AN: Ok, so I'm afraid I won't be faithful for a while. The next 6 weeks are going to be crazy busy for me, so I might not get much time to update at all. The weekly updates will have to be on a hiatus. After that, however, I should be back on track and have loaaads of time. Thanks for your patience and thank you so much for your reviews and support. I love you guys! :D

Red Storm

Chapter 10: Confrontations

"The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages."

~Virginia Woolf

Naruto chewed on his lip as he sat on the swing, swaying ever so slightly. A gentle breeze swept through the park and the scent of summer flowers drifted from a nearby garden. Naruto breathed in, inhaling the sweet scent. He didn't care that he was too old for this park. He loved it here. It was the place he came to for practicing football, but more importantly, it was the place he came to when he needed to get his head together. He glanced at the black strap watch on his wrist. Sakura would be here any minute. Naruto wasn't even sure what he was going to say. His head still ached and the boss had been kind enough to let him off early. He'd called Sakura, but he hadn't planned for the girl to actually agree to meet him after he'd been such an asshole. Naruto kicked at the soft pieces of bark that covered the ground and watched as they scattered like grass in the wind.

"So, what's this all about, Naruto?" said a voice from behind him.

Naruto shot off the swing and turned round, plastering a nervous smile on his face. "Sakura, I didn't realize you were here already."

Before him stood a rather miffed looking girl, arms folded and brow raised. She let out a small huff of frustration from her pink-glossed lips and fixed him with a glare. "You seem to have a habit of not noticing me lately."

The smile faded from Naruto's face. "I know, Sakura. I'm really sorry." He rubbed the back of his head. "I've been a class 1 a-hole recently."

Sakura's expression softened and she shrugged. "I know you don't mean it. You're just a bit clueless, Uzumaki."

More than you know, thought Naruto, cringing inwardly.

Naruto licked his lips. They felt strangely dry, as did his throat. He swallowed. "That's why, uh, that's why I wanted to talk to you."

Sakura pursed her lips. "If this is about giving you another chance…" she began.

"It's not." interrupted Naruto and Sakura stopped, blinking in surprise.

"The thing is, Sakura." Naruto took a deep breath. "I've been pushing you all this time, haven't I?"

Sakura looked away for a moment and tightened her folded arms. "I… don't know what you mean."

Naruto fiddled with the chain on the swing, making it clink softly. "You don't have to be nice. I know you were never sure about dating me, and I know…you're still into Sasuke."

He almost stuttered as he said the name, but thankfully Sakura didn't notice, her cheeks flushing at the very mention of him.

Naruto forged on. "It's just, I realized recently that I've been pushing you to go out with me and make me happy, but in the end, I wasn't really thinking about whether it would make you happy. I mean, I thought it would, but…it just seems like every time I make things worse."

Sakura furrowed her brow. She had that look on her face, a look of sympathy mixed with guilt that said she agreed with every word he was saying, yet she bit her lip not giving voice to the cruel words. So, Naruto swallowed his pride and did what he always should have done. He voiced them for her.

"You never really wanted to be with me. I pushed you into it, and I shouldn't have. I realized that I was just trying to get the perfect life, and I guess you were part of it. You always seemed like the perfect girl to me." He shot her a rueful grin, before sighing and leaning his cheek against the cold chain.

"I'm sorry, Sakura."

Sakura stepped forward, not meeting his eyes and wrapped her fingers around the chain of the swing. "Naruto," she said, looking up at him, "That just might be the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me."

She leaned forward and planted a feather-light kiss on Naruto's lips. The blond teen stood still in utter shock.

"Thank you." she said, pulling away with a gentle smile. "You have always been a really good friend, and I'm glad we still can be."

Naruto let out a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head, returning the smile. "Me too. I guess this means we go back to things the way they used to be."

He laughed. "Except this time I won't be hounding you for dates."

Sakura grinned and walked past Naruto sitting down on one of the swings. "That's going to be so much less awkward."

Naruto sank down onto his own swing and kicked himself off the ground, sending himself back and then soaring forward into the air. "Yeah," he said with a grin. "I guess it will."

Sakura let out a small laugh and followed his lead, swinging into the air, the breeze catching her hair as it flew out behind her, and Naruto closed his eyes with a grin as he flew upwards towards the blue sky.

Suddenly the world felt a lot brighter.

When he made his way home that night Naruto couldn't help feeling an odd sense of wonder at how much better he felt. He and Sakura had chatted for hours, more relaxed together than they had ever been, and it was only now he realized how much he'd been messing things up between them for so long. After a late dinner and watching some TV with Iruka, which had also been oddly relaxed (maybe it was him who'd been uptight for so long?), Naruto sank gratefully into his fluffy pillows and pulled his warm, cozy sheets over him. He turned off his bedside lamp and closed his eyes. He would feel so perfectly relaxed, but for one anxious thought gnawing at his gut. That night at the party…

As if sensing his thoughts, the phone on his nightstand vibrated, juddering across the smooth wooden surface, and the teen grabbed it. The black screen read the name 'Sasuke Uchiha' in glowing white letters. Opening his nightstand drawer, Naruto threw the phone inside as if it were a burning hot coal, the buzzing of the phone continued, only muffled slightly by its wooden casing before it eventually stopped. Naruto bit his lip as he stared at the nightstand in the darkness. He knew he was being a coward, but he couldn't, not right now, not when things were going so well. Sasuke…confused him, and he needed to think. He settled back onto the pillow, his brows drawn together and his stomach in knots. Sasuke was his best friend, but he was a guy. This sort of thing didn't happen to normal people. Naruto sighed, forcing his eyes closed and tried to relax his tired brain.

It didn't matter, he told himself. They'd been drunk. It had probably all just been a drunken prank anyway. When he talked to Sasuke next week it would be like nothing had ever happened. Yeah.

He soon drifted away despite the anxious thoughts dashing around his mind and the hangover taking its toll pulled him deep into slumber.

"Did you did you not accept drugs from Orochimaru?"

His dry throat made it difficult to swallow, but swallow Naruto did as he sat in the uncomfortable wooden chair. He was tucked away in the witness dock, surrounded on all four sides by low wooden walls like a mini fortress, yet he had never felt more exposed and vulnerable than this moment, facing the man in the gray suit. The lawyer smoothed down his red tie though it hardly needed adjusting, tied in a perfect Windsor knot, and he glanced smugly around the courtroom before looking at Naruto again, his lips curved in a mocking smile.

"Well?" he said, "Answer the question, Mr. Uzumaki. Did you willingly accept drugs from my client?"

Every single person's eyes were fixed on Naruto, a sea of stern faces, and the court room was so silent that Naruto could hear his own breathing.

"I did." He said in a quiet voice. He tried not to look at the seat, the seat that held that man, that man he knew was watching him. He could feel those yellow eyes raking over him. It made his skin crawl.

"And you claim," continued the lawyer, "that you also ran errands for my client in exchange for payment?"

"I-I didn't want to. I didn't know that I was delivering dru-" started Naruto.

The lawyer raised his hand, stopping him mid-sentence. "Yes or no, please, Mr. Uzumaki."

Naruto clenched his fists, hidden below the wooden screen of the dock. "Yes."

The lawyer stepped closer to him, putting one hand on the edge of the dock and fixed Naruto with an accusatory glare. "And isn't it true," he said in a voice, calm and deadly, "that you offered your body to my client while on those drugs."

Naruto glared at the man. "No, I didn't."

The lawyer raised a disbelieving brow. "You said before to the defense that he raped you, is that right?"

Naruto took a deep breath. "Yes, that's right."

"Yet, wasn't it that you agreed to continue paying for those drugs, not with money, but with your body?"

Naruto gritted his teeth. "No, I was only delivering in exchange for drugs. He threatened my frie-"

The lawyer interrupted again, "So you admit that you agreed to deliver illegal substances in exchange for drugs?"

Naruto stopped. "No, I…I mean yes, I mean, I don't know." He put a hand to his head. It was beginning to ache. He'd done it to save his friends, hadn't he? Or had he done it for the drugs?

The lawyer smiled. "For someone who is so certain of my client's guilt, you don't seem to be very straight with your own facts, Mr. Uzumaki." He faced the courtroom. "I am sure we all feel badly for Mr. Uzumaki. He has come from a broken home and led a difficult life, but honestly, how can a drug-addicted, clearly troubled teen possibly serve as a reputable witness against my client when he cannot even tell his own story straight?" He turned to face Naruto again, a smug smile on his face. "I think that perhaps you've taken many different kinds of drugs in your lifespan, Mr. Uzumaki. It seems they've induced enough hallucinations and paranoia for you to build your very own fantasy world. It's understandable that you want attention after a neglected childhood, but jumping on the bandwagon in trying to besmirch my client's reputation is not the way to achieve it."

Naruto stood up, hot rage pounding through his head. He was NOT a drug addict and he was NOT a liar. He pointed at the seat that held Orochimaru and glared at the lawyer.

"That man tricked me, blackmailed me, tortured me and raped me! I'm not an attention-seeking brat. I'm telling the truth!"

"Order! Order!" said the judge slamming his hammer on the table. "Any more outbursts, Mr. Uzumaki and you'll be put in contempt."

Naruto swallowed and sat down. "I'm sorry, your honor."

The judge nodded, folding his hands into the sleeves of his black robes. "The prosecution may continue."

"Thank you, your honor." The prosecution lawyer said, an oily smile coating his face and once again smoothed his red tie. "Mr. Uzumaki, isn't it true that you have a perversion towards men?"

Naruto's mouth dropped open. "What?"

The man's smirk seemed to widen and his eyes flashed red before turning back to their blue-gray. "You have perverted feelings towards your best friend, don't you, Naruto?"

Naruto's breathing quickened, and he clenched his palms as they began to sweat. "I don't see what this has to do with-"

"So you don't deny it?" said the lawyer, "You don't deny that you're a twisted freak of nature who allowed a man to touch you and be intimate with you, and now you want to be with another man."

A feeling of deep, dark dread sank heavily on Naruto. What was this? He glanced around the courtroom, and the sea of faces didn't have faces at all. They were all frightening blank flesh canvases, yet he could see them leaning towards each other, hear them whispering, a rustling sound of contempt that swept through the courtroom.

"Freak. Freak. Freak. The boy is a freak." the voices said, murmuring it like a revelation.

And that was when Naruto finally looked at that seat, the seat that held the man, and he froze as he realized it was empty. He jumped and gave a yell as the lawyer grabbed his arms and held them down, trapping them on the edge of the dock.

"You're a freak, Mr. Uzumaki." said the lawyer, looking straight into his eyes, and they glowed blood red. "A perverted freak, Just. Like. Him."

Tears pricked Naruto's eyes and his body shook as cold fingers wrapped themselves around his neck and a pair of lips brushed the shell of his ear.

"Just like me." Orochimaru whispered in a low hiss.

And a warm tongue slicked over Naruto's ear. He tried to turn his head, but he couldn't move.

"No." he whispered. "I'm not like you. I'm not."

The spidery fingers began to undo the buttons on his shirt. "You're a freak." continued the voice, and the courtroom faded into blackness, leaving Naruto alone with the terrifying man, that he still couldn't see, only feel in the darkness.

"A twisted perversion of nature."

"No." said Naruto, shaking his head. "I'm not. I'm not."

He began to struggle in the man's grip, but the fingers tightened around his throat and he choked as the voices surrounded him.

Freak, freak, freak.

The faces of the courtroom had returned, but each one now set with a pair of glowing red eyes. They continued the chant. Freak, freak, freak.

"No!" shouted Naruto as the man's fingers began to pull off his shirt.

"NO!"

Naruto shot up in bed with a yell. It was pitch black and his heart hammered against his chest. Clammy sweat clung to his body and he looked around in the darkness, part of his mind still stuck inside the dream, and he half-expected to see red eyes staring back at him, but the strange reality quickly faded and he sat still for a while as he tried to slow his breathing. He pulled at the sheets which had managed to wrap themselves around his neck in a tight hold. Man, he could have choked himself with his own sheets. Who knew they could be dangerous? Naruto switched on his light and stared at his sheets

That dream. It had started off as memories of the court case a year ago, and turned into…this. The voices still rung in his head.

Freak, freak, freak.

He shuddered. No, he wasn't like Orochimaru, was he? He wasn't a pervert. Did he actually like Sasuke? Did that make him a freak?

Naruto raked a hand through his hair. Normal people didn't like someone of the same sex. Normal people didn't have weird feelings for their best friend. He didn't want this.

He turned over, flopping onto the pillow and burying his face into it.

This was all Sasuke's fault for kissing him and confusing him. He didn't fucking want this. They weren't real feelings. They weren't real. He was not a freak.

It had been a weekend of pure torture for one Sasuke Uchiha. He shot evil death glares at every person he passed in the hallway, not a single one of them was his blond friend. In fact, Naruto seemed to have developed ninja skills in avoiding him. He'd gone to Naruto's work. Not there. He'd gone to Naruto's house. Not there. He'd called him several times. No answer. He hadn't even had time to scour the underbelly of Konoha that weekend, too preoccupied with trying to see his friend. He wasn't sure now if he was going to even try to make up with him when he saw him or just strangle the guy. It was lunch break on a Monday and Naruto still hadn't shown. Surely, he'd have to be in the cafeteria right? But no, he hadn't joined them, and now Sasuke was being reduced to hunting through the hallways for him. He gritted his teeth. Stupid idiot.

That was when he saw it - a flash of blond hair. The head turned and two wide blue eyes widened in fear before the teen turned and dashed down the hallways. Sasuke let out a frustrated sigh before giving chase. He pushed past the people blocking his way receiving a few disgruntled yells in return. Why did all the students have to hang out in the hallways now? Shouldn't they be outside or eating lunch? Now it seemed every single one of them was hell bent on stopping him from reaching his target. But nothing would stop him today. Sasuke rounded the corner, the other teen disappearing around the next and he could hear the tapping sound of Naruto's foosteps as he ran down a flight of stairs. Sasuke broke into a run and followed the sound of those footsteps as he went down the same stairs before arriving in another irritatingly crowded hallway, but he pushed through before arriving in a quieter side corridor. The main stream of bodies rushed through the hallway behind him, chattering and laughing, completely unaware, and Sasuke stopped, gathering his thoughts and looking down the quiet, linoleum-colored corridor. A few students drifted through, but not a single blond hair could be seen. Sasuke scanned the area feeling much like a hunter. His prey? That stupid moron. No way he could get away from him. Sasuke smirked as his eyes landed on the oh-so-obvious door, the door with the shape of a black stick figure man affixed to it and the words 'Men' written underneath. Naruto would have to get up earlier to outsmart an Uchiha.

Naruto turned off the tap, his face dripping from the cold water he had splashed on it and grabbed a paper towel, wiping his face dry with the rough paper. That had been close. He stared at his reflection.

You're a coward, he thought to himself.

Sure, he knew he couldn't run forever, but he'd panicked when he saw the Uchiha's dark eyes staring a hole in his head.

The door to the bathroom swung open and Naruto turned to see none other than that Sasuke Uchiha stalk into the bathroom, his face the picture of anger.

"S-sasuke, what a surprise." said Naruto, the lie sounding ridiculous from his stuttering lips and he backed away against the wall as Sasuke came up to him.

"Surprise, my ass, Uzumaki." said Sasuke, grabbing Naruto by the shirt collar. "Just how long do you plan on avoiding me?"

Naruto tried a nervous smile. "Avoiding? Haha. W-who's avoiding?"

Sasuke let go of him and gave him a flat look.

Naruto sighed. "Ok, so I was avoiding you, but that's just cos I knew it was going to be awkward after…well, you know." He trailed off, looking anywhere but at the boy who glowered in front of him. Sasuke was the same height as Naruto, but he seemed bigger than usual somehow.

"After I kissed you." finished Sasuke for him.

Naruto almost choked, waving his hands in front of him. "Ah well, uh, that is, yeah, I…"

Sasuke folded his arms and said nothing, just watching him flounder. Heat crept up Naruto's cheeks and he was sure his face was going to melt from sheer embarrassment. He finally stopped stuttering useless words into the silence and dropped his arms. He sighed and met Sasuke's gaze. "Look, don't worry, Sasuke. We were both drunk and stuff. It's not a big deal. It's already forgotten, ok? I won't bring it up again. We can go on as normal."

Something flashed in Sasuke's dark eyes and a muscle twitched in his jaw. "What if I don't want to continue on as normal?"

Naruto could practically feel his eyes bulging in their sockets. "W-what?" He gave a nervous laugh and rubbed the back of his head. "But you were drunk. You were just joking, right?"

Sasuke looked away and glared at the wall. It looked like he was trying to burn a hole through it. "Do you think I'd kiss a guy for a joke?" He turned his gaze back to Naruto, those intense jet black eyes on him. "I meant every word I said. I like you, Naruto." He let out a frustrated sigh. "Although I can't figure the hell out why."

Naruto didn't say anything. He couldn't. His brain seemed to have crashed and burned. If he was a Windows PC right now he'd be showing the blue screen of death. All he could do was stare at Sasuke. This couldn't be true. This was all some weird kind of joke. Sasuke was playing a joke on him. That was the one thought he'd been clinging onto since the party, that none of this could be true. It would be his out. He could relax, but Sasuke looked dead serious as he stared at him, tapping his foot on the ground, arms still tightly folded, and his brows were knitted together waiting for some kind of answer. Was he…nervous?

"It's…it's a joke, right? Please tell me it's a joke." blurted out Naruto in his brain-fried state. He instantly regretted it as he saw hurt flash through Sasuke's eyes, but he wanted, no needed it to be true.

"What will it take for me to prove to you that I'm serious?" asked Sasuke in a quiet voice.

Naruto just shook his head. Did he want it to be true? If it wasn't a joke, that meant Sasuke really did like him, and then what? He flinched as Sasuke took a step towards him, trapping him between the wall and his own warm body. He put his hands up on either side of Naruto's head. Sasuke was looking intensely into Naruto's own eyes, his gaze only flicking from one eye to the other as if he was trying to psychically transfer his own thoughts into Naruto's mind.

"I'll do whatever it takes, Naruto." he said. Then, before Naruto could process what was going on, he leaned forward and pressed his soft, smooth lips onto Naruto's own. Naruto stood still in shock as the mouth covered his. He could smell Sasuke's cool aftershave scent, feel Sasuke's breath on his skin and the other teen's hair tickled his face. The one thought that went through his stupefied brain was how different it felt to Sakura's own sticky, feminine kiss, how much stronger, and sparks of electricity flew through his stomach, his own lips responding automatically to the mouth that was massaging them. He gripped the slippery surface of the tiles behind him, leaning back, but Sasuke only pushed forward, deepening the kiss, and that was when one petrifying thought called out in the recesses of Naruto's mind.

This feels right.

And Naruto stiffened. He felt Sasuke hesitate in the kiss, his dark eyes flickering open to meet Naruto's terrified blue before Naruto shoved him away as hard as he could.

"I…can't." he managed to choke out before dashing out of the bathroom and slamming open the door out into the hallway and back into the crowd of students who didn't have a clue what had just occurred in the nearby restrooms.

An unnoticed figure watched from a crack in the gray bathroom stall as the usually emotionless Sasuke Uchiha just stood there, staring after the boy that had just left. The teen let out a deep sigh before following after his friend with slow, heavy steps. The door banged shut a second time as he exited, and the boy in the stall finally let out the breath he had been holding. He pulled out his red touch phone, and began tapping the virtual keys - lightning fast from years of practice. Sai smiled widely. Now this was some gossip worth spreading.