An Interwoven Web Of Deceit

Well, finally. I thought I’d never get this done, but here it is, next chapter is up.

I’m so sorry about the delay on this. I really have to pull myself together and get writing. Anyway, I do hope you all enjoy this chapter and please don’t give up on me. This story will keep going and I’ll try and get on the bal!

Anyway, thanks for your reviews. Please keep at it.

All other notes will be at the end of chapters, that way, you don’t have to read them if you don’t want to!

As always, I do not own this wonderful franchise. I just love writing about it.

An Interwoven Web of Deceit


Discovery, Trepidation and Confusion

Sakura was what you would call, an open minded girl.

In her room, she had quite a large scroll collection. Most of these scrolls were an assortment of different jitsus possible with different levels of chakra. Different tomes with different explanations. A multitude of school used scrolls and self study scrolls.

She also had a small collection of books. Some were written stories but most were manga. Girls manga. Most importantly, two thirds of her collection was Shounen Ai orientated, with a few Yaoi for good measure.

In short, Sakura was a fan girl!

These books were what made her open minded but there was one book, one, that had started it all.

Come, come paradise, volume 6!

It was quite by accident that she had even seen inside that book.

Kakashi had slipped it inside her pack during a mission, asking her to keep an eye on it for him. That same evening, she had seen him reading volume five, and so, brimming with curiosity, she had excused herself to her room and proceeded to flick through volume six, her mouth open in shock.

Kakashi read this?

Yes, she was in shock but she was also mesmerized, not being able to take her eyes from the images of two boys ’getting it on’ and she had been sorely disappointed when Kakashi had come upstairs to reclaim it.

When they had arrived back in Konoha at the end of the mission, she had gone to the book shop and purchased her own copy, (with great difficulty) of volume six. She had also thumbed through the other volumes but they had none of the same content. This had helped push her into searching out different books with the same content.

The reason she was remembering this, was standing on the other side of the corridor from her, completely oblivious to her existence.

She had been asked by the Hokage, when she had arrived for her lessons, to go and find the two boys, who were exploring up stairs for some reason. Tsunade-sama looked agitated, Sakura decided, climbing the winding stairs, checking each floor for voices or movement.

It was three quarters of the way up that she found them, in the middle of a corridor filled with tapestries. She would have called out, until she realized what it was that they were actually doing.

From a distance, it could have nearly mistaken for another fight that the boys regularly got themselves into, if it wasn’t for the very close proximity of the two. After she had taken a few steps down the corridor, that was when she realized what was going on, hence her dip into her memories of the past.

Sasuke had Naruto trapped in his arms, one hand on his waist, the other buried in his golden hair. Naruto had both arms circling Sasuke’s neck.

They were kissing.

Passionately!

Seeing this, the first thing she thought of was Ino. What was Naruto doing? What was Sasuke doing? Watching them for a few moments, she couldn’t keep her eyes off of them. If she had seen this and had still not gotten over Sasuke, she would still have found it hot! She was glued to the spectacle in front of her, until suddenly, Naruto ripped himself out of Sasuke’s grasp and backed away.

“And what, pray tell, was that for?” Sakura heard Sasuke ask. He sounded irritated with Naruto. Was he angry that Naruto kissed him?

“You… You kissed me!” Okay, maybe it was the other way around. Sasuke had kissed Naruto. Sakura began to back away, deciding to flee the scene before hell broke loose.

“Yes, I know I did, and you were enjoying it,” she heard Sasuke reply in a smug voice, irritation gone. She moved faster, expecting an eruption from the blonde. She was right.

“Bastard!”

“Dobe!”

She was heading down the stairs again, when Naruto let out a yell of frustration and then everything else was muffled out by the other floors as she hurried downwards.

“Wow,” she whispered to herself when she reached the Hokage’s office, “that’s definitely something that you don’t see everyday.”

“What isn’t?”

Being slightly dazed over what she had just seen, she could be forgiven for blurting out her thoughts to just anyone.

“Two boys kissing like that. Naruto and Sasuke. Whoa!” She shuddered.

“What?”

Sakura snapped out of her daze to see Tsunade standing outside her office door, staring at her, shock written on her face. Shizune was nowhere to be seen.

“Hokage-sama…”

“Sasuke and the Gaki were kissing upstairs?” Tsunade pressed, stepping towards her and scaring her slightly with the strange glint in her eye. “Are they still at it?”

Sakura gave the Hokage an incredulous look. “No, they began fighting straight afterwards.”

“Damn it all,” Tsunade leaned back, one hand on her hips, the other across her eyes, “I always miss things like this.”

If Sakura had deemed it safe, she would have face faulted on the stairs. Instead she trailed after her Hokage’s stumbling figure, back into her office and kept a dumfounded look on her face. Who would have guessed that the Hokage was also a fan girl!

“Umm, Hokage-sama,” she began when they had both entered the office, “doesn’t it bother you?”

“Bother me?” Tsunade grinned at her, flopping back into her chair. “My dear girl, I wrote a book on it. One of my most productive pieces of work I must admit, although the old coot wouldn’t let me write another. Said it was bad for his image! Personally, I don’t think his image could get much worse, pervert that he is.”

“Old coot?”

“Jiraiya.”

“Oh.” Sakura understood. “You mean the one that Naruto calls ‘Ero Sennin,’ don’t you?” Understanding then dawned. “Wait, do you mean you wrote a copy of ‘Come Come Paradise?”

“Volume number six,” Tsunade said proudly. Sakura smiled slightly.

“It makes sense now,” she muttered, noticing that Shizune had entered the office without knocking.

“Now then,” Tsunade rubbed her hands together. Shizune sat down on the chair next to Sakura and gave Tsunade a questioning look, “did Sasuke notice that you were in the corridor, after he had finished kissing Naruto?”

Sakura ignored Shizune’s gasp and replied. “Well, I don’t think he saw or heard me. I’m sure he would have stopped me leaving if he had.”

“Okay,” Tsunade pushed away a wad of scrolls on her desk, much to Shizune’s muttered complaints, and pulled a blank piece of paper and a pen towards her, “Sakura. We need to plan how you are going to get Sasuke to confess to you. You need to get him to spill as much as possible!”

Sakura’s astonished look re-appeared on her face and she focused that look on the Hokage. Shizune cleared her throat.

“Um, Tsunade-san, shouldn’t your duties come first, before you begin on new gossip?”

Tsunade waved her hand. “Maybe, but this is about our favorite Gaki. I need more material to tease him with.”

“I suppose you’ve got a point,” Shizune agreed grudgingly.

“Of course I do,” Tsunade pumped her fist into the air, a triumphant look on her face, “I always do.”

“Only when you’re sober!” Shizune muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing. Anyway, how are we going to get Sasuke to confess?”

“We could beat it out of him I suppose,” Tsunade pondered. “Sasuke is incredibly stubborn.”

“You don’t want to accidentally kill him!”

Tsunade smiled. “Of course I don’t. We need to see them together as a loving couple. I wouldn’t hit him too hard.”

The fact that the resident Hokage and her assistant were chatting away like two gossiping housewives with nothing better to do was strange enough in itself, Sakura decided, but the gossip being about Naruto’s love life bordered on slightly insane.

“The best way of questioning him is to pretend that you know nothing, but drop hints that make him unsure.” She heard Shizune volunteer finally. “That way, he will answer without realizing he has given himself away.”

That’s a great idea, Tsunade grinned. The grin was infectious, making Sakura grin back at her. The smile faded in seconds as another element to this planning came to mind.

Ino

The girlfriend.

Her best friend.

How could she deny her best friend the happiness that she had earned?

Then again, both Naruto and Sasuke were her friends. Close friends and they also deserved to be happy.

“Hokage-san,” she said hesitantly. “I don’t think that I can do this. I can’t hurt Ino.”

Tsunade sighed. I understand, but can I ask you something?”

“Okay.”

Tsunade got up and began pacing behind her desk. “You say that you don’t want to hurt Ino, but what about Sasuke?” she asked, all traces of her smile gone. “What about Naruto? Do you want to hurt them?”

“Well no, of course not,” Sakura protested. “It’s just that..”

“Personally, I think that we should get all the facts together first,” Shizune interrupted, twisting her black hair away from her face. “You’ll need to get information on how each person feels. Only that way can you get a fair assessment of the situation.”

“I guess,” Sakura nodded.

“Well, Ino’s feelings are a given. We think that Sasuke also has feelings for Naruto, so it is just Naruto himself that we are unsure on.”

Confirmation with Sasuke, then find out what was going on with Naruto. Sakura nodded. Once that was taken care of, then she could decide on what course of action to take with her friends.

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There was a triumphant grin on Sasuke’s face as he climbed down the stairs, leading to the exit of the Hokage tower.

Even though he hadn’t received exactly what he had wanted from Naruto, he had at least gotten something. He hadn’t actually planned it and he was still reeling from the kiss he had received the day before.

Admittedly, getting a kiss from Naruto while disguised as Ino wasn’t the best way of getting the other boy to notice his feelings but it was a start. If anything, he had definitely confused the other boy and the kiss had been returned, which held promise.

“Sasuke-kun,” he heard Sakura’s voice come from downstairs. She was standing outside the Hokage’s closed office door with Shizune. Both had wide smiles on their faces which immediately placed the Uchiha on guard. “Can I speak to you for a moment?”

“What about?” was his muttered reply. Sakura just smiled wider. Something was up.

“I just need you opinion on something.”

Sasuke relaxed somewhat. Obviously just some girl problems that needed a mans thoughts. Sasuke sighed. “Alright.”

“Great,” Sakura grabbed his wrist and pulled him down the rest of the stairs, waving goodbye to Shizune and pulled him out of the Hokage tower. Sasuke let himself be dragged, wanting this conversation to be over with. Sakura pulled him along until they had reached one of the many open grassy area’s of Konoha. She then sat down and looked at him expectantly. Sasuke sighed and sat down next to her.

“Okay, what did you need?”

“Well,” the smirk hadn’t left Sakura’s face. “How would you go about, telling someone that you liked them?”

Sasuke flinched and stared at the pink haired girl in disbelief. Was she serious?

“I mean,” Sakura continued, seemingly understanding the look she had just received, “from a guys point of view. How would you notice if a guy liked you? What are the signs?”

“How should I know?” Sasuke tried not to sound defensive, hoping it worked. “And why are you asking me? Didn’t you get enough information from when Naruto was following you around like a lost puppy?”

“This is a different scenario,” was her reply, “and anyway, I just wanted to know how you would go about it.”

Sasuke stared at the pink haired girl, who was sitting on the grass innocently, although the edges of her mouth were trying to turn upwards.

“What are you getting at Sakura?”

“I just wondered how you would do it,” Sakura tilted her head slightly and pressed her finger to her chin. “Would you follow them around, obsessively and possessively, glaring at anyone who came near them, or would you move in for the kill and kiss them in an abandoned corridor, even though they were dating someone else?” She was openly grinning now. Sasuke stood up, fury written on his features.

“What did you see?” he ground out, “What do you know?” His mind was in turmoil. Did she know about his feeling for the blonde haired boy?

“Well, I did come across an interesting scene on the tapestry corridor of the Hokage Tower a little while ago,” she replied, “but I should have noticed it a long time ago.” Sakura smiled up at him, surprising Sasuke with its sincerity. “I mean, you’ve always been obsessed with Naruto, not always in a good way. He has always been number one on your mind, even when you were after vengeance from your brother. That’s why you couldn’t kill him.”

Sasuke flopped back onto the grass, laying back with a sigh. He didn’t realize he had been that obvious, thinking he had hidden his feelings quite well.”

“You weren’t obvious about it Sasuke,” Sakura read him easily again, “I just watched and learnt. You aren’t the only one in the village that likes him, you know.”

Sasuke sat up at that and stared at her in surprise. “Who?” He asked, not adding anything more to that but knowing that Sakura understood what he was asking.

“Well, Hinata for one, but I think that everyone knows that but him,” she started, “and of course, Ino. Hyuuga san does and…”

“Wait, Hyuuga likes him, as in Hyuuga Neji?”

Sakura nodded. “Now that I thought was pretty obvious. Ever since the Chunnin exams, they have gotten closer. “When you left, they were together a lot, partnering up for missions and what not. Hyuuga was very protective of him when they went to get you back. I think he probably resents you.”

Sasuke growled. That was the last time he ever let the Hyuuga get close, the bastard who had fate on the brain. “Who else?”

“Gaara.”

“WHAT?”

Sakura winced, so did Sasuke, realizing just how loud he was at that moment, but Gaara? The psychotic masochist?

“Gaara likes him too,” Sakura continued. “He just cant keep his eyes off of him when they are together and when they aren’t, his name is spoken quite often at random moments.”

Sasuke groaned and covered his eyes. “No more. I don’t want to know any more.”

“You did ask,” Sakura grinned. “It seems you have a lot of competition.”

Sasuke scowled suddenly. Naruto was dating Ino and Ino was Sakura was Ino’s best friend. He was definitely missing something here.

“Why exactly are we having this conversation?” he asked. “Shouldn’t you be running over to Ino and telling her what you just saw her boyfriend doing with me?”

“Well, I should,” Sakura’s smile left her face and she stared down at her lap, “but both you and Naruto are my friends too. You all deserve to be happy. I don’t want to hurt Ino so I’m not going to say anything, but,” she looked up again, a steely look in her eyes, “both you and Naruto are going to sort yourselves out and then you are going to tell her everything. If you don’t, I will find a way of hurting you!”

Sasuke nodded slowly. Sakura smiled again, a curious look in her eyes.

“Tell me, what was it like to kiss Naruto?”

XXXX

When did his life become so complicated?

Naruto’s daily routine used to consist of getting up, eating breakfast, training, eating lunch, a spar with Sasuke, dinner, training, then going to bed until morning. It might not have been the most varied routine but that was what he did and he was okay with that.

He admitted that he had always wanted attention. His whole life had been spent seeking it, but this wasn’t what he had been expecting.

A girlfriend. Now he had always wanted a girlfriend, believing that her job would be someone who gave him their undivided attention at the ignorance of all others and he had actually believed that Sakura would be the best choice for that particular job.

It seemed that fate enjoyed laughing at him!

Not that he found fault with Ino or anything, he just hadn’t expected her of all people to be interested in him. Ino had been popular all through their academy years, always surrounded by a crowd. She had never actually been nasty to him, but she had never really acknowledged his existence either. Sakura had yelled at him a lot which had meant that she had at least noticed him, but both girls had been part of the ‘Sasuke-kun fan club’ and in their eyes; no one else was worth their time.

This had changed when Sasuke had left the village, although Sakura had still stubbornly convinced herself that she was in love with him and that she could get him to return her feelings if she kept trying.

It seemed that fate had enjoyed laughing at her too!

If he understood the situation correctly, which he was sure that he did, it seemed that instead of liking girls, Sasuke liked guys, namely him! Admittedly, he had noticed that Sasuke had been acting a little odd around him since around the time he had been dating Ino and he knew that he had been acting strange himself. For some reason, Sasuke had been constantly on his mind. Ever since the day that he had told the other boy about the Kyuubi, whatever he did, the first thing on his mind was Sasuke.

What he didn’t understand, was why he had dressed up as Ino. Why go through all of that, just to kiss him? He didn’t bother with that a little while ago, so why then?

That kiss! Just remembering it made him shudder, tingles shooting down his back.

Naruto pushed open the door to his flat with a sigh and moved into the living room, throwing himself onto the couch when he reached it. He spent a few minutes musing to himself before he looked around the room.

It had been cleared out!

All of his stuff was there. The odd scroll and a t-shirt lying over the side of the table, but all of Ino’s items were missing.

Curiously, he moved into his bedroom and discovered that all of Ino’s stuff was missing from in here as well. If it wasn’t for the fact that the rooms were still neat and tidy, he could believe that Ino had never been there at all.

What was going on?

Where was Ino?

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Okay. That is it for this chapter. I hope it’s okay. I am definitely going to push things along in the next chapter. Naruto meeting Ino’s family and what Sasuke resolves.

Anyway, Sasuke’s Iris, Escagirluk. phoenixdown7, Kori Nibiki, dark mousy, Hitomi No Ryu, yianne21, Sukara, izumi, Cyndi1, BD, sciphyqrl, Kyuubi-kun, Kali Swifteye, Kichi Hisaki, Lady Samurai, Lady of Gryffindor, Sailor Epyon, ILLK, Nissie, Rosemary Kiss.Thank you so much for reviewing.It made me so happy.

Iceman-F1. Thank you for being totally honest with me. I do understand that some people don’t like the elements that are in my story and I am flattered that you took the time to read it anyway. I hope you keep reading anyway and I will try when this story is done to write a hetro one. I can write them, I just haven’t done it in a while. I want to get this one and my Harry Potter ones finished first.

Once again, thank you.

Read, review and wait. I’ll try and get the next one done faster. I’ll make myself sit down and type.

Rie

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