Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

What was beyond the door was obviously an open room. Cheri could feel it - everyone could. This was no narrow hallway. A bit of the tension flowed out of them. "Let's look around," Cheri said, feeling now more curious than afraid. She assumed that all her friends felt the same way, because they immediately split. Amaya went one way holding hands with Yasashiku, Ayame followed Cheri, and Haru and Mika went yet another way.

First thing's first, Cheri thought. She began feeling the walls for a switch. Some light would be very comforting at this point. From somewhere in the darkness came the sounds of soft scurrying. "What was that?!" sounded Amaya's voice in a loud, high-pitched screech. Sounds of more scurrying. Ayame and Cheri paused for a moment to listen.

"Just a few rats," said Yasashiku's voice in a bored tone.

Cheri smiled to herself, and caught Ayame smiling too. Then there was another sound - a heavy door being yanked on in the darkness. They stopped again. After a few moments, Haru said, "I think we're in a basement you guys," but his voice sounded muffled. "I just found a wine cellar." A low whistle. "This is some pricey stuff back here - oh!" Suddenly there was a tiny click, and then there was light! The large room was illuminated at one end - the little cellar that Haru had found was now perfectly visible. He stood next to Mika, grinning, with a light switch cord in his hand. Also, Cheri could now see Yasashiku and Amaya at the opposite side of the room, smiling a little.

Haru and Mika stepped out of the little lighted space, examining the large concrete room with new eyes. Now Cheri could see, they were in a basement. The entire large room was littered with dark shapes like boxes, and unknown objects of different shapes and sizes.

Cheri sighed heavily, but she was smiling. "Well, looks like we've got more work to do."

After dinner that night, Cheri was catching up on some reading when Sasuke showed up at her bedroom door. Cheri usually didn't like to stay in her room much anymore, not since Sasuke had revealed his childhood past to her and Hemiko, but she had fixed up the place a lot. Her room almost wasn't recognizable anymore. She and her friends had moved out all the old furniture that had been left in this room from before, and they had put in all the furniture from the room she'd used to sleep in that was next to Hemiko's. Also, the walls had fresh coats of paint - as well as the floor, just in case - and now their were bright yellow curtains hanging from newly clean windows, allowing the sunlight to stream in. Cheri's first impression of the curtains had been that she loved the color of them - she'd heard that apparently her father Naruto had had a thing for the color orange when he was young, well now apparently she was taking a shine to yellow. Not that that was of any importance, really.

Sasuke knocked lightly on the doorframe to her bedroom, and then stepped inside as she frowned at him. Cheri and her friends had not told Sasuke and Naruto about the basement they had found, nor had they told Hemiko. As a matter of fact, they had told Hemiko that they didn't need her help anymore - no really, they were fine. Ugh. Stupid Hemiko, always having to stick her big nose in everything that Cheri did. So anyway, Cheri and her friends were planning on taking more lights - probably oil lamps for the most part, she doubted there was electricity down there at all - to the basement the next day so that they would be more able to explore.

Now Sasuke was shutting her bedroom door behind him, and he crossed the room to sit on the edge of her bed. Cheri ignored him and pretended to read her book. He just looked around the room, not saying a word. Finally, just moments before she was about to snap and demand to know why he was even in there at all if he wasn't even going to say anything, Sasuke broke the silence. "I like what you've done with the place," he commented.

She figured he was talking about the room. "Yeah," she said.

"I don't just mean this room, I mean this whole side of the house. I'm impressed. It's... different from the way it was in my memories, and that's very good. Maybe we'll start using this part of the house again." Oh is that right? Cheri thought darkly. Me and my friends work our butts off to get this place looking habitual again, and as soon as we're finished and it's convenient for you, you're just going to "move in"?

As if reading her mind, Sasuke said, "Well, we wouldn't want all your hard work to go unappreciated." He smiled halfheartedly. "But you know, this isn't what I came to talk to you about."

Figured that, she thought.

"You know," he continued, "Naruto's very sad that you don't seem to trust us anymore."

She made a face at that. I don't "seem to?" There's no "seem to" about it. "Well, looks like Naruto's just going to have to be sad then," she said, though she couldn't quite prefect the coldness in her voice. Somehow Naruto still managed to be her favorite father. She swallowed hard and turned another page in her book, reminding herself to go back and find her place later.

"Cheri, look, I'm not very good at these kinds of talks, as you might imagine. I'm sorry we kept things from you, but we had good reason and we never meant to hurt anybody, especially not our own daughters. We told you everything, we said we're sorry. There's no need for you to go on being so stubborn."

"Oh so now I'm being stubborn," she scoffed angrily.

His expression darkened a bit. "Yes, you are, and I think you know you are. So why don't we grow up and stop this foolishness now?"

Cheri looked at her father for a long moment then. Suddenly she wondered, why was Sasuke even here at all? Why was it Sasuke who was in here, talking to her now? She'd figured that if anyone in this family were at all to try to convince her to forgive her parents, it would be Naruto. But where was Naruto? Off being Hokage, that's where. His precious job that had always seemed to mean so much more than his own daughter.

Anyway, Sasuke's pet was Hemiko, so why was he here talking to the other daughter? It's not like he and Cheri had ever been that close anyway. He and Naruto had been playing favorites with them since the day that Cheri and Hemiko were born.

Suddenly Sasuke did something she didn't expect. He scrunched his nose in distaste and bent over slightly to read the cover of her book. "I thought you didn't like to read," he commented.

She closed the book with a quick snap and set it aside. "Don't try to change the subject."

He shrugged. "There wasn't really a subject to change. You were the one who wasn't saying anything." Cheri felt her face go red at that, but kept quiet.

In a way, Cheri did know that she was being stubborn - that her fathers' reasons for keeping secrets were good, and that she should just try to forget the whole thing, and cheer Naruto on with his new job. For a moment, she could see it played out before her eyes - Naruto coming home every day with a grin plastered to his face, while Cheri waited at the door, her grin matching his. And when he came home she would be the first to greet him. She'd give him a big hug. And whenever times were tough in Konoha she would encourage and nag at him whenever needed. Maybe Sasuke would be the pregnant one then, the stay-at-home mom - the thought nearly made her burst with laughter.

It was a good dream. But she knew it would never happen. Because as long as Hemiko was in this house, living with them, Cheri would hardly ever amount to anything. In their parents' eyes, the two could never be equal.

Sasuke stood, and she was sidetracked for a moment. "I'm really impressed with all your hard work," he muttered, looking around at the room.

Distracted by his words - curiosity tugging at her, beckoning her forward into having an actual conversation with the father who'd never seemed to care for her - she forgot for a moment that she was mad at him. "...we found an old basement today," she confessed a little grudgingly.

"Really?" Sasuke asked. His curiosity seemed perked too, now.

She nodded. "Yeah. There was even an old wine cellar down there. I don't know much about wine myself, but Haru said it looks like some expensive stuff."

And Sasuke did seem impressed by that. He smiled at her. For a moment, he looked like he wanted to say something, but then he seemed to change his mind. Instead, he sat back down, a little closer to her than before. "Look," he said quietly, half-grimacing, "Naruto and I do feel horrible. We shouldn't have... kept so many things about this house from you. You were right about that at least - we should have told you more about your family. But I will not apologize for anything further than that.

"And about the other secret... well, you have to understand that we were going to surprise you and Hemiko with it. I'm sure that it would have excited the both of you. Besides, we... well, we were still trying to... I mean, we weren't even sure if it was going to work or not, and thinking about it was really hurting Naruto. We didn't want to bring it up and cause another awkward conversation if we didn't even know..." He trailed off, a bit flustered.

Cheri didn't speak. She knew that she was just being stubborn. But she just couldn't quite force down the familiar sting of betrayal whenever she thought about it. As if she hadn't already felt distanced from her family enough - with all of these new family secrets popping up she felt more left out than ever, and her fathers would just have to understand that. But then again... well, she could sort of understand why Sasuke wouldn't want to talk about his past. And she could sort of see what he meant about letting the whole baby thing be a surprise...

She shook her head. They had kept secrets from her. Hemiko might be willing to forgive and forget, but Hemiko could do that very easily. Hemiko had always been so loved by their parents - by everybody, really. It must be pretty simply to forgive two people who absolutely fawned over you. It was harder for Cheri.

"Look, Cheri, I didn't come in here to argue with you. I just wanted you to know that this is really hurting Naruto, a lot. He wants your support now more than anything."

Cheri thought for a moment. "And was he the one to suggest that you come in here to talk to me?" she asked coldly.

He scoffed, surprising her a little. "Actually, he and I disagree about something. I don't think he wanted me to talk to you, because I'm not sorry, and he is. He wants your forgiveness, and I just want you to stop being so damn stubborn." He smiled slightly. "He figured that if I said that to you, though, it would just piss you off even more, but I figured it was worth a try anyway."

She finally looked him full in the eye. "I don't get it..." she said slowly. "What do you mean you're not sorry?"

He sighed. "Honestly? I don't think that Naruto and I have any reason to apologize to you. Yes, we kept secrets from you, but we didn't mean any harm by it whatsoever. And now I'm beginning to repeat myself a little, I think, so maybe it's about time to wrap up this conversation."

Cheri fell silent again. Giving in felt too... it felt too much like surrender right now. She didn't like this raw, weak feeling - the bitter aftertaste that bowing her head and saying "sorry" would leave behind. She shook her head. "I just..." She paused, then shook her head again. "I just don't know what to think right now."

Sasuke was quite for a moment too. Then, he stood as if to leave. "Yeah, I get it," he said with a shrug. His voice sounded casual enough, but when he looked down at her he was grinning. "You're an Uchiha, and you don't want to give up your pride. Boy don't I know what that feels like. You should have seen me the day that Naruto tried to convince me that he was pregnant with my babies. "

Cheri tried not to smile at the mental images in her head, but somehow she didn't quite succeed at that. A smile slipped, then suddenly, she began to laugh for no reason. It felt good. She probably wouldn't have laughed so much if Sasuke hadn't have started laughing with her. And so, strangely, the two that had never quite clicked were suddenly standing in Cheri's room, laughing together like friends. It was a strange sensation, but Cheri felt that giving up this way was much easier to take than lowering her head and actually apologizing.