The heaping bowls were placed in front of them just minutes after they both sat down. Sasuke nodded his thanks, mumbled a quick 'itaidakimasu', broke apart his chopsticks, and began to eat. Naruto observed him closely for a moment, then mimicked all the dark-haired man's movements. As soon as he ate his first bite of the food, his blue eyes lit up and he quickly picked up the bowl in one hand and plunged his chopsticks into the steaming ramen, trying to get all the noodles at once.

'Ne, ne, Iruka -sensei! Can we please go out for ramen? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?'

"I haven't been here in a while," he gulped down his last mouthful and set the plate down, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

"Not since you were promoted," Sasuke shook his head and continued to eat his ramen.

"Oyaji! Can I have another?" Naruto waved energetically at the old cook by the stove and turned his eyes back to Sasuke.

"Promoted?"

"Yeah," the Uchiha picked up the bowl in both hands and sipped the remaining broth from its bottom. "To the Anbu Squad. My job," he added, as if that would help. Naruto scrunched his nose and tried to remember what the Anbu was before asking.

"But…I don't really want to be an Anbu, do I?" he finally spoke up as the second-helping was set in front of him.

"No, although you were happy you got in," Sasuke admitted.

"One step closer kind of thing?"

"You could say that."

"What's the highest-ranking official in Konoha?"

"That would be our hokage," he pointed and the blond turned his head to look up, ramen noodles dangling from his mouth. Five stone faces stared back impassively at him, painstakingly carved high up in the mountain face overlooking the entire village.

"She's new," he remarked.

"She's our current Godaime Hokage, Tsunande," Sasuke paid for all three bowls while he explained a hokage's job and Naruto listened intently. When he finished eating and Sasuke finished explaining, they said goodbye to Ichiraku's owner and made their way toward the town square.

"The job sounds boring," Naruto made a face.

"It all depends on how you do it, I suppose," Sasuke shrugged.

"Well, if I were…" he blinked. "…When I'm hokage, I'll have assistants to do the work for me, right?"

Sasuke froze, turning surprised eyes to the blond. "Naruto, you…?"

"That's what I really want to be, isn't it?" he grinned. "I want to become the next hokage." The raven-haired ninja could only nod. "I wonder…" Naruto continued, now looking thoughtful, "is that what made Sakura cry this morning? That I…couldn't remember that?"

"Yeah," Sasuke cleared his throat. "It's been your goal, ever since we were kids."

"I see…" his head bowed momentarily, then snapped back up abruptly: "Let's go visit her!"

"What? Now?" the other man blinked.

"Yes now! I feel bad for making her cry," he admitted sheepishly. "I want to see if she's doing better."

"Hmm…that might actually be a good idea," Sasuke nodded. "With the three of us together, you might remember more and more. You're already recovering quickly; that's good," he added with a small smile, and Naruto felt his face redden slightly. "Sakura's house is this way--don't get lost."

'You're okay…that's good…'

'W-Why…? Why did you do that? Why did you jump in the way?'

'I…don't know why, dobe. My body moved…all on its own…'

She opened the door, and blinked in surprise when she saw who stood on the other side.

"Naruto wanted to see how you were doing," Sasuke spoke up first and locked eyes with her. His black orbs flickered red very briefly, and she understood. Nodding, both to tell him she knew not to speak his name and at the explanation of their appearance, she opened the door wider to let them inside.

"Lee's on a mission right now," she said apologetically. "He should be back in time for dinner, if you don't mind staying that long."

"We'll see what happens," Sasuke shrugged.

"So, Sakura, are you feeling better? I'm sorry I made you cry," Naruto blurted out, biting his bottom lip eagerly, his hands clenched in his lap.

The pink-haired woman smiled at her friend gently. "It's not your fault, Naruto. I was just…overwhelmed."

"If it helps you feel any better, I know why I upset you now," he said guiltily. "I didn't remember about wanting to be hokage, right?"

"Did you tell him?" she looked at the other man angrily and Sasuke held up his hands in self-defense.

"No," he shook his head. "He remembered it on his own."

"I did!" Naruto grinned proudly. "I've been remembering stuff all day!"

"Good for you!" she beamed back.

"And I thought it'd help the recovery rate if we talked about the different things we did when we were genjin," Sasuke put in.

She nodded. "Yes, constant positive reinforcement is a good way to help any patient."

"You're off the clock, Sakura," the dark-haired man lifted an eyebrow at her. "Give it a rest."

"It's not work if it's to help a friend, right Naruto?" Sakura smiled at the blond and he grinned back.

"Thanks," he said gratefully.

"Now, let's see," her brow furrowed in concentration. "Where's a good place to start off?"

"How about our first mission?" Sasuke shrugged.

"Okay!" she nodded happily and turned her smile on them both. "What I remember about that mission was when Kakashi-sensei made us do that chakra-manipulation training, and Naruto kept falling on his head," her smile turned into a satisfied smirk.

"Hey!" the blond cried indignantly.

"What I remember," Sasuke leaned forward, his elbows pressed to his knees and his hands clasped loosely together, "was when he lost control of his chakra and nearly fell from the damn treetop. And I had to rescue his dumb ass."

"HEY!" Naruto glared at him.

"Well, what do you remember, Naruto?" Sakura successfully intervened before the two of them began swinging insults and fists in her living room. The blond sat down in a huff and closed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I remember…" he strained for the truth beneath the swirling mass of fog in his mind. He remembered falling out of the tree multiple times, he remembered rivaling with someone to reach the top of the tree by manipulating his chakra flow into the soles of his feet. He could feel the cold air on his skin, the sweat rolling down his forehead in bullets, his breath coming out in harsh, ragged gasps. But he couldn't just say that, because then Sakura and the black-haired ninja would think he was just copying what they had said. No, it had to be something related to that, but totally from his own memory. He scrunched his eyes closed and searched harder, sifting through muddled, half-visible memories, feeling them and testing them for validity. "I remember…"

Chakra-manipulation… Losing control…

The white needles gleamed in his vision just before his eyelids surrendered to the weight that dragged them down. There was a commotion, a hit connected, and he heard Haku grunt.

"Haku…" he mumbled through frozen lips, but he couldn't stop. It was as if this memory had lunged out at this chance, it wanted to be recalled--it was important.

'You're such…a pain, Naruto…'

'You did it, Sa…! You--'

His eyebrows pulled together in concentration: "Sa…"

The needles, oh god the needles, they were all over his body. They stuck up from his arms and legs, the joints of his knees and elbows, the hollow and curve of his white neck that suddenly looked so fragile with the little red streamers of blood running down the soft-looking skin. Scratches marred his face and bare flesh. A little dribble of the horrible redness spilling from the corner of his mouth as he turned his head slowly, so very slowly, and gazed back at him with dull, dead eyes.

"…Naruto?" Sakura looked at his hunched figure in concern. Sasuke held up a hand, stopping her. He watched the shaking figure quietly, as if waiting for something important to happen.

'Look at yourself, dobe…'

'Wh-Why? You…protected me!'

'Who knows…' The grim smile was beautifully sickening on such a pale, porcelain face. 'In fact, I hated you…'

'What…? But, why! Why?--'

"Why did you protect me?"

Both of them jumped at his voice, so monotone but so filled with the emotion of whatever he was remembering.

"Sasuke…?" Sakura glanced over at the other man. He kept watching Naruto, his face impassive but his heart thudding wildly in his chest: He's remembering the time I--

'I didn't ask you to!'

'…my body moved of it's own accord…usura…tonkachi…'

He fell backward, all that lithe grace he admired gone from the limp figure. He didn't know he was running, lunging forward until the dark-haired boy collapsed into his arms and the two of them hit the cold ground.

'Sa…ke!'

"Sa…ke…" Naruto's eyes began to fill with warm, large tears.

'That man…. Brother…'

'His name's Uchiha Itachi--one of the missing-nins of Konoha Valley. He left the village after he--'

'Until I killed him… I…don't want to die…just like this…'

'Hmph, foolish little brother. Nearly six years, and still you have not improved.'

A trembling hand slowly lifted from his side, the pain of the movement and the knowledge of what he was saying reflected hauntingly in his dark eyes. The eyes that had saved him.

'You…' His blue eyes widened. '…don't die.'

'Naruto… I've… I…'

'…suke?'

'I…killed him…'

"…suke…"

The hand abruptly fell, the shaking fingertips brushing his cheek ever-so slightly before his body spasmed. His head turned up, their eyes locked tightly, roughly, raw emotion spilling out of one and into another, swirling together within him, building and swelling and tightening… His head slipped back, settled to one side, the eyelids dragged closed for what seemed like an eternity. One last simple, fleeting glance, and then, the weight settled. His body relaxed. Wet, wayward strands of his raven black hair feathered across his smooth brow and gently lined his too-pale cheek.

'Is this the first time you've seen a friend die?' That voice, so soft but so annoyingly arrogant and cocky. 'That is the path of a ninja.'

'Shut up…'

"In fact, I hated you too…"

Sakura looked worriedly back and forth between the still-transfixed blond and his dark-haired best friend, who looked as if someone had just, well, died.

'You'll pay…'

The red aura exploded upward and swirled around him, making Sakura shriek in surprise. Sasuke jumped forward and grabbed Naruto's shoulders, shaking him roughly.

"Naruto, no! Snap out of it! That's enough!"

'I'LL KILL YOU!'

"Naruto!" Sakura shrieked over the animalistic howl that emitted from the blonde's fanged mouth. Sasuke gripped him tightly to the armchair and glanced back at his other friend.

"Run, Sakura! Get Jiraiya!"

"But!" she flinched as three flame-red aura tails manifested themselves.

"Just go!" he yelled and turned his attention back to the shrieking man. "Naruto, snap the hell out of it now! I'm not dead!"

A fourth tail spiraled into the air, followed closely by a fifth. Sasuke felt the flesh under his arms growing jagged, rough, like coarse fur. He cursed and tried to look into the blue eyes that were supposed to be there, but they had been replaced by almond-shaped oil drops of the smoothest, darkest black.

"Naruto, STOP!" Sakura ran to them both and threw her arms around her friends neck, holding on tightly.

"Sakura!" Sasuke hissed as Naruto's hands--his claws--found his arms and raked sharply down from his shoulders to his elbows.

"Sasuke, you have to make him remember something else! He has to focus on another memory!" she winced as the claws came threateningly close. Another tail shot up over her head, and another. Still another one manifested itself between Sakura and Sasuke, as if to force them apart. Eight tails in total swayed angrily about the living room; windows shattered, the door blew open off its hinges, plates, bowls, and vases exploded around them. "Sasuke!" Sakura buried her face against Naruto's (the fox's) shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut. Sasuke thought as best he could with all-hell breaking loose around him. He watched the two sets of identical whisker-scar marks reach toward the center of Naruto's face, trying to conceal him in powerful, altering chakra. He watched the dirty-blood-red-coppery fur overtake his blond hair, his narrowed eyes, down the bridge of his nose, and come up along his chin to meet at the mouth. His mouth…

No longer thinking of consequences or what-ifs, Sasuke grabbed the transforming face and pressed his own mouth to the only remaining spot that was Uzumaki Naruto--his lips.