A/N: For all the fights, break ups, heartbreaks, tears, I present it to you in a SasuNaruSasu bundle of eight shots. I've been looking for a good fic where they fight and stuff (bringing in that rivalry-energy alongside everything that makes them a pairing), but I never really found exactly what I wanted. So I wrote one for me.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the dialogue. Every word has been scraped off the dura mater of my skull. The characters, however, are not mine xJ

Pairings: GaaNaru, SasuNaruSasu.

Warnings: Rationalized Insanity. I'm totally serious.

Your Humble Servant
xDelfin

Everything That's Wrong with Us

Part One

Gaara leant against the open doorframe, openly observing the blond nineteen-year-old sitting on his bed. The whole room, deserted not long ago by another, stayed smack with the dankness and ill-favour. Gaara watched as the blond tried desperately to de-stress from what had just transpired, and watched as he'd fail miserably with each attempt. Naruto had put down his head but for a few moments before the twenty-year-old finally decided to speak up.

"Tell me something, Uzumaki." His words, though they flowed easily, were also sharp and drew all attention to its resonance. "Was I just a rebound?" Still leaning against the doorframe, he supported himself with one foot, the other's ankle crossed over and toeing at the floor, his arms loosely folded in front of him.

"No. You weren't," was the muffled, but sure response.

Gaara hummed thoughtfully.

An immeasurable pause passed between them, and Naruto didn't know whether to be thankful, or tear his own hair out at having had to sit through such a similar instance in succession to the one just prior. It was both too long and too soon before the redhead spoke once again.

"You'd just broken up when I first asked you out," he started. "You didn't tell me, but I could see it on your face. I knew you weren't over him and maybe that was my fault." Gaara scrunched his face at the cliché explanation, "Maybe, the timing wasn't right." Cliché or not, the words applied; he wasn't blaming Naruto, as he would have tried to do the same, had he been in his position. A new love can heal a broken heart. And so who wouldn't want to rush into being mended? No, Naruto couldn't be blamed.

Gaara was suddenly at Naruto's side, a fact noted when the teen felt a slender hand drop to his shoulder. "Thank you," he said gently, "for saying those things. For remembering to think about me in that kind of a situation." He dropped his voice even lower, "That means a lot. But I don't think we should see each other anymore." Naruto didn't flinch, but kept his eyes trained forward, just above the sleeve of his sweater.

"I know that you may care about me the same way I care about you. But I'm looking for someone to love me with their whole heart –who has me in the forefront of their mind. Not as a lingering sentiment of someone else. And definitely not in the shadow of somebody else's mistake." Naruto's gaze dropped to the bedding in front of him at all Gaara was saying, trying to process yet more information, soaking it in is as best as he could. "I know you understand what I mean, Uzumaki. I know because you want that too."

They were the same. It was why they got along so well. But for Naruto to feel complete, perhaps he needed an opposite. Naruto and Gaara were two pieces of the same puzzle. They fit together fine and understood each other well enough. But in the grand scheme of things, the big picture of their lives, there would always be an edge, a crack between them that neither of them could ever fill.

Someone like Naruto was much-deserving of a chance to be part of a perfect picture. Who was he to stop him?

TBC

YHS
xDelfin

AN: When I wrote this, it wasn't in order. I figured I could put it in order in the end and to just spit out everything I wanted first, but then… it didn't work out. So the following chapters are not in chronological order. Two chapters are an exception, but it will be blindingly obvious. Also, I find that when you fight, things tend to double back, if not even more, therefore it is like there is no order at all! Totally imo. Feel free to share your own opinions! :D