Ohmigosh you guys, I haven't updated this in FOREVER! *checks when the last update was* Eek, it was over a month ago!

I'm so sorry about the wait! I could give a whole bunch of excuses but you don't want to hear those. I'm sure you're just ready to read the story. So ONWARD, to...um...the story.

I don't own Naruto.

Sasori and Deidara

"Explain what it is you did to me." Gaara is in the kitchen supposedly getting drinks, though Naruto isn't exactly sure what's going on with all the banging around in there.

The blonde looks away from the brightly colored wall to glance at the redhead, who has what looks like ten glasses in his hands. "You paint?"

"I paint." Gaara knocks sheets of paper and old palettes off the small coffee table, setting the glasses there in their place. "Now tell me what you did to me." The redhead sits on an old chair, drinking something clear-like that Naruto guesses is alcoholic.

"I triggered your old memories."

"My old memories." The man shoots him a 'don't-fuck-with-me' look and takes another swallow of the clearish liquid.

"From our past life or something." Naruto picks up a rough sketch of what looks like a desert. "That's how Neji explained it to me, anyway." He sets it down and looks at another sketch, this one of a giant sand-raccoon looking thing. "Apparently we all lived in some kind of ninja world." Naruto notices that Gaara picks up another glass of alcohol and downs that too. "That's not healthy, you know. But, anyway, I guess we all died or something in that world and we reborn here in this one. And don't give me that look! If you remembered more you'd probably understand!" He sets down the weird raccoon and picks up another sketch, noticing with some satisfaction that the person in the picture looks like him. "Some of us remember," he says, putting that down on the coffee table, "but you and me? We have to trigger our memories by finding people who do remember."

Gaara stares at him. And stares at him. And drinks some more. "This is bullshit."

"No! If I could trigger memories you'd understand!"

"Get out of my house." The redhead stands up and begins gathering the glasses.

"But you felt something that night! I know you did!" the blonde pleads, desperately hoping that he can get through. "Don't you remember?"

"No. Get out of my-" But the doorbell rings and cuts the redhead off. He glares at the door, then at Naruto, and back at the door, as though he can't tell which he hates more.

"Open the door, panda man! We've got muffins, yeah!"

"Panda-?"

Gaara shoots the blonde a nasty glare to silence him. "It's his stupid nickname for me." He unbolts the door and turns the doorknob and is promptly tackled by a blonde male.

"Panda man!" The blonde is squishing the redhead, who is flailing uselessly under him.

"Dei, get off of him." The redhead man outside steps in, avoiding the mess of people on the floor. The blonde does as he's told, taking the hand of the taller redhead.

"Panda man, we haven't seen you in ages, yeah!" The blonde takes notice of Naruto on the couch and grins. "Is this why? That's so cute!"

"No." Gaara picks himself up. "He was just leaving." He motions towards the still open door.

"No, let your boyfriend stay, yeah! We don't mind!" Naruto's cheek warm up and he looks away. Gaara's left eye twitches.

"He isn't my-"

"We brought drinks!" The blonde seats himself on the couch next to Naruto, setting the bottles he brought in an empty space on the coffee table. He stares at Naruto for a while, which unnerves the younger blonde, before grinning. "How long have you two been going out, yeah?"

"We haven't," Gaara says darkly, heading into the kitchen to control his twitching eye and probably get another drink.

"So you just fuck?" The blonde looks confused for a second before reaching over and turning Naruto's head from side to side. "He looks a little young, yeah."

Naruto's face is bright red. "We don't do anything!" he sputters, jerking out of the older blonde's grasp. "We – we're just friends!" The hear Gaara's 'hm' of agreement from the kitchen, along with some banging.

The taller redhead, who has been leaning against the wall watching everything, stands up. "Dei, talk. Now." The redhead heads into the back of the apartment and with a slightly worried look, the blonde follows. Naruto casts a quick glance at the kitchen, notes that Gaara is occupied, and follows the two into the back.

"Deidara, if he can't trigger memories, then who can? That kid was Gaara's best friend. If he's not bringing back anything then what makes you think we can?"

"Sasori-danna, maybe that kid doesn't know who he is either! Maybe it's just chance they found each other. Like you and me, yeah!"

"No. It's obvious that Gaara hates the kid. Somebody's pulling strings here."

"Maybe he knows more than he lets on then. Maybe he's just waiting for the right time. But, I'm fairly certain that he doesn't know who we are."

"And he doesn't know when to mind his own business." The door to the room is suddenly opened and Naruto finds himself staring up at the redhead and the blonde. "Well? You have ten seconds to defend yourself."

"You're talking about memories, right?" the teen blurts out. "How to trigger them? I…I can help. I'm trying to help. Please don't hurt me."

The older redhead yanks him into the room and closes the door. "How?"

But the other blonde places a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "Danna, un, you're scaring him." He turns to Naruto. "Do you know who we are?"

"No. But, you're from that other world, right? You remember things. You know who I am."

Dei smiles. "He does know some things, danna."

But the redhead doesn't look impressed. At all. "How do you make the memories come back?"

Naruto nibbles on his bottom lip. I'm not…entirely sure because I don't have a lot of my memories back but it seems like…like…" He falters and the redhead grabs onto the front of his shirt.

"Tell me."

"Danna!" Dei grabs the man's arm and pries his hands away from Naruto. "Stop harassing him!"

"He's not giving any answers!"

"Because you're scaring him! Danna, he knows something! He's trying to help us! Stop trying to ruin this!"

The redhead sucks in a deep breath, frowning, but doesn't say anything in response. Naruto swallows before trying again to answer. "It seems like…like you need to see the face, see the person directly before anything else. And then…their old name, your old name, should trigger some memories. That's how it…how it works for me…"

Dei blinks almost stupidly. "It's that simple?"

"You never tried that before?"

The older blonde is about to respond when the redhead steps forward. "My name is Sasori."

And suddenly the wind is sucked from Naruto's lungs. He remembers his pink-haired friend, his teammate, leaving to fight the puppeteer. He remembers an old woman. He doesn't know anything about their fight, but he knows that this man was in their way. He was in their way. Why? What…and then it hits him that this man was blocking him from saving Gaara. Saving Gaara…

He falls to his knees as the mental barriers slam down.

"Naruto?" Dei's voice is dull, almost muted. "Naruto?"

He feels rage and hate flood through his body. For an instant, he hates this man. For an instant all he wants to do is tear the redhead apart limb from limb. "You son of a bitch," he breathes out. "You deserved to die."

"Naruto!" Dei cries and every ounce of rage vanishes. "Don't say that about danna!" His grabs hold of Sasori's hand.

"No, let him be angry," the man disagrees. "He has the right to be angry. None of the memories he harbors of us are pleasant. We should have expected such rage, just as we should expect it from Gaara." He takes a good look at Naruto. "But is your rage only that temporary? Is it simply a flash of emotion at the memories, nothing more? Do you not feel anything for the memories that you now retain? Or is it simply a case of anger at the person I was once, and not the person I am now?" A smirk plays on Sasori's lips. "It's all the same person in the end, Naruto."

"That's not true, danna! We're better people now! We're trying to help Gaara, not hurt him!"

"Hurt Gaara?" Her scrunches up his face, trying to make the memories come back.

"No! I'm not going to hurt him! I'm not going to hurt anyone! Tell him, danna!" Dei grabs Sasori's arm, eyes brimming with tears. "Tell him!"

"The fuck is going on back here?" The opening of the door cuts off anything Sasori would have said and he purses his lips into a thin line of disapproval. "I turn around for a few minutes and you all disappear." Gaara points at Naruto. "You need to get out of my apartment. You've overstayed your welcome."

Naruto, without a word of protest, walks out.

School is a nightmare. He's exhausted from late nights spent with Neji or Kiba and Akamaru. Any sleep he does get is riddled with memories past and present: Akamaru getting hit by the car, watching Kiba leave him to go fight those creepy twins, Neji watching him at the park, fighting against him in the Chunin exams. He's fairly certain that he's failing three classes but that's okay with him.

He's in history again. The teacher is talking but he has no idea what the old lady is saying because he's most definitely not paying attention. Instead he's been staring at the boy in front of him for the past half hour. He glances at the teacher once, notices her turned away, and chucks a wadded up piece of paper at the kid's head. The boy turns.

"What's your name?"

The boy is caught off guard. "It's halfway through November and you still don't know my name? Tch, how tro-" But Naruto's phone vibrates in his pocket and distracts him from the kid. He pulls it out and examines the text.

'Naruto, panda-man is responding to me! Help!'

And almost immediately he gets another text, this one from Sasori. 'Naruto, we don't know what's going on with Gaara. He seems to be in shock. Get over here.'

Naruto looks up at the clock, takes note of the fact that there are only five minutes left of class, and throws another ball of paper at the kid's head. The boy looks back again, eyebrow raised, and Naruto kicks his bag next to the boy's leg. "Watch that for me." Before the boy can something anything Naruto throws his hand up in the air. "Mrs., I've got to pee!"

The old woman has shock written all over her face. "But there's only-"

"I really have to go!" he protests.

"Well, if you really have to-" He's up and out of the room in a flash.

"Hey, Neji?"

"Naruto? Shouldn't you be in school? Is everything okay?"

"No. But it's not me who's having problems. It's Gaara. I know you have work, but, could you come be support?"

"Naruto, I can't just leave. And you should be at school. Go back."

"Gaara's a priority."

"He isn't. Get back to-" But he hangs up before Neji can finish speaking.

He lets himself in to Gaara's apartment. The redhead is on the couch gazing off into oblivion. Die is sitting next to him, shaking him slightly. Sasori is leaning against the back wall, arms crossed, staring intently at the back of Gaara's head. He looks up when Naruto enters, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

"Can you fix him?" is Dei's worried question.

"I don't know." Naruto gets down on his knees in front of the smaller redhead, staring up into those jade eyes. "Hey, Gaara? Gaara, talk to me." But the redhead doesn't move, doesn't blink.

"We've already tried that," Sasori says.

Naruto stands up. "Well, what haven't you tried?"

"We've poked him and shook him. We haven't pushed him off the couch though. Should we do that?"

Sasori shoots his boyfriend a disapproving look. "That won't help," Naruto says, getting back down. "So…what exactly happened?"

"We told him Dei's name," Sasori answers.

"Oh." Naruto looks at the other blonde and then to Sasori. "I don't even know Dei's name."

"Deina," the blonde says, smiling. "Mom wanted a girl."

"Not that name," Sasori hisses, glaring.

"Oh. Oh!" Dei's cheeks flush red. "Deidara."

Naruto sucks in a deep breath like he's been punched in the gut. Memories are starting to flash through his mind when he's grabbed by the shoulders and shaken roughly. "We don't have time for you to go into shock too. Stay with me. Think of Gaara. Gaa-ra." The redhead shakes him again.

"I'm okay," he says, clutching his head. A massive headache is coming on. "I think." He looks back up at Gaara. "Snap out of this, Gaara." He tries to think of what he could possibly do that would work when it hits him. He pushes himself off his knees and presses his forehead to Gaara's. "Gaara."

Hands grab his shoulders. Green eyes blink slowly. "He killed me." Gaara rises to his feet, towering over both the blonde's. He turns to Dei, eyes narrowing dangerously. "You killed me."

"I…I didn't kill you. I – I only-"

"You killed me! And then you have the audacity to come to me in this life and pretend to be my friend?"

"I was trying to help! I'm trying to make things better!" Tears come to Dei's eyes. "I'm not hurting you! I'm trying to help! Help! I'm trying to be your friend!"

Sasori steps in front of the crying blonde. "We're trying to turn our lives around, make up for our mistakes then."

"And you thought I would just accept you, get over the fact that you killed me?"

"I'm sorry!" Dei screams. "I'm sorry!"

"And you." Gaara turns around and grabs Naruto by the throat. "You spend your time trying to find these memories? This shit?" His grip tightens. "Did you ever think that maybe we weren't supposed to remember? That it wasn't worth remembering?" Naruto's vision is getting spotty, but he can see Sasori trying to get Gaara away from him. "Did you ever think for a second that we'd be better off without these memories, that maybe we'd hurt less if we remained ignorant?" Darkness is seeping into the edges of his vision. Sasori's fingers are trying to pry off Gaara's. "You want to find these memories? Go for it. But keep me the fuck out of it." Naruto passes out as Gaara lets him go.

Okay, well, this is probably the longest chapter this story is ever going to have. I'm lame, I know. And again, I'm super sorry for the long wait. I'll try to have the next chapter up within a month. And if it's not up by then, then you people need to like, poke me or send me some strongly worded messages.

But, at this moment in time, could you please leave a review? Pretty please?

And, have a nice day!