Warning! Just a personal thought, but it might help to keep tissues handy for the chapter ahead…
………. Just a Few Minutes Before…
Naruko started to cry again. "Sasuke," started Naruko, "There's something I need to tell you. I'm not who you think I am…"
Wait…What? What would be so big as to make her want to cry? Oh man, I didn't offend her that bad, right?
…….
"What is it? C'mon, you can tell me anything…" Sasuke said, standing up next to Naruto. He wrapped his arms around "her" waist tenderly, pulling her into a hug. It didn't last long though; Naruto, still sobbing, pushed Sasuke off. "Baby…"
"Stop calling me that! I'm not your baby! I'll never be!"
"But…our date…"
"No! Stop saying it! W-we could never be together. Never!" Naruto shouted, backing away.
"Naruko, why can't you calm down and tell me what's wrong?" Sasuke asked, trying to calm Naruto down. As Naruto hunched over, sitting down and curling her knees up to her chest, Sasuke realized she was serious. She's not, like, physically hurt, is she? What on earth is wrong with her? he thought.
"Naruko!" Sasuke yelled, running over to her. He put his hand on her back, rubbing it in an attempt to calm her down. "How about we head back to my dorm room, or I could take you somewhere else, and we can talk…" Sasuke said, looking around. People were starting to gather, whispering to each other. Sasuke caught the tail end of a few of the conversations:
Is something wrong with her?
He didn't hurt her, did he?
Well, is he going to help her?
Confused, Sasuke helped Naruko to her feet, pulling her away.
…….
The two reached Sasuke's dorm room quickly, sooner than Sasuke had expected, considering he had to drag Naruko almost the entire way here. He sat her down on his bed, rubbing her shoulder gently as he kneeled in front of her.
"What's gotten into you? You're never this upset…"
"I-I'm just upset, b-because you've been so n-nice to me, and all I-I've done is l-lie to you…" Naruto sobbed, her shoulders moving up and down.
"Lie? What on earth do you mean?"
" 'Lie', as in, 'didn't tell you the truth'."
"Duh, I know that, but what's to lie to me about? I could've sworn that I knew everything about you…"
"No! You don't know anything about me!" Naruto cried, slapping Sasuke's hand away from his shoulder, "You may know about my feelings for you, but you'd hate my guts if you knew the real me!"
"Now, why would I hate you?" Sasuke asked, taking Naruto's face in his hands. "I love you for who you are, whoever you are. That will never, ever change. Please, I'm telling you the truth; even if you claim to be lying, please stay with me as my girlfriend. I really do love you…"
"No, you love Naruko. But would you love Naruto?"
"What? Who's Naruto?" Sasuke asked. Naruto jumped off of the bed, standing in the middle of Sasuke's room. In a flash of light, he changed back to his normal form.
As Sasuke stared in shock, Naruto stood in the middle of the room. After he had changed back, he was dressed in his pajama clothes: a pair of sweatpants and an orange t-shirt. Sasuke blinked a few times.
"W-who are you? What happened to Naruko?" Sasuke asked, rubbing his eyes. "Wait, Kiba didn't spike my orange juice again, did he?"
"No, Sasuke. Naruko never existed. She was only around so I could get into college."
"But…what about Hinata?"
"She was the only one who knew. She's the one who kept my secret."
"No! No! It can't be true! What happened to the pretty young blonde that was, no, 'is', my girlfriend?"
"I'm telling you Sasuke! She never existed! I'm all that she is, Naruto Uzumaki!"
"I said, no. It's not true. What, did she slip down a trap door or something?" Sasuke asked Naruto, shaking his shoulders. Naruto shook his head solemnly.
"You said that no matter what, you would continue to love me. No matter what I did, you would trust me, and support me anyway."
"Sorry, Naruko, Naruto, whoever you are. You lied and took advantage of me. And I don't find that attractive at all. If you had told me the truth from the start, then yes, I would have grown to love you, just as I had grown to love Naruko. But instead you chose to lie to me, just to keep me around. I can't even look at you at this point. Now, leave my room; I have no intentions of seeing you again," Sasuke said, turning away as he picked up his book-bag and walked out of his room, not even looking back.
Tears welling up in his eyes, Naruto waited a few minutes before re-assuming his position as "Naruko", and walked back to his own dorm room.
…….
Hinata was eagerly awaiting him when Naruto stumbled in, eyes red and legs weak.
"So? How did it go with the most handsome boy in our sister school? Well, I mean, except for maybe Kiba…" Hinata asked, touching her cheek as she blushed. Naruto just kept looking at the ground as he pitifully changed back into his normal form, though he spent so much time as Naruko he could hardly call it his "normal" form.
"I told him the truth. I told him I was Naruto, and now he hates me. We won't be together ever again, not that we really were in the first place. I hate him back too, by the way. He told me he'd love me no matter what, but apparently that wasn't true…"
"Don't say that; Sasuke is my cousin's roommate, and I know him fairly well from what you and Neji have told me. He loved you for your mind, he loved you for what you were on the inside."
"Stop lying to make me feel better, if he loved me for who I was on the inside, we wouldn't be here right now, having this stupid conversation, in this stupid dorm, in the stupid girls school, where I so stupidly sent myself in disguise, hoping to get and education. I might as well leave…" Naruto said, getting up off the bed where he was sitting, and headed over to the closet. He pulled out a black suitcase, pulled off all of his books off of the shelf, and started throwing them into it. Hinata, who was surprised at his rash actions, pulled his hand away.
"Please, at least finish this semester, Naruto-kun. That's the least thing you can do. Maybe, even better, Stay the rest of the year, so you at least have an education to base your life off of," she said, giving him a (hopefully) reassuring smile. He just frowned, the bags under his eyes growing even deeper.
"Please, Naruto-kun, for me? You're pretty much my only friend here. Sure, I have Kiba and Neji, but I mean here, at this school. You've helped me so much…please stay. I promise you, everything will work out, just don't leave…" Hinata said, tears also welling up in her eyes. Naruto hugged her.
"I'm sorry, Hinata-chan; and please don't do anything rash after I say this, but, I'm leaving anyway," Naruto said as he finished packing and closed his suitcase. "This is my last night here; I'm catching the eight o' clock train back home; I'll just tell my parents I couldn't do it, and I'll work at the stupid restaurant back home like I did before I got the idea in my head that I could pull this off. I'm sorry, Hinata-chan, but this is my decision. I'm probably acting stupid over some looser like Sasuke, but I really, really can't go on here. First he'll reappear at Mocha, and then at my lacrosse practice. Then, before you know it, he'll be on my doorstep, trying to convince me to come back to him. But I won't; we have nothing left in common, Hinata-chan; nothing. It's over. I promise to write to you, but not about, or too, Sasuke. Please, respect that, Hinata-chan…" Naruto said, hugging her tight. Both cried with each other on the thought of being separated from one-another.
"Very well then, Naruto-kun. But, if you do want to come back-"
"Which I won't…"
"Y-Yeah, which you…won't. I'll be here for you, and we can stay in the same room and still be friends, right?"
"Of course, Hinata. Of course." The two continued to hug for a few more minutes until Hinata finally broke free, still crying. "I probably won't be here when you wake up, so I just want to say, I want you to take good care of yourself, okay? No staying up worrying about me, okay?" Naruto said. Hinata sniffed.
"O-okay, N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata said, sniffing again. Naruto softly tucked her into bed before climbing into his own, his suitcase propped up against the door.
I'm sorry, Sasuke, but I don't, and can't, love you anymore after what you said to me today. Just…, and I'm going to hate myself for saying and thinking this,…but…keep yourself safe, and don't worry about me, not that you would. Goodbye forever, I guess… Naruto thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep, getting well-deserved rest from the long day past and for the even longer day ahead.
……….
-Oh shoot, I've been obsessed with the "the Secret Life of the American Teenager" show, and Sasuke's starting to sound like Ben…shoot…
- Kind of reminds me of Terra from Teen Titan's line…
The title is from the song "I Think I Love You", but I twisted it around a little!
Next chapter is my planned last! Wah! I guess I'll save all of my thank you's until next time then…and to my fans who've been reading since the beginning, please be patient a while longer for the next chapter, I have a few more fanfictions/ chapters to post before the big "LAST CHAPTER EXTRAVAGANZA!!" Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
