Separate ways

Naruto is forced to break up with his boyfriend Suzaku when his adoptive mother Rin moves to Indiana on a job offer, along with Sakura, his sister. But, what happens when he gets roomed up with Sasuke, the nephew of the friend whose house they are staying at? What's worse, he just so happens to be gay . . .

The following day, Naruto had yet to speak with sasuke again. After what had happened over the weekend, he wasn't sure they would talk again anytime soon. Not caring what Sasuke thought about his chosen friends, the blond was going to continue hanging out with tenten and Gaara - though probably not kissing the latter - regardless of what his raven-haired roommate wanted.

Naruto really wanted to say he didn't feel sorry for Sasuke, but he did - well, sort of. It was more of an understanding of what he was going through, the main difference being that Naruto had never known his family, and Sasuke had lost them. All the fifteen-year-old wanted to tell him was just that. However, he had yet to build up the courage to do so.

Walking through the halls, Naruto got to his locker to find that it had been plastered with glittery stickers that spelled out the word fag. "Oh, shit." Naruto said, quickly opening the locker to find that someone had practically soaked all his stuff in what he hoped was water. He just stood there staring at the mess, nearly brought to tears. Fighting them off, Naruto went on to his class.

Arriving to class late, he went to the teacher's desk, explaining that all his papers had been ruined. "Have a seat," the teacher replied, ignoring his complaint. "Mister, I think he's lying. I'm pretty sure I saw him throwing away his homework," a voice chimed in. He looked around the room and saw ino, the slutty cheerleader from saturday, sneering at him. He glared back, countering quickly. "No, really, it's true. Come see for yourself if you don't believe me."

The teacher looked up at him, as though he didn't believe Naruto. "Well, if Ino saw you throw it away, it must not be true. You're getting a zero for this assignment." Naruto grunted apprehensively, shooting another glare Ino's way before sitting down in his seat, throwing his bag on the floor. "Okay, now that that's over, we'll begin."

class continued, naruto having a hard time keeping up as all of his answered were 'wrong,' or so the teacher said. By the fifth time this happened, Naruto got mad and shouted out. "That's crap, I know that's the right answer!" He said, standing up. "The teacher said nothing, merely pointing to the door. The blond quickly grabbed his bag, storming out of the classroom, not understanding what he'd done wrong.

As the day continued, it seemed to be the same way in all his classes, though by third hour he was able to stay the whole class without being sent out. He couldn't understand why his being gay would cause everyone to be so mean.

The end of school came around, and as the blond was heading out of the school through the back door, Kiba's voice stopped him. "I heard you like a dick, is it true?" Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, hearing three pairs of footsteps behind him. He didn't speak. "Aww, did I hurt the poor queer's feelings?" He said, feigning sympathy. "Shut up." Naruto growled low.

"Come on, I'm just having a little fun."

I said, Shut up!" Naruto said, slightly louder.

"What, you wanna fight, come on, fag."

Naruto turned, his face twisting angrily and his fists balled. Kiba stepped forward, pushing him. When he did nothing, the brunette shoved harder. "Loser." He said, shoving again. Letting out a growl, Naruto swung, easily hitting the boy right on the nose. It instantly began bleeding, and that's when it got worse.

"He broke my nose, get him!" Kiba said, his two friends grabbing naruto, one of them knocking the wind out of him. "Queers aren't allowed to touch me, dumbass." The brunnette said, wiping his nose, then punching Naruto in the chest, the punch causing him to cough several times, struggling to catch his breath.

At that moment, another voice was heard, from behind Kiba. "leave him alone, dog-fucker." The voice belonged to gaara. One of Kiba's goons chimed in. "What are you gonna do if we don't?" he asked.

"Shut up, kotetsu! Hey, you emo faggot, did you just call me dog fucker?"

"That I did, what are you gonna do about it?"

"Shut the fuck up!" Kiba charged, easily being avoided and taking an elbow to the back. He stayed down after that hit. "gaara, you bastard." He said weakly. Naruto had by that time recovered, and the two started walking toward the front of the school.

"Um, gaara, thanks for that back there." The blond spoke moments later, before heading to Kakashi's car. Sasuke was already there, and all he said was "What took you so long dumbass?"

" I got jumped by kiba and his goons." Naruto said quietly, quickly entering the vehicle and remaining silent as they waited for Sakura. Upon her arriving, she opened the door and shot Naruto a look. "Nice job, dumbass, people gave me a hard time because you did something gay at that party." it was silent for a moment, then:

"Stop calling me a dumbass, you stupid bitch!" Sakura gasped at his sudden outburst, and moments later, she was crying. Kakashi turned and looked back at Naruto. "Now, was that necessary?" He asked, being ignored by Naruto. Sasuke also shot him a look, though it was relatively blank. If Naruto saw anything it was . . . sadness? No, it couldn't be that Sasuke realised that Naruto was having a hard time and that he actually gave a shit if he was anyway. or could it?

Back at the house, The two roommates sat in sasuke's room, quietly, Naruto lying on the bed listening to music, and sasuke doing homework. "Sasuke, Listen-"

"Don't you have homework you could be doing?"

"Yes."

"Then do it."

"Why should I." It went quiet for a few minutes as Naruto tried to figure out what to say. He took a deep breath, and tried again.

"Sasuke, I-"

"What the fuck do you want."

"I don't feel sorry for you, you prick! I know what you're dealing with, and I-"

"No you fucking don't. I lost my family, my boyfriend, and all my friends turned against me. You don't know what that's like. Now let me do my work." Sasuke spoke, keeping a level tone.

"You're such a fucking asshole." That said, the blond tuned up his music, now hearing nothing but the painful reverberations of sound into his eardrums. Naruto stared at the ceiling and suddenly saw sasuke over him, yelling.

"What?"

"-nd I'm trying to do homework! Turn your damn music down."

Hearing just a few words about it, Naruto pulled his headphones out and chucked the iPod on the ground next to the bed. "Fine, I'll do homework, too." He said angrily, thrusting his arm into his backpack and pulling out what assignments he had gotten. He walked over to sasuke, reached in front of him, taking paper out of his binder to use. "I don't have any, so deal." He added, then grabbing a book out of his bag and laying on the floor to do his work.

A few minutes passed of silence before Naruto noticed that the sounds of Sasuke writing had ceased. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed that Sasuke was staring at him. "Pssh." Naruto sighed irritably, turning back to his work. "Naruto, how . . . how do you know what I'm dealing with?"

The blond turned to him, somewhat surprised that he'd even care to ask such a question. "I left a boyfriend behind in Colorado. I've never known my parents, and I've been dealing with being called a fag most of my life. I knew I didn't like girls when I was ten, and I've been taking crap from Sakura since then because of it. I don't even have a family . . ." He fell silent, waiting for a response, though it remained silent for another ten minutes.

"I need to get done with my work. you should too." With that, the silence took effect, both boys returning to their work. Soon they were done, and neither felt like doing anything, so they just sat there, staying quiet, neither Naruto nor Sasuke knowing what to say. That's when a familiar voice was heard in the living room.

Naruto cursed inwardly, as Sakura and Ino appeared in the doorway. He glared at Ino, and there was an understanding between him and Sasuke as the raven-haired boy turned around in his chair. "Hey, sasuke, wanna go to the mall?" Sakura asked, practically melting with fake sincerity.

"I'm fine just staying here, thanks." Sasuke's voice sounded dark and somewhat scary, and his thanks were as sincere as Sakura's question was. "Okay, fine." The pink-haired girl answered, obviously irritated. Naruto knew she would be blaming him for it later. The two girls left.

"The whole school's against me. They're all in that bitch's pocket." The blond growled bitterly as soon as Ino was out of earshot. "She has money from her parents. They're all paid to do what Ino wants by her family. Why don't we talk about something else?" Their eyes locked as Sasuke finished talking, and Naruto quickly looked away, blushing.

"You look exactly like him, it's . . . hard to look at you." In his head, Naruto felt hurt, confused, angry. He didn't know what to do in his current situation. By that point, the other boy had crossed the room and was sitting beside him, Naruto still directing his face toward the ground.

Sasuke reached over, placing his hand on Naruto's chin, their eyes locking again. "If I do this . . ." He paused, nearly closing the gap between their lips, but just hovering there, his hot breath stinging on Naruto's face. " . . . Will it make it easier?" He continued, his voice nearly a whisper. The gap was closed, and Sasuke slid his tongue into the smaller boy's mouth, earning a soft moan.

As a hand pushed on the Uchiha's chest, Naruto pulled away, whispering, "I can't." Having said those simple words, he got up and left the room, the feeling of guilt sinking in, both at cheating a second time on Suzaku, and leaving Sasuke there in that way.

Time went by quickly, and soon it was nearing christmas. Naruto and Sasuke still hadn't closed any doors on each other, Naruto mad at himself for wanting so much to get with Sasuke, and Sasuke angry that he couldn't go through with it yet. The situation at school mellowed out slightly, and Naruto's grades had a chance to recover from a week's worth of trouble, caused by Ino. Kiba had yet to try and make Naruto his punching bag again, and the situation with suzaku was better. They'd began taking again, which made Naruto happy.

Anyway, the blond had continued to hang out with Tenten and Gaara, and Sasuke had learned to deal with it, though to be truthful, Sasuke was unimaginably angry at the thought. Currently, Naruto was in the back seat of Gaara's car, preparing to head to the mall with Tenten, Gaara and a new girl he hadn't met yet. As he entered and took a seat, Tenten greeted him. "Glad you decided to come, Naru-chan." The girl called him by his new nickname.

"This is Hinata. Hinata, meet Naruto." When Naruto locked eyes with Hinata, she glanced down, blushing a lot. "Um . . . h-hi. Nice to meet you." She spoke shyly. The blond waved at her breifly.

The car started, and Tenten spoke up again, explaining that they had to go get another person before heading to the mall. They would window shop, then see a movie, and afterwards get food. The other person they were going to get was the boy who had helped Gaara before, which turned out to be his brother.

Arriving at the house, Gaara introduced his brother to Naruto. "Naruto, this is Kankuro, my brother, and his boyfriend Ranmaru."

"Hey," the boyfriend said. His hair was a bright green color, and he had a very punkish appearance, complete with baggy Hot topic pants and studded belt and bracelet. Kankuro reached back from the front seat, offering a hand shake. "How ya doin'?"

Naruto took his hand, shaking it, thinking how hot Gaara and his brother were. "Not too bad, and you?"

The car started again, and everyone mingled for the rest of the drive, only fifteen minutes to the mall. They got out of the car, heading through the snow-blanketed ground, into the cheery holiday atmosphere of the mall. Decorations were everywhere, and stores had all kinds of sales going on. They went around for awhile, Kankuro and Ranmaru soon going into Hot topic, and Hinata walking off with Tenten to bath and body works. That left Naruto with Gaara, and if Naruto didn't know better, he would think it was by design.

"Where do you wanna go?" The redhead asked him. "Um . . . I dunno. What's a good place to shop around here?" Naruto asked, hoping it wasn't a place like hot topic or spencers. Those didn't go well with him. "Well, we could grab a snack at the food court, and there's probably some good places to get some gifts." It was a good suggestion.

"Yeah, sure. I'm pretty hungry already, and I've been wanting to get something for my boyfriend back home." Gaara had seemingly come to terms with the fact that Naruto had a boyfriend. It wasn't something he liked knowing, but he kept his distance and hadn't kissed Naruto since the night of the party, a month ago.

The two made their way to the food court, as friends, soon standing in a line for burger king. They ordered fries and a coke, had a brief arguement of who would pay, which Gaara won, and went off toward some stores. "Hm, Earthbound. I like this one." Naruto said, walking into the store with Gaara following.

The store seemed to be filled with incense, oriental decor, accessories of one kind or another, and a large collection of wind chimes, fountains, and plants. Near the front of the store was an aquarium with sand and hermit crabs. Naruto stopped at the hermit crabs, playing with them breifly. "Wow, these are awesome." He said with a slight giggle before walking deeper into the store. There were several boxes with rings in them, which Naruto was immediately interested in.

The rings brought his mind to the conflict with Sasuke. Did he want Sasuke? Would he leave Suzuka for him? What about Gaara? those thoughts went through his head, and he grabbed a few of the rings, not sure who to give one to, but buying them nonetheless. "Who are those for?" Gaara asked, his tone coming off a friendly and not overbearing.

"I don't know . . . I guess just in case I want to give one to someone. Let's go meet up with the others for the movie." They headed out of the store with that said, continuing around the large circle that was the mall's interior. They met up with the others in the food court, everyone carrying a bag or two, then headed back toward Gaara's car. After dropping off their bags, the group drove over to where the theatre was, where they planned to see a movie called 'taken.'

It was a good movie, Naruto thought, just 20 minutes into the movie. "Wow, he's awesome." Naruto whispered to no one in particular, when the main character starting beating up a bunch of Parisian cops. The movie was three hours long, and by the end Naruto had eaten himself sick with popcorn and was in need of some non-buttery substance. The group soon decided on chili's, since everyone was wanting a burger.

Once they were done, they stayed at the table, talking for awhile. Naruto looked at his phone, seeing a text from Sasuke that said Ino was at the house. "Hey, Gaara . . . Mind if I stay at your house tonight? The control freak is there, I don't wanna see her right now." Of course, the whole table knew he was referring to Ino.

"I don't know. We really don't have room for an extra person right now, I'll ask my dad though. Tenten, he could stay with you, right?" The latter wasn't Naruto's preference, but he'd live with it if that was what it came down to. "Yeah, if you can't, Naru-chan can come to my house." The brunette smiled happily.

The group payed and left the restaurant, making their way back to the car and packing in. After everyone made a few calls, Naruto was staying at Tenten's house, where Hinata would also be. Gaara stopped there first, dropping them off. It was night by then. "See ya, Gaara. Nice to meet you and your boyfriend, Kankuro." Naruto spoke, then turning to go inside as the car drove off.

He'd had a full day, and so, after getting a pillow and blanket and finding his place on the couch, watched a little T.v and went to bed.

The following afternoon, Naruto made it back to the house about noon. Ino was still there, so he stayed out on the front porch, just watching the day go by. It was cold outside, but the main thing bothering him was all the thoughts and feelings he had for people around him. He liked Gaara, he had an attraction to Sasuke which seemed to be more for who he was than who he looked like every day, and Suzaku, who he would always have feelings for.

He didn't know what to do. There was too much pressure, and school was a completely different matter. The blond hated it there, and just wanted to get out of that place. Ino was around a lot, since Sakura had become friends with her. Both of them seemed intent on making his life a living hell, and they were nearly succeeding too.

Naruto was still sitting on the front porch nearly an hour later when Sasuke came out. "Hey." The raven-haired boy sat down beside him on the front steps. "Hey." Naruto answered. They stayed silent for awhile, Naruto trying to think of something to say to Sasuke, to make his feelings known, however, Sasuke beat him to it.

"I . . . I like you, Naruto. I'd call it love, but that's not something I give easily anymore. There are things that have been bothering me. You remind me of my old boyfriend a lot, you act just like him, and it . . . it's hurts to feel this way about you, and know-" He stopped, looking away. He seemed to be having a hard time. " . . . and know, that there's no way there can ever be 'us.' To know things couldn't work, and to know how you feel about someone else. It hurts inside."

"Oh, Sasuke . . . I'm sorry. It's hard for me too. You look like Suzaku, and every time I look at you, I see him, and wish he was here, but it's getting to be more than that. I think . . . I think I like you, not just because of who you look like, but for who you are. You're awesome, to be like you are after what's happened to you."

It was quiet again, the two of them just sitting there, both feeling like idiots for the lame confessions they'd just made. Shortly after, Sasuke got up and left. Naruto felt choked up, and soon felt the cold stinging his face as tears slid down his cheeks. He pulled his bright orange hood over his head, hiding behind it as he sat there.

Minutes later, Ino and Sakura came out, laughing about something. "See you at school, Naruto." Ino said, snydely. "Sure, Ino." Naruto shot back, sniffing. After walking Ino to her car, Sakura came back to the porch, standing in front of Naruto. "What the hell are you crying for, loser?"

"Like you care, bitch." Naruto answered. Sakura grunted in disgust, going back inside and leaving Naruto to his thought again.