Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

It's Thanksgiving break! In elementary school and even in high school, the majority of people looked forward to such a break because of sleeping in possibilities and lack of work. College is different however. Yes, the lack of work is appealing, and some of us may very much miss our family. But in college, the main thing looked forward to in Thanksgiving Break is REAL FOOD! Ah, I cannot wait until I can make REAL FOOD in my own kitchen again! And not have to worry about it being over-cooked or under-cooked! Oh, and teasing my friends that they stole my land as I am half Native-American; Northern Cheyenne. But mostly the REAL FOOD…I'm hungry now…

Anyhoo, sorry for the wait! Onwards with the chapter!

Sasuke was still getting used to Naruto without his memories.

For one thing, due to his injuries to his neck, Naruto could not speak. Oh he attempted to, every so often, but it would always cause him pain, and make him hack up a storm, which caused him even more pain.

Naruto was also confined to bed-rest, which he did not seem to appreciate. The hyperactive blonde could never stay still in the past, and it seemed that his body remembered its great dislike for being in the same position for an extended period of time, so Naruto would constantly attempt to move, only to be hit by either a wave of pain or by Tsunade's reprimanding light hit.

But the thing that Sasuke really couldn't get used to was how Naruto would act as he used to before he lost his memories.

It wasn't as if Naruto suddenly started to demand for more colorful walls like he always did when he landed himself in the hospital, or tried to manipulate Sasuke into helping him get out early through coy suggestions. But there were little things that had Sasuke constantly having to remind himself that Naruto did in fact lose his memories.

For one thing, Naruto did seem to know that he greatly disliked staying in the hospital. Even though he still could not speak, Sasuke would catch him gazing out of the window, almost longingly. Naruto would also constantly fidget.

Something else that Naruto seemingly remembered was his appetite. However, since his trachea had been damaged to such a large extent, he could not swallow anything without pain. So he was hooked up to an IV, which he hated. The IV was attached to his one good arm and he was forever glaring at it, as if he could magically wish it away.

There were differences between Naruto's behavior now than when he still had his memories, though. Like before, he made it no secret how much he despised staying in the hospital. But now, Naruto hid it, thinking that there would be dire consequences if he let others know that he wanted to leave; if he was caught in the middle of gazing outside or fidgeting, then Naruto would try his best to pretend that he was not doing either of those things.

The main difference, Sasuke found, was that Naruto was a lot more subdued without his memories than when he had his memories.

When he had his memories, there was a time when he had injured his throat almost as badly as his throat was injured now.

Back then, he had understood—after three people had told him, given examples, and finally demonstrated with puppets—how his throat would heal faster if he did not try to speak. So instead of speaking, he mimed—badly—what he wanted. Though only Sasuke could truly understand what he was trying to communicate, Naruto was very adamant about wanting more than six people in the room.

It was as if he was trying to forcibly remind himself that he had friends that cared for him now as opposed to when he was a child…

But now, Naruto simply accepted that he should not attempt to speak. Sasuke was sure that Naruto did not completely understand why other than when he did it caused him pain, but that Naruto agreed to this truth because Tsunade had told him so.

It has also been a full day and a half since Naruto had woken up and he was showing no signs of needing or wanting any other company besides from Sasuke. Of course, whenever Tsunade visited, Naruto's eyes brightened, but more from the knowledge of being able to recognize and remember who she was rather than for company.

Naruto was also not as prone to fill up the silence as he would be if he had his memories. In fact, he was perfectly content with simply enjoying Sasuke's company and/or listening to Sasuke whenever he felt like things were too quiet.

Sasuke was careful, though, to never reveal much about Naruto's personal life, and only spoke of before Sasuke had left so there was no chance in Naruto wondering why there was a five-year gap in Sasuke's knowledge of Naruto's life. And especially so there was no chance of Naruto learning about how close he and Sasuke really were.

The Uchiha mostly told Naruto about the inner workings of the village. Sasuke also spoke of their earlier missions and their classmates. When he did, though, he spoke as if he were reading the mission report and only told the sequence of events.

Not that Naruto minded; he was always happy to listen to Sasuke tell stories.

Stories—because that was all they were to Naruto.

Other than telling stories, Sasuke paid close attention to the instructions that Tsunade had left him as he would remain Naruto's primary caregiver during his stay at the hospital and until he regained his memory.

Not that his responsibilities had changed much than from before in Sasuke's opinion; just now Naruto was medically required to be taken care of rather than needing to be taken care of to prevent his natural idiocy.

Rather than simply keeping Naruto from getting bored, Sasuke's tasks were twofold; though admittedly one was mostly self-enforced.

The first of Sasuke's tasks was to help assist Naruto's needs as he recovered from his injuries…and the second was to monitor Naruto's recovery from his memory loss and hopefully keep the many, many bad memories away for as long as possible.

Sasuke was wondering how to continue doing so after Naruto re-met everyone as Tsunade had told them that Naruto's other friends were allowed to visit him today as apparently they had been bothering her about visiting him ever since Naruto was admitted into the hospital.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, when Tsunade had told Naruto this earlier in the morning and had suggested that everyone saw him before the hospital's visiting hours were over, and Naruto had blinked once for yes.

Tsunade had smiled and told him that she would make sure to spread the word and had left the room shortly thereafter, assuming that Naruto was excited and had wanted as many people as possible to come; like he would if he had his memories.

But Sasuke knew the truth; Naruto was more trepid than excited at the prospect of seeing everyone who would come to visit him. All it took was one frantic glace in Sasuke's direction for the Uchiha to know what was going through the blonde's mind: 'What if I don't remember them?'

Sasuke knew that through Sasuke's stories, Naruto knew that he had close friends. But Sasuke also knew that Naruto was scared that these great friends of his would be offended that he did not remember who they were.

While Naruto worried over that and was most likely reviewing names in his head, Sasuke was worrying about a different matter entirely.

No doubt the majority—if not all—of Naruto's friends would both want to tell Naruto more stories about their past and annoyingly demand to know why Sasuke won't tell Naruto their relationship status.

And Sasuke was in no mood to have his decisions psychoanalyzed by such an annoying group of people; especially since he knew that this was for the best. He was the one who knew Naruto best and he knew just how much Naruto's memories of his past had haunted him.

Keeping them from Naruto was the best thing.

This thought was reinforced as he observed Naruto waking up from a nap.

Sasuke allowed a small smile to form across his face as he watched Naruto stretch his uninjured arm, only to realize that it had the IV attached to it. Naruto then proceeded to pout at his immobility and glare at the IV.

With memories or without, Sasuke would always think that Naruto was the cutest.

Though he would never admit that out loud or else he would be in danger of being treated at the hospital himself.

"Good evening, Naruto." Sasuke greeted. Naruto turned his attention to Sasuke and smiled, happy to see someone he recognized.

Naruto looked as if he was going to try to turn his head to see Sasuke better and to greet him verbally, but Sasuke stop him.

"Your throat isn't completely healed just yet, so don't make me tell Tsunade that you were trying to get out of here early." Sasuke lightly chastised.

Naruto tried to hold a glare back.

Sasuke smirked and said, "I know that sitting there doing nothing is boring, but you're injured and aggravating your injuries won't help get you out of here any faster."

Naruto averted his eyes and gave a somewhat frustrated pout.

Sasuke's smirk was still in place, but it fell a little. This was something else that Sasuke had noticed: unlike before, now Naruto did not express his feelings quite as eccentrically anymore.

Maybe it was because Naruto felt no need to now, because part of the reason that Naruto was so expressive was because it became a defense mechanism as a child, and without his memories there was no reason for him to overreact; or just react in Naruto terms.

It was little things like these that constantly reminded Sasuke that this Naruto was not his Naruto…even though he was still Naruto.

"Tsunade has spread the word that you are able to have visitors again. She even said that she'll look passed the usual visitor-limit if you are up to it." Sasuke told Naruto.

Naruto looked up to Sasuke with an expression akin to shock. Those blue eyes revealed how truly frightened Naruto was about seeing so many strangers at once. It was easy for Sasuke to see that it was the large number of strangers that frightened Naruto rather than the not knowing them.

Sasuke almost placed his hand on Naruto's good hand to reassure him that there was nothing to be afraid of…but he had to once again remind himself that Naruto did not have his memories. Naruto may have always been a physically affectionate person and had always appreciated physical contact over other forms of comfort after receiving mostly physical forms of abuse as a child, but this Naruto did not remember that nor did he remember who Sasuke was to him.

The Uchiha held himself back because he knew that Naruto's other friends—especially other male friends—would not be touching him as familiarly or intimately as Sasuke normally does; partially in fear of what might happen if their hands linger on Naruto's shoulder even a second too long. He did not want Naruto wonder why Sasuke acted differently than his other friends in case it made Naruto think there was something more to their friendship.

Instead, Sasuke merely verbally assured the other, "I'll tell her that she shouldn't send in more than four at a time."

Naruto's expression morphed into a smile. He was about to open his mouth to try to say something, but Sasuke cut him off before he could injure himself.

"What did I tell you before? Don't aggravate your injuries or else you'll stay in here longer and we can't go home." Sasuke scolded, much like he had before whenever Naruto landed himself in the hospital.

Naruto gave him a somewhat confused and excited expression at the word 'home', and Sasuke mentally kicked admonished himself.

He hadn't told Naruto about their living condition…and he had done nothing to separate their things into different rooms. He had dutifully avoided the subject…

But Naruto was giving him an eager and questioning look, clearly excited to hear about this mystery 'home'.

Setting his face to a calm expression, Sasuke said, "You and I live together as…roommates. We are both on missions so often that we decided that things would be more convenient to get one place rather than stay in two different places that we rarely get to stay in for extended periods."

Sasuke was worried that Naruto would question further, like why two supposedly straight men would choose to buy a house together, but Naruto simply smiled, accepting the answer and waiting for a description of 'home'.

Knowing that describing their home would most likely lead into the subject of their relationship, Sasuke chose to avoid it once more.

"I'm going to go tell Tsunade about the restriction of visitors or else she'll just tell everyone to come over at once." Sasuke announced as he stood up.

He quickly left the room, but not before calling over his shoulder that this wouldn't take long and that he'd be back soon.

If Sasuke was being honest with himself, he would admit that he could have simply sent a hawk to deliver the message to Tsunade like he did when Naruto first woke up.

But he needed a break…every time he looked into those blue eyes he loved so much, he would unconsciously search for the spark of love that Naruto always had in his eyes ever since the two confessed to each other. And it broke his heart a little every time he couldn't find it.

He walked briskly through the streets of Konoha, almost to the point where he could have been accused of jogging or running, to get to the Hokage's office.

He scaled the walls of the building so he didn't have to deal with annoying people. He wasn't in the mood.

Besides, from what Sakura had told him, Naruto had taken after Jiraiya and would frequently decide that the door was not a flashy enough entrance for someone like him; so Tsunade should be used to people entering through her windows.

When he reached the window, Sasuke tapped on it lightly to announce his arrival.

Looking behind her, Tsunade exclaimed, "Sasuke?!" in a tone of shock a little of fear.

Sasuke entered through the window as the Hokage stood up from her chair.

"Why are you here? Is something wrong with Naruto? Is he alright?" Tsunade asked, probably assuming that the only reason Sasuke would leave Naruto's side was for an emergency.

In a calm tone, Sasuke assured, "Naruto is fine."

Tsunade slumped back into her chair in relief. Then she asked, "Then why are you here?"

Ignoring her question, Sasuke just said, "Naruto was not being entirely truthful when he agreed to seeing his visitors today."

When Tsunade gave him a confused look, he continued, "He does not mind that people want to see him, but he does not want a large number to visit him all at once. No more than four people at a time."

Tsunade looked a little shocked, but the expression was quickly wiped away as she nodded, "Of course, seeing so many strangers would be overwhelming…even for the gaki…"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, preparing himself to leave and go back to the hospital when the door opened.

Sakura walked into the office with a stack of papers, speaking as she did so without looking up, "I just got back from letting everyone know that Naruto's up for visitors, Master. We're all excited and ready to meet at the hospital about an hour before the end of visiting hours. Oh! And these are from Shizune! She says that you need to sign these before the end of the day."

After she closed the door, she looked up to see Tsunade sitting at her chair, and Sasuke standing next to the window.

"Sasuke!" Sakura exclaimed, hurrying over to the desk to drop her stack of papers, "It's such a surprise to see you here! Do you have a mission? You shouldn't, because Naruto needs you at the hospital. How is he, by the way? The Kyuubi is healing him up, right? Naruto always has been a quick healer. He shouldn't have to stay at the hospital for too long…though he did get very injured at hat last mission…I almost didn't believe it…I mean it's Naruto…"

Not wanting to listen to the bubble-gum haired girl babble any more, Sasuke turned to the window again with every intention of leaving.

"Wait—" Sakura called, grabbing hold of Sasuke's elbow.

He did stop, but to glare at her slightly. It wasn't a full Uchiha Glare, but he certainly let it be known that he still couldn't stand it when she—or anyone else besides Naruto—touched him so familiarly, even though that happened much less frequently than before he left the village.

Sakura withdrew her hand and clutched her other arm across her chest and averted her eyes as she asked in a softer, more timid tone, "Is…is it true?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this; a silent question for what.

Glancing up at him quickly before returning her green eyes to examine her boots, Sakura asked in a slightly stronger tone, "Is it really true that Naruto won't recognize us? That he lost his memory?"

Sasuke knew that this was a sensitive subject, especially since he knew that Sakura blamed herself, but he wasn't going to sugar-coat anything. That was Naruto's job; Sasuke was the one out of the two who never sugar-coated the truth…unless it was for Naruto's sake.

He would put layers of sugar on any lie he would tell if he knew the truth would be too much for Naruto.

Turning to face Sakura completely, Sasuke said, "Yes."

Sakura flinched, even though Sasuke's tone was not harsh. Then tears started to fill in her eyes until they started to fall down her cheeks.

She tried to wipe them away, but ended up burying her face into her hands with silent sobs because the tears wouldn't stop.

Sakura was probably blaming herself.

Sasuke wanted to mentally roll his eyes because it wasn't as if she had to endure her most precious person, someone whom she shared her most treasured memories with and frequently assured each other of their undying love, look at her and not even know of their relationship of their own violation.

But he didn't. He may not have much sympathy for her pity-fest that she was most likely putting herself through—blaming herself for Naruto's injuries, wondering why she couldn't have done something to help, wondering why couldn't she ever do anything to help, the usual insecurities she insisted on keeping—but he knew how much she meant to Naruto.

Naruto would never forgive Sasuke if he learned that he had witnessed Sakura crying and did nothing to comfort her.

Mentally sighing, he spoke in a calm and clear voice, "It's not your fault. It was those rogue ninja's faults for ambushing the mission in the first place. We both know that Naruto would have hurt himself even worse and might have ended up in a coma or suffered permanent brain injury if he knew that you or those other two were nearby."

The force of Sakura's sobs had ebbed away, but her face was still buried. So Sasuke actually did mentally roll his eyes.

"I've been telling him stories about our days as Genin. He knows who most everyone is, and knows that everyone visiting him today is a close friend of his. All he needs now is to match a face with a name, though he is worried that his not remembering people will offend them." Sasuke told her.

It took a moment, but Sakura's sniffles finally died away.

While Sakura turned away to wipe her eyes, Tsunade gave Sasuke an approving nod. Apparently he did a good job at comforting his old teammate. Whatever, he just hoped that it would not become a constant thing. He honestly did not care if Sakura or anyone else—besides Naruto—cried in front of him and would most likely leave them to their own problems.

Then Sakura turned back to him with determination in her slightly puffy and red eyes.

Noticing this, Tsunade said, "Sasuke was just coming over to let me know that Naruto doesn't want to be overwhelmed with a large number of visitors all at once and suggested no more than four people at a time."

Nodding her pink head, but keeping eye contact with Sasuke, Sakura answered, "Understood. I'll be sure to pass the message along. Should we come earlier than an hour before visiting time is over, or keep to the original plan, but dividing up the time?"

Sasuke considered the time for a slight moment before answering, "An hour before closing."

Sakura nodded again and walked briskly out of the office, calling over her shoulder, "I'll let everyone know now!"

Sasuke turned once again towards the window so he could leave and finally go see Naruto again. Even though he needed a break, Sasuke only required a small one. He did not want Naruto to be left alone for too long in case something happened to him, like recovering his memories, or even recovering a single memory. Sasuke should not have stayed away for so long.

Before he could open the window, Tsunade spoke up from behind him, "Are you intending on warning everyone on not telling Naruto the nature of your relationship with him?"

Sasuke mentally sighed. If it wasn't annoying idiots constantly squawking questions at him, it was Tsunade attempting to admonish his choices, even though they were for the greater good.

"Hn," he grunted, not needing to turn around to know that they each had their back to each other.

"He's going to find out eventually, you know." Tsunade warned, as if he didn't already know this.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted again. Of course he knew that Naruto would find out! But that would not happen until after he had the chance to live life happily without the burdens of his tortured past; without any reminders of his worst memories that Sasuke knew their relationship caused.

"When he finds out, he won't appreciate that you've hidden this from him." Tsunade said in a low tone.

"…That's where you're wrong." Sasuke answered her before opening the window and jumping out of it.

Yes, maybe Naruto would be annoyed that Sasuke hid this from him, but Naruto would also know that Sasuke did this for him; so he would not have to be burdened by the complexities of their relationship.

Without knowing their connection, Naruto had the chance to live a normal life for a while. To not be the Kyuubi vessel, to not be the boyfriend of the traitor, but to be free.

And Sasuke would protect Naruto's one chance for true freedom, no matter the cost to himself.

And that was the chapter!

So Thanksgiving break is over, forlorned sigh. I usually spend this break in New York where my grandmother lives, though not in the city. But this year, my mother had work they day before and after Thanksgiving, and my dad left on a business trip on Saturday, so we decided that it was not worth it to drive all the way to New York late Wednesday night, have my mother drive back Thursday night, to drive back Friday night just for us to leave Saturday afternoon so my dad could catch his flight. Understandable, but bumming.

In addition to not seeing my grandmother, aunt and cousins, I am also missing out on Black Friday in New York! Oh, I don't shop in New York on Black Friday….no no no no no no no. I avoid THAT like a new black plague. But New York news about Black Friday is the best! Black Friday in New York is craaaaaaaaaaaaazy! But the news is okay at home, too. There were people that were camped outside stores since Wednesday! But to be festive, I wore all black. Now that that is all over and done with, I can fully celebrate CHRISTMAS! Which I have been doing ever since November 16th, when Christmas songs started playing on my radio station at home as per tradition! Bwahahahaa, some people at school have nooooooo idea JUST how very into the holiday seasons I get. But they will see…oh yes, they will see :)

Anyhoo! Thank you to those who favorite/subscribe! And an extra special thanks to those who review! You guys are my muse's muse and we love ya!