And another chapter done! The end is so close, I can almost taste it!

Thanks so much to Falainakorna for your wonderful review! I'm so glad you're enjoying my story! As for your predictions... well, you could be right, but it would ruin the surprise if I told you, now wouldn't it?

Happy reading everyone! Addi out!

Naruto was still passed out cold on the bed when Sasuke woke up the next morning with a headache. The light from outside was slanting through the window with the harsh angle of an almost-noon sun, and it landed on Naruto's blond head with delicate playful fingers, reminding Sasuke of the golden halo he had worn the day before.

Careful not to waken the sleeping angel beside him, Sasuke slipped out of bed, fixing the sheet behind him, and quietly left the room. Once the door had clicked shut, he moved to the suite bathroom, and, after checking that neither Hinata for Neji were already occupying it, entered it and locked the door behind him.

The mirror above the sink was placed in the perfect position to capture Sasuke's reflection as soon he flipped the light switch on, presenting him with a forceful image of his own face. There were dark circles under his eyes from weeks of late nights and restless sleep and his cheeks had started to take on a yellowish, sallow tinge from malnutrition, but that was nothing compared to the injury over his left eye, which had scabbed over and was starting to look slightly inflamed. With a grimace, Sasuke looked away from the mirror and pulled his shirt - God, he really had to break this habit of sleeping in his clothes - over his head, feeling the strain of sore muscles all down his back and sides. A warm shower and a hot meal, he figured, would do him a world of good.

An hour, two showers, a disastrous adventure with a razor, a large hot breakfast, courtesy of Sakura, and a piece of gauze, also courtesy of Sakura, taped to his forehead wound, which had reopened after his second shower, later, Sasuke finally make it back to his room to find Naruto still out cold in the middle of his bed. Shaking his head as he smiled to himself, Sasuke sat down in the swivel chair at the desk and settled back to watch him sleep.

And immediately got bored. How did Naruto do this night after night? He wondered in curious amazement, spinning around in his chair like a child. Though it probably didn't help that Naruto didn't breathe, so watching him was like watching a corpse.

Idly, Sasuke drummed his fingers against the desktop, looking for something to amuse himself with until Naruto woke. His phone was out of the question - it would remain permanently off until he was good and ready to talk to his parents again - but perhaps something already in the room could amuse him. There was an antique mason jar full of pens - why had he never noticed them before? - on the back left corner of the desk, but no paper or anything else to use them on. Maybe there was some stationary or something in a drawer somewhere, he figured, and started opening them and peering inside.

As Sasuke was feeling around the dark recesses of the bottom of the three drawers, it suddenly struck him that he hadn't explored the room very well, even though he'd been calling it home for over a month now. He felt a little ashamed of the fact; how could he have been sleeping somewhere for that long and never even considered checking the drawers of the desk?

To his disappointment, there was no paper in the bottom drawer, or anything else for that matter. A cursory examination of the middle drawer revealed the same emptiness, so by the time Sasuke got to the top drawer, he was so disgruntled with the fruitless search that he didn't really look, only stuck his hand in, expecting to feel the same wood on the bottom of the drawer and nothing else.

The top drawer was less deep than the bottom two but just as long, and Sasuke's hand glided along the wooden planks making up the bottom almost to the back, then, suddenly, bumped up against something. Immediately reinterested, Sasuke peered into the dark shadows at the back of the drawer and was barely able to make out the shape of a small rectangular box. Upon pulling it out, he discovered that it was an ancient deck of Bicycle playing cards. Judging by the color and texture of the box, they had probably been forgotten years ago and lain untouched ever since.

Careful not to ruin the old, yellowing paper of the box, Sasuke opened it and slid the cards out. Someone had obviously cared for them well when they were in use, because while they were worn and slightly faded, not a single card was creased or torn. After separating out the two jokers, Sasuke counted the deck to make sure all the cards were there. Upon discovering that they were, and he smiled delightedly. He knew how to play three different kinds of solitaire; he was good to go.

Six games of solitaire, all of which Sasuke lost, eleven games of spider solitaire, all of which he won, and five and a half games of pyramid solitaire, which everyone knows is impossible to win, had passed before Sasuke heard stirring from the direction of the bed.

"Morning. Rough night?" He asked as he heard Naruto get up, but didn't look up from the cards on the desk.

"Far from it; it was wonderful. I haven't slept in over a hundred years, you know." Naruto came to stand directly behind Sasuke, but he didn't turn to look at him. This was the closest game he had played so far; he might actually have a chance of winning it. There were only three cards left in the pyramid, a five, a six, and a card still turned facedown, and two left in his hand. With bated breath, Sasuke flipped over the top card in his hand. It was a seven. Quickly, he picked up first the six, then the five, and piled them in the discard pile, then turned over the last card. A flamboyant jack stared back up at him. Sasuke's breath caught; could he really be this lucky? The last card in his hand was lying facedown on the table, and he flipped it over.

It was a king.

With a disappointed sigh, Sasuke swept the cards together and started to shuffle them. The winning of a game of pyramids solitaire, something he had never managed in his life thus far, would have to wait for another day.

The weight of a hand settled against Sasuke's shoulder. "What was that game? Can I play with you?"

"Not really." Sasuke squared up the deck of cards and placed it on the desk, then swung around in his swivel chair to face Naruto. A twinge of guilt wrenched through his stomach as he looked at the blond ghost's soft face, remembering the events of the night before, but he squashed it down. "It's a kind of solitaire. But I can teach it to you, if you want."

"Nah." Naruto shrugged and down on the arm of the chair, swinging his feet and kicking Sasuke playfully. "But I do want you to play something with me. Do you know how to play rummy?"

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "Rummy? What even is that?"

"It's a card game, stupid," Naruto scoffed. "Didn't you have a grandmother or something to teach you old card games?"

"Not to my knowledge."

Naruto's eyes got wide in mocking horror. "No? Then you never learned how to play hearts? Bridge? Cribbage?"

"What the hell is cribbage?"

Naruto waved a hand dismissively. "A card game, but we can't play it because you need a board."

A single eyebrow crawled up Sasuke's forehead. "Why do you need a board if it's a card game?"

"Because you keep track of points with pegs- oh, never mind. Anyway, can you play any real card games?"

Sasuke crossed his arms over his chest defensively. "I can play old maid. And go fish."

Naruto's jaw almost dropped. "Those aren't real card games!"

"Yes they are!" Sasuke shoved Naruto off the arm of his chair. "And I can play bullshit, too."

"Bullshit?" Naruto looked offended by the very name. "What the hell kind of a name for a card game is that?"

"You've never heard of bullshit?"

"Why would I ask you if I- oh, never mind. Let's just play old maid. Do we have a joker?"

"We have two," Sasuke answered, grabbing one of the discarded jokers and shuffling it into the deck.

"Well, we only need one." Naruto grabbed Sasuke's hands and pulled him to his feet, then floated over to the bed, straightening the sheets with a flick of his wrist. "Come on; sit across from me. You can deal."

"Do you have any… fours?"

"Go fish."

"Dammit, Naruto!"

"Hey, don't be mad just because I'm winning!"

"You're not winning, you're cheating!" Sasuke glared at Naruto over his hand of cards.

Affronted, Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, but kept careful track of the cards in his hand at the same time so as not to flash their numbers to Sasuke. "I'm not cheating! You're just a sore loser."

Sasuke glowered, unable to refute the statement because of the truth behind it, and drew a card from the deck, depositing it in his hand. Naruto practically gleamed with smugness.

But, Sasuke argued with himself, he had a right to be a sore loser! He and Naruto had just finished four games of old maid, all of which had ended in the phantom's victory, before moving on to go fish, and so far, on almost every turn, Naruto had been able to successfully gain at least one card from Sasuke, while he had been sent fishing every time! There was no way he wasn't cheating!

"Hmmmm…" Naruto murmured cockily as he regarded his cards, causing Sasuke to grind his teeth in irritation. "What should I do? Let's see…. Do you have any… Kings?"

Glee shot through Sasuke. About to tell Naruto that no, he didn't have any Kings, he glanced down at his hand to see that the card he had just drawn, which he hadn't paid much attention to yet, was indeed a King. Swearing roughly, he threw the card at the smug Naruto.

"Take the damn thing!"

"Thank you," Naruto said in a singsong voice, deftly plucking the card from the air and adding it to his own hand. "Your turn."

Gritting his teeth in annoyance, Sasuke looked down at his hand. He only had six cards left - three Jacks, a four, and two sevens - and no matches, while Naruto already had six. He'd asked before, but there was no harm in asking again.

"Do you have any Jacks?"

"Go fish!" Naruto sang in the face of Sasuke glower. "Well, you don't have to be so pissy about it."

"Hmph." Sasuke reached for the top card on the deck, and a smile broke out on his face when he saw what it was. "Jack," he proclaimed smugly, holding it up for Naruto's inspection, then collected the other three Jacks in his hand and slammed them down on the bedspread in a match.

Nodding at the match, Naruto glanced down at his own hand of five cards and made a face before asking again, "Got a King yet?"

Sasuke shook his head in response. "Go fish."

Wrinkling his nose a little, Naruto grabbed a card from the deck and placed it in his hand. With a sigh, he stretched and nodded back to Sasuke. "Your turn."

"I know it's my turn! You don't have to keep telling me!" Sasuke snapped, surveying his own limited options. "Got a seven?"

"I have two," Naruto answered, holding them out, and Sasuke looked up in surprise and amazement. "What? I told you I wasn't cheating. It was just lucky guesses, and you finally got one in."

"I guess," Sasuke said suspiciously as he took the cards, united them with the cards in his hand, and laid them down next to the Jacks.

His suspicions were confirmed when Naruto asked cheekily, "Got a four?"

Grimacing, Sasuke threw his last remaining card at Naruto. "And that's your victory again! How are you doing this?"

"Would you be too angry with me if I told you I could see the reflection of your cards in the window this whole time?"

Sasuke's mouth fell open. "Why, you little-!"

Unable to finish his sentence, Sasuke launched himself at the highly amused Naruto, and the pair fell off the bed in a jumble of live and spectral limbs.

"-cheating bastard!" He finally managed, and Naruto gave a crow of delight.

"I can't believe you never figured it out!" Naruto guffawed, teasing Sasuke by throwing bits of his body in and out of corporeality just as he was about to grab them.

"I did, you asshole!" Sasuke managed to grab Naruto's shoulder just as the ghost made it corporeal, flipping him over and pinning him. "I knew you were cheating from the first game!"

Naruto moved his corporeality from his shoulder to his elbow, leaving Sasuke to grasp at empty air as he jabbed him under the ribs with enough force to take his breath away, but not actually hurt him. "But you never figured out how I was doing it!"

"That's because you were cheating!"

The two boys continued to tussle playfully on the floor, messing up the carpet as they went. For the most part, Naruto's trick of semi-corporeality gave him an advantage, but occasionally Sasuke would gain the upper hand with quick thinking and skill.

It was during one of these times where Sasuke had managed to catch Naruto off guard, pinning him down onto the floor in a semblance of a chokehold, that the door abruptly opened, revealing the silhouette of a man with the same dark hair and eyes as Sasuke. Naruto immediately dropped his corporeality, letting Sasuke thump to the floor through him, and they briefly occupied the same space before Sasuke jumped up nervously, leaving Naruto to sit up on the floor and scratch his head sheepishly.

"F-Father?!" Sasuke stuttered, taking a step backwards. He was suddenly very aware of his appearance, from his flushed cheeks and panting breath to his rumpled clothing and the bandaged injury directly above his eye. "I- I didn't know you were… When did you get here?"

"Father?" Naruto looked back and forth between Sasuke and the man in the doorway, a lightbulb flicking on in his eyes when he figured it out. "Sasuke, this guy's your old man?"

Sasuke reflexively winced, shrinking back into himself. The presence of his father here, now, was a foul-breathed curse with a feted smile, reveling in his discomfort. Just, he suddenly realized, as it always had been. Amazingly, Naruto was unaffected by the waves of malicious emotion Sasuke could feel rolling off his father, but he was not unaffected by the presence of the phantom.

Fugaku Uchiha, Sasuke's father, fixed his stern gaze squarely on Naruto. "Yes, as a matter of fact, I am Sasuke's 'old man,' as you called me. The question that remains, however, is this: who are you?"