A/N: Ah-ha… I can't believe I finished this chapter with the time used while listening to Bleach opening and ending songs… Hahah… You guys can thank Lunar Chasmodai for threatening me to work on this or else…

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"Welcome, Naruto, to my home!" Sai exclaimed as he threw the door open. He stepped aside for the boy to enter.

Naruto removed his shoes and politely said, "Excuse me for intruding…" before going inside. The first thing that he noticed in Sai's house were the walls. Each one of them were covered in pictures. Pictures of nature, people, abstract things, everything.

"Wow… Did you draw all of these, Sai?" the blonde spun around and looked at him in awe. Sai only nodded modestly. "You're so smart!" he beamed at his friend.

"Haha, don't flatter me so, Naruto… After all, you're the one who's smart… In your own way…" He lead Naruto into the living room where Naruto sat down. Sai walked over to a bookshelf and rummaged around in it.

"What are you looking for, Sai?" he asked, peering over to the boy. He began to fidget a bit on the couch. His attempt to peek over his shoulder was futile.

"This." That was all that Sai said before he returned to the couch and sat down next to Naruto. He was holding what seemed to be a picture book. "I don't think you remember… But this was the book that I drew for my brother. Or so it was for him before he died, that is. You helped me finish it."

"Me?" Naruto pointed to himself and scrutinized the book. He watched as Sai opened it to a random page.

"You were the one who made me remember the ending of the story," he continued, flipping the pages back and forth until he finally reached the center, where a dark haired boy and a white haired boy stood, smiling at the two of them.

The blonde stuck out his hands as a request to see the book. Sai obliged and handed it to him. Immediately, the boy began leafing through it. Between exclamations of "Wow, this looks cool!" and "Haha, that looks weird, Sai!" Naruto was trying to remember something.

But no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't…

"I'm so glad that you're my friend, Sai!" Naruto said after a few more minutes at looking at the book. His slender fingers were splayed on the cover as he grinned.

A smile graced the dark haired boy's face. "You taught me that as well."

"Huh?" confusion flitted over the whiskered boy's face.

"Friend." Sai simply stated. "You taught me what it meant to be a friend."

Naruto began laughing. "How could I teach you that? Everyone knows what a 'friend' is!" Amusement filled his blue eyes.

"I didn't." The smile didn't go away.

Naruto's hand grew still on the cover of the book. His smile faded and the lightheartedness that was on his face just seconds ago slid off.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to tell you again. I didn't have emotions before I met you," Sai tilted his head to one side and his smile widened. "But after meeting you, Naruto, you taught me what feelings were and what the word 'friend' really meant. You showed me what was held inside that word."

The blonde looked at him with a strange expression when Sai's hand went up and patted him on the head.

He didn't jerk away.

He didn't take away his hand.

He looked at the other worriedly.

He smiled at him.

"I was raised not to hold emotions. I didn't know what they were. I learned them from a book, and even then, I was only acting. But everyone saw through it. Every time I smiled, they scowled back at me. Every time I said something, someone became angry."

Cerulean eyes clouded over as he listened. He couldn't remember.

"You asked me, 'Do you know the word "friend"?' And I had said yes. I wrote out the word. And I asked you, 'So what?'" Sai stopped and laughed. "You became so angry at me…" Finally, he took his hand away from Naruto's head.

When Sai took away the book and stood up, Naruto looked up anxiously.

"How impolite of me. You must be tired and hungry after that trip. I'll take you out to eat tonight. Does Ichiraku sound good to you?" the dark haired boy asked while his back was still facing the blonde.

Ah. There's something that Naruto could remember. Ichiraku, hm?

"Geck!" Sai gasped when something suddenly constricted his stomach and made him fall back a bit. It took him a while to realize that Naruto was squeezing the life out of him. With a grin.

"Thanks, Sai! I can't wait, I can't wait!"

---

"Old Man!" Naruto called out enthusiastically.

"Hey! Naruto, I haven't seen you around here lately! The usual, right?" Teuchi asked and grinned when Naruto nodded.

Sai raised an eyebrow at him. "How… How can your remember him? You have amnesia…"

"Huh? What do you mean? I remember him! I've been coming to eat at Ichiraku's since I was really little!" the blonde explained as he plopped down on his usual spot.

"Mister? Do you have a picture I can see? About… Nine years ago, though?" the dark haired boy asked when the man passed by them.

"Hm? Why would you want something like that?" he stopped and leaned over the counter momentarily.

"Just… I want to see, that's all," Sai explained politely.

"Lucky you then. I always carry a picture of myself… Hold on," Teuchi went to the back of the kitchen. There was a long stretch of them which consisted of lots of clanging of pots and pans, some crashing of glass, and soft, inaudible curses. After a while, he came back out, looking a bit beat up.

"Here you go. That should be the one from nine years ago," he smiled and handed Sai a small picture.

"Eh…" That was the reaction that Teuchi received when Sai compared the picture with him. "You look exactly the same… Are you sure this is the right one?" he asked, a giant sweatdrop dripping down the side of his face.

"Yes. That's the one. See the date on the back?" the old man gestured at the picture.

When Sai turned flipped the picture around, it was indeed from nine years ago.

That's why Naruto can remember him. He doesn't look any more different… Sai contemplated. Dark lines appeared by him as he sat there in shock. He laughed awkwardly.

Teuchi picked up the picture when he returned to place down their ramen.

"Fwut's fwrong?" Naruto gurgled through a mouthful of ramen.

"Nothing, nothing…" Sai lied, eyeing his own ramen strangely.

---

"Sai! Sai! Teach me how to draw! Please?" Naruto jumped up and down, waving around a brush and scroll that he found somewhere from Sai's stack of supplies.

"Oy, hey! Give that back!" Sai frantically chased the boy around. "That's my best brush and the highest quality scroll I have! How the heck did you break through my locks and traps!?"

The blonde only laughed and made Sai run around crazily before abruptly stopping, causing the dark haired boy to crash into him and fall. Some inaudible sound gurgled from his throat as he twitched.

"Hey, Sai, are you okay?" Naruto crouched down and pursed his lips together, poking him with the blunt end of the brush.

"Rawrg!" he yelled, snatching the brush and scroll from Naruto's loose grip and bouncing up again. "Waah… My precious brush and scroll…" Sai scurried away and hid the two of his precious items away. A minute later, he scampered out again and cleared this throat. "Uh, sure, I'll teach you how to draw…"

"Yaaay!"

"No, don't hold it like that… You don't have to press that hard, Naruto…" Sai took his hand and readjusted his grip, then held it as he made gentler strokes over the paper. "See? The ink still comes out when you don't press hard enough to tear a hole in the paper and the table… And the floor…"

"Ah… I see…" Naruto squinted at the scroll. A bunch of squiggles were on the once blank page. "Haha, it doesn't look as good as your's, Sai!"

And indeed, it wasn't. Sai's scroll had an unfinished picture of Team Seven on it. The faces weren't drawn in, but everyone was clearly drawn so that you could easily tell who as who.

"You'll get there eventually, Naruto…" he assured, allowing his ink to dry and looking over to examine the blonde's drawing. "Sha-Sharingan?" he stuttered.

That was what was on Naruto's scroll. Sharingan. Three circles with tails, so to speak. Naruto had rolled up the previous scribbles he had and started anew. The first thing he drew was the Sharingan.

"Sha. Rin. Gan?" he repeated, looking up curiously. "What's that? Is it tasty? Or is it like medicine?" Naruto grinned.

"Ah… Eh, you don't remember though?" Sai couldn't help but to laugh at him. "You drew Sharingan. A bloodline limit."

"Bloodline limit, huh?" his blue eyes misted over before clearing out again. "Nope! I don't remember!"

Sai's rare laughter filled the room as he patted Naruto affectionately on the head. Though Naruto didn't know what was happening, he joined in on the jovial laughing.

---

"Are you tired?" Sai asked quietly as they sat down on the couch. He had not turned on any lights. They just sat there in the darkness. The dark haired boy sensed that Naruto had shaken his head. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"… Something's wrong."

"Nothing…"

Sai gave up and stood up, sighing a bit. "I'll get a spare futon for you…"

Naruto nodded again.

After some brief poking around, Sai was able to find a spare futon and a blanket. Deliberately slowly, he smoothed out the futon and carefully spread the blanket on top. He threw down a pillow onto it.

Naruto wasn't acting right. Was it because of his amnesia? For one whose mental age was seven, he was awfully listless.

"Naruto!" he called, sticking his head out of the room. He was knocked down by an overly hyper blonde kid.

Never mind having to worry about his well being… Sai coughed and sat up, pushing the boy off of him. "I set up your sleeping area," he gasped, standing up clumsily.

"Haha, sorry about that, Sai. I really like going to bed…"

More like you really like knocking people down and nearly killing them… he thought to himself, laughing lightly. "Okay, Naruto… Bed time now…" He shuffled over to his bed and pulled back the covers.

The blonde squirmed under the covers and smoothed them out after making a giant ruckus. He flopped and turned for a good length of time before settling down.

Sai could feel his eyebrows twitch as he listened to the cloth rubbing together as Naruto turned and rolled and shifted about. "N-Naruto…?"

"Eh, Sai? What is it?" Naruto asked, his voice muffled by the blanket he was using to cover his head with.

"Shut up and sleep already."