=Tricked, By A Pink Haired Devil=
Of course, it didn't take long to get to the bridge in which the three of them had become so familiar. It was their ordinary meeting place, on days when they all wanted to hang out outside of school. As it happened though, and it was rather expected, the place was decidedly deserted of any familiar looking pink haired girl. Naruto stomped around in a fury, while Sasuke simply stood, trying to puzzle it out. Why would Sakura want him and Naruto to be alone together on the bridge like this? Had she planned out some big elaborate plot to get the two of them together? More than likely Sakura hadn't been kidding when she'd said that she'd "shove the two of them together" if she had to. She just wasn't the type to say things like lightly, not with such a note of determination in her voice like there had been.
And, as Sasuke and Naruto were unfortunate enough to discover, Sakura had really thought things through. Obviously she had been waiting in ambush, silently watching them, waiting in secret for the most opportune moment. Suddenly, there was a rough shove to Sasuke's shoulder, and as he went tumbling over the side of the bridge, he was only vaguely aware of the fact that Naruto was falling too. It was a short drop, and suddenly Sasuke's stomach lurched as apparently the ground heaved up under him and threw he and Naruto into the air, shoving the two of them together.
It took a long sort of moment for Sasuke's brain to really register what had happened. In reality, he and his dobe had been caught by the net rope that had obviously been waiting for them over the edge of the bridge. Then the corners of that net had been pulled up together, roughly pinning the raven and the fox together into a cramped space.
And so Sasuke found himself in the very awkward and extremely uncomfortable position of being squished up against Naruto, who, by the way, still looked like he was having trouble figuring out what was going on. Sasuke's face was smooshed uncomfortably into Naruto's chest, and for the sake of his nose, the only thing he could really concentrate on at first was getting the blonde boy to lift up off of him a bit. He pushed lightly on Naruto's chest until, finally, the dobe seemed to realized what he wanted, and shifted a little until he and Sasuke were in a slightly more upright position.
It wasn't until then, with the blood rushing up to his head, that Sasuke realized exactly what kind of predicament he was really in. Naruto - his Naruto, his dobe, his obsession and absolute infatuation - was practically on top of him, and their faces were very, very close. When Sasuke tried to put his head down in embarrassment, he ended up against Naruto's chest again, and the blonde's scent filled his nostrils, which in turn overwhelmed his poor nerves and made his head swim dangerously.
Blue eyes stared down at him in utter, dumbfounded shock at the sudden situation the two of them were in.
The silent moment of discomfort and surprise was interrupted by the sound of giggling, and a remarkably familiar voice saying, "Yes! We bagged 'em!"
The two boys struggled to see around one another, as their roped enclosure swung and twisted back and fourth in a sickening sort of way. Sasuke knew that they were not that high up in the air, really - the net was hanging from a rope, skillfully wrapped around the branch and trunk of a nearby tree. Still, his stomach was lurching a bit; he wasn't all too fond of heights, and the thought of falling scared him, whether they were very high up or not.
Three happily grinning girls were staring up at them from the bridge. "Hi guys!" Sakura called laughingly. The sickening tone of happy in her voice was nearly as nauseating as the way the ropes swung.
Ino and Tenten stood to either side of the pink haired girl, each of them looking quite pleased with themselves, with smug grins and victory in their eyes. "Sakura!" Naruto shouted suddenly. "What the hell?! First you tell me my apartment's on fire when it's not, and now this shit? What the hell?! ...Let us down!"
"Nope! Sorry, no can do boys." Ino laughed as the other girl stuck her tongue out playfully, and Tenten hopped down from the bridge to collect Naruto's cell phone, which must have slipped out of his pocket sometime during the fall.
"Shit," Naruto cursed quietly, and his breath fanned Sasuke's face, nearly pushing the raven overboard. He really hoped that Naruto couldn't feel the way that the situation was effecting his crotch currently. If that happened, Sasuke wouldn't need to worry about confessing.
"You two need to talk." It wasn't until Ino's voice reached him that Sasuke realized Naruto had been shouting over at the girls again. Obviously, his new demands had had as little effect as the first ones had.
And what the hell did she mean the two of them needed to talk? Mouth turned downward in a worried frown, Sasuke glanced over the dobe to look straight at Sakura. She had told? She had told Ino and Tenten about his crush on Naruto? The pink haired girl gave him an apologetic, reassuring smile, and Sasuke wasn't sure what to think about that. Had she told them or not?
Sasuke had already pretty much figured out Sakura's intentions. She had simply wanted to force the he and Naruto together into an awkward situation, where she figured that eventually words would have to be spoken between them. Maybe she meant well - maybe she was trying to help Sasuke. Obviously she had wanted to throw them into a position where touching was impossible to avoid as well - probably hoping for some sort of accidental sexual arousing, which was working on Sasuke's part anyway. Quickly he assessed that Sakura could not had pulled this off on her own. She'd needed someone to shove Naruto, someone to shove Sasuke, and someone to pull the rope. She'd needed the extra help that the two other girls had provided.
Still, the possibility of her betrayal stung. if she had given away his secret, one of his biggest secrets, it would be difficult to forgive her later.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Naruto demanded, and Sasuke blushed at the way his body shifted against his own. "What's there to talk about?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out," Sakura chimed somewhat childishly. Then she turned, and curtly began to make her way across the bridge, Tenten and Ino giving each other a high-five as they followed after.
Naruto made a small, incredulous choking sound in his throat as he gaped at the girls who were leaving him and Sasuke behind. "Where are you going?" he shouted, his anger seeming to build.
Sakura laughed lightly, and merely glanced back at him over her shoulder as she continued to walk. "Don't worry! We'll be back in about an hour, when we think you might have made some actual progress. In the meantime, we're going shopping~!" Sasuke's pink haired friend let out the last word in a happy sing-song voice, and began prancing happily away.
Naruto continued to gawk in astonishment, while Sasuke simply felt his heart sink. A part of him just couldn't believe that Sakura was actually forcing him into this. Sasuke had had things perfectly under control earlier - before his friend had decided to interfere. Was she really so doubtful of his abilities to do anything on his own? (Not that those doubts would go without good reason, of course). Still, Sasuke wished that she'd just have a little faith in his for once. He had determined long ago that he would confess sometime before graduation, and he was still fixed on that. He would have done it already - if not for this.
Now his and Naruto's friendship would be forever marred by this awkward experience. That Sakura had forced this upon them - that Sasuke, grudgingly rather than willingly, gave his confession.
Sadly he wondered if Naruto would even still want to be friends with his after this.
"Oi, Sasuke!" The saddened Uchiha glanced up guiltily still red in the face from all the close contact, and his heart gave a pitiful thump when his eyes met with those large blue ones. For just a second then, Naruto seemed taken aback by the look on Sasuke's face. But the blonde shook it off. "Now's not the time to be zoning out. We gotta figure a way out of this!"
Sasuke's face darkened. Sakura and the other two were all long gone by now, leaving him here alone with his annoying, irresistible dobe. "How do you plan on doing that?" he asked in a barely audible voice.
Naruto huffed, put out by Sasuke's seemingly uncaring, defeated attitude. "Do you still have your cell phone on you? We could call someone for help! You saw Tenten - she took mine."
Numbly, Sasuke shook his head. "Left it at the house," he muttered.
Now that he had mentally prepared himself... what would it be like if the two of them actually did find a way out of this? Would he be able to simply shrug all those feelings off, and watch his dobe walk away with feelings still left unsaid? No. No, Sasuke decided. If it were going to happen, it needed to happen while he was already at the dropping off point. He wanted to get the words out - he needed to, before that feeling went away. Determination had always found a way to slip away from between Sasuke's fingers. He needed to take every chance he could get.
Naruto cursed quietly again, and shifted around, looking out at their surroundings while testing the space of their uncomfortable enclosure. At Naruto's every little movement, friction lightly tugging their clothes, Sasuke's breath hitched slightly. The heat in his face continued to rise, slowly through the moments - the torture of being so close to the one he wanted, and not being able to have him. Sasuke had to bite his lip hard to hold down a gasp.
"Oh hey!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, those eyes of his momentarily unfocused with sudden insight. He grinned -- obviously he'd just figured out some way the two of them might get loose. Sasuke would have asked about it - seeing as the dobe was temporarily dumbstruck with his apparent idea - except that he was kind of afraid his own thoughts would be betrayed, if he attempted to speak.
"I completely forgot, I have my pocketknife on me," Naruto finally explained.
Oh. Well that was good news he supposed. But, of course there was a problem. Naruto's hands were tangled along with one of Sasuke's in the ropes above the raven's head. It was particularly uncomfortable, and Sasuke was pretty sure that if he lost any more circulation in his hand, it would later have to be amputated. For a moment - a very long moment for Sasuke - Naruto struggled to free those hands, but that really only resulted in jerking about and grunting in a way that nearly gave Sasuke another one of his more intense nosebleeds.
Finally, the dobe sighed in defeat, and... their faces really were much too close. "Get it for me," he directed, blue eyes shining with resolve.
"What?" Sasuke squeaked - yes, squeaked. Again. Ugh.
"Look, it's just in my front pocket, and you're the only one here with any hands free! Just get it, and cut us the hell out of this thing."
As the vision of exactly what he'd have to do filled his mind, Sasuke knew that he really didn't want to do this. Anxiously, he glanced downward toward Naruto's pocket, and felt his face instantly go up in flames again. Momentarily not caring that Naruto was watching - because getting himself under control was a lot more important than that - Sasuke shut his eyes tight, and took a very deep breath. Really, why the hell did pant pockets have to be so damn close to the crotch? Of course, before that moment, this fact had never bothered Sasuke much, but that was besides the point.
"Okay," Sasuke said finally, trying so hard to sound indifferent, and grimacing lightly. He gathered up all the courage he could spare, mustering up the will to do this without allowing his hand to accidentally... 'slip.'
Sasuke winced as he stretched out his hand downward between their two bodies - mostly out of discomfort at having to stretch like that, but also because of the images that were happily raiding his mind. Naruto sucked in his gut a little, trying to push farther off of the raven so that Sasuke might reach the pocket with a bit more ease. "The right one," the blonde muttered, sounding somewhat begrudged by the whole affair. Apparently this was a tad bit embarrassing for him too, and Sasuke wondered for a moment if Naruto might not be having the same kind of involuntary thoughts as he was. "And don't drop it once you've got it." He snorted. "We'd really be screwed then."
Sasuke gulped hard, simply nodding in response. He still didn't trust himself enough to speak, and something had triggered in his mind when the word "screw" had left Naruto's lips. His hand found its way into the dobe's pocket finally, twisting his arm in an uncomfortable way since he had to reach crossways and stretch between them. His left hand was the one that was trapped, along with both of Naruto's, and Sasuke was now found himself desperately fighting off any stray thoughts that might associate their situation with what bondage sex might be like. Dear freaking Kami-sama, at this rate Sasuke was going to be lucky to escape with his virginity by the time they finally got out of this mess. Had Sakura actually thought ahead enough to actually plan things like this?
"Hold on, I... I almost got it," he muttered, trying hard not to stutter. Great. Now he was slipping back into that old habit. Damn Sakura. Damn her and her evil pink hair to the lowest level of hell -- at least for now anyway.
Sasuke's shoulder was popping with the strain of stretching his arms out that far, and he could just barely feel the cold of the knife inside Naruto's pocket. He could only just brush the thing with his fingertips. Suddenly (and a bit irrationally) furious at the thing that refused to cooperate with him, Sasuke pushed himself hard and shoved his hand deeper inside the pocket, and Naruto grunted lightly at the unexpected movement.
Good. God.
Sasuke had been so wrong to even try to compare this with anything that might be like one of his fantasies -- this was much, much worse. He'd heard of clichéd circumstances like this, where sexual experiences might be thrilling and not so inconveniencing, but really, this was ridiculous!
"Got it," he muttered, pulling the knife up before Naruto's face. The blonde sighed heavily, as if he'd been holding his breath the entire time, and allowed the muscles in his stomach to relax.
"Good," he said, determination returning in an instant. "Now... uhh..." He looked around at their enclosure, apparently looking for a good place in the net for Sasuke to start cutting. "There," he said, nodding toward a place to Sasuke's left. "Just don't drop it."
Sasuke nodded, and reached over to get to work, blushing brightly at the way his cutting motions caused his and Naruto's bodies to rub together even more. Ugh. Why did it seem like the gods hated him so?
The rope was quite thick, and it took a lot of time and effort for a piece of it to finally snap. A short moment of silence followed, in which Naruto and Sasuke were both holding their breath now. Sasuke moved on to the next place in the net and began cutting again, now more determined to get them out than really thinking about his worries with Naruto.
It took around fifteen very long and trying minutes before a wide enough line was slashed down the side of the net for them to escape. Incidentally, a particular cut in the rope had freed their hands - Sasuke was a genius after all, however introverted said genius might be - and they both breathed long sighs of relief and slight pain as the blood rather suddenly rushed back into their hands.
Sasuke allowed Naruto to jump down first, and this was where things got tricky. His balance out of whack even more now than when Naruto had been in the thing with him, Sasuke shifted over to the gap in the net, though his legs were shaking rather badly. It really wasn't a very short drop to the ground at all. Naruto had landed perfectly fine, and wasn't paying any attention to the raven now. Sasuke, however, couldn't help but eye the distance to solid earth somewhat distrustfully. He kept taking in one deep breath right after the other, steeling himself for the jump, and then managing to chicken out at the last moment every time.
When finally Naruto noticed that Sasuke still wasn't down, he glanced up at him in slight annoyance. "Oi! What are you waiting for? Jump down already!"
Sasuke swallowed nervously. How should he say this without embarrassing himself too badly? He still wasn't sure if he could speak - there was a large lump caught in his throat, thanks to adrenaline induced fear. "Well?" Naruto asked demandingly. The blonde's brow creased in confusion, and even up from where he sat, Sasuke couldn't help but admire the other guy's good looks. "Are you scared?" Naruto asked suddenly, sounding a bit incredulous. Incredulity faded to worry, and blue eyes shined up in genuine concern that had Sasuke's breath hitching a little again. Naruto held out his arms. "C'mon I'll catch you."
Sasuke hesitated again, but it was Naruto's eyes - and his offer - that sent him over the edge. Who could refuse a thing like that? Naruto was just so... sincere... so obliviously truthful, that it was difficult not to trust him. If he said that he would catch him, he would catch him. Naruto was like that - it was one of the things that Sasuke really admired him for.
Taking one more small breath, Sasuke shifted his weight and jumped.... There was a terribly frightening, but very short rushing sound in his ears as he fell, and then he was there, in Naruto's waiting arms. Naruto allowed Sasuke to slip from his hold almost immediately, but for a single moment, the blonde boy absently continued to keep his arms around Sasuke's shoulders, and the raven's blush returned with a vengeance.
When he stepped away, Sasuke looked rather helplessly up into Naruto's face until he finally caught the blonde's attention again. "What?" Naruto asked at that look.
"I have to tell you something," Sasuke repeated shakily.
Naruto's brow furrowed again. "Can't it wait? I have that pink thing to take care of at the moment."
"No. No... it can't wait."
There must have been some degree of desperation in Sasuke's face, because after a short moment of looking at him, Naruto nodded seriously. "Alright Sasuke," he said quietly.
Something weird had been going on with Sasuke lately. The guy had always been jittery and nervous around Naruto, even way back before when Naruto had been too stupid to see it, but lately things had gotten even worse.
"You shouldn't get angry at Sakura," the raven began. "She... meant well, I think. She was just trying to... get me to talk to you."
"Talk to me? About what?"
Sasuke looked guiltily up at him through too long eyelashes, and for a moment, Naruto just had to smile. For a guy, Sasuke was extremely and undeniably pretty. Probably that's what made it so easy for Naruto to pick on him like he did. Making Sasuke blush was one of his favorite things to do whenever the guy was around - it was an irresistible thing, to want to see those pale cheeks flame. Such blushes looked unnatural on Sasuke's pasty white skin, but unquestionably cute. Whereas any other person (girls, Naruto though to himself) would have just been slightly pink, Sasuke's face resembled something like a tomato. Of course, Naruto had used to mistake the red in Sasuke's face as anger rather than embarrassment. It had taken the Uzumaki way too long to really see it.
Sasuke seemed taken aback by Naruto's sudden smile, his brow creasing in a way that screamed how apprehensive he was about something. Over the years that it had taken to figure Sasuke out, Naruto had become quite adept at reading the little signs of the Uchiha's face that gave his thoughts away. Lately, Sasuke had really been stressing a lot, and Naruto hadn't believed for a second that lame excuse he'd given him about being nervous about graduation. Why should Sasuke worry? He was smart -- a genius; he had perfect grades in all his classes without even trying. His future was pretty much set for him already, unlike Naruto, who still had no idea what he was going to do with his life.
"Sasuke?" Naruto asked pleasantly, when the raven still hesitated to answer.
"Naruto I-" he cut off suddenly, and without any warning at all, his face reddened all the way up to his hairline. Was what he had to say really all that bad? Naruto just continued to smile at him, confused, but seriously curious. Sasuke huffed quietly, and his worried eyes moved downward, to the ground at their feet. The guy was actually almost hyperventilating. He kept taking in deep breaths - you know, the kind you take when you're up on the high dive, just before you jump. But it was a few moments of silence still, before he actually said anything.
You know, maybe Naruto had had a vague idea of what Sasuke was going to say before the raven even said it. Body language had already suggested where this conversation was going to go - Naruto really should have guessed it. He'd had girls confess to him before, believe it or not, and he knew the signs. For some reason, it just hadn't really clicked, what Sasuke was going to say, until the moment just before he actually said it.
"I... I love you Naruto," Sasuke said quietly, and bowed his head so that his eyes were hidden beneath his hair. Sasuke shifted uncomfortably, half stepping back as if he just wanted to turn and run away. His face was absolutely flaming.
Naruto stood there, stunned for one short, silent moment. Then, he grinned. "No you don't," he said simply, and Sasuke's head snapped back up at the sound of the smile in Naruto's voice.
"What?" Sasuke whispered, and his mouth fell open slightly in disbelief.
"Haha, you come off with the strangest things sometimes Sasuke." Naruto casually reached out and ruffled the raven's hair. Sasuke pushed his hand away immediately - Naruto knew the guy hated it when people touched his perfect hair. However, Sasuke seemed to be more lost in his own thoughts, incredulous, than actually worrying about that at the moment. "Why in the world would you think something like that?" Naruto asked, still smiling a little.
Sasuke continued to stare up at him, eyes wide and, even a little angry. Naruto could sense when Sasuke was near that breaking point - the point where he actually stood up for himself, and acted on or spoke his thoughts without hesitating or holding back. It happened very, very rarely - Naruto had only witnessed it a time or two, and usually, it didn't last long. Naruto normally tried hard to push Sasuke to that point - because, besides being extremely amusing to annoy the Uchiha that much, Sasuke really needed to learn to be stronger. Naruto couldn't say that he himself was trying to be 'noble' or anything - he just wanted to teach his friend how to stand up for himself.
This time there was another reason though. Naruto wanted to push Sasuke to that point, because when Sasuke was at that point, he showed a truer side of himself. Did the guy honestly think that he was in love with him? It was a laughable notion - somewhat absurd, even. How could Naruto Uzumaki really be expected to take something like that seriously?
"You... you actually don't believe me?" Sasuke asked quietly.
"Aw, you're so cute when you make that face Sasu-chan," Naruto said in the most grating voice possible. Promptly he reached out and pinched one of Sasuke's cheeks, and the Uchiha smacked his hand away again, dark eyes hardening. "Don't get your panties in a twist now, my precious little icicle. I think maybe you're just a lit-tle bit confused." And he grinned one last grin again, knowing without a doubt that Sasuke wouldn't be able to stand it.
And he was right. "Confused?" Sasuke demanded, and this time his face was red from anger. "You are an idiot Naruto Uzumaki. You think years of chasing you around, constantly trying to get your attention... you think all that was just on a- a whim? You think I've been mistaken for all this time? That I don't know my own feelings?" Wow. He was really getting pissed off about this. Naruto had never seen Sasuke quite this angry before - it was a real eye-opener.
Tears of frustration had gathered up in the Uchiha's eyes, and he huffed angrily, bowing his head to wipe them away. "You're crying?" Naruto asked, the tone of surprise ringing clear in his voice.
"Yeah and you'd think I'd done enough of it by now over you," the Uchiha said heatedly. "I can't believe you think this is a joke. I was so stupid to ever think that you might take me seriously for once."
Okay, so things were suddenly getting a little out of hand here. Naruto knew how to deal with Shy Sasuke, but Angry and Convinced Sasuke made him a little nervous. "I always take you seriously," the blonde protested. "I just don't always show it. It's more fun to pick on you."
He'd meant it, he really had -- but as things had a way of doing for Naruto, he came off sounding more joking and half-mocking than anything else. "No, no that's not what I meant," he said quickly, when he saw the look on Sasuke's face. "Well, okay, it is what I meant, I just didn't mean it that way. Umm... it's just... being so serious all the time isn't any fun. I like to pick on you because I know it drives you crazy and... things are more interesting that way. You know? I'm not trying to be... cold or anything."
"You... are cold to me," Sasuke whispered.
Naruto saw it - he saw the sudden conviction and determination flicker across Sasuke's features - the impulse decision he had just made. Still, what happened next... Naruto really didn't expect it at all.
It was not an idea that Sasuke had had. Really, he didn't think it through at all before he acted - which was good, by the way, or else he might not had done it. It was just something he suddenly did, surprising even himself a little bit. One moment he was much too aware of Naruto's close proximity, and the next, he was standing on his toes a little to push their lips together.
He kind of messed up though. At the very last instant, Sasuke became unsure, momentarily deciding that he didn't have the audacity to really kiss Naruto with all that pent up passion - to crush their lips together like he had done so many times in his dreams when contemplating this moment in the past. And so that was how he ended up almost pulling back at the last second, and accidentally sort of bumping their lips together rather than actually kissing, also managing to bite his own lips hard in the process.
Okay, so Sasuke had just done a pretty good job of embarrassing himself. Really, he had just gone through way too much - more than he could really handle anyway. He'd gone from being stuck in a net with the dobe, pressed up against him and practically humping him with the way they were forced to move about in such a cramped space, to suddenly standing there baring his feelings for him. Then he'd gotten angry at the dobe, yelled at him, cried in front of him, and managed to screw up in his attempt to kiss him.
Sasuke's way of thinking was, things couldn't hardly get any worse than that, and he deserved something worth all his troubles besides. Quickly, before he could allow himself to think too much about it, he grabbed Naruto by the arms, holding to him desperately, and was rather suddenly fighting to make the blonde's lips move against the rhythm of his own. But this was unfamiliar territory to Sasuke. He'd never kissed anybody before (other than that one time he'd experimented with Sakura, and that had been too awkward to really enjoy and figure out what he was doing), so, Sasuke wasn't even sure if what he was doing was right. He pulled away after just a short moment of this, when it became obvious that he was not going to get what he wanted from Naruto.
And suddenly all of Sasuke's senses returned to him like a gunshot to the chest. What was he doing?! Sasuke stared up, pleading, into blue eyes, only to find that he knew exactly what Naruto's response would be before the blonde boy even opened his mouth to find the words.
For a long moment, wide eyes stared silently into wide eyes, each of the boys too shocked to really do or say anything. Finally, Sasuke's mentality collapsed with the knowledge of Naruto's imminent and crushing rejection. It wasn't supposed to be this way.
Suddenly snapping, Sasuke chocked out a strangled sort of cry, and turned and ran. As of yet he wasn't sure where he was going - all he knew was that he had to get as far away from Naruto as he possibly could.
Naruto couldn't believe what had just happened. Yes, he did know -- he knew how much he'd really just hurt Sasuke. Sasuke was not the type to just lie about things like that, and he certainly wasn't the type to take heartache or rejection well. Sasuke was fragile - a fact that Naruto had known ever since he'd learned just how timid and shy Sasuke really was.
Of course, Naruto had known for almost nearly as long that Sasuke was gay. C'mon, it was so friggin' obvious. Sasuke smelled too good, he blushed at the thought of porn, and to top it all off -- he'd been best friends with Sakura since middle school, and still insisted that the two of them were only friends. Sakura was not a bad looking girl - actually, Naruto himself had had a hugemongous crush on her at one point or another. She was leader of the Sasuke Uchiha fangirl fan club, she obviously still liked Sasuke (to some extent - enough that she would take him up on any offer he made her anyway), and Sasuke had probably never even once considered tappin' that.
Oh, and not to mention Sasuke's obsession with his hair. He'd spend hours on end, perfecting his duck-butt style in the bathroom mirror. Thank Kami-sama that Naruto had only been witness to such occasion once or twice in the past.
Yes, he'd known Sasuke was gay. Yes, he'd noticed the blushes and suspicious amount of nosebleeds the bastard had whenever Naruto was around, hard as the other guy had tried to hide or deny it. Yes, he'd noticed those looks he gave Naruto sometimes - the way he stared, sometimes completely unabashedly, and the occasional wild, distressed looks that crossed Sasuke's face.
Honestly Naruto had always thought that it was simple teenage hormones. Sasuke was gay, and Naruto was his best friend. Of course there would be some sort of attraction there, but Naruto had never really minded that because he knew that Sasuke wouldn't actually try anything (that was a laughable thought), and he'd also known that the time of teenage hormones would pass. He'd had no idea that Sasuke had confused those feelings with thoughts of actual love. He'd not even had the vague inclination until just a moment before Sasuke told him, and even in that moment, Naruto had hoped that he was wrong. He'd wanted to be oblivious. He'd wanted to think that Sasuke was just talking on a whim. Because maybe he'd known that he would hurt Sasuke, that he just couldn't deal with that side of Sasuke.
Love was something that meant a lot to Naruto. Bonds were something that meant a lot to Naruto. Getting physical with somebody, he could handle - even knowing that Sasuke wanted to get physical with him, he could handle; as averse to the idea as he had been himself.
But love...? Naruto had always known he was dense, but damn, how had he managed not to see it? It was so obvious to him now. Of course Sasuke loved him. Sasuke had always loved him. Naruto had just been too stupid and naive to see it. And now he was paying for it. That day - the day he found out how Sasuke really was - he should have dissuaded any thoughts of friendship. Finally knowing that Sasuke was gay, he should have tried harder than ever to push the raven away.
And therein lay the problem -- Sasuke was addicting. He was a cool guy; Naruto really liked him, in some ways he even looked up to him -- but not so much that he wanted to be gay with the guy. Naruto wanted to be friends with Sasuke, he really did. He didn't mean to hurt Sasuke....
But once Naruto was back in his quiet apartment, standing with his back against the door, and panting heavily from running the whole way... he knew. He knew exactly what he'd done. He could see that look that had been on Sasuke's face so clearly in his head - all those emotions he usually tried so hard to hide, shining bare and exposed there in those onyx eyes. And Naruto knew. He had just done a very, very bad thing to his very closest friend.