Chapter 6: Discovering the Truth of Matters

Something had changed between today and the previous day—that much Gaara knew for sure. When he had shown up for class, following his lively conversation with his brother, Naruto was (joyously) the first person he came across. And heaven help it all if he wasn't again smiling. Gaara realized that what bothered him the most about it was the way it broke across his face, a gradual shift of his features. Naruto's visage was relaxed until that moment when blue met blue-green, and suddenly his lips curved upward, as if he could do nothing but smile. It was downright disturbing. And to top it all off, Naruto was once again at his side. Too close, of course.

"Feeling better?" Naruto asked, shrugging his hands into his pockets. On this particular day, Gaara really noticed the blonde's taller height, and suddenly he felt infinitely smaller. It was not a pleasant feeling.

In the end, Gaara chose to ignore him, sashaying past him and heading on down to his locker. That day, he was a bit later than usual in getting to school, and so the morning hall-walk was a bit more crowded than he expected.

"Tsk, tsk," came a voice behind him, and Gaara glared as Naruto came to his side. "You're too tiny for this big world, Gaara," he said with his usual grin, raising his hand to pat Gaara on the head (a move that Gaara would have definitely protested) before he decided against it and let his hand drop to his side. "So, are you going to tutor me today then? Since you're here…"

"No."

Naruto immediately made a face, before staring at Gaara for a moment. "It's just as well," he finally said with a sigh. "You look really tired today. Have you been sleeping properly?"

For a moment, for this really strange and displaced moment, Gaara almost told him that he had had his mind on things lately and so he was having trouble sleeping. That was before he reminded himself that Naruto was an idiot and had no business knowing the details of his personal life. "I'm fine," he said in the end, hoping it would placate him.

"Hm," was all Naruto said in reply. When Gaara reached his locker, Naruto stopped with him, leaning one arm on the locker to Gaara's immediate right. He was too close. Opening his mouth to speak, whatever the blonde was going to say was lost when one of a group of male students passing by quite purposely pushed Naruto into Gaara. As Naruto was already leaning slightly downward, his face came crashing awkwardly into Gaara's face, his lips making contact with the redhead's right cheekbone.

Naruto's first instinct was to completely freeze up, his lips still awkwardly connected to Gaara's face. His next reaction involved a strange martini of embarrassment and anger in which he pivoted on his heel and raised his fist, prepared to yell some kind of retort. It fell flat, however, when he realized the group had already disappeared into the mass of students in the hall. However, the immediate mass of students had gloriously witnessed the scene, and many were already whispering and laughing.

"Idiots," Naruto managed out, scratching the back of his neck and scowling. "I'm sorry about that, Gaara."

Looking at him, Gaara turned to his locker and pulled out the necessary books, completely ignoring him. Despite it all, he was surprised that Naruto had not reacted in a more disgusted manner. Anyone else…

Shutting his locker, he turned and narrowed his gaze when he noticed that Naruto was still there. "Don't you have class, Uzumaki?"

"Sit with us at lunch," Naruto suddenly said, a serious expression on his face. Gaara wondered how in the world his thought processes had gone from cheek-kiss to lunch. Then, all at once, the blond's face seemed to melt into a grin. "We can plan our revenge." His hands again in his pockets, he began walking down the hall backwards, eyes never leaving Gaara's. "See you then, Mr. Frown." A few seconds later, he ended up running into Kakashi, sending the teacher's papers everywhere. This was followed by a stern lecture on walking down halls the right way, and why Naruto was old enough to know better. Naruto scratched his head and bowed apologetically, but Kakashi simply shook his head and indicated that Naruto had better start picking the papers all up. Gaara watched it all with mild irritation, but somewhere deep within, he was sure that he felt the dormant urge to smile.

ooo

"Oh my god, Sasuke," Naruto chewed on his nails, a perfect manifestation of a "nervous wreck". "Oh my god."

Sasuke leaned on his arm and continued to eat his lunch, clearly unfazed by his friend's unnatural behavior. "I shudder to hazard a guess as to what it is you've done this time."

Pausing in his nail biting, Naruto looked at Sasuke as if he were trying to gauge whether or not Sasuke was worthy of knowing his affliction, before he seemed to agree with himself that it was all right. "It was horrible," he started with, bringing his hands in front of him. "One minute it was—," he lifted his left hand, "—and the next minute—," he rose his right, "—and then blam!" And then, as if to illustrate "blam", he slapped his hands together.

Sasuke just stared at him, blinking and arching a brow. "Believe it or not…I have no idea what you just said."

In a moment of exasperation, Naruto grabbed his blond hair. "I thought it was obvious, Sasuke. Some jerks pushed me into Gaara, and I kissed him!"

"Oh?" This did seem to grab Sasuke's attention somewhat, but his smirk did nothing to reassure Naruto. "You say you kissed him?"

Hearing it from another's lips seemed to debilitate him, for Naruto appeared to melt into a strange pool on the lunch table, a blank stare on his face. "It's over for me. Now he'll think I'm gay, and just after I had worked so hard to become his friend."

Sasuke was seconds away from rolling his eyes. "You are so melodramatic sometimes. Haven't we talked about this? Besides, it wasn't even a real kiss. A kiss is intentional; your case was clearly an accident…unless you're telling me it wasn't—"

"It was!" Naruto defended, coming to life out of his crumpled form. "I played it off cool, but I—." He seemed like a character in an old movie that had lost everything. "Now he'll surely think I'm gay, just like…Gaara."

Sasuke squinted at his words, even cocking his head slightly to one side. "That was awfully redundant, Naruto."

"No…" he broke into an awkward grin, eyes fixed to the space above Sasuke's head. "It's Gaara."

Turning to confirm it was unnecessary, for Gaara pulled out the chair beside Sasuke and sat, a blatant look of extreme displeasure on his face. "I think I've decided that I really hate you, Uzumaki," he said, and while his words were harsh, his face was surprisingly calm. That was probably what made it so intimidating.

Naruto laughed it off, a poor excuse for a smile on his face. "It's not what you think, I was just—" he rose his left hand, "—and then—blam!" He clasped his hands. "You know?"

Gaara looked at him like he was crazy, and Sasuke silently agreed with him. "Your stupidity is out of this world."

"It's not what it—," Naruto tried to counter, stumbling over his words. "It doesn't have to do with you being…gay, or anything." His sentence had started out strong, but thinned out to being almost inaudible by the end.

"So, you knew," stated Gaara cryptically, and it was by no means a question. He seemed to Sasuke in that moment, like a volcano before it erupts—it looks calm and approachable, but inside, it's boiling and raging and is about to explode.

Naruto broke the eye contact, his blue orbs fixing themselves to his own lap. "I…I knew, but I just found out yesterday."

"I see." Raising elegantly from his chair, his piercing gaze never once left Naruto's form. "Don't flatter yourself, Uzumaki," he avowed crossly. "Just because I'm gay doesn't mean I'm going to like you." And with that declarative statement, he was gone.

Naruto was completely awestruck. When he was done staring in disbelief at the chair where Gaara had just sat, he finally looked to Sasuke as if to confirm what he had just heard. Sasuke sat quietly, his eyes unreadable, but his hand quite unsuccessfully covering his amused grin.

"You think that's funny?" Naruto questioned, still in utter amazement.

A small chuckle broke out, before Sasuke restrained himself. "That, my friend, was a serious burn. Even I felt the heat."

Naruto just stared at him. "When did you become so funny, Sasuke?"

With a smile, Sasuke leaned on his hand. "When you became a lovesick poet."

ooo

Naruto sat silently at his desk, looking forward but not at any particular thing. "Lovesick poet, he says," he said reminiscently, tapping his foot on the floor. "Lovesick poet." It was utterly preposterous. He let out a small laugh that came out more through his nose, before shifting until he was leaning on one arm. Gaara walked in and donned his customary glare when he saw that Naruto was sitting beside him again, but it softened as he took his seat, immediately beginning to read.

Foot still tapping, Naruto glanced over at him as Gaara continued to indulge in his book. He could see his turquoise eyes as they skimmed over the page, taking in each letter, each word, each greater meaning. There was something somewhat attractive about it all. Naruto scrunched his face up as he decided that "attractive" was a dangerous word to use, but when Gaara blinked and moved on to the next page, that was simply what it was. Gaara really was interesting to look at; he was unique. No one else's hair was the same shade, and Naruto knew he had never seen such eyes. He was like anybody else, and yet, there was no one else like him.

Was that what it was like to really start seeing someone? Not to just see them, but to see them?

"What?" Gaara finally asked, turning toward the blond with his characteristic look of annoyance.

Naruto only smiled softly. "Nothing…" He liked to think he couldn't control what he said next, but when he said it, it was exactly how he felt. "I just like looking at you."

The annoyance in Gaara's face seemed to decrease as he took on a look of perplexed normality. What he said next was structured as a warning, but came out more worn-out than anything. "You should be careful what you say, Uzumaki."

"Call me, 'Naruto'," said the blond benevolently, mouth still curved with a smile.

"No," Gaara answered, the look of annoyance reappearing as he turned back to his book.

Pouting, Naruto rested his chin in his hands and faced forward. A movement out of the corner of his eyes alerted him that someone was beside him, and he thought they were just walking past him, but the peripheral shadow remained.

"Gaara," a male voice teased, quite obviously imitating an effeminate voice. "Oh Gaara, I just love looking at you."

Naruto already knew who it was, but he turned and glared anyway. "Kiba, knock it off." He and Naruto were friends, and it was common for them to joke around, but Naruto didn't want to joke around about that particular subject.

Kiba faked a look of hurt and batted his eyelashes. "But I'm not Kiba," he giggled like a girl and slapped Naruto playfully on the arm. "I'm Naruto, and I loooove Gaara." A few students in the vicinity, mostly girls, laughed outwardly at Kiba's comical display, but Naruto maintained his stoicism and turned away from him. "Aw, Naruto, learn to take a joke, man," he lightly chided, cuffing the blond on the arm. Leaning in close, he whispered, "You know he's a fag, right?"

Something electric seemed to go through Naruto then. The word was said with revulsion and with disgust, with hate, and it had been emphasized and uttered purposefully louder so that Gaara would be able to hear it. He suddenly pictured himself as a young boy, playing ball outside with a few friends and laughing at the older man next door who had a male partner. The couple was really nice, and they smiled and waved whenever they saw Naruto, but he always turned around and ran.

"Stay away," his friends had warned. "Just stay away from them."

He suddenly hated that part of himself. Maybe that's why he punched Kiba. Maybe he thought he was rebelling against a part of himself. Either way, he had never punched anyone before—not seriously, at least—and the first thing he noticed was that it hurt. It actually hurt pretty badly. As he pulled his hand back and shook it, Kiba reeled backward, letting out a whelp of pain and holding his nose. Naruto could only stare at his hand as a thin trail of blood seeped from a small cut on one of his knuckles where it had probably scraped a tooth. The pain seemed to numb, and everything seemed to numb as Naruto looked up and saw that blood was seeping from between Kiba's fingers, too. It was surreal.

"What the hell was that for, Naruto?" Kiba spat out angrily, voice muffled by his hand, and maybe a little bit of blood. "Did I really deserve it?"

Naruto looked at him intently. "Deserve?" he repeated disconnectedly, almost as if he was disconnected from himself. Did Gaara really deserve such treatment? He could feel himself chuckling bitterly, but couldn't hear it. At least when Kiba punched him, he couldn't feel it.

ooo

The next time Naruto opened his eyes, all he could see was red. When that slowly cleared away, stark whiteness met his gaze. It was too harsh, and after a moment, he had to close his eyes.

"That was quite a stunt, Naruto," Sasuke's voice carried over from somewhere to his right. "I don't know whether to be disappointed or proud."

"What happened?" Naruto's voice was scratchy for minor disuse and the haze that follows sleep.

"I walked in after the fact, but when I came in, everyone was crowded around your unconscious body—everyone except for Kiba, who was holding his nose and staring at you in slight shock. Kakashi came in and broke it up." Sasuke's footsteps sounded until they ceased by the bed. "He caught you pretty good on the cheek, but at least you won't have a black eye."

"What's happening to me, Sasuke," Naruto inquired, bringing his hands up to cover his eyes. He could feel a bandage that covered his right cheekbone and a stinging sensation when he lightly pressed it. Another stretched across his knuckles.

"…I don't know."

"I can't believe I punched Kiba. Kiba's my friend."

"Gaara is, too." And, after a moment, Sasuke said, "That's why you did it, right?"

Pulling his hands away, Naruto looked again at the blinding white of the ceiling. "I don't know…I feel like I don't know anything anymore."

Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and smiled. "You don't always have to know everything."

"It'd be easier."

"Would it?" asked Sasuke, raising a brow in sync. "I think it'd be more difficult. It would take all the fun away."

Naruto mulled over his words and sat up, but Anko was nowhere to be found. He wasn't surprised, as she usually found ways to sneak out of the office, but the hastily scribbled note, which sat up on her desk and said she would be back in five minutes (an obvious lie), was enough to pull a small smile from him. "Where's Gaara?" he questioned, turning to face his raven-haired companion.

Sasuke shrugged. "He came with me when I piggybacked you to the infirmary, and even helped me to situate you in the cot. But after that, he looked at you, called you an idiot, and left."

Naruto smirked to himself. "That's so like him." Looking at the wall-clock, he was surprised to see that it was already time to go. In fact, it was far past the time that the buses were scheduled to pick them both up. "You missed the bus because of me," he said, as the truth of the matter hit him.

"And?" Sasuke looked unaffected. "You're my friend. I wasn't just going to leave you here."

"You're going to make someone really happy one day," Naruto said with a grin, trying to picture something, but finding whatever it was difficult. "I wonder what kind of person you're going to end up with."

"Who knows?" the black-haired student said with a shrug. "What kind of person are you going to end up with?"

Naruto mimicked his stance, exaggerating a shrug. "Who knows?"

Staring at him in a scrupulous manner, Sasuke suddenly smirked and started for the door. "I think I know."

Naruto blinked. "Who?"

Sasuke just tossed up a wave and paused at the doorway, looking out at something. His expression was perplexed before the smirk returned, and he told the blond, "See you tomorrow."

It didn't take too long to figure out his friend's mystification, for a moment after Sasuke had left, Gaara walked in. He stood in the doorway, a blank look on his face, before he seemed to decide he was too far away and so walked further in. Coming all the way up to the foot of the bed, he simply stood there for a moment, bag slung over his shoulder, and an expression that was reminiscent of their very first encounter.

"Hey, Gaara," Naruto greeted cheerfully, throwing up a wave of his own. "Why are you here?" Again he looked at the clock, "Didn't you miss your ride?"

After a measured span of time, Gaara said, "My brother's taking me home."

"Well, we're even now," the blond laughed, pointing to his bandaged cheek.

Gaara continued to stare at him, appearing as if there was an internal battle raging on inside of him. "Why are you doing this?" he said finally, clearly aggravated, and maybe a little tired as well.

Naruto arched a fine brow. "Doing what?"

"Pretending to care. You're just like everyone else, so why don't you just be like them?"

"Like everyone else—pretending?" inquired Naruto in blatant confusion. "I'm being sincere, Gaara. Why can't you see that?"

"You're being an idiot," stated Gaara flatly. "Starting fights with your friends, failing class—"

"Neither of which were intentional," Naruto corrected, raising a finger to reiterate his point.

Gaara looked like he was losing his hold on things for once, like he was about to get angry, before he took a subtle breath and restored his calm. Naruto smiled inwardly as he considered the fact that maybe, for once, he had control of the conversation, he was the one remaining composed, because, while he usually didn't feel confident about certain things, he knew he felt confident about this.

"What is this really about," he found himself asking. Kicking back the sheets, he stood and took a step toward Gaara. "Who is this really about? Me?...Or you?"

Gaara's hands curled to fists at his sides. "Kakashi told me to tell you that you have detention tomorrow for starting a fight." Loosening his grip, he said emotionlessly, "That is all," before turning to leave.

"It was worth it."

Maybe Gaara stopped because Naruto's voice surprised him. Maybe he stopped because the confidence in Naruto's voice when he had spoken had been so strong. Maybe Naruto's idiocy was simply rubbing off on him. "I won't be tutoring you for the rest of the week," he said, bracing his hand on the wall by the exit. "Take this time to fix things with your friends…and please leave me alone." He was only there a minute more before he left.

Naruto saw his own reflection across the room in one of the mirrors. His copy stood there, motionless, silent, and sad. Why couldn't he do the right thing? He had had the upper hand, hadn't he? Why did Gaara still walk out in the end?…Why did Naruto let him?

"Fix it," Sasuke's voice sounded in his mind. "Fix it." That time it was his own. Running into the hall, Naruto tried to figure out where Gaara could have gone. Those crazy-fast feet had probably carried him all the way home already. Naruto could only hope he might stop by his locker. He rushed into the nearest stairwell, dangerously skipping a few steps and basically falling into the hall. He bent over to catch his breath, but voices to his left caught his attention. Glancing over, three dark figures occupied the end of the hall, but they were difficult to distinguish because the light was shining toward him, making them mere silhouettes. But that was definitely in the area of Gaara's locker, and as Naruto's vision strained to see, he could tell that those were definitely two of the idiots who had pushed him into Gaara that very same day.

As he took a step toward them, he saw the glint of red hair too late before one of the guys shoved him backwards roughly. Naruto broke into a sprint and felt the fury rising up in him again as Gaara's back crashed loudly into a locker and he slid down to the ground.

"Leave him alone!" Naruto yelled, surprised at the level and tone of his voice. Kakashi even stepped out into the hall, ready to start reprimanding, but he stopped when he saw Naruto barreling down the hall. As he came even closer, he saw that it was Dozu and Zaku, two of the school's well-known troublemakers, but they turned and left hurriedly when they saw him. "Stupid…idiots," he breathed out, coming to stop by Gaara's fallen form. The annoying pair was known for starting fights whenever and with whomever they could. He and Gaara were simply the unlucky chosen that day. "Are you all right," Naruto asked, breath finally coming more slowly as he extended an open palm toward the redhead.

Gaara looked at his hand, and then in his eyes. He looked tired. "I'm fine." Both pairs of eyes widened as Gaara touched his cheek and drew back his hand, finding the fingertips damp. A tear had rolled down his cheek. How long had it been since he had seen one of his own? Rubbing his eye, he quickly stood, ignoring Naruto's hand and walking past him.

Naruto sighed and watched him go, gone…"with the wind", as some might say.

Kakashi stepped forward, arms crossed, but a small, encouraging smile on his face. "…Don't give up, Uzumaki-kun."

Naruto brought himself to look at him, a skeptical expression, no doubt, on his face. "Didn't you just issue me a detention, sensei?"

"I did," he nodded emphatically. "Don't be late, either." With a little chuckle, he turned and went back into the classroom. Naruto watched him go, finding it difficult to like him, but also finding it particularly difficult to dislike him either.

"I have faith in you, Naruto," he had said. "Be sure to take care of Gaara."

Naruto finally felt that he understood what he meant.

oooTBCooo

Hm, so this wasn't the favorite chapter that I thought it would be (though I enjoyed it), but the next chapter definitely will be. Let's face it; I don't know what's going to happen any more than you do. This is the one story I can't extensively plan out. And Kiba's one of my favorite characters, but someone has to play devil's advocate occasionally. Just don't pass final judgment on him yet. Or anyone. This chapter feels so short, especially compared to the last two chapters, but the next one will probably be super-long (dare I say the longest so far?), and I'm worried I won't be able to update within a week's time again, so I hope this will do for now. Enjoy your weekends and lives, dearies, and don't get into too much trouble.