Chapter 1: Crossing Paths

The school year started off with so much promise; everyone was excited to be leaving middle school and graduating onto high school here in Konohagakure . As an 8th grade class, they've been through it all: the trying gym periods, the new-found crushes and heartbreaks, the first kiss, and the discovery of sexual orientations. Not to mention all the secrets that as elementary students no one thought were possible. In middle school, and now in 8th grade, it seemed secrets were everywhere, along with rumors.

Some rumors were a lie, childish in their shocking supposed truths and risqué in their hidden meanings. Rumors like these involved hand-jobs to someone from someone else, or someone being anorexic or bulimic, or the occasional pregnant rumor. None of these were true, but children of thirteen and fourteen like to make such things up to feel... older. And who could blame them? They were bursting at the seams in anticipation for high school, where 'drugs, sex, and rock and roll' were imminent.

But there were other rumors, other secrets, which no one wanted to believe: things like Sasuke Uchiha transferring to the Sound Academy for boys, the gang at the high school known as the Akatsuki (which where believed to commit shootings in downtown Konoha as admittance to the gang), or so-and-so being gay. These secrets, these specific rumors, were all partially true in one way or another as opposed to the lying ones listed above.

One rumor that stumbled across the lips of the eighth grade came about two moths into the school year was a rumor of a family of four moving to Konoha from Sunagakure. The two towns were, in a matter of speaking, rivals. No one much liked anyone from the conflicting other town, a silent hatred kept behind closed doors. So when they heard of the moving set, everyone was simply buzzing about it.

To come was the Sabaku family, consisting of an unnamed father of respectable status, an eldest daughter by the name of Temari, a middle son named Kankurou, and the youngest child, a boy called Gaara. Specifically, and despite the quiet feud between the neighboring towns, the girls all wondered if any of the two boys were attractive. On entering the schools, the 8th grade class found that Gaara was their age. The high schoolers found themselves stuck with Temari and Kankurou, who were in the sophomore and junior classes.

Naruto Uzumaki, a B-to-C average student with bright blonde hair and beautiful cerulean blue eyes was immediately magnetized to the new student, having something about he redhead striking his heart. He noticed right off the bat that the boy from Suna was lonely and hurt inside, very much like the blonde. But, Naruto noticed, Gaara did not show an ounce of it. He was very calm and very quiet, his light teal eyes taking everything in but giving nothing back. Naruto was curious about this other boy, wanting to know what made him seem so much like himself.

A rumor leaked out about said redhead, and Naruto wasn't sure to believe it or not; the rumor was that Gaara had been harassed by the other students as a child, and perhaps even by his own father. It was said that his mother had died, but no one knew how. Some say his father killed her, some say she died in an accident, other say she committed suicide. No one knew the truth, but Naruto knew one thing for sure: his own father and mother were both deceased, and as a child he too was harassed by everyone else. More of, he was ignored. No one wanted to get to know the troubled orphan, so they all kept their distance.

And it was for that reason that Naruto felt the strong pull towards the redhead: they shared similar pasts.

It was not to be, though; the blonde soon found out that Gaara wanted nothing to do with him. In fact, he wanted nothing to do with anybody. He stayed his safe distance away and did his schoolwork flawlessly, never uttering a word.

Except one day.

One day, unbeknownst to the other 8th grade students as the anniversary of Gaara's mother death and his birthday, was the day things turned sour for the two alike boys. Gaara was scowling most of the day, bent out of shape for reasons no one knew. If someone was in his way, instead of his usual path around them, he would push them harshly into a wall or nearby locker, occasionally grunting a 'move aside'. Naruto noticed this, and was kind enough – if not foolish and naïve enough – to ask what was wrong.

"Wrong?" Gaara spat lowly. "You want to know what's wrong? Who are you to care? Who are you to bother to accept my reason? No one. You don't care, and you won't bother. You just ask because I rammed into your pink-haired friend. Yes, I know who Sakura is; I see you with her and the raven-haired boy all the time. But it's because you're her friend that you ask 'what's wrong'; you just want to know so that you can beat me for hurting her. I know your type, Mr. Hero; I've seen it before. Everyone's your friend, everyone matters to you, and no one can touch them. But I did, and before you're angry enough to make me pay, you want to know why I did it."

No one has ever heard more than two sentences from the redhead, let alone a whole speech murmured angrily with hot breath right in their face. Naruto scowled and, like Gaara had predicted, punched him ruthlessly in the jaw with his right hook.

Gaara staggered backwards, spat out blood from accidentally biting his own tongue, and returned the punch with his own left hook. Leg connected with shin, fist connected with stomach, and so on until both boys sat panting. A teacher came about his time to interrupt their fight.

And it was from that day onward that the two boys hated one another.

By sophomore year of Konoha High, everyone from Naruto's graduating class has been either paired off or split up, friends coming to just barely tolerating another or couples deciding to get together as more than just friends in the same herd.

Because that's all they had become: herds, packs of friends. They were nearly in teams, always having each others' backs yet silently growing annoyed with one another. You had your separate friends from each that connected the teams, but otherwise it went like this: Neji Hyuuga, a junior with two sophomore friends, Rock Lee and TenTen; Kiba Inuzuka, friends with Neji's younger cousin Hinata and an odd boy named Shino; Naruto Uzumaki with Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha; and then the famous InoShikaChou, a band of three that have been friends since they were toddlers like their parents before them, consisting of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chouji Akimichi. Each of these groups had small links between them, mostly crushes or something of the like.

Inertly, there was one more group, the three that had transferred from Suna a few years before: Temari, Kankurou, and Gaara. But Kankurou was already a senior by the time Gaara was a sophomore, and Temari was in college. Before they had been roughly related to one another, acting somewhat kindly and friendly. Temari was a bit protective of her youngest brother, as was Kankurou; but Gaara wouldn't have of it. It seemed as much as his siblings tried to reach out to him, the more he pushed them away. He didn't want anyone else, said he didn't need anyone else. The redhead just hid within himself, praying for the day he could leave school and live on his own. He was a good enough student; very bright, liked to read on occasion, and secretly wrote poetry. But he was distant if not a little shy, and whenever it was his birthday he was cruel.

But in that fateful sophomore year, a lot changed: Gaara decided to go out for Theatre, TenTen asked Neji out, Kiba confessed to Hinata that he's liked her for a long time (although Hinata said she wasn't sure because for lengthy amount of time she's liked someone else…), and Lee began to wonder if he was falling for the quiet redhead. Because, you see, Gaara – when out on stage, a script in hand – was someone completely different. He held a strong demeanor about him while he rehearsed words recorded in the past; he could act, really act, and showed it. On stage he lost his insecurities and became someone new, a character made up from someone else's mind. He raised his voice and cast it across the room, not in much need of a microphone. When he interacted with the other characters, he seemed like he was doing just fine… that is, until he had to touch them in some way or another. This made the director sadly cut his parts down to non-leading roles, because most roles called for a touch of the hand, an embrace, a kiss… none of which Gaara could seem to perform. Still, he was livelier when he was acting, and brought some people to acknowledge him. Like Lee, or a cheerleader named Matsuri.

Another change in the sophomore year came when Sasuke was about to transfer schools. It had been an abrupt decision by brother, who served as his guardian and secretly part of the Akatsuki gang, which was for high schoolers as well as college kids. "I know you've been refusing Sound Academy since your freshman year, brother, but I think you need to go; so I scheduled you in to join come March. It's a year-round boarding school, so don't worry, they're only just coming back from spring break. You won't miss a thing."

"But Itachi –"

"No," his older sibling had said. "I'm not changing my mind. You'll see, you'll love it there; it's a much better school than Konoha High, and someone with your talents deserves to go to a place like that."

So, the day before their own spring break, Sasuke decided to tell Naruto something. "What's up, Sasuke? You look more glum than usual," the blonde said in a chipper tone, poking fun at his friend.

"Itachi is sending me to the Sound," he says dully. "And before I go, there's something I want you to know…"

"You're shitting me! You said you'd never go to the Sound Academy!"

"I know what I said. But I was thinking about it, and it might not be all that bad. Listen, there's something you have to know –"

"You can't leave me like this, Sasuke, I'm serious. We've been friends since we were seven! I'm going to give your brother a piece of my mind –"

"Naruto!" Sasuke barks, trying to get his irritated friend's attention. "I have something to tell you, dammit! I've been keeping it in for a while now, and since I'm leaving over break this is the only chance I have to tell you!"

The blonde shuts up, staring at the dark-eyed boy. "Tell me what?"

Before he can react, Naruto is dragged into a lip lock, which was Sasuke's way of saying, 'I love you, dobe'.

Their friendship was never the same after that.

Luckily for them, they didn't even see each other again. But unluckily for Ino and Sakura, that also meant they never got to see Sasuke again, and both have been meaning to tell him how they feel. It was pointless now, because Naruto had told them what had happened, and both girls knew they were defeated; they can't tell him their feelings if they know he'll never return them, seeing as how the boy they like is gay.

Now, with all these complications typically forgotten over summer vacation, we come into junior year, where harsher complications arise...