(Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! If you're reading, please remember to review! Warnings and disclaimers apply to all chapters. Special thanks goes out to Ruby Love, who originally beta'ed this chapter.)

And the Beat Goes On
Chapter 35: Lacking

The day was bright. The sun was shining. There was a fresh breeze in the air. Spring was there. "At last," was all Naruto could say as he skipped out the door, backpack slung on his back. It was in that fashion that he skipped off to school. It wasn't really spring yet, but it was close enough. The weather was mild, unlike the deep freeze they'd been locked in since mid-December, and now, the snow was actually starting to melt. The water froze overnight though, and Naruto slid over countless ice patches. He didn't mind though. With the blue sky vaulting high overhead, he felt he had nothing to lose. He kept sticking his left hand into his pocket, making sure that Sasuke's present was still tucked there, safe and sound. He didn't want to lose it, especially not after the pains he'd gone through to get the money for it.

"Good morning, Shikamaru!" he cried, as he nearly ran the other boy over in his rush to get into the school building. Shikamaru hadn't bothered moving out of the way. One could never get out of the way of the bouncing orange ball of energy they all called 'Naruto', and it was far too troublesome to try. He muttered some obscenities, and glared at the back of the blond's head, but that was all he did. Effort was overrated.

Naruto was glad they didn't have band practice that morning. He knew Iruka had wanted to set an extra practice up, but Naruto had finally convinced him that Mondays weren't good attendance days anyway. Iruka had sighed, and agreed. Still, the brunet teacher had threatened, there were going to be extra practices. The big competition, and their performance night, was quickly approaching.

"Good morning, Hinata!" he called to the girl as he passed her by. He flashed the biggest grin he could muster, and watched in amusement as she went red and stumbled all over any semblance of a greeting.

By the time she sorted herself out, he was long gone. Naruto continued on in this fashion, calling out to random people he knew, simply because he was in such a good mood. He finally reached his destination, and then, his smile seemed a thousand watts brighter.

He fumbled with Sasuke's present in his pocket. His fingers tripped all over it, as if they did not want to pick it up. He was nervous. He'd been thinking about this moment all last night, and he had a sick feeling in his stomach that Sasuke was simply going to hate what he'd bought him.

Still, how was that any different than what Sasuke went through with the fan girls? They bought him things he hated, or did not want, time after time, and then, he threw them away. It didn't really matter in the long run. But Naruto didn't want to be like the fan girls.

"Good morning, Sasuke!" he called, waving at the other boy, showing no outward sign of nervousness.

The dark-haired boy grunted, and turned back to his locker. The text books were on a rampage that morning, and seemingly, were out for his blood. They'd already hit him in the head once. Naruto ponced over to him, still grinning brightly. He held out his hands, offering Sasuke the small box. "Happy very belated Valentine's," he said.

Sasuke eyed the box warily, then plucked it from Naruto's grasp. "It had better not be anything stupid," he muttered, and proceeded to untie the ribbon.

Naruto waited. He bit his lip, and rubbed his palms together, in an effort to get the sweat off of them. He hoped Sasuke liked this. He really did. It had been a real hassle to get it. Sasuke was more concerned with getting the infernal ribbon off of his fingers, however.

The dark-haired boy opened the box, and was not surprised at its content. After all, what else would Naruto hand to him in a ring box? He pulled the plain gold band out of the box, and inspected it.

It was plain. There was nothing more to it. There was no inscription, no engraving, nothing. He didn't make any comment. He would have thought that Naruto would have had something tacky engraved on it.

He tried sliding it onto his ring finger, but it simply fell right back off. It clattered onto the floor, and both he and Naruto looked at it for a moment.

"Do you like it?" Naruto asked, not taking his eyes off the thing on the floor.

"I suppose," Sasuke replied. "How did you get them to size it though? It's a little big."

Naruto frowned, watching as Sasuke picked it up, and then put it on his index finger. "I had them use my finger."

"Oh," the other boy muttered. "That explains everything."

He took it off and put it back in the ring box. "Do you not like it?" Naruto asked.

"I like it," Sasuke said, without any enthusiasm. "It just doesn't fit. I don't want to lose it."

"Oh," Naruto replied, and watched as Sasuke snapped the box shut and put it inside his locker.

The dark-haired boy picked up on the hurt, almost insulted, tone in Naruto's voice, and quickly, briefly, gave Naruto a hug, which seemed more to be a pat on the back. "Thanks," he said, quickly.

Naruto shrugged off the curtness of the hug, and the sharpness of the words. It was just Sasuke, and that was all it could be summed up to. The older boy gave a sort of cough, and turned away. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You okay?"

"Fine," the other replied.

The bell rang, loudly in their ears. Naruto smiled, briefly at Sasuke. "Well," he said.

"I'm going to class," Sasuke replied, shortly, grabbing his text book out of his locker. "I'll talk to you later."

He slammed his locker shut, and walked off down the hall. Naruto tried to shrug it off, but he couldn't help but feel Sasuke was being a jerk. He turned about and went to class. There was no use brewing over things.

He'd find out what was bothering Sasuke sooner or later.

- - - - - - - - - -

Itachi didn't want to be there, sitting in the classroom, with the teacher droning on and on like he was. He didn't want to be there, with all those confusing words, numbers and figures in front of him. The sheet was intimidating to a point, staring back blankly like it was. He wanted to tear it up, so that it couldn't look at him like that.

He didn't want to be there, with Orochimaru poking him every so often, to make sure he wasn't nodding off, to make sure he was still coherent and there in their world. Itachi wanted to snap his fingers in half, but he knew that even that wouldn't deter Orochimaru, the most persistent of pests.

"Fuck off," he hissed at last.

The teacher glanced in his direction, and he almost flipped him the bird. He didn't want to be tampered with. Instead, he bared his teeth in a rather nasty grin. The teacher ignored him and went on teaching.

His fingers itched and he wanted to be home, locked in his room. Orochimaru poked him yet again. He grit his teeth. He was so close to snapping, it wasn't funny. It wasn't going to be a pretty sight either. There was going to be blood everywhere. . .

He heaved a sigh, and tried to calm his frazzled nerves. There was no point in being all worked up like this. Sure, his head hurt and his body ached, but all he was doing was making his woes worse. It was most likely that his pains were more imaginary than real anyways.
If Orochimaru poked him one more time, he was going to tear him limb from limb, cut out his entrails and make soup out of them.

He felt sick. The world was that much out of his control now. The blackboard was slightly fuzzy around the edges, getting worse with each passing second. It was like looking at everything through a frosted window.

Orochimaru was still poking him. Why did he bother to waste his effort in making threats he wouldn't fulfill? If he'd been that determined to go through with his plans, Orochimaru would be fingerless, dead, and soup by now. He was none of these three.

And now, the teacher had just asked him the answer to the question. Maybe, if he'd heard the question, he could have told him the answer. Maybe, if he had been listening. Maybe if he hadn't been so concerned with ripping Orochimaru to shreds.

And pride made him stumble now, and fumble now, because he hadn't been listening, but he didn't want to admit his mistake. He was Uchiha Itachi. He wasn't supposed to make mistakes. He was supposed to be perfect. He was the heir, the genius. Sasuke might have screwed up and stumbled, but he shouldn't have. Sasuke had always had that liberty. Nobody cared what he did. Everybody cared what Itachi did.

It had become an internal force, knowing that he could never let anybody know if he messed up. It pressed on him wherever he went, always pressing down, harder and harder, squeezing so tightly until he couldn't dare breathe lest he fuck it all up. It hurt. It did, and he was so scared of doing anything that would make everything fall to pieces. He would just mess it up, and then, everybody would be scrutinizing and saying, in their whining, grating voices, "Are you sure he's meant to be the head of the family?"

He never had a moment's peace from it, and he'd had the need to be perfect forced into him with everything he did, everything he said. It had become second nature. And now, long after his parents were dead, now that he was head of the family, and his relatives were all gone, he still needed to be perfect. He needed to be perfect, because if he wasn't then he'd hate himself, and hate himself until he hurt himself, because he could never, ever right his wrongs.

The teacher was still waiting, and so was everyone else now. They had swivelled around in their seats, and they were staring at him, waiting, with bated breaths. Uchiha Itachi was never wrong. What was taking him so long to answer? If he didn't understand the question, none of them would. They could never hope to match wits with a genius like that.

"I. . ."

Here it came. Everyone listened hard. The entire room shifted, so that they were all leaning toward him, as if he was the core of their very universe.

"I don't know."
The teacher looked stern, and the students looked as if they were going to die. He'd said he didn't know! How could any of them possibly hope to know?

"Were you listening?" the teacher asked, and his voice was stern, clearly disappointed.

Itachi looked down, away. "No, Sir."

There. The bomb had been let off, and now, the world as he knew it was about to fall to pieces again. He just wanted to go home. He didn't care about this. He didn't care about the question. He just wanted to go home and pump drugs into himself, to lose himself in rapture again.

He wanted to forget this; some of the other students laughing a little nervously at him, the teacher looking, and being, so disappointed in him, and Orochimaru's sympathetic look to him. It was like Sasuke's when they were younger and Itachi had done something the adults disapproved of. Then, Sasuke would do something to take the pressure off his older brother, steal the attention away from his idol.

Orochimaru was going to do something stupid, wasn't he? And then, Itachi would be embarrassed to know him. This day kept on the straight and narrow toward hell. What he wouldn't give to be curled up in his room, fast asleep, rocked to sleep by the satisfaction of the drug inside him, pumping, mixing with his blood, making him let go of all his worldly attachments and just exist for a moment or two; for a breath or two.

He put his face to the paper, so that all he could see was white. All he could smell was the scent of photocopy, leaden and disgusting, and he shut his ears to everything, drowning every sound out with his mental dialogue, screaming, over and over to himself, until his inner voice was raw, "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

He wanted to scream himself hoarse. He wanted to tear at his hair. He wanted to give up. He wanted to throw a temper tantrum like a five-year old - something he had never done. It was a little too late for tantrums now.

Today didn't look like his day.

- - - - - - - -

It was almost silent. The only thing that was actually making noise was the ticking of the clock, counting down time. If he tried very hard, he might have been able to make out other sounds. He didn't want to try, though. He was through with trying, and conforming. He was done with expectations.

It was nice. The sun was warm, warmer than it had been in a long time, and the wind was fair. It was a good day to be outside. He wiggled his fingers a bit, and enjoyed the sunshine. He hadn't done that before in his lifetime. It was an exhilarating thing. There was so much he hadn't done before, because of his constraints. He'd always preferred the night, when darkness made it so that no one ever saw what he really was.

He was a freak. No matter what he did, where he went, who he saw, he was still a freak. It was just so natural to him, to be as unnatural as they thought he was. He supposed that maybe that was why he identified himself with Naruto so strongly, though Naruto was really the last person on earth he'd want to be like.

It was true that Gaara didn't like Naruto, but that dislike was born from prejudice. From his mother, from Temari, from the stories they had told, he had developed a sense of dislike for someone he had never met, for someone he didn't know as anymore than a name and a shadow. In those stories, warped by bias and hate, Naruto was always portrayed as something grotesquely wrong and dangerous.

Now that Gaara had met him, he felt he had been almost forced to give up those strong prejudices, but he hadn't yet let go of them entirely. He still wanted to believe that Naruto was unlike himself. He didn't want to let go of the idea that there was something worse than what he was. And still, the truth refused to go away.

Gaara had been a little sorry to let Naruto go. He had wanted to take his half-sibling with him, and together, they could have explored what the world offered two such as themselves: freaks. Together, they could have discovered just what made them so similar. And perhaps they could have come to a conclusion about being freaks. These labels were nothing more than superficial divisions, set up by a society that wanted everything categorized, and hid from anything peculiar.

Gaara had travelled out of the city that night, far out of all the cities, almost beyond civilization itself, into the wilderness. He was out in the country, living out of his suitcase, or rather, his backpack. He had no money, and he stole food, and begged for money on the doorsteps of the poor farmers. Most had turned him away, but some had offered him a meal, or a hot bath, or a place to sleep that night. It was strange, to see that these folk, who had only modest things, would offer up what they did have. City people had more, and more, and never shared. The greed in the cities was so thick, you could choke on it.

For the most part, Gaara slept in a makeshift tent, and wore the same clothes everyday. He didn't mind. It was better to be dirty, than in the pristine chains of society. Dirt was natural, an element of the earth. His chains had been given to him before he'd even been able to prove himself worthy of them. How was he supposed to break free? He'd never known anything but those shackles. He'd never known movement without his label.

Maybe one day, he'd go back. He doubted it though. He saw no point in going back. To the casual observer, the materialist, the sort of existence he was leading now was pointless. He didn't think it was so. Sure, he didn't have a lot, but he had more in his head, in his soul (if he had one) than that damn materialistic bastard.

He felt, and knew that he was small compared to the rest of the universe. He looked up at the sky now, and he felt that there was no rush to do anything. There was nothing that needed to be done. His stomach was full, and he wasn't in danger. By all animal rights, he was allowed to relax.

That was the materialistic, capitalistic societies' problem. They thought time was money, and could be bought and sold, just like any other commodity. They didn't stop to realize that all the tasks they had to do, like some sort of endless cycle, were self-imposed, and as soon as they were fed and safe, they had nothing more to do. No, they'd imposed all these wants and needs that shouldn't have existed in the first place - television, cars, and so on and so forth. People grabbed and scurried, blinded with greed, and rushed unnecessarily by the thought of all the things they had to do, and that time was money, to get what they wanted, and not what they needed. They weren't really living.

They never took the time to appreciate how a day could seem to wear on forever, or how insignificant they really were. They never stopped to feel the wind in their face, the sweet breath of the world that lived all around them. They were detached completely from the world, and life went on outside of them, ignoring them, and leaving them to die petty deaths.

It was romantic, and idealistic, but Gaara didn't care. He didn't want to live like they did in the city, in their so called "civilization". He just wanted to exist. That was enough for him. Right then, he was existed and only he and the sky knew it. The only reason he'd ever go back to the city was for Naruto. He wouldn't stay there long; just long enough for Naruto to get a couple of things and then, they'd go away from that forever. The city held no awe, no wonder for him. Their jagged buildings just cut up the horizon.

He wondered where Naruto would be happiest. In the city, with Uchiha, with all the troubles and pointless drama such a life entailed, or out here, under the sky, with nothing but that sky and the empty, rolling land that seemed to go on forever. If Naruto was anything like him, he'd have to say the blond would be happier out here, with him.

The only thing that inspired any awe in Gaara now was the sky, and how small it made him. The emptiness of the world made him feel as if the world did truly go on forever, as if he would never grow old and die. The hills, they rolled on and on, and the sky kept stretching, as did the forest. The rivers wound their way across that empty expanse, toward the far off sea, which he couldn't even imagine. It was too far removed from this place.

Gaara felt like snorting. He was being stupid, and he knew it. This was just another way of living, and the world didn't go on forever. It ended, but you couldn't fall off of it. The only escape was death, and everyone eventually died. He was in no hurry to die, like those idiots in the city, rushing toward their deaths. He was existing and he was going to enjoy existing. He'd lived like those other idiots too long. Life was too quick, too sudden to bother worrying about the next move, wondering about the future. What good were carefully laid plans when you got shot with a bullet and died of blood loss the next minute? The world made no sense. It was chaotic, and humanity had made a mess of it, turned it into a jumbled puzzle they couldn't solve. Gaara had absolved himself, removed himself from it and gone back to the source, as all things did at their end.

- - - - - - - -

The school day was over at last, and that was all Ino could find to be thankful for. She wasn't thankful that she was still alive, nor that Shikamaru was standing there with Choji, next to her. She was not thankful that Sakura was lurking around in the background, alone and morbid, moping. Nobody talked to her anymore. Ino didn't understand why she continued to hang around.

She was most certainly not thankful that Temari was standing on the other side of the street, leaning against her car. The older girl was waving at her, and Ino glanced at her companions beside her to see if they had noticed her waiting friend. Sakura hadn't, thankfully, as she was too intensely focussed on the ground. Choji hadn't either, as he was too involved with the bag of chips Shikamaru had grudgingly bought him from the vending machine, amid proclamations of everlasting love from the tubby brunet. Shikamaru, however, had indeed noticed.

"Hey, Ino," he said, keeping his voice low, having noticed her wary glance at the group. "Who's that?"

Ino shrugged. "My cousin," she lied, quickly.

Temari was crossing the road now. In her mind, Ino screamed at her, telling her to stay on the other side of the road, where she belonged. Temari might say something, do something that contradicted her lie, and there would be nothing she could do, because Temari was that kind of person. She couldn't be stopped.

"Hello, Sakura dear!" Temari called, waving at the pink-haired girl and rushing by Ino, to take Sakura's hand.

The green-eyed girl was wide-eyed, staring at the blonde woman, who smiled happily at her. "Y-yes?" Sakura stuttered, completely taken aback by this strange woman. She didn't know her, did she?

"Let's get going. I'll explain on the way."

She dragged Sakura off, looking Ino directly in the eye as she passed. Ino was scowling, and she winked cheekily, before practically skipping to her car. Ino stared after her, watching as the two got into the vehicle, and the doors slammed shut. It took off, leaving Ino wretchedly confused and glaring.

"Your cousin, huh?" Shikamaru said, his voice coming from her left, slyly.

"Shut up," Ino growled, turning about and stalking off.
What the hell was Temari up to? She hadn't been using Ino to get to Sakura, had she? Ino couldn't tell. Temari was one of those unpredictable people, someone you could never sort out. She enjoyed playing mind games with Ino.

Ino didn't want to believe she had just been ousted by that ugly duck and her big forehead. It didn't make sense. She was prettier, smarter, stronger - better than Sakura. Why would Temari choose that wimp? Maybe it was because she could bully Sakura more than she could bully Ino?

"Shit," she muttered, and sat down on the front steps of the school, looking at the ground and thinking.

Was there something she had missed about Sakura?

- - - - - - - - - -

Hinata had been aglow all day. It was starting to grate on Kiba's nerves. It wasn't as if he didn't like to see her happy, but it bothered him that she was so happy about such a stupid thing.

So what if Naruto had smiled at her? It had only been in passing, and people like him often said hello and smiled. She didn't get that excited about Kiba smiling at her. It bothered him.

Somehow, although he'd been accepted by her, he hadn't been able to eclipse Naruto. She would still pick Naruto over him any day. It almost hurt, to see her look at him that way, and ignore the way he wanted her. It was a bit like a hopeless love triangle, except that the third side was missing.

She sat there, quietly, poking her fingers together and occasionally, giggling at little bit. There was a small smile on her face, and her cheeks were red. If she had been one of the popular, talkative girls at school, she would have said, "I can't believe he said hi to me!"

Kiba could only be thankful that she didn't. He was glad that she was there, with him, even though it was after school. He'd been looking for an excuse not to go home, and just sitting there was a good enough excuse for him. It wasn't as if anybody at home would care if he was late.

Sitting with them was Kiba's best friend, Shino. Kiba had been sort-of friends, on-again-off again friends, with Shino since they were in preschool. Shino was quiet and reserved, but he was an excellent listener. He was the brains behind everything they did, and Kiba was the brawn. Shino could write and read better than Kiba ever would, and he understood everything he read. He was a real intellectual. Kiba was anything but that. Kiba hated books, and everything that was in them. His part in their odd friendship was getting the materials to the project, putting them together, and then, presenting it to the class. Kiba even had some sort of artistic ability, which Shino claimed he lacked.

Together, they were an almost dynamic force. Shino must have sensed Kiba's agitation, however, for he was sitting almost as far away from him as he possibly could without looking ridiculous. He was apparently just waiting for the explosion. Kiba seriously wondered about Shino sometimes. He'd never even been to the other boy's house. Shino never talked about his family. In fact, Shino rarely talked at all. It was usually Kiba who did all the talking. Kiba never clammed up and Shino never opened up.

Hinata had risen now, and she was saying that she had to go. She said goodbye to Kiba, and to Shino, and then, she was on her way. Shino glanced at Kiba, once the girl was out of earshot.

"What did she do?" he asked, bluntly, in that quiet, calm voice of his.

Fading sunlight glanced off the taller teen's sunglasses. Kiba shrugged. "Naruto said hi to her, and she's been on cloud nine ever since," he grumbled. "It kinda. . .pissed me off, I guess. I dunno."

He sighed and hung his head. Shino said nothing for a moment or two. Then, slowly, he said, "She still likes Naruto then?" He arched an eyebrow.

Kiba kicked at a rock. "Yeah. She likes him more than me, I think."

He sulked a bit, and kept kicking at the random pebbles that littered the ground. The snow had melted off enough to let them be visible again. Shino had stood up now. "I should go," he said, and he didn't even wait for Kiba to say anything back, before he started walking off.

Kiba ignored that. It was just Shino. He was always kind of abrupt. He was a nice guy though. "See ya tomorrow, Shino," he called, turning his back on his friend and heading in the direction of home.

He had to go too, he supposed. He had to go walk Akamaru, and after that, he'd lock himself in his room and sleep. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he departed.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura was horribly confused, even though this Temari had claimed to have explained the entire situation to her.

Temari had said that Sakura's mother had been in a car accident and was now at the hospital. She had explained that she was a friend of her mother's, from work, and her mother had asked her to let Sakura stay the night with her.

Sakura didn't quite understand that. For one, her mother worked at a fairly high-class office, and this girl did not look like she should work there. Secondly, her mother had never mentioned a friend, or a co-worker named Temari. Third, wouldn't someone have called her if her mother was in the hospital?
The entire story seemed fishy and subject to question. Sakura didn't want to believe a word of it, but Temari seemed to be trustworthy.

Something else was bothering her, though, and she remembered, as they drove along, that she had seen Ino with this girl before. She remembered seeing the car in the parking lot before, and Ino getting into the car. She remembered that. Something definitely wasn't adding up here.

She frowned, and was pensive as the highway rolled by her, but she didn't say anything. Temari was in control right now. She had no idea where she currently was, she had read the street signs, but all the names were unfamiliar. Temari was also driving the car, and the only person she even remotely knew at that moment. Temari practically had her life in her hands. She had no choice but to trust her.

The sun had nearly set, when Temari pulled into the parking lot of a run down apartment building. Sakura guessed they were on the other side of town. Temari parked the car and turned it off, before turning to Sakura.

The pink-haired teen didn't look away when the older girl looked at her. "Sakura," the blonde said. "You're a smart girl. I bet you've figured out that I lied to you."

Sakura frowned and nodded. What was this girl's motive? She couldn't understand her. Temari was smiling at her. "So, I guess you want to know the truth."

"How will I know you're telling me the truth?" the younger girl asked. "You've already lied to me once."

Temari smirked. "Good girl. Well, this time, you're just going to have to believe me."

Sakura looked unimpressed. She'd wait to hear the lie before she decided whether or not she wanted to believe it.

Temari was still smiling. "I'm Ino's girlfriend. I'm bored with her, though. She was telling me about you, and I want to know you better."

She played with Sakura's hair a little bit. Sakura frowned. "Ino doesn't like me," she said flatly.

Temari shrugged. "Ino tries to make you sound bad, but it makes me more intrigued. I want you to prove her wrong."

Sakura looked almost scared. She didn't know what Ino had said about her. How could she prove her wrong? Would she be able to prove Ino wrong anyway? What if Ino was right?

"I can't," she choked out, trying to push the older girl away.

"Sure ya can," Temari said reassuringly, patting Sakura's thigh. "Let's go inside now."
She got out of the car, slamming the door shut behind her. Sakura sat in the car for a moment or two longer, unable to decide what to do, and frozen by fear. With a sudden surge of determination, she got out of the car, and slammed the door shut harder than Temari had, resulting in a louder bang.

She was going to prove Ino wrong.

- - - - - - - - - -

Silence pervaded the room, and it invaded every nook, and every cranny. It took up all the space, until there was hardly room to breathe. She hated it when he left her alone. She really did.

TenTen was alone, with nothing to do. There was nothing for her to do. Neji was gone, and she was useless, as far as anyone else was concerned. She was to stay out of the way, out of sight. She was idle and it bothered her. She had nothing to occupy her.

Her empty mind turned to thoughts, and her thoughts quickly turned reflective. She didn't want to think about the things she was thinking about most of the time. She didn't want to wonder about what she was doing there, when she knew perfectly well why she was. She didn't want to think about why she had decided not to abandon her pregnancy. She didn't know the answer to that, and no matter how deeply she searched herself, she could never come up with an answer.

She hated to be idle, because it was then that she thought the most, and felt the most. She felt weary of existence as a whole. What was the point of living when she had nothing to live for? She had no purpose on the earth anymore.

She hated to be alone, because it was in that time when she was by herself, that her fears were allowed to trample her. Her insecurities found her and chewed at her, first by saying, "What if he never comes back?"

Then, she'd spend the time to convince herself that he would come back, and he wouldn't abandon her as she was, but her inner demons always came up with new questions, new reasons as to why he would, why he should. She grew weary and weak from fighting them, and she gave up more than once, feeling the fight was impossible to continue.

She cried on more than one occasion, by herself, alone. She was so scared, of everything now, and she had only just realized it. She had too many questions and too few answers. She felt like some sort of puppet in somebody else's play. She felt like a supporting character, useless and gone, once her purpose was served.

She didn't want to feel like that anymore. She had never wanted to feel like that in the first place.

She hadn't asked for this, nor had she invited it. She hadn't wanted things to turn out this way, but she supposed, in the end, it was her mistake. Neji wouldn't want to share the blame for her folly, and she knew it was solely hers.

But there was no use in blaming herself, for there was no one left to blame. She was no longer there.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"Naruto," Sasuke said, and the blond glanced over at him.

They'd been sitting in Sasuke's room for about half-an-hour now, and neither one of them had said anything. The blond glanced up from the floor, where Sasuke had made him read his textbook.

"What?" he asked.

Sasuke was eyeing the ring he'd been given. "How did you get the money for this?" he asked.

The blond was silent. He looked back down at his textbook, pretending to read furiously. He didn't want to tell Sasuke what he'd done. The other boy would make him return the ring, no doubt.

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked, half hanging off the bed now in the fashion of a demented bat.

"Doesn't matter," he muttered, keeping his head low. He didn't want Sasuke to see the shame in his eyes.

"Naruto," Sasuke growled. "Tell me how you got the money for this."

"I borrowed it from Iruka," the blond replied, then snapped his attention back to the textbook.

"Okay," Sasuke said, clambering back onto the bed.

Naruto nearly sighed in relief. He hadn't wanted to let Sasuke know that he'd actually taken the money without Iruka's permission. There had been no way around it, though, if he wanted to get Sasuke something nice.

"Hey," Sasuke said. "If you want to quit studying now, you can come up here and I'll thank you properly for my present."

"How?" Naruto asked, keeping his eyes down on the page. He didn't like the suggestive tone in Sasuke's voice.

"How do you think?" the other boy asked.

"I don't think we should," Naruto replied.

"Why not?"

"You're not feeling well."

Now, that put Sasuke on the spot. He'd been trying to hide it since he'd got home from the hospital that he still wasn't one hundred percent recuperated, and he'd thought he'd been doing a fairly good job. Apparently, Naruto had seen right through him.

"I feel fine," he grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away.

"Don't lie to me," Naruto muttered, never taking his eyes off the page. "You feel like crap. Believe me. I've been there."

Sasuke said nothing, and the silence was dark and heavy for a few minutes. "Whatever," the older boy muttered at last. "Study away then."

"Thanks," Naruto said. "I think I will."

They were silent again. A little while later, Sasuke slid off the bed, to sit beside Naruto. He didn't say anything though, even when Naruto glanced up at him. The silence dragged on a little longer.

There was a hesitant touch on Naruto's shoulder, and then, Sasuke flopped down beside him, to stare at the page with him. It was then that the blond realized he'd been reading the same paragraph for the past few minutes.

"I really want to," Sasuke whispered. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Naruto muttered. "But you're still not well."

Sasuke said nothing, and lay there with him. They were close together, hip to hip in fact, and Naruto thought that for now, that was more than enough. Sasuke didn't think so, though, and his hands wandered a little bit, tangling in Naruto's hair, stroking his cheek. Once, the blond thought he felt Sasuke's lips on his cheek, but he couldn't tell.

"Sasuke," he murmured. "Please."

"Please what?" Sasuke whispered, placing his mouth almost directly behind Naruto's ear.

"Don't," Naruto grumbled.

The dark-haired boy stopped his ministrations. "Why are you being so uptight?" he muttered, almost inaudibly.
"Because you need to be better."

He turned the page, effectively ending the conversation. Sasuke turned away from him, looked to the wall, to his studies, and Naruto remained, surprisingly, immersed in his book.

Outside, the sun was setting, going down in a set of crimson flames, but neither of them really noticed. Somehow, it didn't seem important.

Somehow, nothing seemed important anymore. They were drifting apart again, back to the state they'd been in when they'd originally started this. Right now, they were just desperately clinging to the shreds of what they'd had, but they knew that there wasn't anything there for either of them any longer.

They had to give up. One way or another, the end was inevitable. Eternity didn't exist; at least, not for them, not there, not in that place.

It was only a dream, after all.

- - - - - - - - - - - -