WARNING: Neji POV, YAOI, a little bit of OOC, Cursing

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto in any way.

(AN) Yay, an update! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. There is a lot to cover so I'll take things little at a time. I hope you guys enjoy this (There isn't really much action going here just a lot of dialogue). I'm really happy you guys have stuck with me throughout all my random disappearance. I appreciate it all.

Chapter 18: Relationships are based on trust

Gaara came home after a long day. His whole body ached and all he wanted to do was take a long hot bath. There was no one home when he arrived so he figured dinner hasn't been made yet. Sighing, Gaara headed for his room. He looked around and noted how messy his room had gotten. Has he been that neglectful? Surely Temari would have something to say if she even had a quick peek of his room. Gaara walked over to his computer and turned it on. He then walked over to his wardrobe and took out a nice and comfortable pajama bottom along with an old white tee. The red head walked over to the bathroom and turned on the bath and walked back to his room as he waited for it to fill up. He decided he would check his e-mails.

You have (3) new messages

First Message:

From: xiNsErT69hErEx

To: PersistentTears

Subject: Hey…

Gaara! I had such a horrible day today. You won't believe me but I was kidnapped! Well, sort of. I'm so depressed! That Kenta guy set me up. He said he had something about Sasuke that I should know about. Of course I'm so stupid and fell for the trap! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Anyways, so Sai decided to molest me. I seriously hate him! I can't believe he tried to ruin my relations with Sasuke. He umm… he gave me a hickey. Take note it was forced. He had these huge ass muscle men holding on to me. I want to call the police or get a restraining order against him but I'm afraid he might do something. I'm in the public library right now because I'm too sad to go home. I feel so damn dirty. I know this is a cliché phrase but my life totally sucks! Well, I'll probably be home already by the time you read this. Call me if you can.

PS. How was your little trip? I hope everything was A-okay. I worry about you man.

Naruto

End

Gaara decided to check the other e-mails later. He didn't like the situation his friend was in one bit. Things were starting to get serious and this scared Gaara. People really went out of their way to make their lives miserable. Did the creator really put people like that on earth? Taking his pajama bottom and his white tee, Gaara headed for his awaiting bath. He would call Naruto later.

---

"Hello, is Naruto home?"

"Yes he is. May I ask who is speaking?"

"Oh it's Gaara."

"Why, hello Gaara! How are you?"

"I'm fine thanks."

"Alright, let me go ahead and get Naruto for you."

Gaara stayed quite on the other line until he heard the voice of his friend. "Thanks for calling Gaara." Naruto said on the other line. He wasn't his bouncy happy self right now.

"Are you okay?" The red head asked.

He heard Naruto sigh on the other line, "No not really. It just bothers me that people could be this cruel to another human being."

"Well that's the world for you. There are bad people and there are good ones."

"Yeah I know. But still, going out with Sai was a very bad idea. I mean look how psychotic he is about me. I don't want to end up watching my back all the time."

"Are you going to tell Sasuke what happened?"

"I don't know. Should I?"

"Well he does deserve to know. Let's just hope he doesn't go crazy and kill people."

"Gaara! Don't say that." Naruto sighed, "Maybe I'll tell him later when he calls. Oh yeah, by the way, Neji is worried about you. I think he might be calling you soon."

"You did say I had to be home urgently right?"

"Yeah. I had to try and escape him because he kept asking me questions. Of course I made up some lame excuse so I can get away from him."

"Speaking of Neji, I think he's calling me on the other line. I'll see you tomorrow alright?"

"Okay, bye!"

Gaara hung up on his blonde friend and picked up the other line, "Hello?"

"Hey Gaara it's me." Said a familiar voice.

Gaara couldn't help but smile, "Hi."

"What happened today? Is everyone at your house okay?"

Gaara gulped, "Uh yeah. They're fine. Temari wanted me to get something at the grocery store because she was cooking dinner early. Knowing her she wants her ingredients right there and now." He hated lying to Neji.

Neji squinted his eyes in suspicion. "Oh really? Hold one second."

"Um, okay."

Neji covered the mouth piece and headed for his living room. He spotted some of his friends in there watching television. Lee was cuddling with Tenten on the couch. He didn't think the two were paying much attention to the movie at all. Next to them was Sasuke who looked pissed off for some reason and was now stuffing his face with pizza. It was so unlike him. On the floor was Shikamaru and he was holding onto none other than Temari. How could Temari be here and there at the same time?

"Don't lie to me." Neji said bluntly on the other line.

"What are you talking about?" Gaara tried to play off.

"Your sister is here. So how the hell can she be cooking you dinner?" Neji sat back down on his bed. "Gaara, I don't know what's going on here and I don't like that you are keeping something from me."

Gaara was defeated. Gaara was caught in his own lie. "Neji, please don't be mad. It's a long story. I was going to tell you about it sooner or later but not right now."

"Is it another man?"

"What?! No! That's so far from it. Please just trust me on this. I know you probably don't trust me anymore after that lie I just told you but please you have to trust me on this one."

"You're really difficult to read. Well, I'm going to go now. I'm not really in the mood to talk."

"Please, don't be mad. I just don't want you to think of me differently or maybe leave me after you find out."

"So you think I'm that type of person who would leave another in a difficult situation? I guess you don't know me at all Gaara."

"Neji…" Gaara tried to say back but heard the sound of the dial tone instead. He threw the cell phone against the wall not caring if it broke. He walked over to his bed and curled up under the warmth of his comforter. Gaara wanted this all to be just a bad dream. Tomorrow he will wake up and everything will be back to normal. He wanted to cry but he forced himself not to. Being weak will get him nowhere.

---

I felt guilty for hanging up the phone on Gaara but I was too pissed off to continue talking. I hated being lied to and Gaara telling me an obvious lie really got me angry. He even had the nerve to think I was some kind of uncaring bastard. I don't think he'll ever understand that I care about him so much and I don't really give a damn what happened in his past. I just wish he realizes this. I sat on my bed and stared blankly at the wall. I began to contemplate to myself whether or not I should call him back. I sighed and buried my face in my hands. This relationship business was getting more difficult that I would like it to be and Gaara being so insecure about everything isn't helping the situation at all. I then decided to have a one on one talk with Temari. Maybe his sister would provide some answers Gaara couldn't answer himself.

I walked in on my friends who decided watching a lame horror movie suited the night. I believe Sasuke was the only one watching. Well, he looked more like he was pretending to watch. I wouldn't blame him. He was being surrounded by couples who had more interests in their partner rather than the movie itself.

"Hey Temari. Can I talk to you real quick?" I felt like a loser interrupting their little make out session. Shika glared at me when his woman stood up and walked towards me.

"What's up pretty boy?" She smiled.

"Can we talk in private for a bit? I need to talk to you about Gaara."

She patted my shoulder, "Sure, anything for my brother's man." Temari looked over her shoulder and smiled at Shika who now had his arms crossed glaring at the both of us. "Hey babe, save those luscious lips for later. Pretty boy and I have some important things to discuss. Oh c'mon! Don't give me that look. Don't make me go over there and smack you!" She giggled. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and began to watch the movie.

I dragged the blonde towards the kitchen where it was nice and quiet. "So, what do you want to talk about?" She asked as she sat herself down on one of the island stools.

"I just talked to your brother a few minutes ago. I don't know what's gotten over him but I caught him lying to me."

She grabbed an apple from the island counter and started to play with it around her fingers. "That's rather interesting." She said without taking her eye off the apple. "What happened?"

"I was supposed to drop him off home after school and well, Naruto told me earlier that Gaara had to go home urgently. Of course I was worried so I called him a few minutes ago. I asked if everything was okay. I already knew something wasn't right when you came to my house with Shika and acted like nothing has happened. I wasn't planning on saying anything to you until I talked to Gaara."

Temari looked at me, "Okay, go on."

"When I did ask he said that you had him go to the grocery store to buy a few things for dinner."

"That's weird. I was in Shika's house after work."

"Exactly. So I tried to ask Gaara what the truth was but he wouldn't tell me."

Temari suddenly dropped the apple she was holding, "Wait, what's the date today?"

I raised an eyebrow, "It's the week before Halloween. It's Friday the twenty fourth."

She gasped, "Ohhh! I see." Temari got up and started walking back to the living room.

"Wait? What do you mean you see?"

"You have nothing to worry about. Gaara isn't cheating on you or anything. He'll tell you soon enough. Don't worry about it."

"I'm so confused right now. Why can't you tell me instead?"

She weakly smiled at me, "It's not my place to tell you. Gaara would be the only one to say it. Just wait it out. I promise it's not another guy so stop worrying." Temari left me standing in the kitchen alone trying to piece the puzzle together but I couldn't. I would have to trust Temari's words and hopefully Gaara would have enough nerves to tell me. Maybe I should call him back and apologize for my behavior.

I went upstairs and got my cell phone from my room. I sat on my desk and dialed Gaara's cell phone number. I was expecting my boyfriend to answer back but I just received a voicemail. There were no rings at all. Maybe he turned it off. I wouldn't blame him for being pissed at me. I'll just go over to his house tomorrow and hopefully he'll forgive me.

---

Naruto was sitting on Sasuke's lap as he watched his boyfriend check his e-mail on his computer. Sasuke decided to visit his boyfriend after Neji's boring and uncomfortable movie night. Sasuke wasn't even sure why he agreed to go. He hated being around couples because he couldn't be publicly seen with his own.

Naruto currently was occupied with playing with Sasuke's ear with his mouth. The blonde loved making Sasuke squirm.

"Dobe, stop that. I'm trying to read something."

"Aww, Sasuke! You're no fun."

"Why are you so playful tonight huh?"

Naruto nuzzled against his boyfriends hair, "What are you talking about. I'm like this all the time!"

Sasuke turned his head to look Naruto, "You have been acting strange since I've got here. So you've got one minute to tell me what's wrong or I'm going home."

"Are you saying it's now a crime to do things with my boyfriend without being accused of something?" Naruto pouted.

"I'm serious."

"Fine…"

"So there is something wrong then. Tell me what it is right now." Sasuke demanded.

"Promise not to get mad?"

"It depends what it is."

Naruto got up and sat on his bed making sure to avoid eye contact with the boy in front of him. Was he really going to tell Sasuke everything? What if Sasuke gets angry at him instead? Naruto mentally crossed his fingers as he began to tell Sasuke what happened.

"Something bad happened to me earlier." Naruto wondered if he should mention the Kenta incident. "I was in the school parking lot…" He decided that now won't be a good time to mention how Naruto almost doubted Sasuke's feelings for him though Kenta's letter. "… and this car suddenly stopped right in front of me. These two huge men came out and forcefully dragged me in there." Naruto cautiously looked at Sasuke who now had his eyes in tiny slits like he was thinking about something really hard.

"Sai was in there…"

Sasuke got up from the chair, "I knew that little shit would do something behind my back!" he yelled.

"There's more." Naruto continued while Sasuke leaned against the wall opposite of the blonde. "It was horrible. Sai… he's crazy! I don't know what's wrong with him. He knows about you and me for some reason. He doesn't like it one bit. Sai gave me this…" Naruto pulled down his collar to expose the purple bruise that was on his throat. He closed his eyes and gulped. Not a second later Sasuke came stomping towards Naruto and roughly pulled down his collar a bit more.

"Ouch Sasuke that hurts!"

"That fucker…" Was all that came out of the brunette's mouth. "I'll kill him…"

"Sasuke don't do anything stupid! Sai wants you to be angry. Don't give him the satisfaction."

Sasuke walked over to the door and stood there. Naruto was worried. "I have to go." He said.

"Sasuke, where are you going?" Naruto got up and walked towards Sasuke and was about to grab him from leaving.

"Don't touch me." Sasuke mumbled.

Naruto let the hand fall that was suppose to grab Sasuke and backed away, "What did you say?"

"I said don't touch me." He said a little louder. Sasuke was in a daze. He didn't know what to do. Sai was going to stop at nothing to make sure Naruto would suffer. He had to do something. But what?

"So… I disgust you am I right?" This broke Sasuke's daze. "You don't want me to touch you because Sai laid a finger on me."

"Wait… that's not…"

"Get out! If all you're going to do is be disgusted with me then I suggest you get out of my house!"

"Naruto…"

"You're scared of people knowing about us. You're disgusted of me. You care about your reputation instead of our relationship. What else is there Sasuke? I wasn't going to say anything but…" Naruto couldn't go on. He sat on the floor and started weeping into his hands. He'd had enough. If Sasuke didn't want them exposed to society then he wouldn't want a boyfriend like that. "Get out Sasuke. Please."

Sasuke didn't mean to say those words. The words just came out. He was too angry to realize what he had said. Why did he say it in the first place? Was he really disgusted with Naruto because of Sai? If he was a good boyfriend he wouldn't care. He would comfort the one he loved from all the hurt. So why was he acting this way? Sasuke figured he was weak. Naruto didn't deserve a man like him. He doesn't deserve a weak willed human who couldn't even stick up for the one they loved. Sasuke looked down on the crying blonde and wanted so bad to hug and comfort him but he knew Naruto was already too far gone in anger to forgive him. One of these days he would change. He would change for Naruto. Everyone will see. For now he wanted to run. Sasuke bolted out of Naruto's house towards his own with tears streaming down his face. He ran fast.

(AN) Wow, a few relationship problems there eh? So many secrets and so many emotions. Let's stick around for the next chapter to piece the puzzles together.

This was read over once. I'm at work right now and I just want to get this chapter out before I go home. Excuse the poor grammar and spelling errors.

Read and Review! It makes me a happy woman!