Chapter 9: Wake-Up Call

"I wish it had been you instead of her."

Naruto was pulled roughly from sleep as a sharp pain shot through his back, a sudden shock to his system bringing him to dulled awareness. It took him a moment to realize where he was, one arm hanging off the couch and bent painfully on the floor, the other palm-down on the cushions above his head. He blinked sleepily around the room, a strange warmth passing steadily through his body even though the fire had burnt itself out or been put out—Naruto couldn't be sure which. What he was sure of was that he had spent the night at Gaara's house, the light creeping in from the small windows near the ceiling a sure sign of morning.

He went to push himself up, but a pressure was suddenly exerted on his back, and that familiar pain helped him the rest of the way to wakefulness. It took him another moment to realize that there was someone underneath of him, and only a few more moments to realize that that someone was Gaara. With a look of unseen confusion, Naruto went through the events of the previous day until he was reminded of its conclusion on the couch. It appeared that neither of them had gotten up after that, and that both of them had moved around quite a bit in their sleep. Gaara's face was practically plastered to Naruto's collarbone and neck, brick-red strands spilling forth over Naruto's shoulder. Naruto wasn't sure how Gaara was able to sleep in such a way, because the blond's body was splayed rather uncomfortably across the smaller teen.

Gaara mumbled something incoherent, and Naruto jumped, not because it had scared him, but because the sensation of lips on his skin, of Gaara's lips on his skin, was not something he had expected to feel. The pressure and pain on Naruto's back increased, and he was finally able to discern that it was Gaara's hands that were the cause. They had slipped past his navy vest—past his shirt—scraping up Naruto's bare skin and clenching as if in pain. A nightmare. Gaara must have been having a nightmare. Shifting his face inward, Gaara's grip loosened and his peaceful sleep returned. Naruto wasn't sure whether to wake him or leave him, but with the way things were, every time Naruto moved, Gaara gripped onto him for dear life, but Naruto could not stay there. He couldn't. Aside from Gaara's hands on his back and warm breath on the blond's neck, Gaara's legs seemed tangled with Naruto's. Very tangled. Naruto shifted a bit to relieve a creak in his shoulder, but it only took a fraction of a second to realize why movement was a bad idea.

They were almost cemented at the waist, lower halves pressed together as a result of their jumbled limbs. Gaara shifted again, rather substantially this time, and Naruto pressed a hand to his mouth to subdue whatever might have spilled from it as a result. He tried to reason it out. He was a boy. Boys have sensitive areas. When these areas are…Gods above, he was making things worse. They were just in such a provocative position…And Gaara was moving again, palms sliding over Naruto's back as broken, muffled sentences spilled from his mouth, transferring softly against the blond's collarbone. He would have to wake him. Naruto would have to awaken Gaara or he wasn't sure what might happen.

Bracing his arms on either side of Gaara's face, he gently lifted himself upward, slowly disengaging himself from the boy beneath him. Gaara's arms tightened momentarily, but loosened as Naruto carefully uncoupled their bodies. When they were almost completely separated, Gaara mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Neji" before falling silent once again. It was weird, because Naruto looked at Gaara for a long time after that, the smaller boy's arms still clasped behind the other's back as he continued to sleep, and he was sure that he didn't like hearing such a name from Gaara's lips. He just didn't know why. Taking hold of Gaara's arms, he carefully pulled them from his shirt, and just as he had carefully placed them over the red-haired student's chest, Gaara woke up.

"Good morning," Naruto greeted, enthusiasm lacking from sleep. He was also tingling again, though not in his arms this time.

Sitting up, Gaara rubbed his face, before glancing at his watch. "I have a lot of work to do," he said monotonously, standing and leaving both the room and Naruto.

It was weird, because Naruto felt like he had taken five steps forward, and fifty enormous steps backward. He seemed like the Gaara that Naruto didn't know, the Gaara from before—cold, detached, and separated Gaara. But why?

"I was waiting for this," a voice echoed into the room as he flipped a switch, flooding the room with light.

"Kankurou," Naruto acknowledged, the voice now easy to recognize. "Waiting for what?" he turned toward him.

"He always returns to himself in the end. Gaara never lets himself be changed for very long. Though I'll admit, he's never been so open for so long as he was last night…" Kankurou stared at the floor, arms crossed, as he seemed to recollect the memory. "Thank you for that, Naruto."

Raising a brow, Naruto tried to figure out how Gaara's attitude from the previous day could be characterized as "open". "You're welcome, I guess. It's clear that I only annoy him, though."

"Maybe," the senior shrugged. "Maybe not." Perusing aimlessly about the room, the Kankurou before Naruto in that moment looked so drastically different from the one of the previous day. "When we were little, I used to purposefully keep him up and make him tired. When he's tired, he lets his guard down just a little. But then I think he figured it out, and he hated me for it." Stopping in front of the younger student, the older blond regarded him with a strange mix of warning and sadness. "Just be careful, Naruto."

Naruto frowned at him. "Kankurou…"

Shaking his head, Kankurou's genuine smile returned. "Kankurou-sempai, kid. You really don't listen, do you? I feel bad for my brother."

"But we're friends, right?" questioned Naruto, unfazed even before Kankurou's larger stature.

"Friends?" Kankurou could only stare at him, looking almost as if he had never heard such a question before, like he didn't understand what it meant.

"Well, yeah," Naruto replied with a nod. "You even called me 'Naruto' yesterday. I just assumed that somewhere along the way we became friends."

Kankurou went over his words, an uncharacteristically dark look falling over his face, before his smile took over once again. "Sure; I guess we're friends." Tousling Naruto's hair with an open palm, he turned and started to leave. "Just be aware that I don't understand 'friendship', so I'm liable to screw it up."

Naruto followed after him, face twisting in confusion. "How can someone not understand friendship?"

Kankurou smiled back at him, the indescribably dark aura looming about his face. With a sinister tint to his voice, he answered, "I don't have any friends."

The way in which he said it, the manner in which his smile seemed to reveal a darker part of him—it made Naruto stop in his tracks. Kankurou's characteristic chuckle carried back as always, but it, too, seemed ominous. Naruto finally laughed it off and caught up with him, shaking his head. "Yeah, right." It seemed impossible that Kankurou wouldn't have friends. Despite his threatening bearing, he was one of the most instantaneously-likeable people Naruto had ever met. But Kankurou didn't say anything else about it after that.

ooo

"Where's Gaara?" Naruto asked, taking a seat at the kitchen table as Kankurou started making breakfast. He had offered to do so, and Naruto complied. He was still a little tired, his mind digesting all the happenings of the previous day, as well as the interesting little start to the current day. Interesting. That was one word for it.

"I'm almost positive that he's locked himself in his room," Kankurou replied, looking from a random jar of food and then to Naruto before putting the jar back and pulling ingredients from the fridge instead. "He's accepting reality, kiddo."

"Accepting…" Sighing, Naruto rubbed his head, leaning his other arm lazily across the table. "But we're in reality."

"Are we?" Kankurou asked, holding his chin in some odd impersonation of a philosopher. "That's debatable."

"But right here, right now, that's real—isn't it?" Naruto was starting to get confused. What should have been a succinct conversation was turning into deep, theoretical pondering.

"What he means," Sasuke said, walking into the kitchen and taking a seat across from his friend, "is that this small reality is arguably fake compared with the larger reality of the world. And good morning, Naruto."

"Yes, good morning, but—," he froze, doing a double-take on Sasuke's blasé demeanor. "Wait a—Sasuke, what are you doing here?"

"He spent the night," Kankurou answered for him.

"You, too?" With a lingering look of surprise, Naruto could only shake his head. "What a weird night."

"I can only imagine," Sasuke mused, folding his hands on the table. "First you call me, crying about seeing someone's thing, and the next, I find you cuddled up with Gaara on the couch. My surprise was immediate…to say the least."

"We were not cuddling," Naruto spat out childishly.

"You saw my brother's thing ?" asked Kankurou, spinning around in revulsion. "Just what did you two do yesterday? Honestly, I walk in and you're practically about to make out with him—"

"I was not going to make out with him," Naruto defended, wishing there was some place to hide his face, his body, his existence if it would shelter him from this embarrassment. "It was a game."

"A make-out game?"

Naruto gave Kankurou an evil eye and Sasuke covered his mouth as if he was about to start laughing. "Everyone's a comic today."

"You're the funniest of all," Kankurou declared, rudely pointing a pair of chopsticks at Naruto from across the kitchen. "Especially if you think things are going to change after one day."

Naruto was going to spout off some kind of rebuff, but Sasuke nodded in agreement. "He's right, Naruto. Maybe something did happen between you two yesterday. That's great. But that's not the real world. It's not just you and Gaara. It's you and Gaara—and everyone else. Gaara understands that. Just make sure you do as well."

Sasuke was always perfect at expressing and highlighting upon the bleak realism of things. On this particular day, it seemed to be extra-bleak, but Naruto was still able to find the truth in his words.

"You're right," he agreed sullenly, "but your pragmatic diagnosis is depressing."

"Depressing but true," Kankurou said in a pleased voice that seemed out of place with what he was saying. "I happen to love pragmatic diagnoses. Why distort the truth with pretty words?"

"My thoughts exactly," Sasuke looked at Naruto as if to communicate, I told you so. He said, "Well put, Kankurou."

"Thanks, Sasuke," Kankurou smiled.

Naruto stared at the two, an unvoiced question in his thoughts. "How come Sasuke can call you 'Kankurou', but I have to call you 'sempai'?" Both of them looked at him as if the answer was obvious.

"Sasuke's cute; that's why," Kankurou simply answered, patting Sasuke on the head. He had uttered the assertion like he might state any well-known fact, but definitely not like anyone else when they said that Sasuke was cute. It was another one of those strange, unforgettable sights. What made it particularly strange was that Sasuke just sat there and took the gesture in stride, as if nothing of the sort had even transpired.

Naruto was starting to develop some strange thoughts on the matter when Kankurou's cell-phone went off, and the senior blinked and pulled it from his pocket. "It's my girlfriend; please excuse me," he said courteously. Putting it to his ear, he had barely uttered a charming, "Hello, darling," before he was out of the room, voice muffled by a distant, slamming door.

Sasuke glanced at his retreating back before turning slowly toward Naruto, a veiled look in his ebony gaze. "Sleep well?"

Naruto regarded him intently. "I did." Reflexively, he felt his face heat up, but he refused to believe that Sasuke could see it. It was a mind trick of sorts…If he convinced himself that it couldn't be seen, then he would start to believe it. He was a master of cognitive dissonance. So then why, despite his efforts to suppress his thoughts, was a familiar warmth passing over his body again? Naruto released an awkward cough.

The dark-haired student seemed to be smiling with his eyes—just a little bit like Gaara, in his own way. "Good."

"I just don't get," Naruto affirmed suddenly and in a frustrated manner. "Why do I feel like I'm getting nowhere? I've done everything you told me, Sasuke. We got along—at least I thought we did yesterday, and today he won't talk to me. I haven't given up, but I haven't gotten anywhere."

"Do you really believe that?" Sasuke asked, arching a black brow. "This pessimistic person before me is a stark contrast to the Naruto I know."

"Then maybe you don't know me."

Sasuke looked at him quickly, no doubt surprised, and an ounce of worry took over his face. "Naruto—"

Naruto's adopted his usual smile, the brightness of his expression cutting off Sasuke's words. "I'm just kidding. You might be the only one who knows anything about me at all." He stood, slowly ambling around the kitchen table aimlessly, like Kankurou had earlier in the fireplace chamber. "I like this house," he said after a few moments, glancing around at the surroundings.

"Stop pretending," Sasuke said semi-disinterestedly. He seemed to manifest a morning paper out of nowhere, splaying it open with a quick flick of his hands and immediately starting to read. "You hate this house."

Naruto stopped abruptly, resting his hand on one of the counters. "Hate? What makes you think that?"

"It's just like your house." While Sasuke's eyes continued to scan the columns of printed texts before him, his words were most assuredly directed at the blond.

Naruto looked like he wanted to laugh. "My house is nothing like this house, Sasuke."

"Stop pretending," was all Sasuke said in return.

Naruto hated the word "pretend". He hated it because it surrounded his entire existence, ironically holding it together, keeping the unsteady pieces in place. "Don't, Sasuke," he said soberly. Stop pretending. The phrase echoed through his thoughts, like an old memory tossed up when one blows off dust. He could remember it spoken at another time, with a slightly different voice, to a variably different version of himself. Sasuke looked at him over the top of the newspaper, an unreadable expression gracing his features as he watched his old friend break out into his normal smile. "Don't."

Kankurou walked back into the kitchen, staring fondly at his phone and shaking his head in disbelief. "I could marry this girl," he mumbled contently, a warm air about him that was different from the exuberant aura he was akin to adopt. This one seemed more genuine, more real, and very much like the manner he assumed when discussing his younger brother.

"Aren't you a little young to be discussing marriage?" Naruto inquired, looking skeptically at the older boy.

"Love knows no age, distance," pushing his phone into his pocket, Kankurou turned to toward his addresser with a grin, "…or gender. Wouldn't you agree?"

Naruto looked at him as if to ask, What are you saying?, at about the same time Gaara came in, looking solely at Naruto and clearly implying, What are you still doing here? Kankurou wordlessly held out a cup of coffee, which Gaara took from his hands before disappearing into the hall once again. The whole charade ended up turning out rather awkward for Naruto, who had had a million things planned to say, but only ended up holding an index finger quite curiously in the air.

Sasuke could only look at him. "Marvelous, Naruto."

Pouring another cup and placing it before Sasuke, Kankurou stared at Naruto with a critical expression. "What is he pointing at?"

Resting his head on the table, Naruto's head hit the wood a little harder than he had anticipated. A dull ache seemed to spread throughout his skull, rattling his brain with small, jarring waves. "Are we leaving now, Sasuke?"

Sasuke flipped to the next page of the paper with only his thumb. "I thought you said you hadn't given up."

"I'm not giving up," Naruto said quickly, dragging his head painfully upward to look at his friend. "I'm just—"

"—Giving up," Sasuke interceded, glancing over a page. "It's okay, Naruto. I understand."

"Why do you always do that?" the blond asked, glaring at him a little and sitting upward. "Why do you always, always do that?"

The innocent look that flashed across Sasuke's face was a clear indication of his dishonesty. "Do what?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, like when we first met—oh, never mind," he appeared to swat the topic away with one hand. "My life is over, so it doesn't matter anyway."

"Melodramatic as ever."

Naruto shot him and irritated look and declined the offer of coffee Kankurou put forth. "You two are something else," the senior mused with entertained conduct. "It's like you've known one another for a long time."

"Almost a lifetime," Sasuke corrected, his voice communing that it had been long enough to grate on his nerves.

"Well, that's nice," Kankurou continued. "It's good that you two have been able to maintain such an incorruptible relationship for so long."

As Kankurou finished his sentence, it increasingly dawned on Naruto how strangely worded and downright morose the elder boy's statement had been. And then he realized that Kankurou had always been like that, smiling and putting up a kind of front, while his real self was only revealed in carefully constructed comments that usually fell on deaf ears. Naruto used to do that all the time—making people wonder, causing people to question the foxy grin, do a double-take—at least until Sasuke came along and ruined all his fun.

"Stop pretending."

"Haven't you ever had an incorruptible relationship, Kankurou?" Naruto asked. It was another one of those dangerously presumptuous questions, but surely the other boy had experienced at least one.

Taking a sip of coffee, Kankurou looked over the rim of his mug and into some long-past memory. "Never."

Naruto blinked, unsure of what to say, because while Kankurou didn't look angry about the question, he seemed to be straining to maintain his carefree attitude. "Never?" Sasuke looked at Naruto, saying nothing explicitly, but implicitly seeming to tell him to stop. "I mean, what about the girl? The one you said you could marry?"

Sloshing the near-black liquid around in his cup, Kankurou looked at the younger student as if to suggest that he didn't know anything, nothing about the real world, anyway. It was very unsettling, but Naruto challenged him back with a defiant look of his own. Just who was Kankurou, really? What kind of person hadn't had at least one steady relationship—platonic or other—and joked about having no friends?

"Me," Naruto said, suddenly standing up and disregarding his earlier questions.

Kankurou tilted his head. "You?"

Sasuke recognized the look of determination in Naruto's features, the look of swearing silently to never back down once he had decided upon something. "You can build a relationship with me…an incorruptible one."

Smiling a small fraction, Kankurou only said, "You're funny, Naruto." His eyes said, Stop pretending. He really was a lot like Gaara. "You say the funniest things with such seriousness. You almost make me want to believe you."

"I am serious."

"Stop pretending."

Angrily, Naruto left the room. It was an impolite thing to do, considering it wasn't his house and Kankurou hadn't done anything overtly wrong, but he was just upset. He was starting to think about the past again, and the past only troubled him.

"You shouldn't mess with him like that," Sasuke said when he was gone, eyes still travelling over a newspaper page.

Kankurou took another sip of coffee. "I've done a lot of things that I shouldn't have done."

"Haven't we all?" Sasuke questioned, finally looking at him over the paper.

Kankurou's smile was both sinister and sad. "…Not the things I've done."

ooo

Naruto hadn't made it very far, but it was far enough. He stood at the foot of the grand staircase, eyes tracing the elaborate structure as it twisted magnificently upward. It was beautiful in its own way, the wood spiraling up, up, up as it disappeared into a dark heaven above, blackness enveloping the rest of the construction. Gaara was up there somewhere, his life going on, no doubt, unaffected by any of his dealings with Naruto, and it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair because Naruto couldn't get him off his mind. Gaara was like an elaborate staircase in Naruto's world—it was unique, interesting, nice to look at…but it didn't belong. But Naruto still wanted it there.

A voice in the back of his mind seemed to be trying to tell him something again. Something that he didn't want to hear.

"Do you like it?"

Turning slightly, Naruto acknowledged Kankurou's presence for a brief moment before facing the stairs again. There was no longer any trace of bale or menace in Kankurou's eyes, a small smile on his face offering both surrender and repentance at the same time.

"It's nice," Naruto said quietly, voice still magnified by the large walls. "It's…"

"Out of place," Kankurou intervened, touching the bottom rail before drawing his hand back, as if being in contact with it too long could hurt him. "Our dad—our father built it last year. Though he'll never admit it, Gaara holds it very dear. The rest of the house was supposed to be renovated as well…Oh well, I guess," he chuckled a bit.

"Hey, Kankurou?" Naruto spoke up, eyes falling on the bottom step. "…Sempai," he added, finally remembering Kankurou's preferred title, but the senior only laughed more.

"You can just call me 'Kankurou'. Okay, kouhai?" For the second time that day, the older boy ruffled Naruto's locks. "Our friendship starts now…but only because I trust you."

"You trust me?"

"I trust you. Take care of Gaara," he said, mirroring Kakashi's words. "He won't let me—doesn't want me to anymore. But maybe he'll let you."

Naruto comprehended his words, determination wavering unsteadily within him. "I don't know…"

"Then never mind," Kankurou said suddenly, crossing his arms. "That's not what I want to hear. You have to be serious, Naruto. You have to be sure. There can't be any doubt in your heart at all. Only then will I give you my brother." While Kankurou's words were stern, there was still a trace of kindness in his eyes. Of hope. "I know Gaara is difficult. Trust me—I know. And he's a rollercoaster of emotions that can shift in an instant, while his true feelings may never be known. But he's also a human being. He's been hurt before, Naruto." He shrugged a little, swallowing as if he was ignoring a lump in his throat. "He's been hurt a lot. I suppose he's just tired…of everything, everyone, and he's had enough experience to know when and where to harden his heart." Pausing and placing a hand over his eyes, Kankurou appeared to recollect himself, taking a deep breath and moving that same hand to Naruto's shoulder. "You have to be patient, too."

Naruto looked at him but couldn't say anything, but he couldn't be sure whether it was due to the sudden urge to cry that he felt, or the fact that words weren't really necessary. Kankurou just watched him with a small, knowing smile, as if he knew what was going on in his mind—as if he understood. "Come on, you crazy kid," he finally stated lightheartedly, slapping Naruto on the back. Proceeding up the stairs, Naruto silently followed, but the other teen's attempts to improve his mood made little progress. The shorter blond recognized the route they traced as they took a right at the top of the stairs, following the hallway all the way to the end, but this time the door at the end of the corridor was dark, no light spilling forth beneath it. Turning the ornate handle, the lavish bathroom lit up automatically, and Kankurou shoved Naruto gently inside. "Take a shower. Start your day off fresh and clean. Oh—." Disappearing for a short moment, he had returned a moment later with a small stack of clothes. "—Here. Gaara's too small, so you can wear some of my clothes." His smile held a hidden agenda. "Just return them sometime."

Naruto bowed his head. "Thank you, Kankurou."

"And cheer yourself up," Kankurou cuffed him on the arm. "You're depressing me. As a matter of fact, just be yourself—," he grabbed the doorknob, "—I'll see you." And then he closed it.

ooo

Naruto emerged from the bathroom renewed and refreshed. The shower had been wonderful, the warm water a rare treat he wasn't able to indulge frequently in at home, and it had given him time to think. He had thought a lot. He was resolved.

Carrying his uniform in hand, he walked across the upstairs-hallway, approaching the stairwell, when a door to his right suddenly opened. Naruto paused in place as Gaara emerged from the room, ceasing movement as well as soon as he had spotted the other boy. The redhead's hand was braced on the doorway, a mild look of irritation just barely livening up his face. Gaara was clearly waiting for Naruto to say something, something that would upset him, the very sight of the blond seemingly enough to annoy him. But he did not look away. Naruto mused that he had an unwavering strength that was certainly to be admired.

"Bye," the blond said concisely, smiling a little before progressing down the steps.

Gaara stood in place, hand still braced on the door, as he digested the short interaction. Very slowly, he walked over to the rail and looked over, watching with an unreadable gaze as Naruto said something undecipherable to Sasuke, and they both left the house.

"Naruto's a good kid," Kankurou said, appearing to manifest out of the darkness of the hall.

"What are you doing?" Gaara inquired, hands closing on the banister.

"Standing here—talking to you."

"You know what I mean, Aniki." Though he addressed him, Gaara did not face Kankurou. This was how it always was—how it was supposed to be. "Why did you invite him here?...What are you trying to do?"

"Since when did you start caring about my actions?" Kankurou asked with a grin. "They're gone now. You can go back to hating me, and I'll go back dealing with it." Gaara looked at him, clearly taking offense to his words, but Kankurou only took a step away from him, hands raised. There was something wrong about the way he said it this time, though. This was not the typical, I forfeit. This was something else. Something that should have been over and done. Gone. It had scared Gaara before.

"Why am I alive?"

"I'd better get out of your hair," said Kankurou after a small length of time. Walking backwards, he neared dangerously close to the stairs. Close to the edge. Still smiling, he turned and started down them.

"Kankurou," Gaara said, suddenly motivated to say it, stripping the name of formalities and title, calling him as he really was. Kankurou actually stopped, abruptly so, as he looked up at his brother by the railing. But Gaara didn't say anything else. He just looked at his older brother, a strange trepidation in his eyes. It was his own restrained way of showing concern.

"Don't worry," Kankurou told him, smiling as he continued down the steps. His assuring voice that echoed upward said, "I won't be reckless."

Outside, the sun was barred from shining as the numerous clouds crowded the sky. It was darker than it had ever been.

ooo

"You've been acting weird lately," Sasuke observed, watching Naruto, who was currently glancing between a book and a piece of paper, feverishly scribbling in both every so often.

"Have I?" the blond asked, not bothering to look up. He wrote something else down.

"Yeah—Naruto, where's your lunch? You've been doing this for a week now."

And indeed he had. It had been precisely a week since the day at Gaara's house, and since said day, Naruto had done nothing but read and write during lunchtime. And class-time, in which he had—oddly enough—not skipped once and paid diligent attention. And even during bus-time. It was weird.

"No time, no time," Naruto said when he had finished a sentence. "I have to study hard, Sasuke," he looked up and him and smiled. "Jeez, do you want me to fail?"

Sasuke narrowed his dark eyes. "Have you been going to tutoring?"

"What do you take me for?" Naruto chided lightly. "Of course I have." And he was writing again.

"Then what have you done?" The dark-haired student crossed his arms, determined to get it out of him one way or another. He didn't (always) like to see Naruto upset, but the blond's exceedingly happy attitude was starting to get a little more than annoying.

Naruto merely continued writing, not at all intimidated by him. "You're thinking too much Sasuke," he said cheerfully. "I'm innocent."

"Then what are you trying not to do, Naruto?" The vehement scrawling stopped, pencil lead snapping and shooting off into some innocent-bystander's soup. So Sasuke had finally figured it out; his small half-smile was a clear indication.

"What are you talking about, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, smiling and shaking his head, and then proceeding to start erasing everything he had written. It was clearly a painful thing for him to do, but it was the only thing for him to occupy himself with now that his lead had betrayed him by means of drowning.

"What I'm talking about," Sasuke began, snatching the pencil from his hand in one liquid motion—a move which Naruto had barely even seen him execute, "…is you suddenly taking such a keen interest in your studies."

Naruto drummed his hands on the table, fingers playing across the surface as if it held piano keys. "Is that really so unbelievable?" he finally inquired, angry to be interrupted from his work, and angry that Sasuke was bent on analyzing him. "I'm insulted, now can I have my pencil back—"

"No," Sasuke flatly answered. "Not until you tell me what's going on."

"Nothing is going on," Naruto said in a reassuring manner, reaching across the table to reclaim his pencil. Sasuke glared and held it out of reach. "I'm going to tutoring; I'm paying attention in class; I'm nonconsensual friends with Gaara…I'm doing my work, Sasuke. What more do you want?"

"What more do you want?"

Naruto was slightly taken aback. "What?"

"I don't have a problem with your actions, Naruto. But I do have a problem when your actions are used to cover up something else. And you're not avoiding Gaara, so I can't quite point my finger on what the problem is this time…At least, I couldn't," he arched a brow, "until the other day," Naruto's countenance visibly became wary. "…The other day when I saw you and Gaara together after school—"

"We were studying—"

"You were studying, yes," Sasuke said, interrupting his interruption. "But you never once looked at Gaara."

"I was studying hard."

"For an hour? I thought that might be the case as well, until I watched you for the past few days and noticed that, while you greeted him normally in class, sitting next to him as usual and waving in the hall, you don't ever look at him. Isn't that a little weird?"

Naruto looked at the wall clock and stood, shrugging and attempting to gather his school materials. "I actually have this meeting right now—"

"Sit down," the black-haired student said chillingly, causing Naruto to drop back into his seat.

"Can't you see that I'm trying to prove myself to Gaara?" Naruto asked, pulling out a piece of paper and crumpling it out of sheer need to have something to do.

"I can't see that, because how can you prove yourself to someone if you won't even acknowledge their presence?" Naruto looked down at the table, playing with his paper-ball before Sasuke took it from his hands and tossed it over his shoulder. "Look at me, Naruto, because I can't help you if you shut me out, too."

Naruto hesitantly raised his face to look at Sasuke, a pensive look in his cerulean eyes. "It's just…" he began slowly, supporting his words with random hand motions, "everytime…and then—the whole "blam" thing…Plus, consent, can you believe—I just—anytime…I'm such an idiot, you know?"

Sasuke was staring at him strangely. "…No."

Naruto exhaled tiredly as if his friend should have clearly been able to understand what he had just said. "Okay then…Picture this—," he held his hands out, palms facing each other as if he was holding a box. "This is me," he jiggled his right hand. "This is Gaara," he said, wiggling his left. "This is the problem…" Extending both hands closer to Sasuke, he slowly moved his right hand closer to his left. "See?"

Sasuke watched it all and nodded knowingly. "You want to pray?"

Dropping his hands onto the table in his frustration, Naruto tried not to get too upset. "Sasuke…do I really have to say it?"

"Seems that way. I have yet to decode your sign-language."

Running his hands through his hair, Naruto looked at the student across from him with a cross between apprehension and doubt. "You won't think any differently of me?"

"I won't think any less of you," was Sasuke's brief reply.

Naruto stared at him for a good sixty seconds more before throwing his hands up and sitting up straight in his chair. "Okay. There are times when…" he started to raise his hands in demonstration—

"Hand motions," Sasuke cut him off.

Wincing, Naruto rested his hands in his lap. "There are certain times…I can't control it—it just happens—I never know when, why, how—"

"Rambling," Sasuke cut him off again, resting his chin on his hands.

Clearing his throat, Naruto tried again. "There are just these moments where…" he looked from Sasuke's patient gaze to the wood of the table, then back to Sasuke's face again. "I think I want to kiss Gaara," he settled with, feeling his face heat up with a blush.

Sasuke stared at him for a long time, and it was with great self-influence that Naruto didn't try to gut himself with the other boy's plastic knife. "Do you mean that there are moments when you want to kiss him, or you just know that you want to kiss him, period?"

"Think I want to," Naruto quickly clarified. "And maybe a mix of both. I mean, I know it's weird—"

"Why is it weird?" Sasuke casually asked, and Naruto wanted to say something like, "Oh right, because everyone has the urge to kiss antisocial boys", but he decided against it.

He settled with, "Haven't I already explained this? Isn't it obvious?" He made some strange gesture that clearly put across the fact that Sasuke must have been out of the loop of life.

"Actually, it's not obvious, Naruto," Sasuke replied, black eyes stern. "And don't you give me any of that he's a boy, I'm a boy B.S., because you know you're just avoiding the real issue."

"The real issue," Naruto repeated, clearly confused at his words. "What on earth on you talking about?"

"I'm not going to baby you on everything, Naruto. You'll have to figure this one out on your own."

"You're not at all worried or put off at anything I've said?" Naruto asked in disbelief, and maybe a bit of anger, too. Had Sasuke been listening at all? "I just told you I wanted to kiss a boy."

"Then do it."

Somehow tripping in his seat, Naruto coughed and resumed his former posture. "Excuse me?"

"Then kiss him," Sasuke clarified, looking far too calm for someone instructing a straight boy to kiss another boy. "Kiss Gaara, because I frankly don't see what the problem is. You kissed Sakura once."

"Um, hello? She slapped me, Sasuke."

"So? It was enough for you to know you liked her. Just kiss Gaara and get it over with," sitting back, he crossed his arms. "Or, you can proceed with your little makeshift solution that you've got going on, but either way, do something. I'm tired of hand motions."

"But Sasuke—"

"Don't do it, Naruto," Sasuke cut him off again. "Don't give me any excuses, because I'm giving you the option of ignoring him if it will make you feel better. But…" Sitting back up, the glint of warning in his eyes was clearer than ever. "If you continue to suppress your conflicted feelings and emotions, you might find that it's only a matter of time before you,—" he pulled Naruto's pencil from seemingly nowhere, snapping it rather loudly in half, "—break."

Naruto watched in an odd form of shock as the halves of his pencil dropped to the table and rolled around the surface until finally settling in front of him. "You're a dangerous man, Mr. Uchiha," he finally said, standing and gathering his things together. "I haven't forgotten who told me to put a certain little letter in a certain little someone's locker. Uh-huh, yeah…" He shoved his pencil pieces in one of his pockets. "Just slip the poem in his locker and he'll never know, he says," Naruto mumbled as if Sasuke wasn't there, "Just kiss Gaara…Yep. He makes it sound so easy…" Shaking his head at his friend, Naruto looked at him with skepticism fully displayed. "It's not that easy, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked at him and raised a fine eyebrow, a smile in his dark orbs. "I think you'll find that it's easier than you think."

oooTBCooo

This chapter was a prelude to both humor and seriousness. It also throws in some cryptic elements of the past. I liked it. Not much NaruGaa, but there's always the next chapter. I started writing it, and it's already making me happy. If you're still reading this story, it's a miracle of sorts, because it's frustrating me as of late. But I'm glad you're reading it. Much love, and see you in a week or so :D