Spiral Falling

Title: Spiral Falling
Author: BeccaAmon
Genre: AU
Pairings: Naruto x Sasuke x Naruto
Warnings: Shounen ai, yaoi, lemon, language
Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.
Archived at: [Voyeurism]http://www.geocities.com/serenitatishime/
[Banana Oil]http://www.bananaoil.tk/
Author’s note: My first Naruto and NC-17 fanfiction. Be kind, enjoy^^. Thanks for reading. Thank you Ailetoile for beta-reading.
Feedback: Always welcome, especially constructive. If you’re just e-mailing me to tell me you’re enjoying the fanfic, that’s deeply appreciated.
AN:

“….” - Dialogue
* - Scene change/ time pass
Italic - Memory

Chapter 18 – Part II: A girl’s heart is…
*

The silence in the room was absolute as the photograph fluttered to the ground, sliding right side up mockingly. Naruto stared down at the picture. It was a nice shot. He would have cherished it.

Sakura stepped on the picture, twisting her feet. The soles of her shoes ground against the thin sheet, dirtying their faces.

Her hands shot up suddenly. One grabbed Naruto's shirt and the other gripped his arm. Her face twisted in an angry frown. Tears swelled in her eyes and spilled over, getting caught in her long eyelashes. A harsh snarl was painted on her lips as she spat seething, angry words of betrayal and heartbreak to him. Her nails dug into his arm, breaking the skin, but Naruto did not push her away. She deserved to vent her frustrations; she deserved to defend her broken heart.

She raised her hand in the air suddenly and Naruto braced himself from the oncoming pain. His cheek felt the sting before her palms even slapped his flesh. He kept his eyes open, accepting her anger.

"Sakura!" Sasuke warned.

"Sakura!"

"Sakura-san!"

Hinata ran between Naruto and Sakura, beating Sasuke by a second. She dislodged Sakura's hand from Naruto’s arm and held onto it firmly. Her eyes pleaded with the girl as they shone with unshed tears.

"Please Sakura-san, it's not Naruto-kun's fault!"

Sakura looked down at Hinata, her eyes narrowing and a sneer cutting across her pretty face.

"Why are you defending him? You liked him didn't you? Why are you letting him break your heart?"

Naruto stepped back, surprised blue eyes staring at the dark-haired girl. Hinata didn't turn to face him, just held onto Sakura's hand.

"Hinata! Say something! Doesn't it hurt you to find out he's been lying to you? Smiling at you but really laughing at your ignorance?" the pink-haired girl yelled snidely.

Hinata's shoulders hunched at every word as if she was being struck physically. Her head lowered in such a piteous way that Naruto wanted to reach out to her, to reassure her that it wasn't at all as Sakura described.

‘No, that's not how it was,’ his mind protested. ‘I never wanted you to find out this way!’

But Naruto couldn’t say anything. His words were silenced by the disgust in Sakura's eyes, by the betrayed look on Ino's face and the quiet sniffles coming from Hinata. Naruto had not dared to look at Sasuke; he kept his gaze trained on Sakura instead. She deserved his undivided attention.

"Why, Naruto? We were friends weren't we?"

"We still are, Sakura-chan," Naruto beseeched.

"Then how could you do this to me?" she accused.

"It's not his fault!" Hinata interrupted as she shoved Sakura away.

Sakura stumbled against a desk. Its legs scraped against the floor, screeching in protest. She stared, dumbfounded, at Hinata. The usually gentile girl's voice broke as she repeated over and over that Naruto was not to blame.

They all stared at Hinata as the tension and her pain-filled sobs choked the air.

"You asked me how I could let him break my heart Sakura-san?" Hinata sniffed. "It's because I saw how happy he was. If he is happy, then I'm happy. You were always so ignorant of his sadness. You didn't look twice at his smile. Those smiles were heartbreaking!"

Sakura stepped back, paling.

Hinata turned around to face the blonde boy and met his eyes as her brave tears flowed down her porcelain-like face. "I like Naruto-kun. If he's happy being with someone, even if that person isn't me... Then I don't mind," she told the room, told him, with a soft smile on her face despite the tears.

She looked back at Sakura, smiling sadly. "Sakura-san, can you say the same thing to Sasuke-kun?" Time stilled as the air throbbed like the blood in their veins, making them shuffle their feet anxiously.

Naruto felt torn. He had hurt Sakura and Ino... And Hinata. He felt at fault for all their pain.

‘I never intended for this to happen,’ he thought, feeling anguished as he clenched his hands by his side into fists. His nails dug into the thin skin of his palms, impressing small crescent-like marks.

He saw Sasuke move out of the corner of his eye and then the boy was suddenly beside him. "We have a classroom to clean. You girls should go home," Sasuke told the girls, his voice a crisp iciness slicing the thick tension that had gathered.

"You owe us an explanation, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura protested.

"This, our relationship, is none of your business Sakura. It doesn't concern you," Sasuke said dismissively, casually crouching down to lift the picture off the floor.

"I think it is our business when it's our hearts that are being played!"

Naruto watched Sasuke rise and meet her eyes, obvious annoyance stiffening the class president's shoulders. "I was never involved with you, Sakura. You knew I was never interested. It's your own fault for forming expectations."

Naruto was surprised at the venom in Sasuke's voice. The other boy stood in front of him; shielding him from Sakura's glare.

"Don't blame Naruto. I pursued him. If you want someone to blame then that would be me."

"...I could never..." Sakura seemed to shrink into herself; rendered weak by Sasuke's anger.

"This isn't going anywhere." Ino walked up to Sakura, pulling her away from them steadily.

"No! Leave me alone!" Sakura protested. She twisted out of Ino's grasp and ran out of the room. Ino went after her, glancing back at them with confused eyes for a moment before running to catch up with the upset girl.

Hinata shuffled her feet and whispered a soft apology. She placed a crisped envelope on top of one of the desk and left quietly, wiping her sleeves across her closed eyes.

"I'm happy for you both. I'm sorry I caused such a dispute," she whispered as she stepped out of the classroom.

Naruto played with the buttons of his shirt, flinching when Sasuke put a concerned hand on his shoulder. His posture relaxed immediately as he realized that Sakura was gone and that she hadn't hit him.

‘She should have,’ he thought.

"You were cold to her," he observed out loud, looking up to Sasuke.

"It really was none of her business," Sasuke reasoned, placing gentle fingers around the tiny wounds Sakura had etched on Naruto’s arm.

"But...”

"I know. I'm sorry. I messed things up."

Naruto shook his head in negation. "In a moment, everything changed, happened too quickly. We weren't thinking. Any of us."

Naruto walked to the desk, lifting the envelope from its surface. Sparing it with only a curious glance, he pocketed the envelope.

"Let's finish cleaning up then go home," Naruto said as he gestured to the untidy room.

Sasuke nodded and they finished the rest of the chores in tense silence.

They walked home together and Sasuke insisted that he came over to Naruto's apartment.

Despite wanting to be alone, Naruto was glad Sasuke had stayed with him. He went through the motions of preparing them a simple meal, allowing Sasuke to help a little.

After dinner, they fell messily onto the sofa, curled up under a blanket. Naruto allowed Sasuke to reassure him with soft words and sincere touches.

"I should have told them sooner," Naruto said, reprimanding himself yet again.

Sasuke lay partly on top of Naruto, his chin resting on the blonde’s chest. He sighed audibly, breath ruffling the bangs hanging over his forehead before kissing Naruto's fingertips one by one, distracting him enough to pull him away from his thoughts of self-pity.

"Sakura tried to kiss me today," Sasuke said in a tone that was that of someone discussing the weather.

"What?" Naruto moved to sit up but Sasuke pressed him back down.

"She confessed she liked me and tried to kiss me… Before she lost her nerve, I think."

Naruto lifted his arm to cover his eyes and groaned. "Sasuke, they don’t deserve this."

"No one does Naruto. And you can stop blaming yourself too. We can't change what happened."

"But we can change the future."

Sasuke pulled Naruto's arm away from his eyes, moving up against Naruto’s body so their faces were level with each other. "I won't let you go, Naruto."

"I didn't mean-"

Sasuke kissed him, rough and demanding. Naruto kissed the boy back just a fiercely. He poured all the misery he felt at the situation into that kiss and exchanged it for comfort. He tangled his fingers into the boy's hair, only separating their lips when his lungs burned for air.

"Sakura, she..."

"Let it go for now. You'll only give yourself a headache." Sasuke kissed his lips once more, then got off the couch and looked down at him regretfully. "I have to go."

Naruto understood and walked Sasuke to the door. The other boy hadn’t gone home the night before, nor had he called his parents to tell them where he was.

They stood before the entrance, both reluctant to part. Sasuke drew close, brought their foreheads together and draped his arms around Naruto's hips. Naruto exhaled deeply and gave the other boy a chaste kiss. Anything more he was sure he'd ask Sasuke to stay longer. He was also fairly sure that Sasuke would say yes.

"See you tomorrow," he said instead.

Sasuke nodded, kissed him once more and then left.

Naruto leaned his back against the closed door, sliding down to sit with his legs stretched out in front of him. His apartment felt empty all of a sudden.

‘I should feel helpless,’ he thought deprecatingly, but he was never one to turn to misery to avoid the complications in his life.

"Fine. I'll fix this. I won't let it defeat me," he decided optimistically, saying it out loud to strengthen his conviction.

Taking a cleansing breath he pushed himself off the floor and grabbed his school bag to get some homework done. He threw himself into the work, exchanging bitter thoughts for numerical equations and guilt for paragraphs in an essay. Midnight came and he allowed sleep to beckon him to bed with a lighter heart.

*

The next four days were spent being ignored by Sakura. The pink-haired girl wouldn't risk breaking her perfect attendance so she chose to avoid Naruto instead. Ino stayed at home.

By the fifth day, Naruto had accepted that the girls wanted to be left alone. His countless attempts at apologizing were met with nothing but ill contempt.

"They will come around Naruto,” a voice said, breaking through his worry-filled contemplations.

Most of the students had remained indoors for lunch that day. Even the roof was vacant due to an unexpected rainfall. Naruto looked away from the wet outdoors. Sasuke sat on his desk, revising a form needed for a council event.

"Hopefully. Sometime soon would be rather nice.” Naruto sighed.

Plopping down and straddling the seat in front of the desk Sasuke occupied, he rested his cheek on the boy’s desk.

He watched the sweeping movements of Sasuke's hand as the boy wrote. With his ear against the desk's surface, he could hear the scratches the pen made at every sweep of Sasuke's hand. A brain cell not too concerned about his current dilemma noted that the boy had better penmanship than his own chicken scratch. Focusing his anger on the brain cell, he banged his head against the wooden surface of the desk, hopefully destroying the traitor.

He listened to the mild chatter around them, the muted rain behind the glass window and the pen scratching.

He looked up at Sasuke. The boy's bangs fell into his face, his features set in concentration. He felt the slight warmth of the boy's breath travel across the air between them and caress his cheek. It smelled like candy.

"You have candy?"

Sasuke's eyes momentarily widened in surprise as if he had forgotten Naruto was there. Smiling, he nodded and opened his mouth, showing the square hard candy on his tongue.

Naruto's eyelids grew heavy as the brain cells that had been contemplating his dilemma suddenly found a better thing to think about. He smirked up at the other boy.

"Aren't you going to offer me some, Uchiha? That would be the polite thing to do."

Sasuke closed his mouth and smirked down at him. He stood, grabbed the sheet off the desk and began walking toward the classroom door.

"Help me make copies," he ordered softly.

Naruto wanted to laugh at the lame excuse but he figured it didn't really matter. He followed the class president out of the room uncaring of the lingering eyes on their retreating backs.

Sasuke led them to the small office at the end of the hall. It housed several shelves of school supplies, a computer terminal and the copying machine. A small window provided little lighting with the electric lights off.

Naruto looked around the room, his attention grabbed by the abundance of stuff.

Sasuke lifted the lid of the copying machine, placed the sheet on the lit surface, closed the lid and then set a few instructions. The machine hummed into life, quickly making copies.

"Lock the door."

"Hmm? I thought-" Naruto snapped his mouth shut and did as he was told as he caught sight of the hungry glance Sasuke threw at him.

Sasuke fished for another hard candy from the roll in his pocket and popped it into his mouth. He leaned against the large machine and opened his mouth to show Naruto the sweet confection.

Needing no further invitation, Naruto strode quickly to Sasuke and was pulled into waiting arms. Sasuke readily accepted his lips and tongue when Naruto got close enough to kiss the boy. He reached for the candy from the boy's mouth and rolled it around his tongue without ever unlocking their lips.

Naruto moaned into the kiss, tasting the artificial cherry flavor. He sucked at Sasuke's tongue, sharing the hard candy with the other boy.

He closed his eyes, feeling Sasuke's hands travel down his back to squeeze his ass, grinding their groins closer together. His own arms drew around Sasuke's shoulders, fingers buried in the soft dark hair.

Naruto gasped for breath, feeling the thin remains of the candy on his tongue.

The machine beeped to indicate the copied pages were finished. Naruto eyed the thick stash of paper, wondering how much time had passed.

Sasuke kissed his face with sticky, cherry scented lips, running hands up and down his sides.

"Feeling better?" Sasuke murmured in his ear.

Naruto shifted in Sasuke's arms and sagged against him. "Yeah..."

"They will come around, Naruto. If they don't then they're not worth it."

‘Maybe I'm the one not worth it, not worthy enough of their friendship,’ Naruto thought, but he did not voice his uncertainties out loud. He figured they were just a remnant of his pathetic, self-induced pity. Sasuke tightened his hold on him briefly as if knowing he was thinking it anyway. It always surprised him how much Sasuke understood him although it really shouldn't since they were quite similar in a lot of ways.

After a few more candy flavored kisses, they went back to class. Naruto felt a decent amount better.

He caught a glimpse of Sasuke's red tongue as the class president spoke to a few students and knew his own tongue must be tinged red as well. The thought was a good one. Naruto leaned back into his chair, staring at the ceiling. ‘Everything will be alright,’ he reassured himself.

TBC