(AN) ... *Taps microphone* It's been a while hasn't it. No, but seriously, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry that I'm like this. I really don't know why I take so long with stuff sometimes. I think this past year has just been a lot-duh-but even without that I just take forever to get stuff done. I'm genuinly sorry that I'm a poor excuse of a human being, and you all deserve someone that actually gets shit done on an apporpriate schedule. So, as an apology, please accept this chapter.

MotherAiya: Love is astrong word, so I'm more than happy to hear that. And, yeah, sorry that a my "little longer" is so damn long. I think my problme is that I know where I want the story to go I just have trouble getting there, and I end up writing and deleting a ton! But, thanks for your kind words and I'll try to get the next chapter in sooner than a freaking year!

Mystic Moon Flower: I'm not 100% sure, but I think they use military time in Japan? Idk, I use military time though so I figured why not. Yeah, they're both pretty fucking slow with emotions and shit so real action (handholding, kissing and *cough* 18+ *cough) action is going to take awhile :). I can't give away how it'll end but you're tempting me with that massacre ending, kidding kidding (maybe). Thanks for your support; and, again, sorry it took so long!

"Ino-chan looks like she's in a good mood today."

Haruka glanced over at the blonde and it looked like Hinata was right. They didn't have their lunch in the classroom often, but Haruka had been seeing Ino enough these days that she could tell she was even chirpier than usual. "Maybe things are going well with that Sai guy." It looked like they were making good progress when they went to the pool that weekend.

"Or, it's just because winter break is in two weeks." Sasuke suggested-though Haruka didn't appreciate his tone.

"Oh right, I forgot it was so close." Hinata thought out loud, and then sent a smile to both of them. "Do you guys have any plans?"

"Probably just the usual stuff. Oka-san likes to get traditional for new years and stuff." Sasuke said with a shrug.

"Is Shisui coming by this year?"

"I heard he's going to be busy with school stuff. But, I'm pretty sure he just got himself another girlfriend or something."

'Well that kind of sucks, he would have-' Haruka paused her own train of thoughts and forced back on a smile-before the swirling thoughts would start again. "What are you doing for winter break Hinata-chan?"

While chewing on her food, the silver-eyed girl thought about it. "...We might be going on a trip for christmas, to visit some family in the countryside. But we should be coming back for new years. Do you guys want to try going to the same temple?"

...A thought occurred to Haruka. Visiting a temple for new years was usually something you did with your friends and family. Which meant Haruka's family would go, and Hinata's family would go. And that'd mean… 'How long has it been since we've even spoken?'

She didn't want to outright reject Hinata's offer-especially with her looking so excited. While Haruka was thinking over an answer, Sasuke quickly gave one in her steed. "We'd have to ask first, we'll let you know what our family says."

Thankfully, Hinata looked happy enough with that answer.

"You guys still go to the temple?" They all looked over as Shikamaru spoke-how long had he been there?

"Our parents are traditional, remember. They think not going would cause bad luck." Haruka didn't know if she believed that or not, but it was pretty fun to go every year.

"Right, I think you remember saying that once." Shikamaru muttered. "We used to go when I was really little, but then I kept getting sick around new years a lot, so we eventually just stopped going all together."

A part of Haruka wondered whether or not some of those times Shikamaru was just pretending to be sick because going to the temple would be 'a drag.'

"Then, would you like to come with us this year?" Hinata innocently asked.

Shikamaru thought over the question in his head, which was surprising since he usually just rejected offers immediately. "I feel like I've never seen you guys worry too much about exams. This time of year comes around and you all plan your vacations without much care huh."

"I can't tell whether or not you're trying to be insulting." Sasuke jabbed.

"Nah, I think I've just been hanging out too much with Ino and Choji."

'Fair enough.' Haruka thought. Those two did strike her as the type that got excited about planning stuff until they realized they might have to take supplementary classes. "Well we've been studying ahead so we should be able to pass."

For a second, Shikamaru stared at her blankly. "...Aren't you usually first place on all the exams? What's with you being all modest?"

Haruka felt her face heat up just the littlest bit at that comment. "You'd get first place too if you took exams a little more seriously." And that's something Haruka was certain about. Lazy as he is, Haruka still remembers all those chess matches she lost to him.

Shikamaru just shrugged. "Studying is just too much of a drag."

'Figured.'

"Haru-chan, Sasuke-kun, do you guys want to compare notes this weekend? I want to make sure I got the right answers." Hinata suggested.

However, just as Haruka was about to happily reply, another person popped in. "Oh! Are we having a study session at Haru and Sasuke's place?" The chirpy blonde they noticed earlier happily jumped into their conversation. "Can I join?"

"No." Haruka didn't want to say yes either, but Sasuke was concerningly quick to turn her down.

"Ah come on! I really need help with the tests! Besides, I've never seen your guy's house before!"

'We didn't even say anything about our house.' "Ino, we're not even meeting at our house?"

"We're also not 'studying' we're just comparing notes." Sasuke added.

"And I'm pretty sure you'd just end up copying their notes."

"Why are you butting in too Shikamaru? But, anyways, why not at your guy's place? I wanna see what it looks like."

'I feel like she's more eager to go to our house than to copy notes.' "We can't have people over at our house, our Oto-san is really against visitors."

Ino's eyes widened at the sound of that. "Really? Wow, and I thought my parents were strict." Thankfully she dropped asking about going to their house, and quickly dropped the forced study session. And they chatted until the bell rang.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Now that there was no more conversation to keep her distracted, Haruka was forced to be left to her own thoughts.

Two nights ago, Haruka had went down stair late into the night and found… him sitting alone watching TV… S-So, taking her sometimes-useful-teacher's advice she… She took a seat next to him…

'Be more selfish he said, but does that even count as being selfish? It's certainly something I wouldn't have done before, but… all we did was watch TV-and I don't even remember what was on it.' She stared at her paper as she mindlessly drew spirals in the corner of her paper. Then, paused as her face heated up. 'W-W-W-Wait, does this mean I'm actually taking Kakashi-sensei's advice seriously?'

This is the never ending spiral she's been stuck in since that night. Stuck between wondering whether or not she should be selfish and what is even considered selfish. Should she heed the words of a man that half the time wasn't serious, and if she did what was considered pushing it.

She twirled a strand of hair as she became lost in thought again. '...Now that I think about it, what was I like before?' Before the realization, before the self loathing, before all of this mess. When she was a little girl, it was fine to say what she really thought.

"Onii-chan! Onii-chan!" "Look at what I made at school, it's for you!" "Can I have a piggyback ride, Onii-chan?" "I ate my veggies, Onii-chan!" "Can we play, Onii-chan?" "Welcome home, Onii-chan!" "One more story, please." "When I grow up, I wanna marry Onii-cha-"

SLAM!

… … ...

"U-Uchih-?"

"S-Sorry, I thought I saw a bug." Haruka tried to smile politely, but it came out forced and sheepish. She held up the notebook-that she had slammed violently onto her desk to stop the mortifying memories-in an attempt to hide her bright red face.

Yamato-sensei just cleared his throat and awkwardly continued on with the lesson.

As the class's attention went back to the board, Haruka slumped down into her desk, resting her face into her hand-still trying to cover up her heated face. 'N-Not that! I'm not doing any of that!' She kept trying to push back down those-long forgotten-memories. 'Was I really like that? Seriously? No, no, no! Stop thinking about it!'

… But in all seriousness, Haruka had completely forgotten how she was when she was younger. The shock of realizing it wasn't normal that she loved her brother as much as she did probably resulted in her forgetting all about what used to be normal to her.

'Was it really that easy back then? To just say whatever-nonsense-I wanted?' She was always pretty careful about what she asked for, always careful to never ask for too much or be too selfish. So, it was more than a little surprising-and embarrassing-that she remembered moments that such sentiments weren't followed. 'And he really just let me do whatever I wanted?' She wondered, almost flabbergasted. 'I knew he was a bit of a spoiler, but he really acted like none of that bugging bothered him. He even acted like-... Like…'

As vividly as she had remembered those memories of her being pesterous and clingy, she could also clearly remember his smiling face as he spoiled her over and over…

'What… What could have made him so happy to be dragged around by the demands of a little brat?' She thought to herself critically, but she could completely push down the oddly bubbly happiness it gave her… 'S-So then… h-hypothetically… if I were to act more selfish, w-would that… would that make him happy too…?'

… … …

'No No No No! Acting like that then and acting like that now are two very different things! Back then it was probably annoying, but it was also probably a little cute since it was coming out of a little kid's mouth! B-But to do that now, that would just make me look like a complete idiot!' She tried to frantically reason with herself. '... A-Although… He does seem to want to spend more time with me, probably because I've given him the cold shoulder for so long. So… he… might think that I hate him…'

A part of her was already fairly aware of this, that her avoiding and acting harsher than she needed to gave off the impression of dislike-maybe even hate. Though, to actually directly think it made her feel a stab of guilt… She always thought it was necessary to keep a certain distance from him, but she never necessarily wanted to hurt him…

'Then… Maybe that could be that balance Kakashi-sensei was talking about. Just spend more time with him… Th-That way, not only am I being a little more selfish, but… hypothetically… it'd make him a little happier to see I don't hate him… right?'

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Class had ended long ago, and that left students chatting and packing as it was time to go home. Sasuke was all ready to go, he was just standing over Haru's desk as he waited for her to be done packing.

"... So did you really see a bug earlier?" Feeling a little impatient and bored, he couldn't help but ask.

He noticed how she almost shuddered at the question. "Something like that." She almost muttered.

'Which meant there was no bug at all.' He concluded, but didn't push. Haru had been acting weirdly antsy lately-well she's always been kind of weird if he really thought about it-so he didn't want to push it. After that big fight they had, Sasuke decided to just trust that now she'll know when something's important enough to tell him immediately. So, he'll just let whatever's going on in that head of hers mull over before she's ready to explain herself.

That didn't mean it wasn't a little annoying that she was acting all weird while he had no idea why the hell.

"You ready to go yet?"

"Almost, I just kind find my red pen."

"Did you lend it to Naruto agai-"

"-Hyuga-senpai." They both paused at the name. One of their classmates had opened the door and was talking to someone that Sasuke wasn't in view to see, but the name made it clear. Other than Hinata-who was certainly not that guy's senpai-there was only one other Hyuga at their school. "If you're looking for Hinata, I think she already left."

...Try as he could, he couldn't hear what "Hyuga-senpai" said, but he did see the classmate's expression change to slight confusion.

He muttered something before looking over his shoulder, and then his eyes fell on Haru. "Uh, Uchiha-hi- Uh, Haru! Hyuga-senpai said he wants to talk to you."

Letting go of the fact that this guy was about to call Haru by that weird nickname the school seems to have for her, he looked down and saw Haru tense up a little at the sound of that. Which didn't surprise him, those two haven't been on talking terms since they broke up.

Whatever she decided on, Sasuke just watched quietly-wondering if he should say something for her instead.

Then, to his own surprise, she closed up her bag and got up to her feet. "I'll be right there." She told their classmate, and looked back up at Sasuke. "You can go on ahead, tell Oka-san I'll try catching a ride with someone else." She said with a smile that-for once in a long while-Sasuke couldn't tell if it was forced or not.

What bugged him was that she said she'll try catching a ride. 'That means she thinks it'll take a while.' When he realized she was waiting for a response, he snapped out of it. "Sure." Was all he could think to say. What else is a brother supposed to say when he watches his sister go off to talk to her ex-boyfriend?

. . . . . . . . . . . .

'Well at least she wasn't lying about catching a ride.' Sasuke sat on the couch as he looked at his text from Haru. It was unsatisfyingly short since all it said was that Naruto's parents were going to drop her off. Nothing about the Neji thing-thought he supposed it wasn't really something to explain over text.

"Are you ok?" Sasuke snapped out of it and looked up to see Itachi looking down at him curiously from behind the couch. "You look like something is bugging you."

Was this bugging him? Maybe a little. "It's nothing, I'm pretty sure." He wanted to think it was nothing since Haru texted back fine and dandy, but it was always hard to get a reading on her sometimes-most of the time.

Itachi raised a brow at that, not completely convinced by the response. "'Nothing' doesn't make you frown like that."

'Was I frowning?'

His brother-like the mind reader he is-gave him a smile that said; 'yes you were.'

Sasuke questioned whether or not he should explain-it was a Haru thing after all-but he figured it probably was just nothing. "Well it's mostly nothing. It's just Haru stuff I guess."

"What about Haruka?"

… 'Should I really say it? It's not like it's that big of a deal I guess. Right?' "... Neiji wanted to talk to her after school, so I'm just wondering what they're talking about."... Now that he'd said it out loud he was really wondering if that was ok to say.

"'Neiji?' Who's that?"

Sasuke was a little surprised by the question. 'Did no one tell Nii-san about that whole thing?' "...You've seen him before I think. He's Hinata's cousin." He tried to be careful, not sure if his brother seriously didn't know that Haru dated the guy.

"Hinata… Did he have long hair and the same eyes as her?"

"Yeah."

"I think I faintly remember then. So, why's it 'nothing' that he wanted to talk to her? Is he trouble or something?"

"No, not like that." Sasuke was quick to explain that since he could already see Itachi tense at the possibility of Haru talking to "trouble." "It's just weird since… well they haven't talked in a while." It wasn't the full truth, but he wasn't lying.

There was a strange pause in the air as Itachi continued to stare down at Sasuke-like if he was searching for something. His brows scrunched up a little, and Sasuke could see the worry begin to grow in those eyes. "Sasuke, is there something you're not telling me-"

"I'm home!"

'Thank god.' Sasuke thought with relief-he was really regretting even trying to explain the situation. Then, he was worried when he realized it was Haru that just shouted. 'Well at least she made it home.'

He watched as she walked into view of both boys, and he noticed she went a little stiff when she noticed them both staring at her-probably because of Itachi but also because of the slight tension in the air. Sasuke also noticed that the weird tension around Itachi seemed to simmer down when he looked at Haru-was he worried she wasn't going to come back home?

"Hi, Haruka." Itachi said with a-slightly relieved-smile. Sasuke looked at him and saw that he wanted to say something else, but he was holding back for some reason. Then he began to walk towards the stairs-catching Haru off guard. "I'm just going to head back up to my room if you need me."

'Is he leaving for her sake?' Sasuke quietly wondered to himself as he watched his brother. 'I guess he's sharp enough to catch that Haru's still weird around hi-'

"A-Actually!"

Both boys nearly jumped out of surprise by Haru's sudden interruption. Sasuke watched Itachi go wide-eyed before he turned his own eyes to his sister. She looked red in the face, and she was tightly gripping onto her bag in front of her. What surprised him most was that she was directly looking at their brother's face.

"Um…" And it looked like she was starting to lose her nerve. "...Y-You know," her eyes trailed off to the side, "our exams are coming up next week and… I was wondering if…" Her voice was beginning to trail off too, "Do you think… If you have… the time… Could you help us study… a little?"

… … … 'Huh?'

Sasuke stared at Haru in disbelief, then he looked at his equally surprised brother, and then he looked out the window to see if there were pigs flying. What the hell was going on here? Since when did Haru-? Wasn't she still-? Studying-?

"I," Sasuke snapped out of his thoughts as he quickly looked to see how the hell his brother was going to respond to this randomly sudden request, "could help you with what I remember, but I don't know if it's a lot."

He could tell his brother was putting in his best effort to give a serious response without looking completely taken off guard by the situation. 'You have every right to be confused. I have no idea what the hell is going on.'

Haru, who may have gone insane, fidgeted with the strap of her bag as if she wasn't sure where to go from there. "Ok… Th-Then after dinner, can we go to your room?" She asked like some kind of timid animal.

'What the hell am I even looking at?'Sasuke was not only very confused, but he was very much not into seeing his sister act like that.

"Of course… I'll just go see if I have any notes from highschool that could help." With that, their brother managed to make an exit from whatever the hell this was.

… … When Sasuke realized that Haru was too lost in some sort of train of thought to give him an explanation, he cleared his throat loudly to catch her attention.

She snapped out of it and looked over at Sasuke a little confused-like if she somehow forgot he was there. He didn't even bother asking her what was going on, figuring it was fairly obvious what he was waiting for. So it was a little annoying that it took her a second to have a look of realization on her face. "...Can I hold off talking about the Neji thing?"

'THAT WASN'T WHAT WAS WEIRD HERE!' … … He just sighed as he fell back onto the couch. He knew that she knew what was going on here.

"...I swear we'll talk about all of it later, ok?"

'...This damn sister.' He looked over the back of the couch-knowing very well that he had an annoyed look on his face. "I'm holding you to that."