a/n: Thank you to my only reviewer for last chapter: Ichihime. This chapter just kept going. I thought I'd never get to the stopping point. tears but on with the story

Dinner found Naruto, Sasuke and Kyuubi around the small table in their kitchen eating Italian take-out from down the way. Naruto had managed to con his sister in to getting him plain fettuccini since he could not get ramen, while Sasuke had settled for a carpese salad, which consisted of freshly sliced tomatoes and shredded mozzarella cheese with a little bit of olive oil. Kyuubi was more interested in compiling a list of suspects that matched the description she managed to get from the witnesses at the warehouse on her laptop than in eating at the moment. The man who had planted the explosives was white, with long blonde hair. There were not many people in the city who knew that much about explosives, so she was having a hard time coming up with someone who matched the description. There was always the chance that they had hired someone from outside the city, but that did not match the little she knew of their MO.

Sasuke finished his salad fast, not really hungry, but knowing better than to go with!out. Naruto would notice and stuff his face with things he did not like if he showed any sign of not eating. He rose and put his plate in the sink, before walking into the living room. It was modest like everything in the apartment, but he still felt more at home here than he ever did in the large mansion that he been his mailing address since his birth. Thinking about the house caused his blood to boil. He knew that his family was dysfunctional, but that was no excuse to kill them. They were good to each other in their own way. Maybe his father had never spoke more than two words at a time to him, and maybe his mother was more concerned with the latest fashion than in what had happened in his life, but he knew they still loved him. Itachi may be his brother, but now he was nothing more than an enemy he had to eliminate in order to continue on with his life. Or not. He could die happy knowing that the other would never see the light of day.

Naruto walked in and frowned at his friend's face. He now knew what his best friend was thinking about, and it chilled him. The idea that two brothers could come to this, even if one had done something unforgivable was completely foreign to him. He tried to imagine what it would be like to find out that Kyuubi had killed their father, and found the idea so absurd that he could not do it. He figured it was something that you had to have happen to you in order to really understand.

Trying to shake the thoughts from his head, he turned on the TV to find the local news on. A female reporter stood in front of the apartment complex, and was replaying a tape from earlier showing the three of them heading in to the apartments. Sasuke looked like he was trying to kill the reporters via death glare, and Naruto just looked livid. Kyuubi looked emotionless and made sure to stand between the reporters and her charges. The scene looked odd to the two of them, as only seeing yourself on TV could. The reporter then began to tell what she knew of the case.

"The only survivor of what the police are calling the Uchiha massacre, Sasuke Uchiha, is currently staying with longtime family friend, detective Kyuubi Uzumaki. She is known for her work on the Suna gang, and this has led us to believe that the killings are somehow related to her work," Sasuke snorted and rolled his eyes. It did not take a genius to figure something like that out. He started as something over her shoulder caught his eye. Two figures stood there, clad in long black coats despite the mid May heat, red clouds that he remembered from yesterday covering them.

"Naruto, hit the record button," he said standing up so he could go fetch the other's sister. Naruto looked confused, but did as he was told. Sasuke ran into the kitchen. "Kyuubi-chan, there is something on the TV you need to see." She looked at him over the top of her screen, one eyebrow raised in curiosity. "NOW." She followed him, wondering what could cause him to go into such frenzy. Seeing the black haired reporter from their mad dash into the apartment building she thought he may just be angry about the fact that reporters were harassing him. He seemed to be looking for something on the screen, however, and after not finding it, snatched the remote from Naruto's hands. He glared as Sasuke hit the rewind button.

"Sasuke, I know that you hate the amount of attention you're getting, but that is really necessary to the case. We need to keep Itachi's picture in the media, so the public does not forget, and they can call us if they see him," she began seeing nothing special about the picture even after he had rewound it. He made a sound of frustration in his throat, and paused the TV.

"I don't care about the damn reporter!" he hissed pointing at something over her shoulder. "Look!" She followed his finger, and two seconds later was looking for a blank disk she could burn the show on to. Atatsuki never showed it's face on purpose. That was part of what made them so hard to track. She was betting that they did not realize that they had been seen in the reporter's segment, scoping out her apartment. Naruto was just confused by it all. He had not seen the red clouds at the Uchiha's mansion, and had no idea that they were connected.

"What's so special about a couple of freaks in black coats?" he asked the other two. Kyuubi had managed to dig out an old DVD of one of her co-workers weddings, and was recording over it. She looked over her shoulder at her brother.

"You remember that file I showed you on Atatsuki?" she asked, and seeing him nod, continued. "The red clouds are the Atatsuki symbol, the same way the hourglass is for Suna and the music note is for Oto." He nodded to show understanding. The gangs were not full of the smartest people in the world, so they had to develop a system to tell one another apart in a fight. They did this by wearing their gang's symbol on their clothing, or, in extreme cases, by getting the symbol tattooed on their body. Kankuro had the Suna hourglass tattooed on his cheek, just under his left eye. His father had him do it when he was twelve years old, and he could hardly just wash it off.

That made the two people Sasuke had been looking at members of Atatsuki. Naruto shivered at the thought. They knew where he lived. They knew where Kyuubi lived. He knew how dangerous that was. Gangs never liked it when detectives began investigating them, and when a gang did not like something that someone was doing they killed them. That was why his father was dead, and why the last police chief was dead. He knew that there was a chance that they would come after Kyuubi if they felt that she was a threat. The very idea made him sick. He knew that it would not persuade his sister to leave the matter alone, and he did not want her to stop looking for the gang that had seen Sasuke's family dead, but he still did not want her hurt.

Kyuubi pocketed the DVD and closed the top of her computer, before shoving it into her bag. She had to get the images to the crime lab. She needed the pictures blown up and in the database as soon as possible. This lead was too hot to pass up. She grabbed her keys from the hook in the hallway, stopping long enough to tell the two she was heading back to the station. She closed and locked the door, mind moving faster than her body could keep up with. She knew that it was not a good thing that they were trying to find where Sasuke was. She did not think that they would want to finish the job so soon. The thought that they could be after her or Naruto never even crossed her mind.

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Naruto watched his sister leave, happy that they now had a face to some of the Atatsuki members. Maybe they would even be in the FBI database that Kyuubi had access to. That would give them some names. Naruto turned to express his joy at Sasuke's observation skills, only to catch him frowning at his clasped hands. He looked so depressed, hunched over as he was, with his bangs covering his eyes. But, somehow, he managed to make it look ungodly beautiful. Naruto imagined he looked the same as a fallen angel contemplating the heaven he had lost. He blinked, frowning at himself. He had not just thought that. Sasuke was his friend, his best friend. Not only that, but he was currently going through hell. Even if, god forbid, he wanted to think of him like that, he knew better than to start something with him in this state.

Sasuke did not notice Naruto watching him. He was lost in his own world, trying to figure out if he had ever seen either one of those two people before. He had never really paid that much attention to his brother's comings and goings, and even less attention to whom he was with. If it was not for the fact that his father had started staying up late to confront his brother about his habits, he would not have known anything about when he was gone. Their relationship had not been very good the last few years. Largely, Sasuke had thought, because of the fact that his brother was in college now, and slowly taking over the running of their father's import/export business. Now he had to wonder if he had even still been in college, or if it was just a cover for other activities. How much of what he had known of his brother was a lie?

He was startled out of his thought by the phone ringing next to Naruto, on the side table. Naruto reached for it, and picked it up. He frowned for a second before slamming it back down. Sasuke blinked at the violent reaction out of his friend. What had the person on the other end of the phone said? Naruto noticed the fact that Sasuke was staring at him, and gave him a goofy grin.

"It was a reporter. I don't know how they managed to get this number, it's unlisted. Don't worry, though, we can just unplug the phone. Kyuubi has my cell number," Naruto said yanking the cord before Sasuke could stop him. The result was the phone cord splitting in half. Sasuke groaned, and carefully helped the other pull the part still connected to the wall out. Naruto held the two pieces, one in each hand, and looked at them miserably. "Nee-chan is going to kill me," he grumbled. He painted such a picture sitting there like that, trying to get the two pieces to come back together that Sasuke could not help the smirk that crossed his face.

"Don't worry, dobe. I doubt that," Sasuke said watching as hope lit up his friend's face. "She's just going to take off a limb or two." He dodged the friendly punch headed towards him, heading for Naruto's room. It had been eight in the evening before they had left the station, and was now close to eleven. While he was not going to school in the morning (neither was Naruto, Kyuubi did not want to leave Sasuke alone in the house), he knew it would be a good idea to get some sleep. Naruto followed him, grumbling under his breath about bastards and electricity.

"I'm going to take a shower," Naruto told Sasuke, grabbing a towel and clean pair of boxers. Sasuke nodded, sorting through his duffel bag for a clean pair himself. Naruto left the room, humming happily to himself. Sasuke shook his head and began to change, emptying out his jean pockets as he went. He placed his cell phone next to Naruto's on his night stand, before crawling into the bed. He had made sure the curtains were closed earlier. He remembered the picture the reporter had shown of him and Naruto on one of the less reputable news shows from the station. They had even had a 'shrink' show up and try to explain why he had done it. He snorted at the memory. He had claimed it was an unconscious need for comfort that had driven him into the other teen's bed. That or they were involved.

Lying on the side of the bed that he normally claimed he wondered just why it was that he always slept there. It had been cute when he was little and did not know any better. Now…Now he did it from habit, he guessed. Somehow the idea of spending the night at Naruto's and not sleeping in his bed was unthinkable. Kind of like Kyuubi becoming a housewife. Not going to happen. However, hearing the man talk about him like that, had him wondering a bit at the relationship he shared with the blonde. They were comfortable with each other to the extreme. He would do things around Naruto that he would never think of doing around Itachi, even before they began to split. He frowned at the direction his thoughts were going. If he and Naruto weren't like brothers, then what the hell were they? He started at the sound of his ring tone, before grabbing the phone. He did not bother looking at the caller ID, before flipping it open. Whoever was calling him was so dead.

"What?" he snapped. A soft chuckle made itself know, and he felt ice slide through his veins.

"Is that any way to talk to your older brother?" He froze, mind blanking for a moment at the voice. He recovered quickly, ignoring the fact that his hand was trembling holding the phone to his ear.

"I have no brother. He's dead and he just doesn't know it yet," Sasuke said back, his voice colder and steadier than he felt. There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"Big words, Sasu-chan," his voice was like molding silk, beautiful and decaying. "Can you back them up? Or will you run like a scared little boy?" Sasuke growled.

"What do you want?" he asked, struggling not to just flip the phone closed and end the conversation.

"Warehouse 26, southside. Use the maintenance entrance." The line clicked dead, and Sasuke was up throwing his clothes back on. Naruto came in, toweling his hair as he went. He stopped, seeing Sasuke's mad dash to get dressed. Confused he stood in the doorway, unconsciously blocking Sasuke's exit.

"Sasuke?" he asked tilting his head to the side. Sasuke barely spared him a glance before he was inches away from him.

"Move," he said simply, not wanting to hurt his friend, but knowing he had to answer his brother's call.

"Where are you going?" he asked, eyes narrowing. He knew something was going on. He was not half as stupid as people made him out to be.

"Out," Sasuke said doing his best to avoid his friend's question without lying to him.

"Like hell you are, teme. I bet you're going to try to find your brother," Naruto growled. He was not going to let his friend do something that suicidal without a fight. Sasuke steeled himself for what he was going to do. He had taken martial arts for years, because his family had wanted him to learn about their culture. Part of that training had included pressure points. Like lighting he brought his hand down against the side of his neck. Naruto crumpled like a puppet with his strings cut. Sasuke moved him to the bed carefully, before running out the door. He had wasted so much time with Naruto.