Chapter Two

It had been three days since the sand siblings took the mentally-5 Uchiha Sasuke under their wing. When they finally reached Konoha by the end of the third day Kankuro was ready to brutally murder someone with his puppets, Gaara was desperately wishing to have the Shukaku back despite the awful things it had done to him, and Temari wanted to blow Sasuke to pieces with her fan but couldn't because apparently she reminded Sasuke of his mother and he clung to her like glue. She couldn't reach her fan if she'd needed to.

As they neared the village outskirts at sundown Gaara broke off from the others. "I'm going to find Uzumaki Naruto and we can let him deal with the boy." He told them. Then he disappeared into the village, leaving his siblings to deal with Sasuke.

"I hate you," Kankuro growled under his breath as his younger brother leapt away. Temari reached out her only free hand—too busy keeping track of Sasuke with the other—and tugged on Kankuro's sleeve.

"Be nice, Kankuro. We don't want to say anything to upset…" She nodded her head towards Sasuke. "He's clingy enough as it is. He'll be worse if you make him cry."

Sasuke sniffled and snuggled closer to Temari. "Listen to your big sister, Uncle Kankuro." Sasuke whimpered. "Be nice to Uncle Gaara."

Temari flinched as Sasuke shifted closer—like a frightened little child—and glared at her brother as he started to laugh at her. Kankuro continued to snicker. "Shut up…" She mouthed so that Sasuke couldn't hear.

It wasn't until several minutes later that Gaara returned, Naruto trailing close behind him. "Sasuke-kun?" He cried upon seeing the Uchiha boy. "Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke flinched at the sight of an orange-clad ninja sprinting towards him, shouting out his name, and hid behind Temari. "Mum," He whimpered. "Who is that man? And how does he know me?"

The sand nin's nose and eyebrows twitched. She couldn't take it anymore. "I…AM…NOT…YOUR….MOTHER!" She shouted, sending Sasuke leaping away from her in shock. Noticing his terrified face and his large, almost tearful eyes, she continued in a softer voice. "And please, don't cling to me like that. You may be a five-year-old in your head but you definitely don't look like one."

Sasuke continued to pout but nodded his head as if he understood. "Why—why is he here?" He whimpered, pointing to Naruto. "What does he want with me?"

"What's with him?" Naruto asked bluntly before anyone could answer Sasuke. "He's not acting like…well…Sasuke."

"Something must have happened to him while he was with Orochimaru." Gaara explained. He motioned to Sasuke. "He's mentally five."

"Nani?!" Naruto cried, his eyes widening as far as they could go. He grasped the sides of his head in disbelief and tried desperately to keep from falling over in shock. "Why? How? When did this happen?!"

"We're not sure." Gaara calmly continued. "We found him in the woods like this, but unfortunately, we have other business to attend to and we have to leave him with you."

Naruto, to the surprise of everyone present, nodded calmly. "I'll take him to Kakashi-sensei. He'll know what to do." He told them. He stepped forward and knelt before the mentally-five-year-old boy that had once been his companion and held out his hand. He smiled a shockingly gentle smile and motioned for Sasuke to come to him. "It'll be ok, Sasuke-chan, I'm going to help you make everything right again."

Sasuke stepped forward hesitantly and stared at Naruto with his unusually large and innocent eyes black eyes. He glanced between the sand siblings and this orange-clad ninja for several minutes before finally taking the last few steps to Naruto's side. "You can help me find home?" He asked.

Naruto nodded solemnly. "You have my word as a ninja."

Sasuke's worried expression melted into the biggest, most innocent smile that any of them had ever seen on his face. "Let's go then! Let's go!" He took off at a sprint towards Konoha, Naruto quickly taking off after him shouting for the Uchiha boy to slow down.

"Well," Kankuro sighed. "I'm glad that's over."

His siblings merely nodded in agreement and they turned away to go about their business. "I only hope that Konoha is ready for this." Temari added with a snicker. "I pity the poor baka that he attaches himself to next."