Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I actually wrote this chapter from the state penitentiary. I tried to steal Naruto, and Masashi Kishimoto didn't appreciate it.

Author's Note: Wow, I got a lot of responses from the last chapter. Who knew all I had to do was kill Kakashi? I know it's a ballsy thing to kill characters, but I don't believe in death for the sake of death. Every death has an impact on the characters, and if someone dies, know that there was a reason.

Also, I'm sorry this took a few days to post. I had a rough outline of the chapter, but a lot needed to be changed around and changed. This chapter has a lot of stuff in it, and I hope you all like it.

Nine:
We had an unspoken arrangement for the next few days. We would share a bed at night, mostly because Sasuke had nightmares and is pretty vocal in his sleep. I guess all the emotion that he doesn't display has to go somewhere.

We never spoke about it, of course. His Uchiha pride would fizzle up in seconds if we verbally acknowledged the fact that he needed comfort. I could really understand, though. I was devastated by Kakashi's death, but he and Sasuke were so much closer. If I was feeling that bad, how could Sasuke even be able to get himself out of bed?

After the first few days, I should have stopped. But it just felt so…right. When I was with Sasuke, the world seemed to be right. I felt more at peace with him than I ever had before. And there was also the tingly feeling I felt in my stomach any time I was with him. I just passed it off as a weird feeling from the weird situation.

One morning, almost a week after we arrived in the village, I woke up to find my head on Sasuke's chest. Our legs were intertwined, and we were in the most intimate embrace yet. What was more shocking was that when I looked up, I saw the obsidian eyes staring back into my own.

"You're too heavy to move," he said, breaking our eye contact. Realizing how close we were, I pulled away and blushed.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled.

"Hn, dobe." We laid in the bed for another few minutes before I broke the silence.

"Sasuke?"

"Hn," he grunted. I know it wasn't very verbal, but I knew he was listening, at least.

"What does this mean?"

"What does what mean, dobe?" he asked.

"You know what, teme!" I yelled. "We've been sleeping together like this," I gestured between the two of us with my hand, "for a week now. What does this mean?"

"It means you don't like to sleep alone."

I don't know why, but this made my blood boil. I tried to contain my rage, but the fucking teme was being such an obnoxious prick!

"Okay, listen, teme. I know you have some sense of Uchiha pride or something, but I don't give a shit. I only crawled into bed with you because you were bawling like a baby. Don't try to turn this on me."

"Nobody asked you to comfort me, dobe," he spat.

"I didn't need anyone to ask me to. I did it because I wanted to. Because I care about you."

"Why?" he asked, still not looking me in the eye.

"Why what?" I asked.

"Why do you care?"

"Because I lo –" I cut myself off. "Because you are my best friend."

Did I really almost say that? Did I almost just tell him that I loved him? Why would I say that? I don't love him.

Maybe I love him like a brother, I guess. He is my best friend…when he's not being an asshole. But that would still be a stretch.

"What were you going to say?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You were going to tell me you love me, weren't you?" he asked.

"No, I –" I began to say, but a weird sensation on my mouth stopped me in midsentence. It took me a few seconds to realize Sasuke was kissing me. I didn't have time to respond before he pulled away.

"What was that?" I asked.

"I'm going to see Ino," Sasuke said, leaving me all alone while he went to the hospital.

OoOoOoOoO

I couldn't help replay the scene over and over in my head.

Sasuke kissed me.

Sasuke kissed me.

Sasuke kissed me.

I've been doing that a lot lately. But between that and hearing him confess his love for me, I was more confused than ever. I just spent the day sitting in my bed, staring at the ceiling.

Jiraya sent word through Gamakichi that we didn't need to complete the mission. They already had Asuma, Shikamaru and Shino there too, but Sasuke and I had too much going on to think clearly, he thought. It didn't really matter what the pervy sage said – they wouldn't have been able to collect much information anyway.

Shikamaru reported to him that there were no leads on anything. The grass ninja were so secretive that he doubted they'd find anything. Shikamaru and Asuma also frequented the hospital. Shino was the only Leaf shinobi there that hadn't been on a team of Ino's at one point or another.

It was almost dinnertime when Sasuke came back, even quieter than when he left.

"N-Naruto," he said, when he got into the room.

"What? Do you want another kiss?" I asked, openly mocking him.

"Naruto, it's Ino," he said, not looking me in the eye. It was in that second I knew what had happened.

"No," I said. "No, no, no, no, no. This isn't happening." I shook my head violently. "No."

"Naruto," he said. "She's dead."

OoOoOoOoO

We stayed in the grass village two more days before they kicked us out. They didn't like us sniffing around, and without Ino, there was no real excuse to stay.

Ino and Kakashi…dead.

The last thing that Ino said to me was about me breaking up with Sakura. The last conversation was an argument. It almost made me regret breaking up with Sakura in the first place.

Almost.

There was still that nagging feeling whenever I was around Sasuke, so I just tried to avoid him. I wouldn't think of him any less, but it was awkward. He kissed me. And I didn't respond. He obviously saw that as a rejection.

There was a joint funeral for Ino and Kakashi the day we got back to the Leaf Village. It was a nice service, but they seemed too big to contain in it. How could Ino and Kakashi possibly be dead? There was no way. It all just seemed so surreal.

And underneath it all, was Sasuke. After our kiss, he'd begun to ignore me. The few times he'd have to talk to me, he'd barely look at me. It was hard for both of us, losing Kakashi and Ino, but it was even worse for me knowing that I may have lost my best friend in the process.

Sasuke and I didn't have a team anymore – how could we with half of them dead? There was a new chunin in the village, but Jiraya didn't put us on a team with him. After a month of sitting around the village wallowing in my grief, Jiraya finally got off his ass and decided to do something productive with me.

"Naruto," he said, standing in the doorway of my apartment. "We need to talk."

I let him in, and he sat down on the sofa. I got him some tea, and started dinner.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" I asked when I sat down next to him.

"I'm going to be very blunt when I say this, Naruto," he told me. "Up until last month, I had been planning to name Kakashi the Sixth Hokage," he said.

"What!" I asked. "Why Kakashi?"

"Because, Naruto," he said, "I need to pick my successor based on who I think is the strongest ninja, who would put his life on the line to save the village. Kakashi was that person. I know you want to be Hokage one day, but you haven't honed in your strength yet, and so you're not ready." I clenched my fists at his assessment. He was right, though. I hadn't been able to protect Sasuke from Itachi, or Ino and Kakashi from Ishichi. "But with the recent developments, I have decided to name you my successor after all."

I looked at him, and I'm sure the shocked expression on my face made me look stupid. "But you just said -"

"With Team 7 disbanded, I will train you myself, until I believe you are ready to be my official successor."

I guess that answered the question about what I'm going to do without Team 7. But wait!

"What about Sasuke? Without Team 7, what will happen to him?" I asked.

"It's up to him. I hear Sakura wants to work with Tsunade and train to become a medical ninja. That means he can join Team 8 with Shikamaru and Shino."

Sasuke, Shikamaru and Shino. Something about that team made me shudder a bit.

"When do you want to begin my training?" I asked.

"After everything with Kakashi has settled down," he said.

"Alright," I said.

"We'll set specifics soon, alright, kid?" he asked, ruffling my hair. We ate dinner and talked for a little bit before he made his leave.

Not one minute after Jiraya left, I heard a knock on my door. I answered it to see Iruka standing outside the door, hands in his pockets.

"Iruka-sensei," I said. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing…after Kakashi…" he trailed off.

"I'm doing okay," I said. "But Sasuke's taking it really hard."

"How is Sasuke?" he asked.

"He's shut himself in his house. Kakashi has been his only father figure since the Uchiha massacre."

"That's understandable," Iruka said. He took a long pause. "Have you thought about what we had talked about a few weeks ago?"

"What? About me being gay? I'm not gay, Iruka," I said. Although after today, even I was beginning to have my doubts. "Kakashi asked me the same thing. He wanted to know whether to tell Sasuke that there's a chance with me or that he should give up."

"What did you say?" he asked.

"I told him I was straight," I said. "Just like I told you."

"Alright," he said. "I'd just hate for you to lose your chance at happiness because you didn't want to admit that you were gay."

"I'm. Not. Gay." I growled through clenched teeth.

"Fine," Iruka said., holding his hands up in mock surrender. "If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask." I nodded, and he left. I couldn't handle this anymore. As if I didn't have enough to deal with, out of the three people who know me the best, two think I'm gay (or in Kakashi's case, thought it) and one kissed me! And I think I almost liked it! My life was hell.

I decided to go to the Uchiha house to see Sasuke. It was after dinner, so I figured he'd be there. I needed to clear things up with him before I went crazy! I ran to the Uchiha district, which had become open for anybody to move into after the massacre. I walked the rest of the way to Sasuke's house, trying to calm my nerves.

All of a sudden, I saw smoke coming from the direction of Sasuke's house! I sprinted over to find Sasuke's house up in flames. Outside of the house, laying perfectly in the ground, was a Hidden Mist Village forehead protector. I didn't even need to look at the engraving of his name in the back to know whose it was. Ishichi Hoshigaki

How did he get into the Hidden Leaf Village? It was obvious that he had set the house on fire. I didn't even bother trying to find him. Instead, I ran inside the house looking for Sasuke. I couldn't find him on the first floor, so I went up the stairs. A burning beam fell on top of me. I didn't catch fire, but I was lucky. I pushed it off of me, and continued to search the burning house.

I went up to Sasuke's bedroom and I saw he wasn't there. The smoke started to affect me, and I began to cough. I continued to search the house, until the fire cornered me next to a window. I had no choice but to jump out of the burning building, praying that he was out. Shinobi had begun to notice the fire, and people began to put it out.

I needed to find Sasuke and make sure he was alright. I went to the place he liked to go to train with Kakashi, and was relieved to find him there.

"Sasuke!" I said, running over to him and throwing my arms around him. I buried my head in his shirt. "Thank god you're here!" I could feel tears escaping my eyes, but I couldn't care less. Sasuke was alright!

"Hn," he grunted. "What are you doing here, dobe?" he asked, pushing me away. I coughed violently, the smoke and my run to find him finally catching up to me.

"Sasuke, I need to tell you something. It's about your house." He looked up at me, confused. I coughed some more, before he sat me down and gave me some water. After I had a few sips, I continued. "Ishichi burned your house down."

Sasuke jumped to his feet. "He what?" The rage in his eyes was unmistakable. I coughed some more, causing him to forget his anger to help me breathe.

I nodded. "I saw it happen. I thought you were in there. I was so scared, I thought I lost you too."

"My house is..." he began.

"It's gone," I said. He dropped to his knees. And just stared into space silently for a few minutes.

"Then I really have nothing," he said.

"That's not true, Sasuke," I said. "You have me." He looked at me with anger in his eyes.

"Not in a way that matters. Not in the way I need you."

"What are you saying, Sasuke?" I asked. But I knew damned well what he was saying.

"I love you, Naruto," he said, tears threatening to form in his eyes. "I love you in a way you can never love me. I love you.."

I stared at him in silence, unable to say a word.

OoOoOoOoO

What did this mean for us now? I can't pretend I didn't hear what he said. I can't go back to ignoring his feelings for me. I can't just forget it. Everything was going to change.

So what did I say to his declaration of love?

"I know." He looked up with shock. I decided to continue. "I overheard you and Kakashi talking about it a few months ago in the Land of Sound." I took a long pause. "I don't care that you're gay, Sasuke. I don't mind that you kissed me. I don't even care that you love me. You're my friend - my best friend. So no matter what happens, I will be there for you. Which is why you're staying in my apartment tonight, and you'll stay there until you have a new place to live."

"I can't do that, Naruto," he said. "How can just sit there? I told you I loved you, and you just said it was okay?"

"I've had months to come to terms with it," I said. "It doesn't matter to me. So come on. We're going home." I took his hand.

"No thanks," he said, jerking his hand from mine. "I can take care of myself."

In the end, he was able to salvage a lot of money from the house. Enough to buy an apartment, at least. I sort of forced him to get one in my building across the hall from me. I told him Kakashi would want that, and he couldn't argue.

The next day, I went to Kakashi's grave to tell him about Sasuke's confession. Maybe talking to Kakashi would give me some clarity. But I guess Sasuke beat me to it, because when I got there, he was standing in front of his grave.

"I was wrong," he said. "I let love and affection get in the way of my goal, my destiny. I became weak. I need to be strong if I am to kill Itachi and restore my clan. I can't keep falling apart over you or Naruto. I hope you understand why I have to do this, Kakashi. I need to kill Itachi now, before I can even think about loving someone. Anyone." He stood up, placing flowers on the grave.

Something about what Sasuke said made me feel uneasy. I need to kill Itachi now. Was he leaving the village to find Itachi?

I left to go find Jiraya. Somebody had to know how to stop Sasuke. All Jiraya told me was that if Sasuke left, he'd be considered a missing nin, and he'd be tried upon his return to the village. I pleaded with Jiraya to understand, but he wouldn't have it. He warned me not to leave the village after him, but we both knew what I was going to do.

I was able to get myself into some of the files of missing nin that only the Hokage is allowed to see. I searched for Itachi Uchiha, and found that he was last seen in the Land of Wind. If I wanted to stop Sasuke, I'd have to find Itachi first.

I knew I had to start training to be Hokage soon, but I couldn't think about that. All I could think about was how I was losing Sasuke. And I knew I was partially to blame. I couldn't have said anything less cruel after Sasuke's confession? I know. That was really cold. I'd already lost Ino and Kakashi. I couldn't lose Sasuke, too.

Sasuke was long gone, and I couldn't tell anyone that I was going too. That much was clear. I needed to find Sasuke I packed up my ninja weapons and supplies for a week, along with a lot of money. On my way out of my apartment building, I ran smack into Sakura.

"Naruto," she whispered. "Where are you going?

"Sakura," I whispered back. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to...to talk to you. Where are you off to?"

It figures Sakura would know I was heading somewhere. She knew what I looked like when I would be around the village and what I looked like before going off on a mission.

"I'm going on a mission," I said, somewhat truthfully.

"I thought that without Kakashi-sensei and Ino, Team 7 was disbanded," she said. "Is Sasuke also going on this mission?"

"Sort of," I said. "I can't tell you much. It's really secret information. You can't tell anyone about this mission, okay?"

"You can't expect me to do that, Naruto," she said. "Not unless you tell me what's going on? What do you mean Sasuke is 'sort of' on this mission with you?"

"I really can't say, Sakura. I wish I could."

"Does Lord Hokage know?" she asked. Damn it! She was too smart for her own good. I was just grateful I didn't run into Shikamaru. That boy was such a genius that if he was here, he'd know what was going on by now.

"The pervy sage has no idea, and you won't tell him," I said through clenched teeth. "If you do, Sasuke and I could die. Do you want that on your head?"

"You can't just tell me that without telling me what you mean!" she yelled. "I care about both of you. I can't stand the thought of losing you two so soon after losing Kakashi and Ino."

"Then I guess you shouldn't tell anyone, should you? If no one finds out, we'll both come home alive" I lied. I left her standing completely confused. I'd lost too much time already. I had to go to the Land of Wind. I hoped Sakura's fear of us dying would stop her from telling anyone about the mission.

I took the long way out of the village to avoid being spied. I managed to do just that, and I was making good time to the Land of Wind. I made camp in the woods outside of Kunohagara Town, which was the halfway point between the village and the border. The traveling was very boring, being all alone. A part of me wishes I had asked Sakura to come along, but I couldn't drag her into this mess with me.

I set up camp and had my dinner. The bad thing about missions is that I don't have the luxury of cup ramen when I set up camp. I decided not to waste time and train some. If I had to fight Itachi, I wanted to be prepared. After a few hours, I was exhausted, and I went to sleep early. You know what they say? Early to bed, early to rise.

That night, I had a dream - maybe a nightmare. I finally found Sasuke, but before I could reach him, he turned into a hawk and flew away. Then I saw him, Orochimaru, Itachi and Ishichi all standing in a field of grass. The three ninja were attacking Sasuke. With each hit they landed, I felt a sharp pang in my chest.

"You fool," Orochimaru said to Sasuke. "Naruto will never love you the way you love him. After what you told him, he probably hates you."

"No!" Sasuke yelled.

"You will die today," Itachi said, "and not even Naruto will grieve for you."

"Then, I saw Ishichi draw his swords and pointed them at Sasuke.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Shock of Death!" he said with a smirk.

"No!" I yelled. I saw the lightning escape from his sword and hit Sasuke square in the chest. He was flown threw the air. The three ninja gathered around him.

"And to think," Ishichi said, "we have one person to thank for this."

"If Naruto hadn't broken Sasuke's heart," Itachi elaborated, "my little brother wouldn't have searched me out."

"If it wasn't for Naruto Uzumaki," Orochimaru said, "Sasuke would still be alive." He smiled and licked his lips, while Itachi stomped on Sasuke's limp body.

"No!" I yelled, waking with a start. I was sweating, my heart racing. I was on the verge of tears. And I couldn't tell whether it was guilt or something more that made me upset that I rejected Sasuke.

Author's Note: So we had Sasuke admit his feelings and leave the village. I was going to have a cliff hanger after Sasuke confessed he loved Naruto, but that would be such a short chapter. Then I was going to do one after Sasuke left, but I thought it was important to show Naruto struggle with his feelings some more. Expect a few chapters of Naruto looking for Sasuke, before the big reunion. Remember to R&R.