Oh my god, guys! I'm updating already! We haven't even hit the six month mark yet! In fact, I don't think we even hit the three month mark yet! A sure sign of the apocalypse. The end is near…

So, we'll get back to some more plot-related stuff in the next chapter. This one is really to get a closer look at their interactions with the other characters in this world, Luke especially.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! And Guest, I looked up the German Naruto opening as per your request. Oh my god… I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or cringe. Thank you for that experience. I hope to never have it again.

Chapter Eighteen: Friends

I woke up the next morning feeling oddly weary. Sleep was supposed to refresh a person's mind and body, but lately it had become an ordeal for me. And today I had a feeling it wasn't just the disturbing dream.

Speaking of, I wasn't sure what had brought that on. I hadn't thought of my many failed counseling attempts in ages. There had come a time when my mother had recovered enough to at least put up a front. It was a well-crafted façade that reestablished her control. Or, the image of it anyway. Forcing her children to get professional help had made my mother seem a little more put together herself.

But the therapist in the dream last night… She had frustrated me beyond belief. That woman hadn't been unkind… just rigid. She wasn't open to considering possibilities. In her eyes, Luke was recovering and I wasn't. Things were so black and white for her… I didn't understand how anyone could think like that.

My eyes drifted across the room and settled on my brother where he lay still asleep on the bed. Even in sleep he looked… I wasn't sure which word was most appropriate. Guarded, maybe. When we'd first come to this world, I thought I'd known all there was to know about Luke. But the longer we were here, the more it felt like there were all these sides to my brother that I'd never seen before.

Never in a million years would I have seen the friendship with Team Ten coming. Even back in our world, Luke's head had been a little too full with our family problems for him to have an abundance of friends. On the other hand, I never would have seen this thing I had with Lee coming either.

That thought stopped me cold. I gripped the blankets a little tighter. Somehow, with all of the surprises yesterday afternoon had brought, I'd managed to completely forget that Lee would be lying in critical condition in the hospital by now.

The memory of his appearance post-Gaara in the anime was enough to bring tears to my eyes and make me sick to my stomach now. When all of this had just been a TV show, I hadn't thought Lee's injuries had looked too bad. Not when compared to how gruesome some other shows could get. Now that I knew him as a real person…

"Carly?" I jumped at the sound of my brother's groggy voice. "What's wrong?"

I hate to even say it, but I considered lying to him. Perhaps Luke wasn't the only one who'd changed. Seriously, when had lying become my first response?

I swallowed painfully and tried to explain the situation with Lee. Thankfully, Luke caught on pretty quickly. After all, we'd already discussed the outcome of Lee's match.

"But you told me before," he reminded me, "he recovers… Lee's going to be fine, Carly."

I nodded but didn't look at him. He was awake and alert now, but his voice was unnaturally quiet. Yesterday, when I'd visited with Sakura, I'd had so much trouble finding the right words. I was not the comforting type. Luke was. He was better at adjusting to other people's moods than I was.

"You don't have to work today, right?" he continued. "I'll tell my boss something came up, and we'll go visit him together, okay? Choji is supposed to get out of the hospital today, anyway."

"You don't have to do that."

"But I will."

I finally raised my head. He looked very serious. "No… I mean it, Luke. I'll be fine. Really. Go to work. They need you there today."

I waited, trying to appear as stable as possible as he scrutinized my expression for the next minute. He frowned. Apparently, he'd seen something there that troubled him, but eventually he gave in. "Okay."

I was glad he dropped it so easily. I loved my brother, but this next meeting with Lee was something I needed to do alone.

…

I took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching my hands repeatedly. Once again the hospital loomed before me. I was just as nervous, but if possible, everything seemed a little more sinister today.

I wasn't sure I wanted to see him in this condition in person. My imaginings were difficult enough.

But in the end there was no reason to have gotten myself so worked up. The place was much busier today, and the woman behind the desk was more stressed. When she looked up Lee's room number, she very briskly informed me that he wasn't allowed visitors and there was little else she could tell me, have a nice day.

I walked a few steps before leaning back against the counter. None of the nurses seemed to take any notice of me, which I was grateful for. I tried to take some comfort in Luke's words earlier that morning. I knew Lee would be fine. His dreams of being a ninja wouldn't even be permanently lost. Still, it didn't make this any easier.

"Carly?"

I jumped and whirled around to see Tenten standing a few feet away. She looked a little more relaxed than usual, but maybe it only seemed that way to me because she was out of her 'uniform' as I'd taken to calling her mission outfit. Today she was wearing the clothes she had worn (would wear?) to the Chunin Exam finals. She seemed okay, but I couldn't miss the scratches and cuts that lined her arms and face from her fight with Temari.

"Oh…" I said when I'd regained my voice. "Hey, Tenten."

She nodded a greeting before saying, "I came back to check on Lee, but… no visitors, huh? Neji said his fight with that Sand guy was pretty bad."

She looked annoyed, whether because of the outcome of her own fight or the condition of her team mate, I didn't know. But when she noticed the expression on my face, her look softened.

"Carly, you know he's gonna be fine, right? Lee's the most stubborn person I know, and it's not like he hasn't gotten himself into trouble before. Lee would never let something like this hold him down for too long. Relax."

I tried to smile convincingly. The irony didn't go over my head. Granted, Tenten hadn't been there to see the fight, but she didn't know the outcome for sure and was still so confident. And here I was… the only person in this world besides my brother who did know for sure that Lee would—eventually—make a full recovery. So why was I such a mess?

Tenten seemed to find something about my reaction very amusing, but she didn't get a chance to comment further before Gai turned the corner, walking back out into the entrance. We both stood up a little straighter, but he didn't notice us, gloomy state that he was in. Tenten knew as well as I did that Gai would have special privileges, being his Jonin teacher. No matter what she'd said, I knew she had to be at least a little worried.

"Sensei!" she called at last, directing his attention over our way. When Gai looked up, most of his despair was instantly wiped from his face, but something lingered.

"Tenten! What are you doing back in the hospital? I thought the doctors released you yesterday!"

His voice lacked its usual fervor, but Tenten waved this away. "Never mind that. How's Lee?"

"Lee… will surely recover in no time! His spirit is one of the most youthful I've ever known!"

Though his act was getting more convincing, there was still something missing. He nodded to Tenten and barely glanced at me before walking out of the hospital. The two of us watched him go. Tenten frowned, putting her hands on her hips and looking frustrated.

"Damn," she said. "It must be bad then."

"Yeah…"

She shook her head and forced a smile. "Still… cheer up. I stand by what I said before. Lee will be fine. Anyway, I told Neji I'd help him train today—he's working on some new jutsu—so I'd better get going."

"Oh, right… Uh, tell him good luck for me," I said, trying to be courteous even though I already knew the outcome.

This made Tenten laugh. "I will. I'm sure he'll get a kick out of that, considering he's fighting your friend. Seriously, though, thank you for trying to be polite. I know Neji can be a little insensitive sometimes, but he's really not a bad guy. And he's the only other sane member of my team."

This got a laugh out of me, mostly because it was true. "I guess we'll see how well he does in the finals." It came out as more of a challenge than I'd intended.

Tenten scoffed, a competitive spark in her eyes. "Oh, please! Naruto doesn't stand a chance against Neji! But I guess you'll see that yourself a month from now. See you later, Carly."

"Yeah, bye, Tenten."

…

Smiling was the last thing I'd been expecting to do when I'd walked into the hospital, but Tenten had managed to cheer me up considerably.

I wasn't sure where I stood, exactly, with Tenten. If challenged, I was sure her loyalties would ultimately lie with Neji, but I didn't think she hated me. She didn't even seem terribly suspicious. Maybe we would never be really close, but I believed it was possible we could be friends. And this made me smile.

A smile that was immediately wiped off my face when I walked into our apartment… and found Choji and Shikamaru sitting on our couch like it was the most natural thing in the world. I froze in the doorway, eyes wide. My brother was across the room, working on something in the kitchen area. If the three had been talking before, the conversation ceased with my entrance.

Today was just full of irony. This was my home, but our visitors were impossibly more relaxed than I was. In fact, they barely looked over while I stood awkwardly in the doorway.

Luke looked up very briefly with a flippant, "Oh, hey, Carly," but that was it.

I tried to keep my movements slow, quiet, and inconspicuous. Trying to out-ninja the ninjas, I guess. I shut the door behind me and crossed the room at a measured pace, my head down.

When I was standing beside my brother, and the other two were engaged in some sort of casual conversation, I whispered, "What are they doing here?!"

He looked up and gave me one of his Luke looks. This is a look my brother has created that's all his own. It's that specific What the hell are you talking about, Carly? Why would that possibly be a problem? look. It was the look that made me question how well my twin really knew me at all.

"Because I invited them over," he said slowly in that tone that suggested this was obvious.

"Luke!" I hissed. "You could have, maybe, I don't know, run this by me first?!"

This was met by another blank Luke stare. He replied simply, "They're my friends, Carly. I figured I spend enough time bumming around Choji's house; it was only fair to extend the invitation. There's all sorts of foreign dishes that just don't exist here. I thought he might be interested."

I looked around the counter for the first time. Nearly overflowing on the limited space were trays of food, some yet to be cooked. I spied the fake pizzas he'd designed the other day, and what appeared to be nachos and quesadillas fashioned from things he'd found in the marketplace. I blinked, impressed. Any discomfort I felt from the shock of our unexpected visitors was temporarily forgotten.

"Since when are you a chef?"

He shrugged. "Everyone needs a hobby, right? I was going to attempt baklava, too, but I'm not really sure what goes into baklava… Besides deliciousness, of course."

Now it was my turn to stare at him quizzically. I frowned. "Luke… you have hobbies."

He was saved from answering by his new friends. They'd dragged themselves off the couch (or more accurately, Choji had dragged Shikamaru off the couch) to come stand by us. He offered now, "You guys need any help?"

Luke smiled. "Nah. They're pretty much put together already. Now we just have to wait for them to cook. I glanced at our tiny oven. There was no way he could fit everything in there at once. It looked like our guests would be here for a while. With friends like Luke, I had no trouble imagining how Choji might canonically end up in the hospital with indigestion again before the finals.

"So you're the delivery girl, huh?" I jumped at Shikamaru's words. He sounded bored, but he was observing me carefully. I was suddenly very cautious. Shikamaru's intelligence had never seemed so threatening before. The atmosphere made me want to pull Luke aside and go over our cover story again and again until there was nothing he could possibly ask that we wouldn't know how to answer.

I tried to compose myself and mimic his casual attitude. "Yes. I'm Carly. It's nice to meet you. Choji and I have actually met before."

His friend shrugged. "Yeah, I sort of remember you. You make your deliveries really early, though. You usually see my mom."

I nodded. "She's nice."

And she was. She usually tipped me pretty well, despite my protests. It wasn't something I expected, but some of the Ichiraku Delivery customers did tip regularly. I always felt a little awkward accepting them but it wasn't exactly like we were in any position to turn down extra money.

Choji's thoughts were elsewhere. "Man, Ichiraku's ramen is the best! We should all go there one day when Ino's not busy at the shop."

Luke nodded. "Yeah, sure. Sounds fun."

Shikamaru was still watching me. My smile was almost mockingly sweet as I suggested, "You should try out the delivery service sometime. It would be nice to get a chance to know my brother's friends a little better."

He grimaced, losing focus. "If we started ordering take-out, my mom would start nagging about how we don't appreciate her cooking… It's not worth the trouble.

I smiled again as he looked away, successfully diverted.

The rest of our afternoon passed quite peacefully. It wasn't that I'd ever really disliked Choji or Shikamaru. It had just been a bit of a shock to come home and find them in our apartment. They were both so laid-back. I could see why Luke enjoyed their company.

Speaking of… Throughout the whole meal, my eyes kept drifting over to my brother. I couldn't get my mind away from his earlier comment about needing hobbies.

Art, music, now cooking… My brother was every liberal arts school's dream. He had more hobbies than anyone I knew! Plus, he worked all the hours he could, and lately he'd been spending time making and hanging out with friends. Don't get me wrong, friends could be wonderful. But take it from a personal introvert: sometimes friendship was its own sort of chore.

I couldn't fathom how he found time in the day. Was my brother trying to work himself to insanity?

I was beginning to worry that when he said hobbies, what he really meant was distractions.

Review please!

I don't own Naruto!

I feel like I've beaten you guys over the heads with it already, but I don't want to lose focus from the fact that, despite all these new interactions, Luke really hasn't adjusted to this world like Carly has. It plays into the story later on.