A/N: It's chapter 2 already… man, that's the fastest I've ever updated… I think. ^.^ Thank you guys for reading, extra thanks to my reviewers. You guys make this fun and rock my world as ever. Tons of love!

My anonymous readers: randomness- Thank you so much! Happy you enjoyed it and here's the update. ^.^ Kakashi's Dog- Look at you, still without an account. ;-) I AM working on the oneshot- honest. It's just exhausting having a mind that can't do short. This is a story I wanted to write but also a good exercise.. I hope. I'm glad you like it! Toi&moi- Yeah, this is my second cliffhanger in… any story. LOL Here's the update, hope it was soon enough. :o)

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't waste money suing.

The Sun and the Rainfall

It's not Me

No one could fathom the experience of waking to nothingness. Opening eyes that might have been closed forever before that moment, moving muscles that he had no recollection of ever having used before. That body of his, that he did not recognize, was punishing him for a transgression he did not recall, aching all over- inside and out- yet somehow he knew that it wasn't the worst he'd ever felt, knew that it wasn't a pain he'd allow himself to complain about. It wasn't clairvoyance, just an innate awareness of how to cope with each painful move. Useless… All of it, useless certainties and unusable information that did nothing to alleviate the panic that he was trying so hard to bridle.

The only thing that had felt remotely less than absolutely alarming had been that warm hand that had closed around his shoulder, that tan face that had stared down at him with open concern. That same face had contorted to an expression of panic that almost mirrored his own when he had finally managed to find his voice. The boy's body seemed to have become suspended in a state of shock. The tan that had squeezed his shoulder with undemanding familiarity, now felt numb and lifeless by his neck, those blue eyes stared at him through a veil of dread.

Who are you?

It was a simple enough and perfectly honest question, but its vast impact on the blonde, whose hand hadn't moved from his shoulder, made him feel naïve. And guilty for some reason. His eyes moved to the older woman and the pink haired girl, both of whom were staring at him as though as he had popped a second head. What did that reaction mean? Why was everyone so quiet and tense? Who were those people?

The sickening silence made the room too thick to breathe, creating the perfect conditions of anxiety that would make his already bad case of nausea peek, and he suddenly turned to his side, emptying the contents of his stomach on the floor. That was precious now, wasn't it? His hand curls around the bed railing, trembling slightly as he tried to support his weight. It took him a moment to realize that the blonde had reached over, around his chest with his other hand, steadying him. The near-embrace he was finding himself encircled in was not at all intrusive, quite welcome and it thoroughly confused him.

Who are you? His mind asked again as he looked up at those cobalt eyes that seemed guarded now. Without thinking he cupped the hand on his chest with his own- and withdrew it as quickly. What the hell..? "…Thanks." He said uncertainly.

"Try to breathe." The blonde said quietly, his poise not betraying anything about what he thought of his actions. He turned to the woman who was already walking over to join them. "Baa-chan..?"

"Aah… It could be a side-effect of the jutsu." She said an almost clinical tone, leaning in to check his eye movement, then called over her shoulder. "Sakura, go get someone to clean this mess."

"Hai…" the girl responded uncertainly, eyes darting to the blonde boy, before exiting the room hurriedly.

The woman picked up a thin stick and moved it within his field of vision. "Follow this." She instructed.

Left. Right. That was easy enough. Left. Right. Or it should have been, but he noticed that the other boy had not let go of him. Left. Left… He noticed that there was some sort of comfortable heat emanating from the stranger's body, almost curled against felt cared all messed with his reflexes quite thoroughly, as he didn't know what to make of what his body was telling him. Damn.

The woman probably noticed how his eyes kept flickering between the stick and the side of the other boy's face- on his left- because she paused. "I'll need the room, Naruto." She said a little more softly.

The blonde nodded and took a step back to leave the room- the warm arm retracting, the warm hand falling off his shoulder. He caught that hand, without thinking- again. It felt familiar. Had he done this in the past? The blonde looked at him curiously- and maybe hopefully. Who was that guy?

In that moment that question became more important than who he was. "Who are you?" he heard himself repeat, feeling his brows crease with an emotion he could not explain. He felt as though as he was missing something important. More than his name, more than his life.

The question crushed whatever hope had shined in those eyes. "My name is Naruto." He replied resignedly.

Like the girl had done before, now the older woman's eyes watched the blonde with concern and sympathy. "Naruto is your friend and teammate." She said.

That didn't sound right. It sounded true, but it was wrong somehow- inaccurate. And the blonde seemed to really want to get out of that room right about then. "Naruto…" he rolled the name in his mouth and found that just saying it gave him a form of relief. Who was that guy? Just hearing it had made the other boy close his eyes for a moment, then yank his hand away and moved away in heavy steps. "What is my name?"

Naruto paused at the door, but didn't turn around. "Sasuke." He said after a moment in a quiet voice. "You are Sasuke."

You are. Not 'your name is', it wasn't just a name. Sasuke. Just like that he had a name. Just like that he had been brought into existence. Naruto had made him real.

The older woman sighed as the door closed. "So… Sasuke." She started, retrieving a notepad from the nightstand beside his bed and calling his attention to her. "What is the last thing you remember?"

He frowned again, attempting to focus on answering her question. "I'm not sure… I-" then a bright light was flashed into his sensitive eyes. "Hey! Do you mind?"

The women ignored him as she scribbled down. "Pupil dilation supports that there's no actual neurological damage." She said mostly to herself.

"Maybe that was the case before you shoved that flashlight in my face." He said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

The woman looked up from her notes with a wry smile. "Well, your charming personality seems to be intact too. Kami help us."

Sasuke couldn't tell if she was joking. "And you would be…?"

"Tsunade. Your doctor and Hokage… leader of this Village. Konoha." She said somewhat distractedly as she fished for something in a drawer. "Ah, here it is." She smiled threw a kunai at him that he caught with surprising ease. "Reflexes are fine too."

"What the hell is your problem?!" he roared, pissed off, as he pointed the kunai at her. "You could have killed me."

"Could I have?" she arched an amused brow. "Your body language is unchanged even as your memories have been suppressed. I am quite confident that your skills are all there for you."

"How is that even possible?" he asked, intrigued in spite of himself. "I don't remember anything."

Tsunade set down her notes and faced him. "The body has its own memories. You've intercepted projectiles countless times in the past- your body just reacted. Same thing with people. You'll know who is close to you."

His mind conjured up the image of the pink haired girl. Then the blonde. His body had reacted to him. What kind of memories had Naruto engraved in it to stir such an immediate reaction? "What happened to me?" he asked. "Why can't I remember anything?"

"You were attacked." She started to explain. "The person who attacked you affected your mind using a technique that I'm unfamiliar with. The plan is to research and reverse it."

Sasuke studied the sharp blade in his hands. "I see… What about my memories?"

She sighed. "As far as I can tell everything should be in there. There is no known jutsu that would erase someone's mind without leaving them in a vegetated state." Her eyes darkened as though she had seen that case in the past. "You should count yourself lucky… such people need to relearn everything from scratch- speak, walk… and they are never the same."

However grim the compared case, it didn't make him feel very thankful for his situation. "So how do I get my memories back?"

"That will be slightly more tricky…" she rested her fingers on her chin pensively. "I didn't expect you to wake up so soon… In fact, I had considered the possibility that you might not wake up at all."

Sasuke arched a brow. "I'm missing the downside to this."

"The shinobi who did this to you was strong enough to get to you, which means he got through your Sharingan…" there was an umdertone of incredulity in her voice. "That means that the jutsus was strong- stronger than the damage accounts for."

He remained quiet this time, because it appeared that the woman was simply thinking aloud again and he didn't want to interrupt any helpful train of thought. Nevermind that he had no idea what that Sharingan was. Nevermind that being amnesiac could possibly be considered a small price to pay.

"There is another possibility. That the jutsu involved some form of geas." The frown over her eyes deepened. "Which would mean that if you did something that went against the sealing, there could be a secondary effect to this." Tsunade picked up her notes, flipping pages, her honey-colored eyes searching for something. "The most obvious trap would be letting someone else tell you about your past." Apparently, what she was looking for wasn't there, because she set the notes down again with a grim expression. "I could be wrong. There's no way to know until I am done with my research, but best be safe."

That was all nice and well, but about as useless as his certainties and all his observations. None of that helped him. "So, what do I do?" he asked hoping he didn't sound as vulnerable as he felt.

Tsunade gave him a sympathetic smile. "Spend time with people…. See if the memories surface on their own." She breathed in deeply, then rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly. "You'll need a guide…"

Words fell off his mouth before they had registered in his mouth. "What about… Naruto." He blurted.

Golden brows arched in surprise and then a small smile curved her lips. "Your instincts are also working fine, it seems."

And didn't that sound suspicious… "What is that supposed to mean?"

She shook her head. "Nothing bad, brat. You might actually get a kick out of this moment when you get your memory back." She sighed. "You'll need to rely on your instincts, not your reason or things you hear."

Not his reason? That woman could not be in her right mind. If not for his reason what did he have to go by? Did she even know how dangerous it was to rely on blind instinct without experience to temper it? He had no memories, but that was common sense. "Don't you mean if I get my memory back?"

The question made her sympathetic smile waver- just a little, but he caught it. For all her comforting talk, she wasn't sure. "I'll get Naruto." She reached into the drawer and took out something else. "In the meantime, maybe you could use this."

What she handed him was a small mirror, which made him realize that he had no idea what he looked like. Sasuke's eyes followed her until she exited the room, before he brought the mirror up and stared at the face. A young man looked back, pale with black raven hair and charcoal eyes, whose name was Sasuke.

It felt as though as he had been holding his breath, because he exhaled raggedly soon as he attained the transient privacy of the hospital room, his warm breath blurring his image. Everything seemed surreal- nothing was quite unfamiliar but at the same time nothing was anything he could recall. His mind was blank and the only thing he knew for certain was that he felt naked and defenseless. Someone had wiped away the book of his life and left him hollow and bewildered.

It was impossible to grasp for who he might have actually been, but he knew- knew deep inside- that this overwhelmed mass of flesh lying on the bed, quivering with shivers from emotions he could not name, was not him. He wasn't weak like that, he wasn't lost, he wasn't helpless.

Slowly the shivers subsided, as much because he was too proud and stubborn- that much he did know- to allow anyone to witness that moment that his strength was failing him, as because his mind had found a frail pivot for itself. He knew who he wasn't and very soon he'd have a guide to was- one that seemed to be a very important piece of the puzzle that was currently his own self.

Why did he think that?

The image of the blonde flashed behind his eyes- his first real memory- and he took his time recalling the look on his face, the sound of his voice. There was honest strong emotion in those eyes when he had looked at him. Even though it was practically the first time he could remember setting eyes on him, the emotions beckoned to something inside him that had responded eagerly, making his heart beat faster, his chest feel heavier. It made no sense to him, but there was something there that he couldn't exactly pin down- a certain feeling of urgency about… what? Why did he feel that he was falling short in something important?

He lay back on the bed, trying to even his breath. The image of the blonde swam in his mind spreading an oddly calming effect through his body- almost as though as he was not alone.

Naruto…

And so ends chapter 2. Yes, I still have the habit of naming my chapters and it will come back to chomp at my butt later on, I know it. I hope you wonderful people are enjoying it and will try to update promptly.

Ja!

M.