Wow, people actually like this fanfic. Thanks for all the kind reviews. I am sorry that I've taken so long to update. My life has been hectic lately. My boss has been scheduling me thirty-one hours a week, and when you're a freshman in College…yeah, that's not good. Much anger on my part. And if he doesn't stop giving me so many hours soon someone's going to get hurt. Hint, hint.

Okay, enough of my evil ranting. I just want to make something clear: YES THIS IS A YAOI FIC BETWEEN SASUKE AND NARUTO. I'm so original. Sasuke and Naruto is overdone. But I can't help myself. I've always wanted to write one.

12:37 AM is a strange time to get inspired to update. All randomness and spelling errors are blamed on my current state of exhaustion.

The Sound of Silence

Chapter Two: The Silent One

Naruto was exhausted. He had spent the last two hours sitting beside his grandfather and talking himself hoarse and attempting to avoid what needed to be done. He didn't want to go to a mental hospital and stare at someone who either couldn't, or wouldn't speak. It was too creepy for words and as of right now, Naruto didn't have room for weird in his life.

Finally his grandfather had told him to leave. Naruto had protested, because time with his grandfather was limited, and he wanted to stay with him as long as he possibly could. But his grandfather had other ideas, and practically shoved Naruto out of the room. Well not really, since he couldn't get up, but Naruto had felt like he had been forced to leave.

The mental asylum was creepy. Well technically Mercer Medical Facilities was disturbing. The building consisted of faded bricks and the grass was overrun with weeds. The windows looked dirty and unwashed, and the front door creaked loudly when Naruto opened it, nearly making Naruto jump out of his skin.

The inside wasn't in any better condition than the outside. The walls were a depressing shade of gray, contrasting oddly with the sterile hallway, and the uncomfortable plastic chair Naruto was sitting in while he waited for the secretary at the desk to notice him.

Naruto tried to ignore the light flickering annoyingly above him. He wondered if he should run away. But he couldn't afford to fail psychology. If he did than he wouldn't graduate. That was why he was here, right?

"Ummm, can I help you?" Naruto started when someone spoke to him. He realized belatedly that the secretary had spoken to him. Feeling stupid, Naruto climbed to his feet and walked over to the secretary, who looked bored.

"I'm here to do a report on a patient in the hospital." The secretary stared at him blankly, making Naruto sigh. His psychology teacher had said she had called and talked to someone about Naruto's project, but she had obviously been lying.

Naruto dug around in his pocket until he found what he was looking for. He held a crumpled piece of notebook paper in his hand and squinted in the dim light, trying to read his teacher's messy scrawl.

"I'm here to see Sasuke Uchiha." The secretary was still staring blankly at him. Naruto wondered if she was dumb. Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Naruto, she popped her gum loudly, and staggered to her feet, motioning for Naruto to follow.

Naruto tried to ignore the dull, uninspiring atmosphere, and equally stagnant people occupying Mercer Medical Facilities. It was way too depressing for Naruto to register, and so he chose not to take notice.

Finally the secretary stopped in front of an oak door with "U, S" emblazoned into the wood. She unlocked the door with a key Naruto hadn't noticed she'd been holding, and ushered Naruto inside.

"Oh, by the way, my name's Kristen. Sorry about earlier, I've had a long day and I've been spacing since I got here. I'll be seeing you a lot, or so I've heard. And good luck with Mr. Uchiha. He's not very talkative." Naruto blanched and Kristen blushed. "Sorry, poor choice of words."

Kristen walked out of the room and shut the door behind her. Naruto turned and looked around the room. It was a lot better than the rest of the institute. The walls were painted a pale blue, and large bay windows, barred of course, let in the setting sun.

A large bookcase, overflowing with worn books and magazines took up most of the left wall, and a twin bed rested under the windows, the blankets, also blue, strewn carelessly on the floor.

Naruto started when someone exhaled sharply. It was then Naruto noticed a silent teen staring at him intently, black eyes curious. The teens skin was as pale as snow(his name is Sasuke, Naruto reminded himself), his black eyes contrasting strangely with his otherwise unremarkable face.

Sasuke's hair, as black as a raven's wing, was wild and unkempt, and nearly fell to his shoulders. Sasuke wore a white shirt which made him appear even paler, if that was possible, and baggy green jeans.

"Hi Sasuke, my name's Naruto Uzumaki. I'm here to do a report on you." Sasuke stared at Naruto, saying nothing. Which, Naruto supposed was to be expected, since Sasuke hadn't spoken in three years. "Kristen let me in," he continued unnecessarily.

Sasuke sighed as if he was suffering from Naruto's rambling. Naruto watched, finally quiet, as Sasuke walked over to his bed and sat down, drawing his legs to his chest, and resting his forehead against his knees. Sasuke exhaled and wrapped his arms around his knees, ignoring Naruto.

Naruto groaned and sank to the floor, frustrated. He didn't know what he had been expecting. Had he really thought Sasuke was going to walk over to him, shake his hand, and tell him everything? If Sasuke was still living at Mercer Medical Facilities than the doctors hadn't gotten anything definitive out of Sasuke, and hadn't been able to make a breakthrough.

He couldn't give up, though; he had to get enough information out of Sasuke to write a decent report. If he didn't than he wouldn't graduate with Sakura, and he wouldn't be able to visit his grandfather whenever he wanted!

Naruto smiled, determination filling his body. He bounded to his feet and sat down next to Sasuke, nearly knocking the older teen over. Sasuke uncurled himself and glared at Naruto, his eyes flashing with anger. Naruto grinned, undeterred.

"Okay, Sasuke, we need to get some things out in the open. I'm here because I need to do a report on you, okay? I need you to tell me what's happened to you, and than I'll write a paper on it. Well, you don't talk, so maybe you can write it? Is that okay?"

To Naruto's surprise Sasuke jumped to his feet and stared at Naruto, his eyes narrowed. Sasuke looked pretty cute with his cheeks flushed red with what Naruto could only suppose was rage. He wondered idly why the hell he was thinking Sasuke was cute.

All thought fled Naruto's mind when Sasuke's fist connected solidly with Naruto's cheek. The force of the punch sent Naruto flying backwards and his head connected with the wall.

Ouch, shit, that really hurt. What did I do to deserve that? Geeze Sasuke must be PMSing or something. Okay, mental note, Naruto, do not piss Sasuke off anymore. Though I don't know how that is going to be even remotely possible since I need to find out stuff about him. My psychology teacher must really hate me…

Naruto rubbed his cheek, wincing when it throbbed painfully. He sighed and stared at Sasuke mutinously. Sasuke flipped him off and turned his back on the younger teen. Naruto groaned. This was turning out to be a long day.

&$&((

Two hours of talking to himself. Naruto had never known that someone could grow tired of themselves. After maybe a half an hour of silence and staring at Sasuke's back, Naruto had felt like he was going to go mad himself, and perhaps join Sasuke in the institute, if someone didn't say something, anything.

Sasuke wasn't volunteering, so Naruto, bored out of his mind, started talking, saying anything that came to his mind. He spoke of his mother, his father, school, music, the girl next door that he thought was kind of hot, TV, ice cream, UFO's, random crap that popped into his mind.

Sasuke, either because he couldn't ignore Naruto or perhaps out of a small margin of interest, turned towards Naruto and fixed his black eyes on him. Naruto became nervous and rambled more than before.

Naruto, for lack of anything better to talk about began to speak about his dreams. "I've always dreamt of traveling around the world. You know, see foreign countries, maybe cure some diseases, or marry a princess." Naruto grinned when Sasuke let out a laugh. Well, he wasn't sure if it could be classified as a laugh, it was something between a cough and a hiccup.

"Yeah, I tend to aim high. Or ya'know, maybe find buried treasure. Or become the president." Sasuke definitely laughed at that. "You should laugh more, Sasuke. You look younger."

Sasuke's mouth tightened and his eyes narrowed dangerously. Naruto wondered if he was going to get hit again. The door flew open, startling both teens. Naruto stood when he saw Kristen standing in the doorway.

"I'm here to collect you, Naruto. Mr. Uchiha, your food is on its way up. And after that, Doctor Forster wants to speak with you."

Naruto waved at Sasuke and walked from the room. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he could feel Sasuke's eyes boring into his back. He was glad he was getting the hell out of the room and away from the mute teen.

Kristen escorted Naruto to the exit. She seemed anxious to leave and Naruto felt the same. She grinned shyly at Naruto before she walked back inside with a small wave.

"Wow that was odd." Naruto mumbled. If observing Sasuke went the same as today than he was going to need to invest in some Advil. He had a feeling he was going to be getting a lot of headaches.

End of Chapter

Kristen is an original character, but she does not play a major part in the story, so don't worry about that.

I liked the Naruto/Sasuke interaction in this chapter, I'm kind of proud of it.

All comments/reviews are welcome! Next update….eventually!