GLIMPSE

Chapter 1

Naruto tried hard to keep a straight face as he listened. He, Sakura and Sasuke were walking along the streets of the Hidden Leaf and he silently thanked the late afternoon sunlight for making it easier to conceal his emotions, the red-orange rays providing the perfect excuse for him to shield his eyes with his right hand and lower his head a little. They may not have been facing each other, but there would have been awkwardness if either one glanced at his direction and saw his stricken features.

He had expected this to come. He and Sakura had talked about this long before Sasuke came back but apparently, several months of anticipating the inevitable still wasn't enough to lessen the effects of what he was hearing.

"I assume you understand what it means when I say we wanted you to be the first to know? Are you listening, AT ALL?" asked Sakura jokingly, nudging his elbow.

Nothing like a good little pretense to keep things under control, Naruto thought, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

Here goes.

He pouted and answered, "S-Sakura-chan, that's just awful! Of course I understand!"

The pink-haired ninja felt relieved. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Good. We'll announce it formally on Saturday night at Sasuke's house. Right?" She turned to her pale boyfriend who merely nodded in response.

"Man, you sure like to act cool, don't you, you bastard?" Naruto half-heartedly teased, as he reached for the taller man and ruffled his black hair.

"Hey, cut it out!"

"Well, whatever. Anyway, I'm really happy for you guys." He said it with such sincerity, he couldn't believe his ears. He felt utterly disgusted with himself for two reasons—one, he knew he wasn't in the position to feel upset, yet here he was, suppressing the overwhelming urge to walk out on his two best friends. And two, that he was able to tell a lie so easily, to their faces, using a tone that betrayed everything that Naruto Uzumaki was made of.

For a moment, Sasuke looked as though he just saw something that was out of place, but chose not to say anything about it and muttered a quiet "Thanks."

Sakura began to speak again. "Then you're…really okay with this? I mean you aren't angry or anything…?" She knew it was pointless to ask. They had already gone through this, and everything has been settled, but she just had to. She wanted to see if Naruto could get his act together with Sasuke present.

The blue-eyed boy grinned widely, his eyes typically reduced to two straight lines and his teeth, exposed. "Eh? Of course not! That was a long time ago, Sakura-chan! I'm over you. You needn't worry." He gave her the thumbs up and looked her in the eye, still smiling. "Okay?"

He didn't blink—he couldn't. Not until he had convinced her with his intense, reassuring look. Only the two of them knew what Sakura was really asking about, or what he was really asking her to trust him with.

Finally, the female member of Team Kakashi gave a reluctant nod, before smiling weakly.

"Thank you, Naruto…"

"Well then!" the blond started. "Now that we're all done here, I think I'm gonna go treat myself to a few bowls of Ramen. I'll see you two soon, okay? Bye!"

"Don't tell anyone, all right? We'll take care of that!"

"I won't!"

And he ran off, leaving his two slightly amused, slightly bewildered best friends to stare at his retreating back.

Sakura sighed. Thank you, Naruto. It was all she had ever said every time the blond did something that allowed her to better appreciate him, and while she knew that it wasn't and would never be enough, it was the only way she could express her gratitude without offering more than what she was willing to give.

At first, the reason she never did more than just use heart-felt words and little gestures of acknowledgement whenever she found herself grateful to Naruto was the well-known fact that he was in love with her. But she knew she couldn't give the very thing that Naruto wanted, which as to be his girlfriend. She also knew that she would never be able to give up on Sasuke no matter what. The boy was alive, and during those days, that was enough for her to keep going.

So she chose to play it safe, never letting any of the things she and Naruto did together be associated with words other than "duty"—duty as a friend and duty as a comrade. She was careful so that Naruto wouldn't misinterpret her actions, and she would always give him that smile—one that always said that friends were all they were going to be. Naruto eventually realized this and decided to stop pursuing her.

But that was then. Her reason had changed. Naruto was no loger in love with her, but with Sasuke. And although her best friend's happiness was extremely important to her, she just wasn't big enough to give up her own. So she asked Naruto to do another thing for her—one that was, in a sense, relatively more difficult than anything he had endured. She asked him, this time directly, to once again, suppress his feelings. She asked him to step aside.

Not that Naruto wouldn't. He'd do it, if it would make Sasuke and Sakura so happy. Sakura knew this. And she intended to live with it, along with the possible consequences of her choice.

"Well, I guess we can start inviting the others now. They're bound to figure out what we're going to be asking them to come over for, but that's okay. We can still-"

"Hey, Sakura."

She turned to her left and looked up to meet his gaze.

"What is it?" she asked lovingly.

"I just have something I need to do. Let's tell the others later. Anyway, Saturday is still three days away."

"Oh, all right," she replied, trying to hide the sadness in her tone. "May I come with you?"

Sasuke shook his head. "It's better if you don't."

He probably doesn't want me to ask about it either.

"I see…okay then. I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" She hoped he'd ask to meet up later that evening.

"Yeah. Tomorrow."

But Sakura wasn't about to give up. She suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck, her ankles rising as she leaned in for a kiss. It lasted for about five minutes, her tongue gently responding to Sasuke's as it explored the inside of her mouth. She let go, her eyes barely open, a faint blush on her cheeks.

Sasuke then opened his own eyes, a subtle hint of affection evident in the way he looked at her, but it was gone almost as soon as she noticed it.

"I'll see you tomorrow, all right?" he asked softly.

Sakura felt satisfied for the moment and took a step back. She smiled warmly. "All right."

As she watched her boyfriend go, she couldn't help but wonder what it was that he had to say to Naruto that he didn't want her to hear.

Or it could be that I'm just being paranoid. He didn't say exactly where he was going, after all. Oh, what the hell.

Sakura took a deep breath again before she started to make her way to the Hokage's office. Everything was working perfectly. There was no need to worry. For now, she was going to see if she can of any help to Lady Tsunade, and tomorrow she and Sasuke will invite their friends to come to their engagement party, as promised.

***

Sasuke inwardly groaned as he walked, still searching for his blond best friend.

Just where the hell did that moron go?

It had taken him a little less than forty minutes to get to Ichiraku's by walking and when he got there, he was informed that Naruto left in a hurry after finishing eight bowls of Ramen. It had been an hour and a half now and there was still no sign of the energetic boy.

Should I try his apartment?

It sounded logical. After all, it was beginning to get dark.

"Oi, Sasuke!"

Sasuke stopped and turned towards the source of the voice. Naruto was sitting, Indian-style, on top of a lamp post, his left hand supporting his face and the other, lying on his right thigh. He looked very child-like.

"What the fuck are you doing up there?"

Good question, Naruto silently admitted as he stared dumbly at nothing in particular, before he came down the lamp post in a fashion similar to how a fireman would a pole.

"Looking for me?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "No, I was touring the village."

"Whoa, grumpy, man!"

"Idiot."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something nasty, but decided against it. Sasuke thought that was odd, and made a mental note to ask about it later. And then there was silence.

"Want to spar?" Naruto asked. Sasuke just stared at him.

"You know, for old times' sake," he continued. "I mean, you've been back for ages and yet the last time we sparred was BEFORE you left the village. Maybe we'll be more at ease afterwards!"

The Uchiha smirked. That doesn't sound too bad.

It wasn't long before they reached Team Kakashi's usual training spot and neither of them wasted any time. Less than a minute after they arrived, the fight began and sounds made by the clashing of Naruto's knives against Sasuke's sword could be heard.

"So," Clash. "What did you wanna talk about?" Clash.

"You," came the flat reply.

Clash, clash, clash, clash.

Naruto took two steps back to regain his balance after Sasuke's four consecutive strikes. He then attacked with full force.

"Me?" Clash.

"Yeah, You." Clash. "I want to know why you're trying to put on a show." Clash.

Naruto gave a powerful blow that Sasuke was able to deflect using his sword, but not without him being pushed at least sixed meters away, his Geta rubbing against the dry soil on the ground in the process.

He gave Naruto a pointed look as the blond slowly approached him.

"I think we can talk without fighting now, though that was a bit short," said the blue-eyed boy as he extended his hand to partially kneeling Sasuke.

Sasuke took his hand and stood up, his eyes never leaving Naruto's face.

"So why do you do it?"

"Why do I do what?" he asked, genuinely confused.

Sasuke sighed, but he continued. "Acting."

Naruto shrugged and tried to smile. "Oh."

"I'm all ears," It was an indirect way of saying he wasn't going to leave until he got a decent answer.

The blond scratched his head sheepishly and tried to smile once again. Sasuke tried not to wince at his best friend's effort to put on a happy face.

"I didn't think you'd notice."

"I may have been gone a long time, but I know you."

"Do you, really?"

He remained calm in exterior, while his mind began to panic. It stung. The way Naruto said it got to him. There was no hatred in his voice, not even a single trace of sarcasm—there was only sadness. And his bright blue eyes shined with naked pain. Naruto looked beautiful in a perverse sort of manner like that, and Sasuke would have pointed that out had he not been busy asking himself questions like "Just WHAT did I do?" and "What CAN I do?"

He had reason to believe that something which happened recently was making Naruto behave the way he was. They were okay the day he came back, after all. If the blond had only been acting, it shouldn't have taken him this long to notice. He knew his best friend. Perhaps not as well as he'd like to think, but enough for him to safely say that maybe just hours ago, and long after his return, something went wrong. And he was going to find out what it was.

"Naruto, listen. I wan-"

"No, you listen, Sasuke. I waited for you. I chased after you. I kept trying to bring you back because I couldn't let you disappear forever. And now that you're here, well, I guess I counted too much on how you used to ignore all those girls' advances when we were kids, and I assumed that you would keep on doing just that after you've returned."

"This is about Sakura, isn't it."

"No shit."

"You said you were completely over her."

Naruto stared at him for a moment, looking like he was giving what Sasuke had just said a great deal of thought.

"Just…go home, Sasuke."

What? Now he expects me to leave just like that? No fucking way.

"No. You haven't told me half of it."

"Really, go home."

"NO, DAMN IT!!!"

Naruto was taken aback. Sasuke was far from emotionless. He was refined, but never emotionless. So a few outbursts from him shouldn't come as a surprise—and they didn't—but they were disturbingly surreal. So surreal, they could make Naruto's spine shiver—not with fear, but with a twisted kind of excitement.

"You're going to tell me what I want to know, Naruto. And you're going to do it right now."

Not too far away, Sakura was leaning on her back against a tree as she listened to their conversation. There was no telling where it might lead to, despite the talk she thought she already had with Naruto. She'll ask the blond for his forgiveness later, but for now, she was going to try and make the most of this little eavesdropping session of hers, and somehow turn things to her advantage.

I knew Naruto couldn't do it. I knew it.

To Be Continued

***

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