Do Over

I want to apologize before hand for the delay in this chapter, I have to be honest and say that at times I have gotten frustrated over how to present each and every chapter of ‘Do Over’ mainly because I am concerned over what others may think when they read the story and I have forgotten my own voice in the process. I found myself while writing this, not only becoming depressed over the change in circumstances between Gaara and Naruto… considering they feel a little to close to home, but also the fact that I honestly love these two characters and hate to see anything bad happen to them. Anyone who has read, ‘A Dog’s Life’ could point out the instances where I haven't been as nice as people expected... but at least I presented the point of view I wanted to express in the story.

As for this chapter, I am surprised that I managed to find a little humor in some places, but then again, if you know me I tend to do that when I am uncomfortable… but it could also be said that certain emotions seem to fit certain characters so that’s why this story is the way it is going often from one spectrum of the emotion to another.

I only hope that you enjoy this new chapter, for what its worth, I will try not to take it too seriously in the future… otherwise it will probably drive me nuts. Hopefully I will have the next chapter out soon. In the meantime any comments are appreciated. Ja Ne for now

Disclosure: I do not own Naruto that honor is held by Masashi Kishimoto (lucky SOB)

‘Do Over-Chapter 17’ by KitsuneFun

Tsunade considered herself a kind woman… a benevolent woman. Sure she had her vices, which included gambling and drinking till she sometimes had sex with the most unorthodox of strangers… like Orochimaru. But if you did anything to mess with her surrogate sons (aka Naruto and Shino), you better hike it to the nearest hills and become a hermit for life because their was no way in hell that she wouldn’t hunt you down and make your life a living hell with A. Bobba (her right fist) and B. Fett (her left fist). Which were named after her favorite character in Star Wars… mainly because she thought the character was hot and deserved more screen time with Luke than Leia did.

Yes Tsunade could also be called a Yaoi-zilla; part normal Yaoi fan who liked to read doujinshi and buy every single item on Ebay depicting her favorite characters, and part Zilla-which stood for an insanely diabolical Yaoi fan who often saw potential partners in any male standing within 2 feet from one another… including a mall. (yes she was that bad)

So it had shocked the older woman when her once innocent and naive blonde of a surrogate son ended up being gay… but in a good way. Unlike Jiraya who had ended up locked himself in his room for over a week bemoaning the fact that he would never get to do all the perverted things he had wanted to do with both his sons… like panty raids at the nearest college, unless Jiraya was willing to exchange frilly thongs for tightie-whities and boxers with Sponge Bob on them.

Often times, Tsunade could still catch the older man mumbling something along the lines of, “A boy… why a boy… he could have been the next Brad Pitt with a whole harem of Angelina Jollies tagging along calling him papa and won’t you spank me because I have been a bad bad girl…” It was at this point, in the pervert’s rantings, that Tsunade would smack Jiraya and call him a perverted idiot who needed to get over his obsession with seeing messengers of peace a another form of S&M… because he wasn’t about to hit that any time this century.

Despite knowing of the many boys that had gone out with Naruto in the past, Tsunade, had missed the whole Sasuke phase from when they had started dating till they broke up because she had being busy teaching in South Africa at the time and had missed a lot of important information that Jiraya really should have clued her in on when the bastard came back.

If Tsunade had known about the romance, the following breakup and why it had occurred instead of assuming the two boys had gotten into a another silly fight over an insignificant event, she might have been less likely to pair the two together later in class… It was just another thing she blamed Jiraya on.

Knowing the truth now, Tsunade had the urge to slap Sasuke to the back of the room every time she saw him. The urge was greatest when she found him not only hitting on Naruto but also trying to break up her son and Gaara. Tsunade had left many claw-marks on her desk during those times, wanting nothing more than to tear the bastard limb by limb, but due to certain student protection policies, she had to refrain from doing so in order to avoid getting fired. This was the same policy that had gone into effect around the same time Orochimaru was asked to resign.

It was over 2 weeks since the Uchiha’s return and about a week since winning the bet over whether or not Gaara and Naruto would finally have sex and when it would happen. Tsunade had believed the Naruto and Gaara would actually make it despite her bad luck streak when it came to winning… so it had surprised Tsunade to come to Jiraya’s house for dinner and find the blonde missing.

At first they had all brushed off the occurrence as having something to do with Gaara, but when Naruto still hadn’t shown up after 3 hours passing with no sign or call from the blonde, they realized something was wrong.

It had been Shino’s idea to attempt to call Gaara first, while Tsunade attempted to call Shikamaru and Jiraya tried to contact Chouji.

Meanwhile…

Gaara couldn’t sleep. He kept remembering Naruto’s face as it stared up at him morosely. On instinct he hit the pillow over and over, wishing that it were the Uchiha’s face instead. Just the look of smugness on the bastard’s face when Sasuke realized that he had finally won, by having Gaara break up with Naruto, made the redhead hit the pillow again.

Gaara was convinced that the incident wasn’t Naruto’s fault, that the blonde wasn’t to blame for still being attracted to his ex, but it didn’t help the pain Gaara felt growing steadily inside his chest over having to give up on someone who was so important to him.

It had taken viewing a tape someone had randomly sent him over the Internet showing both Sasuke and Naruto locked in a passionate embrace to convince Gaara that he had been right all along in thinking that his boyfriend had never truly moved on from Sasuke.

For someone like Gaara who believed in applying his whole heart to something, he couldn’t see how Naruto could move on from something that appeared so intense, unless they hadn’t truly given it up in their heart.

Though it had hurt him to break up with Naruto, it was the only way he could see his love taking his words seriously and actually looking at the relationship he had with Sasuke rather than hiding from it behind a wall of anger.

Gaara had a feeling Shino might approach him tomorrow wondering why Naruto wasn’t himself and why they weren’t speaking, but he knew his second-in-command would understand eventually why Gaara had done what he had.

No relationship can move forward if its being hindered by any feelings of regret and Naruto had those in spades, even though he professed to not having any, Gaara could see the way he looked at Sasuke… in a way that had once only been reserved for himself and it hurt.

It was why Gaara couldn’t sleep and kept staring at his pillow wishing that Naruto was with him instead and that they had this entire mess behind them. They could have been snuggling beneath the covers by now, whispering tender words to one another before falling asleep within each other’s arms like they used to.

But Sasuke had changed everything, Gaara wasn’t blind, he could see how much the Uchiha had fucked up both his and Naruto’s relationship from day one, and he really wanted to kill the bastard for coming back. Gaara couldn’t fault the other boy for going after what he wanted, if he was in Sasuke’s shoes, feeling the way he did about Naruto, Gaara would fight tooth and nail to get back what was his.

It really wasn’t about Gaara’s or Sasuke’s feelings anymore… it was about Naruto’s. The blonde still hadn’t decided what he wanted and that was the problem.

“Your lips are venomous poison… your poison running thru my veins… your poison,” The lyrics to Alice Cooper’s song, ‘Poison’ started playing over and over on his phone making the redhead frown in reaction to the obnoxious piece of machinery that had interrupted his brooding thoughts.

First Sasori then his Grandmother had insisted Gaara get a phone in case they needed to call him for any reason… like an emergency. However, Temari had decided to have fun with it by changing his ring tone without his knowledge… the song was obnoxious and unknowingly reminded him of the breakup, it was too bad that the redhead still hadn’t figured out yet how to change it unlike the rest of the features.

Personally Gaara hated the machine, except for the only times he ever used it-for when Naruto called him or sent him random pictures… like the time the blonde had sent him a picture of himself wearing red lacey see-through underwear to school.

Temari, to this day, still teased him about that particular picture because Gaara had actually taken to using it as his official wallpaper for over a week until he replaced it with a newer picture showing Naruto giving him one of those flirty smiles of his.

Flipping open the phone he could still see Naruto’s smiling face winking at him as he answered the phone, “Yes…” Gaara secretly hoped the person calling him was Naruto asking to come over, but instead he heard Shino’s frantic voice on the other end.

“Hey Boss… “ Gaara had never heard his best friend sound so unnerved.

Gaara couldn’t help the frown that appeared on his face as he responded, “What’s wrong?”

Shino paused as if he was thinking over his words, Gaara heard his the brunette take a steady breath before he continued, and “You haven’t seen Naruto have you?”

A sudden feeling of dread gripped Gaara’s stomach at the statement, he turned to look briefly at the clock by his bed and the feeling only intensified, “He should have been there by now… give me a minute,” Gaara quickly put down the phone and put on a t-shirt over his pajama bottoms before donning his tennis shoes, then grabbing the phone the redhead ran out the front door of his apartment in the direction of the restaurant downstairs, “I just spoke to him a couple of hours ago…”

Having reached the area where he had last seen Naruto, Gaara looked frantically throughout the kitchen, including the storage and dinning areas, and he couldn’t find the blonde anywhere.

Lifting a hand through his hair, in frustration, Gaara took a deep breath to calm his frantic nerves as he tried to figure out where the blonde could have possibly gone, “Where could he have gone…”

Gaara hadn’t felt this scared for another person since his mother committed suicide when he was 5 years old. The redhead could feel his blood thundering in his ear as adrenaline started taken over, “Oh god Naru-baby… please be alright.” Gaara took off running out the front door hoping to find Naruto soon.

Sasuke on the other hand, had about given up hope over finding Naruto since their disastrous kiss at the Karaoke bar. What Sasuke hadn’t expected to see was the blonde camping out front on his house’s steps, “Naruto…”

The blonde looked up at him in surprise and seemed to fidget with his hands a bit before standing, “Hi Sasuke,” he gave Sasuke a brief smile before moving to face him.

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief over seeing the blonde at his house, he still couldn’t believe that Naruto had chosen to find him instead of the other way around, “What are you doing here?”

Naruto began to fidget a bit on his feet as though he wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the question, “I…” the blonde looked off to the side as he tried to think up the best response to the situation, especially since Naruto wasn’t sure himself over why he was there on Sasuke’s doorstep.

After collapsing to his knees and crying on the kitchen floor of the ‘Sandpiper’ after Gaara had left him, Naruto had found himself feeling surprisingly numb and had ended up walking from the building with a lack of purpose in mind. So it had surprised Naruto that he had ended up at Sasuke’s of all places.

Looking up at his ex now, Naruto realized that it might have been an unconscious decision on his part to somehow correct the problem that was preventing his and Gaara’s relationship from happening. The blonde wasn’t quite sure why the redhead kept insisting that their was something there that he was denying, so he had hoped that confronting Sasuke would help him to understand… it may not have been the smartest decision on Naruto’s part.

Since Naruto hadn’t expected to feel his heart speed up when Sasuke came into view or experience a tension within his stomach over having those dark eyes staring in his direction. It left Naruto feeling confused because, despite his objections, Gaara might been right… there was something there Naruto obviously wasn’t seeing and it was something he needed to seriously look at and resolve otherwise Naruto could loose Gaara forever and the blonde didn’t want that.

Sasuke licked his lips nervously before moving past Naruto in order to open his door, he could feel the warmth of the others hand as it came into contact with his. Sasuke gave a nervous cough when he realized the blonde had flinched from the movement and had taken to staring at the sidewalk while Sasuke opened his front door.

“If you want… you can come inside…” Sasuke stood next to the door and tapped on the wood a moment with his left hand in indecision as he tried to think of what to say next to the blonde, “I think I might have some sodas in the fridge… if Kiba hasn’t drunk them all… you…”

“Sasuke…” the raven was interrupted by Naruto, who turned to look up at him a moment with a funny look on his face. After a second the blonde seemed to change his mind over what he was going to say next and instead just shook his head before heading past Sasuke and into the house, “If you have water that’s fine…”

‘Water…” Sasuke thought the word over and decided he could definitely do water. He found his eyes wandering after Naruto a moment, noticing how the blonde’s butt seemed to be covered in a white powder-like film. Sasuke wondered about the odd decoration and would have mentioned something, but he realized that it might be better to find out why Naruto was there in the first place.

Sasuke quickly ran to the kitchen and retrieved a couple of water bottles he had stashed somewhere in the back before closing the door and heading on back towards the living room. The raven was surprised to see Naruto lying on his back on his couch and currently facing the ceiling quietly… the quiet made Sasuke nervous.

Putting the water bottles on the coffee table near the couch, Sasuke sat down on the ground next to the couch and rested his back against the front as he waited for Naruto to talk first.

Sasuke had decided this might be the best course of action considering he couldn’t think of one thing intelligent to say to save his life… it reminded him of the time when Sasuke was desperately trying to deny the crush he had on his best friend because he believed Naruto was in love with the girl he was currently dating.

Thinking about those times now made Sasuke wish he could go back to those simpler times, if only to start over with Naruto from the beginning and never make the decision to join his brother’s band.

Blue eyes suddenly turned to regard him a moment, thoughtfully, while Sasuke continued to remain quiet, “You could have had anyone… why me?”

Sasuke had been surprised by the odd question that seemed to mirror his own thoughts, because he had once thought that of Naruto, “That was never what mattered to me…” he finally said looking Naruto deeply in his eyes, “You were the only one I could ever see mattering anything to me… now or since…” Sasuke leaned up till he was staring down at Naruto’s upturned face, “If you had seen my videos Naruto, you would have seen that.”

Naruto turned his face away and blushed; the blonde remembered having seen one of the raven’s videos by accident because he had ended up recording an episode of ‘Music Showcase’ by accident, which was featuring one of Sasuke’s hit music videos.

It might have been Naruto’s curiosity over whether or not Sasuke’s music was any good that had prompted him into watching the segment in the beginning, but the blonde had been shocked when he noticed that raven’s chosen love interest in the music video, despite being a girl, looked like his twin.

The video hadn’t helped his feelings of depression when Naruto noticed how intimate Sasuke was getting with the girl during the song and had at one point shown them naked in bed together making out.

At the time Naruto had been upset over Sasuke having made the video in order to mock their past relationship, the blonde had since given up watching, listening to or reading anything that involved the Uchiha since then.

“I saw one of them…” Naruto admitted though on the outside Sasuke couldn’t tell of Naruto’s inner turmoil other than the brief reddening of the blonde’s cheekbones.

Sasuke leaned in and traced his finger lightly against the reddened area making Naruto jump in surprise before turning to look over at him in confusion, “Sasuke”.

The raven ignored the look and continued to gently trace his ex’s features as Sasuke continued to talk, “That video as well as every one following it was meant for you. In fact…” he gave a brief smile, they want to know who it is that I am supposedly obsessed with,” Sasuke gave a brief laugh, still feeling a little nervous being this close to Naruto because he expected the blonde to bolt at any moment, “if they only knew…” he gave a sad smile, “I did it all for you.”

Sasuke grabbed at Naruto’s right hand and pressed it against his chest, “This…” he thumped Naruto’s unresponsive hand against the area above his heart, “Whether you want it or not has always and will always belong to you…”

The comment finally seemed to get a reaction out of Naruto, but what Sasuke hadn’t expected was for the blonde to lean forward and gently press his lips against his. The lips, though slightly chapped, rubbed against Sasuke’s, pleasantly causing tremors of excitement and desire to run up and down the raven’s back, “Naruto…” Sasuke managed to moan out before pulling back to stare in surprise down at Naruto, “Why…”

Sasuke could feel his heart thumping painfully within his chest as he stared at Naruto’s upturned face. The raven could see the dry trail of tears still glistening on his ex’s cheeks, his normal crystal-blue eyes appeared almost purple with all the red surrounding the iris of his eye, but the worst was the lack of life showing within.

“What happened?” Sasuke raised his hand to touch Naruto’s cheek, but his ex flinched and turned his face away as if the thought of anyone touching him-pained him.

“Dobe please…” Instead of the usually angry reaction that Sasuke expected to see when he called the blonde by that nickname, the blonde turned and watched him wearily as if it was a chore just to look up at the raven.

It broke Sasuke’s heart a bit to see so much pain on the other boy’s face, the need to hold him was excruciating, but he refrained from the gesture knowing that it wasn’t what Naruto apparently needed in that moment.

Sasuke had a feeling this sort of reaction from Naruto had to do with his rival, “Is this about Gaara?”

Naruto flinched at the mention of the redhead’s name before attempting to move from off of the couch, however Sasuke refused to let him leave, “Let me go Teme…” the blonde finally managed to say in a tired sounding voice.

“Let me help you…” Sasuke stated while unconsciously pulling the blonde closer as he said this.

Naruto lifted his head and glared at Sasuke a moment, annoyed now with the raven-haired youth’s actions, “I don’t want your help.”

This wasn’t just about their relationship anymore, Sasuke knew that, but he still let out a frustrated growl before quickly grabbing the blonde close and pulling him within the circle of his arms, pushing Naruto’s head against his chest, “You have to stop pushing me away…”

Sasuke felt Naruto start to shake from within his arms before there was suddenly a muffled cry and Sasuke could feel something wet coming through the thin linen that made up his school shirt.

Naruto let out a painful gasp between sobs as he spoke, “He left me… Gaara left me…”

It was painful for Sasuke to watch Naruto collapse emotionally within his arms, the need to comfort him was overwhelming and for once it seemed the blonde was actually receptive to Sasuke’s touch… even though it had been forced on him at first.

Sasuke pulled his ex’s face up so that he could stare deeply into darkened blue eyes, he softly pressed his cold forehead against the blonde’s warm one, “He’s not the only one who loves you, you know I…”

The pressing of wet lips against his cut off his words as Naruto leaned forward and kissed him again, the action took Sasuke off guard because he wasn’t expecting the blonde to instigate anything. Not that he was complaining about the action, but he knew now that the blonde was upset and Sasuke didn’t want to take advantage of the situation.

Though it pained him to do so, Sasuke pulled away, “Don’t…”

The blonde looked surprised as he stared wide-eyed up at Sasuke, “I thought…” he bit his lip and looked away for a moment before a look of determination seemed to suffuse his face as he looked up at Sasuke again before pulling him close into another kiss. threading his fingers within the back of his ex’s dark hair in order to keep him still.

Sasuke grabbed at Naruto’s face in order to pull him away as gently as he could, “You can’t possibly want this…”

A look of anger seemed to take over the blonde’s face as he stared up at Sasuke, “So you’re rejecting me… again?” Naruto gave a sound of disgust and pushed Sasuke away before moving away from the raven, “And you call me the idiot…” Naruto shook his head and started to move away.

Sasuke didn’t move to stop him, until the blonde had almost reached his front door. Feeling a sense of panic gripping his chest, Sasuke took off after him, “Naruto stop…”

The blonde turned to glare over his shoulder at him a moment, turning, he crossed his arms as he stared Sasuke down, “What do you want…”

“You know I will always want you,” Sasuke said with a weak smile, “but I can’t do this so soon after you’ve broken up with Gaara.”

“Really?” the blonde’s brow rose mockingly, “Cause you didn’t seem to care about that before.” Naruto closed his eyes briefly and sighed while running a hand messily through his hair, “In the end it came down to you,” Naruto dropped the hand running through his hair to the side and tilted his head to the side as he looked deeply into Sasuke’s dark eyes, “You should be happy… you have me now,” he said the last with a mocking look on his face which suddenly made Sasuke angry.

“Whose fault is that!” the raven could feel his hand clench painfully at his sides as he stared Naruto down, “Do you think I liked seeing you kissing him… doing things with him that you only used to do with me… do you?”

Sasuke stalked up to Naruto and lifted his hands as though he was ready to strangle the blonde, but at the last minute he pulled away with an unintelligible curse escaping his lips, “What will it take for you to finally forgive me… love me again?” he stared at his ex hoping for an ounce of affection in his gaze, but when Sasuke wanted him to talk the most, Naruto continued to remained silent.

“I want Gaara back… can you give him to me?” Naruto asked almost unemotionally, if Sasuke hadn’t seen him break down mere moments before over mentioning the redhead, he wouldn’t have believed the blonde’s request.

“Do you even know what you’re asking?”

Naruto nodded giving a slight trembling smile, the only clue that he wasn’t as stable as he appeared, “I’ll do anything to have him back…”

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief, “I can’t believe your asking me to do this…” he turned away from Naruto a moment, his chest felt like it was going to explode with the amount of pain he was feeling in that moment, but all that seemed to escape his lips was an almost insane sounding laugh, “In the end… it comes down to him doesn’t it?”

Naruto didn’t answer him, but Sasuke knew it was true, and for the first time in his life the raven realized the unthinkable… that he actually wanted to help.