Sasuke could tell that Itachi had wanted to pull him away for a not so discrete questioning after dinner. He could see it in the slightly pinched look of worry written all over his brother's face. For a second, it looked like Itachi was about to say something to him and Sasuke had braced himself accordingly. But just as quickly, Itachi had deflated, as if metaphorically holding his tongue. Sasuke figured that his brother was still doing his best not to be too intrusive or overstep any boundaries- something he definitely appreciated. So, Sasuke had silently watched his brother shoot him a heavy look while Izumi had bid everyone farewell at the end of dinner.

Despite managing to avoid one potentially catastrophic talk, Sasuke had felt his mood sink when he had finally faced Naruko. Sasuke had truly expected her to do the "Naruko thing" by making a scene outside the Hokage's residence and disturbing the quiet, night air. However, Sasuke was pleasantly surprised when Naruko asked him to spar with her tomorrow morning. He had shot her a curious look, but Naruko had given him one of determination that left him reeling.

It never took him too long to work out what Naruko was thinking. She usually shouted it for the heavens to hear or kept her every emotion splayed out on her face. But the slightly impassive face that had stared up at him had left him stumped and filling with slight dread. She had mentioned that he had changed. Had he neglected to realize that she had changed as well?

~:~

Sasuke usually enjoyed his spars with Naruko. She was the perfect mix of strength, endurance, and unpredictable ingenuity to keep him on his toes. Her vibrant chakra and fiery determination quickly got his heart pounding and excitement rising. He enjoyed the various looks that crossed her face during their spars (particularly the ones of fierce challenge) as if she was mirroring his own, more tightly guarded emotions. The Naruko he faced the next morning had no such expressions or vibrancy.

Naruko had arrived in their clearing shortly after him, her face blank except for a small frown. When he'd attempted to draw out a response from her with some light ribbing, she had responded with a fast punch to his face. Sasuke had activated his Sharingan and dodged the punch at the same time, quickly casting aside any playful notions when he sensed her serious demeanor.

Their spar was far more violent than usual, quickly drawing blood before half an hour had passed. Sasuke could sense a simmering anger within Naruko that was slowly manifesting the longer they fought. Her impassiveness was long gone by mid-day and replaced by a look of frustration. Sasuke had responded in kind, his strikes a bit too brutal for a friendly spar. He'd wanted to ask her what she was hoping to achieve here but hadn't been able to form the words. It was a vicious cycle of taking a harsh blow from her, letting his own frustrations mount, responding with a hard hit of his own, watching her anger build, and starting the cycle all over again.

When Naruko had suddenly activated her sage mode in the middle of an attack, Sasuke'd had barely enough time to gather enough chakra for a quick defense with his Susanoo. It would normally be a bit of an overkill to use his eyes like this in a simple spar with Naruko, but that was when they were pulling their punches. The increase of strength seemed to bring about a shift in Naruko, an unsettling calm settling over her as she stared at him from across the field.

"What do you want from me, Naruko?" Sasuke finally asked, his anger making the words come out harsher than he'd intended. The only response he'd gotten was a subtle tightening of her fists before she closed in on him.

It was probably an immature reaction, but Naruko's unusual behavior brought out an indignant annoyance in him. As if their roles had been reversed, Sasuke's mask had long since cracked and fallen away as he seethed at her level expression. However, underneath the mass of negative emotions clouding his judgement, there was confusion and slight hurt that he was readily ignoring. Sasuke wasn't sure what was worse- being ignored or disregarded by her.

He'd gotten about three hours out of his Mangekyo before he felt his chakra reserves dip and his eyes faded to black for the first time during their spar. It had happened at the worst time, causing him to not only lose sight of Naruko but to lose any visual acuity. His instincts had screamed at him too late to dodge and Naruko had sent him flying into a tree with a well-placed kick to the chest. Despite clearly having the advantage, Naruko hadn't let up in her assault. Surprisingly, she hadn't summoned any clones during her onslaught and had stuck to using her fists and ninja tools. When Sasuke had failed to dodge a kunai in time and gotten a small cut to his cheek, Naruko had suddenly paused.

Sasuke hadn't been able to see the physical change when her sage mode ended, but he could sense the nature energy and pressure around her dissipating. He'd been in the process of pushing himself onto his feet with every intention of restarting their fight, but Naruko had quickly closed in on him and seized him by the front of his shirt. He allowed her to shove him backwards into a tree trunk, trapping him between the rough bark and her furious form.

"What the hell is wrong with you, 'ttebayo!?" she shouted up at him.

Incensed, Sasuke glared. "Let go of me, Usuratonkachi."

He was tempted to break out of her hold on his own when Naruko shoved him against the trunk again. "Answer me, dammit!"

"There's nothing wrong-" Sasuke started, his voice rising in volume.

Naruko was quick to cut him off, however. "Don't lie to me, Sasuke. Even Itachi-nii-san knows what's wrong with you."

Sending Naruko to do his dirty work was low in Sasuke's opinion. "What did Itachi tell you?" Sasuke asked, cursing his brother's meddlesome ways.

"So there is something!" she shouted triumphantly. Sasuke paused. Had she actually managed to outsmart him?

"Naruko-" Sasuke tried to regain control of the budding argument, but Naruko was on a roll.

"You didn't dodge!" she shouted and pointed at his cut cheek. "And you're knocking stuff over and walking into things! You're never clumsy, dattebayo!"

Sasuke was too stunned to speak. She was more observant than he gave her credit for.

Hands on her hips and a no nonsense look on her face, Naruko turned to him and asked, "What's wrong with your eyes?"

He wanted to be honest with her. She was one of the few people he had that he could be honest with. But the gut reaction to disregard her was stronger. "It's not your concern," he dismissed.

"Bullshit!" she objected. "You'll tell everyone else what's wrong besides me! I thought we were friends. I thought-" Naruko quickly cut herself off mid-rant and gave him a look of poorly disguised embarrassment.

A myriad of thoughts and feelings were flying through his head. He wanted to tell her. He wanted to reassure her. But a nasty voice in the back of his mind forced him to hold his tongue. Sasuke wasn't sure when, but a bitter jealousy had taken root within him.

Every day, Naruko's strength seemed to grow in leaps and bounds. It felt like every time he managed to close the gap between them, she surged ahead again. He was unused to the feelings of inadequacy where she was concerned. It felt like his childhood all over again- struggling to break free of another's shadow. And now, he had proof that even with his eyes, her strength eclipsed his own. Rationally, he knew that his resentment was uncalled for. He liked that she challenged him. He respected and admired her strength. But why was she able to go so far and (more importantly) why couldn't he?

"Sasuke?" Naruko's small voice broke him out of his reverie.

Barely curbing his instinct to lash out at her, Sasuke quickly turned and fled.

~:~

There was no place to hide.

Every spot in the village that had brought him some semblance of comfort and peace was tarnished by some memory of Naruko. Additionally, they were worsened by Naruko's intimate knowledge of his habits. She was relentless in her pursuits of him, to the point where even civilians were starting to take notice. It was hard not to notice many Naruko clones turning over every stone in the village in search of him while loudly promising a world of hurt when she found him. He was counting his blessings that she hadn't tried using sage mode to find him yet.

"I'm pretty sure that this goes against all of the advice I gave you on women."

Sasuke felt his brow tick in annoyance, but he didn't respond to Shisui's provocation.

"If I could find you hiding out here, it's only a matter of time before Naruko-chan does. She knows you better than I do after all," Shisui said and leaned against the tree that Sasuke had been hiding lounging in.

"Did Itachi send you?" Sasuke finally spoke.

"He's…concerned about you, but no. He didn't send me to track you down," Shisui admitted. Sasuke cracked an eye open when he felt a disturbance to his branch. Shisui was staring at him, subtly examining him. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in warning, but Shisui seemed to lack any self-preservation skills. "How bad are your eyes?"

Sasuke's jaw momentarily clenched in anger before he replied, "Bad enough for Naruko to notice."

"Is that what you're fighting about?" Shisui asked and let out an exasperated sigh. "What did you say to her?"

"Nothing. Because it's not her business. It's not anyone's business," Sasuke said, finality coloring his tone.

Shisui gave him an unamused stare. "Are we really related? I didn't expect this much stupidity from someone I'm supposedly related to," Shisui said with a roll of his eyes. Sasuke quickly sat up straighter and glared at Shisui in annoyance. "Your girlfriend cares about you. That's not a crime. I'd be concerned if she didn't."

"I don't need-" Sasuke started.

"Sasuke!"

Sasuke nearly cursed. How he'd missed her bright chakra or the sounds of her practically bowling the forest over, he'd never know. "Good luck," Shisui muttered with a scoff and quickly vanished. As soon as Shisui had disappeared, Naruko had taken his place. She looked positively livid as she crouched on the branch and glared at him for all he was worth.

"Stop running from me, you bastard! I'm sick of you running away and leaving me behind," she shouted in his face.

Her words had small, alarm bells tinkling in the back of his mind. He hadn't wanted to give her the impression that he was abandoning her. He'd just wanted some time away from her. He'd simply needed the space to work through his feelings. "I wasn't running."

His words seemed to increase her outrage. "Then what the hell were you doing!?"

Unable to hold back a sneer, Sasuke shoved Naruko out of his face and quickly pushed off the branch. When his feet touched down onto the ground, he said, "I didn't want to be around you, Dobe," from over his shoulder. The regret was instantaneous. Sasuke refused to look at her in the eye. He couldn't. He refused to give himself a visual to match the feel of her chakra dimming slightly. "Sorry," he offered awkwardly, still not meeting her gaze.

When several seconds had gone by without a sound from her, Sasuke hesitantly faced her. Naruko stared up at him, her expression pinched. Sasuke felt his shoulders slump, but before he could somehow try to fix the mess he'd made, she said, "I don't understand you, 'ttebayo."

Her words felt like a cold kunai through the heart. "You understand more than you think," he revealed in a quiet voice. He could see the skepticism in her eyes as plain as day.

"I know you don't like to talk about what's bothering you. So, I thought I could figure it out if we fought each other."

Sasuke sighed softly. His issues went far deeper than partial blindness. But he didn't even know how to begin working through them. So many of them revolved around her. He loved her, but he hated her for being better than him. He wanted her with him, but sometimes the sight of her brought up all the bitterness he tried to bury. "I'm going blind," he admitted. Baby steps.

Her details were a bit blurry, but he could make out the stunned widening of her eyes. "Your Sharingan?"

"The strain from the Mangekyo Sharingan eventually causes blindness the more it's used," he told her. Her face took on a horrified expression before quickly shifting to anger. Sasuke didn't bother to defend against the punch she aimed at his side.

"You were using your Mangekyo yesterday!" she shouted up at him. "You used them when we fought Pain! You've been using them all this time!" she yelled and punctuated each word with another hit. "Idiot!"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted and caught her by the wrists to stop her from unleashing her frustrations on him. "It was foolish to use them when we sparred," he agreed.

"It was worse than foolish! It was stupid, dattebayo! It was idiotic! Dumb!" Naruko shouted up at him, half-heartedly trying to free herself from his grip.

Taking a page from her book, Sasuke invaded her personal space and said, "I don't regret using them against Pain or Orochimaru."

Naruko blinked up at him in stunned silence for several beats, a light blush on her cheeks. She quickly shook herself out and asked, "You used them against Orochimaru, too? Don't you care that you'll go blind? Dobe!"

"That didn't matter," Sasuke replied. Sensing another round of outrage from her, Sasuke preemptively cut her off. "There are more important things," Sasuke hinted, pinning her in place with a meaningful gaze. He could practically see the gears slowly turning in her head as her cheeks went from a light pink to bright red. "Usuratonkachi," Sasuke huffed and lowered his head to rest his forehead against her heated one.

"Bastard," she half-heartedly grumbled. Sensing that he'd made it through the worst of her anger, he released her wrists and moved to pull away, but Naruko was quick to stop him. "You call me an idiot, but you're the one always doing stupid things."

"You bring it out of me," Sasuke smirked.

"Shut up," she grumbled. In a way, it was a bit of a relief to have her know the truth. 'Honesty is the best policy,' Sasuke thought ruefully.

"Can't Sakura-chan heal you?" Naruko asked and cupped the side of his face.

"As far as I know, the damage is permanent."

"What about Baa-chan? She's the best medical ninja in the world. Maybe if she gets better…" Naruko trailed off.

"Uchiha have gone blind before. It's not something that can be healed," Sasuke explained in a resigned tone.

Naruko lowered her head, a frustrated look on her face. "Well, then promise me that you won't use them anymore. I need you alive and able to see, 'ttebayo."

Sasuke gave her a small frown. If he was going to be honest with her from now on… "I can't promise you that."

She looked ready to question him but paused. "We made a deal, Bastard. We get old and wrinkly together," she warned.

Sasuke huffed and rolled his eyes. "I have no intention of dying again. I have no intention of watching you die either."

"I'm not going anywhere," she objected in a firm voice.

Sasuke wasn't sure what words to use to convey to her how much he valued her life. To lose her now would ruin him. Sasuke believed that Naruko was too stubborn to die. But that didn't mean that there weren't constant threats to her well-being. Just the thought of another Akatsuki invasion or Orochimaru made his blood boil. The Yondaime's words were still buzzing through his head.

"What are you thinking?" she asked him with a narrowed gaze.

Honesty. "How much you mean to me," he replied. It took less than five seconds for her face to flush and a round of stuttered nonsense to leave her lips. Sasuke smirked.

Suddenly, Naruko's embarrassed stutters ceased as a blank look crossed her face. Her brows furrowed before she asked, "When did you fight Orochimaru?"

"Before we fought Pain. Orochimaru was in the village with his Otogakure shinobi," Sasuke answered, barely keeping the irritation from his tone.

"But he wasn't captured. Did you…kill him again?"

"He ran away before I could. Pathetic," Sasuke scoffed.

"You promised to help me, dattebayo," Naruko pointed out. Now, it was his turn to be confused. "You promised to help me break the cycle of hatred. I want everyone to cooperate and understand each other and that includes you, Sasuke."

Cooperate with and understand Orochimaru? "Impossible," Sasuke didn't hesitate to say.

Naruko frowned deeply and started, "Sasuke-"

"I will kill him," Sasuke said, not bothering to hear her out.

"If you kill him for revenge, then someone else will try to get their revenge and kill you," Naruko explained as if he were slow.

Sasuke highly doubted that there was such a person in the world that cared enough for a snake like Orochimaru. "They can try," Sasuke said with a dismissive grunt as he moved out of her loose hold and turned to leave. The pinched look was back on her face, but Sasuke counted it as a small victory that she was no longer mad with him. "I'll kill Orochimaru. I would kill anyone that harms my precious people," Sasuke told her from over his shoulder. As he expected, Naruko was ready to object, but she was cut off by the sudden appearance of another.

"Shisui, what are you-" Sasuke started, but Shisui didn't let him finish.

"You need to come back to the district. Fugaku-sama is in the hospital."