Chapter 3

"Naruto-kun?" Sasuke's unusually small and innocent voice called as he trailed Naruto through the streets of Konoha. "Where are we going? This isn't the way to my house. I want to see my mom and dad."

"Um, we'll go there soon." Naruto told him, not ready to reveal to the mentally-five boy that his entire clan was dead. "I have to go see my sensei first. He'll want to...um…meet you."

Sasuke nodded and became silent. He didn't speak again until Naruto stopped short in the middle of the street without warning. Sasuke stumbled into Naruto's back and they both tumbled to the ground. Someone laughed from the tree branches above them. Sasuke shuddered and curled into a ball on the ground, unsure of what to expect. "N-Naruto-kun…what's going on?"

Naruto sat up and dusted himself. He saw Sasuke huddled on the ground beside him, trembling in fear, and couldn't help but laugh himself. "Sasuke-chan, get up. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Sasuke immediately stopped his shaking and peered up past Naruto and into the trees. The man who'd been laughing at them stood on one of the low branches with a bright orange book clasped in one hand. He still snickered slightly. As Sasuke watched he leapt out of the tree and landed on his feet in front of them. "W-who are you?!" Sasuke cried. He eyed the man in suspicion.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto laughed before anyone could answer. He stood to greet the man. "I've been looking all over for you. Sasuke's back, you see, but—."

"He's not himself…" Kakashi mused as he looked Sasuke over and pulled the boy to his feet. "I'd say that Orochimaru's jutsu backfired and, well, Sasuke is now mentally a child again."

Naruto raised an eyebrow in shock. "Five, actually." He clarified, rather perturbed that Kakashi had figured that out all on his own. Kakashi circled Sasuke and motioned for Naruto to continue. Naruto recounted the story that he'd heard from the sand siblings and then asked, "So, what do we do with him?"

"Look after him, of course. You will be the first to keep an eye on him…consider it training." Kakashi responded. Naruto cringed. Kakashi clapped him on the shoulder and added. "You might want to start now—there he goes."

"Nani?!" Naruto cried. He whirled around and saw Sasuke's back disappearing down the street. He was headed towards the Uchiha clan's compound. "Kuso!"

Kakashi laughed and Naruto took off at a sprint down the street screaming at the top of his lungs for the Uchiha boy to stop. Sasuke, of course, didn't listen. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him which, considering he was still physically a fifteen-year-old, was faster than Naruto would have liked. The chase continued until Sasuke reached the gates of the Uchiha compound and skidded to a halt.

The gates were boarded up. Sasuke stared at them in disbelief for a few moments, allowing Naruto time to catch up. The raven-haired boy was running his hand over the splintery wood that kept him from his house when Naruto finally stopped beside him. "What happened?" Sasuke questioned. His voice was small: somewhere in between sadness and disbelief. "Why are the gates closed?"

For a moment Naruto was unsure of how to answer. He didn't want to remind his friend that the entire Uchiha clan save him was killed off by Itachi, but he didn't want to lie either. With a slight cringe of guilt, Naruto placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "It's been like this for a while, Sasuke-chan. I don't expect you to remember what happened—you were…younger then." It wasn't exactly a lie. Sasuke's family had been murdered while he was still a child. However, Sasuke now thought he was five. Telling him the truth would not only confuse, but devastate him.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked again. Apparently he'd not been satisfied with Naruto's answer. He crossed his arms across his chest and stood before the gate with a pout on his face. Naruto cringed again. There wasn't going to be an easy way out of this.

"Come on then," Naruto sighed. With a burst of chakra in his hands, he ripped one of the boards away from the door. A few pieces of shattered wood later, Sasuke and Naruto were able to crawl through a small opening and into a section of Konoha that no living soul had visited in years. Naruto shivered as an unexplainable chill ran up his spine. The deserted Uchiha compound was an eerie place.

Sasuke smiled at Naruto once both of them were inside. Then without warning he took off again, running steadily towards his house. Once again Naruto chased after him, trying desperately to ignore the broken-down buildings and the years-old bloodstains that no one had bothered to clean. He shivered again and ran faster. Finally he was running so fast that he nearly bowled Sasuke over when the boy stopped in front of him. Digging his heels into the dry dirt of the pathway, he managed to stop just in time.

"It's real quiet." Sasuke commented as he took a hesitant step towards the house that Naruto could only guess must have been his childhood home. The Uchiha boy's hand hesitated on the handle. Naruto swallowed hard, but could only stare as Sasuke finally brought himself to slide the door open. Both boys stepped through the threshold simultaneously and the ghostly stillness of the house made their breath catch in their throats.

Sasuke recovered first. He slipped off his shoes in the doorway and stepped into the darkness of the hallway. Naruto followed him cautiously. They walked down the hallway towards the living room and kitchen, their footsteps echoing off the aged walls. Sasuke quickly searched these rooms and all of the others on the first floor. He hesitated at the foot of the stairs. "I'm scared, Naruto-kun." He whimpered. His eyes were large with fear. "It's never been this quiet. Where is everyone? Where are Mom and Dad? And Itachi, too, where's he?"

"I-I don't know where they are," Naruto lied, unable to bring himself to tell the boy the truth. "I haven't seen them around here for a while. M-maybe they're all out looking for you."

Sasuke's face brightened and he hurried back to the entryway to put his shoes on. "Let's go find them then!" He exclaimed. "If we go find them and let them know I'm ok then everything will be back to normal!"

Sasuke—his shoes now on his feet—ran out of the house and waited impatiently for Naruto to follow. Putting his shoes on at a slower pace than Sasuke had, Naruto stepped out of the house and shut the door behind him. He placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "I think it would make more sense if we stayed here in Konoha and waited." He told his friend. "It would make more sense. What if we went out to look for them and they came back while we were gone? They would be even more worried. If we wait here we can go to them as soon as they come back, ok?"

"Ok!" Sasuke replied cheerily. "But I want to stay with you!"

Naruto tried to smile, feeling bad that he'd planted a false hope in Sasuke's mind. "Alright, you can stay with me." He said finally. Letting Sasuke stay with him was the least he could do for getting the boy's hopes up. "Come on, let's go back to my place and we can have some ramen."

"I like ramen." Sasuke informed Naruto. He walked in front of the blonde ninja as they made their way to the gates. He began to walk circles around his 'new' friend out of sheer boredom and in the process listed some other foods he was fond of. "And Yakitori and Okonomiyaki and Miso, but my favorite is—."

Sasuke stopped short in both his words and his walking. Naruto noticed his wide-eyed, frightened expression, but couldn't seem to find what had caused this reaction. "What's the matter, Sasuke-chan?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shot backwards with a gasp and stumbled into Naruto. He seemed not to hear the question at all. "Do you see them? Look! Look!" He cried. Naruto followed his gaze but saw nothing. He looked at Sasuke in confusion. The boy cried out again. "No! Don't come any closer! No!"

Naruto caught him as he staggered backwards again and almost fell. Sasuke was shaking and still staring down the empty street. Naruto shook him. Sasuke jumped in surprise when he felt Naruto's hands on his shoulder, but his shaking stopped. He blinked several times. "Where did they go?" He asked, his voice still sounding shaken.

"Where did who go?" Naruto questioned. This was very confusing. "I didn't see anyone. What did you see, Sasuke-chan?"

Sasuke stared at Naruto, his eyes still wide and tremulous. "I-I saw dead people." He stammered. "Like ghosts! They were coming towards me, but they called me Itachi. They wanted to hurt my Itachi!"

Naruto was speechless. Could Sasuke have seen the ghosts of his clan, He wondered, haunting the streets of the Uchiha compound waiting for Itachi to return? Sasuke stared at Naruto for a few seconds longer before letting out a very un-Sasuke-like sob and burying his face in the shoulder of Naruto's jacket. This shocked the orange-clad ninja even more. Hesitantly he put an arm around Sasuke and patted his back, trying to get over the awkward feeling that he was hugging, well, Sasuke. "It's ok, they're gone now, right?" He comforted. He gently pried Sasuke off his shoulder and led him out of the compound as quickly as possible. "Now, how about that ramen?"