Funny, it looked so much longer when it was on paper. So, this is the Christmas chapter. I'm going away in, oh, 11 hours. I decided to postpone packing to churn out another chapter before I go away. You guys deserve it. I love people. I love reviewers, alerters, favouriters, and readers in general. I love it. It makes me feel very happy.

Hopefully, questions will be answered this chapter.

Enjoy.

Sasuke's ear was almost airtight to the bathroom door by the time the main door was closed and the couple outside has begun to talk in not-so-hushed tones. Curiosity had overcome his better judgement and he was now only interested in overhearing as much as possible.

"Do we have to do this now, Naruto?" Sakura's voice complained.

"You're the one making a scene, Sakura," Naruto replied. His voice was darker, more serious than usual.

"Are you seriously going to dump me in Sai's posing room?!"

"I'd rather not, but after you just made out with Kiba right in front of me, that seems like a good option."

Sasuke's tiny corresponding gasp was covered up by Sakura's roar of outrage.

"You know, if you'd been paying the slightest bit of attention to me these last few weeks, maybe it wouldn't have gotten this far out of hand!" She sounded as angry as Tiger's wife.

"I never expected my girlfriend to sleep with everyone in our year!"

SMACK! "Ow! Let go of me, Naruto!"

"Fuck. Sakura, if you hit me again, I'll destroy your reputation for good."

"Well, I could do some pretty substantial damage to your reputation too, you know!"

"…What are you talking about? I have nothing to be ashamed of."

"Sometimes I wonder why you even bothered asking me out in the first place. Everyone knows you're gay!"

Sasuke inhaled sharply. Well, that was unexpected. He listened intently for Naruto's reply.

"Wrong. I'm bisexual, Sakura. If I were gay, I wouldn't have put up with your adultery for this long. I'd have dumped your ass and gone off to find some dude to fuck. But I stayed with you, didn't I?"

"You did it out of guilt. If you really felt anything for me, you would have broken up with me already instead of dragging out a dying relationship. I know you're hung up on someone else."

Another pause. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Quit playing dumb, you idiot, Sasuke thought. Sakura was really going to let him have it in a minute.

"I don't know if it's a guy or a girl or an alien, but your eyes have been on someone else for weeks! We've been together for five months, but you've been my best friend my whole life, Naruto! I can read you like a book, cover to cover."

Sakura's voice trailed off.

"Look, I know that what we once had is long gone, but know that it wasn't just my fault that this came crashing down around our ears. And you're gonna be really lonely unless you address who you've been after."

The door clicked. A deep exhalation told Sasuke that Sakura was the one who left.

"Sasuke, you can come out now."

Instead of freezing up in pure terror like any sane person would upon hearing someone say something like that, assuming that said person had known all along that you were in the vicinity when they were breaking up with their girlfriend, Sasuke swallowed his reaction, cursed under his breath, opened the bathroom door and walked out.

"How'd you know it was me?"

Naruto looked up. He was sitting on the sofa that Sasuke had previously occupied, his arms and legs crossed. He grinned slightly.

"I saw you come in here with Karin. Didn't notice you leaving, though when Sakura started freaking out and forced me to come in here, I didn't have time to make sure you weren't in here anymore. I really just guessed that you were still here."

Sasuke scuffed a toe on the carpet. "Sorry, man. About Sakura, and eavesdropping…"

Naruto waved at him to stop. "Don't be, it wasn't your fault on both counts." His eyes flickered with something that Sasuke couldn't recognise, but that blue gaze diverted from his own and he didn't see it again. "After all, she was right. I wasn't just her." Naruto looked up at Sasuke. "You ever been with someone like that?"

"What, someone who sleeps around? Nah. I've only ever been with someone once, I as thirteen and it wasn't really a relationship."

"Thirteen? That's rough."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, shoving the bad memories from his mind.

Naruto must have seen his face, for he didn't press for details. "So, you're not with anyone at the moment?"

"No, why?" Sasuke had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"Would you be interested in going out with me?"

Wow. Ask that any time apart from now and Sasuke would have accepted immediately. But…

"Sorry, Naruto, but I don't think that would be the best idea at the moment."

"Oh," Naruto muttered. Sasuke felt a stab of guilt as he surveyed the other guy. The blonde looked … crushed. "Sorry, I didn't realise… I feel sort of stupid now…"

"Naruto," Sasuke cut in, "it's not that I don't like you. I do; a lot."

Naruto gazed at him. Sasuke felt the blush spreading across his cheeks, but thankfully the room was rather dark and hid it satisfactorily.

"But I don't want to be a rebound from a messy break-up. If you want to be with me, it has to be for me, not a replacement for Sakura or whoever you're all tangled up over." He could practically hear his Inner Karin cheering him on as he placed his hand on the door handle.

"Idiot."

Sasuke stilled in his action of turning the handle to open the door. "What?"

"You're the one I've been hung up on."

Sasuke's eyes widened, then slid shut. The door slammed, and Naruto was alone.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!" Sasuke muttered as he wove through the people outside the room. Not only had he just witnessed his most-hated-couple breaking up, but he had also been asked out by Naruto Uzumaki, and he had subsequently turned him down.

In normal situations, with normal people, the subject would subdue his emotions with a straight shot of vodka or some such alcoholic beverage, but Sasuke Uchiha was not a normal person. He was frustrated and angry and going through an early-life crisis, and his best friends were nowhere in sight…

Oh wait, there they are, Sasuke thought as he shoved his way over to the staircase. Suigetsu was sitting on the bottom stair, Karin draped over his lap, and they were both making out like teenagers on a summer's day. Suigetsu caught sight of him first, pulling away from his girlfriend, and stared at Sasuke instead.

"What the hell happened to you?"

Karin eyed him with concern; Suigetsu looked suspicious.

"I have to talk to you guys," Sasuke murmured.

"Does this have anything to do with why Sakura Haruno has been crying into Hinata's shoulder for the last ten minutes?" Karin asked.

"It has everything to do with that."

"Ooh, intrigue," Karin whispered conspiratorially, tugging Suigetsu up the stairs. Sasuke followed, and all three of them ended up in… another posing room.

"This is getting annoying," Sasuke grunted. Suigetsu shot him a confused look, and he ceded, "I think all the rooms in this house are like this one. It's like a fucking labyrinth."

Suigetsu nodded as he and Karin sat on one of the sofas. "Yeah, I heard Sai's pretty full on. Now, what's up? Sock it to me quick, bro."

"Naruto just asked me out," Sasuke blurted, and immediately looked away from his friends, embarrassed by his forward attitude.

Karin blinked, and then started out of her seat, but Suigetsu retrained her with a hand on her shoulder. She remained on the sofa, but glared disapprovingly at Sasuke.

"Tell me you turned him down," she started, and Suigetsu threw her an incredulous look. "If you got together with Naruto five minutes after he broke up with Sakura —"

Sasuke decided to let her rant for a while longer so he could think a bit more about his course of action.

"—I would be extremely disappointed in you. I mean, that is something you just don't do, even if you are completely infatuated with the guy—"

"What?" Suigetsu put in, changing the direction of his vision from his girlfriend to his best friend. "You're 'infatuated'? Here was me thinking you were just checking him out!"

"Calm down, Suigetsu, Sasuke hasn't confirmed anything yet. Although, I will be pretty pissed if he accepted Naruto's offer. What kind of guy asks another guy out right after he breaks a girl's heart, anyway?"

"Apparently Naruto," Sasuke said at last. "And don't worry, Mother, I did turn him down. Naruto broke up with Sakura because she's a cheating slut, but she dumped him because he was hung up over someone else. Then he busted me listening in from the bathroom which no, Suigetsu, I didn't do on purpose, and asked me out. Then he dropped the bomb that I was the one that Sakura left him about."

Suigetsu let out a long, low whistle. "Wow. You're a homewrecker, Sasuke," he chuckled. "But seriously, on the 'cheating slut' part, I reckon Naruto did the right thing. If she were my girlfriend, I would've slapped that bitch up if she did that to me." He winced as Karin smacked him in the shoulder. "The worst part is, I reckon Naruto's known about it for a while. I mean, it was only a matter of time."

"How many guys did she actually sleep with?" Sasuke asked, curiosity spiking.

"Well, I heard a minute ago that it was around about a guy a week for the last two months. She and Naruto were together for almost five months."

"Jeez," Sasuke muttered. Sakura really had been getting around.

"The guys who were closer to Naruto that to Sakura told him what she was doing, though," Suigetsu mused. "Maybe he would have done something about her sooner if he hadn't gotten caught up on you. Guess he though it was fair, the way they were both sort of involved with other people."

"It was convenient for him to stay with Sakura if he was uncertain about Sasuke," Karin added. "Now, I know we all enjoy bitching about Sakura, but it's this duck-butt freak here that we have to think about at the moment."

"Naruto is bisexual," Sasuke stated, beginning to pace in front of the sofa. Karin was going to have none of that, though, and dragged him down to sit on her other side. She wrapped the arm that wasn't wrapped around Suigetsu's waist around his shoulders, and pulled them all back into a relaxed, reclining position.

"So we know he likes you. We know that you haven't fallen for a straight guy, thank god. We know that he broke up with his girlfriend for you. And we know that he asked you out and you turned him down in an impressive display of moral fibre."

"We know all this already, babe," Suigetsu complained.

"I'm just laying all the cards on the table, Suigetsu," Karin snapped. "The thing is, we're the only ones besides Sasuke who do know about this course of events. So zip the lips, all right?"

"Yeah, okay," Suigetsu ceded. "What I want to know is, why didn't you tell me you were digging someone for real, Sasuke?"

"I don't know," Sasuke admitted honestly. "I guess I thought you might tease me even more mercilessly if you knew."

"So, no mercy at all?" Suigetsu chuckled. "Nah. I think I wouldn't be able to tease you at all if you weren't perving on the whole team anymore."

"I don't 'perve on the whole team', Suigetsu," Sasuke argued. "Just… select few."

"Like Naruto."

"Yes, like Naruto."

Karin touched Sasuke's shoulder gently. "You're going to have to trust him if the two of you get together."

Sasuke stiffened.

"I know that trust is a big thing for you to impart, but trusting each other is a vital part of every relationship. You trust us two, right?" Karin gestured to herself and Suigetsu.

"Yeah," Sasuke answered, giving her a small smile. "We're friends, after all."

"But you used to be friends with Naruto when you guys were in elementary school. By rights you should trust him more than us, since we only really met you three years ago."

"Yeah, but I had to leave," Sasuke countered. "I left, and when I came back it was never the same between us. And not for lack of trying, either. We were just never really close after that. So I didn't really have any, well, good friends until you guys came along."

"Aw, shucks, duckbutt," Suigetsu simpered, ducking when Sasuke took a swipe at him from behind Karin. "I didn't realise your heart had warmed up a little since you met us."

"Well, considering that Naruto had the guts to ask you out directly after he dumped Sakura, we can assume that he's gonna try again," Karin intoned.

"So what do I do if he does?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Karin added sarcastically.

"No," Suigetsu offered.

"He accepts, of course! This could be the start of a wonderful new relationship for the little freak.

Just as Sasuke was about to explain how much he resented being called a freak, there was a bang from the hallway and the door burst open.

"Whoa…" Ino Yamanaka exclaimed, pinned almost nose-to-nose to Shikamaru Nara, who was surveying the trio with an expressionless curiosity that only Sasuke recognised.

"Wrong room," Shikamaru muttered. "Sorry, guys, all the rooms in this house look the same."

The door shut again, and Sasuke was the first to speak.

"Looks like the party's winding down. I think I'll go home now."

"Hey, hold up," Suigetsu interrupted. "I'll give you a ride. Coming, babe?"

Karin nodded affirmatively. "Yeah. I've had just about enough partying for one night."

"Well, I've had enough drama to last me a week," Sasuke muttered, standing up and waiting as the other two followed suit.

As they fought through the crowds of drunken teenagers to reach the front doors, Karin shouted, "Isn't Itachi supposed to pick you up, Sasuke?"

"Only if I call him to tell him I'm leaving," Sasuke shouted back. "And he's probably across town, patrolling with Dad, anyway."

"Just as well," Suigetsu added, as Karin began to pout. When Sasuke sent him a questioning look, the sharp-toothed guy shrugged and said, "Karin pervs on him too much, man. I don't like it."

Sasuke shook his head. Out of the corner of his eye as they left the house and walked down the driveway, he saw Sakura, her leg hooked over Kiba Inuzuka's hip, her hands under his shirt as she basically sucked his face off.

"Give her one second…" Sasuke snarled.

Karin and Suigetsu stopped and glanced over to where he was looking.

"Probably just stress relief," Karin imparted. "I heard that Kiba's a real demon in bed." When Suigetsu glared at her, she was quick to add, "I didn't get that information first hand, Suigetsu. I heard it from Ino, who heard it from another girl."

"Speaking of Ino," Sasuke began, as the three of them started to walk again, "how do you think Deidara would react if he knew Shikamaru was rutting his sister?"

"I reckon he'd cheer them on," Suigetsu answered. "Maybe say something about the artistic explosiveness of the passionate love shared between two parties."

"You're starting to sound a little too much like Gai there, Suigetsu," Sasuke snickered.

"Oh, man! There is one guy I won't miss when we graduate. The moment I'm clear of this school, I'll never have to do fifty lunges for a crazy jumpsuit-wearing guy ever again."

"He always was a fair bit harsher on you than anyone else," Karin pondered.

"Payback for my brother being such a lazy punkass, I guess," Suigetsu said. "From what Kisame told me, Gai never liked him, but he couldn't ever get him to do anything because of one thing. Gai already had three warnings from randomly attacking students, and for another thing, Kisame was always so goddamn massive that Gai wussed out."

When they reached Suigetsu's red car, parked on the side of the road, Karin clambered into the backseat, Sasuke into the passenger seat, and Suigetsu into the driver's seat. He revved the car and sped away from the house, passing many people who swaggered, drunkenly, away from the brightness of the headlights.

Fifteen minutes later, Suigetsu pulled up outside Sasuke's house. As the brunette got out, Karin placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't think about it too much, Sasuke. Unpredictability is a good feature of a satisfactory relationship. We'll see you at school tomorrow."

Sasuke nodded and closed the car door. He walked up to his front door, opened it, and disappeared inside.

I know the party seems rather short, but I wasn't thinking about the party. I wonder if I'm the only one who noticed that.

As a Christmas present, perhaps I could get some reviews? They make me so happy. I'll be back for the New Year...

xoxo

Sharana