Disclaimer: It's the same as always. Naruto does not belong to me, sadly. It belongs to the wonderful, talented Masashi Kishimoto.

EDIT 2/12/09: Hello, my dears. Long time no see. I am continuing this story. I'm just finally getting around to correcting the chapters before I can continue. This will help me get back into this story's flow and ideas. I've made changes not only to any errors that I might have had in the text, but I also changed some of the wordings that sounded weird. Well, hopefully I can get to the next chapters tomorrow since I will have nothing to do.

Enjoy. :D


Prologue: The start of it all

He was so excited and just couldn't believe it. The good news that he had received earlier was the cause of it. After hard work and determination, Naruto was finally accepted into his first choice university. It was a well known art university that was sure to make good use of his talent for painting and photography. The only bad thing about it was that it was in America, meaning that he would have to leave his life in Japan behind. This was the only thing that was holding him back from accepting the offer.

Another thing that was bothering him and getting in the way of his decision was his hidden feelings toward his best friend of seven years. Not only was this person his best friend but his secret crush was also male. Naruto knew that in the world of love this was the worst combination. He loved his best friend who was also of the same sex, a male.

He had never expected to start to feel that way for his best friend, Uchiha Sasuke. In the beginning, they hadn't even liked each other. Neither of them could stand the other and they were always in countless of fights. However, soon they started to open up to each other, as odd as it seemed. Not only that, they also found similarities between them both. They realized that they both felt alone. Although Sasuke had everything, he still craved for someone to understand him. On the other hand, Naruto had nothing, but he still carried a smile on his face despite the loneliness that he felt.

Naruto didn't even know when it had started. He just remembers that one day things had just changed between the two of them. Every rare smile he received became so precious. Every touch and glance would send warmth that he had never felt before throughout his body. Whenever he would stare into dark obsidian eyes, he would feel so light headed and found himself unable to think straight. Slowly but surely, these little things that he felt just grew stronger and stronger until Naruto finally came to the conclusion that he was in love with Sasuke. He could no longer deny what all these feelings were telling him.

However, he couldn't let anyone know about his feelings. He just couldn't risk it. He couldn't because he knew of the possible consequences. There was a big chance that Sasuke didn't feel the same and so he would rather keep his feelings a secret than to lose Sasuke. Naruto knew that he could be content with just staying by his side. The blonde couldn't imagine how his life would be without Sasuke there for him. Without him knowing, the raven haired teen had provided so much support for Naruto. Sasuke was the one and only person that could completely understand Naruto.

But now, Naruto felt as if this was the last chance to tell Sasuke of his feelings since graduation was coming so close. And so, the blonde made a decision. He would tell Sasuke how he really felt about him. And if Sasuke reciprocated his love, Naruto would ask him to come with him to America. Of course, if Sasuke felt the same but didn't want to go to America, Naruto had a back-up college to go to just to stay by his crush.

As Naruto neared the Student Council room, he felt his nerves get the better of him. Sasuke was the Student Council president. Even though Naruto often heard complaints about it, he knew Sasuke enjoyed the title. As he reached the door, he could hear two voices in the room.

"Why can't you accept my feelings?" A feminine voice said that was slightly trembling.

"Is it because of…him?" The voice continued.

Naruto recognized the voice. She was a good friend of his, Haruno Sakura. Better yet, she was also known to be the president of the Sasuke Uchiha fan club. It was also no secret that she harbored the biggest crush for the Uchiha.

"Him…?" Another deep, velvety voice joined in and the blue eyed teen automatically recognized it was Sasuke's deep tenor.

"You know who I'm talking about…Naruto." At this, the aforementioned boy's heart nearly jumped out of his chest.

What exactly were the two talking about? And how did this involve him? Naruto had to wonder.

"Naruto? You've got to be kidding me." His voice was cold even for the Uchiha.

"I don't think so, Sasuke. Whenever I ask you to go somewhere with me, you always find an excuse to go with Naruto instead. Not only that, but you also give Naruto those 'looks'." Sakura said accusingly with anger in her voice.

"'Looks'? What looks are you talking about?" From the sounds of it, the raven haired teen had to be glaring at the pink haired girl.

"Those gentle looks. You never look that way at anyone else except for Naruto. Don't think that I don't notice it! So just tell me the truth!" Sakura demanded as her voice rose with anguish.

"The truth? You want to know the truth?" Sasuke's voice dropped into a deadly tone and Naruto shivered at the coldness of it. He had never heard Sasuke said this emotionless before.

"The truth is I don't really even like Naruto. He's dumb, loud and not to mention annoying. Just getting through the day having to listen to his bothersome prattle is enough to make me go crazy. He means absolutely nothing to me. Nothing. So get it straight. My rejecting your feelings has nothing to do with that dead last." Sasuke said colder than ever practically spitting out each word as if he was disgusted. What he didn't know was that with each word that he said, they were like knives piercing deeply into Naruto's heart killing it slowly.

Suddenly, the blonde found it hard to breath. His chest hurt so much that he thought he was going to collapse. To hear the truth like that, to hear Sasuke's true feelings, broke Naruto into pieces. He could still hear that cruel, cold voice repeating over and over just how much Sasuke hated him. After all those years of being together just to find out that what he thought was friendship was just pity.

Finding it hard to stay any longer, Naruto quickly dashed down the school's hallway not being able to hold back his feelings. It hurt too much. He couldn't imagine what would happen if Sasuke would say more hurtful things. His heart already couldn't handle the harshness of what Sasuke said before, so hearing more would probably just add salt to his wound.

And so, Naruto ran. He ran so far just to get away from that place. Without him even realizing it, tears had escaped his clear blue eyes as he ran without any direction. His tears flowed down his scarred cheeks as his vision became blurry. The blonde rushed by people not even caring if he bumped into them. He just needed to get far away.

Finally, the painter stopped by his favorite place where he could get away from everything. It was the only place where he could go to be alone since few knew about it. It was a small park that was hidden by a circle of large trees. And just like he expected, the park was empty of people. Naruto dragged himself to a swing and sat down with tears still pouring out of his sparkling blue eyes. As much as he wanted to stop crying, the tears just wouldn't stop.

"I should have known." Naruto whispered to himself in between sobs.

"How stupid of me to think he would ever like someone like me…a loner and not to mention a loser." The artist brought his arm up to rub at his already red eyes.

As his sobs died down, Naruto just stared blankly at nothing. He tried to block out what just happened moments ago. Forcing himself to think about nothing was probably the only way to help him from feeling the heart break he had just experienced.

For hours, Naruto just sat there until it was dark, the sun already gone from the sky. He stared at the ground with empty, listless eyes. His mind was blank and he felt nothing.

Suddenly, the blonde felt a vibration come from his pocket. Without even checking to see who it was, Naruto answered his cell phone.

"Hello?" He answered in a dead voice.

"Dobe? Where are you? I've been looking for you everywhere." Came the voice he knew all too well. It was the same voice that had said all those cruel, uncaring words.

"Where am I…?" At the moment, Naruto's brain was not functioning, or rather couldn't function for if it did, all of the memories from earlier that day would return.

"Yes, where are you? We were supposed to meet after school, but I couldn't find you. I tried stopping by your house but Iruka said that you hadn't returned from school." Sasuke's voice had almost sounded worried as he said this. Almost.

"Why do you care?" The painter said in a monotone voice.

"What do you mean? Naruto, is there something wrong with you? You sound…different. Very unlike the way you usually sound." Sasuke said this time getting genuinely worried. He had never heard his friend sound like this before.

"I'm at our secret place." Naruto said before hanging up.

After shutting the phone close, the blonde finally felt himself come back to his senses. His eyes, however, darkened with sadness. He knew what he had to do now. The decision was so clear now. It was the only thing that he could do. He would go to America by himself and start anew there. He would go there where there was no Sasuke and where he could probably forget the feelings that had brought him so much pain.

It was the only thing he could do to mend his broken heart.


When Sasuke arrived at the park, he found Naruto staring up into the sky with a look that brought a pain to his chest. It was as if he was asking the heavens why life had to be so painful and sad. His eyes were glassy and had so much anguish swimming through them, that Sasuke could hardly control the painful clenching in his chest. He wondered what had happened for the usual happy-go-lucky blonde to look as he did.

"Naruto…" As soon as he called his name, the pain disappeared and was covered up by a perfected fake smile that only Naruto knew how to pull off.

"Hey, bastard." The blonde said in an equally fake cheerful voice.

Although it bothered the raven haired teen to see Naruto like that, as always he chose to ignore it.

"Why didn't you wait for me?"

Naruto looked at him blankly for a split second before grinning.

"Sorry, something just came up."

An elegant Uchiha brow rose in question.

"And what was this something you speak of?"

Naruto hesitated.

"Oh you know…just this and that." The painter said with finality in his voice leaving no room for further questioning.

"Whatever." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Wow, look at the time! I gotta go now. Iruka's gonna be mad with me if I don't go back soon." The blonde said frantically as he rose up from the swing.

He grabbed his book bag and headed to the small entrance of the park. However, just before he passed the raven teen, Naruto stopped.

"Goodbye, Sasuke. Take care." Was the words that the blonde left with the Uchiha, the raven haired teen not even knowing what was about to happen. He didn't even realize that that would be the last time he would be able to see that blonde hair and those blue eyes for a long time.

And so, the Uchiha thought nothing of it and left the park heading to his house. On the ride back, he couldn't help feeling that something was terribly wrong. It almost felt as if something bad was about to happen. But of course being an Uchiha not caring for things like that, he ignored the nagging feeling and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.


The next morning, the raven haired genius woke up earlier than usual in order to go pick up his blonde friend. The Uchiha was determined to find out exactly what was wrong with Naruto. Now that he had a chance to think about it, the blonde had acted so strange. Even his fake cheerfulness was faker than usual.

Plus, that bad feeling was back, tenfold. Sasuke just couldn't shake it off and it was annoying him to no end. To make things worse, he had a feeling it was somehow connected to the blonde who was acting so oddly the night before.

With that in mind, the raven haired teen left the Uchiha mansion and made his way to Naruto's house. In truth, it wasn't really Naruto's house at all. The blonde was living with a close family friend, Umino Iruka, who also acted as his guardian in the absence of his aunt and uncle who were always on the road.

Upon arriving at Iruka's apartment, the feeling of dread took over once again. Being an Uchiha, Sasuke easily made it vanish without another thought. He was already used to making all his other emotions disappear with sheer will alone.

Reaching the door, he knocked on it and waited patiently for someone to answer it.

Soon enough, the door was opened to reveal a tired looking Iruka.

"Sasuke? What are you doing here?" The brunet man said with a tired voice.

"What do you mean? I came to pick up Naruto." He said with annoyance. Why else would he be here? Didn't he do this every morning for the past three years ever since he got his driver's license?

"Naruto? He already left earlier this morning. Didn't he tell you?" Iruka frowned realizing that something was not right.

"He didn't even wait for me. We usually go to school together…" The raven haired boy said to himself before looking back up at Iruka.

"Well, I'll see him at school, so it's no big deal." The Uchiha blew it off coolly as he turned to walk away.

"At school? I'm afraid Naruto won't be at school." The taller man said already figuring out what must have happened. He frowned deeply not really wanting to be the one to tell the Uchiha the news.

"Why…not?" Sasuke, for some odd reason, was scared to ask this question. He felt as if that feeling he had been having all of last night and this morning had come back a hundred times in intensity.

"You won't see him because he left for America earlier this morning…"


A/N: Hello! This is my first fanfiction in such a long time of going MIA. I've just been hit with a major writer's block that had lasted for way too long. But now, I'm back. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish some of my other stories as well as this one.

So please, tell me what you think? Was it good or bad? I need opinions since I know I must be rusty. Remember, reviewing is your friend!!!