SasuNaru, yaoi, OOC

Standard disclaimer applies.

In collaboration with XKunoichiofthePaintbrushX.

Sasukichan: No, you aren't picky. Thank you for pointing out such stupid error. Don't hesitate to tell us if you find more.

The dark-haired man stared at the emptiness of his apartment. How sad and pathetic that he was spending their anniversary alone and in the dark. If their original schedule pushed through, his dining room would have been alight with candles and the table would be set for two. There would be a soft instrumental playing as a background and they would quietly talk about anything while enjoying the glow of their love. But that plan was ruined two days ago. Damn it. If he were to give his opinion, he would say that the blonde's aunt was more sly than his mother.

He stood up when his doorbell rung. It must be the delivery man. Pizza on their anniversary... what a joke! He opened the door and found a bouquet of roses pressed against the face. And just as quickly, it was removed and he found himself staring into the flushed face of his lover.

"Happy Anniversary!" the blonde who was dressed in suit, greeted enthusiastically before he threw himself towards the dark-haired man and kissed him while pushing him inside.

"The engagement ended too quickly?" the taller man asked and took a glance on the wall clock. No, it wasn't over. It hadn't even started yet. He felt warm when hands cupped his cheeks.

"I see no reason going to such place when I already have you," the blonde quietly said. "This day is very important to me." He was already on his way to the matchmaker's place when he finally gave in to what his heart wanted. And on his way to their apartment, he decided to buy flowers just for the occasion.

"What about your aunt?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around slim waist to bring them closer.

"Forget about her... I'll deal everything tomorrow... right now," he paused to brush his lips against the other's. "Let's celebrate."

"But I didn't prepare anything. I only ordered pizza," he said, almost panicking.

"That will be fine. We can manage."

The pale man agreed as he nibbled a plump lower lip. "Indeed we can." And he didn't waste any second to drown himself in his lover's sweetness and get intoxicated with it. He really loved him so much it was painful.

Chapter Nine: Glass-tainted Road

And as the road divides
That runs off with our lives
Promise me you will never say goodbye
"Promise Me"- Vince Neil

It was very seldom for students to get noisy during class without being scolded by the teacher present but now was not any ordinary day... at least for the sophomores who were scanning the few senior high school brochures handed to them.

While the boys seemed to be nonchalant about the materials, most girls were giggling and squealing over the uniforms.

"Look at this!" One girl exclaimed as she tapped the picture of the uniform. "The skirt is short and the color combination is perfect, yeah?"

"What page is that?" Another girl asked.

The teacher cleared her throat over the din. "You can drool over that after I explained few things." Like robots, everybody paid attention. It was best not to anger their short-fused teacher. "I'm giving you a sheet of paper where you'll write your first three schools of choice. The faculty wants you to answer it with sincerity as it will help us come up with lessons for next school year, in hope that it will help you pass the entrance exams of the schools of your choice."

The excitement among the students became even more palpable.

"I want the filled up sheets two months from now. The faculty thinks that two months is enough for you to think and weigh your future. Understand?"

A chorus of positive reply rang out inside the room and then everybody was back to discussing and looking at the brochures.

-SasuNaru is love-

Two weeks have found the group of friends sitting around the blonde's kitchen table, having decided to hang out because work and school hadn't given them much time to.

"I swear," Kiba rambled while munching on his onigiri, "Girls only care which school to go to if it fits their fashion sense!"

Most of the boys have long since tuned out Kiba's rambling, and ate their self-made dinner until the opening of the front door broke their self-induced trance.

"Tadaima." Came the deep, yet familiar voice from the entrance.

"Welcome back, Oyaji!" Naruto chirped.

Once he stepped into the dining room, five heads turned to regard him before going back to their meal silently.

"Say," Arashi began, "Have any of you chosen which school to go to yet? You don't have much time left you know. You have to decide as early as possible. Don't cram because this is a very important decision you have to make."

Kiba, who was sitting at the far end of the small table, decided to speak up first, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking of going to Konoha High School." He stated as he finished the rest of his meal.

Shino, who was beside Kiba was staring at the wall before silently inputting, "Konoha."

Next came Sasuke, who sat across Shino and next to his blond best friend, eating his onigiri with what seemed like precise, calculated bites, before saying that he was to attend the same school as Kiba and Shino.

Gaara, who was seated next to Shino, merely stated, "Konoha" with his usual icy tone, before resuming to eating his meal in the continuing silence.

All heads finally turned towards the blond boy, whom was seated next to Sasuke, and across the crimson-haired boy. Naruto seemed to be too oblivious to the questioning gazes of his friend and father, and slurped his fourth cup of ramen with gusto until a hard nudge from his side brought him into the conversation. "I'm sorry!" The blonde replied with a sheepish smile, "What was the question?"

Sasuke spoke up, "What school do you want to go to?" Naruto could've sworn he heard a whispered, 'moron' at the end of the question, but let it slide for the moment.

Before giving his answer, he was interrupted by none other than Kiba, "You think about going to Konoha like the rest of us?" He asked in his usual loud tone of voice, "It would be cool if all of us went to the same school, wouldn't it?"

"Hell yeah!" Naruto exclaimed with a little more vigor than usual, "Konoha it is!"

Dark eyes gave Naruto a calculated look before noting that his smile looked a little more forced than usual. Once noted, the eyes narrowed in thought at the blonde's actions.

What's with him?

-SasuNaru is love-

On the eve of the deadline of what everybody called the "Future paper", a lot of students were doing last-minute writing.

Dull jade eyes gave the piece of paper placed in front of him an indifferent gaze. Of course Gaara didn't have to think much. He already knew where he wanted to go- Konoha High and his reason was very logical. The school was practically the only school that was closest to his house. It would take less effort to go to and from school. He shrugged as he filled in his application.

Sasuke sat in his dark room, filling in his application. Of course he had to go to Konoha, not only because it was the same school his father had attended, but it was the same school that Itachi had gone to. Granted that it was one way to gain the praise that his father had been literally showering Itachi with, he wrote Konoha as his first choice, with the determination to gain the title as Fugaku's son, and not just a disgrace to the family.

After tending to his ant farm, Shino gave the application sitting on his desk a glance, before deciding that it would be best to fill it out and get it over with. According to the pamphlets that contained small bits of information of different high schools, Shino had wanted to attend Konoha because of its top quality education. The other schools seemed interesting, but Shino would rather go to a school where he would be sure to learn interesting information that he would find useful in the near future. He wrote Konoha down as his first choice before heading back to his ant farm.

Unlike the other boys, Naruto seemed confused. No, he wasn't cramming. He was just confused on which school to write as his first choice. He wanted to be a chef and almost three months ago, a preparatory school for Culinary Arts had caught his interest. And to top it off, the school was accredited by world -renowned culinary schools so if he wanted to proceed to a culinary school outside Japan, it would be so easy to enter into any of these schools. But then again, going to that prep school would mean seeing less of his friends. He would certainly miss them. He was in a predicament and he couldn't decide no matter how much time he had given thought on this matter.

Tanned hands roughly pulled his blond hair strands as blue eyes glared at the paper.

"Dammit!" He growled, "Dammit dammit dammit dammit DAMMIT!"

"Naruto?" Arashi called out from the doorway, surprising his son.

"What?" Naruto growled as he gripped his pen too tightly. Seeing the frown marring on his son's face, Arashi knew he hadn't decided yet. He moved forward to stand beside his son and took the brochure of the prep school then Konoha's.

"Future or friends…" he murmured. There had been a time too when he had to make the biggest decision of his life. It was almost similar to the one his son was about to make except that it was more painful… more heartbreaking. "Think about this, son. You can still meet them every now and then if all of you are willing to do so. Your future and your friends go hand in hand together but they have to compromise." He tapped the brochure on Naruto's head. "Compromise. That's the best solution. I'll support your decision but you should be responsible." With that said, he returned the brochures on the table the way they were.

"Good night, Naruto."

"Yeah, night, father."

For a minute, he stared at the brochures then nodded his head. He finally made a decision. Naruto wrote Konoha down as his second choice, in case he didn't get into the preparatory school, he could always go to the same school as his friends, and perhaps find something he found of interest there as well. With a regretful sigh, Naruto filled out the application and headed to bed.

-SasuNaru is love-

The chattering and bustling of the students died down once the teacher sauntered into the classroom. Today was the day to hand in the sheets. Most of the girls talked about how much they had hoped to get into their first choice, until the teacher declared to have the forms turned in. Once she had them, she read one sheet after another. Once in a while, she would make comments such as, 'My, Konoha is a popular choice!'

Naruto felt his heart pounding inside his chest, what if his teacher was to make a comment on what he put for his first choice? What if his friends found out that he hadn't really thought all that much about Konoha?

He felt his heart stop once the teacher gave him a curious look, "Well," she began immediately catching everyone's attention, "What an interesting choice, especially coming from you, Uzumaki-kun."

He turned his head to see a pair of obsidian eyes, giving him a questioning look before settling into a glare. Naruto felt a pang in his heart as he saw more and more familiar eyes giving him the same look.

Once the bell rang, tanned hands rushed to grabs his belongings as soon as possible before making a mad dash towards the exit, and away from the weight of the questioning stares he felt at the back of his head. Why was he running away, anyway? It wasn't like he betrayed them or threw away their friendship.

'Almost home free...' Naruto thought as he ran down the long hallways towards his locker. 'Just a little bit mo-AH!'

Before anyone could predict it, Naruto felt hands roughly push him against the wall, it wasn't long before those hands, with the same amount of ferocity as before turned him around, meeting eyes with the one who gripped his collar and froze. Blue eyes locking into furious coal-black ones.

'I-I never seen Sasuke look so..cold.'

"Don't go.." Said a familiar monotonous voice from behind the Uchiha.

G-Gaara?

The red-head appeared from behind the angry Uchiha and jade eyes bore themselves into sapphire ones. Although his voice was commanding, what he said was more of a plea. He said what Sasuke couldn't say.

It took a while for Naruto to regain his ability to talk, for something had made itself present in his depths of his throat and prevented the blond boy from speaking.

"G-guys," Naruto started with a hoarse whisper, "What are you talking about? I-I'm not going anywhere!"

The boys glared at the blonde, obviously unconvinced by his horrible attempt at lying.

"Then what's with you running out of class like someone was chasing you out, Uzumaki?" Sasuke growled.

Naruto flinched. Ouch. The formality kind of stung, just a little bit.

The blonde let a sigh pass through his lips before attempting to avoid the Uchiha's question and avoid the stares of his other companions weigh down on him.

"Relax," came a voice from his right, "We're not MAD at you or anything! I just wanna know why you didn't tell us in the first place! I'm fine with that!"

Kiba…

Naruto smiled, as the brunette's words seemed to lighten the atmosphere and calm the flowing tension in the air.

"Different schools or not…it won't affect us unless we allow it."

Shino…

"Whether or not you want to do something, go for it, but you don't have to lie about it to us, Naruto.."

Gaara..

Hope flickered back into blue eyes as they turned to regard the only one who had yet to speak.

"Do what you want, but don't think you'll get away with trying to lie to us. You're pathetic at it...moron..."

Pale lips curled into a smirk once they fell into their normal routine.

"I'm no moron! Bastard!"

As the group of friends began to walk side-by-side to where they normally have lunch, Sasuke couldn't help but stare at his blonde-haired friend, whom was currently in an heated argument with Inuzuka, and wondered,

How long would this last?

That same question reverberated across everyone's minds, wondering how life would be without the one who seemed to breathe life into everyone.

TBC

Next chapter: The untold bitter goodbye right after their graduation.