"You're going out again?"

"Yeah." Sasuke nodded. "Naruto nagged Jiraiya into letting me and Sakura go with them on a trip out of the village."

"Looking for Tsunade?"

His head snapped to me, a confused expression on his face. "How did you- no." He shook his head. "Nevermind. And yes, we are."

"I see. That woman can be a little bit hard to track down."

"You know her?"

"I've heard of her." I corrected. "And I've seen her once or twice while I was travelling."

"What's she like?"

"She, when I saw her at least, was a drunken alcoholic mourning the deaths of those close to her."

"Oh." Sasuke said.

A moment passed in silence, with Sasuke continuing to pack supplies on top of scrolls, though notable slower than before.

"Do you..."

"If you want to know the full story, you're going to have to get it out of Jiraiya. I am not entirely familiar with it, myself." Actually, I was, I just had absolutely no way to explain how I knew all that any believable manner.

"Oh."

Quietly, he placed his hand on a scroll, promptly leading to all the items he'd piled on top popping away, a small burst of smoke accompanying. Naruto's work, I noted. The boy was getting quite good with those Storage Scrolls.

"You wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?" He asked.

"Nope. I've seen her only twice, and both times were years ago."

"Huh. You never seem to not know where Naruto and I are."

"That's because it's you and Naruto. I am very familiar with the both of you, and the familiarity helps me distinguish where you are at any given point in time. If you were any other random boy, I wouldn't be able to keep track of you nearly so well. Admittedly, it helps that I'm more or less always paying attention to where you are ever since the Ichibi."

He didn't... quite flinch, but I saw the minor surge in emotion and the beginnings of a twitch that was forcefully repressed.

"Yeah." He said, his voice, to his credit, only slightly shaky. "Thanks for that, by the way. I'd probably be d-dead if it wasn't for you."

My head tilted to the side. "No problem."

Sasuke let his hand rest against the second storage scroll, sealing away the items that had been placed on top.

Slowly, he started putting food onto the third scroll.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you... With the Ichibi, I mean, why did you..." He couldn't seem to complete what he was asking.

He didn't need to. I knew what he was asking.

"Because I care about you."

"Care?"

"I've been watching over you since you were seven, after... that night. It was me who carried your body to the hospital, you know? I saw, firsthand, the condition that you were in after the massacre. And while I'm fairly certain that I've said this before, it bears repeating; you were in a bad place Sasuke. I did what I could to get you out of it, and ever since you've met Naruto, you've been far away from that place. But the thing is, I still watched you grow up from that little boy into what you are today. And, at some point, I started caring about you."

I paused for a moment, just thinking what to say.

"And then the Ichibi came." I leaned against the wall. "And holy shit, it tried to kill you. It tried to kill you, so I cut off its arms and tail, and incinerated its body." I looked up at the ceiling. "It tried to kill you, and I drew upon more power than I ever have before. There were consequences, but I didn't give a single flying fuck, because your life was on the line. I never even..."

I paused, before looking at him. "I can't even bring myself to regret it, either. If I was in the same situation, I'd do it again, and again, and again. Each time, every time. No amount of 'consequences' are worth your life."

Sasuke didn't say anything.

He didn't need to, not to me. I knew exactly what he was feeling.

I slumped, before pushing off the wall.

"Either way, this has been one hell of a tangent to go off on. Naruto, Sakura and Jiraiya are waiting for you." I patted him on the shoulder, offering a brief comforting presence.

"Have fun on your trip, will you? After all the crap you've been through, you deserve a temporary vacation."

I gave him one last pat, before teleporting away.

"Hey, hey, hey, Yami, hey, hey!" Tsubaki shouted, leaping onto my back. "What are you doing?"

"Writing."

"Huh?" Kuroko asked. "Why? Writing is boring!"

"To you two hyperactive brats, I'm sure it would be." I stated. "But nevertheless, it is important."

Tsubaki scoffed, before climbing up to my shoulder and looking down at what I was writing.

"Drich's Report, Observations of- hey! The text disappeared!" She cried.

"That was the idea, yes."

Both the pen and paper were Darkness, after all.

"That's not fair!"

"Too bad."

"But we wanted to know what you were writing!" Kuroko whined.

I closed my eyes, letting my head fall forwards a little bit.

"Absolutely not." I stated, opening my eyes and staring at them. "Tsubaki, Kuroko, this is serious."

Just about instantly, both of them calmed down, looking back at me with concerned expressions on their faces.

"The contents of what I'm writing should never come to light, nor should they ever spread. Do not mention what you've seen to anybody, or anyone."

"But why write it down if you don't want it known?" Tsubaki asked.

"Because I fully intend to destroy it after I'm done writing it. The only reason that I'm writing it down at all is just to help focus my thoughts. Girls, I need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this."

Kuroko and Tsubaki shifted. "We promise..."

I nodded. "Thank you. Now, did you two want something?"

They nodded. "Yeah. Where's dad?"

My head tilted to the side. "He's hugging Yoshino downstairs."

"What?!"

"He came in literally 30 seconds ago."

They jumped up, Tsubaki letting go of my shoulders, before rushing straight downstairs.

Ha.

They're Shikaku's problem now.

I turned back to my book, a brief moment of concentration causing the words to reappear again.

Drich's Report; Observations into the nature of Light, Darkness and the Heartless.

Alternative Title: What the actual fuck happened to me?