It was always an experience, walking over to Naruto's place. The neighbourhood was rough. It wasn't quite the side of town that one avoided, but it was close enough that most people didn't venture there unless they had some business in the area. The first couple of times that Sasuke had visited he'd been nervous, convinced that he was going to get mugged or something. However, it soon became apparent that he'd really misread Naruto's neighbours. The other boy flittered through the neighbourhood, a smile on his face and a bounce in his step, just like he did in every other part of town. The difference was that when Naruto got within a couple of blocks of his apartment building, the cold stares that Sasuke was used to the villagers turning on Naruto gave way to tolerance and, in rare cases, smiles. The people that lived in Naruto's apartment building in particular were quite friendly. There wasn't much interaction between people, it wasn't that kind of community, but Sasuke could tell that a lot of Naruto's neighbours were the kind who would help pick up his groceries if the bag split in the stairwell. It wasn't much, but it was there. As Sasuke made his way up to Naruto's apartment now, he nodded at a lady with green hair and a nose ring on the stairs, remembering that she lived in the apartment directly under his friend. His face twitched into a smile as she smiled back, albeit a little suspiciously.

"You lot aren't getting up to anything noisy again, are you?" Her eyes narrowed at Sasuke. "Because I'm not having a repeat of the damn water fight, take that shit outside."

Sasuke shook his head timidly. Somehow, this vividly coloured woman frightened him more than his ex-ANBU brother, which was startling considering that she was a civilian. "No... I just came to hang out..." He trailed off. "I'm going to try and convince him to do homework with me this afternoon." They had finished all their homework on Saturday when Naruto came to dinner at the Uchiha residence, but she didn't know that. Hopefully she would just take his words at face value and assume that they were planning on quietly behaving all afternoon.

The woman nodded, and the smile came back to her face easily. "Okay." She said brightly, turning back to the stairs to continue her journey downward. "Have fun." She twirled her fingers at him, flicked her green hair over her shoulder and disappeared, leaving Sasuke free to continue on.

So yeah, Naruto's neighbours were all as strange as him, but they were surprisingly nice about it. Figures that Naruto would live in the weird part of town.

Sasuke hammered his knuckles on the peeling paint of Naruto's door, shifting from foot to foot impatiently as he waited for his friend to open up. He was uninvited, but he figured that Naruto probably wouldn't mind a visitor. He was a little worried that Naruto might not be home, but he knew for a fact that the Hokage was busy all day, and Naruto rarely pestered Iruka-sensei on his days off. If Naruto wasn't with either of them, and he wasn't with Sasuke, he was most likely at his apartment. Sometimes he wandered around Konoha alone, which was annoying, but after his exclamation that he wasn't attending the festival Sasuke suspected that he would most likely be holed up in his apartment.

Sasuke knocked again, starting to feel a little ticked off that Naruto hadn't let him in yet. He gave it a few more moments, then promptly lost his temper like any self-respecting Uchiha.

"Oi! Moron! It's me! Let me in!" Sasuke scowled at the wood of the door, wishing that he could make it burst into flames just by glaring at it hard enough. Now that would be a cool jutsu to have...

"Sasuke!?" The door swung open to reveal a shoddily dressed and rapidly blinking Naruto.

"You totally just woke up, didn't you?" Sasuke sighed, raising an eyebrow at the black track pants and crumpled orange T-shirt that Naruto was wearing.

"Uh..." Naruto scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly at Sasuke. "...Maybe?"

"Ugh." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Typical. Just let me in already."

Naruto didn't hesitate, he opened up the door wider and disappeared back into the depths of his apartment, trusting Sasuke to follow. It wasn't a moment later that Sasuke kicked his sandals off in Naruto's tiny entranceway and shut the door behind him, then walked into the next room after his friend.

Naruto was in the kitchen, fishing mugs out of one of his cupboards, kneeling precariously on the bench top. The first time that Sasuke saw Naruto interact with his kitchen when he had visited nearly a month ago, he'd nearly had a heart attack. Naruto had never really been taught about things like kitchen safety, and he tended to use every flat surface in the room as a springboard for movement. Of course, the kitchen was adult sized and Naruto was still only a child; in order to get into most of the cupboards he had to get inventive with jumping and balancing on things. Nevertheless, his dangerous antics in the kitchen only served to further cement Sasuke's internal amazement that he hadn't killed himself yet.

Sasuke settled himself at the kitchen table, thoroughly used to Naruto's kitchen behaviour. There wasn't much use in saying anything to him; the other boy didn't see anything wrong with what he was doing, or why it might not be a good idea to stand on the same surfaces where he prepared food. So he just watched as Naruto juggled the mugs and jumped off the bench top, landing in a crouch in the middle of the kitchen floor. He slid the mugs onto the table and proceeded to burrow himself almost fully inside one of his bottom cupboards looking for his electric kettle. It didn't take him long to find the kettle, he always kept it in easy reach so that he could boil water for his instant ramen. He filled the kettle up with water and flicked it on, and grabbed the tea bags and sugar from their perch on one of the smaller shelves. He was about to delve back into one of the lower cupboards to look for his stash of cookies when Sasuke cleared his throat, catching the blonde's attention before he could dive in.

Sasuke held up a plastic bag and gingerly placed it in the centre of the table. "I brought the snacks today." he told Naruto.

Naruto grinned wide at him. "Awesome!" he exclaimed. "What is it?" He poked at the plastic bag, trying to get at the square white box inside.

Sasuke shrugged and winced as the kettle started to squeal. "Why don't you take a look and find out?" He slid out of his chair and turned his back on Naruto to finish making the tea as the other boy excited opened up the box. It took him a while, the shop had outdone themselves wrapping everything up. Sasuke dropped a couple of spoonfuls of sugar into Naruto's mug and then turned back to the table, holding out the mug to his friend as he took a sip of his own drink.

Naruto didn't take the mug. He was too busy staring at the contents of the box, face frozen in shock. "Sasuke... what is this...?" Naruto didn't turn back to look at him as he said it, he kept his eyes fixed on the box in front of him.

Sasuke sighed and moved around Naruto to place the two mugs of tea on the table and slip back into the seat that he had vacated earlier. "What does it look like?" he snorted. "It's a cake."

"...uh... why did you bring a cake...?" Naruto's voice shook a little, and Sasuke politely ignored that, taking a sip of his tea.

"Well... customarily cake is served at celebrations... most notably at birthday parties." Sasuke said mildly. "I thought it might be appropriate."

Naruto baulked, and his gaze finally lifted from the desert in front of him to fix Sasuke with a look of bewilderment. "but... why?"

Sasuke just raised an eyebrow. "It's the tenth of October... ring any bells? You haven't forgotten your own birthday, have you idiot?"

Naruto just blinked at him, confusion still rife in his expression. "But... how did you know?" he insisted. "I never told you!"

"The Academy has it on record." Sasuke told him. "I asked Iruka-sensei."

"Why would you do that?"

"For bragging rights: I wanted to know which of us was older. Turns out that you're younger than me. It would explain why you're so immature."

Naruto scowled at him. "Oh yeah, how much older are you any way?" he sneered.

"I was born at the end of July, so I'm roughly two months older than you." Sasuke said smugly. "So listen to your elder and just thank me for the damn cake already."

His friend rolled his eyes, but now a grin was spreading across his face. "Thanks." He said quietly. Sasuke was startled by the barely contained feelings that the word seemed to contain. He had picked up the cake almost on a whim, but Naruto was almost wonderstruck with the gesture.

"Sorry... I don't have any candles..." Sasuke mumbled, suddenly humbled by the situation.

"This is fine." Naruto said brightly, lifting the cake out of the box and carefully placing it on the table between them.

"...and I'm not going to do that singing nonsense." Sasuke said. "I refuse to sing you happy birthday."

Naruto just laughed at him. "I think it would be weird if you did." he said. "Hang on, let me find a knife..." He turned his back to rummage through one of his kitchen drawers. It didn't take him long to turn back to Sasuke.

"Naruto..."

"What?"

"Don't you have a proper kitchen knife?"

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, but I couldn't find it."

"Look harder. I'm not letting you murder the cake with that kunai."

Naruto pouted. "Come on! It'll be fine!"

"No. Kitchen knife. Now." Sasuke reached forward and snatched the kunai out of his friend's hands before Naruto went ahead and assaulted the cake with a combat blade anyway.

It took Naruto a while to find a knife that met Sasuke's standards, and when he did find it Sasuke took it off him again to cut the cake properly himself. Knowing Naruto, he would find a way to screw up the simple task of cutting up a cake. It would be less messy if he just did it for him. When he was done, he carefully slid a slice of the chocolate cake onto one of the plates that Naruto had found and handed it to his friend.

"Happy birthday." He said.

If there were a couple of tears in Naruto's eyes as he thanked Sasuke again for the cake and took his first bite, Sasuke pointedly didn't notice. Instead he focussed on devouring his own slice of cake and drawing Naruto into a much happier topic of conversation: which was cooler, kunai or shuriken?

"Why didn't you go to the festival?"

The quiet voice startled Sasuke out of his intense concentration, and he looked up at the blonde boy perched on the window sill across the room. Naruto wasn't looking at him, or the board game lying on the floor in front of Sasuke. His fingers were entwined in the curtains covering the window, pulling them back slightly so that he could peer outside into the growing darkness. Dappled lights washed over the skin of Naruto's face; coloured lights spilling in from the lanterns decorating the streets below. Naruto looked... quiet. Distant. His eyes didn't move from the sight that only he could see out the window. Sasuke knew that it had to be the glimpses of festivities visible from his apartment that Naruto was staring at so wistfully. He was having one of his 'quiet moments'.

"I didn't want to." Sasuke said calmly, wrenching his eyes away from his best friend to stare back down at the game. He rattled the dice in his hands half-heartedly and let them spill out onto the ground. Waiting for a reply from his friend, he moved his counter four squares along and scooted up a short ladder, passing the orange plastic piece that belonged to Naruto with his blue one.

"You wanted to go to the festival on Saturday." Naruto pointed out. "Why didn't you go?"

"I lost interest." Sasuke huffed. "What is this? An interrogation?"

Naruto let the curtain fall back, and the coloured lights disappeared from his face. "Sorry." He muttered.

Sasuke just shrugged and jerked a thumb at the game lying before him. "Don't worry about it." He said. "It's your turn."

Naruto slid off the window sill and padded back across the hardwood floor of his living/bedroom to Sasuke and the game, scooping the dice off the ground as he settled crossed legged on the floor.

He hesitated, holding onto the dice tightly, as if he was afraid to throw them. "They all hate me." He said suddenly.

Sasuke's eyes flicked up to meet the wide blue stare of his friend. "Why?" He wanted to know.

Naruto rolled the dice around in his hand, but still didn't throw them. "I dunno." He said quietly. "I asked the old man once, but he said it was nothing to worry about: just ignore them and he'll tell me when I'm older."

"So there is something going on." Sasuke sniffed. "Nii-san won't tell me anything either."

Sasuke winced at the small squeal that erupted from Naruto's fist as he ground the two plastic cubes in his fist together with surprising force. "Your brother knows?!" Naruto's voice was raspy.

"He used to be in ANBU, you know." Sasuke said. "So he knows a fair share of secrets by now."

Somehow that knowledge didn't appease Naruto one bit. "It's not fair." He hissed. "Why does everyone hate me? Why can't I go to the festival without getting chased off or attacked? Why does no one even care it's my... my..." He shut his mouth with a sharp click, and the dice dropped to the floor, forgotten. Naruto sagged like an old man weighed down by the ages. "What if they didn't die Sasuke?"

Sasuke's eyebrows instantly knitted together. "What if who didn't die?"

"My parents." Naruto said. He was staring at the floor blankly. "What if they didn't die?"

"Well, yeah, things would probably be really different if your parents had lived." Sasuke said slowly. "I mean, parents can be annoying, what with all the rules and nagging and stuff..." He trailed off, feeling more than a little awkward. Sure, he and Naruto were both orphans, but they were still fundamentally different. Sasuke still quite vividly remembered his parents. He knew that his mother was partial to cherries to the point that she could eat a whole box on her own. He knew that his Father had an annoying habit of tapping his leg while reading anything. His Dad had black eyes, but his mother had dark chocolate brown. There were a million tiny details that made up his memories of his parents. He didn't have to search in his memories for very long to find things about them, even if thinking of any of that stuff made his chest tight and every breath hurt. Naruto didn't have that. He didn't know whether the ramen addiction was just him latching on to the first food-seller that was interested in selling him a hot meal, or whether it was a genetic taste, passed down by a parent. He didn't know which parent gave him his blue eyes, or which gave him his blond hair. He had no idea what his mother's singing voice was like, or what his dad's favourite colour was. There was simply a blank space where his parents should be, and Sasuke couldn't even begin to grasp what that must be like.

"I didn't mean... that..." Naruto's voice was strangled. "I meant... what if... they're still alive... and they hate me too?"

"What are you saying?" Sasuke felt a little cold now.

"What if they didn't want me?" Naruto's voice was tiny. "What if they're just like everyone else? What if they hated me from the very moment they saw me... and just gave me away? The old man might've told me that they were dead to make me feel better about it, ya know?" A sob. "I wouldn't be surprised. What's two more people hating me?" His laugh was the opposite of jovial. It sounded like his breath was being wrenched out of lungs violently. "They must have hated me. That's why I'm alone."

"I doubt your parents hated you Naruto." Sasuke said evenly. He was politely ignoring the spots of water that were falling to the floor now, but part of him was numb with shock. Naruto had his serious moments, sure, but tears were something foreign. Naruto smiled. That's what he did. Sasuke had always suspected that if he looked up Naruto's name in the dictionary, the definition next to it would simply be a picture of that stupid wide grin... possibly next to a picture of ramen... possibly with a splash of vibrant orange thrown in there too. He never thought that he'd ever see Naruto cry.

"How do you know?" Naruto sobbed. "I don't even know who they are... who I am..."

"Parents can't hate their children." Sasuke said simply. "My parents weren't particularly nice people sometimes, and they did some bad stuff. Sometimes I thought that they didn't care about me. Sometimes I thought that my dad..." Sasuke cut himself off. "My parents loved me and Nii-san. It's hard to explain how I know that... but I just do." Sasuke paused. "Your parents must have loved you Naruto. I don't see how they couldn't have."

A series of loud sniffs was the only sound heard in the apartment for a long time. Sasuke kept his eyes fixed on the board, giving Naruto a moment of privacy to pull himself together again.

"Sasuke?"

"Hmmm?"

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

"I'd like to see the Hokage please." Sasuke smiled as cutely as possible at the young woman sitting at front desk. He was making himself sick, simpering and sucking up to people like a small child, but it always got him what he wanted. Sasuke was aware of the fact that he was an adorable eight-year-old boy, far cuter than most of the other boys of his age. Usually he detested this fact and refused to let people baby him, giving him whatever he wanted on a silver platter. Today was different though. He needed all of the advantages he could get. Eight-year-olds couldn't usually just waltz into Hokage tower and ask for audiences with the Sandaime. Today was the day that Sasuke tested how just how far 'cute' could get him. "My name's Sasuke Uchiha."

"Aw, what does a young man like you need to see the Hokage for?" The woman smiled a sickening lipstick stained smile at him. She was definitely a civilian. Putty in his eight-year-old hands.

"It's about my Nii-chan." Sasuke laid on the baby charm thick. "He's a Jonin."

The woman beamed at him and glanced down at the papers on her desk. "Is that so?" She said sweetly.

"Yup!"

God. Please let this be over soon.

"Well, it looks like you're in luck Sasuke-kun. The Hokage is just looking through some paperwork this afternoon. Shall I pop in and see if he can see you?"

"That would be super nice of you Miss." Sasuke dazzled her with a radiant grin, blinking wide eyes up at her. He was probably going to hell for this, but this was for an important cause. He had to grin and bear it (literally).

The woman looked about ready to pick him up and take him home with her. She smiled back at him fondly as she slid out from under her desk and walked across the room to the wide doors that marked the entrance to the Hokage's office. She nodded at the two chunin guarding the door, knocked a couple of times, then entered. Sasuke tried not to fidget in front of her desk as the two chunin looked him over with curiosity. He was so close. He wasn't about to get kicked out by a couple of upstart chunin. It would be humiliating.

"Sandaime-sama said that he would be happy to see you."

Sasuke jumped. The woman had come back like a deflected kunai. There was no time to dodge, only swallow back the bile rising at the back of his throat and flash the woman another bright smile.

"Really? Thanks so much Miss!" He gushed, feeling like an idiot.

She smiled back at him and gestured towards the door to the Hokage's office, which had been left slightly ajar after her exit only a moment ago. "Just go right on through then."

He bubbled his thanks to her again as he walked towards the door, face hurting from keeping such a stupid expression on his face for so long. How did that idiot stand smiling all the time? This was exhausting! It was a great relief to slip through the doors, shutting them gently behind him.

The Hokage was looking at him with a look of great amusement from behind the desk, hands clasped in front of him and eyebrows raised. Sasuke flushed and hastily bowed his head to the leader of the village.

"Uh... Good afternoon Hokage-sama..."

"Discovering the advantages of the Uchiha charm, are we?" The Hokage asked flatly.

Sasuke's face burned. "Well... if it gets the job done..." He trailed off, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.

"Indeed." The Sandaime agreed. "You'd be surprised how effective your clansmen are when assigned seduction missions."

Sasuke almost choked. "S...s...seduction...?" He spluttered.

The Hokage just laughed. "Don't worry." He told the boy. "Seduction missions are strictly volunteer only. And it's mostly ANBU work at that. Nothing you'll have to worry about any time soon."

Sasuke was well and truly scarlet faced now. This afternoon had just gone from mildly embarrassing to utterly humiliating. Why on earth had he thought this was a good idea? This old man could read him like an open book. With big print. And pictures.

"So what do you want from me, young Uchiha?" The Sandaime asked mildly, smiling at him reassuringly as he gestured for him to come closer. "Is there something wrong at the new Uchiha clan compound?"

Sasuke blinked, a little surprised that the Hokage was taking what seemed to be a personal interest in his now rather small (and unimpressive, considering that only one of them was an active ninja) clan. "Um... no. Everything's fine at home. Nii-san is very good at taking care of us." He tacked on the last comment about his brother just in case. He had heard a lot of whispers around the village about his brother's supposed suitability for raising eighteen children on his own, considering that he was only fourteen himself.

"So if it's not about your clan...?" The Hokage reached for the pipe he had resting on the desk and tucked it into his mouth, eyeing him thoughtfully.

"It's about Naruto." Sasuke said bluntly. There was no point in dancing around the issue. He wasn't really a gentle person anyway; tact was never his strong suit.

The Hokage's posture stiffened slightly, and Sasuke saw a new look of wariness in the old man's eyes. "What about him?"

"He's my friend." Sasuke said, hoping he at least sounded as calm and confident, because his heartbeat was thudding in his chest too loudly for him to fool himself that was the case.

"I know." The Hokage told him. "Naruto talks about you all the time. Thank you, by the way. I was worried about him."

"Um.. don't mention it..." Sasuke trailed off. It was a lot more intimidating talking to this man than he thought. Naruto blabbered on about him all the time, and it sounded like his idiot friend just waltzed into the Hokage's office and had a good yarn with one of the most powerful and dangerous men in the world every other day like it was no big deal. Sasuke always knew that there was something seriously wrong with Naruto: he lacked survival instincts.

"You have questions about Naruto." It wasn't a question, and the Hokage sounded tired. He suddenly looked very much the old man that he was, and a little of Sasuke's nervous energy floated away.

"Kind of." Sasuke admitted. "More like a request."

The Hokage blew out a mouth full of smoke and tilted his head, looking at Sasuke in interest. "And what's your request, Sasuke-kun?"

"Can you tell Naruto about his parents?" Sasuke said. "I don't need to know... if it's some big secret... but they're his parents. He should know who they are."

"If I could, I would." The Sandaime sighed. "It's complicated. It's just not safe for anyone to know Naruto's parentage right now."

"Like I said. I don't need to know." Sasuke huffed. "But Naruto does."

"Not even Naruto can know." The Hokage's lips tightened. "The ice that we're treading is that thin."

"Maybe so, but you have no right to keep Naruto's family from him." Sasuke said stubbornly. "You're stealing something important from him."

"I can't." The Hokage said simply. "As it stands, Naruto's parentage is the highest kept S-ranked secret in the whole village. Only three people, including myself, are privy to that information."

"Four isn't that much more than three." Sasuke grit his teeth.

"Three is too many as it is." The Sandaime told him. "Do you not think I haven't given this serious thought? I want nothing more than to tell Naruto the truth. But his life depends on this secret being kept for as long as possible. Please don't ask again, Sasuke-kun. My answer will be the same no matter how many times you ask."

Sasuke tasted blood. He had bitten through the inside of his mouth in frustration. It wasn't supposed to be like this. He was supposed to be able to walk in here and convince the Hokage to give Naruto the best birthday present in his entire life. Sasuke may have only been friends with Naruto for a couple of months, but he knew that Naruto wasn't the type that craved material things. It wasn't the cake that made Naruto tear up when Sasuke bought it for him on his birthday: it was the fact that Sasuke was celebrating his birthday with him. Naruto wasn't giddy with excitement about being invited over to the Uchiha household for dinner because Sasuke's family ate pretty well, he was delirious just to get the invitation. He was like a little kid that was only interested in the brightly coloured wrapping paper that his gifts came in, rather than the expensive toys within. Sasuke knew that he could buy Naruto a whole house full of expensive birthday gifts, but it would pale in comparison to the revelation that two names, a photograph, or an old keepsake could give the boy.

"I didn't know that Naruto actually had tear ducts, you know." Sasuke said quietly.

The Hokage didn't say anything.

"He's just so damn... happy... all the time..." Sasuke tugged at one of his bangs, feeling a little embarrassed that he was actually stooping to guilt-tripping the Hokage. "He wasn't even crying about the fact that he's all alone. He's already used to that part." Sasuke took a deep breath. "Naruto thinks that his parents didn't want him. That they didn't love him."

Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes widened as he stared at Sasuke. "He... said this... to you?"

"'Everyone hates me from the moment they look at me. What if my parents did too?'" Sasuke shrugged. "It was something along those lines."

The Hokage rubbed at his forehead with one hand, looking aged. "I see..."

"You don't have to tell him who they are, you know." Sasuke said suddenly. "You can just tell him a little bit about them. Small things. Things that no one else would find interesting but Naruto would."

"Like what?"

"I don't know... like favourite colours, hobbies... whether they liked ramen too... that kind of thing." Sasuke sighed. "Anything you can tell him to prove to him that they actually exist, because at the moment all Naruto's got to go on is his own reflection in the mirror and an over-active imagination."

The Hokage went very still as Sasuke stared him down. Part of him couldn't even believe he was doing something so daring as to try and tell the leader of the village what to do, but this was for Naruto. Somehow he found it easier to ask for something for his friend than to ask for something for himself. Maybe part of it was that Naruto himself was so undemanding (At least when it came to the big things... Naruto could be downright annoying in his whining sometimes.) and really needed him to do the asking for him in these situations. After watching Naruto over the course of the last couple of months Sasuke had come to the conclusion that Naruto was petrified of overstepping boundaries. People had spurned him for so long that he had trouble including himself in any group naturally. He just had no idea how to act. Sasuke knew that the reason that Naruto had never demanded more information about his own parents was that he was even still unsure about his relationship with the Hokage, ultimately the longest and closest relationship that he has had in his entire life. He was terrified that if he threw a tantrum to get more information, the Hokage would abandon him too, just like everyone else.

No. Naruto couldn't ask. Sasuke had to do it for him.

"You raise a valid point, Sasuke-kun." The Sandaime said quietly. "I'll see what I can do."

Sasuke's heart was still thudding in his chest as he bowed low to the Hokage. "I suppose that's the best that I can ask for, Hokage-sama." He replied.

He had done his bit. It was out of his hands. Either the Hokage would act on his advice or he wouldn't. Either way, Sasuke had done his best to fight for Naruto's right to know. He wasn't going to tell Naruto that he dared to do this. In fact, he would prefer for the other boy to never find out. As the Hokage waved his hand at Sasuke in dismissial, Sasuke decided that he was going to keep this whole fiasco a deep secret. Naruto would just get all mushy if he found out, and Sasuke didn't do mushy. The last thing that he needed was Naruto being disgustingly grateful or something.

Gross.

A/N:

Um... so, the gap between chapters went quite a bit longer than I was expecting... Sorry. I sort of lost a great deal of motivation for this fic after I lost almost a whole chapter's worth of writing when my computer crashed. Luckily, the computer wasn't permanently dead (always a relief), and even though I lost a few thousand words, I eventually got my mojo back and voila! Here is chapter five!

I feel like somehow Naruto has taken over this fic, which was totally unplanned... stupid Naruto, always elbowing other people out of the spotlight... In a way, this fic has become the story of Naruto and Sasuke's first proper friendship. Naruto is (hopefully) very similar to canon, but Sasuke is vastly different. It makes their friendship rather different too. Sasuke is more in tune with his friend's feelings, and he's discovering his own protective instincts when it comes to friends. It's actually rather cute.

In other news, I've been thinking, and I'm really keen to find a beta reader. Not just for this fic, but for other projects I've got in the works. I try and edit and proofread these things myself, but things always slip through the cracks. If anyone is interested in beta reading for me, please flick me a PM :)

In other, other news, I have started another fic called 'Sparking a Yellow Flash', so I am now going to take the time here to shamelessly advertise it XD It focusses on the Namikaze family, and somehow I've gotten quite attached to my little OC Namikaze. Check it out if you're keen for a fic set in the time of the Sandaime's generation.