Chapter 16: Love Maze
Sasuke felt a sharp sensation throughout his body, concentrated in his arm near his soulmate mark. He was breathing hard, trying to will away the pain, but it just kept coming. His eyes widened as he realized what was happening. He grasped his arm, crying, not from the pain but from the implication of what the pain meant. Naruto was cheating on him.
Tears flowed down his face as he tried to convince himself that it couldn't be possible, but there was no denying what he felt. "No," he cried as the pain increased. The longer it occurred, the more it would hurt, both physically and emotionally. He repeatedly asked himself why Naruto would do such a thing, not wanting to believe the betrayal. He thought perhaps someone had forced themself on the blond or maybe put something in his drink, but in the back of his mind he knew the truth.
He thought about what Naruto's friends had said to him. That he would be out of sight and out of mind. He couldn't believe that they were right. His heart felt like it might explode the longer the pain in his arm continued. He cried out, wishing it was all just a bad dream.
Sasuke woke up, panting as he thought of his dream. He looked down at his arm, but felt no pain. There was no indication that his Naruto had been cheating on him. The dream felt so real, yet all signs pointed to it being just in his dream. "Fuck," he cursed as he stared at the ceiling. It was still dark out, only the dim light from the moon lighting the room.
Naruto was currently in another country, doing who knows what. He looked at the time seeing it was two o'clock in the morning and knew by that time it was closer to two in the afternoon where Naruto was. He grabbed his phone, thinking about calling the other man just for some reassurance. Instead he decided to go onto social media after seen numerous notifications lighting up his screen. His heart started pounding when he saw why he was tagged, reading the headline "Pop star, Naruto, seen out with another man. Could he be cheating on the Uchiha heir?"
Sasuke tossed his phone to the side, his mind running wild as he wondered who the man was that Naruto was seen with. He didn't recognize him as someone from the company, nor was he in any of photos he'd seen of Naruto with his friends. He started to wonder if he'd woken up because of actual pain, or if it really was just a dream. The thought of Naruto cheating on him scared him and made him wonder if he were more like his past life than he'd thought. He looked at his arm again, still feeling no pain, yet still paranoid that it was just because the act was done.
The youngest Uchiha had a hard time sleeping that night, continuously tossing and turning as he thought about the article. He had text Naruto good morning, for some reason he was unable to resist texting the blond regardless of his fears. He'd ignored all of the blonde's text messages, not even looking at his response to him saying good morning. He had seen glimpses of them and Naruto saying something about the article. He couldn't bring himself to look at them in case it turned out he was apologizing for his mistake and saying he'd never do it again.
He should have known once he saw the article that Itachi or his father would jump on the opportunity to make him feel bad. The moment he arrived in the office his older brother was already sitting in his chair, smirking at him. "You don't look so good," the older Uchiha commented. His tone was condescending and judgmental, as if he knew something Sasuke didn't know.
Sasuke just rolled his eyes, "Get out of my chair." He was in no mood to deal with his brother. He didn't need to hear him gloat about potentially being right. "Don't you have your own work to do?" he snapped as he set his things down. Contrary to Sasuke's recent rebellious actions, he was wearing a full suit, his tattoos and soulmate mark nowhere to be seen, which didn't seem to go unnoticed by Itachi.
Itachi got up from the chair, still smirking, "I see you decided to follow the dress code today. Any particular reason?" The older Uchiha knew all of the right buttons to push to make Sasuke upset.
Sasuke knew the other man was taunting him. He wanted a reaction and Sasuke was set on not giving him one. "Just felt like it today," he brushed it off, thought they both knew the real reason. He didn't feel happy about his mark in that moment so he wasn't going to show it off. It was easier to cover it with a suit and forget about it.
"You sure it has nothing to do with a certain article about a certain boy toy of yours?" Itachi chuckled. Sasuke tensed, but he didn't say anything as he took his seat, ready to get to work and ignore Itachi. "Don't want to admit that we were right about him?" the older Uchiha asked as he walked towards the office door. He leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, "Face it, it's good you found out now. You can just move on and focus on the company."
Sasuke watched as Itachi walked out, processing his words. He thought back to how his father was having him and Naruto followed at one point and wondered if the article was his doing or if it were truly the paparazzi. It wasn't like there was even anything wrong with the photo. Naruto had just been sitting across from another man, eating what appeared to be lunch. It was the article itself that made it seem like a date and claimed the two were getting cosy with no actual photographic proof. Sasuke wondered if he would have ignored it if he hadn't had that dream.
Before he could be alone with his thoughts for very long, his door shut, signaling someone had entered. He looked up to see Suigetsu standing by the now closed door. "What are you doing here?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't play dumb, you know exactly why I'm here," Suigetsu sighed as he sat in the chair across from him. "It's the same reason you basically snuck out of the house this morning," he said with a pointed look. "Please tell me Naruto explained and they're just making it out to be a bigger deal than it is." When Sasuke didn't respond, the light haired man looked him suspiciously, "You did talk to him, right?"
"Clearly I need better security if they just let you in anytime you want," Sasuke tried to change the subject. "Maybe a new secretary that'll actually tell you know," he avoided Suigetsu's question.
Suigetsu shook his head, "Don't try to change the subject." He figured Sasuke would try to redirect the conversation, but he was determined to get answers. He knew exactly what Sasuke would think and was sure he probably hadn't talked to Naruto. It was his job as his best friend to set him straight.
Sasuke took a deep breath, "He text me." He tried to remain casual about it, but Sugietsu knew him better than he knew himself.
"And?" he asked, not letting that be the end of the conversation.
"And," Sasuke paused, knowing he was about to get lectured by his best friend. "I may not have read them yet."
"I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I thought I heard you say that you haven't read them," it didn't surprise him that Sasuke hadn't talked to the blond. Sasuke had a tendency to bury his emotions and hope they go away. He could solve a work problem, but an emotional one made him run and hide. Suigetsu blamed the man's parents for not teaching him about emotions and instead tried to make him an emotionless copy of his brother.
"I had a dream last night and I'm just trying to figure out what's real and what was just the dream," he confessed. He knew that Suigetsu wasn't going to drop it until he got the answers he was looking for.
"A dream where Ned cheated on Sam," Suigetsu deduced. Sasuke just nodded in response. "Did your arm hurt the you woke up?" he asked, causing Sasuke to shake his head no. "But you're scared that, that's why you woke up?" Sasuke nodded response. "You're an idiot."
"My feelings are valid," Sasuke argued. He thought that Suigetsu would understand his point of view, even if he didn't agree with it.
"So, let me get this straight," Suigetsu sighed. "You think after waiting forever to find you, he just decided that once he got you he'd throw it away?" He understood why Sasuke felt that way, but he didn't believe that Naruto would actually do that to him.
"Maybe I'm not what he wanted and he found something he does," Sasuke mumbled, feeling very insecure. He wouldn't make eye contact with Suigetsu, playing with his fingers to distract himself from the emotions he was feeling.
It hurt Suigetsu to see his best friend doubting that he was good enough. Despite his cold exterior, he knew that Sasuke was really insecure when it came to certain things. He'd grown up with his father saying he wasn't good enough and dreams about a past life where his soulmate constantly cheated on him. It made sense that it would affect how he thought about himself. "I hate your family and I hate Ned," Suigetsu huffed, causing Sasuke to look up at him.
"Huh?" Sasuke was confused as to where his family played a role in his current situation.
"You're enough, Sasuke," he told him softly. "Don't let your family or your past life make you think otherwise. Naruto looks at you like you hung the moon. I'm pretty sure he's already in love with you and you're only having dreams still because you're not there yet, and that's okay."
"He doesn't love me," Sasuke protested, shaking his head. He couldn't wrap his mind around the idea that Naruto was in love with him.
"He's pretty damn close then," Suigetsu knew there was no arguing with the other man as to how the blond felt. He could see it in the way Naruto acted and talked around him, Sasuke just didn't believe that anyone would ever love him like that. It had been engrained in him by his family that he wasn't exactly worthy of love and somewhere in the back of his mind, Sasuke believed them. "Just do me a favor and talk to him," he hoped Sasuke would agree. "Please."
Sasuke nodded, "I'll talk to him tonight. Right now though, I have work to do."
Suigetsu didn't argue any further, getting up and making his way to the door. Before leaving he turned to him one more time, "You know I live with you and will know if you don't call him tonight." Sasuke just rolled his eyes and nodded as he watched Suigetsu leave.
The day had been draining. Everyone had been looking at him as if they felt sorry for him. It was clear that they all believed the rumors. He had silenced his phone and stayed off social media, not wanting to see what people were saying. When he finally got home he decided to check his messages, seeing fifty-six missed calls and well over one hundred text messages from Naruto. He pulled up his messages and looked at the most recent, 'I'm not going to bed until you talk to me so please call me back.' He sighed, finally deciding it was time to call him and hear his side of the story.
It didn't take more than one ring before Naruto answered, "Finally." The blond sounded like a mix of panicked and relief, "Baby, you have to know I'd never cheat on you."
"Do I?" Sasuke asked, feeling very vulnerable.
Naruto frowned, sadly responding, "I was hoping that you knew that. I understand why you might not and I didn't want to tell you the reason I was meeting with him, but I know I have to."
Sasuke bit his lip as he curled up on his couch, "Who is he?" He was scared of the answer.
"A friend of a friend," the blond sighed. "He's a travel agent who was helping me surprise you during my week long break. I would have gone through Kakashi but I was worried it'd get back to you and the surprise would be ruined. I guess it got ruined anyway." Naruto sounded so dejected about Sasuke finding out about his surprise.
"You're what?" he was surprised by Naruto's words. He'd thought that the blond was going to take the week he had between his Aisa and European legs of the tour exploring Europe, instead he was planning on flying back to be with him.
"I miss you," Naruto told him as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Being away is kinda killing me, there's no way I wasn't going to use that time to see you," he explained. Sasuke wasn't sure what to say. "Babe, you have to trust me. This isn't going to be the only time people try to come between us. I think your father does that plenty on his own," Naruto's voice was just above a whisper.
Sasuke nodded even though he knew that the blond couldn't see him. "I'm sorry for not trusting you," he apologized. He was a little upset with himself for ruining Naruto's surprise just because he felt like he couldn't trust the blond.
"It's okay," Naruto assured him. "I should have just went through Kakashi. I thought I was being careful but those fuckers are everywhere," he huffed, frustrated that people were making something out of nothing. "I should have trusted Kakashi not to tell you, I was just paranoid you'd find out somehow," he explained. He had really wanted to surprise the other man, but telling him was better than Sasuke thinking there was something going on between him and the man in the photos.
"So," Sasuke started awkwardly, making Naruto chuckle. "You know that Kakashi doesn't tell me anything unless it's to tease me or something is seriously wrong," he told the man, not sure what else he could say to lighten the mood. "Really, he only talks to me to tease me about you being mopey about not seeing me," his own words made him feel dumb for thinking that Naruto would cheat on him. "He calls you my puppy sometimes."
"Because I'm so cute?" Naruto joked, making Sasuke laugh a little. There was a short pause in the conversation, making Naruto worry that there was still something wrong. "We're okay, right?" the blond asked hopefully.
"Yeah," Sasuke confirmed. "We're good." There was an other moment of silence on the phone, neither of them knowing what to say. "I miss you, too," Sasuke admitted, realizing he hadn't told him that yet.
Sasuke could hear the smile in Naruto's voice as he said, "You better. I'm gonna smother you with hugs and kisses when I see you."
Sasuke surprised even himself when he responded, "I'll be waiting." Sasuke thought about his father again, wondering if he were behind the photos and story. He didn't say anything to Naruto because he didn't have any actual proof that his father was behind it all, just a feeling.
"Fair warning now that you know, don't be in your office when I get there," the blond told him suggestively. "I don't care where you are, I will kiss you like there's no tomorrow," he teased, though if he were honest he had way more than kissing planned.
The two stayed on the phone for hours, Naruto excitedly telling him about what he had planned and how Sasuke could take time off now that he knew. Suigetsu just smirked as he walked by Sasuke, giving him a thumbs up when he saw the small smile on the other man's face. Sasuke flipped him off in return, continuing to listen to Naruto's plans. "That sounds great babe," he told him, rolling his eyes at the way Suigetsu made a fake gagging noise. Sasuke knew he had a lot of thinking to do, but in that moment he felt everything was going to be okay.