My Lover's Keeper

12. What Are We?

Naruto fetched his phone as it started ringing soon after Shikamaru's stunt.

Sasuke almost relaxed when he saw him yell at said person. Whoever it was, Naruto did not like him one bit and he wasn't afraid to show it.
"No! I'm not going out with you. Even if I wanted to, I'm grounded"

"Oh come on, you're a bad boy"

"No, you spread rumours that I'm a bad person....are you starting to believe your own lies now? I'm not going out with you. Not after what you said about me and my dad. That was the worst one by far..."

"That wasn't me." Neji said innocently enough. "It was that sick kid...what's his name again?" He stopped a second as Sai reminded him of the name "Sasuke"

"Sasuke? You want me to believe Sasuke started the rumour?" Naruto eyed his friend across the hall; still standing in front of his bedroom. The raven seemed to suddenly tense up.

"You can ask Ino, you two are friends now, right?"

"Sasuke, is it true?" Naruto asked and Neji froze not knowing why or how they are together.

"I didn't know at first and I only said that I saw you two together being friendly. And then things just started spiraling out of control" he said in his defense.

"But you knew later Kakashi was my dad..."

"I didn't want to get involved. If I said anything then questions would have been asked and I wanted to just mind my own business. I didn't want any rumours about me"

"My dad was handcuffed, treated like a criminal...my mom was put in an investigation room for hours tormented by investigators. I had to fucking go through a rape test and pressured to lie by CPS and you're telling me never had it crossed your mind that it could ruin all of our lives? Never...not for a second had you thought about someone else other than yourself?"

Sasuke remained silent, what could he have said. That he didn't know things would be that serious?
That would have been a lie. He knew exactly how bad it was getting, he knew that the faculty was going to take actions but Sasuke chose to remain silent. It didn't affect him, it was none of his concern.

Back then, he didn't really care about Naruto as much as he did now. But how much did he really care about the blond now? For one, being on the receiving end of Naruto's anger did not feel good at all.

Naruto kept hearing Neji's voice buzzing like an annoying mosquito. he awaited that explanation from Sasuke but received nothing.
"You know what Neji...you got yourself a date" It didn't help that he was angry. He aggressively returned the plate of cookies to Sasuke. Then went to his own bedroom slamming the door hard behind him.

Shikamaru's plan had gone the opposite of its supposed trajectory. He hoped that the jealousy that would spark would be enough for Sasuke to act on his feelings.

Sasuke felt like absolute shit, the way Naruto had looked at him. That look of disgust and repulsion tore him inside. He had never in his entire life felt like this before.
He kept his door open, seeing Shikamaru leave and soon after Naruto locked himself in Kurama's room.

Naruto was withdrawn, even his own parents had noted but he didn't want to talk about it. They wondered if this had to do with the incident but he denied it all.

Come Monday, the two teens had to go to school though.
"Naruto, make sure you take your meds still okay?"

"Haii" he replied.

"And look after Sasuke." Iruka reminded him.

"Sure" he said. "I'll wait in the car" he took their stuff and got in his brand new car for the first time. He started it to get the heater on and waited.