"Say, Shikaku,- I stopped for a moment to look at him.

He looked... absurd.

But I can ask about that later. "- do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"I have a sudden feeling that I'm not going to like this conversation."

"Yeah... about that, what do you know about a Missing-Nin known as Kakuzu?"

"I hadn't realised that your sensor abilities had such a massive range."

Of everything, you picked that to talk about?

"The Sanbi is admittedly something of a special case."

It was kind of hard to miss. Such a powerful and old being, with an equally powerful and old Heart. A Heart that I had touched, however briefly?

I couldn't not feel it. It was much the same with Madoka, honestly.

Even now, inside a different World entirely, and behind two Dimensional Barriers, I could still vaguely sense Madoka's Heart.

"It is rather hard for me to miss."

"Despite the fact that it's an entire ocean, two islands and a country away?"

I kind of wonder what he would say if he realised I can sense beings from other universes entirely.

Don't want to break him though.

"You have no idea."

His mouth opened- and then closed, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. "I'm not going to like the answer if I ask what you mean by that, am I?"

"No. It will likely shatter several preconceptions you have on how things work, the nature of the universe, and the meaning of life, the universe and everything."

His eyebrows furrow in confusion, and, too late, I remember that things I'm referencing don't exist in this World.

Damn. They have no idea what they're missing.

"Right, now, another question."

"Yeah?"

"Why are you bright pink?"

"Sorry for leaving so suddenly." I spoke, sitting down at the table.

Shikamaru looked up, awoken from his nap. "No problem..."

"Still, it was rather rude."

"I figured that you had a good reason for it." He said.

He reached under the table, carefully pulling out a shogi board, with all our pieces still in place.

"Indeed. A-" Friend? No, I wouldn't exactly call the Sanbi my friend. "- good acquaintance of mine needed some help."

Insofar as a Bijuu could need help dealing with a S-Class Missing-Nin.

"Must have been an interesting kind of help." He noted, his voice tinged with seeming-nonchalance that didn't fool me for an instant. "You seemed pretty panicked when you left."

"Indeed." I said, moving a piece forward.

He stared at me, his postured bored, his eyes lidded. I stared back.

A few moments passed, in which neither of us said anything.

"Tch." He looked down, staring at the board. He wasn't that interested in it that he was going to try and pry the information out of me.

He knew it wouldn't work anyway.

"So..."

Twin yelps reached my ears, as, prior to that very instant, neither Tsubaki or Kuroko had realised that I was right behind them.

They spun around -in opposite directions, I noticed-, twin looks of surprise on their faces.

"What's this I hear about a certain pair of brats dousing their poor, unfortunate father in bright pink paint?" I asked.

Briefly, their expressions became slightly sheepish, before their mouths twisted into a pair of perfectly innocent grins.

I didn't believe them for an instant.

"Yami!" They cried. "We were-"

"Plotting how to escape the question." I cut in.

Their eyes darted to the sides, before they realised that there was no escape. "Uhhhh."

"We..." Kuroko started. "Were having fun?

I raised an entirely non-existent eyebrow.

"We had a bunch of leftover paint and we wanted to use it?" Tsubaki tried.

My head tilted to the side.

They stared at me for a second, before slumping.

"Dad seemed down. We wanted to lighten him up." Tsubaki said.

My head straightened up.

Ah.

Briefly, my mind flashed back to Naruto's pranking spree.

"Use neon-green next time. Shikaku hates that colour." My head tilted back. "Although I can't promise that he won't dodge it if you do."

"Wait, what?"

"Bonding, are you?" I asked. Not that I needed to, it was fairly obvious as to what they were doing.

Why else would Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura be eating together at Ichiraku's?

They looked up.

"Of course!" Naruto answered, characteristic smile in place. "We're a team. That means we stick together, train together, and look out for each other." He nodded as he ended his sentence.

"Heh. It's good to see you were listening to me back then."

Naruto turned back to his bowl, preparing to finish it off. I noticed that he already had another eight bowls on the desk in front of him, compared to Sasuke's three and Sakura's one.

"You knew, didn't you?" Sasuke asked.

"Knew?"

"Ever since jackass-sensei's test, it's been bothering me." He said, toying with a piece of tomato in his ramen. "What you said about teamwork several years ago. It seems like good advice on the surface, and it is, but then we got to the test, and it took on an entirely different meaning. Did you know that the test was going to be about teamwork?"

I tilted my head to the side. Kid was perceptive.

"Not... exactly. I was aware that the tests usually revolve around teamwork in some fashion or another, but at the time, I hadn't been giving that advice because you were going to be tested on teamwork."

I pulled out a chair, sitting next to Naruto.

"I told you that because it would lead to you and Naruto interacting more often."

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"You heard me."

"But, why?"

"Before I answer, how about you give a shot at trying to figure it out?"

He leaned back in his seat, ramen all but forgotten. He stared at me, his eyes narrowed. Naruto, meanwhile, was still eating his, but I could tell that he was paying attention.

Sakura was just outright staring at us.

"You wanted us to interact. You told us to train together, and to get to know each other." He said, thinking out loud. "You wanted us to get stronger?"

I nodded.

"But there's more to it than that. We could get stronger without interacting with each other, but... You wanted us to do it together."

I nodded.

"You told us to to train together. You specifically mentioned that, you wanted us to train together, and not just because you wanted us to interact."

I nodded.

"Because... you wanted us to play off each other!" He exclaimed. "You knew that we were stubborn and competitive, and that we would drive each other to train longer and harder, thus making us interact more."

Unnecessarily, I nodded.

"And, in doing so, you wanted us to become better friends."

"And there's the crux of the matter. Friendship. As much as I may not like to say it, you were in a bad head-space when you were young, Sasuke. You needed a friend who would stick by you, through thick and thin. And for that matter," I reached out, and patted Naruto on the head. "So did you, Naruto. You both needed a friend who you could rely on. And you found that in each other."

Sasuke had drastically over complicated what I had actually been thinking, but whatever.

So long as it all worked out in the end, and these kids were happy and healthy, that was okay.