to me."

Naruto laughs and offers Kiba a hand up. "Don't worry dude, we ended up making three pots. Where's Akamaru?"

"With my mom." Kiba explains, taking the offered help up. "He got sick off something he ate yesterday, so he's on lockdown until he gets it all out of his system."

"That sucks." Naruto says sympathetically, and then turns his head back towards the kitchen once his friend is upright. "Jerks are here!" he calls happily.

"Good! Tell Kiba to get his ass in here and taste this!" Sakura calls. Naruto doesn't say anything because before he can even open his mouth Kiba has already hightailed it into the kitchen, a bit too exuberantly if Sasuke's growl of 'watch it, dog-breath' is any indication.

Shikamaru leans his weight against Naruto's side after he saunters inside, stifling a long yawn against his hand. "This whole 'ninja' thing is going to be a pain. I can already tell." he mutters. "I don't suppose you have any coffee lying around?"

Naruto makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "Just that really dark River Country stuff that Sakura bought, if you're okay with drinking sludge."

"Perfect." the Nara mutters, pushing upright.

The five of them cram into Naruto's little kitchen as bowls are passed around, laughing and snapping and talking over the three pots, each one made to suit their three individual tastes. Kiba takes a bowl of Sakura's first and then goes back for a bowl of Naruto's, then Shikamaru surprises them all by taking one serving of each and mixing them together in the same bowl as an experiment.

It turns out being the greatest thing Naruto's ever tasted, and he's not the only one who thinks so. Halfway through the round of tasting Sakura gets up and pulls out the deepest pot Naruto owns, a giant cast iron monstrosity that usually holds at least a dozen other pots nested in one another, and dumps all three curry concoctions together.

After everyone has been back for seconds (and in Kiba's case, thirds), Sakura packs a tub up for Choji and they all make themselves comfortable on the floor of Naruto's bedroom, both Sakura and Shikamaru nursing small mugs full of coffee. Sakura at least had watered hers down a little with milk and a good helping of sugar, but Shikamaru's cup is undiluted and black as pitch.

"How do you even have taste buds?" Kiba asks, staring into the darkness of Shikamaru's coffee cup like it might hold secret of immortality, or maybe just the trick to keeping the stuff down.

"It's an acquired taste." Shikamaru says mildly, taking another sip. Naruto is still surprised the stuff hasn't turned his mouth black.

"How was the test, Kiba?" Sakura asks, grinning from ear to ear. "I hear you got put in a team with Hinata."

Kiba flushes, switching immediately and predictably to defensive mode. "None of your business Haruno. Besides, I also got stuck with bug boy, who is a jackass."

"Shino's not that bad." Naruto defends.

"Have you been in a room with him for more than twenty minutes? He spent the first half of our test correcting my grammar." Kiba pauses, jumping trains of thought. "Kurenai-sensei is amazing though."

"We have Asuma, but that was to be expected." Shikamaru adds, taking another sip of his toxic mud.

"Ya, plus you already knew who you were going to be in a team with, so nothing was a surprise for you." Kiba growls, before whipping around to face the rest of them. "Speaking of predetermined assignments, how the hell did you three swing this dream team?"

"Ya Sasuke," Naruto drawls sarcastically. "How'd ya swing that?"

"Hn." Is Sasuke's only response. Sakura giggles.

"Speaking of which, Uchiha, it looks like you're down another fangirl." Shikamaru says with a grin.

"Finally." Sasuke mutters, with real relief.

"Oh?" Sakura pipes up, looking far too smug to pull off her attempt at innocence.

Shika narrows his eyes. "Oh don't act like you don't know. Ino dragged me out of bed yesterday morning again, only this time it was to train instead of stalk you. I'm losing more sleep by the day and it's your fault for getting her so riled up."

Sakura grins, unrepentant.

Sasuke doesn't notice Naruto going quiet until Shikamaru pipes up, sometime after he's drained the last drop from his coffee cup.

"Something on your mind, Uzumaki?"

Sasuke looks up immediately at Shika's words, eyes focusing in on the blond across from him.

Naruto's gaze is downcast, and a wrinkle has formed across his brow that says he's thinking deeply.

"Dobe?" He asks, and the word comes out gentler than he intended.

Naruto looks up immediately, but only meets his eyes for a bare second before his gaze flickers down again. "I…" he starts, but then he cuts off, chewing his lower lip in an uncharacteristic show of uncertainty.

"Whatever you have to say doesn't leave this room if you don't want it to." Shikamaru assures, voice oddly soft, his eyes supernaturally keen. Sasuke's missed something.

Suddenly the room goes quiet and Kiba leans over, eyes uncertain but smile comforting.

"Ya, dude. Whatever it is, our lips are sealed."

It's clear Kiba doesn't actually know what's happening or what Naruto and Shikamaru are talking about, but Sasuke has never been more grateful for the dog-nin than his is right then, offering his loyalty blind without so much as a clue to what's going on. Sasuke appreciates this part of Kiba more than he'll ever admit aloud.

Sakura blinks back and forth between the three of them, occasionally casting her gaze sideways to Sasuke in an attempt to put the pieces together. She's not the only one lost, but Sasuke's eyes never leave Naruto.

The blond sighs and finally looks up, cerulean eyes holding Sasuke's for a long second before he turns his gaze to everyone else. "Do you guys remember inter-term break last year?" he asks.

Sakura leans forward to brace her elbows on her knees. "You mean the one where we had the huge storm that swamped the main road for days?"

Naruto nods.

"Ya, you disappeared for like a whole week." Kiba murmurs. "Shika and I thought you died in a ditch somewhere."

Naruto winces, guilt flashing across his face as his gaze turns apologetic. "Ya. Sorry about that."

Shikamaru doesn't say a word, only waits silently for him to continue. When he doesn't speak up, Sasuke does.

"Where?"

It's the only word he says into the long silence, but the question is clear, and Naruto knows what he means.

"Uzushio."

Sasuke doesn't miss the way Shikamaru's eyes widen. "By yourself?" the shadow-nin asks, tone neutral, but Sasuke can see genuine surprise in the back of his burnished eyes.

"I don't understand." Sakura interjects. "What's Uzushio?"

"Wait a minute, Uzushiogakure?" Kiba asks, incredulous. "Like the old village of the seal masters, Uzushio?"

Naruto nods again, wiping sweaty palms on his thighs before leaning back on his hands.

"Why?" Sasuke asks, another too-deep single-word question, and Naruto's eyes dart back up to his.

For a fraction of a second Sasuke can see familiar discord swimming though the jewel tone blues, the same volatile mix of grief and frustration that Sasuke had been witness to one year ago. When Naruto doesn't answer, Shikamaru does.

"Uzumaki." the Nara sounds out the word in a long breath, stressing the first syllable of Naruto's last name to highlight the similarity. "It's where you're from, isn't it? Or one of your parents anyway."

"My mom." Naruto agrees quietly, and somewhere in the back of his head Sasuke is aware of Sakura's too-fast intake of breath and the hiss of air between Kiba's teeth.

Naruto tosses his head side to side as if to shake off the unwanted pity in their gazes. "Anyway, I found some things while I was there, things I want to share with you guys if you'll let me."

"You don't have to do that, Naruto." Shikamaru says suddenly, uncharacteristically fierce.

"Can someone please explain for those of us without inherent knowledge or 200 level IQs?" Kiba growls.

Shikamaru has the decency to look vaguely chastised, but he looks to Naruto first with brows raised, asking silent permission. Naruto sweeps his hand out in front of him in a gesture to go ahead. "Uzushio was a sister village to Konoha from its founding right up until it was destroyed in the third shinobi world war by an alliance of Iwa and Kiri." Shikamaru says stiffly. "As far as we know, no Uzushio shinobi managed to survive the incursion." he turns back to Naruto. "That's all I know for sure, but I would guess that means the Uzumaki were one of their clans."

Naruto nods to confirm. "I found out last year. My mom moved here just before the village was destroyed." he pauses, casting his gaze sideways towards the window. "Not sure about much more than that."

Sasuke's brain catches somewhere around the word clan, and he promptly loses his train of thought.

Naruto, the intuitive idiot, picks up on his hiccup almost immediately, sending a halfhearted glare in his direction like he knows exactly what he'd thinking.

"Don't compare, jerk," he warns softly. "My clan was dead way before I was born. It's not the same."

The moron has the audacity to use air quotations marks around the word 'clan', like that somehow makes the word mean any less.

"Don't make it into a joke, idiot." Sasuke growls.

"If this is a joke it's not a funny one." Sakura says angrily. "You left the village limits to go to another country without permission? Naruto, if you'd been a ninja at the time, that could be seen as treason."

Kiba gets up suddenly, striding quickly across the room to shut and lock Naruto's only bedroom window. He comes back, sits down heavily, and turns around the room, pointing to and making eyes contact with everyone but Naruto. "Not a word outside this circle." He says levely. "Capiche?"

"Obviously." Sakura snaps.

"Of course, don't be stupid." Sasuke says lowly.

Shika only nods.

Naruto looks taken aback by the sudden seriousness in the room, looking both incredibly flattered but also more than a little annoyed.

"Can I finish my point now?" he grumbles.

Nods all around.

He takes another breath. "So anyway, I found some stuff there that was really important to their village." He leans forward again, voice softer now. "So long as everything does stay between us and all that, I wanted to share it with you guys." He looks to Sasuke and Sakura respectively. "I would have told you about it earlier, but I wanted to wait until we were all officially ninja."

Sakura nods in understanding, but Sasuke just keeps staring.

It's clear from the look in Naruto's eyes that this is not just something he found lying around in a ruin. Whatever it is means a great deal to him, enough for him to drag up thoughts of parents he never knew, enough for him to trek across countries to find it.

Sasuke feel suddenly unworthy of whatever it is.

"Shikamaru is right, idiot." Sasuke finds himself saying before he can stop. "Whatever it is, it's yours to keep."

Naruto eyes go from soft and uncertain to diamond hard in less than a second, a stubborn surety locking down inside them that tells Sasuke he'd have an easier time moving a mountain than changing his mind.

"And so are you guys." Naruto states as fact. His tone invites no argument. "You are my friends, like it or not. And that's exactly why I want to share this with you." There's an unspoken 'got a problem with that?' tacked on to the end of the sentence, directed right at Sasuke, and he swallows hard around the sudden lump in his throat.

Because this is just how Naruto is. Stubborn, relentless, determined, unconditional. He doesn't do anything by halves. You are his, or you are not, and if he has decided to be there for you, it is through hell and back, and back again, to the end of time. He is Naruto's whether he likes it or not, and by default that means that from this point forward, he'll never be alone again.

Because that's just the way Naruto is, and that fact would be no easier to change than forcing the sun to set in the east.

Naruto doesn't waste any more words explaining himself; instead he sways to his feet and movies over to the nightstand, pulling open the disused bottom drawer. From within he sets aside a worn blanket and draws from beneath a dark cylinder trimmed in gold, as long as Naruto's forearm and twice as thick.

"Is that a scroll?" Sakura asks as Naruto returns and sits back down, holding the strange object in both hands.

"That's not like any scroll I've ever seen." Shikamaru muses.

No kidding. Sasuke thinks.

The scroll is a glimmering black that reflects the light like polished obsidian, trimmed in shining gold and circled with two leather straps secured with metal clasps.

"It's a mass freight scroll." Naruto explains, flicking the clasps open with small twin bursts of chakra. As the clasps separate, patterns of light flare across the metal for a moment before going dark again. He carefully unrolls a foot of the shining black scroll, revealing a blooming design etched in shimmering gold lacquer across the surface. It practically radiates chakra; Sasuke can feel if from where he's sitting.

"Almost everything I found is sealed in here." Naruto says, tapping the back of a knuckle on the furled portion of the scroll.

"You can actually work these?" Shikamaru marvels, peering over the broad curling lines of script and curves of symbols.

"It's in my blood, apparently." Naruto says, smirking as if at some private joke, and that's a non-answer if Sasuke's ever heard one.

"What's inside?" Kiba asks.

Naruto smiles wide. "Too much to show you guys right now, since we have training in the morning, but tomorrow? After training? I do want to show you."

That night, after Sakura waves her goodbyes at last, long after she should have already been home, Sasuke asks the question he's been holding behind his teeth since after dinner. Since last year, if he's honest.

After a long moment of silence and in a too soft voice, Naruto tells him about Uzushio.