Mine

Hello. If there is any point and time you find during this chapter to seem more wordy than normal, I place the blame on my friend, lL0tus, for making me make the chapter longer. She’s scary!

Mine

Chapter 6: The Truth

Sasuke realized telling Naruto anything was going to be difficult if he couldn't even get a hold of his blond haired friend.

For three weeks straight Sasuke had been trying to get Naruto alone to talk with him since he had decided to tell Naruto about the past three years. So far he had been unsuccessful. It was beyond frustrating. His emotions had gone from ecstatic to miserable in a matter of days. Sasuke had been in his own mini euphoric world for all of twenty-four hours after Naruto had actually sought him in the middle of the night. Naruto had come to him. He had enjoyed Naruto actually coming to him instead of Sakura to ease his pain, but it had cost him. Yet just a few days after that, Sasuke had quickly realized that getting Naruto on his own with Sakura on such high-alerts was nigh impossible.

Sakura had somehow managed to make it impossible to be around Naruto one on one. She was always there, and every time that Sasuke tried to suggest doing something with just the two of them, Sakura "reminded" Naruto that he had other things to do. It was frustrating because half of the time, Naruto clearly didn't remember that he was “supposed” to be doing something, and instead blindly trusting Sakura's word. Though Sasuke knew he was a hypocrite for thinking it, he hated how she played on Naruto's trust to get him to do what she wanted him to do.

"I mustn't strangle her because Naruto might not forgive me for that," Sasuke hissed to himself as he entered his house after another failed attempt to get Naruto alone, nearly slamming the door behind him.

How was he supposed to confess everything to Naruto with Sakura hovering over him all the time? Not to mention the worst part about it was how she was acting with them. She seemed completely and utterly non-phased when he was over. She seemed to have no problem allowing Sasuke as much time as he wanted to spend with Naruto as long as she was there too. Strangely, it was how Sasuke had felt when Sakura and Naruto first started dating. It hadn't been so bad to see Naruto and Sakura together, as long as he was there to know they weren’t doing more. As long as he could be around Naruto, knowing that Naruto wanted him there it had made all the difference. He wondered if that was how Sakura was feeling now.

Sasuke clearly remembered the night that Sakura had found out that he and Naruto were involved, and how Sakura had claimed to own Naruto's heart. The fact that she knew that little fact began to haunt Sasuke more than it had in the past. It was as if she had come to accept that it was almost okay that Sasuke was after Naruto because she was confident that Naruto would chose her over him. She still was clearly trying to prevent Sasuke from being with Naruto (probably because she felt she was protecting Naruto in the long run), but it made Sasuke's fears all that more prominent as he wondered if Naruto really would chose Sakura over him. It was a terrible pain to face. He was conflicted with so many emotions and choices all at once. He wanted Naruto to be happy, but he wanted to be happy as well. Sasuke desperately needed Naruto. He had come to depend on the idea that he was the only one to be able to save his friend's life; it was something that he clung to in order to get through each day.

He loved him.

Sasuke sighed. Knowing that Naruto needed him to live (instead of Sakura) was the only thing that kept Sasuke sane. Sasuke closed his eyes, wondering what would have become of him if Tsunade hadn't approached him, telling him the bizarre and outrageous circumstances of how he had to "save" Naruto's life three years ago. Sasuke was pretty sure that being told that he was the one in charge of keeping Naruto alive had kept him alive as well. Suicide had been quite a tempting offer at the point and time in his life. Still, Sasuke couldn't run from his fears any more. Even if Naruto rejected his heart, the selfish part of Sasuke knew that Naruto still needed him to live.

Sasuke had finally mustered up the courage to face his fears. He had run from bonds for so long. Killing Itachi hadn't solved his fear of bonds with others. And he did indeed fear the bond that he and Naruto had. He had tried severing it before. Naruto hadn't let him. He kept grasping at that hope that Naruto wouldn't sever their bond now either. It was this one ray of hope that he had.

Part of him idly wondered if the reason he was trying so hard to finally tell Naruto what was going on was because Sakura was making it difficult for him to do so. In some ways, he had a feeling that if she was not so obstinate about allowing him to be alone with Naruto, he might not be pursuing the matter. It was as if she had told him he couldn't, and he was trying to prove her wrong. He knew that wasn't a good reason to want to tell Naruto. Sasuke should want to tell Naruto of his own accord without any outside influences trying to (inadvertently) egg him on. Still, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.

Sasuke rubbed at his eyes as the room before him suddenly seemed to grow darker as spots began to invade his vision. Sasuke reached his hand out to steady himself against his doorframe, closing his eyes as he saw brightly colored spots dance in front of his eyes set against the blackness of his eyelids.

And of course there was a more pressing matter that helped make Sasuke want to tell Naruto sooner rather than later. Sasuke had a sneaking suspicion using his sharingan so much was slowly causing him to go blind. Using it on so many people to drag Naruto out of Ichiraku Ramen had cost him dearly. It had been reckless.

He would have to tell Naruto soon - for his own sake as well. Constantly using the sharingan for such a long period of time was affecting his eyesight. He shouldn't have used the sharingan like he had to make Naruto compliant - and not just for moral reasons. Sasuke shook his head. He would gladly go blind in order to make sure that Naruto lived, but if his blindness made it so that he could no longer save Naruto by making Naruto be compliant, what purpose did he have? Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, noting that his entire room seemed somehow darker.

Part of Sasuke wanted to just use his sharingan to steal Naruto away from Sakura yet again, but he knew he didn't have much longer that he could do that. Sasuke wouldn't be surprised if the next time he used his sharingan if he would go blind. He doubted it, but he still wouldn't be surprised.

Sasuke made up his mind. Tomorrow he would need to go to talk with Sakura first, to tell her that he needed to speak with Naruto on his own. And if not, well, he supposed that he would just have to tell Naruto everything, even with Sakura in the room. Time was running out. Sasuke could practically hear the clock ticking away the time before he would need to tell Naruto.

The clock seemed to tick all the more quickly when Sasuke realized that three weeks had gone by since he had last helped to balance Naruto’s chakra. He would have to do it again soon. Sasuke refused to think of the consequences otherwise.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura's body stiffened as she sensed Sasuke's chakra at the door. Naruto wasn't here, so that was good since the only reason Sasuke would be here was to look for Naruto.

"When's Naruto going to get home?" Sasuke asked Sakura, not having even bothered to knock as he came in.

"That's none of your business," Sakura said, keeping her tone calm.

"I need to speak with him," Sasuke said, his voice just as calm. It irked Sakura, and she snorted at his comment.

"As though I believe that that’s all you want from him," Sakura said, her voice still calm, but her hands began to shake nonetheless.

"I mean it. I just want to speak with him. But actually, I wanted to talk to you first," Sasuke said quietly. Sakura, who had refused to look directly at Sasuke as he had waltzed into her living room, slowly looked at him now. He seemed to sincerely have meant that he wanted to talk to her, and to Naruto too for that matter. He might even mean it. Still, it didn't mean that Sakura was going to let Sasuke continue to hurt her husband any more.

"What do you need to talk to me about?" Sakura asked warily.

"I need to speak with Naruto in private. I don’t want you to interfere with our conversation. Stop making him think he’s got things to do instead of speaking with me," Sasuke said evenly.

"You can talk to him when I'm here," Sakura said, holding Sasuke's gaze.

"Obviously I need to talk to him alone," Sasuke snapped angrily, finally giving way to his frustration.

"You've clearly proven that you can't be trusted with him alone. If you really care about Naruto, do him a favor and stop hurting him!" Sakura yelled.

"You have no idea what you're talking about. Naruto needs me. I'm actually worth something to him, and only I can truly understand what he needs," Sasuke hissed angrily.

"You're worth nothing to him if you keep hurting him. Why won't you just leave him alone? He's mine! He's my husband! I will take care of what he needs," Sakura said angrily.

"And he's my best friend, and I am his. I'm his most important person, not you," Sasuke said, the words tumbling out. His face was set in utter defiance, and he took a step forward, making Sakura back up closer to the wall. If the intensity of his look was not so terrifying, he might have seemed like a selfish child fighting over his favorite toy. But Naruto was not a toy to Sasuke. Naruto was so much more than anything else in Sasuke's life.

"I'm going to tell him what you do to him. That should stop you," Sakura said slowly. She had finally come to the decision that she had to tell Naruto. Sasuke had to stop. He couldn't continue to rape her beloved any more.

"You wouldn't dare," Sasuke hissed, his arms flying out and gripping Sakura's arms to prevent her from trying to punch him with her brutish strength.

"I can't watch you do this to him. Best friend," Sakura sneered. "You don't know what a friend is, and you certainly don't deserve Naruto," Sakura hissed lowly, wondering how she had ever had feelings for Sasuke, for this self-centered man. Sasuke glared furiously at Sakura.

"You don't know what you're talking about. I should be the one to-"

"What the hell is going on?"

Sasuke and Sakura both turned their heads in unison as they saw Naruto standing in the doorway staring at them with a mixture of shock and trepidation on his face. Sasuke quickly released his grip on Sakura and sprung away from her.

"Naruto-" Sasuke began.

"It's not what it looks like!" Sakura said quickly, seeing the look of betrayal on Naruto's face.

"Well it sure looks like Sasuke was forcing you up against the wall," Naruto said angrily, clenching and unclenching his fists. "You two look flushed as though you were just," Naruto nearly choked on his words, "making out." Sasuke and Sakura were both furious with themselves that they had been so intent on their argument that they hadn't heard Naruto come home. Of course, they were both even more furious with each other than at themselves.

"I don't, nor have I ever wanted Sakura in that way. You know that," Sasuke said, his voice low as he made sure to lock eye contact with Naruto. Naruto gazed back, but his face was contorted with anger and hurt.

"Something's going on here. I'm not stupid. You two have been going behind my back about something for weeks now. Why won't either of you tell me what's going on?" Naruto pleaded. Sasuke looked away. Naruto narrowed his eyes, focusing all of his attention on Sasuke who seemed to have shut down, an obvious sign to Naruto that he was hiding something. Sakura clutched her hands together, biting her lip, wanting to say something, but somehow suddenly feeling like she was butting into something private between the two. She hated the feeling of her own husband thinking that she was cheating on her when everything was all of Sasuke's doing.

"I have to get going," Sasuke said as he turned to leave. He walked past Sakura coldly, but as he passed Naruto, Naruto reached out and gripped his arm.

"What's going on?" Naruto demanded, glaring at Sasuke. Sasuke said nothing for a few minutes.

"Meet me later – without Sakura," Sasuke said emotionlessly, as he wrenched his arm out of Naruto's grasp before striding past Naruto who called out for him to stop. Sasuke strode through the door without looking back. Naruto watched him go before turning his gaze on Sakura. "What's going on between you two?" Naruto demanded, the accusatory tone clear in his voice. Sakura held her head high and tried to fight back tears. It hurt. It hurt that Naruto thought that she might be cheating on him with Sasuke, but sadly she could understand his fears. She had foolishly pined after Sasuke for so long after all.

"Sit down," Sakura said, reaching out to her husband and grasping his wrist gently. His eyes softened at her gentle contact, and he came with her obediently, sitting down next to her on their couch.

Sakura placed her hands lightly on her knees, looking away from Naruto, but knowing that she would need to look at him to tell him. She didn't want to make eye contact, but she needed to see how he would react to what she said.

"I-I should have told you when I first found out," Sakura said, her anger at Sasuke depleting ever so slightly as her own guilt filled her. "Do you remember that night – that night that I returned home from a mission and you were already in bed, and I was stroking your hair?" Sakura asked. Naruto looked at her confused, clearly unsure as to why she was bringing it up now.

"Yes. You seemed upset," Naruto said shortly.

"Do you – do you remember why you went to bed so early?" Sakura asked, her voice catching. She had always wondered what Sasuke did to Naruto's mind to account for the time he missed.

"Yeah," Naruto said curtly. Sakura bit her lip; not the exact answer she had been hoping for, and so she prompted him further for an actual explanation.

"Wh-why did you go to bed so early?" Sakura asked.

"Sasuke and I had been sparring. We came back, got a cup of tea, he left, and I was really exhausted after our fight that I just decided to go to bed," Naruto said. "What does this have to do with what is going on with you and Sasuke?" Naruto asked not to be deterred. Sakura looked off to the side grasping at her knees, wondering how to voice Sasuke's betrayal. She wanted Sasuke to stop abusing Naruto's body, but she would rather take a kunai to her gut than tell Naruto of Sasuke's betrayal yet again.

"It's hard to explain," Sakura began, but no other words would come out. Naruto looked at her, waiting, but when she didn't speak for another minute, he got up angrily and walked to the door. "No, wait! Where are you going?" Sakura asked frantically, springing to her feet as Naruto stopped in his tracks and turned around and glared back at her. Sakura felt cold looking into his eyes. He knew something was wrong, and she was doing no one any good by trying to protect him any further as he began to angrily answer her question.

"I'm going to find Sasuke and see if I beat the shit out of him until he tells me what the fuck’s been-"

"He's been raping you!" Sakura finally blurted out her confession.

"-going on," Naruto finished lamely, after being interrupted. His expression went blank as he looked at Sakura. "What?" He asked after a look of utter confusion crossed his features.

"He-he's been forcing himself on you for the past three years. I-I found out about it when I came home and he was using the sharingan to force you to be complaint during sex. You were on the bed because Sasuke made you go there so he could rape you," Sakura finished, her voice nearly a whisper, her hands shaking, unable to look at Naruto. She needed to look up to see his reaction, but she feared seeing the betrayal and hurt in his eyes. Sakura took a deep breath, knowing she needed to be strong for Naruto's sake, but Naruto's reaction was suddenly so loud and clear that she didn't even need to look at him to see how he had taken it.

Naruto began to laugh.

Sakura's head shot up, and looked at her husband to see that it was a truly amused laugh. She knew her horrified expression must have shown on her face as Naruto approached her, trying to hold in his laughter as he caressed her cheek.

"Sakura-chaaan," Naruto sing-songed, suddenly affectionate as he always was when he added the chan suffix to her name. "I don't mean to laugh because I can see how seriously you're taking this, but come on. Obviously you were probably having a fantasy or something, hot and sexy me, and almost but not quite as sexy Sasuke, on our bed together. All those late shifts at the hospital – you were probably sleepwalking! Or, you know what?" Naruto said excitedly, as though this were some kind of guessing game and he had just figured everything out, "I bet it was one of Konohamaru's pranks. The little prick," Naruto chuckled, but Sakura shook her head horrified that Naruto wasn't taking her seriously.

"No, Naruto-"

"No wonder Sasuke looked so pissed! You said something to him about it? Poor Sakura-chan. I'll bet you all the ramen at Ichiraku's that it was just Konohamaru trying to get back at me for that one I pulled on him two months ago. You see, he was really bugging me so I sort of did a henge of him and Udon together, and put him on the bottom. He didn’t like that so much, but the reaction on his face was hysterical! He probably thought I'd be the one to come home and see it and flip out-"

"Naruto, please, listen-" Sakura said desperately, but he continued on ignoring her.

"-and since you came home first, you probably thought that it was really Sasuke and I. I'll go find Konohamaru and yell at him, and then find Sasuke to tell him why you were probably yelling at him. Oh man! It makes sense why Sasuke looked so pissed off. You accusing him of raping me! Hahahaha!" Naruto laughed, extremely amused as he kissed Sakura's forehead, still ignoring Sakura's protests as he went for the door again. Then his face got more thoughtful. "But that would never, ever happen. I'd totally be the one on top anyway. I'm much stronger than Sasuke is," Naruto said, shaking his head as though thinking Konohamaru was clearly brain dead to have done such a lame trick and make such an obvious oversight.

"Naruto, damnit, listen! Sasuke’s been forcing you! It’s the truth!" Sakura finally yelled. Naruto turned around from the door again.

"Sakura-chaaan," Naruto said in his sing-song way again, "stop worrying. It was a practical joke," his face became more serious. "I'll make sure to leave some of Konohamaru still standing so you can pound him into the ground extra hard when you see him next for making you worry so much. Ja matta!" Naruto said before springing out the door.

"Naruto!" Sakura said as she ran to the door, but he was already gone. She clutched the doorframe for support as she felt tears begin to stream down her face. "Damn you Sasuke."

Naruto began to go away from his house, chuckling to himself about the absurdity of Sakura's words. Sasuke raping him. Konohamaru was sick and twisted sometimes, but he wasn't usually that sick and twisted. It must have been pretty convincing if Konohamaru had gone so far as to make two of his close actually have guy-sex. It didn’t seem like him, and it bothered Naruto somewhat. And why hadn't either Sasuke or Sakura had just said something to him? Sasuke would have made fun of it, not gotten so upset about it.

Naruto's pace began to slow, as something in the pit of his stomach began to make him feel as though hunting down Konohamaru wasn't the right thing to be doing at the moment. Sasuke had seemed really upset while at his house, and he had looked so needy, come to think of it, when he had told Naruto to meet him later. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to go and see what Sasuke thought of Sakura's accusations. They were completely and utterly absurd, Naruto knew that, and perhaps Sakura had offended Sasuke? Naruto sighed. It wouldn't be the first time that Sakura had gotten on Sasuke’s nerves to the near breaking point. He didn’t like the idea of the two of them fighting unnecessarily.

Thankfully Naruto felt better that he finally had some notion as to what all the secrecy that the two of them had been talking about. Walking in on Sasuke and Sakura standing so close to each other, Sasuke looking at Sakura so intensely had hurt Naruto's heart so much. To think that they would not need him any more, to think that he wasn't as important to them as they were to him made him want to throw up. Even though Sasuke had told Naruto that he and Sakura hadn’t been having an affair when he had gone to confront him three weeks ago, Naruto had felt that Sasuke had been keeping a big secret from him. It hurt to think that Sasuke wouldn’t tell him something.

Sakura had been the only girl he had ever really ever had any feelings for, and Sasuke was his most important person. To think that the two he cared about the most no longer cared about him as much hurt. If they ever found solace with each other, he would have tried to be happy, but he wasn’t sure he could take that. However, to think that Sakura might have said something to Sasuke to make Sasuke not want to come around any longer hurt Naruto too. He hated it when Sasuke was gone for too long. Old fears came back as though Sasuke had left and he would never return.

Naruto decided the only way to know what Sasuke was really thinking was to ask the bastard himself. He knew it was stupid, but he needed to make sure that Sasuke and Sakura were on good terms so that way Sasuke wouldn't run off from him again. The thought scared him.

He jumped onto a rooftop, spun, and turned direction towards the training grounds that he and Sasuke had last sparred at. Sasuke hadn't specified where they would be meeting at, but he decided that would be the best option for him to go and look.

Behind Naruto, staying out of sight, Sakura glowered at Naruto’s sudden change of direction. She had gotten over her moment of weakness and decided to follow Naruto. She needed to see what was going to happen between the two. Whatever was going on between the two of them, it wasn't healthy for Naruto.

She watched as he bounded toward the training field, and it made her heart ache. Naruto had clearly made her believe that he was going to find Konohamaru. For a moment, Sakura doubted herself. She doubted Naruto.

What if Naruto really knew what was going on? What if Sasuke had just been covering for Naruto? Maybe the two of them had come up with some sort of cover story if she had ever caught them going at it unawares? What if Naruto didn't belong to her as much as she thought he did, and Sasuke was just buffering a true affair between the two of them?

Sakura tried to calm herself down, thinking that she was clearly irrational. Sasuke would have probably goaded that right in her face from the get go. But hadn't he? Hadn't he seemed to know what more was going on? Sasuke knew that Naruto's body was his - did Naruto too? Sasuke had seemed to believe that what he was doing for Naruto was to benefit Naruto. There had been something in his attitude since the very beginning.

No! No. No. No. Naruto would never do that to her. Sasuke, yes. Naruto, no.

Naruto would have made a better attempt to go to Sasuke on his own if he had really been having an affair. Then a nasty voice in her head reminded her that Naruto had indeed gone to see Sasuke on his own not too long ago – in the middle of the night. Naruto had even seemed so at ease lying on Sasuke’s bed. With this doubt fresh in her mind, her heart skipped a beat when Naruto ended up at one of the training fields with Sasuke waiting expectantly for him. She waited with bated breath for Naruto or Sasuke to speak, wishing that she could see Naruto's face instead of Sasuke's from the place she sat perched far enough away to remain undetected. Sakura nearly let out a sigh of relief when she heard Naruto speak.

"Alright Sasuke. I'm here. Now, tell me why you're so pissed at Sakura that you can't talk to me in front of her."

Next Chapter: Accepting the Truth

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