These flowers are so easy to get lost in, or lose someone else in them. Maybe that's why Naruto likes them so much. They help him disappear from the world even if only for a little while. Sometimes I wish that I could do that, but I don't think even I can disappear into these flowers. I am so different from them that I must stick out like a sore thumb. I wonder if that's how Naruto feels when he's in the village. It wouldn't really surprise me.

But right now the problem is that I've lost him in these flowers. He wanted to play, an act that seemed very childish to me but I can hardly say no to him even when I didn't owe him my life, but now I can't find him. I'm just wandering this area aimlessly trying to figure out where I am and where Naruto is. I can't even find his chakra because he has learned to hide it so well that it never shows even when he's not using it. There is a possibility that Naruto just left me up here to rot. I wouldn't be surprised if it was possible to be last up here forever. But I don't think Naruto would do such a thing after trying so hard to get me back.

The other possibility, and the one that I'm really dreading, is that Naruto thinks that I used this opportunity to escape the village and head off on my own once again. He might leave me up here because he is following me thinking that I've betrayed him once again. I don't want that to happen, which is why I'm looking for him right now. I don't think I'll be able to stand it if Naruto thinks that I've betrayed him once again.

"Sasuke!" I hear Naruto call out to me. I've probably been away too long by now, but I don't think I'd be able to find my way back to him now. Not even if all of these flowers never sat between us because my many bad decisions will always be there. I will never find my way back to Naruto. Actually, I don't think I was ever able to catch up to him in the first place.

"Don't go that way!" Naruto calls out to me and suddenly I feel a hand pulling me backwards; away from the direction that I was getting ready to head towards. Naruto pulls me back towards him frantically.

"What's wrong?" I ask him.

"That's the wrong way down," he answers me.

What does he mean the wrong way down. I wasn't planning on going down. I've already gone down far enough and now the only thing that I want to do is go up.

I don't even notice that I'm walking back in the direction that I had been heading until I felt Naruto's grip on me tighten and that's when we break through the edge of the flowers and I see it. The flowers end at a cliff with a chasm so deep that for a moment I think it must lead to the center of the world, but that childish notion was pushed o the back of my mind almost immediately. The one thing I will admit is that falling down there would be a one-way ticket to hell for me. That's about as far down as I can go.

For one sick moment I think about just taking the leap. I really should already be dead at this point anyway, but Naruto won't let me. If anything, I think he might get himself pulled down while he tried to save me. I can't jump without putting Naruto in danger and that's what makes me step away from the edge more than anything else. I don't want to hurt Naruto anymore. I'll protect him from now on, just like he'll protect me.

Naruto leads me away from the cliff and back through the sunflowers until we're heading back to the village. "Did you like it Sasuke?" he asks me as the grin returns to his face. The only sign that he's still bothered by the fact that I could've fallen is his white-knuckled grip on my shirt. I don't even think that he's aware that he's still holding onto me.

"They remind me of you," I answer in partial honesty. I don't want him to know my earlier thoughts. I think it might break him if I were to reveal them.

"Sakura said that I reminded her of sunflowers once," Naruto replied happily. "She said that my hair is the same color and I'm so tan that sometimes she couldn't tell the difference. She was joking of course, but I sometimes wonder what would happen if I really was a sunflower."

You remind me of sunflowers for more reasons than just your looks Naruto. "You'd get lost among that patch of sunflowers and no one would ever know you existed."

"Is it bad to want that?" Naruto has a far off look now and I don't think it suits him at all. I just want to reach out and wipe that sad smile right off his face, but I think that I'd almost rather it be there than those fake grins that I'm so used to seeing on the younger Naruto. I still see them now, but I think they are starting to dwindle if only just a bit.

"We never would have met." Naruto's eyes widened and I don't blame him. I think this is the first kind thing that I've ever said to him. It won't be the last.

"I guess your right," Naruto says and now his smile is more serene. It suits him much better.