A/N: Gomen! I was suppose to update on Friday but I was busy and neglected my duty! Sorry again. Enjoy now and leave a review… I don't particularly need reviews but it's nice to hear what people have to say, especially any criticism.

Someone asked if this was sasunaru… I don't know what to say.

---3-

Naruto had finally slipped away from Sasuke. He had pretended to be asleep and as soon as Sasuke went to take a shower Naruto took off. Now that he was out and about by himself he didn't know what he could do. He took a walk across the village early in the morning and watched as people began to open their shops along the streets. His journey finally bought him to the Hokage tower.

Naruto feeling a bit mischievous decided to go annoy Tsunade-sama. Naruto made his way up to the office and stopped when he heard Sakura's voice boom in the office. He stood outside by the doors and listened in.

"Tsunade-sama! There has got to be away."

"Sakura, calm down!"

"There has got to be away, I'm not good enough yet, you have to help me find a way."

"Sakura, sit down!" Tsunade's voice boomed in command.

Naruto heard the 'oof' of the chair as Sakura slump into it.

"I'm sorry Sakura, but there is nothing we can do. Naruto's life has already been drastically shortened, if kyubi comes out again, he'll die, so all we can do is make sure he'll never have to use kyubi again."

Naruto stood frozen there for a moment, his world spun for a moment, he couldn't hear anything and everything was a blur. He backed away from the door and before he knew it he was running. He was out of the Hokage tower in no time and past the streets of the village until there were no paths.

He found himself deep in the forest with no real idea of where he'd off run to. He chose the closest tree and climbed it to a high branch where he could barely see the village from.

He saw the endless number of houses and businesses and then Hokage tower standing over them all and behind that the protective faces of the past Hokages on the cliff watching over the village.

How he wished he was just another one of those villagers; not special, not so hated and feared. How he'd kill to be a nobody in a nice family. Even though he has seen many of his friends with their families, he could only make guesses as to how it feels to have parents and to be loved by them.

"Cha! It doesn't matter. I've got other people who care about me like Tsunade-sama and Sakura..."

---

Back at the Tower…

"Tsunade-sama, is there really nothing we can do?"

"Medically, no. But we can make his last years better."

"Do you know how much longer he has?"

"Maybe he'll live to see 25."

"What about Sasuke? Does he have longer?"

"No, not much."

"Sasuke already knows about his condition doesn't he?"

"Yes he does."

"And Naruto? Will we tell him?"

"I haven't decided, for now you should keep it to yourself." The last part came out as a comand and Sakura automatically snapped into attention in her seat.

"Hai Tsunade-sama."

"You can leave now, Sakura."

"Hai." Her voice had returned to its quiet sadness.

---

Sasuke wondered the streets of Konoha as he searched for Naruto. He had already searched all of Naruto's favorite places; the only place left was the Hokage tower.

"Sasuke-kun!" He heard the cheery voice of Sakura call to him.

He looked straight ahead and there she was only a few steps away, with a bright smile on that somehow seemed dimmer than usual. As they stood feet from each other, she looked around him with a puzzled look, "Sasuke-kun, where's Naruto-kun?"

"Sorry Sakura, he got away from me. I was just heading over to the Hokage tower to check if he was there. He's probably there, that dobe, he loves to pretend he's the Hokage and to annoy Tsunade-sama." He mumbled the last part.

"Oh..." Sakura had taken a shocked look.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the medic-nin. "What?"

"Well... if he was there, he might have heard something that he wasn't suppose to."

"You mean about his life?"

"You knew!"

Sasuke shrugged, "Kabuto-san told me."

"Have you told Naruto?"

"No and you're not going to either."

"What if he heard me talking with Tsunade-sama?"

"Then it doesn't matter does it." Sasuke ended the conversation and walked away, deciding he didn't have to go to the Hokage tower anymore, that Naruto probably heard everything with his unusual luck and ran away.

He followed the path straight out of the village and into forest. Not too deep into the forest he stopped and summoned up a small bright green pit viper.

"Find Naruto."

The small snake held its head for a moment and then slithered away in a random direction with Sasuke following.

After about 20 minutes and two false leads, the snake led him to a tree and it began climbing. Sasuke looked up and saw Naruto sitting on a high branch staring into the distance. He was sure Naruto hadn't noticed him so he commanded the snake to stop.

"You're job is done." The snake poofed away.

Sasuke chose a tree not too far to watch the blonde from and waited quietly.

---

Even as night fell upon the village, Naruto sat on his branch on the tall tree and watched wondering when Sasuke would finally approach him. He had sense Sasuke hours ago when he had climbed the tree and taken a seat on a branch. Sasuke was ever patient, but even he was fidgeting after hours of nothing but sitting. Naruto decided to take pity on him and stood up on the branch and stretched. He then looked over his shoulder and called to Sasuke.

"Hey teme, you coming?"

Sasuke in a blur appeared next to Naruto and for a moment they didn't move, just stared out, but then Naruto jumped off the branch with Sasuke following.