It was 6 in the evening and Sasuke was sitting in his office, spinning his chair. He had always like doing that, especially when he did not know what to do. He would have like to ask Itachi some advice, but the latter had received a call early in the beginning of the afternoon and had left saying he had an important case to oversee. Sasuke knew his brother had no case in pending for now, thus the real reason of his departure was a mystery to him. Maybe Itachi had a girlfriend or something like that.

The reason he wanted his brother's advice was obviously connected to his book. Kakashi had called two hours ago asking to see a draft soon and discuss with him. Sasuke had frozen. He had not been able to tell Kakashi that he already had something written and even some chapters ready. He did not want Kakashi to be disappointed in him.

He needed someone else to approve before he showed it to Kakashi and he had not yet had time to show it to his brother. He knew his brother would not be biased and that he would tell him directly if it sucked. His brother was not known to go easy on him after all.

He just hoped that Itachi would not be home too late because Kakashi had scheduled them a meeting for Tuesday morning and Itachi surely would not have time tomorrow. Mondays were his busiest day after all.

Hey Sasuke, I won't be coming home tonight.

Sasuke sighed at Itachi's text. There went his hopes. The girlfriend theory was slowly getting confirmed. Itachi not coming home was not something that happened often.

He did not really know who else he could ask. He had some friends, but none of them were big readers. Suigetsu probably had not read a book since high school and the only things that interested Juugo these days were animals.

He stared at the coffee cup on his desk. Maybe there was someone else he could ask. Itachi would probably have told him that calling a random guy giving away his phone number was not such a good idea. But he wasn't there to judge.

Sasuke didn't wanted to call the dude only to ask him to read a couple of pages and tell him what he thought about it. Sure the guy had said to call him if he needed "anything else" but it felt weird to just ask about this. Maybe he could think of some questions to ask at the same time. That was better. He could ask some questions about the prison and make him read his start and it would be fine.

Sasuke picked up his phone and dialed, hoping he would not look too desperate by calling the next day.

Naruto was at his condo with several friends when his phone rang on Sunday.

Sunday had always been family day for Naruto so every weekend he saw his father for lunch. Konohamaru is usually there with them but he had a dentist appointment this morning and skipped lunch.

The rest of the day was for the guys. They would meet at someone's house and order some takeout or pizzas and they played video games the entire evening.

Today, for the first time in his life, Naruto regretted that all of his closest friend were there. During the entire conversation with Sasuke, they kept making faces and whispering snarky comments. Naruto was embarrassed and half-covering the receiver to be sure that Sasuke would not hear anything other than his answer.

After accepting to meet up the next day, he hung up the phone and shouted. "Guys! Can't you shut up?"

Kiba turned off the TV so that all the attention was on Naruto. "Did I hear wrong or do you have a hot date?"

"Oh god." Naruto whispered shaking his head.

"Yeah big bro, who's that Sasuke?" Konohamaru asked.

"He's a guy Naruto met at Millhaven." Gaara answered without interest, throwing the xBox controller on the ottoman.

"He's a criminal!?" Kiba asked almost panicking. "Not one of your patient I hope."

"Naruto's not stupid enough to date one of his patient, Kiba." Shikamaru answered from where he was laying on the floor.

"So…" Konohamaru started. "Are you finally going to get some?"

"It's just a professional meeting!" Naruto exclaimed.

"That's what your mom said when she met your dad." Kiba said.

Naruto guffawed then smiled. "That's low, mate."

"More seriously, if it's just a 'professional meeting' why were you blushing?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto had barely opened his mouth when Gaara answered. " 'Cause the guy is hot." He looked at Naruto with a knowing look on his face and added. "So the reason why you could not wait 3 hours to ask me his name in person is because you wanted to stalk him before he called you, right? Because you saw him outside of Millhaven too."

Naruto sighed. It would be easier if he just answered and then they could keep playing zombie mode. "Yes. I saw him at Starbuck yesterday and we talk about the book he's writing. I said I could help if he had questions and gave him my number." That's not exactly what he had said, but he certainly was not going to admit it to his friends.

Kiba almost jumped in his seat. "He's a writer?! I could run him in the system, maybe he is some kind of drug dealer. Not everyone can get around only writing books, and I've never heard of him. He's probably not that popular."

"How could you have heard of him, I didn't even know you could read Kiba." Shikamaru said. "And if he wanted informations, why didn't you give Gaara's number?"

Naruto snickered. "Because Gaara is a bitch to talk to." He looked at Gaara. "No offense, mate."

"None taken, I'm proud of it."

"Alright. Now that we've talk about it can we get back to the game? There's nothing more to say about this meeting." Naruto said, receiving a pout from Konohamaru.

"If it's so professional, I guess you're not gonna call Sakura to ask her what to wear." Kiba said with a knowing look.

Naruto shook his head and turned the TV back on. He was definitely going to call Sakura.

His friends had left around midnight the night before and since it was probably a little too late to call Sakura, Naruto had decided to do it first thing in the morning.

He jumped on his phone right when his alarm rang, at 7 am sharp, and quickly dialed his friend's number.

"It's an emergency!" Naruto screamed in the phone as Sakura greeted him.

"What happened? Is someone hurt?" Sakura asked with her worried doctor voice. She knew that the guys met every Sunday and it had turned bloody a couple time before. She couldn't imagine a reason other than an accident for Naruto to call her this early.

Naruto blushed as Sakura altered between asking question about who was hurt and chastising him about not being mature enough.

"Woah!" Naruto interrupted her. "Not that type of emergency. I have a date!"

"Wow, Naruto! This is big. Your first date since university. I'm so proud of you."

Naruto grimaced. Why did she have to rub salt in the wound? It was true that he had not dated since he was 22. He had wanted to focus on his studies and then on his career and when he had finally felt ready to date again, there was never any opportunities. He was too busy to date anyone. It was still the case today but with time and compromises he knew he could have a relationship.

Not that this was a real date anyway.

"Why didn't you call me earlier? I could have come by and make you try some outfits." Sakura continued.

"He called me yesterday and we are meeting today. I need you to tell me what to wear. Nothing too formal, this is technically not a romantic date but I'm interested and I want to feel noticeable. But not too much."

Sakura chuckled on the other side. "I know perfectly what you'll wear. Remember that blue cobalt shirt I bought you at christmas last year? You better still have it. And don't put it on right away if you haven't had breakfast yet. You're a messy eater…"

Naruto putted his phone on speaker and started ransacking his walk-in closet as Sakura started to debate with herself about whether brown shoes would look good with his blue shirt.

"I don't think I can die. Sasuke just… He needs me." Itachi said, his voice shaking.

This was Itachi's third visit in Naruto's office and Naruto felt like this one was going to be the hardest.

Last week Itachi had came into his office with a wonderful poker face and had thrown pretty much all his life at him. Or rather their life since every time Itachi mention his relation to something he had to talk about his brother's relation to the same thing.

He had talked about how both their relation with their dad had been harsh, but how much harder it was for his brother because he had been growing in his shadow. Naruto had the impression that this sentence had came from Itachi's brother himself. They probably had had an argument sometime and words had been thrown at each other like weapons.

He had also talked a little bit more about his parents death. A drunk driver on a rainy night had ran over them while they were going back to their car from the theater. Itachi had been at a college party and thus was not there with his brother to answer the door when the policemen had come to announce the accident.

The guilt Itachi felt was not visible on his face but Naruto could see it still. Just by the word Itachi picked to express himself it became obvious that even seven years after an accident that Itachi had no control over, he still felt guilty for not being there at the right time for his brother.

After the accident had come the story of how Itachi had came to be the legal guardian of his brother. How hard it had been for the youngest to get through their parents death and how hard it still was.

"I can do this to him." Itachi added.

"You're not doing anything to him. It's just happening to you. There's nothing you can do about it."

Itachi looked coy. That was a weird expression on him. "Well, about that." He paused for a minute. "I got a call yesterday from the hospital. They had me passed some new tests to see if I would be a good candidate for a new treatment."

Naruto raised a brow, interested. "And?"

"They think it could work." Naruto forced himself to not show any delight. Itachi's tone was a little dismal. This did not seem to entirely be a good news.

"It's still in trial though and the survival rate is really low."

"How low?"

"15 to 20 percents. This is only based on their calculations. They are starting the trials next week and only three persons have accepted to do it yet."

"But you haven't." This was not a question, Naruto knew that Itachi was not ready to take such decision yet.

"No. I want to wait a bit more. They say I have approximately 3 months to decide if I want to do the trial or not, then it would be too late. My tumor will have grow to much to be reduce then operate by this treatment." Itachi had spent yesterday's evening and the entire night thinking about what decision to make. He had even rented a hotel room because he had not wanted Sasuke to see him lost like this.

"Can you tell me how this treatment works?" Naruto asked.

"The doctor told me that they will inject a virus inside the tumor to try and make it shrink. They should be able to operate afterward. I want to wait and see if it worked on the patients testing it this week. "

"But what if it works on you even if it did not on the others? The way I see this if you try the treatment the best case scenario is 20% of chances to live. If you don't it's 100% death."

"Yes, but if I do it my two years left of life could drop to 0."

"Listen Itachi, I can't tell you what to do, but I definitely can give you some advice. You've known for a month about your cancer, and I think it's time for you to tell your brother. I know you think he is still weakened by your parents death and you don't want to hurt him even more, but this is something you should discuss with people who loves you and I have no doubts that your brother does. You have a really big choice to make and I think it is important that he be part of it to. Since you started coming here, we've talk a lot about your brother. Itachi, this is not about your brother anymore, it's about you. Yes, your brother will need a lot of support if you dies, but you need support right now. Try to think about it."

Itachi looked a little startled after Naruto's rant but didn't say a word.

Naruto sighed and looked at his watch. "I'm afraid we are done for today, I'll see you next Monday."

Itachi stood to shook Naruto's hand and went to the door. However, just before closing it behind him he turned toward Naruto. "Thank you." He said.

The treatment Itachi refers to is the Shepherd Method from Grey's Anatomy. I'm currently watching this show and I thought a reference would be nice!

I always forget to tell you guys, but I'll should be posting every fortnight, on Tuesdays. Next chapter will be Sasuke and Naruto's date. See y'all!