Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

A/N: I know this is a shorty chapter, but it's got a lot of important information in it, I think. Plus I've pretty much got the plot for this story figured out now, and that's always good. And I'm updating faster. w00t!

The silence rang deafeningly in Cheri's ears as she and Hemiko sat in shock at the story Sasuke had just told. Her first thought was, how could they have lived all their lives in this house without knowing? Without even the vaguest idea?

Sasuke now sat with his hands folded tightly across his chest, as if he were trying to hold himself together, and he was bent slightly over the table. His eyes were haunted and defeated-looking as they stared down at the tabletop without really seeing it. Naruto's expression nearly matched it, but to a lesser extent.

Cheri was the first to speak. Still stunned, she said, "But you... but you never told us the full story before. You just told us that your brother was crazy and that he tried to kill us. You never said..."

"And how could we say it, Cheri?" Naruto asked quietly. "You saw the state that Sasuke was in earlier - how could we just tell you something like that?"

Hemiko was crying; her whole face was red. But she was looking at Sasuke. "Daddy," she cried. "I can't believe... something so horrible. You must've gone through so much." Sasuke answered her with silence, and so she went on crying.

Cheri was simply confused. "I just don't understand how you could keep something like this from us." A hint of accusation sounded in her voice. "This is where we live; our home - and those people were our family! We may not have known them, and they may never know us, but you owe it to their memory to at least let us know that they existed in the first place!"

"Cheri..." Naruto started, but her words ran over his.

"No," she said, standing up from her seat. She leaned across the table to look her father, Naruto, in the eye. "I didn't know we'd ever even had any family besides us four. Did it ever occur to you that Sasuke's parents - our grandparents - might want their grandchildren to know about them - to know that they lived?!"

Naruto gave her a dark look as Sasuke sank further against the table, clutching his sides even harder than before, and hiding his face. "That's a low blow, Cheri," Naruto said.

Cheri had chills going down her spine; goose bumps playing havoc across her arms; and that was when she let it all really sink in. Her grandparents had been murdered in the very room she'd been obsessing over for months. Her own uncle had murdered them inside this very house. Who had once owned the room she was staying in now? Had they been killed in there? In her bed? ...what had they been like? How old had they been? What kind of lives had they lived?

Eyes suddenly wide, Cheri sat back down slowly. Her breathing became a little heavier, her heart beat a little quicker. Was she having a panic attack? Giving up on any attempts at conversation, she rested her head on the table, allowing the thoughts in her mid to swirl.

All was silent again for a while, except for Hemiko's crying. After a few minutes, Naruto reached out to gently take Cheri's hand in his, but without a word, she moved her arm back out of his grasp.

"How many secrets have you been keeping from us?" Cheri asked in a near whisper, not even bothering to look up as she spoke.

"What?" Naruto asked, his voice just as quiet. Hemiko, who had heard Cheri's words, started crying a little harder, and slumped over on the table.

Cheri lifted her head and repeated the question. Naruto stared at her for a long moment with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open slightly. Sasuke had not yet raised his face.

"How. many. other. secrets?" Cheri hissed demandingly, pronouncing each word separately.

Naruto's mouth closed, and his eyes scanned the table top as if there would be an answer there for him. Hemiko had stopped crying for a moment, though she did not sit up - she wanted to hear his response too.

"What is it dad?" Cheri demanded, anger boiling like poison in her stomach.

Her father gazed at her helplessly. "It's not... a bad secret," he finally uttered. This of course only fanned the fire within her, making it flare up inside her chest until she was nearly ready to scream. She gritted her teeth. Registering his daughter's expression, Naruto's eyes widened even more, and he hurried to reassure her. "Uh... no, it's- it's not like you think! Uh..." His gaze shifted nervously from Sasuke - who only stared back at him blankly - to Hemiko - who still had her head down - to the table, and back again. So he started over. "Well it's just... well, Sasuke and I have been... we've been trying to have another baby." Naruto's face suddenly turned a bright red.

Cheri hadn't quite been expecting that. "What?!" she demanded quietly, incredulous. Nobody said anything, so she went on. "But... don't one of you have to be a woman for that to work?" Despite herself, she felt her own face turning a bit red as well. She, Hemiko, and her parents had only ever discussed this once - long ago, when Cheri had become curious. It had been a hell of an embarrassing conversation - enough so that nobody in the household had ever brought it up again.

Naruto wouldn't meet her gaze. "We've been trying..." he replied.

"Oh? And when were you going to tell us about this little scheme of yours?" she spat. "The day when one of you wake up and just can't turn back into a man?!" Feeling somewhat betrayed, she jumped to her feet, and her chair clattered loudly to the floor behind her, startling Hemiko. Her sister was looking at her now, with wide, almost frightened eyes that were still filled to the brim with tears. Cheri would never admit to the pain that shot through her and spread through her chest then - because of her sister's look, and her fathers' secrets. She'd never admit how hurt she felt; how confused.

"It was supposed to be happy news," Naruto said quietly, and the sound of tears in his voice was distinct.

Cheri just looked at him - taking in his wary, exhausted expression, the deep sadness in his eyes - and for a single instant, she understood, and saw everything clearly.

Without saying a word, she left the room, unable to shake off the feeling of betrayal.

Hemiko sat alone in her room. It was 3 o'clock in the morning, but she was nowhere near sleep. Her eyes were wide open, and it felt like she wouldn't be able close them even if she wanted to. The cool air coming in through her open window stung her eyes, and made them water even more than they already were. She just couldn't seem to stop crying. Her father's story had shocked her, to say the least...

Hemiko wondered, how horrible it must have been for Sasuke. To see his entire family murdered... by his own brother, and to be the only survivor! What must have Sasuke done afterward? How could he possibly have recovered from that? Hemiko didn't blame him for never telling her and Cheri the story before - Hemiko herself would find doing so absolutely unbearable if she were in his situation. To relive those moments of agony again and again... he must have done so over a million times by now anyway.

And she just couldn't get the thought out of her head - what would she do if she had lost her own family in a similar way? She shuddered at the thought.

Hemiko had realized something she'd never realized before, about her parents - both of her parents. Sasuke had been through so much in his life - enough for a thousand lifetimes put together. What child deserves a fate like that? And she'd pondered what kind of life Naruto had had. She'd never really thought about her parents before, beyond the surface at least. She'd never even considered the fact that they'd had lives before she and Cheri had come along. As a matter of fact, Hemiko hardly ever thought about anyone other than herself, and it made her a little ashamed now.

But now she thought, what kind of world had Naruto been born to? Where were his parents - his family? Had he suffered a fate like Sasuke's? And what had given him this fierce determination to become Hokage? What were his tragedies? Hemiko did not know, and she wasn't about to go prying, but now she could see it clearly; something she'd missed all these years - the bond between her parents; the love they had for one another. They must have been through many hardships together, and those hardships had made their relationship strong - gave them strength. Sasuke and Naruto were tied together as surely as the sky was blue - they were the missing pieces in one another's lives, the thing that got them out of bed each morning and made them go on living.

Hemiko remembered the story from her childhood, of how Sasuke's crazed brother Itachi had tried to kill she and Cheri, starting before they were even born. But, again, she'd never put much thought into it before now. She realized her parents must have done so much for the two of them, to keep them safe, to protect them - and Hemiko had never even given it a second thought.

Sasuke's story had given her quite a bit to think about. That night - or morning - as the sun rose, her mind racing from horror after horror, jumping from one question to the next, Hemiko cried herself to sleep, wrapped in her fathers' pain.