Hey! It turns out I'm alot sicker than i thought. Next update will be the 18th, i know thats a big gap compared to my usual, and if i can i will update sooner but i need the time to recover. Also I changed the name of this chapter and it is also somewhat shorter but i hope it is to be enjoyed anyway! Wish me Luck!

Chapter 13: The Funeral

There are many things to life, many parts to be uncovered but what no one ever tells you are that the best answers are answers you uncover from your own heart, no matter what the voices in your world state.

"Sasuke." Whispered Naruto at the door, I looked up only to look away. There is no way that I will be seen like this.

"It's okay." Naruto said, entering the room and approaching me, his face was down casted and straight. A serious look that was misplaced and yet still intriguing with a sense of beauty. But that beauty will not have any effect on me today.

"What do you understand?" I said, remains of teardrops lingered on my cheeks, but with one wipe of my hand the intense anger and pain had faded away into something dull. These words are nothing but spoken, matter-of-fact words that mean nothing.

"The pain of losing someone you always thought would be there." Naruto said simply, he didn't sit on the bed or move, but kept a safe distance so that I could not see his face but feel him. Those blue eyes were peeling away at my surface, and I have to do anything to keep that from happening.

"I thought you lost everyone when you were younger?" Just stay calm down and keep talking, that's what I told myself as I tried to control my breathing. Why am I so out of control these days? I don't remember feeling so helpless before…..

Before.

But before I was still holding on to something wasn't I? I wasn't on my own, not like I always thought I was. No, here and now things are different, thinking about helplessness does nothing. Suck it up.

"I lost my parents. But there was my god father, well he was more like a grandfather to me, or maybe closer to being my dad….if he wasn't so old." Naruto lost himself in thought for a brief second before shaking it off and addressing me again. This time I was looking at him head on, the tears in my eyes receding somewhere else.

There is no use in crying, no purpose.

"Uh….well…"Naruto said, scratching the back of his head, maybe something appeared on my face right then, something that is making him uncomfortable now. "He was murdered..."

Murdered….by who? How recently? So many questions on the tip of my tongue, so many answers on his just reaching out to me as if they want to be spoken but can't. Somehow that thought seems familiar, oh that's right, back when I was just learning about Naruto. Only then I didn't know what I know now.

His eyes.

Those round blue eyes speak more clearly than words, shimmering in the dim light of the room, appropriate to the setting. Those eyes are fresh pain. So such a thing has happened recently, then what does that mean?

No, that's not right I know what it means. What I really mean to say is…..what will become of us now?

"Uh….you know…" Naruto said, taking a slight step towards one of the guitars, looking past it and out the window, "I know how it feels."

Know how what feels? I didn't say anything, but Naruto seemed to hear me anyway as he reached for the blinds, twisting the cord that would reveal the sun around his fingers. As the panels lifted, a new light shed throughout the room.

How inappropriate lighting.

"I know what it feels like, to lose someone you thought would always be there." Naruto said, leaning his head on the window and closing his eyes, hiding from me.

For some reason those words shook me a bit. I have already realized that I depended on Itachi, but….I never realized that in between all those thoughts of loneliness I always expected his presence no matter how small.

Now even the groceries and random visits seem to be nothing but a dream.

To have those feelings, those subconscious thoughts…it was nothing but…."Childish."

"What?" Naruto said, opening his eyes again, trying to peek into my mind and uncover something within me. I looked into his eyes, not fearing his curiosity. I want him to know, I want to tell him.

"It's not childish." Interrupted a voice, me and Naruto peered up to see the same old white hair and blank expression of our teacher, "It's human."

I exchanged glances with Naruto before looking back up at Kakashi again; he motioned for us to come with him. "How about we just clean out the rest of Sasuke's apartment for now, and then come back."

I took the book with me, wondering if there was anything else to be found within its pages.

The rest of the day was pretty tiring; we worked throughout the day until dinner. Lifting furniture, clearing away papers, and putting things in storage for my future use at the end of the day it left me with nothing but a tired body and mind. But it was better than….

Well, on another topic, I did find a small box containing the rest of my brother's journals in one of his storage units. I didn't even know that he had a storage unit. I resolved to read them after the funeral in a day from now. Naruto was joining us more and more now, he even stayed for dinner today.

"This food is boring!" Naruto complained to Iruka who glared him down, not hesitating before promptly whacking him with the salad spoon in his hand. "Ow! Oh come on Iruka, I don't like salad."

"You need to eat your vegetables!" Iruka said sternly, clacking the spoon back into the bowl to emphasize his words.

"But….Then how come Sasuke gets to eat some barbeque!" whined Naruto, pointing a finger at me.

"Because I ate my salad idiot." I pressed, smacking his finger away lightly. Naruto growled at me, glaring at me.

He slammed one hand on the table and yelled, "What if I don't want to! It's not my fault you're a freak! And I am not an idiot, you stupid bastard!"

"Hey, Naruto." I said, leaning in and glaring right back, there is no way he just called me stupid. " You have something all over your face."

Naruto blinked back, a faint blush tinting his cheeks as he wiped his face, "What is it?"

"Never mind, it was just the look of stupidity. You still might want to wipe it off though." Satisfied at the sound of Naruto's horror, I smugly dug into my dinner. What I didn't expect was salad dressing making contact with my face. I looked up to see a smug looking Naruto; before he could blink I reached over to the open dressing and did the same deed he did to me right back.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, reaching for my shirt, but before he could make contact our concentration was broken by the sound of laughter. I had forgotten that they were here. A flash light in my eyes, I looked over to see that Kakashi and Iruka had taken a picture of us with Kakashi's professional looking camera.

"New memory." Kakashi stated simply, setting the camera aside, I glared and Naruto roared but we were both to wary of him to actually try getting the camera back. There was only one way we could do that. I side glanced at Naruto, who happened to do the same. He smirked at me with a nod.

Then we were in agreement. I charged, Naruto doing the same, advancing on Kakashi with determination.

It was a good moment, one of the best I've ever had.

I didn't go to school the next day, Kakashi and Iruka tried to persuade me but I refused. I didn't need their looks of pity. I didn't want it. To walk through the halls, an ice-prince who has lost everything, would be nothing but humiliation. But it would come inevitably.

I decided I would go back to school after the funeral.

For now just hanging out at the house alone was fine enough, granted I had tons of homework to complete but the quiet was nice. It was also focusing.

It allowed me to concentrate on the one thing I didn't want to, Itachi. I tried a few math problems, some history, and then science. But I couldn't even read without him popping in my head. Around lunch time I just decided it would be best to sit on the couch and watch aimless TV for a while, at least the stupid programs would keep my mind focused on them alone.

This thought was only half correct.

I sighed into the couch thinking about all these reasons that I hated Itachi, about his "betrayal" that he never committed towards me. I thought that he had abandoned me, our family with that dream of his. I wonder how successful he was as a guitarist; it must have made him happy.

Happy.

Happy enough to risk being hated by me, abandon our family's wishes, struggle and strive for his dreams in order to seek that happiness. Would running the company of my family really make me so happy? To be honest, I have never admitted it, but I can't imagine myself ever doing that sort of thing. It would be amazing to be so powerful, in control, head of a corporation. But….but I don't ever see myself actually doing that even with all the appeal it carries. Well…what now? If I don't do that than just what am I going to do?

Damn. I hate these thoughts.

The rest of the day was spent trying to correct my thoughts towards the right direction or at least in the direction that I wanted them to be. Kakashi and Iruka didn't bother me about not completing my homework, and I didn't bother to question I already knew why.

The funeral is tomorrow.

I don't understand how someone can do something like this.

To plan a funeral, that requires something I don't seem to have in my possession. I didn't go up to the coffin to look at Itachi, I lingered in the back of the small crowd of Itachi's band, his agent, Kakashi, Iruka, and Naruto who stood closest to me.

I didn't want to see the only person I had left before he was lowered into the earth, disappearing from me forever.

The ceremony went okay, no one bothered me or expected me to do things that I didn't want to do. I prefer it that way. Eventually the crowd cleared a bit as Itachi's coffin was lowered into the ground, but I couldn't walk away, my feet were rooted to the ground. Itachi….no, not now.

Someone to my side handed me a handkerchief quietly, it was Naruto but he didn't say anything or even looked at me. I accepted the handkerchief, looking down at it wondering why he even handed me this, but in that moment, however long the moment was, a single teardrop rolled of the tip of my nose and fell. Oh, that's why.

I hurriedly wiped away the tears, just in time as the ceremony ended and the remaining people started to make their way out of the area. No one approached me, but I could feel eyes lingering on my back until the only one left near me was Naruto.

I turned to walk away but before I could Naruto called after me, "Hey Sasuke, there is something I didn't get to tell you the other day." Naruto said, almost timidly. I paused, listening as Naruto carried on going a hundred miles an hour. " Well...when my godfather died, it was just me, but then there was my Grandma even though she works a lot at the hospital and uh, what I mean to say is, I also know what it feels like to think you have no one left, but that's not true…cause well….I'll be here."

I smirked in his direction; Itachi himself had said it didn't he. Me and Naruto. Without thinking, I leaned into him, feeling an indescribable feeling surge within me as my lips met his. Why is Naruto so indescribable to me? No matter what, Naruto is just so….. I couldn't think anymore as I pushed away, storming toward the direction of where Iruka and Kakashi were waiting for us.

Leaving Naruto behind, with my dead brother being swallowed away by the Earth.