Here's the next chapter for you guys! Hope you enjoy it!

Am swamped with homework right now so my next update might come out a little late. Still hope I can pick up more followers and favourites!

Disclaimer: Roses are red, Violets are blue, I don't own Naruto, Neither do you.

23rd April, 2032, Ichido Restaurant, 500 Pine St, San Francisco, Time- 19:59

Sasuke walked into the restaurant at 7 in the evening. The business meeting scheduled by Naruto was suspicious if anything, but since he had decided so graciously to answer all of his calls, the only way to clear up his mess was to entertain the clients Naruto had fixed appointments with.

Upon entering the restaurant, Sasuke looked around searching for his client. He was interrupted by a phone call from Naruto.

"Hey Sasuke..." he said hesitantly.

Sasuke sighed and impatiently asked, "Where is this client?"

"Well, you see..." he began, "There's a sort of problem. "

Had Sasuke been with Naruto at that moment, he would have broken several of his bones by then. "Get to the point. What problem? "

"Umm...The problem that the client phoned to say that he was running late and may not be able to make it?"

"This is the last time I let you handle client meetings."

"A-are you leaving now?"

"What else do you expect me to do?" Infuriating was the only word to describe Naruto.

"Umm...The client said he might be able to make it. Like, in an hour or something."

"And you're telling me to waste an 'hour or so' doing nothing over here?"

"Maybe yes? You hardly have some time to relax! Why don't you loosen up a little?"

Too annoyed to continue the conversation, he hung up.

Of course he wasn't going to waste his time there. He would return to the Uchiha Corporation and use the opportunity to strangle Naruto. As he walked towards the doors, he spotted a lone head of familiar pink hair sitting at a table by the window. The corners of his mouth tilted upwards in a smirk as he thought to himself, But where would be the fun in that?

"May I have a seat?" Sasuke asked Sakura, who was until then glaring at something on her phone.

She looked up, startled by his sudden appearance, annoyance crossing her expression as she recognised him. "What do you want?" She asked.

He shrugged, finding her annoyance amusing. He was feeling quite spiteful of her for slapping him the previous night and was more than willing to repay the favour.

He didn't reply and sat down opposite her, in accordance to which she huffed in annoyance and said, "Well excuse me if I'm not quite as fond of the idea of spending another evening in your company after last night."

"Are you waiting here for someone or were you planning on dining with yourself" he asked.

"I was supposed to meet a friend here, but seeing as she stood me up, I guess it's just me." she said, before adding, "And what about you? Do you make it a habit to wander aimlessly around random restaurants across the city? Or are you here with your imaginary girlfriend?" she asked.

If he had not been the one to start conversation, he would have stopped talking to her long ago. Irrespective of whatever caused her to be in such a feisty mood, she was proving to be more annoying than Naruto.

"A client was supposed to meet me here, however as things stand now he'll most probably be unable to come. I'm sure Sasuke has something to do with it though." He said, once again taking care to keep up the facade by which he and Naruto had switched identities.

"And so here you are." She said sarcastically.

Bored of current topic he asked, "Have you ordered yet?"

She seemed slightly taken aback by his question but nonetheless answered by nodding.

He called over a waiter and ordered food for himself, before asking her, "So how is your case going?"

She eyed him warily, choosing her words carefully before saying, "We're considering the Sahara Group as the primary suspect. We went back to the Sunset branch today with a search warrant so we could find the underground basement lair where Mr Yakushi tried to kill you. But not only did they deny it's existence, all of our searches and scans turned up blank."

Most of what she had just said, he already knew. But it was still wise to keep note of how much the FBI had figured out. "Perhaps if you hadn't been so useless the day before yesterday, you might have had more opportunity to find incriminating evidence against Kabuto."

On cue, she looked up at him when he mentioned the word 'useless', her eyes shooting daggers in his direction, eliciting the desired response.

Just then, a waiter arrived, serving them both their food. They both ate in silence, both lost in different streams of thought. Sasuke found himself staring at how her shoulders dipped into slender arms, his mind involuntarily straying back to the white clad figure of his dreams.

"Your eyes ..." he said, struck by a sudden comparison, "are like my mother's." It was an honest truth, and would serve to pull her guard down.

It seemed to work as her expression until now angered and irate turned to surprise, soft tenderness. But her next words took him completely by surprise.

"You must miss her a lot." she said, her voice soft, gentle and empathetic.

He did miss his mother after being separated from her at such an early age. But the question remained, "How did you know?" It fell from his lips before he could rethink. Of course she thought that he was Naruto Uzumaki, an orphan and though she knew nothing of the circumstances due to which he was separated from his mother, still without knowing, she had managed to say the only thing that could have lowered his guard at that moment. The fact that she was able to empathise with him, as though she knew about everything - that struck him the most.

"It's okay, I know you're an orphan," she began softly, "I am too"

He found his own throat dry. "Do you remember your parents?" he asked, curious.

She looked down, her eyes found something on the table between them.

"No. No I don't. But I do remember someone else. He cared for me like a parent might have, I guess, and I do miss him."

He knew that she was probably talking about her brother, but he didn't say anything. After all, it wouldn't help to mention that he was the one holding her brother captive.

She shook her head as though bringing herself out of her memories, before saying, "I guess the pandemic of 2012 really did us hard. Almost everyone in the Hyuga house is adopted as a result of something related to that."

Twenty years ago the country faced a deadly pandemic which soon spread to all parts of the world. The causative agent still unknown to scientists, and the reason why the pandemic ended was also a mystery. All that was known was that the world population was more or less halved by the end of the pandemic.

"Do you have any family remaining?" she asked.

He could have answered for himself as Sasuke Uchiha, but that would contradict any intel she had gathered on him. So, as Naruto, he answered, "No."

Hope you liked it! It's kinda sappy with no real progress in the story line, but action coming up in the next chapter.

As always, Read and Review.

~Raven