IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: As you may have noticed my penname has changed, I was once "arra . fire" and now I'm "Arra Frost" (no I'm not switching my favorite elements, I love fire and hate the cold, it's just that Frost is my favorite lastname and is my grandmother's maiden name, I always use it as an alias and I want to use it here as well). I am still the same person, I hope there is no confusion.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or "Stay" by Sugarland

Chapter Four:

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. He's definitely not well enough to come in today. I sent him back to bed with a couple aspirin. I may not be a doctor for humans but I know when someone's ill or not."

"Thanks for taking care of him, Kiba."

"No problem, Iruka. He is my best friend after all."

Kiba hung up the phone after saying good-bye to Naruto's mentor and then turned back to face the blonde who lay snuggled up on the couch with a blanket and a large tub of ice cream.

"Thanks Kiba," Naruto mumbled his thanks very weak heartily, but he did mean it. He couldn't express how lucky he was to have Kiba as his best friend. Always around to look after him.

"Like I said to Iruka, no problem man." But Naruto could hear a sigh in his voice, he was probably just worried for him and sighing at the fact that once again Naruto was tormenting himself by staying in this hopeless relationship.

Kiba had asked asked him many times near the beginning to leave him, not to put up with this, but he tried to be understanding of his friend's situation and eventually gave up on trying to win a lost fight.

No matter how much logic there was in his friend's argument, he felt tied down to Sasuke, unable to leave him for fear that he'd lose what love he'd worked so hard to gain... if he had gained any at all. Everyday he clung to the hope that Sasuke would keep to his promise and there was no way Naruto could bring himself to risk losing what he might almost have. What if he broke things off with Sasuke the day before he left his wife? Naruto's heart would be more than broken, it would shatter and disolve, never to exist again.

"She's nice..." Naruto mumbled, sinking back into the memory of yesterday evening. It kept running through his mind, along with the thought of what he might be destroying. Kiba's alert attention was quickly brought onto himself and he stood there, waiting. "She's friendly, kind, pretty, nice..."

Kiba sighed once again, shaking his head sadly. "Naruto, you have to stop beating yourself up like this. It's..." he paused before continuing where one would normally say it's not your fault, "it's not good."

This time it was the blonde's turn to sigh. They never spoke it out loud, but Naruto knew that Kiba couldn't outwardly say that this whole thing wasn't Naruto's fault. It wasn't that he was blaming Naruto for the amount of pain he was in, but he also didn't let Naruto off the hook entirely. The Uzumaki understood this and agreed, of course he also knew that he blamed himself more than Kiba blamed him. Kiba was only referring to the fact that Naruto had the choice to leave, but never made it. Naruto... well he had lost all self-respect for himself and put most of the responsibility of this situation on himself.

He decided it was better not to respond and instead he shoved another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. Much to his disbelief... the ice cream wasn't making him feel any better about himself... perhaps this treatment only worked on females. If so, then what the hell were men supposed to do? Gay men at that.

"Naruto..." Kiba started but stopped once Naruto's blue eyes shifted towards him and he could clearly see the hurt and depression written deep within them.

"Move over..." he finally submitted and Naruto shifted on the couch to make room for his friend to sit down beside his head, where he normally sat. Kiba took his place and immediately after he was comfortable he motioned Naruto to lay his head down on his lap and he began stroking his hair comfortingly.

Without motivation, Naruto started crying yet again. Kiba didn't hear any sounds, no sobbing, sniffling, all he felt were the blonde's tears beginning to soak his cargo pants.

Naruto's awoke to the sound of a microwave beeping. His vision was blurry and he could feel the salt from his tears dried against his face. He yawned loudly as he sat up from his couch, the blanket sliding off of him ever so slightly. He looked around and noticed his ice cream was gone, Kiba must have put it back in the freezer.

"Hey," Kiba's voice brought his weary attention to the doorway of the kitchen. The brunet was smiling sympathetically with a look of hope in his eyes that Naruto might be feeling better.

Naruto returned the smile as best he could, to be honest, he wasn't feeling as bad... for now he had locked his emotions within him and he'd let them out in a few days.

"What's cooking?" The blonde asked cheerfully, getting up off the couch.

"Miso ramen." And that one word brought Naruto rushing towards the kitchen, past Kiba, who promptly moved aside so he wasn't plowed over, and into a chair at his kitchen table. He wore an impish smile when Kiba turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. Ramen was the best thing to have first thing in the morning. Perhaps that was what he should have been eating early instead of stuffing his hips full of sugar and fat.

The brunet chuckled at Naruto's immaturity as he moved back into the kitchen area, returning to the ramen he was pouring into separate bowls.

The moment the cooked noodles were placed in front of the blonde, Naruto immediately dug into the food with the chopsticks that were already present at the table. Kiba had been well prepared. Of course, there was no doubt how well Kiba knew Naruto's habits by now and he always seemed to make the biggest effort to cheer the blonde up.

Kiba laughed, shaking his head at his strange friend but his eyes couldn't help but frown. He'd done it again. Naruto had switched his mood so rapidly, which he'd learned to be a signal that Naruto was bottling his emotions and attempting to forget about everything for a time. It made him appear as though Naruto was happier, back to his old self, but he knew that it would only make the inevitable worse come Friday. All that emotion that was restrained for the week would come back, all that once, full force, and Naruto would be left broken for the weekend, again.

"Naruto..."

The blonde looked up from his food, slurping in a noodle that hung from his lip. In a much less serious context, Kiba would have chuckled at this action, but he held a straight face.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself?"

Naruto sighed and averted his eyes, as he usually did when Kiba brought this topic up. He normally would follow by making an excuse for him not to talk about it because they've already discussed this before, but this time Kiba cut him off.

"I know we've talked about this before but... but it's gotten so much worse for you. After all this time, after all this suffering, what is so good about Sasuke that keeps you to him. Why can't you see that after nearly a year, he's not going to leave her. He's using you, Naruto. And it's killing me to watch a bit of you die every week."

The blonde's head hung low, Kiba was unable to view his eyes or interpret his facial expression.

"Why, Naruto? Why don't you face the facts and realize how horrible he's been to you?"

Naruto didn't move. He didn't look up, he didn't make a sound. Kiba bit his cheek in frustration, "Why-"

"Hope..." He murmured in the softest voice that barely lingered on the Inuzuka's ear. Slowly Naruto raised his tear filled eyes and locked his eyes with Kiba's darkened, concerned ones. "I love him, Kiba. I know... I know he probably won't... but I have to hope. I need to. I need him. If I lose him..." He gave way to the tears that spilled from his blue eyes and buried his face in his hands, hiding his broken emotions from the world.

Kiba merely stared at him. He was disappointed with his response. He didn't want to keep accepting that Naruto was going to cling to a false hope that would never give him what he truly needs.

Moving over to the weeping blonde, Kiba kneeled beside him and stroked his hair soothingly. "So what?"

Naruto peered out at him with confusion through his fingers but didn't stop crying or lower his hands.

"So what if you lose him? You don't need him, Naruto. You don't. He doesn't love you, he probably doesn't even love her either, but he certainly isn't going to give anything up for you. He's never going to make the same sacrifices you've made. If he really cared about you, he wouldn't let you break down week after week. He would be here now instead of me. You need to move past this or you're going to-"

"Going to what Kiba!" Naruto finally yelled, the tears staining his cheeks visible now that he removed his hands from his face. "I don't think there's a stage much worse that I can reach! The only thing worse than this is... having nothing..."

Kiba removed his hand slowly from the blonde's head, biting his lower lip. He didn't know what he could do. He just couldn't seem to get through to him.

"I... I don't want to be alone..." Naruto's voice had lowered to that of a whisper that gradually fell as he sobbed.

Suddenly the blonde found himself embraced and his tears were now soaking Kiba's t-shirt. The Inuzuka's hand stroked his hair soothingly. "Naruto, you're not alone. As long as I'm here you'll never be alone."

Naruto cried harder into Kiba's chest but didn't look up at him. He knew that his friend had been there for him all this time and that he'd always be here, but that wasn't enough. Best friend's were special and he knew that he'd be hopeless with Kiba around. But Sasuke... Sasuke was... different. When they were together, something just clicked. There was something in Sasuke's personality that matched him so perfectly to himself that he was unable to comprehend the idea that they'd never be together. He had to cling to the notion that they'd finally be together. Naruto had nothing left but hope. Hope that his perfect match - the one he loved so entirely, the one that he had given himself to so completely that he was able to be hurt this much – would realize his mistakes and leave his wife to be with the one he truly loved.

"Naruto please... this isn't good for you. Even if you happen to be alone after, it's better than suffering this much and grasping onto a false wish that will never come true."

Kiba felt Naruto wince and held him tighter. "I know it's hard to hear, but you know it's true. You have to realize that as much as you love him, he's not going to give anything up for you. He's established his lie of a life, and that's all he's able to have. A lie. Just like your relationship. So please, just give up and stop hurting yourself so much."

Naruto exhaled against Kiba's shirt which was now pretty wet from all his crying. He didn't want to agree to do all of that just now, but he knew he had to think this through. "I'm sorry for soaking your-"

"It's fine," Kiba said sweetly, "I don't mind, I'm used to it."

"Yeah... thanks for that."

Kiba smiled, pulling away and kneeling to be at the same level as his friend. "You know I love you, so I'll always be here for you, even when you finally crawl out of your helpless state and grow a backbone." He smiled at his joke as Naruto's expression fell to that of a glare.

"You're so lucky I love you too, dog breath."

Kiba's smile only managed to grow wider and cause Naruto's blue eyes to roll. This was such an odd friendship but Naruto was truly thankful to have it.