Ha-ha...Sorry about that guys. I didn't think it would take me this long to update the story! In my defense, I was swamped with things to do. I had a wedding to go to in Lansing, buy books for college, find my classes...etc.
Anyway, today was my first day of classes, and so far so good. Unfortunately, I am going to be limited in updating to only once a week or two...depending on how much homework is assigned. I'm in my final year of college, so they're drowning me with presentations, labs, essays and all that fun stuff (heavy sarcasm).
Apart from that, here is the long overdue chapter! Please enjoy it! Oh, and also if you haven't yet seen my profile page, there's a poll where you can vote for what kind of ending you would like for this story.
Warning: minor swearing.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Naruto.
The room was eerily silent, and oddly, Naruto could hear three hearts beating. Two were beating frantically, while his own was slowing down.
His vision zoned out for a minute, Sakura's face became a blurred image as his mind started replaying the words that were spoken just a few moments ago. Memories were also filtering through his head, trying to connect events he thought had nothing to do with each other together so that he could come up with an explanation for what he was hearing.
All those awkward moments when the three of them were together. Those weird glances Sakura kept giving Sasuke and vice versa. The forced laughter and smiles. The silence between the two.
His breath hitched. Sasuke's sudden reluctance to make love to him. The pained glances he would sometimes see in his eyes when he thought Naruto wasn't looking. The short and hardly there kisses. In fact, now that he thought about it, today was the first time he had actually kissed Naruto like he had meant it since he came back from his mission. Three weeks…since he came back.
All this time?
He had a feeling something had occurred between the two, however he hadn't pushed it. Thinking that eventually the two would figure it out, he let it be.
"I-It wasn't on purpose, Naruto." Sakura quickly interrupted his thoughts with her quivering voice. "We were both drunk, we didn't know what had happened until the morning after."
Oh, that's right. Sasuke has a low tolerance for alcohol and Sakura can't drink more than one bottle, Naruto thought absentmindedly as he stared blankly across at Sakura. He felt shaking arms tighten around his waist and looked down at them with the same blank expression.
He could remember joking about Sasuke's weakness to alcohol all the time, but this was just—.
"Naruto, please, just say something!" Sasuke's voice whispered into his ear, sounding defeated.
He couldn't see Sasuke's face. But he could feel the cold skin of his lover and the shaking of his arms. He could feel his heartbeat hammering in his chest for all it was worth on his back.
Naruto had no idea what to do.
He couldn't feel anything. Anger, sadness, betrayal, hate…nothing. When usually he would be so passionate and emotional, right then, he couldn't even process the feeling of surprise.
Sakura and Sasuke had slept together.
Ba-Thump.
Sakura was pregnant.
Ba-Thump. Ba-Thump.
And they hadn't wanted to tell him, at all.
Ba-Thump! Ba-Thump! Ba-Thump!
Sakura had no idea what to do now.
Naruto hadn't said or done anything, which was frightening in a way. She took a moment to look at how Sasuke was, and was surprised to see him furrowing his eyebrows at Naruto. He was just as confused as Sakura.
Naruto's head was tilted down, hair shadowing his face that made it hard for Sakura to see his eyes. Instead she focused on his chest, and saw that it was hardly moving. At first, she thought he wasn't breathing, but later found that he was only taking short and shallow breaths. For a few minutes they stayed utterly still, not moving a single muscle.
When Naruto's breath hitched, Sakura almost jumped out of her skin. She looked back up from Naruto's chest to see his face was staring at her with a blank look, eyes dead. She flinched.
"Let go of me."
His voice was so calm, she almost had trouble believing that it came from him. She looked to Sasuke to see if he had understood, but got caught up in his reaction.
Sasuke's eyes were wide, his mouth was parted slightly in surprise and his face had paled. After a second, his reaction returned to one of determination.
"No." He tightened his hold on Naruto almost to the point of pain.
Naruto slowly turned his head in the direction of Sasuke's voice. He still couldn't see his face, but at the moment he felt fine with not being able to see it.
"I wasn't asking for your permission."
Sasuke didn't know what to do. He felt that if he let go of Naruto now, he wouldn't come back—wouldn't want to be with him anymore.
"Let go of me, before I regret hurting you."
Sasuke paused. It took a minute, but slowly he began loosening his hold on Naruto. With his arms now loosely hanging onto Naruto, the blond slowly brought his hands up to grasp onto Sasuke's and pulled them away from his body, and stepped away from him.
Now being able to see the both of them together the situation was starting to become more and more real to him, and his heart started to slowly burn in his chest. He felt like he couldn't breathe and a heavy feeling was beginning to form in his chest and throat. His eyes started to prickle and his body was starting to feel weak.
Recognizing that he was about to burst into tears, he quickly made hand signs to shunshin away from Sasuke and Sakura. His brief moment of mental blankness was over, his emotions were about to overwhelm him and—he just had to get away!
Sakura and Sasuke both tensed as they saw Naruto begin to form hand signs. Immediately, they noticed that he was about to shunshin away. Sasuke made a lunge at him just as Sakura cried out Naruto's name. Unfortunately, they were both too late, and the blond disappeared in a whirl of leaves and wild wind.
"Shit!" Sasuke grimaced.
Sakura stood back, her hand covering her mouth as tears began to form in her eyes. Never had she thought she would feel this much hatred or disgust with herself before. Because, although she had just made Naruto feel the pain of betrayal, she felt relieved of her secret which had been weighing heavily on her shoulders. And she hated herself because of that.
Naruto landed in a heap at the base of the waterfall in the Valley of the End. Chest heaving and fingers digging into the ground, the first sobs racked through his torso in painful gasps. They came continuously, dry sobs that suffocated him as he tried to take in air to his aching lungs. When air just couldn't get through, he resorted to screaming to get the air moving in and out of his chest.
For minutes he stayed like that. All the birds and animals were quiet as they silently watched the young man cry his heart out. After a while, the shouts became strangled and hoarse.
"Why?" Came a croaked voice from the blond.
The animals had gotten closer, curious as to what the young man was doing since he hadn't moved in a while, but soon scattered as a final shout broke free from the young man's mouth.
"WHY CAN'T I EVER CATCH A BREAK?!"
He laid there gasping in deep gulps of air. His head was pounding from all the exertion of screaming and his throat was aching. He began to crawl over the ground and towards the water and dunked his head in and began to drink.
It wasn't like he actually faulted them for doing something when they were both out of their wits. Hell, they could both try to kill him and he would still forgive them. Because, despite everything, he loved them. He would do anything for them, he would die for them. And this…this wasn't any different.
Sasuke was a piss poor drunk and Sakura wasn't any better, that much he knew from the times Tsunade tried to convince her to have more than a bottle of sake. It was an accident, and Naruto understood that. Had it not been Sasuke there, it probably would have been someone else.
He knew Sasuke loved him and had been faithful to him ever since he had come back to Konoha—to him. All those girls in the village had tried to get in Sasuke's good graces by trying to help him settle in his home, but he had brushed them off with colorful words that sent them home bawling their eyes out.
The elders of the council had tried to force him into marriages to start restoring the clan, and he had refused. In front of the whole council and Hokage, he announced that the only one who would ever be allowed into his bed was Naruto.
They had both fought against the two elders, Homura and Koharu, when they had opposed his decision. Sasuke wasn't the least bit ruffled and threatened to leave Konoha and take Naruto with him as well. Because if he left, Naruto was sure to follow.
To say that Tsunade was beyond pissed at that declaration, would be an understatement. She was livid. She forcibly made the two elders agree to the relationship, or so Kami help her, she would kick them out of the village with their name on the ANBU hit list for endangering her only candidate for Hokage, and therefore the village.
Things had settled since then. Until now.
What to do? Naruto thought as he rolled onto his back with a loud sigh. He was tired, cold, and hungry. He needed to think and sort his feelings out. He knew that eventually he would have to go back to them. And, although he understood why that incident occurred, he was still hurt by the fact that they hid it from him. Also, he felt disappointed and disillusioned by their actions. Why couldn't they have just told him?!
He would have understood!
Instead, they went around walking on eggshells and kept silent about the whole damn thing! A fist slammed down into the ground, creating a small hole with cracks spidering out from the force of impact.
Didn't they trust in him? Didn't they already know that they could have done anything against him, and he still would have accepted them back with open arms?
Hadn't he already proven that with Sasuke? He became a nuke-nin, shot a chidori through his chest, became an enemy to all the shinobi nations, and all his other attempts at killing his friends and Naruto himself. He'd accepted all of that.
How much more do I have to accept? How many more betrayals must I endure in order for them to realize that I could never stop loving them?
Naruto looked up at the sky. It was beautifully clear. With no lights to disrupt the view, all the stars had become visible. What should I do?
Sakura was pregnant. What would the council do when they find out? Would they force Sasuke to marry her?
His heart gave a squeeze, and a pained frown formed on his face. Would he be forced to give up Sasuke? Could he even do that? Smile and forgive them, then watch them get married and raise their family together. Would he be able to endure that? For them?
Naruto laid there quietly looking up at the stars as his thoughts raged through his head, contemplating just how much he would have to break his heart in order to salvage what had just been broken.
