Chapter Four: Repercussions

Author's Notes: Pissing reader's off since 06 and enjoying the trend to the fullest extent.
ANYWAY…if it says ' prior' it's flashback. Otherwise, it's 'present time'.
If you don't know who said the last line in the last chapter…read it again.

Chapter Four: Repercussions

Disclaimer (Since I don't think I've done it yet…oops): I obviously don't own Naruto. I don't own anything pertaining to the movie Se7en either.

For Taylor – Only a muse this cool could inspire me to write a fiction in less than a month. And one that understands my lack of e-mails…maybe? XD


-0- Eight Years Prior -0-

The silence that followed Sasuke's three word sentence was strained. The only thing that was accompanying their long, time stopping moment was the tourists that were rushing by, the thunder that was approaching, and just as quickly, the rain that started to pour upon them.

Sasuke blinked his eyes rapidly and turned his head lightly to the left and then the right while he tried to still look up the blonde that was hovering over him with a blank staring face. Another flash of lightening made Naruto blink his eyes, the one blink to lead to several rapid ones, and the crack of thunder had him on his feet with one swift movement.

Sasuke scrambled up as well, turning to face the blonde that was shaking his head just barely while letting his jaw silently move in unsaid words while his eyes searched unseeing.

"Naruto…?" Sasuke reached out a quickly dampening hand, and in one quick blink, the blonde turned and ran.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The walk back to the metro station was agonizing and teetering on the edge of impossible. Sasuke had to stop himself on several counts from throwing his phone into the Tidal Basin as he walked the paved path that sat directly on it towards the station, his friends calling to regroup, but the raven not wanting to see their smiling faces.

The feelings that were passing through him were strained and awkward, ripping and dry. It was hard to really explain it to its fullest, but he suddenly felt so heavy with this overwhelmingly empty feeling.

Did he expect the whole scenario to play out to perfection? No. Not at all. When it really broke down to it, he was at least expecting a swift punch in the jaw, and he might have taken a laugh in the face. Something would have been amazingly better than nothing. All he got was running away. It was unfair – unjust. That was his best friend and they were supposed to be able to talk to each other about everything, but apparently, talking about strong feelings towards the other was out of the question.

This was one of the reasons Sasuke wanted to find the sick sadistic bastard who invented fairytale endings and beat him to the brink of death; maybe crawling back to life by the skin of their teeth could compare to how he was feeling.

Walking the long distance back to the Metro station was unbearably painful without Naruto next to his side complaining about something or yapping about nothing. It grinded on Sasuke's anger even more. He was being the fearless Uchiha – like usual – and it gets him screwed over. He lost his best friend because he couldn't control something that, he was told, could be able to control.

Feelings should be able to be kept in check.

His excuse, the only one he could find on the entire ride back, was that some asshole whom he had crossed and listened to in passing told him was love was an action.
Action, feeling or everything in between, it had just ruined him.

Walking back home from the station was numbing.

Earlier that morning, they were fine, just like every other day. They joked, they kidded around, they smiled and they laughed. Naruto clung like usual, and rambled on about something on television while complaining about some math problem he couldn't figure out mixed with his excitement of seeing the blossoms before most of the tourists got into town. Sasuke took it for granted.

Going up the driveway was something that was more like a smack to the face while he trained his eyes on the front door instead of letting them flicker up to the window where his father usually lurked. He walked straight through the front door, rain soaked and impassive while a passing maid and a waiting butler paused before offering him assistance. Sasuke didn't really remember them being there till he was halfway down the hallway to his room and trying to control his shivering.

It got to the point where he wasn't sure if it was from the cold or if it was from the frustration.

When he crossed the threshold to his room, he instantly turned and shut and locked his door absently before leaning forward, resting his damp forehead that was littered with his stuck bangs against the cold door with a harsh sigh.

He wouldn't admit it and say it aloud, he was done admitting things to anyone maybe save himself, but he could mentally beat himself up over this one thing to the fullest extent. He'd do anything to take back what he said - what he did - just to have that idiot next to him and have everything back to normal.


The rest of the weekend past by without a notice to Sasuke. He really didn't remember any of it to recall save for the feelings of anger and regret. When school came around Monday, it just doubled.

Sasuke walked into homeroom to be greeted by only one empty seat, and that belonged to Naruto. He didn't show up late as the class dragged on, or skipped in when lunch came around and begged for other's food. The blonde just never showed. For three days – nothing.

On the fourth, Sasuke made a hasty decision and an even worse excuse not to wonder off to school before lying in his bed all day staring at the ceiling, and just allowed himself to be mad.

He was pissed at Naruto.

He repeated the same action the next day, except he rolled in the regret again.

He shouldn't have said what he did.

When Saturday morning came around, Sasuke was already awake to see the sun rise and engulf his room in bright light through the opened shutter. A light tapping came to his door, and he simply figured it was his mother trying to be polite and finally check on him, or maybe one of the older ladies in the kitchen staff that were simply charmed by any and everything and wanted to slip him some food.

But Sasuke ignored it and rolled over to face the wall with an irritated sigh when the knocking picked up in volume. Apparently, someone thought something was extremely important. Sasuke threw his hand over his head and tugged the pillow from underneath him to throw it atop his ruffled hair and distracted ear before all the noise and rapid tapping became muffled and almost unnoticed.

Sasuke let out a sigh of relief before he absently wondered why someone hadn't come up with something that could shut out the world from a mental aspect.
But, in his mental musings, he completely missed the door opening to his room and gently closing the door behind them before toeing their way to his bed.

The raven jumped when he felt something shove on his back stiffly and then a dead weight drop on his bed near his feet, and he absentmindedly thought it was Itachi coming in on that rare occasion that he wanted to be that great older brother instead of the shining son.

But instead, when he removed the pillow from over his head and glanced down at the foot of his bed, Naruto was leaning back against the bed frame like nothing had happened in the first place.

"Hey bastard. I brought over your favorite movie since you can't seem to buy it yourself." Naruto waved a cover of a DVD box in the air with a grin while Sasuke went on staring and trying to understand.

He ran. He hid. Now he's pretending.

And he was supposed to be the bastard?

Naruto kicked his foot against Sasuke's back with a grin and waved the DVD again, "I got Cole bringing us up some food."

Sasuke's eyes followed the blonde as he stood and watched him as he walked to the television set that was rarely ever used; only when Naruto was over because the idiot couldn't live without it.

The raven finally made the decision to sit up and throw the covers off of him, ignoring the simple fact that he was only left in his boxers while he let his darks eyes watch the blonde while he made a conscious effort to keep his mouth shut.

Naruto's hair, as ruffled and messy as it usually was, had an air of distress to it, just like how his clothes were. The blonde's clothes were never perfect and Sasuke could remember on several occasions reminding the blonde to go home and fold his laundry, but these clothes seemed warn and his shirt was actually on backwards.

The young Uchiha was pretty damn sure that if his ears weren't playing tricks on him, he had just heard Naruto's stomach roar like some ferocious battle of the beasts were taking place within his stomach. Sasuke now knew he wasn't imagining the light circles that were under his eyes showing fatigue.

That was when the first and only batch of guilt hit Sasuke like some punch to the stomach that caused an intense wave of nausea.

"Oh yeah," Naruto walked back to Sasuke and reached in his back pocket before he handed over a bundle of folded papers, "Kiba grabbed our work from school."

Sasuke reached forward with one hand while the other pressed fingers against his eyes to will away the pressure of the onslaught of overriding emotions.

"Teme, you alright?" Naruto questioned as he stood in front of the raven with one eyebrow raised gently behind limp bangs and his hands tucked to hide behind his back.

Sasuke looked up, intent on saying something snappish and rude, intent on saying every little thing that had been on his mind the entire week until he look directly at Naruto's face.

The blonde was smiling sweetly, and Sasuke could see the strain behind that sweet smile. His eyes weren't crinkled at the corners or forced shut, and there weren't any lines around his mouth because of it. His bright white teeth weren't flashing to show off some random piece of food stuck in between and his eyes weren't brightening from something funny or all around fun.

Sasuke decidedly clenched his jaw and mumbled, "Yeah, dobe. I just don't feel well."

The raven watched some little spark of something in Naruto's face before a knock to the door caused the blonde to clap his hands together and skip his way over and open it to one staff of the kitchen that Naruto just happened to sweet talk into doing anything.

Naruto took the tray while Sasuke stood from his bed and grabbed a pair of shorts that were lying on the floor next to his bed and slid them on silently, glancing over as Naruto came back and gently placed the tray on the floor and flopped down messily next to it.

"I got you some non-sweet stuff bastard, I swear." Naruto said with an eye roll after he grabbed a cupcake off the tray.

"Hn." Sasuke sat down calmly on the floor while the blonde pushed the tray out in front of them instead of in between them.

"Sasuke…start the movie!" Naruto whined with icing on his nose and his mouth full of food.

The raven ignored the clenching sensation in his stomach, and pushed past the anger while he turned around and grabbed the remote off of his nightstand.

He knew he could put everything aside if that meant Naruto was happy.

The raven turned back around and gave the blonde one of his light glares, "You know you hate eating during this movie."

The blonde paused for the briefest of moments, and his aquamarine eyes paused at Sasuke's ever-so-slightly hurt dark eyes before he flashed a smile with teeth that had chunks of cake packed where it could go.

The raven rolled his eyes before turning to the television after silently clicking the play button and absentmindedly grabbing some piece of food to shove in his mouth.

Damn it all, it was a cookie.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Hell, love costs, takes effort, takes work…"

Sasuke snorted lightly as he took a drink from his cup and set it back down gently before he glanced in Naruto's direction to find that he was, of course, sleeping.
He had taken a pillow off the bed not even two minutes after the movie started and went from sitting up straight to lying lazily on the floor.

"You know…" Sasuke mumbled to the sleeping teen, "I completely disagree. It's complete bullshit. It's one sided, it hurts, and nothing comes out of it but heartache."

"You say 'the problem with people is that they don't care, so I don't care about people.'"

The raven let his head bob once, his bangs tapping his face lightly before he mumbled again, "Now that is more like it."

The blonde let out a small snore while his hand came up to scratch at his stomach while he slept and his lips moved silently in his stupor.

The young Uchiha silently watched as Naruto dumbly tried to scratch at something that seemed too persistent to bother his slumber and something too persistent that wouldn't stop bothering him. His eyes flicked up to see Naruto's eyelids twitch along with his lips while he wrestled with most likely what Sasuke had presented him with tied into pretending like it never happened.

One day, Sasuke might be bold enough to ask what in the fuck possessed the asshole to be ignorant enough to show up and act like nothing happened.

Naruto mumbled in his sleep, kicking his leg wildly and just barely missing the tray and knocking against Sasuke's glass just enough to make it shake and right itself again. Naruto's lips continued to move as low hums of mumbles continued to slip through his lips causing Sasuke to furrow his brow and turn his ear towards him instead, and started to lean down trying to listen.

All Sasuke could hear was whispers and rushes of breath while his nose was assaulted with the smell of vanilla as he continued to lean in slowly as not to disturb him and inevitably freak him out.

Sasuke grabbed at his own bangs and held them from tickling the blonde's face when he was only an inch or so away before he heard Naruto mumbling again in a whisper.

The raven froze when he caught what the dobe was mumbling, "I'm…sorry…Sa…su…"

Sasuke turned his face quickly, almost smacking noses with Naruto while he double and triple checked that he was asleep while he silently prayed that he wasn't, hoping that he was awake and he was just too scared to open his eyes like he did when watching horror films.

But then, he let out another small snore, and Sasuke knew it was hopeless.

Sasuke slowly let his eyelids flutter shut before sighing just barely and leaning down in little bit of space that was left to be filled between him and Naruto.

The raven gently pressed his lips against the blonde's in a brief, gentle, feather light, tender kiss before pulling away. Midnight eyes searched Naruto's peacefully resting tan face with one last ounce of hope that he was awake and he did want the kiss.

The blonde just let out another little snore; his upper lip twitching and leg moving restlessly again.

Sasuke simply sighed, reaching out and moving blonde bangs out of the way of the perfect face with his fingertips.

"Don't be sorry, Naruto."


Author's Notes: I've never gone so long without Dialogue, but you have to get a sense at what the bastard was feeling a little bit. –rolls eyes-
"Hell, love costs, takes effort, takes work…"
-Morgan Freeman from Se7en.
"You say 'the problem with people is that they don't care, so I don't care about people.'"
-Brad Pitt, from the movie Se7en
Bar scene.
That's for the people who never saw the genius of this perfection of the movie.