Author Note: Whoopies. Been a while since I updated this one. I've been meaning to, I just keep forgetting. Which is super-lazy of me, since I have a lot more than this chapter written. Hope you enjoy, even if it has been a while.

Three bowls of ramen later (two of which consumed by one person, who was still up for more), the two brothers sat in IchiRaku Ramen, with Naruto blathering inanely about his life in general between mouthfuls, and Kabuto stirring the remains of his first and only bowl with his chopsticks, pretending to listen, a talent that had taken years to develop. It was actually a rather complex screening process, which balanced picking up facts about his brother's life with ignoring the minutes of clag in between. He was walking the line between ignoring the blond all together, and driving himself slowly insane by trying to run Naruto's rather erratic thought patterns through his rather logical psyche. The two different minds didn't connect on many levels, so the elder thought it was best to do that, rather than snap five minutes in, and start shaking the kitsune by the shoulders and growling at him to start making sense.

"Ne, Naruto-kun," Kabuto said in one of the gaps between subjects, usually punctuated by slurping, "I'm glad you're staying with us."

The blond put down his bowl and grinned, eyes slitted again and teeth showing, at his brother. "Thanks, Kabuto-aniki. I don't want to stay with the old man any more."

"Why's that?"

Naruto glared at his second empty bowl. "Otou-sama doesn't see me as a person, as his son, he sees me as a container!"

The doctor watched as one of his brother's hand unconsciously strayed to the seal on his stomach. With a sigh he gave up the ghost and put down his chopsticks, pushing his partially eaten bowl away and turning to face his troubled brother.

"Naruto-kun," Kabuto cautiously placed a hand on the blonds hair, and flicked him in the forehead protector with the other hand, "What does this mean?"

Naruto transferred his sour look from his bowl to his sibling. Whenever Naruto happened to get upset about anything family-related, it would always end like that. Kabuto knew perfectly well that his brother's view of the leaf forehead protector went surprisingly deeper than anyone might have thought it would, and usually, when asked to explain, ended in Naruto once again standing on top of whatever tall object he could find (be it a lamp post or convenient rock), in what he called the 'nice guy' pose, gushing about how he was going to step out of his father's shadow and become the next Hokage. Until then, Naruto had to be reminded that being a shinobi was an honour, and the first step towards achieving his goal. Ultimately, otou-sama had the best in mind for both his sons, and was stern and seemingly uncaring because he wanted them to give their best.

Inside, the doctor knew this might not actually be the case, but it seemed the best thing to tell his brother. Much less disillusioning.

"Naruto-kun," Kabuto murmured, filling in the reflective silence that had taken hold of the conversation, causing the ramen man to give the two a rather odd look, "while you're staying with us …"

Never one to beat around the bush, whether from lack of subtlety or lack of patience for subtlety, the doctor could never be sure, the blond instantly looked suspicious. "What do you want?"

"Well," the white-haired doctor did his best cute and pleasant look, "when you aren't training, or on a mission, I was wondering whether you could keep Sasuke-kun entertained. He seems rather bored on his own."

Naruto sipped reflectively on his bowl. "No time."

Kabuto dropped the look.

"Oh, come on, you have plenty of time!"

Another sip, drawing the dregs out of the bowl. "One more, thanks."

"Naruto-kun," the doctor sighed, "please listen? I thought it might be nice for you to make a friend your age, and now that you don't have an excuse to hang around the palace all day like some sort of sulking, vengeful spirit with trip wires, you'll have plenty of time to spare."

Naruto took his next bowl from the ramen guy, then gave his brother yet another penetrating look. "Are you buying?"

"Of course."

"Every night for a week."

Kabuto inwardly grimaced. That would make a severe dent in the household budget, not to mention taking away from his time to relax in his apartment. Just him and Itachi… He quickly got a hold of himself. With his brother snoozing on the fold-out couch, there wasn't going to be much relaxation time anyway.

Catch 22 again. Kabuto sighed, slumping over his cooling bowl.

"Fine, fine."

Curses.

Ino was, as typical for most of her days, bored witless. She could have been out on a mission. She could have been out training. Hell, she'd even enjoy trying to help Sakura-chan with her clothing shopping more than sitting behind the counter of her parent's florist shop trying to stay awake. Head propped up on one hand, Yamanaka Ino sighed pointedly for the -inth time that afternoon, and wished feverently that someone might actually come into the shop.

Almost like magic, the bell positioned strategically over the door jingled.

"Irasha- NARUTO!"

Before the blond even had a chance to properly get into the door, she had him in a hold somewhere between a hug and a headlock, squealing.

"Eh, konichiwa, Ino-chan …"

"Naruto-kuun, why did you come? Are you here to brighten my day?"

The girl stepped back to eye the general mood of her prey, to find the Hokage's son blushing furiously and looking at his shoes. Ino knew that the public opinion of Naruto wasn't great. But, he was cute, hard working, and loaded. What else could a girl hope for in a guy?

"Eeeto, I'm here to buy flowers, actually,"

He was also fun to tease. He looked even cuter when his feathers were ruffled. "Flowers? For me? Why Naruto-kun, I'm flattered, you shouldn't have!"

She reattached herself to his arm. She felt entitled to. She was the one-person Naruto fan-girl club, and the only girl that had really shown interest in him so far besides Hinata. And Hinata didn't pose a threat to anyone. It seemed likely that she might even ask him to marry her someday. It wasn't like there was anyone else.

"Uh… well…"

Ino watched with fond glee as the blushing blond's mind worked furiously to try and figure out how to turn her down and not insult her. Not the fastest ship in the fleet, but very cute.

"Uh … I'm visiting a sick … friend … in hospital …"

"Sick? Who's sick?"

Surely she would have heard if anyone had been admitted to hospital.

"Well … " scratching his head cutely, Naruto edged towards shelter behind a topiary tree, "you remember Uchiha Sasuke? He was in our class for a while, until he got sick."

"Hm… Uchiha Sasuke? You mean the younger brother of … Itachi?"

Almost out of habit, Ino glanced around the deserted shop to make sure no one noticed she was talking about him.

Naruto nodded in affirmative. "Well, he's awake."

"Really? How interesting."

She had almost forgotten about the rather cute, dark-haired little boy that had been in her class when they were nine.

"So," Ino moved away from her prey and rearranged a display of lilies, "you're bringing him flowers?"

A pointedly raised eyebrow was all it took to make the Hokage's son instantly defensive.

"Well," he protested weakly, "that's what you bring sick people."

The blonde girl nodded and conceded him that point. "alright, what kind of flowers do you want to bring him?"

"Eeeto…"

She was going to make sure that it took a wonderfully long time for this boy to get his flowers.

Sasuke opened his eyes as the door to his room opened. Lately, since the rather embarrassing incident with the window, Sasuke had been spending most of his time sleeping, and the rest of his time doing as many exercises in his bed that he could get away with. Weight lifting with an empty vase. Sit ups. Stretching his legs mercilessly. His physical condition, much like much of his life since he had woken up, was embarrassing. It all just seemed like one big lesson in humility. His ego had taken a battering, but this hadn't stopped him acting coolly superior to everyone. He could tell it was all one big mind game and a way to wear down his resolve.

The door opened, and the one person that he actually wanted to see came in.

"Naruto! You're back! What happened?"

The kitsune put down his bag, which made a significant clunk, and pulled a bunch of healthy, perky looking geraniums out from behind his back.

"These are, eh, for you." Naruto confessed, completely ignoring Sasuke's question. He decided to let it slide for a second.

"You're giving me flowers?"

"Well," the blond sounded wearily defensive, like he'd had this conversation before, "you're supposed to give sick people flowers."

"Keep them. There's obviously something deeply wrong with you."

Naruto ignored this, and stuck the flowers, wrapper and all, into the vase by his bed. The one he liked to train with. Soon he'd move onto the clock.

There was something strange about the way the blond was acting. Slightly more mature than usual. Slightly detached, like he was talking to a stranger.

Dark eyes narrowed, and a bony hand shot out, grabbing an orange-clad wrist and pulling the other boy off balance, and his ear near his mouth. Naruto made a semi-strangled noise, but was held in place.

"Naruto, does the cold duck fly south?"

The shock widened blue eyes narrowed slightly. He obviously recognised the Konoha ninja's general code. It meant 'what's the situation?'

"Not only do they fly, but they sing."

'Situation optimal.'

Naruto pulled away and pushed his clothing back into order, scowling at the wall.

Sasuke mentally sighed with relief. Even grade-schoolers could decipher the code, but it was special to the Hidden Leaf Village, and it was unlikely that such a simple code would have been taught by either Orochimaru or Itachi to their flunkies; they would expect the more complex codes to be used.

In silence, Naruto trailed back over to his bag, quickly shot a meaningful look at the door, and opened the zipper. Sasuke watched as several board games, comics, and a pack of cards emerged.

"Didn't you bring something useful?"

The blond stiffened slightly. "Like what?"

"Like weights? I need to get back into top form as soon as possible."

Seeming disarmed, he shot a wry look back, something that Sasuke had been convinced that the boy couldn't summon in a flying fit, and picked up the deck of cards.

"Cards it is. Do you remember how to play go fish?"

"Go jump off a cliff. I'm not going to play that childish game with you, you idiot."

"Well then," Naruto grated out, trying to still sound cheerful and failing spectacularly, "what do you want to play? Black jack? Cheat? Poker?"

"I don't want to play cards, Naruto."

"Ano-sa …" he took the cards out of their packet and started absently shuffling them, still crouching by his bag, "how do you know my name?"

Sasuke blinked. "I was in your class."

He didn't get to the part about the rest of their long and extensive past together before the blond let out a long elaborate sigh, sounding intensely relieved. "So you remember me from there? You've got a good memory."

With that, the Uchiha's feeling that something was very very wrong increased tenfold. "Naruto, how long have I been in this bed?"

"Ettoo …" he squinted, mental abacus clicking, "six years, give or take a few months."

Sasuke's version reality took another serious blow.