DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Webs of Deception

Chapter Thirteen

Half Empty

"Taichou.....?" began Ruri, catching Naruto's attention, "Is something the matter?"

It took Naruto a moment to figure out what she was talking about. "Oh no...." Causing the rest of his team to relax with those words. "....just Gaara and the others are here." he finished just as he heard a female voice from the entrance to the house. "Either Uchiha is redecorating or....." the female trailed off as his ears picked up wood breaking underneath several pairs of feet.

"This early!" exclaimed Kyoko, excitement clearly showing in her voice at seeing them again.

The blond nodded absentmindedly when the steps got closer and closer to the archway to the dining room. He leaned back and tilted his chair to balance on its two back legs as he turned his head to the archway, expecting their appearances to be made within the next few seconds.

The rest of Akuma and Jiraiya also turned their attentions to the archway, already sensing the group's chakra. Even Sasuke was looking--or more like glaring and there could be a deep throated growl involved too--at the entrance but for different reasons than the others. He was not fond of the red head, actually it was more like he loathed the young man. But thanks to him being the Kazekage, he had to be polite or as polite as he could be while scowling and glaring at the same time.

Neji walked within the dining room first, wearing his Anbu uniform with his mask positioned on the side of his head. He bowed respectfully to the group before leaning against the kitchen counter behind Naruto.

A young man with blood red hair and emerald green eyes was the next to enter and he stood in the archway of the dining room. His attire consisting of a long dark brown--buttoned up trench coat with variant loose hanging straps around his waist, which held many weapons pouches and a miniature version of his gourd; dark brown pants with large pockets adorning the sides and black shinobi sandals. His hands were covered with fingerless gloves and his entire attire having numerous straps and buckles in different places.

Upon seeing the extremely emotionless man, a grin spread across the blond's features. "Yo, Gaara! What brin--" but he cut himself off when he caught sight of a small brunette boy trying to squeeze his way through between Gaara's unrelenting leg and the wall. Upon seeing the boy his drowning spirit lifted from the darkness that it's been surrounded by for the past day. Even if it's only for the time being, at least he could breath better.

Once the boy managed to fit through an almost impossible space, he immediately ran for Naruto, yelling, "Aniki!" with his arms outstretch--a silent meaning that said, pick me up or suffer from a full blown whine tantrum. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a blueish-gray wolf on the front, khaki shorts and white tennis shoes. When the boy was within arm reach of the blond, he took the last few steps in a leap through the air.

The boy's chocolate brown eyes sparkled brightly when Naruto leaned down and caught the four year old in midair. He happily chuckled as Naruto dramatically lifted him high in the air before setting him down on his lap, causing in his mask and cloak to fall to the floor. The boy, upon being safely settled, attached himself to the blonds midsection."I missed Aniki!" he exclaimed as Naruto ruffled the brunette's soft hair affectionately. "Missed you too brat."

This caused the boy to indignantly sit back, cross his arms over his small chest and pout. "I'm not a brat, Aniki."

"Bull!" yelled a female voice from slightly behind Gaara. Causing Shikamaru to lift his head from his work upon hearing the voice and mentally groaned at the prospect of dealing with this troublesome woman. But that didn't stop the fluttering feeling from appearing in the pit of his stomach though.

She came into view, revealing that the voice belonged to none other than Temari. Who roughly pushed past her younger brother and stood glaring at the young boy with her hands on her hips. "You brat! Sitting there and lying to him like that! You have no idea what he does when you're not there!"

Naruto directed his attention back to the small boy on his lap with a false strict look and said in a equally false stern voice, "Kyosuke." Who had the decency to look regretful. But then Naruto's features broke from the sternness and back into a mischievous grin. He lowered his face close to him and whispered, "Did you do everything I suggested you to?"

Kyosuke wildly grinned up to the other. "Yup!"

"That's my little guy!" Naruto exclaimed lowly as he discreetly brought the palm of his hand forward. Which the boy took notice and gave a not too discreet high five.

An inhuman growl was issued from Temari at the knowledge that Naruto had something to do with the prank that involved turning her hair pink and her body purple. 'Oh, he's so dead!' she thought just before she let out a war cry of, "Naruto!" then charged at the blond. Who in turn, coward from the woman and screamed, "Kyosuke save me!"

Ruri sighed deeply, "You know we're gonna have another Taichou on our hands before we know it. Kyosuke-kun is already so much trouble." her statement directed at Itachi across from her.

Itachi merely smirked, knowing that what she said was true. Kyosuke tried his best to be like his 'Aniki', pulling off some impressive pranks for a four year old. It would have been to the point of being cute, if that little brat didn't pull a couple on himself. And even being at the shinobi level that he's at, he didn't see those little pranks coming. Damn brat was good. Hmpf, he should be. He's learning from one of the best pranksters that he's known.

Sasuke watched the interaction between the boy named Kyosuke and Naruto, who the brunette called 'Aniki'. He remembered that the youngest jinchuuriki's name was Kyosuke, and obviously this boy was it. He didn't know what to think about the two's relationship or how the blond's face lit up when he set his eyes upon the young boy. Like a parent would their child or a close older brother would their little brother. And he didn't know if he liked it or not......

Because all this time--all this time he's been living this other life, while forgetting and leaving his old one behind. And now this other life is being flaunted in front of him. Painfully taunting him that he's part of the old life that Naruto wanted no part in again.

What was he suppose to do? There was a small part of him that wanted to forget the blond in front of him. But he wished that before he even knew that he was even alive and it never did any good then, so why would it do anything now that he knows he's alive and breathing. Because he knew--he knew no matter how many times he wished that he never met or laid his eyes upon the blond, he knew that Naruto was the only one that he wanted to love.

So, what was he suppose to do?

Another girl entered the dining room with black hair that was cut just above her ears and sparkling green eyes. She was wearing an elaborate soft tan kimono that reached to mid-thigh with blood red designs decorating the material, a green obi with the bow tied in the back, black fingerless gloves that reach to her forearms, black shin length pants with mesh material at the bottom of the pant legs and black shinobi sandals. Several weapons pouches were tied on her being and her hitai-ate of Suna was tied around her neck.

She smiled brightly when she saw her sensei trying to beat up Naruto while Kyosuke--who she considered her little brother--trying to protect the blond from the angry female. "Temari-sensei, already trying to kill Naru-nii-chan!" she said in a cute voice as she bounced her way forward to the three, who were barely keeping themselves upright on the one chair they were wrestling on.

Two other boys entered the dining room after the girl and leaned against the right wall by the archway, officially making the room that was only meant to hold a table and ten chairs over crowded.

The boy that had orange-red hair, which was cut short and spiked slightly to the sides, and the same colored eyes--greeted Miki with a slang handshake before leaning against the wall. He wore a sleeveless fish-net shirt with his chest completely bandaged up with white cloth, forest green cargo pants and black shinobi sandals. A broad sword was strapped to his back--one of the straps crossing across his chest while the other buckled around his waist. A couple of weapons pouches were attached to the strap around his waist and a couple of pouches were attached to his left leg. His hitai-ate of Suna tied around his right leg.

The other boy that stood next to him had midnight blue hair that fell to his shoulders and red eyes. He wore a sleeveless--deep gray chinese style type dress that reached to his ankles; with a slit on both sides of it that ran all the way up to his waist. Red, yellow, white and black designs were embroidered on the material at the bottom of both front and back flaps and his high rising collar. He had white pants and black shinobi sandals with white bandages wrapped around his ankles and shinobi fingerless gloves were worn on his hands. Weapons pouches were attached to both legs and his hitai-ate of Suna was tied around his head.

Temari reluctantly moved away from Naruto, she wanted to torture the blond a little while longer for making her life hell through his miniature accomplice. But she would take mercy on him, thanks to the girl coming to properly greet the blond after over a month absence from seeing each other.

The young girl approached Naruto and leaned in close, "Hello, Naru-nii-chan!" she said before she hugged him around the neck and gave a kiss on his left cheek as Naruto did the same to her opposite cheek. "Hey, chicklet!"

She scoffed at her usual nickname and stood straight again, placing her hands on her hips with a scowl on her face. Well, it mostly looked like an angry pout. "Don't call me that, Naru-nii-chan!" She doesn't know why she always had to argue about the nickname, it never deterred any of Akuma from calling her that--except Ruri, she never calls her chicklet.

He chuckled at her usual comeback, "Cho...." he whined half-heartedly, "....it's just a show of affection....." He smiled at her innocently as he handed Kyosuke over to Ruri, so she could give some attention to the boy. And that's how poor Kyosuke will get to greet everyone. Being handed to the next person then the next until everyone--except Shikamaru and Sasuke--had greeted and gushed over the boy.

Cho didn't get the chance to retort to the other's comment because Kyoko caught her attention with, "Cho-chan!" Causing said girl to turn to the older woman and practically jumping at the red head and catching her in a tight hug. "I missed you Kyo-chan!" Both of the girls giggling loudly at seeing each other after such a time apart.

Meanwhile, Temari moved closer to Shikamaru, who kept glancing out of the corner of his eye at the blond woman but otherwise didn't move or make any movement to acknowledge her.

Just when she was about to talk to Shikamaru, she remembered something that would definitely annoy a certain raven she didn't particularly like. She stared over at the youngest Uchiha leaning against the wall and impassively staring at her blond friend like little brother. "Hey Uchiha....." Effectively turning his once gaze but now turned glare to her. ".....did you know that your front door is broken?" The question would have been innocent if it wasn't for her present condescending mannerisms.

"Did you know that none of you were even invited into my house." he replied tersely, completely agitated that all these people were in his house without an invitation and then having the audacity to be rude to him. He'd be surprised if he had any teeth left to grind together when this day was over and done with.

She smirked, "Hmn, we weren't were we?" she said before she switched her attention back to her previous task, ignoring the intensified glare directed at her. She hunched forward slightly, invading Shikamaru's personal space and saying in a seductive voice, ""It's been a while Shika.....Did you miss me?"

He slowly turned his head to Temari's, his eyes looking deep into hers as he muttered, "Troublesome...." Which caused Temari to break into a maniacal grin, because she knew that was his way of saying that he did indeed miss her.

Naruto leaned in his chair to his left, knowing the two came in the room and wondered why they didn't come and say hello or something. So when he could see around Kyoko and Cho--still gossiping it up--he saw the two boys he was looking for leaning against the wall. "Yo! Jun, Yuuto, what's with you two?! Not even gonna come and say hi?! I'm quite insulted!" his tone holding a mock hurt.

Jun--the orange-red head--greeted the blond with his middle finger accompanied with a arrogant grin. Naruto chuckled at the greeting, knowing that it wasn't meant as a insult. It was just the boy's smart-ass and rude way at greeting him. And trust him, it was only Naruto that got greeted like that from the boy. It was just how their relationship worked. Though it was hilarious when he did these gestures or rude comments around other people who didn't know their real identities. Boy, were those some of the funniest faces he's seen in a while and if he remembered right, a couple of them fainted. Hehe......

Yuuto whacked the other on his head for the rude gesture toward someone that he thought deserved more respect than what Jun usually gives. But he had to begrudgingly admit that Jun gives everyone--minus the dark-haired guy near Itachi--in this room some respect than anybody else that he doesn't know. Even if that respect seems only a little, at least it's something compared to the people he doesn't like. Lord.....he takes pity on those few people, because they've already gone through hell......twice.

He walked over to the older blond with Jun following with a evil glare directed at his back. "It's good to see you again, Naruto-sempai."

"Yeah, guess it's good to see you're still alive." chimed in Jun from his side.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "I can see that you're still a little prick. And here I hoped that would change with the time we were away." he said sarcastically.

"It seems you got your hopes up for nothing, Naruto-sempai." retorted Jun with just as much sarcasticness in his voice.

"So what brings you here?" Yuuto asked quickly when he saw Jun opening his mouth again to probably say something else that's inappropriate.

"Business." was the short reply he gave to the two boys.

Jun nudged Yuuto with his shoulder. "I don't know why you even asked. You should know by now that this dick head would never give us a straight answer when it comes to anything regarding Akuma missions."

Yuuto's head fell into his hand and groaned when the term 'dick head' came out of the other's mouth to address Naruto with. You would think that he would be used to his best friend's vulgar language by now but he wasn't, not yet that is. He needs a few more years around the boy to get to that point of being used to that mouth of his.

"Ahh Jun...." Who still had a cocky grin on his face, waiting for what Naruto had to retort with. ".....for someone who's learning their trump jutsu for the third part of the exams from, you sure don't know when to show at least a little appreciation." his voice laced with a smugness at his knowing victory.

Miki, who was watching and listening to the usual choice of words between the two, laughed loudly when the cocky grin that showed on the boy's features a moment before was now replaced with a slightly agape frown. "That's a low blow, Naruto-sempai." he said in almost disbelief.

"I know.....but it got you to shut up, now didn't it."

Jun narrowed his eyes and growled deep in his throat. He opened his mouth to retort but before even a sound came out, his mouth was firmly covered with a slightly tan hand that belonged to Yuuto. This new development resulted in his glare to be redirected at the inch taller boy. But Yuuto obliviously ignored it as he said to Naruto, "Yes, too bad it won't keep him quiet for long." This caused some struggling and incoherent mumblings from Jun. But Yuuto's hand remained, gripping tighter around the other's mouth to keep anything from coming out. "We'll be going back over there....." Using his head to indicate the wall they were once leaning against. ".....before Jun stupidly puts his foot in his mouth again. Talk to you later, Naruto-sempai." He finished with as he forcefully dragged the other boy with him.

The blond shook his head with amusement. A soft smile on his lips as he looked around the room at everyone that he now considered his family. Most of them greeting and sharing what's happen over the past month with each other while a couple of the others sat or stood silently watching like he was doing just now. It was refreshing. He didn't know how much he missed them all until he felt like he was suffocating. Even though he knew that this temporary period of time where he could breath was fleeting.

But he was about to destroy the joyous atmosphere when he turned in his chair and asked Gaara, who was standing by Neji--obviously enjoying the heat of the other's body close to his, "So Gaara, what are you doing here this early. Kage's usually don't arrive until close to the third part of the exams."

Instead of answering the blond's question, Gaara asked or more liked ordered, "Temari, take your team and Kyosuke back to the inn." What he had to say was not needed to be heard by the younger ones.

Kyosuke was sitting on his 'grandpa's' lap when his uncle said this and a fear entered his brown eyes. He wiggled his body off of the older sannin's lap and scurried around the table. Veering around a couple of people before he attached his small arms around Naruto's leg. "I don't want to leave Aniki!" he protested to his red headed uncle.

A sad smile crossed Naruto's face as he looked down at the boy. He placed his hands on Kyosuke's shoulders, "Come on Kyosuke, me and Uncle Gaara have something important to talk about." He attempted to detach the young boy from his leg but the kid can have a good grip when he wants to. "It's not like you can't come back by tomorrow. Right Temari-chan?" His head tilted in her directed to his right.

"Yup!" she exclaimed while her hand rested on Shikamaru's shoulder. "We can even make a special trip to annoy him." She let her hand drift from lazy shinobi as she stepped toward the blond. "Now let go of the leg." she demanded, her eyes glaring down at the small boy.

"No!!" His grip tightening on the leg he was holding. "I want to stay with Aniki!!"

"Kyo-kun....." Cho began softly after she walked from talking to Itachi and kneeled down to the boy's level. He buried his head further in the material of Naruto's pant leg as she used her hand to rub his back affectionately. "......if we go now, we should have enough time to play your favorite game." she bribed, knowing full well that it was always a fight to get the small boy away from the male blond.

"But I want to play it with Aniki too." his voice coming out a little muffled from his face being covered.

Naruto ran his hand through his brown locks. "I'll play the next time I promise."

He lifted his head to looked into sapphire. "Really?" his bottom lip formed into the infamous pout.

"Really." Naruto reassured the boy.

"We'll all play!!" chimed in Miki, which were followed by several agreements around the table.

A bright smile appeared on his innocent features. "Hai!" he yelled to the room as he jumped up in the air in excitement. Cho stood also and grasped Kyosuke's hand before he decided he wanted to reattach himself to Naruto. "See ya later, Naru-nii-chan! Bye guys!" She waved goodbye to him and to the others as she pulled Kyosuke with her.

They both walked out of the dining room, and he heard Kyosuke ask, "Are Jun-nii and Yuu-nii going to play too?"

Naruto heard Cho reply with, "Don't worry Kyo-kun, they'll play one way or another." and he could imagine the playful but evil gleam in her eyes.

Yuuto and Jun straightened themselves up and said a general goodbye to everyone. But before the two could leave Naruto called them over. "What is it Naruto-sempai?" Yuuto asked, seeing the seriousness in the older man's eyes.

"I want you two to do something for me."

"Something huh...." began Jun in his usual manner of arrogance, ".....what do we get--"

Naruto quickly cut him off with, "It involves Cho and Kyosuke." This shut the boy up quickly with a deep frown marring his features. When it came to the people Jun cared about, he would do anything to protect them. And Cho and Kyosuke were two of his important persons.

The rest of the room went silent too as Naruto continued, "I want you two to look after Cho and Kyosuke."

"Why?" curtly asked Jun.

"I'll explain later, but this is serious. Just make sure they aren't ever by themselves and don't let them go anywhere with anyone you don't know. Everyone within this room and baa-chan is fine. I'm counting on you two when non of us are around to make sure no harm comes to them. Can we count on you two?"

The tone of his voice made it clear to them that Cho and Kyosuke were in some kind of danger. And both of them knew clearly that they would risk their lives to protect those two. So it was no surprise when they both nodded their answers almost instantly. "You can count on us sempai." firmly stated Yuuto and another stern nod followed from Jun. "But what about stoic ass over their by 'Tachi-sempai? Can he be trusted?" using his head to point him out.

Naruto couldn't stop the snort that escaped his mouth from the name that Jun addressed Sasuke with. He heard three sets of laughs come from Miki, Jiraiya and Temari, who weren't able to hold them in just like the blond or most likely didn't try. Naruto cocked his head to look at the raven. His sapphire colliding with the other's onyx, clashing together and maximizing the emotional pain within them. Naruto quickly turned back to the two in front of him before he would begin suffocating in those onyx orbs. "That stoic ass over there is Uchiha Sasuke and yeah he can be trusted." He trusted Sasuke, no matter how he acted to the Uchiha or what he kept from him, he still trusted him.

Sasuke was a little surprised that Naruto trusted him with anything. It's not like the blond is open with information regarding the past six years. Wouldn't that be the first thing you would tell someone you trusted and had sex with--not to mention claimed to love--before that person left without as much as a goodbye. And then let you believe he was dead of that said six years. Sorry if he might be seeing this a little backwards, but that didn't show any kind of trust--whats so ever.

Upon hearing the name of the guy, Jun and Yuuto's eyes kept glancing back and forth between Sasuke and Naruto. Fiercely battling and miserably losing at keeping their lips from moving upwards and forming smiles. They both took a glance at each other and desperately tried to hold the snickers that were bubbling inside them at bay. But a few strays were slowly leaking out between forcefully closed lips, their bodies trembling from the effect at keeping themselves from going into hysterical laughing.

Naruto looked at them with confusion practically written on his forehead. "What the hell's so funny?!"

Yuuto's hand immediately shot out and grabbed Jun's mouth in a vice grip, squeaking out a few octaves higher than his normal voice, "Nothing. We'll going now....." his mouth managed to force out. He gripped the shorter boy's arms and as his hand remained on Jun's mouth, he purposely led them both out of the room before he lost his crumbling composure.

The two weren't out of the dining room for two seconds, when a loud hysterical laugh resounded throughout the house with a smaller and more reserved laugh hidden underneath it.

The whole dining room burst into noise, Jiraiya was laughing loudly while Miki's head fell to the surface of the table as his own laughs racked through his body. Kyoko and Ruri were giggling--Ruri trying her best to stifle hers with her hand. Temari was laughing manically as she passed Naruto to the archway to leave. "Bye Shika!" she yelled between laughing over her shoulder. She made herself to sober up some to say, "Itachi make sure not to let our little Naruto get into trouble! See you guys later!" and she departed from the room to catch up to her team.

Naruto blinked blankly as his eyes roamed over everyone's reaction from the two boy's barely contained laughter, wondering what he missed? What did he miss? Cause he obviously missed something. He shook his head and looked at all of them that were now staring at him like they knew some kind of joke that he didn't know. Well, how true that was, because he didn't know and.....

"I don't even want to know." he told them, because he had a feeling that it had something to do with Sasuke and him. And he knew that he would get upset that whoever told whatever that someone said to Jun and Yuuto. So, he quickly changed the topic to what they needed to talk about. "Come on Gaara, now you can spit it out. What's you doing here?" he asked as he picked up his cloak and mask from the floor and laid the items upon the table.

Gaara silently walked over to where Jiraiya was sitting and stood to the side of his seat, staring directly at the older man with emotionless eyes. Jiraiya looked up at the boy and when he did so, Gaara lifted an non-existent eyebrow. A silent command that said, 'move'.

The white haired sannin rolled his eyes as he grudgingly rose from his seat and leaned against the section of wall behind Miki. With a graceful movement, Gaara sat down on the empty seat with his arms crossed over his chest. "How are you feeling Naruto? I heard from Tsunade-sama that it's begun."

Naruto smiled sweetly yet with a sinister underlining to it, at Gaara. "That's not something that needs to be discussed right now." his tone telling the shorter man of the dangers of going on with the subject.

He gave a curt nod, "Understood. Then, I was wondering if my position in Akuma is still open?" Getting right to the point that shocked a few people within the room.

Naruto was one of those shocked people. "You want to join Akuma?" his voice showing the disbelief he was feeling.

He nodded his head, "That is, if you would let me?"

"Whoah....." he said with his hands in the air. "Can we back track a little? When you start like that, it makes me think all sorts of things. Why do you want to join Akuma anyway? You're the Kazekage of Suna, so....." he trailed off, hoping that the red head would fill in the rest.

"I resigned." he replied simply, making it sound like it was no big thing.

"YOU RESIGNED!!" exclaimed Miki quite loudly. "Why the fuck would you do something like that!!" Naruto, Kyoko and Tara's heads were nodding with what Miki inquired rudely, wondering the same thing.

"The council members were going to disbar me anyway. So, I thought I would save some of my dignity and resign first before they had the satisfaction in doing so."

The room fell into a tense silence. The surrounding air filling with killing intent that was radiating off everyone except Sasuke at hearing the news. The latter was disinterested in the whole conversation. Anything that involves Naruto's other life he didn't really want to hear it. Especially when the blond wasn't speaking to him directly about it. He vaguely wondered if he could leave yet. It appeared that the discussion about the chuunin exams were over, then why was he still here?

His eyes focused back on the blond instead of the floor, where he's been staring at for the past couple of minutes. And for a split second, he could of swore he saw Naruto's usual sapphire eyes were blood red. But they were back to they're usual breathtaking blue in the next second, so he thought it was his imagination. Or he was going crazy. Which wouldn't surprise in the least.

Naruto abruptly stood, not caring for the exact reasons why the council wanted to disbar his friend. All he needed to know was that the council of his village was doing it. So, the red head could of killed half his village and he wouldn't have gave a shit about it.

The blond's features were currently void of any emotions because at this moment he was Tatsuo, leader of the notorious team Akuma. "Sabaku no Gaara." he began, causing Gaara to stand from his own chair also. "It is not just my decision but also my team. So...." directing his attention to his team. "If anyone has any objections about Sabaku no Gaara in joining Akuma. State it now......"

When no objections came forth, his head turned back to the shorter man. "Sabaku no Gaara, I hereby announce you as a member of Team Akuma." A huge smile spread across the blond's face. "Congratulations! Took you long enough to take me up on my offer!"

A evil smile formed on Miki as he stood and draped an arm over the red head's shoulders. "You know what this means Gaara."

"Initiation party!!" chimed in Kyoko with loads of excitement.

"Hai, initiation party!!" agreed Miki with just as much excitement as Kyoko.

Naruto looked wary at the two, the memories of the last initiation party--who's was Kyoko--were running through his mind. The same party where he got so drunk that he got a particular embarrassing tattoo near his ass. "I'm not gonna get out of this, am I?"

"The only reason you want to get out of it, is because of what happened on Kyoko-san's initiation party." stated Itachi smugly.

"Shut up, 'Tachi!" snapped the blond with his finger pointing at the older raven. Definitely not wanting him to divulge that information for the younger Uchiha to hear.

Itachi merely smirked and rose from his seat. "I'll get the needle and ink." he informed as he passed the blond and existed the dining room.

"Now everyone...." began Ruri in a authoritative tone, ".....this is not our house and out of respect to Uchiha-san, please try to remain on your best behavior. That means Taichou, stay away from the alcohol."

"ME!" the blond yelled, highly offended that he was personally sought out by the woman. Miki was way more wild when it came to these parties.

The said wild one began laughing at the memories that flooded through his head. "But Ruri...." he managed to say while still laughing, "......that was the funniest I've ever seen Naruto. Who would of thought that you could do a strip tease while dancing the macarena."

That was enough for Sasuke. He pushed himself off the wall and left the dining room and the house out the back door. Naruto saw the youngest Uchiha leave, his sapphire orbs full of sorrow and regret as he watched the back of the raven. He personally didn't want it to be like this but.....it's better if Sasuke hates him. That way, maybe, it will hurt less now instead of later. Where it will only hurt ten times more when he had to leave......

Once outside, Sasuke let his mask fall, letting the emotions he was holding back flood through his eyes and show on his features. Because here he was alone. He knew that Naruto wouldn't come after him and he was relieved and at the same time saddened by that fact.

He solemnly stood within his massive backyard. The sun shining above doing nothing to warm his insides. Because the pain that was constantly flowing through his being was like frostbite. If caught in time, the damage that's been done can be treated. But if left unnoticed or untreated, it can slowly kill you.

And his insides were freezing, suffering from the cold that no one.....no.....that one person--that one that can warm him......to save him......won't do anything.

He will slowly perish within the cold and his sunshine will only sit back....and watch....