Naruto has a hard time learning sign language, which makes me wonder just how recent his muteness is. Itachi mentioned that Naruto didn't speak English and that was the icing on the cake. I was trying to teach him sign language in a language that he didn't understand. How could I explain to him what the signs meant when we had a language barrier? He still smiled at me and tried to play along as I tried to explain it to him, his beautiful blue eyes staring at me with entertained confusion.

Eventually he started to get the hang of it, but his bad memory caused him to forget a lot of the more complicated signs. He would pause and then angrily move his arms and hands trying to interpret his thoughts throughout incoherent words. At one point I gave him a pen and paper to write down whatever it was that he was thinking, hoping that I could find a translator online that could help me out, but his handwriting was illegible. Completely atrocious and I couldn't even begin to decipher what language it was, so I gave up on it soon afterwards. However, I began to find a lot of little drawings next to my bed soon after that. Most of which found themselves hidden under my sock drawer…very deep in it.

He still had nightmares in the middle of the night, and I would try to always wake him from them before it got too early in the morning and I couldn't get another hour or two of sleep before school. He no longer went rigid at my touch, but rather woke when I climbed unto his bed and cuddled against me instantly. I was beginning to think that he was doing it on purpose.

I heard a tap against the dining table and Naruto's bright smile pulled me from my recap of the week's mishaps. "What. Thinking." He managed to say after a moment's thoughts. He didn't have a natural knack for sign language but he seemed to be learning English quicker than what I expected. "Big kid stuff." I answered curtly but I saw his smile widen and his little shoulders shake slightly. I guess he was laughing.

Itachi had brought him clothes that were made for kids and not grown men along with some colored pencils in an attempt to encourage some sort of outlet for whatever it was that was still eating his mind. I didn't want to imagine Naruto drawing something like that, but apparently the psychologist he was seeing, Inoichi Yamanaka, could see the most inner depths of his small mind just by contemplating the way one of his little colored trees looked, or how many windows he drew on a house. I didn't see how that could happen…they were just drawings from a 7 year old's vivid imagination. There was no logic behind it.

Naruto looked at me again with a puzzled look on his face. He made a question mark with one hand cupped and the other forming a circle. I held back my desire to crack a smile and raised an eyebrow at him. "Isn't time to go to bed already?" He quickly shook his head at me, but Itachi had already looked up from his paperwork and checked his watch. "Yep, it is. Say good night to Sasuke." Naruto pouted a bit but grabbed unto Itachi's outstretched hand anyways, waving his hand at me and he walked out the door.

It didn't take long before Itachi came back and sat back down on his side of the table. Ever since I was on good terms with Naruto, we had made the dining room into a shared study where I did my homework, Itachi his paperwork, and Naruto doodled on any unguarded piece of paper. I was about to close my last book when I felt Itachi's eyes on me, which was rare nowadays, but I had gotten used to it since I was also very distracted by that little ball of yellow.

"Well?"
"I'm really glad you and Naruto are getting along."

I looked at him with an exasperated glare. Was it really that big a deal? The kid was lonely, I was just helping him cope with it.

"Is that all?" I asked as I noticed that his folders where neatly stacked to one side. He wasn't working anymore, which probably meant that I was about to have some sort of sermon or speech.

"I'll be plain with you," Itachi pulled his eyeglasses off and looked at me directly, "Naruto has some sort of trauma, we're not sure what caused it – there was a small shift in his eyes then but I didn't think too much of it – and that's the reason for his muteness. We have run numerous tests and found nothing wrong with him physically. Tsunade reckons it's just a matter of time before he decides to speak again."

I felt like there was something more to this talk than just an explanation to why Naruto seemed to spend all day in the hospital, and Itachi kept his mouth open slightly, his eyes staring at me but looking elsewhere.

"Thank you for letting him in…" he stood up and left after that, leaving my mind racing. Itachi had bitten his lips shortly before his last sentence, a look of pure worry on his face. Was it for Naruto, or was he worried about me getting too close to him? It's not like I was going to rape the kid. I'm not into younger men.

I walked up to Naruto's bedside once more and while crawling into it I wondered if this is what it felt like to have a younger brother. Did Itachi ever climb into bed with me when I was young to scare away all that monsters that hid in the closet? If he did, I didn't remember, or chose not to. Uchiha's don't do afraid.

I rubbed his back soothingly, sighing as my eyes burned with grogginess.

"Next time, just come over to my room." I told him through a small yawn, clutching him closer to me as I felt sleep overcome me. I felt him nod against my chest and his fingers curled into my nightshirt. I bet that was the worst mistake I have ever made, but I was tired of making that short walk to his bedroom every night. I'm sure he could do half of the work himself.

The next morning I found myself being woken up by a small hand that shook my arm. I looked up to see Naruto smiling at me and my eyes widened when I managed to raise my head and look around. My room was filled with his drawings and his clothes were in a small pile next to my dresser. The frog shaped pillow that Itachi had given him laid right next to me and I noticed that the unused side of my bed was messy. He had taken my order just a little too seriously. "You gonna live here with me now?" I asked him jokingly, but he smiled wider and nodded a yes. "Well that's great, now I'm going to get even less sleep." I was sure Itachi witnessed the strange act with a smile on his face, since when I went down for breakfast he was already asking Naruto where he was going to sleep now that his bedroom was empty. Naruto just pointed at me and if my brother wasn't Itachi, I bet he would have cracked up laughing. And thank god it was Itachi.

...I sooo didn't spend yesterday creeping into the profiles of those who follow this story and spend my free time reading theirs... . Lol, just felt curious and caught up on some reading on those of you who took the time to read mine ^^ so thank you for reading this one too! It was more detailed this time I think xD But thank you so much to those of you that put this story on alert, it really just made me so happy :D Oh and this is for my friend that read it even though I don't think he's really into yaoi and liked it lol Thank you! Going to try and not get distracted so that I can post this up before classes start here...otherwise it'll be longer periods of time between chapters...which I don't like because I start to lose sight of the story itself...now I'm rambling lol Thank you again, love you even if I don't know you just because you're giving my story your time of day! 3