Sorry for the long wait. So, I found out what was wrong with my arm. It seems I have an infection in the very bone, and because it hurts, I've had trouble getting myself to write anything really. But, I'm back, hopefully :)


Part Nine


"No Sasuke, just… No." Itachi glared at me through strained eyes. "You can't go like that! Seriously, what were you thinking picking clothes like that?"

Frowning under his demanding eyes I studied the clothes I wore, finding nothing wrong with them. It was just a high school party. It's not like I'd be the only one wearing a t-shirt, jeans and a pair of sneakers.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. You need to grow some sense of style Sasuke. This is not acceptable!" Itachi said with a disappointed click of his tongue and dragged me off to his bedroom to look for other clothes. I stood in the doorway and watched him throw garment after garment onto the floor, releasing dissatisfied snorts every now and then.

"It's fine Itachi, really, I don't need anything-" I tried telling him but my words were abruptly muffled by a piece of cloth as Itachi threw a gray cardigan over me. Annoyed I pulled it off my head and glared at the clothing as if it were the devil itself. "What is this?" I demanded, having never considered myself as a cardigan wearing type of guy. They were for old men… and Itachi.

"Stop glaring at it little brother, I promise it won't attack you." Itachi smirked knowing damn well my opinion about the piece of cloth. Snorting, I threw the shirt a quick look and replied, "Hn. It won't fit me though." With victory in my hands I started giving the shirt back to Itachi but he refused it and only pushed more clothes into my hands.

"They're old so they should fit you. Now put it on…"Itachi urged on. He continued by pushing me further inside the closet and then closed the door to give me privacy to change. I sighed reluctantly and accepted my defeat. Once Itachi decided upon something fighting was only futile.

I dressed quickly and stared shocked into the mirror once I was fully dressed. The clothes Itachi had chosen for me were surprisingly good looking and for the first time I actually felt a bit… sexy. I devoted a thought to what Naruto would say once he saw me but was interrupted by Itachi banging on the door. I threaded a hand through my hair to add to its volume and opened the door.

Itachi's satisfied, although a bit scary, smile made me purse my lips in slight obedience. I hated whenever he proved me wrong, he never let me live it down afterwards. "I hate it." I lied and crossed my arms to prove my point but this only made Itachi chuckle.

"You're a terrible liar little brother." He walked up to me and straightened the cardigan and fixed the dress shirt's collar. "You're going to blow everybody's minds." His toothy smirk almost made me believe him and I straightened from the momentarily boosted confidence.

"Hn." I didn't care about other people's opinions. All I cared about was Naruto's. Hearing the buzz from my phone, Sakura informed that Hinata and she was ready for Itachi and me to come pick them up. The clock was nearing ten and the party had started at eight. Hopefully Naruto would be there by the time we got there.

I finished up at home and we got going, picking Sakura and Hinata up on the way and then eventually arriving to the party. Music blasted through the open windows and people moved busily inside the large house. Not counting the yearly camp's 'event', this was my first party since Hyuuga Neji's birthday party when we were eight. It wasn't like I didn't want to go to them, but with a reputation like mine in junior high it had been hard to get an invitation.

I cringed as Sakura eagerly cried out in my ear, "I can see Lee from here!" and started waving like an idiot before we even had the time to get out of the car.

"He can't see you Sakura." I tried to remind her but just then Lee started waving back just as enthusiastically, automatically proving me wrong. At that moment it took all my might just to not sucker punch them both. Two equally stupid people… Was that what you called a match made in heaven? I wasn't all that sure.

Itachi dropped us off, leaving with the usual line, 'don't do anything I wouldn't do' which was pretty stupid actually, since that practically meant do whatever. What could I say? My brother kept low standards.

Sakura ran up to her boyfriend and attached herself to his arm like a leech, leaving Hinata and I to go through the door alone and enter the big loud house. As soon as we set foot inside, I was reminded of the zoo. People were running around like crazy, they were dancing and throwing stuff. In better words, it was complete chaos.

Red cups filled with a pink liquid were shoved into our hands as a girl came up to us, her smile crooked and eyes droopy. She was obviously intoxicated. "Welcome!" She said and caught me unguarded as she kissed me on the lips. It took a second for me to react but I quickly shoved her out of my way and took Hinata's hand to move further inside the house and as far away from the molester as possible. Really, I had never been to a party like this before, but to be ambushed as soon as we entered the door? It felt silly, like I was the lead in some poorly written college movie.

I heard a low protest from Hinata but her struggle died down and she followed obediently. I took us to what I presumed was the lounge and activated my Naruto scanner. No matter how many people were in the room, somehow, I could always spot Naruto. It was like some kind of built in radar.

"I don't think he's here." I heard Hinata say, her voice slightly trembling from what I assumed was anxiousness. She had never been one for crowded areas.

"I guess." I replied and didn't care to hide the disappointment in my voice. Time moved slowly as we stood mostly by ourselves on the sideline and listened to the same repetitive tasteless music thundering off the walls. Every now and then someone would walk up to us in their drunken state of mind but neither Hinata or I was interested in sharing a conversation with anyone else but each other, so we pretty much ignored whomever tried.

In fact, we remained in our own little world until I spotted a tuft of blond hair that I would recognize anywhere. It was Naruto, he had finally arrived. I licked my lips, Hinata's words blending in to the background as Naruto became the center of my world. Without thinking, my feet started to move and I crossed the floor, leaving a stunned Hinata to fend for herself.

Like always, Naruto stood out from the crowd of people he was busy chatting to. Even though he only wore a simple striped dress shirt and a pair of jeans, he made such an impact with his stunning looks. No one could even begin to measure up to his magnitude. And I was sure many people shared my opinion.

I cleared my throat once I stood behind him and thus earned his attention. As soon as our eyes met his lit up with something I could only guess was passion and he sent me a secretive smile. "Sasuke." He said and wet his lips, my eyes carefully following the familiar pink tongue. In my mind I wanted to kiss him but knew the gesture would be unwelcome so instead I settled on playing it casual.

"I almost thought you wouldn't show up." I said coolly and adopted a smug smile of my own. Our relationship was supposed to be kept a secret but oh how I hated it. I had once thought accepting my sexuality would be the hardest thing I would ever have to do in life but unfortunately I had been wrong. Being with Naruto was tough, but it definitely beat not being with him at all.

"Well here I am." He replied with a tint of unease. From behind him, I could tell his friends were leaning in on our conversation and so directed them all under one of my best frowns.

"You all right?" I questioned after a short silence, my brow furrowed confused and eyes eventually moving back to stare into Naruto's.

"Of course." He said almost too quickly and refused looking at me. He seemed to be indecisive, torn between an inner predicament and judging by his next words I realized just what that was. "Um, I'll see you around Sasuke." He said my name like it was foreign to him. It was obvious I had been rejected and I watched him in slow motion turn back to his friends to continue whatever conversation I had interrupted.

I stood frozen behind him, shocked by his sudden turn in attitude. I had almost come to the point where I accepted the fact he had a reputation to maintain and thus wanted to keep our relationship to ourselves, but now he could not even share a friendly conversation with me just because some of his friends were watching? The truth was painful.

My heart stung and I forced my legs to move. I grabbed the closest thing to a drink and forced it down in one chunk. The taste was bitter, my face shriveling up in disgust, but at that moment I cared less about the taste. Naruto had hurt me and I had to ease the numbness I felt in some way and getting drunk seemed like the perfect solution at that moment.

I downed one drink after another and soon lost count of how many I had had. My world eventually started to spin and I began to feel tired and dizzy. I crawled up a wooden stair and fell into a room two people were getting it on in. "Get out." I cried out and glared at them both.

The couple said something but I was too focused on the comfortable looking bed to even try and feign my interest. I fell down on the bed and eventually watched the two leave, a satisfied grin on my lips.

I must have dozed off because I was jerked away by a door slamming shut. Tiredly and rather nauseous, I turned in the direction of the sound and saw a blurry figure close in on the bed. "Sakura...? ...Hinata?" I questioned and closed my eyes to keep the world from spinning. Unfortunately a move like that only made it worse.

I felt a hand touch my forehead followed by a low murmur. I struggled to make out what they had said but only came up with the answer that the voice was too dark to belong to any female. "Who are you…?" I demanded, my voice coming out pathetically weak.

"…-getsu"

"Getsu?" I repeated as I couldn't recall anyone by that name. I moved away from the hand that had lingered on my forehead and frowned, annoyed by the fact that someone I didn't know had dared to touch me. "I don't know you?" I said, and glared at the fuzzy shadow of a bulky male.

"Of cou-….-ou do… W… -met the other day. In the-"

"School bathrooms." I finished, immediately recalling the meeting with a very persistent but foremost annoying guy. "I thought I made it clear I wasn't interested." I murmured my voice cold.

"Right…" The guy said and the next thing I know something was touching my leg… In a place I didn't want anyone else but Naruto to touch. I swapped his hand away drunkenly and hissed angrily for him to stop but the guy was persistent.

"C'mon, I just want to have some fun." He pressed and locked my wrist to my sides. I struggled to break free but in my drunken state and his incredible strength I found it hard to break free from his hold.

"Stop it." I barked out and slammed my head right into his nose. The guy let out a squeak of pain and his hold loosened around my wrists enough for me to break free. I shoved him off of me and scurried to my feet. "Don't you ever dare touching me again." I warned him my tone lethal and escaped back to the party. On my way down the hallway I clung to the walls, my vision still slightly blurred.

When someone suddenly pulled at my wrist I thought it was the Getsu guy from before and therefore directed a punch at the other's face, but my fist was blocked and I heard a voice I recognized. It was Naruto.

"Hey, I've been looking for you. Where were you?" I damned Naruto's timing and tore my hand from his grip. "Why do you even care?" I heard myself question before I had the time to stop the words from coming out.

"What do you mean? I thought you wanted to see me." Naruto chuckled as if something was funny. It only spurred to my anger. Given any other time I would have done everything in my power to keep control of my anger, I was too afraid Naruto would leave me if I started anything, but I wasn't in complete control of my emotions, and after almost being raped by some weirdo, my emotions were in utter chaos.

"You're wrong." I barked out angrily and shoved passed him only to be caught yet again by the arm. "Let go." I grunted through clenched teeth and made to pull my arm away but Naruto had already let go.

"What's wrong?" He questioned his voice somewhat odd. "Talk to me Sasuke."

"You want to know what's wrong?" I cried out and Naruto nodded vigorously. "I guess I'm just tired of always being forced to stand in your shadow! I mean I thought you were different but all you care about is your goddamn reputation!" In the heat of the moment I had attracted the attention of everyone in the hallway. Fortunately there were only a few people but Naruto was quick to shush me and forced me up against a wall. I winced when my back hit the wall and nursed it as Naruto stepped back.

"I-I'm sorry Sasuke." He said, and I could tell he was regretful. I wanted to forgive him but instead I just glared at him and said the three words I knew would end our relationship for good. "I hate you." It was a lie but at that moment I just wanted to hurt Naruto as much as he had hurt me and with that said I took my escape and ran down the stairs.

When I was about to leap the last step of the stair I stumbled over my own foot and lost my balance. I braced myself for the hard collision with the floor but shockingly it never came. I opened my eyes having closed them a few seconds earlier, and was faced by the familiar smile belonging to Kiba.

"Hey, perhaps you should take it a bit easy there Sasuke." Kiba's caring voice broke through my drunken numbness and in my own desperation I threw my arms around his neck and clung to him as if my life depended on it.

I could feel Kiba stiffen under my weight and he awkwardly put his arms around my back and gave it a light pat. "Um, are you okay Sasuke?" He questioned but I couldn't get myself to answer and so remained silent.

Kiba accepted my silence and eased his hold around me. "You know what I think you could use?"

I shook my head slightly confused.

"I think some fresh air would do you some good right about now, don't you think so?"

I frowned but nodded nonetheless in hopes that it would help against the dizziness. I let him help me walk by leaning on his shoulder. Outside we found a bench to sit on and luckily no one else was there. At that point all I wanted was to be alone so that I could drown in my own despicable mess.

"I think I've fucked up." I admitted to no one in particular. I just had to vent some of my distress and unfortunately Kiba was the one there to listen to it. Without intending to, I had said some pure bullshit to Naruto and I was scared it would be the end of our strange relationship, if you could even call it that. My breathing came out ragged, the anxiousness I felt so overwhelming to the point it felt like I would choke.

Kiba kept a hand on my back stroking it lightly. The action made my skin crawl, but I was so focused on trying to breathe that I couldn't tell him to remove it. "You should try to calm down Sasuke. It will make breathing much easier." Kiba offered his word of advice which I dismissed with a mental eye roll. No shit, that was exactly what I was trying to do but it was easier said than done.

"Can you tell me what's wrong?"

I shook my head no and gathered as much air as I could and replied. "Shouldn't you go be with your girlfriend?" I asked him, hoping he would leave me alone to delve in my own sorrow.

"Ah…" Kiba appeared thoughtful. "I'm, I mean we're not… uhm, together, anymore... I'm kind of interested in someone else anyhow." He gave me a weird look, an expression of which I couldn't read and then averted his eyes. The silence that lingered was uncomfortable but I was clueless of what to say so I remained silent, lost in my own thoughts. By that time I had finally managed to calm down and the world stopped spinning as violently.

"Sometimes I wish feelings weren't that complicated, you know what I'm talking 'bout right?" Kiba eventually barked out, causing me to slightly jump as I wasn't prepared of his sudden outburst.

"Yeah…" I found myself agreeing and gave him an apprehensive smile. If Naruto's and my relationship had been less complicated perhaps I wouldn't had said those things to him. After all they weren't true, or they were, but I was willing to accept it if only that meant I could be with him. In my small world, Naruto was the only one to keep me sane. If given the chance I would have taken back the things I had said and just kept my mouth shut. But I couldn't… It was too late.

"One should just stop caring, right?" Kiba said and let out a loud sigh. Once again I agreed. He threw me a look full of frustration and I couldn't help but to meet his eyes. We remained in silence, just staring into each other's eyes and then it happened. Kiba leaned towards me and I didn't push him away. Our lips collided in a chaste kiss, but a kiss nonetheless.

A flash of Naruto played on the back of my eyes and I realized what I was doing. Kiba was just about to put his hand on my cheek when I swatted it away and broke the kiss. I stared wide eyed into his eyes, shocked by my own actions. I liked Naruto not Kiba. He was merely a friend.

The tension could be cut by a knife as neither of us knew what to say but then suddenly there was a loud boom, earning both our attention. My head shot in the direction of the loud noise and I noticed Sakura standing on the porch, her face twisted into something between a grin and look of surprise.

"SAKE! I BEN LOOKIN YOU ALL NIGHT! C'MON WE 'BOUT TO INITIATE ZE 'CUZZI! STOP BEN SUCH DRAG! PAAAARTY! WOOOOHHH!"

Wtf...

tbc


AN: I think Sakura meant to say "Sasuke, I've been looking for you all night. Come on, we're about to initiate the jacuzzi! Stop being such a drag." but I'm not sure... hmm...

As Always, to both my readers and reviewers, thank you so much for your support! Reading your reviews make me all fuzzy inside! o/w/o I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know I did writing it! *cough notice I made it longer cough* xD Please let me know what you think? :heart: