I was informed by a homeless man that my sign doesn't say anything on it. He told me I've been holding up a blank piece of cardboard. He informed me that this was a fatal flaw in sign holding, because people think you are insane for holding up a blank sign. Hmmm. I then proceeded to retrieve a magic marker and write my disclaimer on both sides! I feel better now. Read the sign!

A/N: Hey everybody. I would just like to inform you all that I am officially ready to collapse, because I ran out of the medicine I take to help me sleep, and the doctor took forever to call it in, so I haven't slept for two days. I am about to fall over, but I am also determined to write! Before I write, though, I have to thank the reviewers! Today's treat is Ramen, in honor of all our favorite blonde!

Puppy Kicker: I'm glad this doesn't seem too sappy, I was kind of going for the kind that makes you smile and maybe makes your chest warm, but doesn't give you a cavity. Thanks for the snaps, and gumming is indeed a word. It is a pretty interesting thought, isn't it? Hmm... Anyways, thanks for the review. Here is your ramen!

Reese: Yay, new reviewer! I'm honoured to be writing your favorite Naruto fic, although, I'd hate to disappoint with my horrible multi chapter writer's block. How many has it been, like eight I think. Wow. I feel pressure. This is the kind of pressure I need to make me write stuff worth reading! Thank you! Here is lots of Ramen!

MeLaiya: Another new reviewer! Yay! I'm glad you like it. I was kinda fond of the ending of that chapter too, although my friend who is reading and who I have forbidden to review, because I don't want hers messing up my numbers when she sitting right next to me, just kind of scoffed at me. Glad to know someone appreciates it! Thanks for reviewing. Here is Ramen.

Queen of the Paperclips: I'm so sorry I keep ripping you off! I didn't even realize that was the second time I'd done that to you. I'm sooooooo sorry. And yet you review again. I wuv you! This time I am not going to rip you off...you get full response length. I actually realized that the review page was missing a few reviews because I remembered taking special not to reply in full as I read your review in my inbox, but you weren't loading on the page, so, yeah! I'm glad you caught the symbolism, that's what it was there for. I don't know what I'm gonna do about it now, but it's been said. I probably won't have them say it directly for a while, but they've pretty much admitted that they can see themselves loving each other and being near each other for the rest of their lives! I thought it was rather clever of me, since I'm obviously on a mission to sound as egotistical as possible. This said, I'm out of things to say, so thanks for reviewing even though you have been neglected. I hope you feel better now. You get extra ramen, too!

Yugi-obsessed: That could work, but it can only be open to the public if we split the profit fifty, fifty, okay? Sounds good to me, and that way I don't get sucked into the void of fat, and your legs don't atrophy after I die! It works out perfectly! I am gonna be so buff! Glad you liked the chapter. Here is ramen for you... fatty and good for your enjoyment pleasure!

Hieisbestbuddy888: You replied indeed, and I tried to reply back, but the mailer daimon attack me, so it didn't work out. Then I tried again and my connection cut off, twice. I guess I'll just e-mail you back tomorrow, when I'm at school with a happy fancy full blown connection! I'm happy I'm making you happy. Lot's of people are telling me that my style is nice with the way I present them, so I feel all happy too! I don't think anyone else had a longer review this time, but I don't really have anything else to say that I haven't already said three times in an e-mail and that I won't say again in an e-mail tomorrow, so enjoy the chapter! Here is your ramen!

ewon: Wow, it has been a while, hasn't it? I was actually beginning to wonder if you'd given up on me! I'm so glad you haven't. I love that I can make you like a character you don't usually like. I love it when people do that for me. I can relate pretty well to the crying thing as well, that's why I put it in there... I thought it seemed real. As for the mood change, I thought it was in order after my little unintentional angst fest. I totally didn't mean for this to turn into an angst story, and I had (well, have since it's not gone yet) writer's block, so I figured I'd put some easy material in there! I know I've been a little Naruto-centric with the liking thing, but I will reveal Sasuke's take on it all during this chapter or the next (I haven't written the actual chapter yet... I answer reviews to inspire myself, because I have no inspiration due to my writer's block!) I'm glad you're still with me. Thanks for the review! Here is your Ramen.

Third Degree Run: I feel honoured to be the one who has written a line that will stick in your head for forever, probably. I know what it's like when I stumble across those, and then I have them in my head all the time, and no one understands when I say them out loud... heh. I'm so proud of my work being considered emotionally provoking, I think that's the highest compliment one can pay to a piece of writing. After all, what's the point of reading if it doesn't make you feel, right? Anyways, thanks for reviewing. Here is your ramen.

AlterEthereal: I guess I have been neglecting Sasuke's half of the thinking a little, but today, I will explain all...or at least a little of what is going on in Sasurin's head. I wish my writer's block were water soluble. If it were I wouldn't get out of the shower until it left. Unfortunately it's not. I'm just hoping to get some brilliant inspiration soon. I have all these other plot bunnies running around inside my head, but I don't want to start on those until I'm done with this one, because I have trouble concentrating on more than one fic at a time... Oh well. As for the music videos, the sight you typed didn't show up, but the very video I was referring to was 'Ninja of the Night'. I crack up every time I watch it! With the part about the parties, and then the part about the cake, and the bras, and the car, and the part about Ninja Tech. It's the funniest two minutes of anything I've ever seen! I've got all of the other videos that are on (or whatever the web address is...it's something of that sort.) except 'It's My Life' which gave me an error message. I was really happy. Anyways, thanks for the review, and here is your ramen!

YoungSasuke: Ooo, sushi! I love sushi! Thank you so much. As or the life time relationships thing, it's more of a they can see themselves in a life time relationship than anything else. Anyways, thanks for the review! Here is your ramen!

Juu: What's a dimsum? It sounds interesting. Hmmm... I know the incoherent feeling, and I'm glad you're enjoying the way I'm portraying their emotions. I kind of enjoy the subtle feelings myself. Thanks for the dimsum, whatever it is... It's very yummy! (Is it food...me not knowing what a dimsum is destroying my customary lines of thanking. Oh well.) Thanks for reviewing. I love you too! Here is your ramen!

Whew! There were so many! Sorry if I missed anyone, I answered half of them from the review page and then realized that some were missing, so I did the other half from my inbox! So, yeah, someone might have fallen through the cracks. And now, with all of this said, it is time for chapter 23. (Thanks to Hieisbestbuddy888 for sending me the lyrics to the song with this line in it. I love ya!)

Kidie,Vanessa,Rei,and Kai: Wow, I'm so confused. Are you all real people, or are some you muses. Oh my. Or maybe just imaginary people (sorry to offend if you're actually real, just confused. I've never had four people comment in one review) Whichever way things are, I'm glad you like it, and I'm trying to put as much fluff in as possible without them actually becoming a couple yet. Because they're currently just really good friends. So, yeah, glad you liked it, and thanks for the review! Now it's time for a shameless plug! If you want fluff, go read Moment. It's really short, but I wrote it specifically for the fact that it's fluff! (God, that was horrible advertising...I'm so ashamed) Anyways, here's your ramen... I guess you get four times as much since there're four of you. Tootles.

But Home Is Nowhere...: Lost In The Sun

Sasuke felt a mild sense of euphoria settling over him as he and Naruto rose to put their dishes in the dishwasher, or Naruto's case, throw his trash away. It had only been a week since he'd met the blonde, and already he was growing attached, really feeling things. It had been years since he'd felt something, maybe even an eternity. It was wonderful.

The simple joy that the blonde caused to well up so profusely inside of him was enough to bring him to his knees. (1) He was comfortable around him, unable to hide anything, as if he'd known forever that Naruto was out there somewhere, and had just been waiting all his life to meet him. For the first time, he was actually thinking that fate might really exist, and maybe it was beginning to favor him now. It felt exquisite, and in the past five minutes, he had realized that he never wanted to let the feeling go. He finally had someone that he was able to release his emotions around without feeling ashamed, or even afraid, and now that he had it, he didn't think he could live without it.

He briefly wondered if this was what his family had meant when they were telling him about the one person he would love for eternity. He wondered if the ache that always rose in his chest when Naruto was in pain had anything to do with love. It was something he did not understand, something he had never known. He thought it might be what he had been looking for, had been needing. He thought Naruto might be what he had needed.

Naruto with his tragic past and bright smiles. With his crystal eyes and those whiskers on his cheeks. Naruto with his silky soft sunshine hair, and his warm comforting aura. Naruto with his sweet innocence, and his horrifying knowledge of the world. With his self-enforced ignorance, and his tears and orange shirts. With his tiny house, and his sodas in the fridge. Naruto who was the only one on the face of the planet who knew where he was ticklish. Naruto, his friend. Was that what he needed? He thought it could be.

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Sasuke had been standing silently as the sink, letting the water run over his hands for five minutes before Naruto made an attempt to catch his attention, calling his name softly. When the dark haired boy gave no response, Naruto placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Sasuke?"

The other boy jumped slightly, his eyes becoming wide before he came back to reality. He turned the water off and, drying his hands on his still wrinkled shirt turned to look at Naruto. "Sorry. I just got caught up in thinking." Naruto was about to ask what about, but decided against it, thinking Sasuke would tell him when, and if he wanted to.

"S'okay. I do it all the time. You wanna do the rest of our homework?"

"Yeah."

With this, the two boys exited the kitchen and went into Naruto's room, where they both plopped down on the bed, bringing their craploads of books with them. "God, it's eight o'clock already. We sure took forever with the English stuff. Gah!" Naruto ran his hands through his hair as he tried to decide what to work on first. Sasuke would undoubtedly be done hours before him, it was rather embarrassing.

"I'll help you if I finish before you, 'kay?" Sasuke was smiling softly, and he was radiating content. It was nice.

"Thanks." Naruto beamed. He would have started with creative writing, but their homework that night had been to acquire something they could use as a poetry journal, where they would write as many poems as they could before the term and turn them in to be graded then. Mr. Kakashi had said that he wasn't grading on quality, just effort, and that if there was anything that we didn't want him to see, they could say so at the top, and he wouldn't read it. He already had a poetry journal. He decided on math. They only had a few problems, and they were relatively easy.

Thirty minutes later, Naruto slammed his book shut. He hated Scientific Notation. There was absolutely no point in make numbers only have one decimal and crap. (2) He was done with it now, despite the fact that he still had three left. Sasuke was looking at him, a bit confused. Naruto just scowled and gave a vehement, "I hate math!"

Sasuke chuckled a bit. "Scientific Notation is admittedly stupid."

Naruto nodded and took out his history book. All he had left to do today was read ten pages in it and then do to circuit conversion problems for physics. He was a quick reader, and had the pages read and notes take in twenty minutes. Sasuke closed his last book five minutes later, and as Naruto began to contemplate the horror of the complicated circuit before him, the Uchiha said quietly, "I'm gonna take a shower, I'll help you when I'm done if you need me to." Naruto just nodded.

"You can wear my shorts again. You know which drawer they're in." He felt Sasuke smiling at him as he opened the drawer and extracted a pair of shorts. Naruto just continued trying to burn holes in the paper with his eyes. "The parallel circuit combines into one with half as much resistance, and then adds to the three in series to make a total of..." he scribbled a few numbers on the page, punched a few more into his calculator and then gave a victorious, "nine! I did it! Current is voltage over resistance, so that's 120 over nine." He smiled to himself. This was much easier than it looked. He was done fifteen minutes later when Sasuke came back out of the bathroom, once again looking ridiculous in Naruto's shorts. Then again, Naruto was currently trying to decide if by that he meant ridiculously sexy, or just plain stupid.

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Naruto had a happy look on his face when Sasuke came out of the bathroom, and he assumed that meant he understood the physics. "You need any help?"

Naruto beamed. "Nope! I'm gonna take a shower." Naruto scuttled off the bed and grabbed a t-shirt and shorts from his drawer before heading into the bathroom. It was terribly cute the way he was so proud of himself. But then, Sasuke was proud of him as well, because for someone with Naruto's loathing of Math, Physics should have been difficult.

He heard the shower running as the water began to travel through the walls, and he suddenly felt as if he was going to collapse from exhaustion. It was early, sure, but he'd been up late last night, and the past two days had been overwhelming with all the intense questioning going on. He quickly removed all of their books from the bed, stacking them neatly on the floor, drawing back the comforter and scooting under. He had been planning to stay awake until Naruto was ready for bed, but that plan was massacred as the scent of the blonde wafted into his nose, and the soft sheets lulled him to sleep.

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Naruto turned of the water and stepped out of the tub, quickly drying himself off and donning his night clothes. For some reason he was extremely tired. All he wanted was to sleep, and he hoped Sasuke would be okay with going to bed as early as nine thirty. He hung his towel on the rack next to the said boy's towel, smiling once more at the smell of strawberries brought on by the Uchiha's soap, and then exiting the bathroom.

He was quite surprised to see that Sasuke had already gotten into bed, and apparently, fallen asleep. Naruto smiled at that, walking across the floor to the light switch and flipping it off. As the room was plunged into darkness, he stumbled over to his bed and slipped under the covers. He slid as close to Sasuke as he thought he would be allowed to, enjoying the body heat, and the weird sense of safeness that he got from it, and settling down for sleep.

He barely even noticed when an arm came across his chest, pulling him closer to the body next to him. He just slept, allowing himself to fall into the warmth of being held.

TBC...

A/N: Okay. That was chapter 22. There was some insight into the way Sasuke is feeling, and though it wasn't a lot, I think it explains something. I could only have him starinf off into space for so long, you know? Anyways, the chappie title is from "Sunshine" by Keane (sp?). Hope you guys enjoyed this.

Bye.

ISAN

1. Does anybody else catch the double meaning? I like the way this works, so I'm not gonna take it out, but I didn't mean for the double meaning to be there. Laugh at it and then ignore it please.

2. I know this isn't how scientific notation works, but he's mad at the subject. He's not coherent.