Here I am again, Sorry it took me so long to update!

Disclaimer: All Naruto characters and Konoha belong to Kishimoto Masahi

Naruto lay on his bed, arms folded behind his head. Eyes closed, he thought over what Tsunade had told everyone earlier.

"The only person I know who has been capable of doing that is… Orochimaru."

She had then explained who Orochimaru was to those who did not know, and Naruto's thoughts were left in turmoil. Thinking about the snake man filled his head with unpleasant memories and images, and with a face that haunted both his waking and dreaming thoughts…

"Sasuke…"

"What about Sasuke?"

Naruto's eyes flew open and he sat up, startled, having forgotten about the newest edition to his humble abode. Naru stared at him curiously, seated backwards on a chair taken from the kitchen area. Twin sets of stunning blue met and one looked away, knowing the other wanted a thorough explanation. Naruto took a breath to steady himself; talking about… that… always upset him.

"…The Sasuke from here went with Orochimaru because he wanted power to kill his older bother Itachi, who slaughtered their clan. The five of, Shikamaru, Chouji, Neji, Kiba, and I, we tried to stop him but he chose to go anyway… almost killing me in the process."

The boy's eyes were in shadow as he spoke and for a moment he looked down, remembering. Naru ached to comfort him somehow, but she knew he had to finish first.

"Then Sakura-chan and I tried to bring 'im back again… and he tried to kill us. No, he wanted to kill us, but the snake bastard made him stop. Sasuke… was a rival, a friend, a brother to me. He was the first to see me as someone worth fighting, someone to compete against. He was lonely… is lonely… like me."

The blonde looked like he wanted to say more, but was unable to. He was hit by an emotional block, and his body started to shake violently. If there was one thing Naruto wanted to do now, it was to cry. But, early in life, he had found that crying never did any good. He would cry in his room when he was little, alone, pouring out his soul in drops of salty liquid. Crying never accomplished anything. It was better to hide behind a smile, a false joy, and delude himself into thinking that he was happy. Maybe he was, in a way, but he knew that inside he still felt the pain of loneliness. Maybe that was why he really stopped crying; not because he believed in himself more, but because… crying with no one to wipe away your tears, no one to comfort you… It was hell. Utter hell. He felt hands on his shoulders and looked up. Naru stared into his eyes, noticing the utter loneliness, the desperation, the sadness, and the sheen of tears unshed. It broke her heart.

"Naruto-nii…"

She wrapped her arms around the trembling form, supporting him. His shaking grew worse.

"It's okay to cry… someone's here for you, so it's okay to cry. Crying alone is hell but… if you keep it bottled up forever it destroys you from the inside. Sometimes it's okay… to let down your barriers."

That was all it took. A single tear tread a path down a whiskered cheek, and soon Naruto was sobbing on her shoulder, his cry's echoing through the small apartment. Fifteen years of bottled up emotion, pan, isolation, abandonment, anger, sadness, heartbreak, jealousy, betrayal… It all came out, wracking his entire body with sobs. She held him through it all, staying silent and just offering a comforting presence. Eventually the tears stopped flowing and Naruto just sat in her embrace, exhausted, eyes puffy and red. Naru felt him relax.

"Better?"

"Naru-chan… Arigato."

"Go to sleep, okay?"

"Hai."

Shika sat beneath a tree, looking at the fading sun as it lit the dying sun with a background of orange, pink, and blue. She had escaped to the spot after flat out refusing proper medical care and jumping out the window, much to –Sakura's extreme horror. After washing and bandaging the cut herself she'd sat down to watch nature's art at work in living color. However, some urgent thoughts were distracting her from the view.

'So either she actually survived or Orochimaru raised her from the dead. I haven't felt much different so maybe she doesn't have control over it anymore… the problem is, I'm having that, soon… all I can hope is that she doesn't' come when its happening…'

She noticed someone approach and relaxed when she realized who it was. She looked up at the sky as he irritably came up behind her and stood there.

"Do you know that it took me a couple of hours to figure out where you went? It was really bothersome."

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, unaffected by his plight.

"You found me eventually though, didn't you? No need to get so annoyed. Come sit and enjoy the sunset."

"Mendokusai…"

Shikamaru sat down anyway and rested his head on his knees. Shika went from sitting to lying down in the grass.

"So what happened after I left?"

"You missed your pink friend flipping out and ranting about proper wound treatment and knowing when to let a doctor do her job and so on. She's really loud… Also, Tsunade-sama arranged housing for you all."

"And?"

"For obvious reasons you're with me. Explaining this to my parents is going to be really troublesome…"

"I'm staying out here."

"…No you're not; you're going to my house."

"No I'm not."

"Hokage's orders."

"…Do I look like I care?"

"Well, why the hell not?"

Shikamaru was getting understandably annoyed. Why the hell was Shika refusing to stay at his house?

"Because… if your mom looks like mine did, I wouldn't be able to handle that. And what about your dad? Does he look like mine did? Yours might be nice, but mine ditched after learning that he was going to be a father. I know nothing about him, except that he's one of the reasons mom got so fucked up. I've finally gotten into a somewhat normal state of mind, I don't want to shatter it unnecessarily. Sorry, but I'm staying here."

She turned onto her side away from him, signifying the end of that particular discussion. Shikamaru felt kind of bad; hell, he hadn't meant to bring something like that up. He then remembered that Tsunade had told him to stick with his charge at all times, no matter what. That meant…

"You do know that this means I have to stay out here too?"

"Be my guest."

"…My mom is going to bitch at me in the morning for not coming home."

"Too bad."

She tossed him a blanket. When or where she'd gotten it, he didn't know.

"Night."

"…Night." 'You're evil…'

Gaara woke up and wasn't surprised to see Garra staring at him. He'd slept for about an hour, but she hadn't slept at all so far. He noticed that it was a curious stare.

"Gaara… do you and your siblings get along?"

Gaara was slightly startled by the question, something that hadn't been asked before. The question confused him slightly. Did they get along? They tolerated each other, certainly, but admittedly they didn't get along that well. The Akatsuki event suddenly popped up in his mind, and he remembered the genuine worry that his siblings had shown. They'd certainly gone a long way from their genin days, when he didn't care about them and they were terrified of him…

"I… don't really know. We… I'm… trying to get to know them better. I guess it's hard to get attached when your little brother's a former psychopath killer."

"You really should try. Family's important… It hurts when you lose it."

"…Are they dead?"

Right after he asked the question, Gaara saw the uncertainty in Garra's eyes.

"…I don't know. I… don't know. "

"Why?"

She looked at him and something dark was haunting her eyes.

"Because I haven't seen them since I was plunged into that hell."

Gaara didn't ask. It was obvious she didn't really want to talk about it right now, and he respected that.

Somewhere, someone was waiting. He thought he sensed someone familiar, far in the distance. His eyes narrowed as he leaped into a tree and started traveling that way. There was only one thing on his mind…

'Could she be here…? If so…I must kill you. For good this time.'

TBC

There you go, sorry it took so long! Gomen

Review Please.