Author's Note: Without further ado…

Chapter Three: I've Got Soul But I'm Not A Soldier.

Naruto sat against the burgundy wall of his room. He had been searching for his roommate for at least an hour. Not only did he need to find him to punch him in the face, but he also really wanted to go skiing. He smiled at himself, 'which should I do first?'

Naruto had not been sitting long when he heard the door click open. He rolled his eyes and readied himself to scream at the Uchiha. He stood up slowly and rounded the corner to look at his visitor. Sasuke looked him in the eyes with an almost apologetic frown on his face.

"You-!"

"Before you scream at me, perhaps you would like to hear my side of the story?" Sasuke said absently.

"I don't care about your side of the story you a stupid, conceded, emo, angsty, jerk, prick!" Naruto ran out of names to call him. Sasuke just laughed at him. "Don't laugh at me!" He continued to chuckle, Naruto, who was steaming at this point, charged at him. Sasuke stopped laughing and dodged Naruto's advance. He then grabbed his wrist and pulled him to the ground face down with his arms behind his back. He had his knee digging into the small of his back and his left hand holding Naruto wrists and the other had a grip on Naruto's blonde hair. Naruto struggled, but it was futile, he was stuck.

"Well, now that I have you under control… would you listen to my story?" Sasuke smirked at Naruto who was glaring at him from the corner of his eye.

"Ugh, No! Let me go, this is dirty trick!"

"Oh, shut up Uzumaki, charging at me was a dirty trick! Grow up!" Sasuke kneed him harder in the back. Naruto was flinched and gritted his teeth. "Now then, I did not tell anyone that you're a fag. However, you did." Naruto opened his eyes and looked at Sasuke. "I kept your little queer identity to myself, however when I came over to tell you that I wanted to ski, you were opening up to your little buddies, and thanks to your loud friend Kiba, not only did I hear from ten feet away so did Gaara, Neji, Lee, Sakura, Ino, Chouji, TenTen, and just about anyone else you could possibly name. Please, did you think that something like this wouldn't spread? He screams out loud, Gaara hears and tells his pal Neji who shares with the rest of the world."

"But I…" He trailed off realizing it really was his fault.

"But, what?" Sasuke grabbed his hair harder now.

"Ouch! Uhh…" Naruto squeezed his eyes shut at the pain.

"Now, you were running around looking for me to blame me, when really I should be mad. You think I want people to know that I…" Sasuke paused.

"That you, what?" Naruto was interested now, maybe he could turn this around in his favor, but it would take some physical strength as well. "That you liked it?" Naruto smirked. Sasuke hissed and, if possible, kneed him harder. "Ugh, uhh, god, Sasuke, no please don't stop, ugh!" Naruto tried to seem smooth and continued to tease Sasuke by making seductive moans. Sasuke twitched and let him go and stood up.

"What's wrong with you!" Sasuke starred at him like he was under a microscope.

"Oh, Sasuke… please…" He stood up slowly, bringing his face dangerously close to Sasuke's lower half. He looked him in the eye, leveling himself. Sasuke was blushing horribly and it looked like he would chip a tooth the way he was gritting his teeth.

"Get… get away from me!" Sasuke mentally kicked himself for sounding so weak. Why was he blushing? 'Oh shit, why am I acting like this?' He winced when Naruto put his hands on Sasuke's slender hips and pulled his closer. Their hips were touching now, and Naruto smirked at the stunned Uchiha. 'Oh shit, what's wrong with me!' Sasuke fought with himself but couldn't let himself pull away, it felt too right. Naruto traced his hand up Sasuke's back to his neck and then gripped his jet black hair. Sasuke whimpered causing Naruto to laugh. 'Shit shit shit shit shit… no, I can't let him see my like this… but I can't…' With that Sasuke grabbed Naruto face and paused. Naruto, surprised readied himself for either a punch or a kiss. He preferred the latter. Sasuke looked at him with his dark eyes, and brought his lips closer to Naruto's. They were virtually a centimeter apart when Sasuke punched Naruto in the stomach.

He fell to his knees and tried to cough but he got the wind knocked out of him. He gripped his stomach and began to tear. "What… the…" He muttered between coughs, "hell?" He looked at Sasuke who looked just as surprised as he was. He bent over and looked at him.

"Don't mess with me Uzumaki!" Sasuke then punched him again, this time in the face. Naruto fell back, his nose bleeding. He grabbed at his nose and smeared the blood across in face in the process; he coughed even more now and couldn't stop tearing. He grimaced and looked at Sasuke with pitiful eyes. Sasuke looked at him emotionless.

"Sas… Sasuke… why?" Naruto squinted through the blood and stared helplessly at Sasuke, and then fainted. 'What did I do…' Sasuke stared at the blonde who lay motionless at his feet. He felt as helpless as Naruto looked. 'This is all my fault… why did I do this… I'm not gay… I'm not!' Sasuke grabbed his hair and pulled his face into his hands. He scowled when he felt blood on his hand. Sasuke was not one to overreact, and the fact that he had responded in such a violent way to such a stupid taunt was a bad sign.

He had to do something, he did not even know why, but he felt he had to do something. He should just leave him there and leave, but he couldn't and that scared him. He bent over and picked Naruto up. Naruto's face leaned against his shoulder, getting blood on him. Sasuke placed him on the bed and elevated his back and head. He checked to see if Naruto's nose was broken, it was. He'd only had to fix his own nose once when it was broken, he had to help Naruto though. He cracked it back into place causing Naruto to cry out and open his eyes. He looked terrified. Sasuke felt horrible. "No… what's wrong with you, get away!" Naruto tried to pull himself away from Sasuke.

"No… wait." Sasuke reached out but stopped when Naruto flinched. Sasuke pulled his hand back and went into the bathroom; he wet a wash cloth with warm water and then walked back to Naruto. "You have to stop the bleeding." He held the cloth up to Naruto's nose and put pressure on it. Naruto whimpered.

After a while the bleeding stopped and Sasuke cleaned the wash cloth and then walked to Naruto and sat beside him again. He cleaned his face with the cloth and wiped his tears away. He pulled back Naruto's hair and looked at him with remorse. 'I'm not gay… Am I?'He then attempted to get closer to Naruto. He pulled Naruto's shirt up to see if he was bruised. Naruto flinched again, and looked at his stomach. It was bruised, but not that badly, there were scratches however, from where he grabbed himself in pain.

"That looks like it hurts… I'll go get ice." Sasuke began to get up.

"Why?"

"Why, what? If you put ice on it, it won't swell up." Sasuke said casually.

"I know that! Why, however, are YOU getting ice?" Naruto looked at him through bloodshot eyes.

"I… I didn't mean it. It's not my fault! You just made me so mad, and you made me…" Sasuke looked down at his clenched fists, "It's just… I'm not sorry! You deserved it, you shameless… queer!" Sasuke looked away in the other direction. He felt horrible for saying that to him, but he could not possibly apologize.

"Go away Sasuke, I can take care of myself," Naruto turned onto his side and squeezed his pillow. He tried to close his eyes to seem unaffected by Sasuke words. He felt the pressure shift on his bed as Sasuke stood up. He heard his feet trek across the rug and then the door open and close. Naruto turned around to look at where Sasuke once sat, and frowned. 'What a bastard. He punches me, TWICE, and then acts like nothing happened, and then tries to make himself feel better about himself by helping me. Like it erases what he did!' Naruto crossed his arms defiantly and pouted.

He decided it would be best to get some rest, he really did not get a lot of sleep the night before and he figured with Sasuke around he would not be getting any that night as well. He began to sink into his bed when the door opened again. He hoped it was Kiba or Shikamaru coming to talk to him, he had been missing for awhile now, but it was neither.

"Naruto-kun, you look so miserable to see me." In walked Gaara.

"I AM miserable to see you." He continued to pout.

"What happened to your nose?" Neji walked in after Gaara and nonchalantly sat at the end of his bed, roughly, almost causing Naruto to fall off.

"Nothing happened to it!" Naruto lied and turned to face the windows.

Gaara walked towards Naruto, "Now now now, Naruto-kun, what's wrong, you know you can talk to us."

"Like I would want to talk to you two!" Naruto turned his attention to fists.

"Why not, you're in the same boat as us, are you not?" Neji smiled at him.

"What?" Naruto looked at the pale boy and furrowed his brow. Neji pulled his legs onto the bed and began to crawl over to Naruto.

"Did you think Gaara was hitting on you to make you feel awkward?"

"I suppose what does that have to do with boats?" Naruto stammered.

"You poor child," Gaara patted his head. "We're on the same boat because we're all having a GAY ole' time." Naruto looked puzzled.

"You could almost say we are acting quite queer," Neji said with a British accent. They both stared at Naruto to see if he got the drift, but he clearly did not.

"We're gay Naruto. We've dating for awhile now, actually." Gaara looked at the flabbergasted blonde.

"What! You are? Wait… I'm not gay! Why do you think I'm gay?" Naruto sat up quickly, almost knocking heads with Neji. He looked back and forth between his visitors.

"Naruto-kun… admitting you have a problem is the first step. Stop denying yourself. Ya' know if you need some help I'm more then willing to-," He was cut off by Neji's death stare. (He did have creepy eyes.)

"Anyway, Naruto, what we are trying to say is that you would be surprised by the amount of homosexuality there is in this school. Personally, I believe it has something to do with the O-zone-," he was cut off by Gaara.

"No, it's genetics, you idiot!"

"Whatever you say Gaara, but still that doesn't explain why like, twenty-five percent of our school is homosexual." Neji said confidently.

"Maybe, there hasn't been an increase in homosexual people with our generation, maybe it's just that people are more accepting now, so they aren't afraid to come out of the closet," Naruto chirped in. They looked at him like he grew a third eye. "What?"

"This is probably true… but uhh, Naruto-kun, maybe you should listen to yourself more often then, huh?" Gaara smiled at him. It was weird that he barely smiled, because when he did it was not weird at all. The correct adjective to describe his smiles was 'charming'.

Naruto looked down at the pillow he was currently strangling. He was not one to open up to people he did not know very well, but being that he was feeling incredibly insecure, he did, "I'm sorry. I am gay, it's just, and what if Kiba doesn't want to be my friend anymore? What if he shuns me? And what about Sasuke… I've probably ruined his life… he hates me now."

"I'm sure he does not, Naruto-kun, ever since we were in sixth grade, you have been the only person that could get through Sasuke's shell. Think about it, they say that being mean is a sign of affection, and uhh, well Naruto-kun, Sasuke is VERY mean to YOU." Gaara smiled at him again. Twice in one day, it must be a record.

"What about me?" Sasuke appeared from behind the door with a bucket of ice and a towel in his hands.

"Sasuke-kun! What a pleasure it is to see you hear! Yes, we were just talking about you and Naruto-kun, and how special he is to you." Neji strolled over to him and hung his arm over Sasuke's shoulders, who promptly shook him off.

"What is that suppose to imply?" Sasuke said as he walked over to Naruto, pushing Gaara in the process.

"Well, it is no secret now, Sasuke-kun. We know that the two of you had some fun last night." Gaara smirked. (His smirks were not so charming.)

"What! We did not! Get out of here, can't you just leave a poor guy alone, jeez!" Naruto blushed.

"Awww, so cute. Look at that face; clearly he's crushing on you Sasuke-kun!" Neji laughed.

"I do not! Leave me alone already!" Naruto looked down again and blushed more. Sasuke however wrapped some ice in the towel and pressed it against Naruto stomach. Naruto twitched; he did not even see him coming. He looked down at his thin stomach and at Sasuke hand. He blushed more. Sasuke ignored the red head and continued helping Naruto.

"Well. That certainly proves it! Time to go Neji, don't you think?" Gaara chuckled and dragged Neji out of the room.

"Eh, they're weird, I've no idea what they were talking about," Naruto laughed nervously.

"I do." Sasuke did not look at Naruto.

"Oh, want to fill me in?" Naruto asked.

"No. You know very well what they were talking about. They were talking about what a queer you are!" Sasuke applied a little too much pressure of Naruto's stomach. Naruto gasped at the pain.

"Look Sasuke, I know you are only helping me because you want to be able to sleep at night, okay? I'm not mad, I shouldn't have messed with you; just leave me alone, okay?" Naruto looked completely miserable. Sasuke had never seen him like this. They had certainly fought before, but this was the first time that he's seen his enemy so hurt. 'I did this to him; it is my fault that he is so unhappy. Why can't I just be nice to him, I so want to… But I just can't… I like him. I like him a lot, but I'll never let him know that I would love to hold him and tell him… tell him that… that I'm gay.'

"I'm sorry." Naruto looked up sharply at him.

"You're what?" Naruto could not believe it.

"I'm sorry I punched you, but only for the one in the face, you did not deserve that. The one in the stomach however…" Sasuke attempted a smile. Naruto smiled back.

"It's okay."

"Where have you been Sasuke?" It was about midday and Sasuke decided it would be best to leave Naruto alone for awhile. He decided to go down to the lodge and read a book. He was not allowed to go skiing without Naruto so there was not a whole lot else to do. Sakura, who was paired with Ino, came up to Sasuke and sat down next to him. Sasuke did not reply to her question, but simply continued to stare at his book.

"Sasuke-kun!" She cooed. Everyone in the school knew that the pink-haired girl was hopelessly in love with Sasuke, even Sasuke knew. He did not care, however, he would never take the time out of his day to notice such a normal girl, or perhaps girls in general he was now contemplating. "Is it true? Please tell me it's a dirty lie! That stupid Naruto he's always bothering you! He's so annoying, I hate that brat. God all he does is try to show off, too bad no one likes him," she paused to giggle. "He's so obnoxious, I can't even stand to look at him, and all he does is like pick fights with you. What's up with that? And now, he is going around telling everyone that you guys like made out, and that you're gay! What a jerk!" Sakura ranted, making Sasuke's ears bleed profusely.

"Shut up." Sasuke gave her one of the dirtiest looks he felt he'd given anyone in awhile. "I'm sick of you. Stop complaining about what Naruto does, you're the one who places your dull nose in places that it does not belong. At least Naruto has the courtesy to hate people that hate him, instead of trying to make them like him. You are a fake and more people like Naruto then you, including me, so go cry to Lee, I don't want to hear your screeching voice for another minute, my ears are bleeding. Oh, and for the record, I DID kiss Naruto, and I liked it." Sasuke huffed. He did not even know if he liked the kiss, but he liked surprising people, almost as much as pissing them off. He felt that last line was a beautiful cherry to top off his tirade.

Sakura looked at the brunette while lifeless tears flooded from her eyes. She sat motionless for moment before standing up; she then left the table and walked away, without saying anything. Sasuke pondered about whether or not he should feel bad, but then decided it was meaningless; he had been wanting to say that to that girl since eighth grade. He felt relieved almost; he figured this would finally get her off his back; however he knew that that was only a dream. After a few months she would probably blame his speech on Naruto and decide that he was not thinking and come bounding back to him.

"Wow, that was harsh, even for you, Uchiha, don't you think?" Shikamaru sank into the seat across from Sasuke, who glared at him and did not retort. "Meh, you are too troublesome. Why you of all people, I wonder, would Naruto like? He is quite knowledgeable and seems to have somewhat of a grasp on reality, nevertheless perhaps I am wrong, if he chose an individual such as you to have a weakness for." Shikamaru was practically talking to himself while he stared at the ceiling with eyes half open.

"What do you want?" Sasuke looked up from his book, half interested. He knew, much like the rest of his class, that Shikamaru was smartest kid in the grade; unfortunately he was also the laziest. He found the brunette to be quite the spectacle, he was one of the few people whose company Sasuke did not mind all that much.

"Just wondering how you plan on going about this issue we have at hand." He did not remove his gaze from the ceiling.

"I assume you mean the issue of your friend being gay. Surely you know that being homosexual is not something you can cure, and here I thought you were bright." Sasuke just could not possibly be nice to anyone, no matter how much he liked them, if there is one thing you can count on from him, it is that he never fails at being crude.

"Brilliant. Moving along, do you return his feelings? Because if you do, it would relieve a lot of us of unnecessary pain if you would just get over yourself and tell him." Shikamaru glanced at Sasuke giving him a half-smile.

"No, I like to observe you ants quiver in pain. I think I'll take my time," Sasuke grumbled.

"That's fine; you should know however, that Kiba won't take that too lightly." Shikamaru glanced away.

"Why would he care? He dumped your little buddy on the curb, if you recall." Sasuke sneered.

"He was simply traumatized is all; now that the mourning period is over he is fully intentioned to defend Naruto's honor in everyway, shape, and form." Shikamaru smiled and looked half dazed.

"Perhaps," Sasuke cleared his throat, "you should stop pestering me about Naruto and take care of your own crush." Shikamaru remained quiet at Sasuke's snap.

"Perhaps, you are right." Shikamaru stood up, glancing at Sasuke and giving him an appreciative nod and walked away. That Shikamaru sure was full of surprises. Sasuke laughed aloud.

Sasuke glanced down at his book, but shortly after put it on the table and decided to wake Naruto up. He wanted to go skiing, and also needed to find out once and for all how he felt about Naruto. Also, now that he made it clear to Sakura that he did make out with him, he figured the whole school would know and he felt he owed it to Naruto to give him a heads up. So without further ado, Sasuke strode back to their room.

End of Chapter Three

Author's Note: Well I felt bad for making you guys wait for so long for the second chapter, so I whipped this one up. It's actually quite longer then the first two. I hope you like the direction I took! Please leave me insightful reviews; it really does inspire me to write more! See ya' next time!