Chapter 16

Naruto stared. He stared long and hard at Gaara who stared right back. There was complete silence in the room. Even the people that didn't see the exchange between Gaara and Naruto earlier understood something had happened between the two. Yes, the atmosphere was just that intense right now.

Neji felt his spine tingling. He had a feeling something big was going to happen. His eyes roved from Gaara, to Naruto, then back to Gaara again.

"Get on with it!"

Everyone turned to Ino, who apparently didn't comprehend the gravity of the situation here.

But Gaara complied. He slowly stood up, his every movement accentuated with the disco lights. Everyone's eyes were on him, though only Naruto's grew wider and wider with each passing second.

Soon, Gaara's face was millimetres away from his. Faintly, Naruto noticed that Gaara had gotten even paler, if possible, since the last time they met. But he quickly stopped thinking as Gaara leaned in for a kiss.

Acting on instinct, Naruto backed up and pushed Gaara away before their lips could meet. Everyone gasped. (A/N: what a great audience, lol!)

Gaara glared at the blond, who realized his mistake now. He should have endured the kiss and then let it go! But now he had really blown his cool...and no doubt they would have to try it again...

"Let's get more smooching here!" Tenten yelled, quite excited. Gaara kissing Naruto made her giddy like no other.

Naruto nodded weakly, showing he was okay now. Gaara gave a tiny triumphant smirk and leaned over one more time.

But Naruto once again pushed him away, this time with so much force that Gaara stumbled back a few steps.

Naruto started panicking...His eyes dilated so much that you could hardly see any blue left in them...

That little smirk that he had just seen on Gaara's face brought back so many bad memories...Naruto grabbed his head and shook it, trying to rid himself of them. No, he would not show Gaara he was weak. Not again. Never again...

"Naruto! Naruto! Are you okay?"

He could faintly make out the voices calling to him, but he ignored them. He looked up to Gaara to see that his face had lost its leer. He almost looked...concerned. But Naruto scoffed at that idea. No way in hell would Gaara ever feel something as...human as concern...

"Naruto..." It was Gaara's voice. It was so close. Like before...

Naruto's big brain completely shut down and his more animalistic instincts took over. With a snap and a snarl, he backed away from Gaara, hate oozing from his eyes (which looked strangely red in the lighting).

"Get the fuck away from me!" He growled, locking eyes with Gaara. Everyone else in the room just faded away until it was no one but him. And his enemy.

"Naruto, I need to explain to—" Gaara began, inching closer to the blond.

"Explain what? I don't want to hear an explanation!"

"You left so quickly...I couldn't—"

"Couldn't what? Couldn't complete your little plan?" Naruto snarled, completely infuriated. He didn't want to talk to Gaara anymore. He couldn't. That's why he left town so quickly after that day, so he wouldn't have to deal with something like this. Why was this happening?

Gaara tried again. "No, Naruto, you're wrong. Please, just let me—"

"No! I've had it with you! I-I wish I'd never fallen in love with you..." Naruto whispered out. At this, he slumped down and felt a few tears leaking out of his eyes.

Unknown to the both of them, everyone in the room had gone deadly silent, watching this going on. When Naruto said he had loved Gaara, everyone gasped and looked at each other wildly. What the heck happened between them?

"Naruto...no, look at me...Look at me!" Gaara crouched down next to Naruto and lifted his chin up to look him in the eye. Those beautiful blue eyes were so watery...and filled with such sadness...Gaara couldn't take it.

"I-I regret doing that to you, believe me! But before I could correct my mistake, you—"

"Me? Me? I what, stopped being an obedient toy? A tool? You used me, Gaara...and I was blind enough to think we actually...actually..." Naruto started crying again, wiping the wetness from his cheeks. Damn it, this was why he wasn't good with emotional crap like this! He'd always be the one to break down crying!

"No, Naruto! Damn it, listen! True, I went into our relationship intending to use you, but soon I...I couldn't anymore. I couldn't keep going like that, lying to you every day. I was just trying to back out of it when you heard us!" Gaara gathered Naruto in his arms, a position that was familiar to them both. Naruto stiffened. He squirmed; not really wanting to be held by Gaara, but soon gave up.

"Y-you're just saying that to-to get me under your spell again...I heard you guys and you...you were talking like I meant nothing to you..." His eyes turned hard again as he remembered Gaara's degrading voice that day.

"That was just an act. Naruto, you...I...you..." Gaara didn't know how to finish. He's never felt anything this intense before. Naruto waited for him to complete his sentence, but it never came. Gaara only tightened his hold.

Naruto had enough. With a defiant burst, he pushed away from Gaara. He finally remembered where they were and what was happening. He saw everyone's curious stares on them.

To Gaara's surprise, Naruto leaned over and kissed him on the lips. His hand immediately rushed to his mouth as Naruto's warmth left, but the feeling lingered on.

"There, happy now everyone?" Naruto ground out bitterly, returning to his place in the circle. He didn't know why he was still playing; if anyone sane had a mental breakdown because of this, they'd stop participating in it. But something just drew him back into the game. It was addicting. (A/N: Believe me, once you get into it, no matter what happens you still want to play)

Gaara slowly returned to his place too, his fingers still on his lips.

Ino coughed.

Lee squirmed.

Shikamaru sighed in annoyance.

"Um, so truth or dare on Gaara's behalf, Naruto?" Tenten piped up, urging them on.

"Truth." With Gaara, Naruto couldn't afford a dare either. Besides, he was pretty sure Gaara wouldn't ask a personal question like their past... He wasn't that inhuman...

Gaara glanced at Naruto's glare which was directed right at him. His friend Kiba wound a comforting arm around Naruto's shoulders, giving him a small squeeze.

He used to be able to do that.

"...Do you hate me now, Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes widened for a second. He hadn't really thought about whether he hated Gaara or not...He tried thinking. Did he hate Gaara? Was he so mad that he actually hated him?

Naruto looked at Gaara's pleading eyes.

Gaara knew he was being more expressive than he'd ever been before. He never used to show this much emotion. Not until Naruto had carved open his heart and nestled inside it, beating love to every inch of him.

He could finish his earlier sentence now. Naruto, you mean the world to me...But it was too late now.

"...No...I-I don't hate you..." Naruto muttered, blushing and looking away. He couldn't bring himself to say he hated him, especially with Gaara's heart showing in his eyes. He could never hate Gaara, no matter how much he had hurt him.

Gaara sighed. For now, that would have to do. But somehow, he'd find a way to be Naruto's special person again. Maybe the inter-school competitions that were happening in a month or so. Gaara was determined to regain Naruto's affections.

"Uh, so, moving on, Naruto, spin the bottle!" Ino squeaked, her inner yaoi fan flaring up. (A/N: flaring up? That makes it sound like a disease XD but then again, yaoi-fandom is probably more deadly than any disease...lol)

With a grumble, Naruto spun the bottle. Neji found himself praying to every God of every religion to make the bottle land on him. He couldn't let Gaara have all the limelight!

Apparently, one of the Gods came through, because the bottle did land on him. With a triumphant smirk, Neji looked over to Naruto who was blushing like there was no tomorrow.

"What a pleasure," Neji teased. Naruto blushed even harder, if that's possible. Stumbling a bit over his footsteps, he leaned down to give Neji a kiss.

Naruto felt himself linger on Neji's lips a bit too long. It felt like an eternity, though to everyone else it was only ten seconds. But that was still a relatively long kiss. Suddenly Neji pulled Naruto down into his lap and cupped his face. A bit surprised and confused, Naruto yelped. That only granted Neji entranced to his mouth.

Go Neji, seems the kid actually feels something for him! Tenten smirked as Naruto didn't complain. She then noticed that the Kiba guy and Sai were both fuming and glaring holes into Neji. Gaara was staring at them indifferently, but she could tell he really wanted to throw daggers at him.

Tenten smirked, grabbed a piece of rolled up plastic trash, and threw it at both of them. She could tell that all three boys looked relieved as Naruto finally pulled away with a startled gasp.

"S-sorry, I d-didn't mean to..." Naruto hung his head in embarrassment. They had basically made out in front of everyone!

"What's to be sorry about? It was my pleasure, Naruto," Neji said smoothly, letting the blond run back to his seat again. Well that sure was worth it.

"T-truth or dare, N-Neji..." Damn his stupid stuttering voice again!

"Truth." He really didn't want to do anything with anyone else except Naruto, and he doubted Naruto would dare him to do that.

"...Are you gay too?"

Everyone shook their heads. That was a question that got totally wasted. Everyone knew Neji was gay!

"...Yes, I am. And proudly so." Neji smirked at the blond who just realized there were an awful lot of gay people in the room.

Even Naruto could now tell that he was in danger here.

Somewhere in the Uchiha mansion, the Uchiha brothers were having a brotherly tiff.

"WHY DID YOU SEND ME OVER THERE IF YOU ALREADY KNEW WHERE THE SUGAR WAS?"

"I saw the blond waiter and his friends going inside there and thought you might like a some human interaction, dear brother." Itachi's voice was dripping with sour honey.

"I told you that he was annoying! Y-You did that on purpose!" Sasuke fumed. His brother always did stuff like this, just to mess with his image!

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Grabbing his hair in frustration, Sasuke stormed up to his room to brood over what happened today. First of all, he saw his long time enemy, Gaara, of all people. And then that stupid blond kid had to ruin everything too!

Irrelevant to what he was blazing about, a cold shiver ran down his spine. It was the kind of shiver he got when Itachi raided the refrigerator and stole his chicken pasta.

"YOU BETTER NOT BE TOUCHING MY SAVED FOOD, ITACHI!" He yelled downstairs and was returned with an annoyed "I'm not touching your food, stupid brother!"

If his chicken wasn't being stolen, then why did he have the feeling that he was on the verge of losing something? Pushing the feeling to the side, Sasuke plopped down on his bed and picked up a book and started to read.

This was approximately the time when Naruto realized he was in a room full of gay people after him.

...

Original writings and drama belong to xXCabbageXx.

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