A/N: Okay. I lied. This story might have some drama and sadness in it. But no character death. That's a given.
Brief Credits: Flashback scene was borrowed from the original manga/anime. Since this is fanficion, I obviously don't own any of these characters. I don't understand why people always add that into their disclaimer, when obviously none of us owns any of these characters… Unless they made original characters…
---
"What are your names?"
It echoed. It rang. It stung. It shocked. It hit. Hard.
Neither of the two boys spoke. Naruto tilted his head and frowned a bit.
"Nii-san!" He lifted his right hand and pointed at Sasuke. "You remind Naruto of someone Naruto knows, nii-san. But you look too nice to be him…" Still, nobody said anything. The blonde became more and more curious until he finally turned around to face Sakura again. "Sakura-nee-chan?"
"It's just 'Sakura'… Just call me 'Sakura', remember, Naruto? Remember what I told you?" Sakura gently interrupted his question.
"Oh… But you're still…" he trailed off, his small mental capacity disabling his ability to sift out the facts correctly. "You… You said that you were Sakura-chan? But… Naruto is seven… And you're… sixteen! That's impossible! But… you said that Naruto had… amnesia?" He frowned deeply, obviously confused with all the things he couldn't order correctly. His bottom lip began to tremble and tears started to form in his eyes.
"Naruto… You're sixteen. All of us are. Just call me 'Sakura-chan', like you used to, okay?" The pink haired girl patted him on the head and tried to comfort him the best she could. She looked over at Sai and Sasuke hopelessly.
"Naruto?" Sai's voice made Naruto stop crying and look at him. The dark haired boy pointed at himself and smiled at him. "I'm Sai!"
"Sai-nii—" Naruto stopped and looked back at Sakura. He started again, remembering his true age. "Sai, right? Nice to meet you… again?" His eyebrows wrinkled together as he hastily wiped away the tears that clung onto his eyelashes.
Sai nodded and continued smiling at the boy. "Yes. Nice to meet you again…" he laughed weakly, but Naruto didn't notice the obvious fakeness of it.
"Then… Naruto wants to know your name!" The blonde leaned over to Sasuke, who had been quiet the entire time. The blonde was fascinated by something though. He kept leaning closer and closer into the Uchiha's face until they could feel each other's breaths on the other.
Sasuke didn't back up. He didn't move. He was still slightly shocked. The others stood there watching the two as they reacquainted themselves.
"You have pretty eyes…" Naruto informed Sasuke, grinning widely.
"Uchiha," the boy suddenly spoke up, making Naruto recoil and back away quickly. His eyes were wide in fear at the cold tone in which Sasuke used to reintroduce himself with. "Sasuke."
Those clear blue eyes became even wider when he heard the name. "Uchiha… Sasuke?" Naruto repeated, his hand once again coming up to point at Sasuke. His mouth opened to say something, but before anything came out, everyone watched in horror as his eyes rolled back and he fainted.
"Naruto!"
---
Tsunade shook her head slowly and stepped away from Naruto's bed, pulling up the covers again. "He's lost too much blood. That's why he's having all these fainting spells. He shouldn't have been up in the first place…"
"When will he be able to get out of the hospital?" Sai asked softly.
All of them stood patiently in the room. Naruto had been carried back into his bed after he fainted.
The Hokage shrugged. "For a normal person, I'd say at least a week or two. But because Naruto has Kyuubi inside of him, I'm not sure. If he is lucky, he can get out in three days… However…" There it was again. That word. Everyone tensed up when she said that word, for whenever it was spoken, it usually bore ill news.
Brown eyes swept through the small room as she hesitated to continue with her sentence. "Because of his state right now, I cannot release him until a temporary guardian is given to him… But we also have to try and make him regain his memories… I've heard that provoking memories is best done with people that the victim has interacted with a lot, but I'm not sure… I can only heal physical injuries…"
Sasuke, Sai, and Sakura looked at each other silently. There was a short wordless exchanging of ideas and words between them before Sakura spoke up.
"We'll take care of him. Alternately. We will take on the responsibility of taking care of Naruto until further notice, Tsunade-sama."
"Yes, I'm sure we are capable of taking care of him. Besides, he might be able to remember things more quickly if we were to be with him all the time," Sai pointed out helpfully.
"All of you are still not above the legal age to even be a guardian! You can't even take care of yourselves, much less a boy with—"
"We'll be fine…" Sasuke's sentence was not a "Don't worry about us, we'll be okay" kind of a sentence. It was more of a "Let us take care of him, or I'll become Konoha's second Itachi" sentence.
Once again, Tsunade sighed. "Nothing is settled until Naruto wakes up and we discuss it with him…"
Both Sai and Sakura looked over at the brooding boy and gave him small grateful smiles.
Everyone's attention shifted again when the lump on the bed moved. Sleepy, azure eyes opened and looked up at the ceiling before they slowly wandered over to his guests.
"Eh? Ah… What happened? Why is Naruto in the bed again? Wasn't Naruto outside…?"
"You fainted," the Hokage provided. She gave him a half-hearted smile. He grinned back.
Sai nudge Sakura forward a bit toward Naruto's bed. All of the blonde's attention focused onto the kunoichi. He sat up and smiled at her.
The girl sat on the edge of the bed and stayed silent for a bit before speaking up. "Naruto? How would you like it if you stayed with the three of us for a while?" she gestured to Sai, Sasuke, and herself. "We'll take care of you until you're all better! Would you like that?"
"Yeah, yeah! Sakura-chan is so nice, Sai seems kind as well! I'd love to stay with… you… guys…" His enthusiasm suddenly faded as he remembered Sasuke. He frowned and looked over at Sasuke worriedly.
The Uchiha's gaze went from the floor to Naruto's frightened eyes. He got the message. "I'll be outside for a while if anyone needs me…" he said quietly and exited the room. He leaned on the wall outside of the room, eavesdropping in on the conversation inside.
"… But Sasuke's such a meanie head!" Sasuke heard Naruto whine.
Even he, who was so terribly stoic and unemotional, had to roll his eyes at the blonde's choice of words, though he knew that Naruto had the mental age of a seven year old.
"Naruto," Sakura's patient voice this time, "don't you remember that everyone's different now? We've all grown up. He's changed…"
"B-but, still, Sakura-chan!"
"Come on, Naruto. It won't kill you. Maybe you'll find out that he's even nice that you think! He won't kill you," Sai cheerfully added.
Sasuke cringed at Sai's last sentence. His thoughts momentarily settled onto darker memories before he brushed them away quickly and continued to listen.
"Fine…" Naruto grudgingly agreed. "But if he's mean to me—"
"He won't be," Sakura and Sai chorused together.
"We'd better get him back in here then…" Tsunade said, walking over to the door.
The Uchiha shifted slightly so that it wouldn't appear like he was listening, but he knew that it was pointless. Everyone except Naruto would notice his suspicious position by the room.
When the door opened and Tsunade gestured to him, Sasuke reentered the room. "Has it been decided yet?" he asked curtly, making Naruto bite his lip a bit and cringe.
The pink haired girl nodded. "Yes. He'll stay with Sai first, then me, and on the third day, he'll stay with you. We'll keep shuttling him back and forth unless there is a problem with that. Are you okay with the schedule we set up?"
He shrugged. "It's fine." Something made him want to say as little as possible right now. Sasuke could feel Naruto scrutinizing him again. He didn't look back at him, in fear that he might frighten the boy again.
Suddenly, Sasuke looked up. Straight back into Naruto's strong gaze. He didn't look away. They silently examined each other. Everyone else in the room was starting to get uneasy.
Sasuke smiled.
---
"Here you go, Naruto!" Sai thrusted a small bunch of flowers under Naruto's nose. The blonde beamed at him gratefully. "Do you like them?"
"I really like it! Thank you, Sai!" Naruto, now reverted back into more sophisticated speech, took the flowers and poked at the slightly damp petals. Sai stood off to the side, watching the boy.
"Gee, Sai! Look, they're all out of order! Let me see them, Naruto?" Sakura glanced at the haphazardly thrown together bouquet and took them from Naruto's clutch. She returned them a few minutes later, completely rearranged so that each flower complimented the ones next to it.
Blue eyes looked them over again and he grinned at his pink haired friend. "Thanks, Sakura-chan!"
She giggled before backing away from the bench where they were at when Sasuke started to walk up to him. Immediately, Naruto's grip on the flowers tightened slightly. He gazed at the dark haired boy apprehensively.
The Uchiha crouched in front of the bench, allowing Naruto to look down at him. "Are you thirsty?" he asked in a surprisingly gentle voice. Sai and Sakura exchanged slightly shocked looks.
"N-no…" Unconsciously, Naruto shrank back until he was leaning on the back of the bench. A serene wind passed by the four of them and made a leaf fall down onto Naruto's blonde hair.
Sasuke stood up slowly, picked off the leaf, and turned away. "Good," he said, discarding the leaf onto the floor. "Because there was only enough for one more drink. And I'm thirsty…" Just to prove his point, Sasuke took a swing from the water container he was holding onto.
The two bystanders both wore an identical "Oh… That's why" face before covering their mouths so that Naruto wouldn't get offended by their giggling.
The whiskered-face boy opened his mouth and a squeak of indignation came out. "You— Eh! Sasuke—"
"What do you want… dobe?" Sasuke turned around and looked at him with an impassive face.
Uwah, I can't think of an insult for him right now! Naruto thought frantically. His face went blank for a few seconds.
--Memory Flashback--
Oh, wow! Today was the day when everyone was going to be put into teams, wasn't it? Man, Naruto was so excited for this day! He was hoping that maybe he would be able to get into Sakura's team.
"Team Seven…" Iruka read out from the list, looking up momentarily. "Haruno Sakura…"
The pink haired girl brightened. Ah, this was her team now!
"Uzumaki Naruto," he continued.
Naruto shot up from his seat. Lucky! How lucky! Sakura, in contrast, slumped down on her desk dejectedly.
Iruka cleared his throat the get their attentions again. "And… Uchiha Sasuke…"
What? Why him! It was so unfair! Naruto slammed the table.
"Iruka-sensei! You must've made a mistake!" he tried to complain, but his teacher had curtly cut him off. Humiliating him, actually.
Then that idiot spoke. What had he said again?
"Don't get in my way, dobe…" Oh… That's right. He had said it so calmly and coldly.
"T-teme!" Naruto had shouted at him, infuriated at the stupid name he was just called.
--End Flashback--
"Sasuke-teme! Don't call me that!" Naruto whined, nearly crushing Sai's gift.
The Uchiha smiled. "Now you're getting somewhere… dobe," he looked at Sai and Sakura before walking away, leaving them abruptly.
The blonde pouted for a good three seconds before he turned around to look at Sai and Sakura questioningly. "Sakura-chan, Sai… What does he mean? I don't get it…"
"Don't worry about it, Naruto," the dark haired boy replied, rubbing his head affectionately. "Tomorrow's going to be your last day in the hospital! Are you excited? I think that everyone's going to come and visit you…"
After that, Naruto began to pay less attention to what Sai was informing him about. He had remembered something, hadn't he? Right now… Huh, maybe he was going to remember things rather quickly then!
---
Naruto laughed cheerfully. He was back in the hospital bed, but indeed, today was the last day he was going to have to spend in the hospital for a while now, unless, gods forbid it!, something went wrong again.
"I hope you get better soon, Naruto-kun!" Lee flashed him a smile that literally went 'ping' and gave him the 'nice guy pose'.
"Thanks, Lee! And you guys too, Neji, Tenten! Thanks for coming here. Sorry I don't really remember who you are though…" Naruto apologized meekly to them.
"Don't worry about it, Naruto! We'll be wishing for your quick recovery, okay?" Tenten beamed at him and started for the door.
The blonde looked at Neji curiously when he only gave him a pat on the shoulder and a brief smile before leaving with the other two. Naruto waved enthusiastically at them as they left.
"Well… That should be everything…" Sakura closed the lid of the suitcase. While Team Gai was over visiting Naruto, she and Sai had been gathering up all of Naruto's few possessions that he would have to bring back and forth between their homes.
"Are you ready, Naruto?" Sai asked as he gave the room a quick look. When the blonde nodded, Sai smiled at him.
"Ne, ne… Lee sure was a bit… weird, wasn't he?" Naruto asked the two of them. Sakura laughed but Sai only silently agreed with himself.
"Lee-san has always been like that…" the kunoichi told him, lifting the suitcase off the bedside table and setting it down on the floor.
"And… And that pose he used?" Naruto imitated it, making a thumbs up sign and grinning widely. Suddenly he froze. His smile faded and his arm drooped slowly.
"N-Naruto? Are you okay?" Sakura walked over to the bed worriedly and placed her hand on his shoulder gently. That was all it took to make him snap out of it.
"Is something the matter?" Sai asked.
"Oh!" the boy shook his head vigorously. "No, I'm fine, don't worry, don't worry!" He laughed loudly to prove his point. The other two just shook their heads slightly.
"Hey, hey! Where's that Sasuke-teme at now? It's my last day in here! See, Sakura-chan! I told you he was a meanie! You wouldn't listen to me though! He's probably going to make fun of me or something when I'm over at his place…"
And so, the day slowly ended with the amnesia-stricken boy's voice floating amiably down the halls of the quiet hospital. Tomorrow he would go to Sai's house. And all of us can only wonder if he'll learn anything from his trips…
The sky was stained with a cacophony of red hues and orange strands, much similar to Naruto's hair. Dark blues and purples bled across the sky like water on a piece of paper. The sun yawned and finally went down, leaving darkness in his wake. And later, the moon would wake up and provide her soft rays to everyone else.
Tomorrow Naruto would be at Sai's house… And the day after at Sakura's… On the third, it would be Sasuke's turn to take care of the boy. But where was he anyway?