Night

Chapter Three

Disclaimer: Naruto characters belong to Masashi Kishimoto, not me.

A/N: Okay, I know this is late, but like I said last chap, deadlines are coming up. I've made one so far, one was extended/merged with another, and then, sadly, I missed one due to technical difficulties. Isn't it just rude that a free program with a buyable full version had the most important part in the full version? And I didn't know until I had finished and tried to save; then I figured out that saving was the one feature you had to buy the full version for. But, rant over, here is a regrettably shortened and unedited version due to lack of time. Anywho, hope you like!!

Naruto

It wasn't always like this, he didn't think. In the beginning, when everything had just been for fun, that's what it had been. Now... now that things were serious, the real world had torn them apart.

There were four boys in the room, four teens that could hardly be called close. A brunette with dark brown eyes was sitting precariously on a stool. His features were rough, and crimson colored fang tattoos decorated his cheeks. The teen's eyes stared unblinkingly across the room, fingers twitching every now and again.

Two of the other members of the group were on the white sofa in the center of the room. One, a blonde who wore his hair long with a half-pony and a fringe that covered one gray-blue eye, was perched on the back of the couch, facing the curtained window. His visible eye flared with intensity every now and again, and sometimes his long fingers drummed a rhythm against the leather material of his seat. The other teen was slouching into the couch on the opposite side, his black locks looking ruffled, as if he had run his hand through them many times that day. His equally black eyes equinoxed all light, and his pale face had a dejected look.

The final teen stood, leaned, actually, against the corner of the room. He had bright blond hair that stuck out every-which-way, paired with a brilliant shade of blue eyes. His face had laughter wrinkles, just like every other boy in the room, but his features right now told he wasn't up to laughter. The downcast look in his eyes shadowed his whole self, pulling him down further and further. Finally, he looked up with a sad tug to his eyes.

"We can't keep doing this." He blew out a sigh, and there was a shattered feeling as the silence broke. "I can't keep doing this."

The brunette looked over to the spiky-haired blonde, making eye contact, before he spoke. "I know."

The other blonde jumped off his perch, a breath gusting out. "It's too serious here, yeah," he said lightly.

"Tobi wasn't a bad boy! Tobi promises!!" the raven in the room sobbed into his hands comically, earning a few laughs from the other three.

With the atmosphere lightened, the first blonde to talk opened his mouth to finish what he had meant to. "I'm leaving. It really isn't your guys' fault, but I just can't play this gig anymore. By the time the school year ends I'll be going for this seriously, solo."

A breeze flew through the room, pushing the black curtains that had covered the window; when it left, nothing would ever be the same again.

<|^~•~^|>

Naruto shook his head, letting out a breath he felt he had been holding all day. He had done it. He had cut the last string tying him down. He had done it.

Naruto's tenor voice whooped, echoing throughout the block he walked down. It carried all the way to a mansion that a dark figure stood in front of, stiffening upon hearing it. The person jammed a key at the door, realized it didn't work, and used the single other key. A humming sound approached and the figure scrambled to get inside before the source reached view.

He got as far as two hallways down in his mad rush until Naruto caught up. It actually seemed like he just randomly popped up right next to the other, scaring the crap out of him.

"Oi, Sasuke, how come you ran?" His eyes blinked innocently, lips pouting.

The raven quickly composed himself, or at least his expression. Naruto's poke proved Sasuke was still shaky with adrenaline. It was quite a change from his take on the pale teen in the morning, but then Naruto had a thought. What if Sasuke put on a show for the rest of the world, similar to how Naruto did? The blonde quickly banished the thought when he was caught with an upper right hook to the jaw.

"You..." he growled gutturally. Naruto came back with a punch to Sasuke's gut, and got a fist just slightly above the crotch in return. "Geez, you fight dirty!"

"The don't bloody darn touch me!" the pale teen yelled uncharacteristically.

Naruto backed off in return at his flatmate's serious glare. He didn't recall his offense, but he sure as heck didn't want to risk repeating it and Sasuke not missing. That kid was dangerous!

The rest of the evening Naruto was denied having a celebration via Sasuke's desserts, so he ended up pulling his guitar down rather than working on an English paper he couldn't see the point of. His raven flatmate threatened no dessert ever if he got on the drums, so the blonde just strummed a tune he had been working on for a while. He really had the melody down, he was just having trouble deciding on the lyrics.

Sasuke came out of his room after the fiftieth run over, and Naruto thought it was to tell him to shut up. Unexpectedly, the all-black teen (he had changed to a black tee and sweatpants) planted himself on the couch with a book on his lap. Funny enough, he also had thin-rimmed black glasses to go with. Even more surprising was when he started humming quietly, nodding his head in time, which nearly caused Naruto to stop and stare. But he kept on, so he didn't really hear the humming. He kept on, with an idea for the lyrics.

"Don't know where we ought to be,
Don't know where to go.
Don't know if it will be easy
Maybe it won't
When we're hiding out back
And no one knows
When we're finally breaking out
Before the place blows

It is easy to find a home
But it isn't to find yours
We have been down this road before
When we were left alone
Take me back, back to the old days
When fighting was a novelty
Back, back to the old age
When love, loving was easy..."

Sasuke's humming was drowned out, but even though he was oblivious to the fact, he had aided a song in birth. Naruto couldn't figure why the other had inspired him this way, especially with what the song described. It was a love story, and the blonde had came up with it due to another guy. It sent all kinds of messages he didn't want to deal with, so he shook them off as he quickly scrawled the lyrics on a piece of paper lying around before they left him. He was too tired to deal with it, so he let himself forget who Sasuke was. He let himself play the song over and over in his head, not knowing or caring who it was about. The relatively tanned teen let himself drift away after a shower; let himself be pulled into sleep by the warmth of his bed. He let himself dream of more than the nightmares that came with each natural sleep. He let himself dream of peace, a world in which he did not have to pretend because everything was real.

In the other room, unbeknownst to the sleeping Naruto, Sasuke continued to hum to himself the song as he fell lightly into dreamland.