Muted Love

Chapter 16

Naruto cleared his throat and looked around the room. "O-okay, um, where should I start?"

Ino practically jumped out of her seat. "Where did you two meet?"

"Oh! And how?" Karin chimed in.

"Uh," Naruto sheepishly laughed and glanced at Sasuke who was looking bored. "I met him at high school. Through my foster brother. And it was nothing special we were all just hanging out one day and eventually he just started talking to me."

Ino and Karin stared at him, waiting for him to continue. When he didn't continue, the girls looked at each other then turned to face him again, eyebrows raised. "That's it?" Karin asked.

Naruto chuckled with a shrug. "What can I say? Most relationships aren't like a movie."

Ino huffed in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "Is there at least a story of how you two got together?"

"A short one."

"Tell it!" Karin and Ino shouted together.

Naruto gave a glance to Sasuke who had his arms crossed over his chest, looking bored at the floor. He gave a quick glance to Suigetsu and Kiba who were also giving him curious looks. He turned back to the girls and nodded. "Okay."

The girls cheered before settling down to listen to Naruto.

"It was my junior year of high school, and at the time, Sai was hanging out with my foster brother. I hung out with them too but I mostly kept to myself. It wasn't until a month or two of him hanging out with us that he started to talk to me.

"We started talking about what we wanted to do with our lives, what we were interested in. He talked about his past relationships and that's when we found out that each other was gay. And from that point on we had a flirty type of relationship."

The sound of metal scraping against the floor interrupted Naruto and the group turned in surprise to see Kakashi pulling up a chair. He smiled at them. "Please, continue."

"You're interested in Naruto's relationship with Sai?" Kiba questioned the man before Naruto could continue.

Kakashi gave a casual shrug. "It's interesting how small of a world we live in. And it's nice to know some of my coworker's past."

"Yeah, what was he like?" Ino practically bounced in his seat.

Naruto hummed in response. "That's a little difficult to say."

"What do you mean?" Suigetsu was sitting at the edge of his seat, leaning forward.

Naruto looked around the group and smiled, they were all so eager to hear his story. His eyes stopped on Sasuke and he frowned. The raven was looking irritated, his eyebrows furrowing and his mouth trying to twitch into a sneer. He sighed before turning back to the group, he already started the story, he wasn't going to stop now.

"Well, at first he seemed like your typical emotionally stunted guy. Hardly ever smiled, never showed sadness, sarcastic and sometimes his temper was a little much. But he was still kind and caring to me.

But the longer we started to date, the more I realized, his emotions weren't even real. He reacted to other people's emotions in a way he thought was appropriate."

"What does that mean?" Karin quickly spoke up, looking confused.

Naruto tapped his chin in thought. "For example, on our three month anniversary, he got me a gift." He felt himself give a sad smile at the memory. "It was a framed picture of us that we got taken at a carnival. His arm was wrapped around my shoulder, I was leaning to give him a kiss on his cheek and he was for once, smiling. It was one of the best things anyone gave me. I got so happy the first thing I did was cry.

"But then he got angry and took it back from. I was so shocked and confused by the reaction and all I could say is why.

He said to me, that there's no reason to be upset because he couldn't get me a more expensive gift. And that just made me even more confused. And so i asked him, what made him think I was upset?" He took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. "He said the fact that you were crying. And I started to laugh and say I was crying because I was happy. And he had no idea that people cry when they're happy. His anger was gone in an instant like it was never even there."

Karin placed a hand on his leg and he looked down at it in surprise. "That sounds so intense."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty intense at times. But what hurt me the most was just the fact that he did things without thinking of how I'd feel about it."

"So then, why'd you guys break up?" Suigetsu asked with an eyebrow. "Because of all that?"

Naruto shook his head and glanced over at Sasuke. The raven's eyes were locked onto his own. Sasuke knew the truth, but Sai was the group's therapist. If he painted him in a bad light, they're entire relationship with him would change. He looked away from Sasuke quickly. He cleared his throat and gave the group a bittersweet smile. "Well, he was leaving for college and we kinda mutually agreed that we didn't want a long distance relationship."

He immediately felt Sasuke's harsh glare and turned to give him an apologetic look. 'Why are you lying to them?'

Naruto chose to ignore Sasuke's question and turned his gaze back to the group.

"You seemed so angry with him, though." Ino gave him a confused look.

Naruto shrugged. "There were just some bad memories that came up when I first saw him. We kinda talked about them later."

Once again, the sound of a chair scraping against the floor drew the group's attention, this time towards Sasuke who shook his head and left the room.

Naruto gave a sheepish smile to the group and stood up. "But yeah, that's pretty much the story between me and Sai. Now, I'm going to go check up on Sasuke. I'll be right back."

He lightly jogged out the door, immediately turning the corner he stopped and ran a hand through his hair. He made his way towards the bathroom. He turned the doorknob to find it locked. He let out a breath he didn't he realize he was holding. Leaning against the door, he pressed his ear against the door and gave the door a knock. "Sasuke, it's me."

There was silence until the sound of the lock clicked. Naruto quickly pushed himself off the door, just in time for Sasuke to open it abruptly. The raven glared down at the blonde. 'What?'

"Why'd you leave?"

'Because you're lying to everyone in there.'

"I didn't lie!" Naruto quickly defended before he looked down at the floor. "I just left out some of the story."

Sasuke rolled his eyes before pulling the blonde into the bathroom and locking the door. 'What's the difference?'

"I'm sparing them details that they don't need to know. Sai is their therapist, Sasuke. I can't just tell them that kind of stuff. It'll ruin his career."

Sasuke shook his head. 'You should still tell them Naruto. They can form their own opinions of him.'

Naruto shook his head. "Now's just not the time." He was about to leave the bathroom before Sasuke pulled him close to himself and gave him a desperate kiss. Naruto's eyes widened before he slowly closed them and began to kiss him back.

Sasuke was the one to pull away first and Naruto frowned. "What was that for?"

The raven gave him a smirk. 'Just wanted too.'

Naruto chuckled and unlocked the door. Before he opened it, he was once again stopped by Sasuke who grabbed his arm. 'I want you to know, I won't hurt you, Naruto.'

Naruto's eyes widened at Sasuke's words before he looked down at the floor. He then gave Sasuke a small smile. "I hope not."