Fireworks

Chapter 12

Naruto stood outside his room door in the morning. Nagato stood next to him. Naruto had to enter the room and get ready for breakfast and the meeting that followed. But he was too scared to enter the room. He was scared of facing Sasuke and Itachi and knowing what he had done to them. It made perfect sense why Sasuke had treated Naruto the way he had after Naruto undid the seal on his memories. Naruto had to act normal. He had to act like his memories weren't unsealed. Naruto was so scared.

"Naruto?" Nagato asked.

"I'm fine...just give me a moment." Naruto whispered. He took a deep breath and then knocked before opening the door. "I'm back!" Naruto beamed. Nagato peered into the room from behind him. Itachi looked as fresh as ever, Sai looked like he had just woken up and Sasuke looked like he had been through hell and back, with dark circles under his eyes so dark that he looked like a racoon. Internally Naruto was beating himself up. What if Sasuke couldn't sleep because of what he had done all those years ago? It wasn't an incident that could possibly stay out of one's dreams.

"Oh welcome back," Itachi said.

"Good morning." Sai mumbled, practically crawling out of bed. Sasuke and Sai looked like they had seen the devil lord the night before and Itachi looked utterly fresh.

"Well then, I'll have to go and prepare everything for the meeting today." Nagato said with a smile. "I'll see you guys at the meeting." Nagato squeezed Naruto's hand and then walked off. Naruto shut the door behind him, trying not to look at Sasuke. The guilt he had was practically eating him inside out.

"Why do you look so dead?" Naruto asked Sai. Sai gave him that fake smile of his, his dark circles and eye bags looking even worse.

"Oh, because the room down the hall was unnaturally loud last night. I think someone might have died too. There were screams of rage and explosion, I also think I heard Sasori san laughing the entire night. I don't know if you've heard it, but in the middle of the night, his laugh is the most terrifying thing ever. Sasuke probably had it worse, I was on the end but he was by the door. You're lucky you were on the top floor." Sai continued to smile as he practically tottered to the bathroom.

"I had ear buds, so I didn't hear a thing." Itachi shrugged. Naruto blinked. He wondered if that were really true. Itachi was the type to always be aware of things even if he was asleep. That's why he was such an amazing ANBU captain. Or was it that Itachi trusted Nagato just that much? No way, Itachi was that sensitive even when in the middle of Konoha. Naruto shrugged, whatever happened, he doubted Itachi would tell him.

To Naruto's horror – as he got ready – he found himself wanting to look at Sasuke so much but stopping himself from doing so because he was drowning himself in guilt. Subconsciously, he was staying as far from Sasuke as possible without attracting attention. He didn't know how he would actually carry on through the rest of the day. It was worse than their cold war when they had been travelling to the meeting. Once they were ready they went to go and eat breakfast. The only group in the dining hall were the Sunagakure group.

"Good morning." They wished each other. Being the two shinobi villages that were the closest to each other friendship wise, they were all very comfortable around each other. Breakfast was rice, miso soup and egg rolls with warm milk. As they all sat down, Kankurou explained that the other groups had come over for breakfast, but that was before they had gotten ready. So they all had vanished to get ready.

"Ah, Naruto, the rinnegan user and the red headed girl, they're Uzumakis, aren't they?" Temari asked.

"Yes, they are. How did you know?"

"Well, the Uzumakis were well known. Since their red hair is their trademark – aside from their insane personalities and their strengths – Gaara and Sasori san have often been confused as Uzumakis. However, if you look closely, their red hair is so deep and rich and it borders on turning a dark pinkish-maroon of sorts. So we could tell." Kankurou said.