Hi there! Here is the sixth chapter! I can't believe how long it took me to update, but you know working at a hospital IS demanding and not to mention my studies are tiring me, like hell1

But I finally found the time to finish this chapter and update. I quite love the way things turned out in this chapter, I hope you'll share this with me.

Chapter 6-True Lies

.o.O.O.o.

"Mom, you will wait for me, right?" asked the dark haired boy. He held the phone close to his ear and swallowed.

"Of course I will Sasu-chan," his mother answered from the other side. "You will only have to wait until tonight and then you'll be home."

"But you will wait for me, right?" he asked again, needing to hear her answer again.

"I will Sasuke," she promised, "and I will bake you your favorite cookies and I will send Itachi to go buy pomegranates juice, just what you like."

Sasuke swallowed again. He missed his mother so much! For four long weeks he hadn't seen his mother and it was too much. He knew his brother was going to tease him endlessly about it when he gets back home, but at the moment he couldn't care less. All he wanted was to see his mother again and hug her like he always did when he came home from school.

"I miss you mommy…" he whispered in a trembling voice, "I want to go home now…"

"I know baby, I know. But you can wait just a little longer, ne Sasuke? You can do it, right?"

"Yes…" he whispered.

"You are my hero Sasuke and I'm very proud of you for being so brave."

Suddenly he couldn't see clearly and he realized that he was crying. He sniffed and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

"I love you mom," he told her. He was trembling again and he couldn't help it. He felt a great fear in his heart, like something terrible was going to happen and he couldn't prevent it, like when he went back home his mother wouldn't be there. He needed to tell her that he loved her, that he loved her so much. "I love you very, very much mommy and I don't want you to leave," he said without being able to know why. There was a short silence on the other side of the line but then he could hear his mother sigh softly and then she said: "I am not going to leave baby. I love you and I will be here. Don't worry Sasuke." Sasuke nodded and then remembered that she can't see him so he said: "Ok."

"Good boy. Now you need to bring strong, ok?"

"Yes mom," he promised.

"Good bye Sasuke, I love you."

"Good bye mom, I love you too." He could hear the 'click' when his mother hung up and then it was over. Newly formed tears began to fall down uncontrollably and he stood there weeping.

~o~o~o~o~

The dark haired boy was excited beyond description. As the plane began to land the only thing he could think of was his mother waiting for him at the airport and of being able to see and hug her again. He wished the plane would go faster! He clutched his backpack and bit his lower lip in anticipation.

The plane landed with a hideous noise and it began to drive along the road, slowing down with every second that passed. When it stopped completely, the boy stood up instantly and when the pilot gave permission, he rushed toward the exit and sighed in relief once he was outside. His mother was close by, he only needed to find his luggage and then go find his mother. He followed the people who came out of the same plane he was on and proceeded to find his luggage. It took him ten minutes and when he finally spotted it he quickly went to grab but it was too heavy for him. A woman came to his aid and he thanked her with a bright smile that she returned happily. Then he went to find his mom.

His eyes scanned the hall, scanned the faces around him, looking for a particular face. There were so many people! They held sign boards with names on them and…Itachi? Was that…? Yes, it was his brother. The boy smiled and quickly waved to his brother. "Nii-san!" he called to him and Itachi finally turned to look at him. The boy quickly reached where his brother was and gave him a hug. "Nii-san, you didn't have to come too," he told his older brother, "Where's mom?" he finally looked up to meet his brother's eyes and his smile disappeared.

Itachi looked down at his brother and his heart ached so badly. He knelt down in front of Sasuke and pulled him into a tight hug. "What's wrong nii-san?" Sasuke asked, anxious. Why was his brother acting so affectionate all of a sudden? Itachi never hugged him just like that. And what was with that look in his eyes? Why did Itachi look so…sorrowful?

"Sasuke…" Itachi whispered in his ear "Welcome back…"

"Nii-san… where's mom?"

Itachi looked into his little brother's eyes and for once in his life felt like crying then and there. He just couldn't say, couldn't bring himself to say the words Sasuke most feared of. How could he say them? When his mother was everything to his little brother?! But he… he had to.

"Sasuke… mom is… mom's not coming. She can't."

"But she promised!" Sasuke argued, "She promised she would be here to wait for me!!!" Sasuke just couldn't accept the fact that his mother wasn't there to greet him. She promised, after all, and his mother always kept her promises. Always. It just wasn't possible that she wouldn't. And then, slowly realization finally dawned on him and it was worse than not knowing the answer.

"Nii-san… where is mom and dad?" he asked in a trembling voice, afraid of the answer, afraid, so afraid…

"They won't be coming Sasuke…never again…" Itachi finally said but it was his tears that made Sasuke truly understand the full meaning of those words. Because Itachi never cried. But he cried at that moment-shimmering tears running down his pale cheeks and making him look somehow more human.

Sasuke's cry of agony could be heard throughout the entire hall. It wasn't true! He would not believe it! In an instant he was free from Itachi's embrace and running off elsewhere. He ignored his big brother's cries and kept running. He looked at every face he stumbled upon and tried to find familiar faces, familiar smiles but… only wondering eyes met his searching eyes and he could suddenly feel salty hot tears shamelessly sliding down his cheeks. 'No, no, no!' his mind screamed but realization and reality screamed in reply: Yes, yes, yes!

Someone picked him up from the floor he fell on but Sasuke couldn't care less. He was hardly aware of Itachi's arms embracing him and of his voice whispering soft murmurs. All he knew, all he cared about was that they were gone. Gone forever…and another tear slipped down.

~o~o~o~o~

"The days, weeks and months that followed now seem like a blurry dream but I remember them all too well." Sasuke said softly. Naruto listened the whole time and now that he was done with the worst part he felt, somehow, relieved. As if some heavy weight was lifted from his heart. And it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, too. Naruto made no attempt to interrupt him and now he even looked as if he was about to cry. Sasuke had to smile at that. "Don't make such a face, usuratonkachi," he told the other boy with a smirk. "I don't need your pity." Naruto's eyes narrowed at the insult but he ignored it never the less.

"I'll make any face I want," he informed the dark-haired boy. Sasuke offered him another smirk and went on.

"Anyway, as my brother likes to call them, those were my 'dark days'. I had no appetite; I didn't feel like doing anything. I hardly ate and thus I became paler and thinner of course. I spent my days skipping school and lying in my bed with heavy metal playing in my ears. My brother says I shut myself from the world and everyone and everything in it. I guess I did, though I can't really tell. I did it sub-consciously. I was alive and yet not." He paused and ran a hand through his hair. From the corner of his eye he noticed that Naruto didn't look at him-his head was turned away from Sasuke and his gaze was fixed on something on the floor.

"The general feeling I was feeling at the time was depression and a lot of despair. I hated everything I saw and everyone that came to my view, including my brother. Whoever I saw, I felt the sudden need to scream, or throw up and it made me do things I really regret now. Like, beating the shit out of Neji once he came to visit me." Sasuke chuckled to himself and Naruto finally turned to look at him, only to give him a hard glare.

"Anyway," Sasuke continued. "Itachi, my brother, decided that it was no good and the bastard got me a psychologist to help me. At first I was furious and I struggled and resisted but Itachi was-and still is-far stronger and smarter than me so in the end I gave up the fight and agreed to meet the damned man.

"He wasn't that bad. He actually managed to help me out of my misery. He guided me, I guess, despite all the things I said to him and even despite trying to attack him," Sasuke chuckled again and Naruto smiled in return.

"I would like to meet him," he told Sasuke.

"Why?" Sasuke asked, confused. Naruto gave him another smile and softly said: "'cause he makes you smile. Hell I had to work my ass off just to get a hint of a smile out of you!" Sasuke didn't know how to react in reply. But thankfully he didn't have to because Naruto asked him to continue.

"After a year with my psychologist I've finally managed to get rid of my depression and everything that came with it and this is how I turned out," he finished.

Naruto said nothing and Sasuke was more than happy to just sit there in silence. But when Naruto finally stretched a little and got up Sasuke looked up in confusion.

"Where are you going?"

Naruto turned to him. "I'm going home," he answered. Sasuke frowned and stood up to. "I am waiting for your story. We made a deal, remember?"

"I remember," Naruto said in a whisper, and mumbled something Sasuke couldn't hear, before saying: "Ok. This is my story: five years ago, I went to a summer camp with Gaara and there I met you. I fell in love with you despite everything, despite how hard it was to make you smile. But it wasn't supposed to mean anything because we were too young and we were never supposed to meet again. That's it." Sasuke almost growled when Naruto made another attempt to leave but Sasuke caught his wrist in time. Naruto turned around, shocked.

"But we did meet again, didn't we Naruto?" Naruto struggled to get free but Sasuke's grip was strong and firm. "It doesn't matter now that I've heard you story," Naruto replied. For now, he gave up struggling and simply stood there in front of Sasuke who seemed to become more and more furious for some reason.

"So now that you've had your answers you're just going to leave? Very selfish Uzumaki, you indeed enjoy playing with people's minds and feelings."

"I don't!" Naruto said.

"Oh, you don't? Then tell me why you're trying to run away." Sasuke's cold voice made him shiver but he couldn't escape nor could he take his eyes off of those enchanting obsidian eyes.

"There's no need for me to be here anymore," he replied. Sasuke raised one elegant brow in question. "I can't tell you why, Uchiha!" Naruto cried in anger.

"Tell me," Sasuke simply demanded.

"There's no need to…it will only make things worse!"

"Tell me Naruto or I'll make you regret that you didn't!"

"Don't threaten me you bastard! I can't believe I'm still in lo-" Naruto stopped himself before he revealed his secret but Sasuke already heard the beginning of that cursed word and he was smart. "You are still in love with me?" it seemed that the new information amazed him. Naruto blushed like a tomato and refused to open his mouth again. He looked away again and Sasuke wished that he hadn't. He wanted to see those blue eyes so much!

"Naruto…" he felt so awkward. "Tell me, why did you try to leave like that? Please…" after a long pause Naruto finally did turn to look at him and Sasuke realized that he couldn't look into those raging eyes yet he couldn't look away.

"It'll only make things worse Sasuke…" he said softly. "Now that I know why, I realize how wrong I was. I thought that you simply toyed with my feelings and that I wasn't important to you at all, not even as a mere friend. I'm sorry for doubting you and I believe that from now it will be better to live our lives the way they should have been if we hadn't met back then."

"But your feelings won't be gone so quickly," Sasuke commented and Naruto shrugged. "I'll push them aside, just like I did the past five years," he said simply.

"So I mean so little to you that you can do that so easily?" Sasuke asked, hurt. Naruto's eyes widened. "No! I didn't mean it like that!" he cried almost desperately.

"Then don't say those things," Sasuke hid a smirk as he scolded Naruto. "Instead say you'll love me forever." If Naruto's eyes could've gotten wider they would've. He stared at Sasuke without knowing what to say or how to react so, in the end, when he began feeling quite stupid, he managed to stutter, half choking: "W-What?!"

"Say you'll love me forever." Sasuke repeated in amusement. This time Naruto wasn't too shocked and he was able to reply: "I will, whether I want to or not." He eyed Sasuke calculatingly.

"Besides, I see it pointless to say those things because you're never going to say them to me in return."

"Why do you think so negatively of me? And what if I did love you too?"

"That's a nice thing to wish upon a falling star, really. Even when we were younger you never gave me the impression that you felt the same way toward me even though I was sickly in love with you."

"I am sorry," Sasuke actually looked ashamed. He swallowed and then bit his lower lip as if trying to fight back something. A laughter, maybe? Suddenly Naruto realized how foolish he must be looking, confessing his love and all like that. He wished for the earth to crack open and swallow him along with his shame.

"Then go out with me," Sasuke finally said and to Naruto's ear those words were too loud, too clear. Both Naruto and Sasuke were surprised at that. Sasuke had no idea were those words came from but he knew why-Naruto. For the past few days all he's been thinking about was the other boy and it was useless to try and think of something else because the picture of Naruto's face, Naruto's smile, always managed to sneak back and Sasuke would drown again in a sea of thoughts, all of them about Naruto. He couldn't understand it all but he realized that he wanted to be with Naruto, to see him, to feel him close by, to hear his voice…and it nearly drove him insane because it was an unfamiliar feeling and frankly, he didn't very like unfamiliar things.

"Won't you go out with me?" he asked in a soft murmur.

~o~o~o~o~

Gaara's mind went blank. He couldn't think of anything to say and it was hard to find his way through the thick clouds of puzzlement and shock. What the hell was Neji thinking?! What kind of question was that? It made Gaara feel very uneasy and for some reason anxious too. Love… it was a concept Gaara didn't like to think about let alone be involved in. Love… it meant nothing good to him. All he knew was that love brought only misery, great pain and then emptiness. He never was loved and he had long forgotten what it was like to love someone. He didn't want to remember.

Neji's gaze never for once left him and Gaara wanted to do something, maybe hurt the boy so badly that he would never talk to him again. In the end he simply put his glass down and got up.

"Are you running away?" Neji asked calmly. Gaara turned to look at him blankly.

"Your questions are ridiculous," he said indifferently.

"Yet you are terrified of them," Neji noted out. Gaara suddenly found it hard to breathe. This boy… he wanted to kill him. Nobody ever talked to him like that and stayed alive long enough to brag about it. He had to shut the boy up before he came up with another ridiculous question.

"You don't know anything Hyuuga," he said calmly despite his anger. "It's a dangerous thing you're getting yourself into."

"Then fill me in with the details," said Neji, cockily.

"It's my own business and you should stay out of them." Gaara turned again and started to walk away, away from the Hyuuga and his stupid questions, away from his presence and the uneasiness it brought. He wanted to see Naruto. He needed to see him. Besides, his brother was probably in some kind of trouble already. He was abruptly pulled out of his thought by two arms that suddenly grabbed his arm and turned him around swiftly. Before he could even register what was happening, he felt soft lips against his own and a soft tongue brushing lightly on his lower lip. Then he saw closed eyelids and dark thick eyelashes and before he could step away, those two arms curled around his waist and he was helplessly trapped within Neji's embrace. After a moment his brain finally returned back into his skull and he pushed the boy away. Neji looked slightly hurt but he couldn't care less. What the hell?!

"What was that supposed to mean?!" he growled in a low, dangerous voice. Neji's expression held some sort of determination when he answered: "I think I'm in love with you."

Gaara wished, really wished, the boy hadn't said that.

"Don't screw with me, bitch!"

"It was definitely destiny that made me fall in love with you," Neji continued mercilessly. Gaara slammed his fist on the slick surface of the table. "Shut the fuck up! You don't know what you're saying and I fucking don't want any part in this!"

"I'm not lying!" Neji insisted and stepped closer. Gaara stepped back. "Stay away from me!" he called to the pale0eyes boy but Neji stepped even closer. "I'm not lying!" he said again, "Don't-just don't step back. Please…" he pleaded.

"Don't come close," Gaara warned but didn't step back either.

For a couple of moments they just stood there in silence, not knowing what to say or not wanting to say anything.

Gaara cursed his damned luck. Out of all the people god could choose as Hyuuga's object of affection, he had to choose him-Gaara. Maybe it was some sort of punishment for some forgotten sin he had committed sometime in the past. He didn't know but he surely didn't like it. And he swore he would beat the shit out of whoever that was responsible for this.

"Listen," Neji finally spoke. "I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me." Gaara glared at him and Neji swallowed. "Ever since I can remember myself, I always felt kind of empty, as if something was missing, like a piece of my soul or something like that. To me it felt like looking at an incomplete puzzle. Those empty spaces made me feel incomplete myself, naturally. I never knew what the meaning of it was, and I never cared. I just knew that it was destiny and I had to accept it. But then, when I first saw you, something happened. It was as if someone was showing me where those missing pieces were and I knew that if the fates decided to give me something like that, I had to take it no matter what. So I took it. And then I realized I'm in love with you. We were meant to be Sabaku no Gaara, I know because nothing ever happens without a reason, and if I'm in love with you it means that we're meant to be."

Gaara didn't know what to say to that. Did Neji honestly believe that bullshit? In different times he would have laughed at that but now… now he couldn't laugh.

"Why are you so terrified when I tell you how I feel?" Neji went on. "Why do you look at me with so much anger? Why, when I told you everything you looked at me as if you wanted to throw up and run? I don't remember ever hurting you, or doing anything to you!"

"Stupid, if your words are true than that's the worst thing you could have ever done to me…" was Gaara's reply.

~o~o~o~o~

"What are you saying?!" Naruto was confused and absolutely frustrated.

"Go out with me dobe," Sasuke repeated.

"Why should I do that?"

"Because you love me," was the arrogant answer.

"But you don't love me."

"No, I don't."

"Then why?"

"Because I'm tired of this boring life. I'm sick of those stupid girls clinging to me. I need refreshment, you see,"

"Fuck you!"

"Hmm maybe…"

"You're sick…you've changed. You're not the Sasuke I used to know…"

"Wow did you figure that out only now? Wake up idiot, people don't stay the same forever. Things like life and god's fucking sadistic actions force people to change whether they want to or not!"

By then Naruto was on the verge of tears. He was so hurt and mad! Did Sasuke have to be that cruel? Suddenly all he wanted was to be home in his quiet room and sleep through the whole month.

"I hate you…" he hissed at the dark haired boy, but it made Sasuke smirk.

"No you don't," he said evilly, "And the sad part is that I'm right and you know it but there's nothing you can do." Naruto decided that that was it. He did say he could take anything from the Uchiha but that was too much for someone he didn't even want to go out with. Well, actually he did want to go out with Sasuke, but Sasuke was different… crueler. If he did go out with Sasuke they relationship would have been horrible so he had to refuse, although he ached to say yes. He got up from his chair, turned, and without a word left. When Sasuke was out of sight he began to run.

Oh you can't run from me…

Unleash your anger…let your conscience sleep…

Feed me…feed me…feed me…

No! No! Not now! Not ever!

His stomach ached, his head ached and felt heavy, his breath became ragged, his could feel his conscience slowly drifting away to hide in some safe place.

No! Don't! Help me! Help me…! Please help me…

Feed me… feed me… feed me...!

~o~o~o~o~

Neji opened his mouth but closed it again when Gaara's phone started to ring. The red head pulled it out of his pocket an answered. It was from Naruto. Neji couldn't help but feel jealousy creeping inside of him when Gaara spoke to his brother so calmly and affectionately. That feeling soon disappeared upon seeing Gaara's change of expression. He was now wide-eyed.

"What is it?" he asked when Gaara put the phone back in his pocket.

"Naruto."

Gaara let Neji follow when he ran downstairs to the second floor where Naruto and Sasuke were supposed to be.

He found the bastard sitting near a table, looking extremely bored.

"Where is he?!" he demanded. Sasuke looked up at him with cold indifferent eyes and shrugged. "He ran away," he said.

"What did you do to him Uchiha?!"

"Nothing, I merely told him the truth."

"Was he… upset?" Sasuke and Neji both blinked at the unexpected question. Sasuke eyes him suspiciously. "Obviously," he said after a while. Another thing he didn't expect was Gaara's fist. The boy hit him hard on the jaw line.

"What's your fucking problem?!" he cried, angered.

"You fucking shithead! It's your fucking fault! Where did he go?!" Sasuke, pointed toward the stairs and Gaara turned but before he could go his phone rang again.

"Naruto-"

"Help me…! Gaa-ra… help me… feed me… stop-feed… hel-p…!"

.o.O.O.o

Like I promised, I haven't abandoned this story. No matter how long it takes me to update, u should know I will not abandon it! Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter (I know I liked the first Gaara\Neji part in this chapter. Thanks for reading!