Chapter 3: Spiralling thoughts

Previously: Naruto smiled even wider and nodded. "Hinata-chan is amazing! She's had a crush on me ever since primary school. She confessed in high school, but I've been unable to return her feelings. I had always liked her best friend like that." He rubbed the back of his neck in a gesture Sasuke was so familiar with. "Imagine her mortification for me to see her here, teme!"

Sasuke was at a loss of words. Fuck it, she was smitten with his best friend?!

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Sasuke grabbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger and collected his thoughts for some moments. The situation was even more complicated; Naruto had just said he was aware of her liking him, she had apparently even confessed. Funnily enough, he never heard any other female name leave his friend's mouth, other than some Sakura friend of his. In other words, he probably wasn't interested in… Hinata, that was how the idiot had just called her. Coming to this realisation, he removed the hand from his face and left it hanging.

"Don't like her back?" Sasuke tried to ask with a feigned lack of interest. Of course, his friend was too drunk to notice the subtle irritation in his voice.

Naruto squinted and moved a finger to scratch his weird – were those whiskers? – cheek in a nervous gesture. He looked like he was lost in thought for a while. It was probably just the alcohol slowing down his cognitive processes. The blonde sighed and closed his eyes in what seemed a nearly pained expression. Sasuke still hadn't gotten reaccustomed to his roommate's almost comically exaggerated displays of emotion.

They had first met at the orphanage when they were kids. They used to hang out together a lot and even though they were rivals in mischief, they actually liked each other's company a lot. Everything had changed when a white-haired man started paying visits to the blonde. After some months, Naruto went home with him – Jiraiya – if memory serves Sasuke. Of course it did, he remembered everything vividly, photographic memory he always supposed. He never thought he was going to see Naruto again, but he was wrong.

Months after Naruto found his loving family along with this man – Sasuke now knew he was a writer and even though he was self-proclaimed as an esteemed author, in his opinion that man was anything but – Sasuke himself was adopted. Jiraiya nearly lost custody of Naruto a few times under suspicions of stalking women or peeping, but police struggled to gather solid evidence to back that up. The fact that the man was writing erotic novels did him no good under this pressing suspicion. Not only that, but he would often get drunk and talk about his romantic life quite graphically, or so Naruto stated.

Sasuke's adoptive parent, one rather weird, smut obsessed grey-haired man with bored eyes, Kakashi, was the perfect match for the boy. He lived in another city, so they relocated and Sasuke enjoyed what he supposed was a normal life. His adoptive father, in a moment of uncharacteristic honesty, told him once about his own childhood and how he lost the last of his parents to suicide. Sasuke understood then that Kakashi saw him as his younger self and wanted to provide for Sasuke as nobody else did for him. For that, Sasuke respected him and seldomly went against his word. Even though Kakashi wasn't doing too well financially, he provided him with a good upbringing.

Moving to college on the first day on campus he saw that yellow mop of hair again which reminded him of his childhood friend; one could rather kill Sasuke than getting him to admit that he secretly hoped that this man was Naruto. When the blonde turned around, he was not disappointed. Naruto had recognized him as well and they both grinned like idiots towards each other (Sasuke would say he barely smirked). They hung around for some time until Sasuke remembered he had to find his dorm room, wondering who would be his flatmate. When he showed Naruto his key, the blonde punched him in the arm and declared that the key corresponded to his adjoining room.

"I really tried to," the blond said thoughtfully and took Sasuke out of his nostalgia. "She did like me even when I was bullied because of my pervy dad and people thought I would turn out to be a creep like him. Hinata-chan took her time to go over lessons with me, she grew up to be – you saw it for yourself – hot as fuck, but I still don't feel like that towards her."

Sasuke raised a brow at that to which Naruto shrugged guiltily. "Okay, I miiiight have kissed her a couple of times or sent mixed signals…" to which Sasuke's inquisitive gaze only intensified. "We had sex once," Naruto said barely audibly and opened one eye slowly to probe for Sasuke's face, which remained as stoic as ever. Relieved, he opened his second eye and scratched his neck nervously.

"It might have been her first time too." Sasuke's eye twitched, Naruto thought, so he gulped audibly and raised his hands in defence. "I mean you having here tonight just proves my point, teme!"

"And that is?"

"Well, she does sleep around I suppose."

"What happened then?"

"Well, after high school was over, both Sakura-chaaaan and her kinda left our friend group. Dunno what happened. I mean many of our friends still study here, but we rarely meet up anymore. Sakura-chan has ignored all my attempts to bring the group back together."

Naruto groaned in annoyance. Sasuke's eyes flickered in understanding. "I knew him. Well," she had told him. "Afterparty of the prom," Hinata had also mentioned. This guy, whoever he was, Sasuke most likely knew him and he couldn't help but grit his teeth. He had to be one of Naruto's friends or certainly one of the people in that group. Surely, they wouldn't have distanced themselves otherwise, meaning… This Sakura must be the friend who knew.

Not only that, but what little Hinata shared with him was checking out with Naruto's recalling of the event. It all felt real and left Sasuke in a state of uneasiness. His damned photographic memory. He could recall the pain in her eyes and laboured breathing, so he clicked his tongue to break free of the image. What should he do? Find out who it was? To what good? He decided he'd leave it be. She was a stranger as far as he was concerned. If she would ask for help or support he would provide it, but she didn't. It must have been a difficult night for her as well, considering her supposed crush found her together with his flatmate, having what looked to be a one–night stand. Probably she didn't want the blonde to hear about the incident in fear that he would find her less desirable. In fear that he knew the attacker and she was too afraid to speak up. He decided not to bring it up with Naruto.

Should he simply act as if nothing were amiss? He probably hung out around this guy and smiled and laughed with him. Sasuke felt sick just imagining that. He wasn't naïve – in truth, he knew sexual predators were not some kind of demons. They are human, they are charming, they act normal until they don't. But to others, they are friends, fathers, brothers, maybe exceptional employees, kind-hearted towards animals or even to people in general. He sighed, feeling his head spinning.

Sasuke feigned tiredness and asked Naruto to leave to let him finally sleep. His friends gave him the look and grinned. He knew why Sasuke was that tired, or so he supposed. When he was about to exit the room, he heard Sasuke talking:

"We didn't do it."

Naruto turned back, surprise written on his face. "Ya know, you can have her. I don't really care for her in that way. And even if you didn't, she does like to hang around random guys at parties anyhow."

Sasuke found himself getting irritated. Sure, he's slept with women he didn't care about too, but he felt it would be disrespectful for him to then condemn them for engaging in the same activities he did. On top of that, to speak like that of her after what he had just learnt felt wrong. And let's get things straight, those women weren't his childhood friends. He brushed it off, thinking the blonde has had a glass too many.

Naruto went to his room, Sasuke just rolled his eyes and started tidying his room. If stressed, he did that compulsively. First, the young man rinsed out the cups they both had used; rather his, because hers was still untouched. Right, that's when his stupid friend had barged in. Sasuke sighed. Eventually, he went to bed but he couldn't find peace and rolled restlessly on his mattress until something stung him in the back. Upon closer inspection, he came to find a stud earring on the bed. It was white gold or silver and had what Sasuke supposed was a moonstone on it. He held the small piece of jewellery in his open palm and stared at it. His fingers traced it with curiosity and he couldn't help imagining those moonstones turn into her eyes and then he saw the hurt again. Damnit! He grabbed his phone and started searching.

About 85 to 90 percent of sexual assaults reported by college women are perpetrated by someone known to the victim; about half occur on a date. The most common locations are the man's or woman's home in the context of a party or a date. The perpetrators may range from classmates to neighbours.

Half of all student victims do not define the incident as "rape." This is especially true when no weapon was used, there is no obvious physical injury, and alcohol was involved — factors commonly associated with campus acquaintance rape. This is one reason rape and other sexual assaults on campus are not well reported.

His eyes glided over more articles in the hours to come, all the while the sole earring was gently placed on his nightstand. Sasuke didn't know what to do, but he just knew he couldn't let this matter slide past him. She had confided in him.

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To be continued…

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A/N: Thank you for reading! Please let me know your thoughts about the story so far! ;D

Special thanks go out to my awesome beta, Sommernacht.