Attention! It's probably pretty important you read this. Ok so, I think this will probably be my last chapter for a little bit because I have come to the point where it is 10 days until I go on a little trip of two weeks to Japan. I don't want to try and put anything up any closer to the time otherwise its going to be like "and then Sasuke and Naruto were so fed up with the village being so familiar to one and so unfamiliar to another that they took off to Japan together and nearly threw up with excitement in the week or so beforehand..." Or something. So! This is it for a few weeks. I will update ASAP when I return though, provided nothing bad happens on my travels so keep a look out for Chapter 25 ;P

Without further ado, Chapter 24

Kakashi read through his notes slowly his eyes moving easily through the familiar format of a mission report that he had set for himself. He wouldn't slack off if it looked like this even if the daily entries were written informally.

--

Report

Name: Kakashi Hatake

Rank: Konoha Jounin

Subjects: Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke

Mission: Follow and observe

-

Day One

Information obtained through reading lips and listening in.

Sasuke and Naruto stayed at Sasuke's over night. They had breakfast early and after Sasuke asked Naruto what questions he had. Naruto asked how they met. Sasuke said in the academy. Naruto asked what their first meeting had been like. Sasuke explained about how they had hated each other at the start. He ran through the story of "Sasuke and Naruto", the story anyone who knows the two of them knows, briefly without going into too much detail. Naruto asked the same about Sakura, Iruka and myself. Sasuke told him what he could. At approximately 11am they took a second tour around the village and Sasuke asked Naruto to tell him if any places felt different to him. They stopped for lunch at 12:37 at Ichiraku Ramen and Naruto re- met the stand owner and his daughter. Tour continued. The only place Naruto said he felt slightly weird about was Team 7's bridge. Naruto went home at 3pm. I followed Sasuke. He went past Sakura's place and stared at her house for a good 10 minutes. He went home after that at 3:43.

Comments.

Sasuke should have told Naruto more about himself. Naruto needs to trust him. Even if this mission is futile.

Sasuke should work out more of what he's going to do.

Naruto should have been told more about his past but its hard to do that when we have to skip out all the bad stuff. Probably not a good idea to let him in on the Kyuubi thing and the isolation.

At the bridge, Sasuke should have asked Naruto why he felt that way. Sasuke isn't ready for this. He doesn't want to know what Naruto doesn't remember. "He doesn't remember anything" feels safer than knowing specifics. But maybe he needs more time to think…

Does Sasuke want to involve Sakura?

-

Day Two

Information obtained through reading lips and listening in.

-Sasuke came to pick Naruto up from his place at 9am. Naruto was asleep. Sasuke made breakfast again.

-Went back to the bridge. Sasuke told Naruto a few stories about Team 7. Asked if it brought anything back. Naruto said no. No feelings? No again. Nothing in particular.

-Sasuke and Naruto argued about what "nothing in particular" meant. Sasuke nearly hit him.

-Sasuke got fed up with Naruto's company and ditched him with Sakura in the middle of the village at 10:25. Told her nothing of what they had been doing.

- Sakura and Naruto went for lunch together. Sakura looked awkward. Naruto was pretty quiet.

- I came out and joined them at 10:31. Naruto didn't tell us anything about what he and Sasuke had been up to. Sakura didn't ask. I didn't either even though I haven't seen Sasuke tell him to keep it a secret.

- We hung around in the restaurant for a while. Conversation was limited.

- We walked Sakura home.

-I showed Naruto where I live. He came in and we had tea.

-Naruto went home.

Comments

-Sasuke is still being too brief.

-Sasuke is being childish and I think Naruto was hurt about being abandoned today.

-Everything is too polite even though I have spent time with Naruto in the hospital.

-I need Iruka with me if I'm going to talk to Naruto at length again.

-Sakura should be in on this simply because I think its unfair she's left out.

-I hate this. I hate this mission. I hate Kyuubi.

--

It was no use.

"I can't do this," murmured the silver haired jounin to himself as he sat in the tree outside Sasuke's room. It was nearly midnight, the end of day three. Sasuke was sleeping. Naruto was probably at Iruka's place.

"It can't do this like this..."

Its was too hard to record what was happening. He'd tried to just write the events. He'd tried to list in bullet points. Honestly, he just didn't want to take anything down. It was much too personal, especially the comments part. He wasn't comfortable with any one reading what he's written in his "report". The familiar format of a normal Konoha mission report paper didn't soothe the man at all. It felt wrong to write like they were people he didn't know as well as he did.

What was even more frustrating was that he wasn't the kind of person to say "I've failed and I'm ready to be shown how". He had to shoulder all on his own even though the Hokage has said "come and see me if you have trouble". Iruka would be the one to go to for help. He was the only other person close enough to understand but Hatake Kakashi wasn't that person. He wasn't the person to ask for help. What ninja was?

Kakashi growled softly under his breath. He had to record what happened that day but it was so wrong.

Today Sasuke had tried again. It was strange really. Naruto was the primary "subject", Sasuke was just the one helping but it was the Uchiha house that he stayed close too at night, it was the Uchiha boy who he followed more closely. Maybe because he had always felt that he and Sasuke were alike. That they understood each other a little. In his mind he paired himself with Sasuke and Iruka with Naruto. Just how it was.

That morning Sasuke came for Naruto again. Kakashi had watched the blonde boy through the window that looked straight in from the wall by his bed to the door. Naruto was no longer a ninja so he didn't sense Kakashi behind him. When Sasuke knocked he stood at the door for a while. His shoulders were tense. He was definitely hurt but he eventually let Sasuke in and they had breakfast together again. Kakashi hadn't been able to see the rest of the interaction because with Sasuke sitting across the small table from Naruto he had a clear view out the window and to where the copycat ninja had previously been observing. He picked up the conversation again when the two boys left the house and started into the village.

Naruto asked timidly what the plan was for today and Sasuke had said that he was going to take him to places where big events in Naruto's life had happened. Kakashi arched his eyebrows in surprise. Where were places that big things had happened in Naruto's life that Sasuke knew? The jounin had shaken his head. Surely no one but Naruto could know that.

In fact the place that Sasuke intended to take Naruto was outside the village gates and suddenly it clicked as Kakashi recalled the blonde haired boy's look of delight and yell of enthusiasm as the stepped out of the shadow of the giant Konoha gates. Naruto's first time out of his home village. Kakashi remembered how he had stifled a laugh at Naruto's efforts to suppress his excitement when Sakura asked him what he was so happy about in a tone that made it seem like she was completely casual about such a thing. Naruto didn't want to seem "uncool" in front of Sakura or childish in front of Sasuke so he got over the thrill pretty quickly but that probably was something quite big for him.

Maybe he had had a sense of freedom when he left. Suddenly he was in the outside world where whomever they met along the way wouldn't know about what terrors lurked within his small body. No one was going to think of him as a monster. The only ones who knew he had been shunned were his team that he had already come to trust in the short time they had been together.

Sasuke was making his way toward the gates when Kakashi decided it was about time to stop him. Naruto wasn't allowed outside the village. Hokage's orders.

The man took a quick left then a right and landed on the path that would met with Sasuke's and Naruto's when they got to the road that lead out of Konoha. He walked swiftly with his book in front of his nose while keeping an eye out for the boys. He could feel them approaching. When they came into earshot Kakashi looked up casually and put a hand up in greeting. Naruto smiled in reply and Sasuke scowled.

"What are you doing here sensei...?" asked Sasuke; mock-politeness.

"Nothing much, just on a walk. Where might you two be off to Sasuke kuuun~?" asked Kakashi, dragging out the younger male's name teasingly. Sasuke blinked and Naruto blushed, embarrassed by the "affection" lathered onto his friend's name by an older man. Figures he wouldn't pick up it was merely banter.

"We're going for a walk too. What does it look like?" snapped Sasuke.

Just as I thought, thought Kakashi. Sasuke was frustrated. He always snapped easier when he was annoyed or tired. He'd been sleeping alright so it must be the stress this "mission" of his was putting on the young man.

"Where to?"

"Outside if you must know."

"Sasuke."

"Yes?" The older man watched the younger's closely and then flicked his eyes to Naruto, smiling slightly to reassure him it was still friendly-ish as Sasuke's growled quietly.

"You can't take him outside the village Sasuke."

"Hokage's orders?"

"Hokage's orders."

Naruto looked a bit disappointed and stepped up to protest but Kakashi caught him first.

"Naruto. You can't leave Konoha. You're a civilian, who knows what could happen to you."

"But... Sasuke san is with me..." The jounin sighed and rolled his shoulders. Naruto's crest fallen face was always got him because Naruto very rarely showed true disappointment in a form other than yelling and ranting.

"You may think that your Sasuke is all the protection you need but any ninja good enough could kill you both in a heartbeat," replied Kakashi gently, a tiny smile playing on his masked lips when Naruto flushed at "your Sasuke".

Suddenly the air spiked and Kakashi felt the cold terror/excitement of a kunai coming for him from behind. The thrill surged as he spun and caught his attacker in the face with the back of his fist. The sharp metal guard's edge on the back of his glove sliced cleanly through his cheek. Sasuke's bushin behind Naruto dispersed and the boy himself stepped back from where his true form stood behind Kakashi. Blood dripped down his cheek.

"See?" said Kakashi cheerfully, smiling warmly at Sasuke who spat blood that had found its way inside of his mouth.

"Naruto we can't have you-" The man's stopped short as he met Naruto's face. The boy's shocking eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open, his jaw slack, his shoulders risen and body trembling. Tears shimmered across his stunned blue vision and then fell unrestrained over the blonde's now pale face.

Even now, the guilt splashed in Kakashi's stomach like a sick wave of nausea.

Naruto's eyes could still track at ninja speed. He'd seen what had happened then. He'd seen Sasuke come with the kunai; he'd seen Kakashi backhand him with more force that really should have been applied. He could still see perfectly what had taken place between the two ninja.

Kakashi hadn't even considered that at the time.

Naruto's legs buckled and he had reached for Sasuke and in a split second the raven was there to wrap his arms around the other boy as he fell.

"Sasu…Sasu..ke…sa…san…" The tears kept coming. He was trembling. Naruto's fingers went to Sasuke's face, touching the blood and crying out as it stained his skin.

Normally at this age, even a child who wasn't a ninja wouldn't be so shocked at something like this. They had seen fights in their childhood, they'd seen their mothers cut their fingers with knives, they'd seen the own blood gush from tiny scratches that always bleed way too much. But Naruto had never seen anyone hit anyone seriously, let alone cut them on purpose.

Sasuke murmured gently to the other boy.

"It's just a scratch; cuts like this always bleed a lot Dobe. We were just playing. I thought I could get him but I couldn't. He wouldn't really hurt me, Naruto."

Kakashi stepped forward, putting out a hand to the pair.

"Naruto…" He walked to them and knelt down on one knee. Naruto had his face buried in Sasuke's neck and was making strange choking noises. Sasuke had his arms around the boy, one at his waist, one around his neck, an open, spur of the moment action of comfort and protection.

The jounin went to touch Naruto's shoulder. Sasuke let him rub the boys back before drawing him away as he stood, bringing Naruto with him, the blonde's head still on Sasuke's shoulder. The two ninja's exchanged apologetic, guilty looks. They were both to blame. They had both miscalculated. Sasuke was mad at the stab to his ego and Kakashi wanted to play a bit to prove his point.

"I'll take him home…" muttered Sasuke.

"Yeah…maybe to Iruka…" replied Kakashi.

"Yeah."

Kakashi let Sasuke take Naruto to Iruka on his own and then followed the boy home. By the time he caught back up to him the blood was gone…

The night was warm. Kakashi sat stiffly in his tree. Inside the house Sasuke rolled over in his sleep. Kakashi watched his face thinking numbly that Sasuke really should remember to close his curtains instead of just falling into bed. The boy's features pulled into a frown and then an anguished expression surfaced. He'd been doing that a lot tonight. Tears on pallid skin glistened in the moonlight. Another nightmare… Kakashi hadn't seen traces of fitful sleep since Naruto was last there but right now the sorrow was evident on the boy's face. Tears. So strange on Sasuke…

At that moment a scream, audible even through the walls of the house, ripped apart the silence and Sasuke jerked into a sitting position in bed. The man in the tree bolted from the tree before he could be seen, his Day Three report uncompleted.

Naruto lay awake in bed. It was 3:15 in the morning according to Iruka's bedside alarm clock. He hadn't slept at all.

Today had been horrible. He'd been so excited when Sasuke told him they were going some place special. He thought there would be progress but instead he'd seen something he wasn't used to and ended up crying and Sasuke had to take him back. After seeing Kakashi catch Sasuke in the face like that… And the blood making red tracks on the other boy's pale skin… The cut had been right below his eye and the way the blood had splattered up before flowing steadily downwards made it seem like it was Sasuke's eye that was bleeding. Sasuke had barely flinched but Naruto had cried. He'd been so scared. Too scared. His eyes moved faster than his mind could process and by the time he'd caught up he was already in tears, his legs were already falling out from under him. He thought something bad was going to happen to Sasuke… He'd been scared and it was so stupid.

In the next room Iruka rolled over on the couch and it creaked under his weight.

Naruto stared up at the dark roof and then rolled over onto his side.

Was it strange to worry and be scared for someone who could obviously take care of themselves more than being concerned for yourself? Sasuke obviously lived alone. When he'd taken him to bed the other night, Naruto had walked around the house looking for a flannel for his forehead. No one else lived in that house. It was too tidy and the other rooms looked dusty from where he'd stood in their doorways. Sasuke was alone and it looked like he had been for sometime… Just like Naruto…

Even so, Sasuke was a ninja and could take care of himself…. Even so… When Kakashi had moved at murderous speed that day, it wasn't terror that he could be next that crossed Naruto's mind. The only thought that could keep up was an eternal scream that shook his whole body.

"SASUKE SAN!!"

And then there was the part afterwards. After they left Kakashi. It was this part that was most disturbing to Naruto, the thing that was keeping him awake the most. It was really too "embarrassing", if that was the right word, for the boy to remember more than glimpses of what preceded entering Iruka's house...

"Naruto, there's no point in cleaning it up. It's only going to keep bleeding. Stop looking at it if it bothers you."

"I can't… It's on my hands too…"

The red of blood, still kind of wet on his fingertips.

Mesmerizing. A horrifically beautiful shade. His hands shook/

"Were you scared?"

"Mmm…"

The annoying itch of dry tears.

"Understandable."

"Sorry."

"Its ok."

…

"Stop looking at it."

"I can't I said!"

A sigh.

The flash of Sasuke's white skin in the sunlight.

Sasuke's licking his hand from the corner of Naruto's vision and wiping away most of the blood on his face.

"Dobe."

"Don't call me that…"

Iruka's house coming into view.

The small bench outside that they sat for a minute on.

A warm encircling his wrist and then…

Sasuke's hot mouth on his fingers and the rasp of his tongue across the bloodied tips.

Naruto had jumped at the strange sensation but Sasuke hadn't stopped. The blonde wondered if he realized that as he tried to pull away, Sasuke tightened his grasp on his wrist.

Sasuke sat quietly in the sun with his eyes closed and sucked Naruto's fingers clean.

Naruto sat next to him, fascinated by Sasuke's tongue around his fingers and felt a blush work its way across his nose and cheeks making his eyes so heavy he had to close them.

Sasuke stopped and both boys opened their eyes. Sasuke blinked and suddenly red streaked up his neck and to his cheeks as he jumped up and backed away as if just realizing what he had done.

"Ah- Sorry. I just- I mean, you wouldn't stop looking at the blood and it was bothering you… You should go inside. You're still upset."

Their eyes both fell away from each other.

"See you later."

"M-mm. Bye."

Sasuke had left in a hurry of smeared red blood and flushed pale skin.

The clock changed to 3:30 and Naruto tried to shake the flutter in his stomach away.

It was something regrettable to be so captivated by another boy, by Sasuke… Naruto knew. He knew that Sasuke was only being familiar with him and he didn't see it as strange and his heart didn't skip beats when they touched, when they smiled together. He didn't feel the same rush when he heard the other boy laugh like when Naruto did with him… He only blushed in response to Naruto's blush because he was uncomfortable with embarrassing the smaller boy with something that seemed normal to him… That was how it was, right?

But despite all of this, Naruto couldn't help that Sasuke was the one who made him feel needed. Sasuke was going to all the trouble to look after him. It wasn't the same care that Iruka had shown him. Sasuke made him feel… necessary, because he had seen his hurt face and heard him call him with that miserable voice when he thought Naruto couldn't hear… Heard him call for someone who was precious to him, someone more precious than the Naruto now could comprehend. And he couldn't help wanting to be that person. It was something regrettable but he couldn't help feeling this way with Sasuke. He couldn't help that some part, even if it were the locked away part. felt a little needed and he couldn't help needing in return. That's why he wanted to get his memories back, He didn't want to hurt or be useless to Sasuke as he was…

"Sasuke san…." Naruto rolled over and bit his lip against the dangerous rise of emotion behind his eyes and knotted his eyebrows into a frown.

Was it all impossible?

One tear rolled across the bridge of his nose.

"Shit."