Author Notes:

Err...hey. XD I've kept thinking about this fic, and in the end I thought that you guys deserved some explanation about this story. Anyways...(clears throat). It's divided by two sub-stories, which is Naruto and Sasuke. How Sasuke changed Naruto's life and how Naruto changed Sasuke's point of view.

Naruto, since he had always lived far from civilization, he'd be easily crumbled and hurt by contact with humanity...faults and all. He had lived a sheltered life. I've kept comparing the cup with Naruto because basically the cup is Naruto. His grandfather, fearing that Naruto contacting with civilization wouldn't bring him any good, created this cup and made Naruto promise that he'd keep using it and protecting it. Like the warden of this masterpiece. I don't know about ceramics, but most of Oriental style of utensils, the more you use it, the more it'll be better. And before everyone here quirks their eyebrows, here's the explanation; the more you "temper" the material, the more it'll acquire the taste you wanted instead of raw and artificial flavor. If you constantly use the tea cup to drink tea...it'll have more the flavor of all the herbs you used instead of clay, got it? Now going back to the story...

So that's why Naruto had to use it all the time. The other reason is that, fearful that he'll break it by accident, Naruto won't ever dare to leave his mansion, which was what his grandfather desired to. And here's also the other reason that I've chosen an OC instead of someone known it's because if Jiraiya or Tsunade took care of him, they wouldn't "imprison" Naruto for those reasons. It's not in their personality. And that's why the cup symbolizes Naruto, his sheltered world, beautiful but narrowed. Protected because he, himself, is frightened to see the outside world, even though he hold curiosity about it.

And that's how Sasuke entered in his life. He's an outsider, moreover, he's a journalist. Also someone who has a total different life from him. If you see, whenever Naruto offered the cup to Sasuke, the first and the second time he ask Sasuke to take care of it so it won't break, that means he's still afraid of disobeying his grandfather's orders as well as getting out of his narrowed world. But Sasuke slowly makes him change his idea, from encouraging to pursue his dream as a ceramic artist as well the library part. The library part is not only Naruto's source of information but also it's his intellectual and inside mind. Like the cup, he reads inside the cubicle even though his mansion is gigantic, why? Because he's unconsciously scared to scatter it around. Sasuke made him think: "what the hell? Why not?" And began to put his books (parts of his mind) "outside".

So that's how it ended his conclusion. The last time he offered the cup, he didn't say: "Hey, be careful with my cup!" Because, maybe he wanted it to break it. Or he didn't really mind if it would. When the cup broke, it signalized the end of his sheltered world, as well as Naruto being the cup. He's kind of saying farewell to it as well the cup finally joined with Nature. As being the cup (and Nature) being his past and Naruto, only Naruto himself will be the future. He mentioned about the water being refreshing to Sasuke, as meant as...well, he was used to drink "Life" all the time, he never really paid attention to this fact. But when the cup broke, water being used as it's "blood", Naruto realized the "cup's" death. Something like that.

Err...now we're onto Sasuke's story. As you can see, he's a journalist merely because of his parent's will as well he didn't want to lose to his big brother (we all know well that it's Itachi, heh :P) and all of his life consisted on beating (metaphorically speaking!) Itachi and going up. Basically, a dual tone of life. Either win or lose. Probably his environment provided this kind of thought, that's why he never questioned about it, only pushed forward. Naruto, however, like I've said, had a completely different kind of life to his. Naruto scarcely had contact with civilization and basically had a rural life and above all, he didn't mind being unnecessarily "out" of all tech, urban life. He liked being inside his environment. It startled Sasuke, to know someone that had a completely different type of life and mind from him and it's really rare to see someone that isn't part of what we call "civilization".

At first, he wanted to go back to his normal life, but since he was wounded and had a headache, Naruto offered the red pill. Yes, Matrix references...XD Also meant that he was pulled from his normal world to experience another type of world, a life close to contact to Nature. Nature, also the feeling of being the closest to God (yes, I'm buddhist) or to Life itself. Initially, he still felt a little bit foreign about this whole atmosphere (and Naruto) but gradually he grew closer to it (and him). When Naruto offered the cup, and also the water, when he drank it, he said it was refreshing, right? Another thought, as water being the essential necessity of our lives. Hey, our body has eighty or something composition made solely by water, so that what makes water so indispensable in our life, am I correct...XD He drank water, the "elixir" of life, that's why he felt surprised by it. Not a normal water, a water that it was untouched by humans hands and was directly extracted from Nature.

Now continuing...the more he did the basic chores of agriculture, creating the own food that he will consume, the more he was "going back" to his origin (Nature). That's why he felt more and more habituated to his surroundings and grew found of it. And since Nature offered much more colors than cities, he slowly started to comprehend on how his life consisted only in black and white. The "I've thought that I only have one kind of life to go on" thought. The part of they talked about what was occuring lately, the world cup, japanese politics and all, while Naruto spiked up his curiosity and wanted further more to go to the "outside", Sasuke realized that he didn't really necessary stay by other's will. When he saw how the sky is vast and even though it was night, in his ground there were thousands colors of black, green black, red black, etc. That part is kinda difficult to explain and...huh...I've forgotten the proper explanation. But lastly, when Naruto said that his decision was stupid and Sasuke, chuckling, had wholeheartedly agreed, that meant that he realized his mistake.

There's a tiny wheeny little bit, very small, almost imperceptible SasuNaru part that I bet you guys would protest that it wasn't enough. It was the part that Naruto put the clay to the sky and said that he liked the sunset because it was the moment that the day and the night would kiss as greeting and goodbye. As many people liked and I've also put inside this story, people like to compare Naruto as day and Sasuke as night. Thus, when Naruto said it, it implied about their future, but nevertheless, nothing certain. And that's how I've escaped from other's shippers wrath...:P

Most of the narrative part describes the action of objects, at most of their arms or eyes, but never of the characters themselves. The last part, when Sasuke fished out his card started using the "he" pronoun as subject to shift the camera eye, from a outsider perspective to a more intimate and closer to the interaction between the characters this time. It implies their future too...that they'll meet again and continue their contact instead of being inside of their little world. The part of they describe their names, mostly because of my sadist streak that I didn't want to reveal so quickly the name of the characters XD...and also meaning that they're no longer only acquaintaces, but something closer. How closer it'll be? Well, I'll leave it to your imagination...XD

The first reason that I've decided to put this explanation was mainly when I was talking to a friend and she said: "this fic was completely strange. Started out of nowhere and ended nowhere." and I blinked sheepishly: "Eh, really?" making me think if I didn't explain well.

I'd like to thank all the readers and reviewers who read it, and apologize if anyone thought that this fic is recent (which isn't) but fanfiction dot net put on the "Complete" part in more recent list without my permission (pouts). I wanted to thank personally to the reviewers, but err...time passed and probably if I answer now they would do: "wtf? Who the hell are you?" So...no.

So I'm answering here!

To Zarokin: XD I'm glad that you liked the Matrix references. Matrix is wonderful right? In which kind of class you watched it? I've watched in Philosophy class...:P

To Meshlena: I'm happy that you liked too! Wonder if you painted in the end...if you did, can you show it to me? I'd be glad if you could do so! :D

To CrochHunterfan: I know it was weird...XD No arguing here. But I'm glad that you liked though.

To Get your own Hanyou: Thanks for liking it! :D