Chapter 2: The Beginning of the End

I'm Hiroki Kyra, 14, sweet, straightforward, tomboyish and loving. When I was young my brother always told me that I was special, that I had a talent that no one else probably had. He said that I could easily tell what people are feeling and that I was an empath, like that chic in Charmed. Because of that I became friends with the two most opposite people in the world.

"Yo Neko-chan let's go!" Naru-chan shouted from the window across mine.

Naru-chan, now 15, was able to get emancipation from his snake uncle and was now living in a house beside mine, which he shared with Sasu-chan by the way. Surprising isn't it? Oh yeah, he wasn't sent to the foster care system because snake uncle found out that Naru-chan had a huge trust fund of some sort and when I say huge I meant bigger-than-what-Bill-Gates-earns-in-a-year huge and it's still accumulating interest as we speak. But of course he wasn't included in the most wealthy men list of a magazine because he wasn't allowed to get full control over his trust fund until he was 21. He was granted emancipation because Naru-chan was able to prove in court that he was being maltreated by snake uncle and was made into a slave; and not just the kind that you whip to work, the kind that you whip to fuck. Of course erotic novel uncle and aunt doctor had nothing to do with it because snake uncle threw them out the moment he discovered the trust fund, he was really greedy. We didn't know what was happening to him until one day; five years years ago, Naru-chan came to school with whisker like wounds on his cheeks. He tried to hide it but I was persistent and saw the deep gashes on both of his cheeks. He didn't want to talk so I persuaded Sasu-chan to come with me and follow Naru-chan home. We discovered what was happening at that house. We videotaped it and Naru-chan was more than thankful to what we did. He used it as evidence and got emancipated right away, and snake uncle was sent to jail. I think he's the youngest person ever emancipated in the history of Konoha, Japan or probably the whole country. However, my brother presented himself as Naru-chan's guardian-slash-overseer until he reaches 18 so he began living with us 'til he was older enough to take care of himself, and that would be when he was 15.

It wasn't until I was 8 that I discovered that Naru-chan was the only son of Namikaze Minato. He was a famous scientist with doctoral degrees in astro physics, biology, and engineering and was known for his expertise in foxes and some other thing that was too complicated for me to understand even up to now. Don't ask me about the foxes; it baffles me as what he could have possibly known about foxes that made him so famous. My brother keeps explaining to me but I still don't get the big deal about foxes. Plus he's uber rich, thus the ridiculously huge trust fund.

Anyway, Sasu-chan got tired of living in a huge mansion by himself so he asked his brother if he could live on his own. Naturally Itachi-niki, Sasu-chan's brother, disapproved. My brother, who became real good friends with Itachi-niki, suggested that the two boys live together in that house next to ours that was being sold by the previous owners. That way, he said, Sasu-chan won't be living alone and brother could keep an eye on both of them. Brother hated the two boys since I was a girl and they were boys and well I guess you get the picture but he saw how much Sasu-chan and Naru-chan cared for me, despite always bickering and fighting with each other, so he just let it go with a warning that none of them touches me or else they die.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I yelled back at him as I pulled my lavender hair up in a ponytail.

I ran down the stairs, grabbed a few toasts, shoved one down my throat and ran out the door where my two best friends were waiting for me. Sasu-chan was brooding at the corner silently, really, how many years does he need to loosen up? Naru-chan's smile was beaming at me with his arms over his shoulder, behind his head and holding on to his bag. I threw them the toasts, Sasu-chan caught it with his hand while Naru-chan caught it with his mouth.

"Will you stop doing that Naru-chan , you look like a dog."

"A fox you mean, my dad was working on them and I have the whiskers don't I?" Naru-chan said with a laugh. It's really amazing how Naru-chan could still smile, laugh and joke about his whiskers when he knew what those whiskers reminded him of.

"Neko-chan, where are your glasses?" Sasu-chan pointed out.

Uh-oh, I left my glasses upstairs and I have no time to –

"Kyra!"

I turned around and caught my glasses right on time.

"Kyr you fool what if I didn't catch it, it would've been in pieces by now!" I yelled to my brother.

"I knew your reflexes were good. Now go sis!"

It was true, my reflexes were good, so was my hearing, sense of smell and touch, plus I could easily sense if there are people around, like now.

"Hey the pink one's here again." I said in a soft voice.

"I know." Naru-chan said and we both stared at Sasu-chan.

Naru-chan and Sasu-chan's hearing was exceptionally great too, we could speak in really soft voices and only the three of us would be able to hear.

"Yours I presume?" Naru-chan said in a very hushed voice but with a tinge of, hmm, I dunno what that is, it was the first time I heard that kind of tone from Naru-chan. Wait is that emotion—? Ah crap.

Sasu-chan just hunched his back and walked a few steps ahead of us.

"Boy they sure are getting braver these girls."

Naru-chan simply huffed which made me wonder if my hunch was right. That day Sasu-chan seemed a little more reclusive than usual and what's little to Naru-chan and I was already a lot to others, so, he was avoided by everyone that day.

"Ey Kyra what's with the Uchiha?" Kiba, a classmate of ours, asked as he sat on our table.

"No idea."

"Is he sick or something?" Chouji, our gluttonous but overwhelmingly thin and charming friend asked.

"I dunno."

"Did a fan girl tackle him again?" Hinata, our shy albeit kind friend since elementary asked.

"I dunno."

"You're his best friend, you should know about these things." Neji, Hinata's cousin and a year older than most of us, said.

"Hey back off Neji, being his best friend doesn't necessarily mean that I know what's on his mind. I'm an empath not a mind reader you moron."

"Ouch." Kiba said which earned him a glare from Neji.

It was a known fact in our group that Neji has a crush on me that's why he's hanging out with us despite being our sempai, but I don't, end of story.

Then Naru-chan walked in the cafeteria with his loud bubbly laughter but the moment he caught sight of the brooding Sasu-chan his mood suddenly changed. He sat beside me and ate his lunch quietly leaving all of the people, with the exception of Sasu-chan (who was not paying any attention to him or so he thought everybody thought, everybody but me) and I, with their mouths hanging open in shock.

"I think they're both sick. One of them must've caught something and the other caught it too, since they live in one house." Lee, our furry browed friend, also from elementary, said.

"Don't be ridiculous, they don't look sick you idiot." Ten ten, the nicest yet most dangerous female, next to me of course, in our group replied as she smacked Lee at the back of the head.

"Maybe they fought again last night." Shikamaru, our lazy but brilliant friend pitched in.

"There aren't any fresh wounds you lazy ass fool." Ino, our resident gossip girl said immediately.

"You're all paying too much attention to this. Maybe they both just got up from the wrong side of the bed." Shino, our other quiet and mysterious, but not as quiet and mysterious as Sasu-chan, friend said.

"Maybe they had sex." Sai, our weird and most probably psychotic art genius suddenly said flatly with a weird freaky smile plastered on his pale skin.

Sasu-chan almost choked on his Gatorade and no one noticed but me.

"You guys, we could hear you, you know. We're sitting right here." Naru-chan said as he continued eating his mac n' cheese.

"So what is wrong with the two of you? Sasuke's dark aura's thicker today than usual and your mood swings are driving us all mad!" Kiba exclaimed.

"What's with the shouting?" Gaara, a new friend this year (he and his siblings were transferees), courtesy of Naru-chan, asked as he sat on our table with his two siblings, Kankuro-sempai and Temari –sempai. Then everyone started talking about how Naru-chan and Sasu-chan seem to be different that day.

I took off my glasses and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was getting a migraine because of all the loud noise, my sensitive ears can't handle it. Seriously, they're all older than me by a year, except for Neji, Temari and Kankuro whose two years older than me, and yet they all act like kids. I sighed as I opened my eyes and found my surroundings were a blur.

'That's odd I think my eyes got worse than before, it wasn't this blurry this morning.'

"Neko-chan! You okay?" I heard Naru-chan ask. I put on my glasses and blinked.

"Huh."

"What do you mean 'huh?"

"Nothing, nothing what was it that you were saying Naru-chan?"

"I said, would you like to go to the arcade after school? Kiba, Chouji, Ten ten and I are going wanna come?"

"I'll come too.", Gaara said.

I blinked another few times but my eyesight was still blurry even with my glasses on.

"Uhh...I think I'll pass. Something's wrong with my eyes again so I better go check it with my doctor."

"Oh alright would you like me to come with you then?"

"Nah it's okay, Sasu-chan can come with me, right?"

Sasu-chan lifted his head from his peas and stared at me like I was some kind of alien.

"Ne Sasu-chan, we haven't had time to hang out just the two of us so this'll be great, ne, ne?"

Sasu-chan's eyes passed Naru-chan for a quick second before anyone else could notice it before giving me a positive answer. I noticed Naru-chan stare at us like he knew what was going on. Seriously those wheels on his head quickly move when it comes to these kinds of things but when it comes to school it rarely runs. I have to deal with him soon but I needed to clear something up with Sasu-chan first before I make a move at anything. Being an empath could be tiresome at times, especially if you're surrounded by two boys who have the most erratic set of emotions ever known to man.

Sasu-chan accompanied me to my optometristand had my eyes checked for the nth time this month. I don't know what the hell is happening to me but it sure is getting annoying. It took a while before the doctor came back to us. He gave me prescription for a new set of glasses,

'Great.' I thought, 'Now where the hell am I gonna get the money to buy a new one. Sheez.'

As if reading my mind Sasu-chan offered to buy me the glasses. I tried to refuse but he used the 'Itachi-niki' trump card on me. He called Itachi-niki and placed him on speaker phone,

"Kyra you will get those glasses now. Sasuke make sure she gets her new glasses today and use your platinum card to pay for it. Don't settle for cheap ones okay? I gotta go, I've got a meeting to go to."

Sasu-chan grinned at me evilly, I was defeated by the Uchiha brothers and I hated it.

While waiting for my new glasses to finish, I finally took the only chance I would probably get this week.

"You had sex with Naru-chan didn't you Sasu-chan?"

Sasu-chan choked on his own saliva, if that was even possible. His heart began to beat faster and his emotions were confused, panicked and...wait...is that embarrassed?

"Oh my god you DID sleep with him!"

"No, no, no it wasn't like that! I...uhmmm...I..."

Now his emotions were pure embarrassment and I can't figure out why the hell would he be embarrassed if he hadn't slept with—oh wait I think I know.

"Oh my god you masturbate with Naru-chan in mind!"

All the sales lady in the shop began giggling while some other customers stared at me like I was some kind of bad cheese. Sasu-chan shook his head in defeat and huffed out a sigh before saying,

"You're too direct Neko-chan, can't you tone it down a bit?"

"Okay I'm sorry about the volume," I began talking in our soft volume, "But is it really true that you masturbate with Naru-chan in mind?"

Sasu-chan glared at me.

"By toning down I meant your choice of words. You're a girl Kyra and it's not nice to hear those kinds of words from a lady."

"Oh you're too gay for comfort, don't tell me how I speak. I've been this way since the first day we met, remember?"

"I know, I know but seriously we're all getting older now and it doesn't sound nice."

"Whatever Sasu-chan you're changing the subject. Do you or do you not masturbate with Naru-chan in thought?"

Sasu-chan turned his back from me instantly and walked away. Having spent almost 10 years with him and Naru-chan I've learned how to interpret their actions and that ladies and gentlemen was a solid-no-doubt-in-a-million-year, YES.

I grabbed my new glasses from the sales lady and ran after my friend.

"Sasu-chan wait up!"

"What else do you want?"

"I just need to know one thing."

"What?" Sasu-chan exclaimed angrily.

"Do you like Naru-chan?"

"No." His heart skipped a beat and his emotions were focused on one answer.

"Okay let me rephrase that alright? Do you love Naru-chan?"

He didn't answer me, he just placed his hands in his pocket and walked faster, so, I matched his pace.

"Come on Sasu-chan you know I'm an empath and right now that's the only thing radiating from you. It used to be hate and disgust, and then as we grew older it became care, concern, respect, amazement. Now these past few months it became a little more than that, am I right?"

"Yes."

"Now I want to CLEARLY hear it from you, do you love Naru-chan?"

Sasu-chan stopped on his tracks and looked at me, for the first time in my entire life I saw a different look on his face, a look of exasperation and desperation.

"Yes. I do love Naruto."

I smiled evilly as the wheels of my head began to turn.

"Okay great then! I'll just go get Naru-chan and then everything will be fine."

"NANI? Ch-chotto mate yo Neko-chan!" Sasu-chan shouted as he ran after me.

I happily ran as fast as I could but if there's one other person that could outrun me that would be Sasu-chan so I tried my best. In the middle of my gleeful run I began to feel dizzy, like all my blood suddenly rushed to my head. My eyesight began to blur and I was getting double vision, I felt like the world was spinning too fast so I slowed down to a halt and placed an arm on the wall to support my weight. I could faintly hear Sasu-chan calling out to me until all there's left for me to hear was the loud beating of my heart in my ears. I felt my knees giving up and that's when everything went black.