Title: The Holding Game
Genre: Angst/Suspense
Rating: T+

Synopsis: While training in the forest one day, Sasuke and Naruto's pathological need to compete with one another causes them to commit a horrid act; after which their guilt and fear prompts them both to hold the biggest secret of their young lives.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The Holding Game
by Yamichik

(:Chapter 3:) It catches up to you

Naruto and Sasuke left the forest when it was dark. Leaving their hideous crime in the shadows of the falls. Naruto dropped his head and felt his eyes burn as hot tears welled up behind his lids. Sasuke looked straight ahead, letting no emotion slip his exterior. Silence was all there was that night between them.

The next day, Naruto opened his eyes and sat up in his bed. He had stripped from his training clothes and fallen asleep in his t-shirt and shorts on top of his blankets. He had a headache. He touched his forehead as he dragged himself from his bed. Memories from the previous night began to attack him and he squeezed his eyes closed and tried to purge his thoughts. It didn't work, and he saw red. Red water and red ground where the man's blood had spilled before him.

Looking up at the clock, he gave a groan as he saw the time, it was almost 9:00. Kakashi sensei usually had them meet at 9:15. He then decided to get a move on and leave for Friday training. He scuffled through his room and looked for something to put on. It was then that he saw the bloody and wet training outfit he had worn the night before. He froze for a second before violently scooping the clothing up and stuffing it into his trash can. He breathed for a few seconds before he composed himself once again and continued to prepare for the day, his only area of solace being that he hadn't known the old man's identity who's memory now tortured him.

Sasuke walked toward the meeting spot on the bridge slowly. He didn't want to be late, even though he knew Kakashi sensei would be. He was the first to arrive, even Sakura was running late today. He looked below himself and saw the water from the river flowing quickly.

"Sasuke." said a frail voice behind him. He turned around to see Naruto approaching the bridge. He looked rough.

"Hard time sleeping?" Sasuke asked.

"Not really." They were both silent for an extended amount of time before the next word was spoken.

"Village is quiet huh?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, like no one's even here."

"Like nothing's different…and no one's missing…"

"…I've been trying to forget." Said Naruto.

"Me too." Said Sasuke.

Once again, a long silence, broken only by Sakura's greeting to the two of them.

"Hi guys!" she chimed.

"Hey." The two of them said flatly in unison.

"Where's sensei?!" she asked "I was 10 minutes late myself and he's still not here?"

"No." replied Sasuke.

"Oh well, it can't be helped I guess." She shrugged as she joined the boys leaning over the bridge. Their three faces remained straight, and Naruto in particular noticed a change in their team's demeanor. After all, Sakura usually always made Naruto feel happy. But then again, everything was really messed up today.

Hours passed, and Kakashi showed up eventually at about 3 o'clock. Needless to say, the whole team was totally ticked off for being made to wait so long. Training sucked for the whole team. Even though he was extremely late, Kakashi was still confused as to why not even Sasuke was trying his best. He considered calling them together for a talk, but decided not to. They were probably just having 'adolescent moments'.

After training, Naruto started to go home, he was still kinda tired from the night before. Training ran long today, it was already getting dark, so why try to push himself to hang out late. He made his way home, and fixed a cup of ramen for himself. While waiting the dreaded 3 minutes he hated so much, a killer headache hit him right where it hurt. His head hurt all night, he eventually fell asleep though. The night sucked for Naruto.

In addition to his now constant headaches, sleeping wasn't remaining easy for Naruto either. As he woke the next day in his bed, he scratched his head and looked from his window. There were no training sessions scheduled for today, so technically he could sleep as long as he wanted. But seeing as how sleep wasn't his friend lately, his day off was pretty much a waste. Still, he needed something to do, he couldn't just sit around his apartment all day being tormented by his thoughts about what he and Sasuke had done a few days ago. Naruto got up and got ready to go out. Where, he didn't know, but he just felt like he had to get out. Naruto got dressed and opened his door. As immediately as he had pushed the knob away…

"Hey," A quiet and deep voice came from nowhere, nearly scaring the life out of the unsuspecting Naruto.

"Hokage-sama is calling for us all Naruto."

"Shino!" said Naruto in a blaming manner, "Don't DO that!"

"Excuse me, but he said it's urgent."

"Then I'll be right there." He said while catching his breath again. Shino nodded and walked away.

"Weirdo." Grumbled Naruto as he headed in the direction of the Hokage's mansion. He had gone from feeling depressed to feeling very irritable. After all, snapping on Shino like that. What did Shino ever do to anyone?

Sasuke had already left his apartment and was rounding the bend to the Hokage's mansion at the same time as Naruto. He glared at him and swallowed a dry lump as he realized that practically everyone in the village was around the Hokage's mansion. He uncomfortably walked past Naruto and joined the crowd, standing toward the front. Hokage-sama stood above them all on the balcony.

"I'm very deeply upset by this terrible occurrence." Sondaime said in a very solemn tone. "This man truly-" his voice cut off as he became slightly choked up. "I'm sorry. This man truly was one of my closest and oldest friends. He was supposed to appear at a meeting over dinner at the mansion, which fell on the day he was born. I wondered what kept him…I guess we now know the answer to that mystery."

Sasuke's heart skipped a beat as he nervously began to look around the crowd.

"To imagine him being brutally murdered and disfigured in such a horrid way." With that comment, Naruto, who was across the way, was in his own personal hell. His legs began to shake, and he turned quickly and walked off into the village. He didn't want to hear anymore.

Across the crowd, closer to Hokage Rock, stood Sasuke. He had heard too, and his heart held about twice as much fear, but unlike Naruto, he never faltered. After listening for the memorial information, Sasuke left and went around to Naruto's apartment. There, he stood at the door, but he didn't knock. He just stared at the door and then left. He had decided. He didn't need anyone to get him through this.

A few hours later, after some forced training in the academy gym, Sasuke returned to his apartment and ordered something to eat. The food wouldn't get there for about 30 minutes, so he sat there and stared at his walls. He had managed to escape thinking about what the Hokage had said earlier for a long time. However, now he was fighting a losing battle at keeping his mind away from it. He could barely accept the incredible irony that the old man was actually someone important.

Almost without thinking, he found himself reaching for his cell phone and calling the only person he could talk to about it.

"Hello?" said a tired voice over the phone.

"Naruto."

"Sasuke… hey, what's up?"

"Nothing really…" there was an awkward pause when neither boy wanted to say what they both knew was going to come up. "You sound tired." Said Sasuke. "Have you been doing some hard training today?"

"No… I haven't been able to make myself train." Sasuke heard Naruto breath a heavy sigh. "This is killing me Sasuke."

"Just deal with it." Said Sasuke firmly. "It will blow over soon."

"Blow over?" asked Naruto with an attitude.

"You know what I mean. Just give Konoha a little chance to heal. Then… we can start-"

"Forgiving ourselves?" Naruto cut in.

There was another silent pause as Sasuke thought to himself. 'I thought if I acted like I didn't care, then it wouldn't matter anymore… That if I just kept too busy to think about it, it would fade away… I was wrong. It caught up to me.'

He breathed over the phone for a second before speaking again.

"Just don't blow it Naruto. We've already done too much to back out now."

"I know that!" said Naruto.

"Fine, then hang up." Said Sasuke. "Try to get some rest, it'll just look suspicious if you and I are the only two stressed out basket cases in the village."

With that he hung up and laid back on his bed before the bell rang. His food was finally there, but somehow, he had completely lost his appetite.

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Hey y'all, Ch.4 is right up next! As always, you know I love them reviews, so keep em coming! Let the author know what's up.

Peace,
-Sabs