T,T Yes, I know it is well overdue, but I finally wrote it. Sorry for making everyone wait, I didn't mean to just neglect the story...Seriously, I didn't!!! D:

Anywho, enough of my babbling, here's the next chapter.

-Start-

Have you lost your mind, in the Wisteria garden?

Even with the bright, brilliant blue of his vibrant eyes, Naruto appeared far too gloomy, worry seeping into every feature. It was unlike him, such seriousness, and a determination to find someone who'd gone and ran from him. Now, should it have been anyone but Sasuke Uchiha, he'd have given up by now, and left the person to have their own pity part, but this was the exception! He had to find the Uchiha, not only for the safety of his lover, but also for himself, he was confused, needing to know what it was he'd done to set Sasuke off to harshly.

The answer, however, didn't come. Naruto continued deeper into the woods, his eyes had lost their luster, his mind set on only one thing; finding Sasuke.

Deeper, in the woods

Blood-shot, tear stained eyes, charcoal and dulled, had never stopped the relief of tears flowing down the burning, reddening cheeks of the Uchiha. Even through the wind now hurling painful drops of rain cascading over his body, and the faintly evident fog seeping across the gravel-laden grounds, Sasuke was able to just barely sight a structure in the slight distance, something of a wood. It resembled modern cat walks between buildings, only there was no roof until the very end, and just beneath said roof happened to be one, single, solitary bench that poked out too far from beneath the roof, still getting the blunt of the rain. Even so, it was better then nothing.

Surging forward with sets of sore, overused muscles, his sides hurt, and arms exposed several little cuts and knicks, from having deflected branches he'd gone and passed by. Even through what one might see as self-inflicted torture, he began to sprint for the wooden structure, desperate to get out of the rain, and have a decent place to sit. He wavered as he ran, still stifling his crying and tears with his left arm, shoulders shaking as he sobbed violently.

He found that the branches upon those gnarled, bent trees seemed to have been reaching to him, a sense of hysteria washing over the Uchiha as he batted away these branches. The way they were bending, the way the bark twisted sickeningly over the branches, Sasuke felt a knot in his gut, it was painful just to look at them.

All at once, due to his lack of paying the ground any attention, he felt something latch around his foot, and the faint pain of points digging into his ankle. He didn't realize what it was he'd snagged his foot on until he'd taken a face plant right down into the gravel, knees violently scraping across the rough surface, hands not having enough time to even it out, so his elbows took the damage instead. Being gravel-burned on the rough, pointed surface, only then did he remember the thorny vines creeping across the grounds, which was precisely what he'd gotten his foot latched under, causing him to trip.

His sobs became notably louder, and he looked up through drenched tresses of ebony hair, he was only a few feet from the entrance to the wooden structure. Desperate to make it there, he picked himself up, the pains and aches in his already numbing body all protesting for him to get back down and just stay there. But he didn't listen, pushing himself to get out of the rain. He rose, letting his arms fall to his sides, but regretting it as the scratched, torn skin on his elbows was caused to bleed at the straightening motion, causing Sasuke to loudly hiss in pain, even louder still as he straightened his similarly injured knees. Swallowing harshly, he found his throat was soar, perhaps it was the sobbing, or maybe it was that so many other areas were currently enduring pain, that his throat might as well have been soar, just to top things off.

As his aching eyes strained through the sheets of rain and the salt of his tears, he first set them on a mess of draping vines in the entrance. For that matter, he also noticed that through the vines, he could just barely see the support beams of the structure, each one appeared to be aiding one of those strange, twisted, gnarled plants to grow. They twisted up the wooden beams, painfully twisting, aged as if they'd been there for a hundred years. Honestly, he couldn't tell how long this place had been there, nor did he care. All that he could think of was one, no longer being able to face Naruto, and what he'd so harshly described by the use of those taunting black roses. It was as if they haunted him, because as he forced his body to move through the entrance, he became ensnared into the tangle of vines, now finding that they possessed an array of thorns that only helped the vines cling to his drenched black shirt, shorts, and hair.

Stopping, he delayed a moment, attempting to think through the horrible mess of thoughts that plagued his mind, and failing miserably, his thoughts only fueled now by the sting of thorns as they grazed across and impaled his skin, creating small, hardly noticable cuts and scratches along his soaked pale skin. The thorns, all he could think of was the lack of thorns on the stems of the black roses, they were getting back at him for not stabbing him earlier, reminding him of how Naruto disliked him so much that he destroyed their relationship on their one-year anniversary. It was a burning sadness that Sasuke couldn't ignore, his heart felt as if it had been ripped from his rib cage, and stepped on, then stabbed for good measures and thrown out the window of a car speeding down an icy highway. Terrible, he amounted to nothing, that was how he felt.

Having nothing left to resort to, he began to violently thrash, ignoring the wind that was blowing stinging rain drops against his bare arms and legs, the pain in his bleeding elbows and knees, and the aching of his eyes and muscles from the tears and over use. He could barely stand, legs shaking as he twisted and writhed, either snapping the vines or tearing them down. He had successfully cleared the entrance after a few more moments of panicked thrashing and struggling, wet vines falling to the ground as he rapidly tore them off of his clothes, even with the thorns attempting to rip into his soft wet palms and fingers.

Once free of their painful, clinging, mocking grasp, the Uchiha stopped, catching his breath as sobs pushed passed his clenched, chattering teeth. He was freezing cold, knees shaking, arms absent-mindedly moving to wrap around his cold, wet, shaking body. Goose bumps were raised along his pale skin, water dripping from every place imaginable, even off the tip of his nose, mixing with the salty tears running down his cheeks and chin. He'd been crying so hard, his throat tightened, it itched, and he felt like he was choking. Removing one of the protective arms around his body, he lifted his fast to his mouth, covering it even though no one was around, and coughed loudly into his balled fist. Tipping to the right, he felt smooth, twisted bark against his skin and through the fabric of his wet shirt and shorts, vaguely realizing he was supporting himself against one of the support beams, more or less, against one of the twisting plants that densely outlined the vertical, wooden, support beam. Cringing, he pushed away from it with a painful yelp, his body couldn't take much more of it, his movement had already become pain-stakingly lethargic.

Lurching forward in an awkward manner, he proceeded into the long, wooden structure, head lowered, rain-drenched hair letting loose streams of water to the ground and his clothes, which also were soaked to the point that Sasuke no longer cared. Through the open roof of the structure, the rain continued to fall in heavy layers, and a hint of thunder rolled across the skies. The place was dark, night had obviously befallen this depressing garden, which housed these gnarled, painful-looking trees, they were called the Japanese Wisteria, very beautiful when in bloom in the spring and summer, sporting strings of lavender flowers and such. However, at such a point in the cold, autumn season of storms and frost, these tree-like plants did not allow leaves or flowers to bloom, and it left their original, twisted, gnarled branches exposed. They looked like they were suffering, and using that suffering to taunt the poor Uchiha.

Before a long walk forward, feeling as though it had taken hours to reach his destination, Sasuke's knees were near only a few inches from the bench's seat. With a few low sobs and the hitching of his shoulders, he threw himself onto the bench, his right leg bending painfully as it the seat of the bench first, and his rear was placed on top of it, water-logged shorts plastered to his bare leg. His right side was pressed to the back of the bench, where one's back would usually rest. His left leg remained on the ground, extended out, not quite straightened, though not very bent. Two bloody elbows bent and they, along with his forearms, were pressed to the metal arm rest, crossing over each other as his head fell down to them, forehead pressing into his crossed arms. The cold metal assisted the air and rain in making his arms numb, but it seemed Sasuke didn't care. There, slouched painfully along the wooden bench, who's back stuck out too far and rain still splattered against his right side and the back rest of the bench, he let his broken heart pour out into long, cough-riddled, loud sobs, shoulders shaking violently as he cried endlessly, cursing Naruto, cursing himself, blaming himself for what he thought to be Naruto's hatred.

A brilliant flash of near-by lightning brightly illuminated the garden for a split second, causing Sasuke to lethargically raise his head, horribly impaired vision now leading to the long length of the structure, meeting with the gaping, foreboding entrance. His eyes, through diverging his vision, saw something, his eyes going wide with tears filling them once more. One of the branches, sickeningly twisting and bending so painfully, had grown long, and curled around itself, creating a loop as it dangled. In the eyes of one with such a corrupted mind, it almost resembled a noose that called Sasuke to it, tempting him to realize even more that the most important person in the world to him now hated him, and wanted nothing to do with him, perhaps his life really wasn't worth living.

Diverging his eyes again, he focused on the entrance, postponing his heavy sobs for as long as he could, feeling it building in his chest. He was about to let one slip as he stared at the empty and ominous entryway, when another brilliant bolt of lightning crackled from the sky and was nearly blinding, it looked as if it could have landed right there in the Wisteria garden. As he watched, with fearfully widened, watery eyes, the lightning revealed something, something that could have been seen very clearly in its luminescence, something that most definately had not been there before he looked away from it and to the noose-shaped branch. He could feel every single muscle in his body tense the very moment he noticed this out-of-place fact, fear instantly building, taking Sasuke's mind over the edge.

The light dispersed, it existed only for a second, but staring at what was the shape of a person standing there in the entrance of that wooden structure, it had felt as if the light lasted for an eternity before fading. This silhouette had not been there before, and in the break of lightning, had been seen by a nearly hysteric Sasuke, standing there at the mouth of that long, cat-walk like structure. The ominous person seemed so far away, but to Sasuke, whose level of fear had frozen his painful body, it was as if the person in that entrance was only inches away. Of course, the mind of someone in such a paranoid state would instantly fool the person into believing it was that one person in the world that they never wanted to see, whom they feared. Sasuke indeed had a figure in his life that fit that description; his older, abusive brother, Itachi Uchiha. In his frantic state of mind, that's all he could think of, and it caused the panic to rise, the tenseness in his muscles became unbearably sore, and his need to run began to kick in. The figure took a step forward, surging through the entrance quickly, and it was at that moment that Sasuke's body kicked into function, moving against his will as his eyes watched the foot falls carry the unknown figure closer, and closer. What was he to do now?

-To be continued.

Thaaaaaaaat's right, my hand feels like Jell-o, and I can't type anymore...plus...my brain hurts, and I'm hungry. I'm gonna go make dinner, and leave you all hanging...BWAHAHAHAHA!

Hope you all enjoyed it, and always know that reviews DO make me VERY happy, so feel free to do so, I love hearing feedback. :3 Again, my apologies for how late this was, I'll try and post the chapters quicker.

(Seeing as I got banned for a short period of time from the site I'm constantly role playing on, you all can expect the next chapter pretty soon, I really need to stop procrastinating.)

Ciao. Till next chapter.