Warning: its yaoi

Disclaimer: I only own this plot, masashi kishimoto owns the rest.


As dawn broke Naruto's sobs turned into short hiccups. Even if he wanted to cry more, he couldn't. No more tears would come out. He had cried that much.

Sasuke had not left Naruto even though he couldn't come inside. He had stayed the whole night and listened to his dobe's sobs. Sasuke couldn't look Naruto in the eyes as he was too ashamed with himself to. His face was contorted with pain. He knew that it was he himself who had hurt Naruto.

"How do I make it up to you?" Sasuke wondered.


Soon even the hiccups disappeared and Naruto began to speak. "Forget what I said earlier. Forget about last night."

"I can't do that."

"You have to. If you don't then everything between us will be awkward. You're probably disgusted with me anyways."

"Why would I be?"

"Dammit Sasuke! It's because I told you that I love you!"

"Hn." Sasuke answered in a what-is-your-point tone.

Naruto could tell that's what his 'Hn' meant so he continued on to explain. "That means that we can't just be friends. We can't go back to the way it was."

"What if I don't want to?" Sasuke pointed out.

"W-what?"

"You love me and I love you. We can be together, dobe."

"No, you're lying. You could never love me. You even call me dobe. I'm disgusting. I'm a monster," Naruto responded as he gripped the side of his head, covering his ears, and squeezed his eyes shut.

Sasuke was angry at Naruto's response and used his sharingan to get inside the house; he needed to be closer to Naruto. As soon as he could he embraced Naruto in a hug. This startled Naruto and made him look at Sasuke.

"That's not true dobe. At first I called you dobe to insult you but now and for a long time it's been my term of affection for you."

Naruto didn't answer; he just stared at Sasuke, disbelief visible in his cerulean eyes.

So Sasuke continued, "You're not a monster. You're not disgusting. I will never ever think of you that way and I won't let you think of yourself that way again."

"But-" Naruto protested. "I had a man who I never loved inside of me," he thought.

"You aren't disgusting. Orochimaru is the disgusting pervert and he deserved a worse death than what I gave him. The villagers are wrong, anybody who calls you a monster or a demon is wrong. You are you. You are my light, you brought me out of the darkness, you are the one who captured my heart."

Naruto was silent for a moment, dumbfounded by Sasuke's response. Ever so softly he whispered, "Really?"

"Hn."

Naruto was silent for a while, deep in thought.

Then he protested again, "It doesn't matter if we love each other. The council will never allow it, hell the village won't allow it. You have to make little sharingan users for them and you can't have it if you're with me. And I won't let them shun you for being with me either."

"Who cares what the village says? It's my life and if I want to live it with you then I will."

"No! I won't have it. You don't know how cruel the village can be. You don't! I won't get into a relationship with you and make you suffer. I won't," Naruto declared, he was serious. They were both standing and staring each other down by now.

"I don't care if they shun me I want you."

"You will care once they do. It will hurt more because they have been praising you all this time and have been saying that you are the pride of Konoha. You have never seen a glimpse of how terrible it can be if they make you an outcast."

"So what?"

"So what? So what?! You don't understand anything at all do you?! You've always had higher than average treatment; you don't know what they'll do to you. I have lived it my whole life and I'm still not used to it."

Sasuke stood silent as Naruto continued.

"Did you know that I actually hate the color orange? The only reason I wore orange was because no store would give me anything else. They all hoped that I would die on a mission because of that noticeable, grotesque orange."

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at the revelation, Naruto had always hated the color orange but he had to because of the villagers. His hands tightened into a fist as he was angry of what the villagers had done to him and angry because he knew that this was only a small, minor detail of their hatred and torture to him.


"We can't be lovers anyways. I don't trust you enough. I don't want to go through that much pain just because I'm in love with you. I wish I didn't love you."

A pang went through both of their hearts as they realized what Naruto had just said.

"Dobe…" a saddened voice whispered, but loud enough for the other to hear.

"I mean you hurt me so much. You left the village, you said you didn't kill me because of damn Itachi, you told me that I had no power that I just had it because of a demon inside of me, you hurt me many more times after that. You still hurt me and bring me pain. B-but when you're not around I feel lonely. I treasure all the good times we had, the time when you saved me from Haku, our times in our missions, when we sparred, when you treated me to ramen- Kami! I don't know what I should be feeling or say. Should I hate you and push you away or should I forgive you and stay with you forever. I want to but I can't. Uggh! I don't know anymore. You mix me up," Naruto rambled.

For a while, one could only hear silence.


Finally, Sasuke spoke up, "How about in the middle?"

"Huh? What do you mean 'in the middle'?"

"Don't hate me and avoid me, neither of us would be happy. I don't want to hurt you either and I want your full trust if we become lovers. So, lets be friends."

"W-what?" Naruto sputtered in response. (1)

"Hn."

"That wasn't an answer."

Sasuke shrugged whatever in response.

Naruto groaned, "You really must have a stick up your ass."

Sasuke raised his eyebrow, not wanting to reveal anything that he was thinking. He was waiting in anticipation and worry of Naruto's response because even though he really wanted to be lovers with Naruto, he would rather be a friend than have his dobe hate him.

"Oh hell with all of this. Fine, I'll be friends with you," Naruto muttered.

Naruto glared at him. How could he be smirking like that? It made his blood boil. "What are you smirking about asshole?"

"No reason."

"There is definitely a reason teme!"

"Hn."

"Don't just 'hn' me!"

Internally, Sasuke was so relieved to be able to be close to Naruto that he wanted to smile a big goofy grin but since he was an Uchiha he would never do that on the outside.


All of a sudden, a mischievous grin plastered Naruto's face in forewarning.

"Why do I get the feeling that he's going to tell me something that I'm going to protest about?" Sasuke wondered.

"Ne, Sasuke?" Naruto cooed.

"What usaratonkachi?"

Naruto ignored the moron comment and continued, "You're going to treat me to ramen, right?"

"Why would I?"

"Because we need to celebrate our renewed friendship."

"Hn. Why don't you pay?" Sasuke asked, he could already feel his wallet emptying.

"Because you offered yesterday."

Sasuke groaned at his realization that Naruto was telling the truth. He regretted his decision to offer Naruto now.

Naruto smirked. "Aren't you taking me Sasuke?" he teased.

"Fine, let's go," Sasuke muttered as he turned around and started heading to the village.

"Wait for me!" Naruto hollered behind him, letting out a grin. Pain was still in his eyes (2) Still, they were slightly different. They didn't look so lonely anymore. Maybe a day would come when those eyes looked genuinely happy, without a trace of sadness or pain, even for a moment.

When Naruto wasn't looking, Sasuke let out a small smile. At least they could be friends again. That was good enough for him.


(1) Yeah, Sasuke's way of explaining would confuse me too.

(2) you wouldn't notice unless you looked really closely and knew him really well though.


A/N: Hey is it just me or this sound like the end of the story? Well I assure you that it isn't.

Ok, they accepted being friends again a little to quickly but it had to be done. Again, sorry to anyone annoyed by this.

Next chapter is how the gang reacts to them being friends again. Are they for it? Or against it? What kind of scene will befall the two boys next? Will it be angry, sad, or just make them blush? Stay tuned!

Have any suggestions on how each one should react? Please free feel to tell me. If you also have any other suggestions or ideas or even comments then feel free to review. I really appreciate it. Special thanks to Theia Pallas and animelvr6 for saying that they love my story and encouraging me.

Thank you to my reviewers, readers, followers, and favoriters. Keep it up! I will forever be thankful. :)