It's been a while since I updated this... a little over two months in fact; which is the longest I've gone without updating one of my stories on here, I believe. Still, I eventually got back around to it. This chapter covers a few important things that I think should be fleshed out, and I don't think you guys will be disappointed by it. Don't forget to leave a review and such. Enjoy!

In a small way, it hurt his pride to realize that even after so long, Sasuke could so easily be enraptured by her exquisite eyes...

Shimmering, bright, so clear and crystal blue that he could hardly comprehend the fact that a mere human could be the owner of such wonderful eyes. They captured his soul-they encased him in their aura… he couldn't move, he couldn't think… all Sasuke could do was fantasize about what could have been, what could be, what will be if he got his way.

It took him a while to come to his senses.

With a heavy swallow, Sasuke averted his gaze. He could readily admit (to himself) that if Naruko ever caught him staring at her… well, that was a scenario he would prefer to avoid.

The steady scribble of a pen filled the library. To have to start an entire project over from scratch was an enormous pain-but that was a small price to pay for these few moments with her. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Naruko slumped over a textbook, though he could see that her eye was open and focused on the page. Sakura had her nose buried in the book that Sasuke had retrieved for her-features so close to the words that Sasuke was surprised her nose wasn't smeared in ink.

"Ugh…" Naruko groaned, and she raised her head up. Her blonde hair was strangely flattened on one side, while the other side was wiry and disheveled. "Can we like… talk or something?" she said, tone exasperated. "This is so boring. History is… so boring… I swear, it's sucking the life out of me."

Sakura merely tutted, making a note on the notebook in front of her-the page, and several before it, cramped from top to nearly bottom in pristine, miniscule, lime green ink.

Naruko turned to Sasuke, who proceeded to put on his best poker face in the crosshairs of her gaze.

"Come on, Sasuke; you have to be able to talk about something," Naruko insisted. She scooted her chair about a foot closer to him-Sasuke resisted the urge to scoot about a foot back. Or to scoot a foot closer to her. "Like- like your family. Do you want to talk about your family?"

A noise, halfway through a groan and a growl, escaped from Sasuke's throat. Naruko didn't flinch for an instant.

"Do you have any sisters… or brothers?" Naruko asked.

"..."

"I'm not going to give up until you say something you know," Naruko said, a sly grin curling her lips.

Sasuke heaved a great sigh. "I have one brother," he said, not willing to glance up from his notebook.

"Is he older than you or younger than you?" Naruko asked. Her elbows were propped up on the desk, and despite her disheveled appearance, her smile seemed to sweep away whatever boredom there had been in the room before. Now, it was just replaced by a tension that seemed to seep into every pore of Sasuke's body-how lovely.

"... older." Sasuke murmured. "By five years."

"Cool." Naruko said dreamily. "I always wanted to have an older sister, y'know… someone I could look up to… and…" She drifted off, and whatever else she wanted to say remained unsaid. "Just-having an older brother sounds nice."

Sasuke glanced up for a second, before his gaze fell once more. "Sometimes," he conceded.

"Sakura-chan, do you have any brothers or sisters?" Naruko asked.

Sakura gave a little grunt that sounded vaguely like a 'No.'

"Aww… well, maybe you could be my older sister, Sakura-chan!" Naruko said. She grinned in that broad way of hers, the room filled with palpable warmth. "I'd love to have one! Oh, oh! Or you could be my older brother, Sasuke!"

He frowned. "... I'd… rather not." he mumbled.

"That's mean." Naruko huffed. "Why don't you want to be my brother, Sasuke?"

Well, there was a dozen other things he'd rather be, and brother was at the bottom of the list. Boyfriend, lover, husband… he'd even settle for friends with benefits. But brother? Jeez, he'd known that his chances of getting with her were low but he hadn't expected them to be that low. This was going to be harder than he thought.

Still, Sasuke wasn't anything if not persistent.

"My mom… never wanted to have any daughters." Sasuke said.

Naruko blinked.

He blanched slightly, shifting in his chair. His fingers clenched around the pencil in his hand.

"Oh, okay!" Naruko chirped. "I guess I could just be your cousin or something-same difference, right?"

Sasuke blinked at her-if he gripped the pencil any harder, it would snap clean in half at this rate.

"Naruko, you're supposed to be working." Sakura said. Sasuke let out an internal sigh of relief.

"Come on, Sakura-chan, be my nee-chan!" Naruko said. She grasped Sakura's arm, and there seemed to be literal hearts in her eyes. "I can be your imouto, Sakura-chan; I'll be the best one in the whole wide world!"

A moment passed, Sasuke tuning out Sakura's squabbling-but conveniently forgetting to do the same for Naruko. He was shaken-she… she'd asked him to be his brother for kami's sake! What was he supposed to say to that? What on Earth was an appropriate way to respond without unveiling his feelings for her?

…

…

He was so screwed by this point that it wasn't even funny...

Thankfully, Sasuke was saved as the bell that signaled the end of their free period rang.

Sakura and Naruko packed slowly, insults still being shot back and forth between the two-playful ones of course.

"Be my nee-chan, Sakura-chan!"

"No! I am not your sister, and I never will be, Naruko!"

Things of that sort. Of course, they didn't pay a lick of attention to him… which he didn't mind in Sakura's case; in Naruko's case on the other hand… well...

Sasuke couldn't deny that it stung a little-but he wasn't going to complain openly about it. Instead, he gathered his things, sweeping out of the library without another word.

Something caused him to freeze in his tracks, the doors swinging closed with a clunk behind him.

"You have fun in there, Sasuke?" Suigetsu said, and there was a grin that played on his lips-one that made Sasuke scowl.

"Plenty," Sasuke growled. He would have shoved Suigetsu against the wall had both of his hands not been laden with books and papers. "What do you think you saw?"

"Nothing." Suigetsu gave him a toothy smile. "I just poked my head in and saw you sitting at a table with two extraordinarily pretty girls-why, Sasuke, if I didn't know better, I would have assumed that you were trying to sleep with one of them."

He grit his teeth. "I was not trying to… court one of them," Sasuke grumbled, his expression dark like the sky before a thunderstorm.

Suigetsu snickered. "Court?" he said playfully. "I didn't say you were trying to be their boyfriend, Sasuke," he murmured, "I was merely suggesting that you were trying to get into their pants; you were the one who brought an actual relationship into this. I mean… is that what you were trying to do? Is ickle Sasuke finally going to get a girl to hug and cwuddle?"

He frowned. "I.. no." Sasuke said forcefully. "I wasn't- screw off, Suigetsu, before I have to send you to the hospital again."

"Again?" Suigetsu said. "That was in junior high, and besides, neither of us knew that the platform was going to give away when you pushed me down!"

"It still counts," Sasuke murmured.

Suigetsu huffed. "Fine, whatever; it's not like you would be able to send me to the hospital again either way. Even if you wanted to."

"Do you want to bet on that?"

"We can go right now if you want, I'll take-!"

Suddenly, there was a flash of blonde in the corner of Sasuke's eye, and his breath left him.

Naruko grinned at him. "See ya later, Sasuke!" she chirped, giving him a mock salute before she took off down the hall. Sakura gave him a polite smile, before following Naruko at a dignified pace. He stared at the blonde's back like an idiot-and by the time he had come to his senses, averting his gaze from her, the damage had been done.

Suigetsu grinned. "You weren't trying to get with one of them, huh?" he said sarcastically.

Sasuke kicked him in the shin. Suigetsu jumped up, clutching his foot as if a bullet had struck it. "Ow, ow! What was that for?" Suigetsu hissed, his face contorted in pain.

His friend smirked. "Being an idiot," he said. "And you didn't see anything-if I hear even a hint that I am potentially 'courting' a woman, I'm going to personally ensure that you yourself can never do the same." Sasuke's gaze drifted downward; Suigetsu blanched.

"P- point taken." Suigetsu muttered, not so subtly cupping his crotch.

Sasuke rubbed his chin. "I'm glad I was able to work that out with you then," he murmured. "Anyways-where is Jugo? He was supposed to be with you."

"His 'guardian' or whatever came and picked him up; he's got to go to the doctor or something," Suigetsu said, shrugging. "I didn't want to stand outside all alone, so I came into the school to see what you were up to."

"Hmm."

Suigetsu cleared his throat. "So… err… do- do you actually like that girl?" he asked. "The new blonde girl I mean. Like-I mean, I don't want to judge you if you do like her, y'know, but it's just kind of weird for someone like you to be crushing on a girl; especially a girl like that."

He could feel his temper rise once more; just like it had with his parents and brother. For just one fleeting moment Sasuke was tempted to allow himself to go off, to alleviate some of the stress that had built up over the past few days-but at the last second, he relented.

Sasuke glanced in Suigetsu's direction, eyes narrowed, face cross. "You know," he said, voice low, "I don't think that's any of your business."

Suigetsu clicked his teeth. "Be that way, Sasuke," he said. "It's not going to earn you any brownie points with her, that's for sure."

"Hmph."

His white haired friend rolled his eyes. "No point in being late to our classes," he said. Sasuke shrugged, and they walked off, parting ways and going to their respective homerooms.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed, and fell to the ground of the sand box with a cutesy grunt.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You're such a girl," he muttered, folding his arms across his chest. "I didn't even push you that hard."

Naruko pursed her lips together. "I am girl, you jerk!" she whined. "Look at what I'm wearing!" She pointed at her attire-an obnoxiously bright, yellow sundress. "Sure, my Mom had to force me into it but I'm still wearing it!"

"You can't act like a boy then get mad at me when I treat you like one," Sasuke said. "That's not how that works."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll make it work however I want it to!" Naruko declared.

Sasuke smirked.

"What's your name, anyway?"

"Naruko," she said. "How about yours, jerkface?"

"Sasuke."

Because sometimes, you didn't have to know someone for very long before you developed a routine.

Some might call it 'stalking' or 'prowling' or 'generally being a nosey piece of crap'. Sasuke liked to call it… investigating; or maybe something along the lines of alleviating his curiosity.

This was the timeline he had: Naruko moved away, her parents got into a car accident, and then she suddenly came back to town devoid of her childhood memories.

But he wanted to know more.

Thankfully, there was this wonderful thing called the 'library' he could use, that had a few computers since his family was too archaic to buy some. He walked down there after school, having managed to find his library card (which was needed to use the computers) somewhere in an old book bag of his.

He signed in; wrote down his name. The librarian asked him: "What is your purpose here today, Uchiha-san?" when he asked to use the computers.

"To do some research for a project I'm working on," was his reply.

It wasn't entirely a falsehood. If you wanted to look at it from a technical point of view, his quest to get Naruko's affection was a project of sort… ignoring the fact that snooping into her life didn't really help with that at all.

He signed into the computer, tilting the screen away from a greasy haired kid that he had sat next to. His fingers flew across the keyboard-he had never been an avid technological enthusiast, but Sasuke knew his way around a computer… mostly.

Sasuke pulled up a search engine. He didn't have to do anything complex: all he did was type in 'Uzumaki, car crash, two dead' and a few news articles appeared before him. He clicked one from the most reputable source off the top of his head.

'Car accident on roadway; two dead, one rushed to hospital.

Last night, one road on the Shuto Expressway was closed down due to a car accident-it appears that a driver under the influence of alcohol crashed into the side of a vehicle containing a family of three. The drunk driver was mildly harmed in the accident. The parents in the struck vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene; their daughter, who's name has not been disclosed, was rushed to the hospital… apparently unconscious.'

He scrolled down the page.

'Edit-' The date was the day after the original accident. 'We have now confirmed that the two deceased in last night's automobile accident were Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina… the former being a popular candidate for mayor, and the latter his wife. Their daughter has apparently survived the accident, though she has not awoken as of yet, and we have not been informed as to whether her condition has improved or deteriorated.'

A drunk driver.

Sasuke felt his hand curl into a ball. A drunk driver was all it had taken to ruin Naruko's life… to destroy her… to take away her memories of her parents, of him. It was so unfair-but Sasuke had never been deluded into thinking that life was fair. But why could it not give someone as pure as Naruko even a little slack? Why..

He looked over the article again: they had not said the name of the drunk driver anywhere. He went back-he clicked another. The name was not there either. Back… another. Not there. Back, another. Not there.

Then it hit him.

Was he… was he really looking up the name of the man who has destroyed Naruko's life? For what? Was he going to… hunt him down? Kill him? Tell him what he did-as if he wasn't already aware of it? As if he hadn't had to live with it every moment of his life from that day forward?

Sasuke took a few deep breaths.

He stood up from the chair, turning off the computer with a vicious jab at the power button. The librarian smiled at him as he stormed past-he wouldn't have been surprised to look up and literally see a rain cloud swirling above his head.

Sasuke was shocked as he stepped outside and caught a faceful of water, had he really…?

No. It was just raining-he hadn't made a rain cloud appear out of thin air apparently.

And he didn't have an umbrella.

And his phone was dead.

And his house was two kilometers away.

Sasuke lowered his head; he turned to the left, starting down the sidewalk… he had a long walk ahead of him, and there appeared no halt to the rain that poured down upon him. Soaking through his clothes, clearing his teeth chattering… even the anger that still swirled in his gut seemed unable to warm him up. He'd catch pneumonia at this rate.

He blinked.

A horn honked beside him.

Sasuke turned.

A window rolled down… and a pair of blue eyes gleamed in his direction. "Oi, Sasuke!" Naruko chirped. "Need a ride?" Beside her, he saw that white haired sitting in the driver's seat.

He stared at her, the rain continuing to pour down on him.

"Kid, get in the car," the man said.

Naruko continued to grin (though it seemed a little shaky) at him-Sasuke suspected that if he even thought about saying no, they would yank him into the car anyway.

He swallowed… and nodded. His movements strangely robotic, Sasuke opened the back door, and slid into the car. He closed the door behind him.

The engine revved gently; they took off down the road without pause… and the rain continued to fall. A clap of thunder rang through the air.

He couldn't have asked for a more silent car ride.

"Where do you live, kid?" the man asked, one hand on the wheel. His great head of hair seemed to obscure half of Sasuke's vision-but he could see that the rain was intensifying. Thunder boomed every few seconds now… he must have not been able to hear it in the library.

"1314 on Tokugawa Avenue," Sasuke said flatly.

The man pursed his lips together. "That far, huh?" he said. "We might not be able to make it there at this rate."

"It is raining pretty hard," Naruko commented. "Why didn't you bring your umbrella, Sasuke? All the news stations said it was going to start raining after school."

"I suppose I was just preoccupied," Sasuke said. He hadn't even glanced at the television that morning-though his mom might have said something about bringing a jacket… he'd just dismissed that as the usual mother-hen attitude she was prone to.

"You don't mind if we head to our house instead, do you?" the man asked. "It'll be awhile before the rain stops, and I… don't want anything to happen on the way there."

Sasuke suddenly realized that Naruko was gripping the dashboard with both hands-and that her face was as white as ice. And that grin… now that she thought he could not see her… had long since faded; it was only thanks to the reflection in the windshield that he could see the fright in her eyes.

"Sure," Sasuke said automatically. "I mean, I wouldn't mind that; I can… phone my parents and tell them that I'll be home late."

"That should fine then," the man said. "I'm Jiraiya by the way; Naruko's god father and guardian. She said you two were friends at school?"

"We've talked from time to time," Sasuke murmured. "I guess I'm helping her with that project, too."

"Project?" Jiraiya quirked an eyebrow. Naruko did not respond… she was still gripping the dashboard so tightly that her joints might pop… and Jiraiya did not press the issue.

They pulled into Jiraiya's home a few minutes later. Through the rain, Sasuke could see that it would normally look rather nice-a white picket fence, a cozy looking two story house with a porch. The kind of place you would expect a doctor or a businessman to own… not incredibly expensive, but nothing lower class either.

"There's some groceries in the trunk," Jiraiya grunted. "A few perishables. I hate to ask, but can you help us grab a few? The three of us should be able to make it one trip."

Sasuke shrugged.

They exited the car at lightning speeds-the rain was falling faster and faster, harder and harder, and that warmth that he'd managed to cultivate whilst in the car evaporated at a moment's notice. The trunk opened with a soft pop, and Sasuke seized five bags-lugging them toward the front door. Naruko was right behind him, with so many bags holding her down that her arms shook. Jiraiya had gathered the rest, the white haired man clumsily looking for the correct key in a keychain that contained at least two dozen different ones.

He managed to fight the right one, stepping past Sasuke and Naruko to unlock the door and allow them access. They hurried inside, clothes dripping, hair flat… the instant the door was closed, an enormous clap of thunder rang through the air-one that caused the hairs on the back of their neck to stand on end.

"Glad we got in here when we did," Naruko mumbled. Despite her rain-drenched appearance, some of the color had come back to her cheeks… and that customary grin once again stretched her lips. Sasuke felt something in his gut stir, and he quickly averted his gaze.

Jiraiya instructed Sasuke on where to put the bags he had brought in. The inside of the house was beautiful-Sasuke was staggered by the fact that it was so clean; then, he realized that there had to be a butler… there was a list taped to the refrigerator door of things that were needed. And unless Jiraiya was married to a man named 'Akira', then they had to have some sort of help around the house.

Once the food was put away, Sasuke found himself in the living room, seated on the couch… Naruko on one side of him and Jiraiya on the other.

"So, what's your name? Your full one, I mean," Jiraiya asked.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he answered plainly.

"Uchiha? Hmm." Jiraiya rubbed his chin. "I remember an Uchiha Fugaku… he was an acquaintance of Minato's at one point, I think. I might have seen him once or twice… there's certainly a resemblance, but he sure wasn't as…" Jiraya's lip quirked upward. "Handsome as you are. Why, if Naruko hadn't been so insistent that you were just friends…"

"Jii-chan…!" Naruko whined.

Jiraiya chuckled good naturedly; Sasuke tried to ignore the stab to his heart, the wounds seeming to do nothing but culminate as the days went on.

"I don't think I've even heard my father mention anyone named Minato," Sasuke said. He kept his tone neutral-though his fingers balled up into fists once more… thankfully unnoticed by either of them. "I could ask him, if it troubles you."

"No, there's no need," Jiraiya said. "I don't see the point in dredging up old business… I'm sure old Fugaku's already forgotten Minato anyways." He sighed. "They were wonderful people, you know; the best this world could ask for. You know what happened, right?"

Sasuke's mouth went dry. "... car accident… right?" he mumbled.

"I told him already, Grandpa," Naruko said.

Jiraiya chuckled. "Of course you did; it's probably the first thing you told him, huh? You can't keep your mouth shut about anything…" He shook his head.

"Nu-uh!" Naruko insisted. "I told him my name first!" A pause. "Then he saw my scar and… well… you know, I couldn't just say I fell or something, right?"

Sasuke's frown grew more pronounced then, if that was even possible. This talk made his skin prickle… he couldn't help but shift uncomfortably. Why were they talking so casually about such a subject?

"Have you seen them before?" Jiraiya asked. "They were beautiful people, I assure you; I keep a photograph around, just so Naruko knows what they look like… even if she can't remember it."

"I haven't seen them," Sasuke murmured. It was true-a nanny had always been there to look over Naruko on the playground. Sasuke had never gone to her house when her parents had been there. It was sheer coincidence more than anything that had stopped him from seeing what they looked like.

But he couldn't deny that he was curious about it.

"Let me show you," Jiraiya said. He stood, leaving the living room for a moment… just a moment, for less than a minute later Jiraiya came back in, photograph in hand. He gave it to Sasuke. "That's Kushina," he said, pointing to the woman on the left. "And that's Minato." The man on the right.

And they were beautiful. Kushina… she looked almost angelic-baby fat on her cheeks, long crimson hair drifting down her back; there was something about her. She looked similar to Naruko, yet starkly different at the same time. As for Minato… well, at first glance they were identical-aside from the obvious gender differences and Naruko's longer hair. But the contrast became clearer, the difference in their cheeks and chins, the fullness of their faces…

It didn't matter though, how similar to each individual parent she looked; it was a puzzle put together in his mind… he could see how one bit of Kushina, and one bit of Minato came together to form the woman that had settled near permanently in his mind.

He stared at the picture for a good minute, maybe two. These people… these wonderful looking people… and all it had taken was too much alcohol to bring their lives to an end. Suddenly, his hatred for that drunk driver seemed to surface once again… stronger than before-he saw red for a moment, but only for a moment. He managed to rein his anger in before anything showed on the outside.

Without a word, Sasuke handed the framed photo back to Jiraiya, who smiled at him. There was a forlorn look on Naruko's face-one that vanished as soon as she noticed that Sasuke had looked in her direction.

Jiraiya sat back down in his spot. "Let's lighten the mood a little," he said, grabbing the remote off of the table. He put something on the television-one of those generic family comedies filled with laugh tracks and 'quirky' characters. Sasuke did not pay a lick of attention to it.

The minutes ticked by. Sasuke used Naruko's phone to explain what had happened to Mikoto-though he 'failed' to tell her that he was at a certain blonde girl's house… instead using vague terms that implied he was at Suigetsu or Jugo's. They watched the show-Sasuke sat in silence, his mind swirling with a thousand questions and no answers.

Soon enough, the rain cleared up. Jiraiya was to drive him home-Naruko waved him off, shouting that she was going to hop in the shower and get started on their dinner while Jiraiya was gone.

Sasuke and Jiraiya did not speak a word to each other in the car. The roads were wet-traffic was near non existent, and the ditches and sewers were overflowing with water…

"Have a good day, kid," Jiraiya told him. He rolled the window up, and drove off.

His house beckoned. Sasuke swallowed-and walked up to the door.

And that's a wrap for this chapter-almost five thousand words, but not quite. A few things that are obvious, and a few things that aren't so obvious... though they'll come up in later chapters. Jesus... this one was almost a chore to get out, but I hope it didn't show in the material itself.

If you liked it, don't forget to leave a review; I cherish each one, and the longer they are the more they make me happy. If you're a writer and complain about reviews, but don't leave good ones yourself... I don't even know what to say to you, xD. Anyway, thanks for reading, and as always have an awesome day.