Well hello again everyone. This is day two of the second Update-A-Thon. This story, is taking some...interesting twists now, but come chapter 7 everything will begin to make even more sense so just keep on reading if you like the story. :) And please review!

Rating: T

Parings: Neji/Naruto

Warnings: Shonen-ai, and possible language in the future. So if you don't like boys kissing then leave.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own Matsumoto Nanami.

Note: Please go and vote on my poll, if you have not already, because it is going to be closing sometime around the 25th so these are the last couple weeks to vote.


Learning to Love Again

Chapter four


He was standing in the laundry room putting clothes in the dryer. He had been down here for hours; he just needed to be away from Naruto for a while. Finding out that what he had thought about his lover was, indeed, true, hurt him deeply. He had been in the laundry room for the last few hours crying intermittently. He didn't want to give Naruto up, that was why he said that he'd let Naruto try and learn to love him.

Something that scared him though, was that Naruto would never love him; that Naruto would leave him. It was a fear; a fear that he had held deep inside for the past two years. He didn't want to lose Naruto, but he wanted Naruto to be happy. If Naruto wasn't happy with him and wanted to leave him...then he knew that Naruto had a right to leave, even if he would be mierable without his blonde lover.

He was so caught up in his thoughts and the laundry that he didn't hear the knock on the front door and he didn't hear Naruto come in the laundry room. "Neji?" He busied himself with setting the dryer. "Yes, Naruto?"

"Uh... Oh, Hokage-sama wants to see you," He nodded and turned around, hoping that Naruto wouldn't know that he had been crying while he was down here. Naruto didn't seem to notice; that or he just wasn't paying attention. "I'll be back later then," he said while walking to Naruto, who was leaning against the doorframe. He stopped for a moment and kissed Naruto on the lips before walking past him and leaving the house.

XxXxXxXxX

Naruto looked out the window by the front door as he watched Neji walk down the street to go see the Hokage. He had seen the tear stains on his lover's cheeks. He might be dense sometimes, but he didn't just totally ignore the obvious. He bit his lip and walked over to the couch and sat down, staring off into space.

Neji was upset; any idiot could see that, and thankfully, he was that idiot. His brunette lover was upset because Neji finally knew the truth about his feelings. It made him feel bad; made him feel worse than any other time that he hurt Neji. He didn't really think that it was possible for him to feel this bad for hurting someone that he didn't love. It made him remember how he felt when he left Deidara...

"Stop it. I'm supposed to be forgetting about him..." Although he told himself this as he leaned forward and put his head in his hands with a sigh he knew that some things he just wouldn't be able to forget. He knew that he was supposed to be letting Deidara go to try and, actually, live life with Neji and learn to love the man. And in some ways, since he had talked with Nanami about it, it all seemed easier to do, but at the same time he just didn't want to let go of someone that he had held on to for so long.

"Forgetting about whom...?" His head shot up and he looked at the end of the couch to see Neji standing there with grocery bags in his arms. Neji took one look at him and set the bags on the floor before coming to sit next to him. "...Naruto..." Neji was looking at him with so much concern in his eyes and a moment later one of Neji's hands came up and gently brushed against his cheek, wiping his tears away. When had he even started crying?

"...Naruto, what's wrong?" Naruto's eyes glanced over to the window to see that it was dark outside. He looked back at Neji before putting his hand against the side of his face and looking down at the couch. "What in the world happened...?" He asked to no one in particular. Neji's hand was under his chin and a moment later he was looking into his boyfriend's serious but concerned eyes. "Naruto, what are you talking about? What's wrong?"

He was seriously confused, he couldn't have been sitting on the couch for more than a few minutes...but it was dark now all of the sudden. "I...I don't really know... When you left I came and sat down right here... Then I put my head in my hands and said what I said...and... Why is it dark?"

"Naruto," Neji said softly letting his hand drop from Naruto's chin. "I've been gone for three hours. I left at five and now it's eight." Naruto shook his head rapidly, making Neji stop his talking. "No... No... No..." Naruto closed his eyes and started shaking a clenched fist in the air slowly as he bit his lip. "I swear... I was only sitting here for a few minutes..." Naruto opened his eyes and looked at Neji as he put his fist against the couch.

Neji saw the tears in his boyfriend's eyes and felt so bad for him. He quickly wrapped his arms around Naruto tightly and the blonde started crying into his neck. "Please... N-Neji... You have to believe me..." Neji rocked the crying blonde in his arms to try and comfort him. "Shh, it's okay. I believe you," he said trying to calm Naruto down some.

Naruto pulled away from him slightly, putting his hands on either side of his face gently. "Neji, I need to talk to Nanami..." He nodded before getting up slowly and walking into the kitchen. He walked back out a few moments later with a phone in his hand, he handed it to Naruto who thanked him before taking it. Naruto started dialing a number he knew by heart as he watched Neji pick the grocery bags up and walk into the kitchen with them.

After two rings the soft, calm voice of Matsumoto Nanami rang in his ear. "Hello,"

"Nanami..."

"Naruto," he knew that she wasn't surprised to be hearing from him at this time. "Is something the matter? You don't sound one hundred percent." She knew him so well.

"...I-it happened again, Nanami..."

She was quiet for a few moments. "How did it happen this time, Naruto? Don't leave anything out."

He nodded and leaned back against the couch, wiping his crying eyes. "...Neji left to go see Hokage-sama.. He was upset because he found out that I love someone else... So I sat down on the couch and started thinking...and I put my head in my hands and said, "Stop it. I'm supposed to be forgetting about him..." then Neji was home with grocery's asking me who I was supposed to be forgetting..." He sighed deeply and wiped his eyes again.

"What is it, Naruto?"

"Nanami... I swear... I had only been sitting there for a few minutes... But Neji said... H-he said that he'd been gone for...three hours..." He bit his lip and looked down at the floor as he heard silence on the other end of the phone. "Naruto... You know that it's never been that bad before..." He closed his eyes.

"Yes, I know..."

"Naruto, you know that these blackouts and your mental condition are the exact reason that Hokage-sama will not let you go on missions anymore." Unfortunately, yes, he knew that as well...

"Yes, Nanami, I know... But there isn't anything that I can do about it." He heard papers rustle in the background suddenly.

"Naruto, I'm rescheduling your session. Come see me on Monday instead and bring Neji if you can."

"Alright... Thank you...for being here, Nanami."

"Anytime, Naruto. Good-bye." He told her good-bye as well and hung the phone up just as Neji walked out of the kitchen. He saw Naruto with the phone still and stopped mid-step but Naruto waved him over while setting the phone down on the table. Neji came and sat next to him hesitantly.

"Are you alright, Naruto?" Naruto nodded and looked over at his boyfriend before he grabbed Neji's hand. Neji looked and him for a moment and blinked. "On Monday, Nanami wants you to come to my session with me, if you can," Naruto said staring intently at their linked hands.

"I should be back by then, so of course I'll go." Naruto looked up at him confused. "You're going somewhere?" For some reason knowing that Neji was going somewhere made him feel slightly lonely, even though the man was sitting right next to him. Neji nodded slightly. "Hokage-sama is sending me on a mission tomorrow; I should be back on Sunday though, early Monday by the latest." Naruto nodded sadly, he didn't want to be left alone. He never liked being alone when Neji went on a mission; especially when Neji went on a mission because it just reminded him that he was no longer allowed to go on them.

Neji leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I did try to get out of it, if that makes you feel any better. I told her that I'd rather stay here with you; she really wasn't having that though... I'm sorry." A tiny smile formed on his lips as he heard Neji say that. It was really sweet of Neji to do that for him. He closed the little bit of space between them with a kiss, surprising Neji.

When he pulled away a few moments later he smiled. "That was really sweet of you, Neji." Neji smiled back as Naruto stood up from the couch and began walking towards the staircase. "Come on, Neji. We'd better go take a shower so you can get to bed soon, that way you won't be late in the morning." Neji got up and followed Naruto.

Naruto figured that he could at least repay Neji's kindness the only way he really knew how. Plus, if he was going to be alone until Sunday he needed something to remind him of the wonderful boyfriend that he had.

TBC...


A/N: And there is chapter four, well... Please review and tell me what you think. Next chapter will be out next month, so I'm really hoping to hear from you all. Thank you.

If there are any errors then please tell me and I'll fix them as soon as possible.

SandXDemonX13

TTYFTDS