A/N: Hey mina-san! This is chapter 6. It's taken me a while longer to finish it because rl has me running at this time… Still I tried to finish it reasonably fast. Thank you all for reading, tons of extra thanks and love to my reviewers! I know I say this every time, but it's always heartfelt.

My anon. readers: Kakashi's Dog – You are TOO kind! … sometimes. ;-) Honestly thank you. You have been around and supporting my work since the beginning and I really appreciate that. Smooches! CuppyKate – Thank you! ^.^ I hope you get a kick out of this one and that I keep it interesting for you. ;-)

Disclaimer: I don't own, but am willing to have a little chat with Kishimoto with regards to the direction of his latest chapters. After that, maybe I will own. ;-)

The Sun and the Rainfall

Bigger Than My Body

Pain…

Something inside his chest was pulsating unbearably and each breath drew through him like broken glass, slithering its way past his lips. They felt almost parched and, impulsively, he licked them, same way as a man thirsty for water under the blazing sun might have- but no water could quench his thirst. No balm could abreact what had occurred. It wasn't just his heart, his whole body hurt- his lungs hurt, his stomach hurt, every muscle in his body was stretching in excruciating tension. His eyes felt dry since he had stopped crying.

"Here."

He lifted his eyes to the source of the gentle voice. The blonde stood there holding out a cup of tea for him. It was still a mystery, how they had returned to this room- his room. The way he had felt in that hell of a room, he hadn't thought that his body could move, caught in the gravity of that heartbreaking emotion. He briefly wondered if the other boy had bothered to lock the door behind them, lest whatever beast he had unleashed might chase after him. Nonsense…

"Sasuke…" the blonde called for his attention.

Oh, right. The cup. It was embarrassing how his hands still shook as he retrieved the small porcelain article- or maybe artifact was a better word for it. It looked pristine, but there was definite traces of the artistic strains the intricate patterns that adorned its surface. The warmth that emanated from the hot liquid spread through him and made his cold hands ache a little, due to the sharp contrast in temperature. He idly wondered if his hands had always been that cold. The sweet, flowery scent of the tea climbed up his nostrils, soothing and vaguely familiar.

Something warm and fuzzy draped around his shoulders. It was the hideous orange robe- which was still hideous, of course, but very much welcome. He looked at the other boy questioningly.

"You were shivering." He informed him.

Was he? He hadn't realized it- other than the pain inside, he felt pretty numb- but nodded, accepting the other boy's word as fact.

Naruto stood there idly for a few moments, then settled next to him. "What happened in there?" he asked, not without hesitation.

What had happened in there? His mind was reeling with images of carnage and his heart had almost caved in. The emotion that had enfolded him in its prickly embrace had been terrible- it had been enough to make him wonder if he really did want his memories back. Maybe he could simply start over- clean slate, empty and able to fill his mind with different things than what he had experienced the first time. How many people even had that option? Maybe he had been blessed with a second chance and didn't even realize it.

"The man and the woman in that picture…" he started, surprising himself that he could find his voice. The sound juddering his vocal chords, raw from that grief-stricken scream, made his throat hurt. "… they were killed in that room."

A nod, lips thinning and jaw setting. "Yeah… yeah, they were." He offered tightly.

"Those people…", he tried for a semblance of level tone, "… were they my parents?"

The blonde nodded again. "Yes. Your father was Uchiha Fugaku and your mom's name was Mikoto."

It was a little unexpected that he had been presented with that information, but he figured that the other boy was really worried and could probably appreciate the significance of this situation. How much did he know? The way that his voice had assumed that gentle tone could only mean that he understood- perhaps not everything about him, but a lot. The way he had held him in that room betrayed closeness and a familiarity that he wanted to recall. It was unfair that he couldn't have one without the other- unfair that he had been reduced to a defenseless child and everything was a surprise. He couldn't stand it. He could barely stand himself.

But… It was because he had experienced a feeling of safety in those arms, even as he had been free-falling into the depths of that private hell, that he found the courage to utter his next words. "Did I kill them?"

The reaction he got was one of unadulterated bewilderment- for which he was grateful, because it served to answer his question wordlessly and instantly. "No- Sasuke, no, you could never-" the other boy paused and took a deep breath. "Why would you even ask such a thing?"

"I was there…" he said, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment, as if that would block the images unfolding behind his eyelids, wishing he could make it all go away again- push it back to the furthest reaches of his mind. "I felt… it wasn't just the grief… there was panic and confusion." He frowned mostly thinking aloud than confiding. "As though something about it was… impossible. Something was…"

Though his voice had trailed off in mid sentence, he noticed that Naruto made no effort to probe any further. Instead he set a tan hand on his shoulder- very much the way he had back at the hospital. It was a few hours ago, but time had stretched impossibly. "You loved your parents. With all your heart."

Sasuke breathed deeply and took another sip of his tea. It was unexpectedly good. "What about my brother?" he asked then and something about the question felt unsettling- a ghost of another kind of emotion that he didn't try to explore.

Apparently, the other boy shared his outlook on the matter, because his features clouded. "Your brother…?" he asked as though unclear about what he was being asked.

"There was another guy in the picture." he said, setting his cup down on the nightstand. "Judging by the family resemblance, I assumed it was my brother."

After a moment he nodded. "… Yeah. That's your brother."

Something was quite loaded in this discussion and he couldn't put his finger on it, but this amount of hesitation was getting just about ridiculous and only served to crumble his previous apprehension. This was important, he could tell, so he he wanted to know- he deserved to know. "So…?"

This time Naruto sighed. "You admired and loved your brother throughout your childhood."

And wasn't that a pretty strange use of past tense. "Is he dead?"

The blonde wasn't looking at him anymore. He interlaced his fingers and rested his elbows on his thighs, absentmindedly rubbing his thumbs together. "… Yeah."

Sasuke watched him under a frown that only deepened the more questions he had to ask. "Did he die that day as well?"

"No." he supplied, even more crisply this time.

What had been frustration up until then took a sharp turn to irritation. This nitpicking was, at the very least, galling- because this wasn't a quiz, it was his life. His empty life that had abruptly been flooded with dread and misery. "If this is about that woman's orders, I don't want to hear it." He said quite tersely. "This is too important and I want answers. I expect answers." Red hot anger flared inside him, melting away at the numbing cold sensation that had overwhelmed him. "This is no longer an experiment- it felt like I was losing my mind in there!"

The blonde's gaze was still downcast. He did not try to justify his attitude or that woman's orders, but all the same he was not giving in either. Sasuke knew- knew in his gut, beyond any doubt- that the tan boy sympathized with him and even agreed with his point, but the way his features had set, the way his golden brows had mingled into a frown, was informing him in no uncertain terms that he would stick to his orders.

That only served to further exasperate him. "Who am I?" this time he demanded. "My mind is full of images and emotions that don't match. What am I?"

After a long moment, Naruto finally turned to him and placed a hand over his lips, in a startlingly resolute gesture. "You are Uchiha Sasuke." He said softly. "And you are very important to me."

The choice of words made his eyes widen and drained all the fight out of him. He stared at the blonde, who looked back a little nervously, but emanating a quiet determination to not take his words back. With that simple statement Naruto had anchored him in the present. Right there and then, he was important to another person- whose warm, rough hand was covering his mouth, whose deep blue eyes were staring back into his full of honest emotion, whose strong arms had kept him from falling apart.

Perhaps there was something he was supposed to say or do, because after a few moments, the other boy withdrew his hand and rose. "Try to get some rest… it's been a tough day."

Without thinking he reached out and tagged at Naruto's sleeve, who looked down at him curiously. Sasuke couldn't bring himself to look up and meet his eyes. "… Stay."

Surprise and something unnamed crossed the blonde's handsome features. "I'm not going anywhere." He said in that gentle tone. "I'll be right across the hall-"

"No." he cut and was taken aback by the sincerity of his need. "Stay… with me." This time he did look up- and those blue eyes were staring back in shock and that other emotion. What was it? It hit him then that there was no other furniture that would accommodate them other than the bed- no sofa or futon- so he had more or less invited the blonde to share his bed. The thought fired a furious blush on his cheeks and, fearing that he had overstepped his boundaries, he quickly let go of the orange sleeve and looked down. "Y-you don't have to, of course."

Naruto caught his hand before he could pull it back, making him look up. This time he was greeted with a small smile. "I want to."

If it was physically possible, his heart would have jumped up his throat. "… You do?" he asked almost timidly.

A nod. A nervous smile. "Yeah." Naruto replied firmly. Then added, not quite as firmly. "Uh… do you want to take your shower first?"

It had been a very eventful day and, though he wished he could pretend otherwise, he did not want to be alone for another second. And, short of asking the other boy to join him, taking a pass was the only way to ensure that. "Would you mind if we skipped that… just for tonight?"

Blue eyes looked back surprised. Did he use to be a hygiene freak or was it his polite tone that was atypical? "O-okay…" he replied and cleared his throat.

For a moment there, they simply stood facing each other, then the blonde walked to the other side of the bed and pulled down the covers. Sasuke noticed that his muscles jittered a little as he watched the other boy take off his jacket and pants, standing there in just a black, sleeveless shirt and orange boxers. Those orange boxer shorts had red spirals that were quite an eye-catcher- and not in a good way. At least it was the color and pattern that he attributed the reason why his eyes had been caught there for longer than a passing moment. That, however, did not explain the weird anticipation at the thought of taking off his own clothes and getting into that bed.

If Naruto was noticing any of the myriad of ways that were getting a reaction out of him, he didn't show it, but rather casually slid under the covers and settled his head on the pillow. The profuse hesitation, though, was not one of those things that could be swept under the carpet. "Are you just gonna stand there and stare at me?" he asked quite deadpan, but there was a crinkle of amusement in his eyes.

Sasuke turned away to hide a blush. "Hn." He said and hoped that when he got his memory back he would be more eloquent than that. Or at least articulate. Hn? What the hell did that even mean? Hopefully he wasn't usually that much of an idiot- though he could swear that his 'hn' had stirred a reaction from the blonde. But it was fleeting and long gone within seconds. He took off his shirt and realized that he wasn't wearing an undershirt. Thankfully, his time at the hospital had been assuring, if only in that he was wearing underwear, but even that thought was not enough to diminish his nervousness as he stepped out of his pants. Blue boxer shorts- same shade as the yukata he had intended to wear.

Charcoal eyes drifted to the blonde, in his bed, whose gaze seemed transfixed on him. He arched a brow and found enough mental fortitude to fight down his blush long enough to casually ask, "Are you just going to lay there and stare at me?", effectively paying back for the earlier tease.

Crimson red washed over Naruto's features and it was now his turn to back down. "Whatever. " he said averting his eyes. "Just cut the crap and lie down. You need rest."

That was a point hard to argue, so he didn't. Doing his best to look cool and composed, he got himself under the covers, with his back to the other boy. Then he figured that his position was rude and insensitive in some way, so he lay flat on his back. The silence between them was next to deafening.

"Have we done this before?" he asked without thinking about it.

The blonde turned to him a little startled. "Yeah…" he said after a moment. "We have."

Maybe solving the puzzle of this endearing chemistry would make things easier between them. "… Often?" he pushed.

The other boy leaned on his elbow and stared at him. Those blue eyes searched his for something that he obviously didn't find, because his jaw-line set and he dropped back on his back with an air of dejection. "Go to sleep, Sasuke." He said quietly.

Sasuke wasn't sure what to make of all that, but he knew that he was hurting him- with every unwitting word, with every unrecognizing stare, he was hurting him. Anxiously, he looked for some way to remedy that, some way that he might assure him that the person he used to be was still there somewhere, locked inside his head- he still felt, he wasn't all gone. What Naruto had done for him- today and all those days that his mind couldn't rightly summon up, yet his heart did- had welled up a feeling of immense gratitude in him that he could find no real way to express. Naruto… He closed his eyes and heaved a breath, in a vain attempt to summon up courage- but he knew it wouldn't happen.

His cold, unfamiliar hand reached over and squeezed the warm, tan one. "Thank you…", he said more than a little uncomfortably, before finally locking eyes with him, "Naruto."

There. At long last he had said that name and it had felt good- almost like a stolen breath that he finally got back. It felt even better to watch something hopeful ember in those blue eyes and, as Naruto's astonishment melted away, a full smile bloomed on his lips. There was something there, a kind of connection that had brought him back to light out of the abyss that he had faced. Did the blonde- Naruto- know anything about all the things that he felt? Had he ever told him? A responding smile spread on his lips and his heart beat so fast it might just race out of his chest, but it felt good. How could a simple touch hold that much power?

Naruto squeezed back, not letting go of his hand. "Goodnight, Sasuke…" he said softly. "I'll be here, okay?"

He nodded and closed his eyes, the small smile lingering on his lips for the stretch of a moment. Maybe he could sleep, maybe it was even safe to dream. Maybe it was safe. His eyes fluttered one final time before he drifted off to what he hoped would be soporific sleep, if it couldn't be restful. More than likely his eyes were playing tricks on him because, the way the moon shone on Naruto's face, he could swear he saw tears coursing down the handsome face, yet he was still smiling, still holding on to his hand. It made his heart ache.

Naruto.

His body was much too small to encompass all that he felt in that short, short moment.

And that's chapter 6 for you guys. ^.^ I hope you are enjoying this… Next chapter Kakashi will be making his appearance. For those of you who have not read Tides and Ebbs, Kakashi hadf moved in with Sasuke for the year that he had been on probation after returning to the Village and he's one of the few people who know enough to infer the nature of Sasuke's and Naruto's relationship… My Kakashi also get a kick out of teasing Sasuke with innuendos and stuff. I think that covers all possible references for the next chappie. Again, sorry, I can't manage to keep the stories entirely separate, but I do try- honest.

Ja, ne?

M.