Yo, people! FIY, this writer, Jas13debi7 is a double-personed account (if you know what I mean) D And its owners have fanfiction accounts on their own; Winterblazewolf and Asphodel Winter. If you study our works individually, you will be able to find out who wrote which chapters. D FIY, I, Asphodel Winter, write consistantly short chapters while Winterblazewolf writes generally long ones. D so you can tell who wrote this chapter. D

Anyways, hope you like it! Review!

Sasuke sat on his bed hugging his knees. Tears were silently rolling down his cheeks; a weakness he was determined no living soul should see… or perhaps not Neji, or… A sharp snap followed by a dull thud sounded softly on his balcony. He gasped slightly in shock. He hurriedly wiped away the tears and stood up, grabbing a kunai along the way, and headed for his balcony stealthily.

He flung the door open to see… nothing. There must have been someone… Sasuke's usual paranoidness kicked in. Oh well… seeing as I don't know who… just have to hope it's not Naruto or some other dobe, but if it's Neji… Fresh tears leaked out from the corner of his eyes despite himself as he closed the door to the balcony once again.

The slit of light grew narrower as the young Uchiha closed the door leading to the balcony; the only source of light to the outside now was from the window. But that square of light did nothing to make an older version of Uchiha Sasuke more obvious. With skill, Itachi had hidden himself completely, watching his beloved younger brother crying. I should not have let my emotions take control. I was careless. He was thinking of the thud which, of course, he had made. He had gripped a neighboring branch so tightly that it had snapped and fallen onto Sasuke's balcony.

This Neji…

Earlier that day…

"Neji!" Sasuke shouted across the field, trying to catch up with the young Hyuuga. Neji looked back, his long, dark brown hair swinging around. A small smile broke as he saw his friend running toward him. "How come you get let off training so early?" Sasuke gasped as he caught up.

"Gai said something about letting us go early today to celebrate Youth Day or something. I'll bet it was some other crap he made up… and you needn't run, idiot. While I cannot wait for Naruto or some other idiot, I can wait for you," But by the time Neji had ended his speech, Sasuke had already recovered and was shaking an airy hand.

"Anyway… I have something to ask your advice for…" Neji's deep voice trailed off into nothing, starting to walk briskly again, this time with the raven haired ninja with him.

"What is it?" Sasuke was curious. He did not expect what he heard.

"I- I- You swear you'll still be my friend?" Sasuke blinked, trying not to show how disappointed he was by the usage of 'friend'. He wanted to be much more than Neji's friend… but how could he say it? He could only love in silence.

"A- Anyway… I- I…" Neji took a deep, steadying breath before saying quickly, "I think I like Shikamaru. No, wait, I do like Shikamaru. There. I said it,"

Sasuke's mind numbed up immediately. He tried to keep a straight face, which was proving rather easier than he thought, as his mind was refusing to move. He could only look at the boy he loved and blink.

"You said you would still be my friend," Neji pointed out, mistaking Sasuke's emptiness to be disbelief. Sasuke blinked a few more times.

"I- Of course I'll still be your – your friend, Neji. I'm just surprised, that's all," Sasuke said the first thing that came to his blank head. Even in his sub-conscious mind, the statement sounded stupid. Neji, even without his Byakugan, sensed something wrong with Sasuke.

"Are you alright? You're not homophobe, are you?"

"Of course not, like I said, I'm just surprised," Sasuke let a smile play around his lips, letting his ninja skill of masking, this time to mask presence of emotion instead of a person, take control while his heart wept.

"So, what should I do?" Neji looked nervous as he said it, although he tried his best to hide the quiver in his voice. But he was fine with Sasuke hearing it. To him, the Uchiha was his best friend. Sasuke shrugged.

"Maybe just give him a few hints and see how he takes it? I don't know… it's kind of hard… anyway, I just remembered something I've got to rush up, see you, Neji," The raven-haired ninja jumped abruptly onto a nearby tree branch and disappeared, much to the surprise of his lavender pupiled friend.

The tears started falling almost immediately after Neji was out of sight.

He touched the tears that had fallen to the ground. His black nails dug into the ground in pure, white anger. Uchiha Itachi loved his brother more than anything, and he hated seeing Sasuke getting hurt so badly that tears could be forced out of the emotionless façade. He hated seeing that Sasuke loved someone else. But originally, he would have been happy to let them have his dear brother as long as Sasuke was happy with them; his brother's happiness was what he cared most about, despite loving him in a way more than brothers should. But the Hyuuga had hurt Sasuke. Hurt him deep.

What cannot be healed is an internal wound… Sasuke will have that wound of hurt in his heart forever… a scar that he will probably never forget… Itachi stood. This Neji… His brow furrowed deeply.