Insanity
By Pocky Whore

Days went by with neither Naruto nor I confronting the other. The tension whenever the two of us were in the same room was so unsettling that neither of us could stand it for very long. I had spent days dwelling on the photo still tucked under my pillow. I had spent hours staring at it, only to immediately spend hours trying to erase it from my mind. Every time I looked at it the churning in my gut increased. No matter how many times I saw it, no matter how long I looked at it, it still shook me every time. I saw it in my head every night when I closed my eyes. I saw it every time I looked at Naruto. Maybe that was part of the reason I was avoiding him like the plague, not that I had to try very hard, Naruto seemed to be avoiding me just as readily.

It seemed somehow as if his life's energy had been sucked right out of him. He was just going through the motions of living, much as I had been doing since my admitting here. His eyes didn't seem as blue, even his hair appeared to have lost its luster.

He didn't even try to appear happy when he was around me.

He'd lie on his bed and stare at the ceiling for hours, possibly days, because I had a nagging sensation in my gut that told me he hadn't slept in days. It concerned me. Not nearly enough to confront him, or consul him, or whatever one is supposed to do in this situation. No, Naruto's sudden phase of depression really brought no sympathy from me.

For day's I looked at the picture when Naruto wasn't around. For day's I contemplated the right way to confront him. I just hadn't yet figured that part out yet. Well, actually I had, I had imagined myself cornering him and beating the answers out of his blond skull. I had thought about casually bringing it up and seeing where the conversation would lead. I had a million different plans cooked up in my head, but I couldn't execute them. I'm not sure exactly what was stopping me. I had a plan, or at least a vague idea of a plan, and I had plenty of opportunities.

The part I hadn't quite figured out yet was what to do after I confronted him. Once the truth was all lain out on the table, then what happened?

That was the part that I was most concerned with. I didn't know Naruto's story, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it. I was positive I wouldn't like it. Would I be able to handle myself? That what my biggest doubt. When it came to Itachi my emotions were unpredictable. The mere thought of him turned me bipolar.

Today I hadn't seen Naruto. He hadn't been in the room when I fell asleep, but I had heard him sneak in sometime later, nor had he been there when I woke up. It didn't bug me nearly as much as it had the first couple times this had happened. It was like Naruto was some rare eclipse that only happed once in a blue moon, but each time you say it, the memory stuck. I could tell he was fed up with me. After the incident last week he become a lot more irritable, but he also had this sad sort of aura around him. It baffled me actually. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he was so upset with me. I should be the one sulking and ignoring him. He was totally stealing my thunder.

But my anger made me feel no sympathy for him.

Another couple hours went by, before I heard a knock on the door. I didn't move, nor did I yell out some obnoxious phrase to indicate the door was open. I didn't quite care who was on the other side. They knocked once more, and the door started the creep open. I turned my head to look at the door, and whoever was coming in it.

I didn't even have the energy to roll my eyes or snort my disapproval as Sakura came into the room. This woman obviously has no brain. Her skirt had gradually been getting shorter and shorter over the past week; witch confused me because honestly she wasn't the hottest thing on two legs. She still had bruises on her legs, and her legs were significantly paler than the rest of her body.

She seemed surprised to see me in the room and cleared her throat loudly as she entered.

"Sasuke, I'm here to change your bed sheets." She hummed happily as she bounced over to my bedside.

This time I did roll my eyes, but I got up from the bed and sat on the floor more towards Naruto's side of the room so I'd be out of her way. She kept glancing at me as she gathered the blanket off of the bed and folded them neatly on the ground. She was in the process of bending over in what I can only assume was her biggest attempt at looking provocative while folding a blanket. Her skirt was ridding dangerously high up her backside. That's when I realized her ass was even whiter than her legs.

At that exact moment, out of all the other less interesting moments of the day, Naruto walked in.

He stood in the doorway, not an ounce of emotion sketched anywhere on his face. He glanced over at me and I shrugged, because really, what else are you supposed to do in a situation like this? He looked back at Sakura who was still painfully unaware that the number of her audience had just doubled. She looked over at me and attempted to seduce me with her smile, or something. Frankly I'm not really sure what she was trying to do. Naruto chose that moment to clear his throat. Loudly.

Sakura straightened immediately and stood stiffly in the middle of the room. Her head slowly turned towards the doorway, and it was almost like a scene out of The Exorcist as her neck turned further than I assumed was possible to look at Naruto. She blushed when she realized he was there, and had probably been there for a while. She faked a cough and pretended to busy herself with the bedding. She threw the pillows and sheets into a big pile, apparently losing the will to bend over and fold everything. She grabbed the bundle of bedding in both arms, and hurried out the door, knocking Naruto down in the process of pushing past the door.

I don't know which was funnier, Sakura's hurried shuffle out the door carrying half her weight in bed sheets, or Naruto's expression while on his short trip to the floor. Actually both were rather hilarious. So I laughed. Not just a small chuckle in the back of my throat, no, this was a full on can't breathe about to cry laugh. By now I was laying on the floor holding my side, my throat bubbling over with laughter. I couldn't remember the last time I had laughed this hard. It was certainly sometime before coming to this place. I had almost forgotten what laughing felt like.

I turned my head towards Naruto and his faced caused the laughs to start all over again. He was staring at me as if I had no head or something.

By the time I could contain myself again, Naruto was smiling at me. I looked over at him and for some reason I couldn't look away. It was like if either of us looked away that it would all go away. Like all the happiness in the world would leave me and I'd be left how I had been during this week when Naruto was ignoring me. I caught myself before I could compare myself to a moody teenage girl.

I honestly don't know how long we stayed like that, him on one side of the room sitting on the floor locking eyes with me still lying on the ground. Finally the small feeling of embarrassment crawled up my spine and I turned my head away.

I stared up at the ceiling, convincing myself that I was infatuated with the collection of cracks that slightly resembled a squirrel or some other woodland creature. I sensed Naruto stand up more than heard him stand up. His footsteps though, those were amazingly loud in my ears. Each step he took vibrated through my entire body. Then his face was right above me, smiling down at me, and his eyes seemed happier than they had in days. It made me nervous but at the same time I liked being looked at like that. But mostly it made me embarrassed. Not the blushed cheeks, unable to make eye contact, fidget with my shirt kind of nervous, but nervous none the less.

He was smiling so big I thought his face would split in half. I raised my eyebrow at him and he laughed softly at me. He lowered himself down onto the ground, and lay down next to me on the tile floor. We lay there for God know how long. Neither of us talking, but every now and then I could feel him staring at me in the corner of his eye.

"Dobe." I said still looking up at the ceiling. I heard him laugh again, this time it sounded happy. I couldn't help but smile at the sound. Again with the moody teenage girl mentality or perhaps hormonal teenage girl would be a better comparison. But hey, it's not my fault Naruto just happens to know how to confuse me, anger me, worry me, and make me smile all in the same time. God I'm such a girl.

I laughed at my train of thought, and this time Naruto was the one to raise his brow.

"Hey Sasuke?" He said casually as he threw his arm to rest under his head.

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry about the other night" He sighed.

"What for?" I was thinking back, but I couldn't honestly think of anything he'd have to apologize for, well at least that he knew about yet. Really he hadn't done anything wrong; it was my own fucked up mentality that had gotten in the way.

"You're not mad?" Naruto sat up and looked down at me.

"No." I said, and I wasn't. Not at the moment. Not about the other night, I might be mad at him later, but for the time being I wasn't.

Naruto put one hand on the other side of my body on the floor so he was leaning towards me. His face was getting closer to me, and I could feel the fear pricking up my spine, slowly, slowly working its way up my body, but it was a dull feeling in my body greatly outweighed by the absence of fear. He was so close to me now, inches, maybe centimeters, but who's counting? I lifted my head up to meet him, and our lips met.

His lips weren't smooth. They were slightly chapped, but it wasn't really his lips I was concentrating on. It was his breath mingling with mine; it was the way his eyes still bore into me even now.

It might have been only a second, I doubt it was much longer, but the moment the door swung open we jumped apart. Kakashi came in, looked down at us with a raised eyebrow and a smirk that said he'd just walked in on something he shouldn't have and he didn't give a damn. Naruto was fidgeting and I could see a blush forming on his cheeks. It made me smile.

"Sasuke come on we've got to do a check up on your concussion." He said with a sadistic smile. I stood up, glanced down at Naruto one last time, and followed Kakashi out the door.

It was sometime between when I left the room and when I returned that Naruto found the picture that had fallen out of my bed sheets.

TBC