"Your intellect may be confused, but your emotions will never lie to you."

Roger Ebert

Naruto closes his eyes, trying to block out the world and think clearly. Instead, Sasuke's face appears, and his eyes fly open to glare fiercely at the ground, letting out a slight growl of frustration. Again, he snaps his eyes shut, clenching his fists and eyelids so tightly he sees white stars.

All the muscles in his body tense as he consciously thinks of not thinking of Sasuke. But it's hard not to, and Naruto can't stop his mind from conjuring images from this morning, from the bathroom, when he— he doesn't even want to think about it.

"Are you trying to pass a big one or something?" a voice from overhead asks, mock-seriously.

Naruto opens his eyes to see Kakashi looming over him, a bemused look on his one eye, hands stuffed in his pockets. Immediately, Naruto shuts his eyes again.

"Go away," Naruto growls, shifting slightly in the cross-legged position meditation has forced him into. Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Naruto tries to concentrate on his fluctuating chakra, and ignore the man next to him.

"You know, I could never leave an unprotected child in these… ah," Kakashi looks around at the training grounds, which run right by a busy street. In fact, only a couple of stores down is the precinct police station. Still, Kakashi continues, "…this treacherous area…"

Naruto doesn't even open his eyes again, though he knows that Kakashi has shifted back from his position over Naruto. "Shut up, sensei," he snipes. "I'm concentrating."

Sadly, the only thing that seems to come to mind is the one thing he's trying to keep out of it. A snapshot of black eyes, dark hair, a constant (oftentimes irking) smirk coalesce into features and then into Sasuke's face. A strange, slightly unpleasant but mostly just uncomfortable feeling arises and Naruto struggles not to squirm. Instead, he opens his eyes and glares out at the tree straight across from him at the edge of the clearing. He wishes he had heat vision.

"Now, now, Naruto, that's no way to treat your teacher," Kakashi replies lightly, crossing his arms across his chest and probably smiling behind his mask.

"Sensei, can you just tell me what you want?"

Now that he knows that he has Naruto's attention, Kakashi circles around his pupil's back until he reaches Naruto's front. When he does, he squats down until he is eye-level with Naruto and smiles (at least, as far as Naruto can tell). Naruto frowns back.

"You weren't at practice today," Kakashi replies.

The frown on Naruto's face deepens, the wrinkles on his forehead now prominent, but the look in his eyes is confused. "I was there, Kakashi-sensei. You saw me. I practiced with you. You almost killed me with a shruiken. Again."

Kakashi's one eye seems to wink before it looks to the side in an attempt to seem contemplative. "Yes, well… Perhaps you were there, but you weren't really there."

Naruto stares at him blankly. "I was there, Kakashi-sensei. You were the one who was late. Again!"

A chuckle escapes from behind the mask. "Sometimes people get lost on the road of life, and shinobi are no exception. But eventually we all arrive at our destination. Do you know what I mean, Naruto?"

Naruto rolls his eyes. "You mean you were at one of your girlfriends' houses and forgot to set your alarm?"

The chuckle deepens. "Oh, I might have a few friends of the female variety, but I can assure you that none of them are girls. But that's not what I'm trying to say."

Naruto, however, annoyed with Kakashi's insistence on remaining incomprehensible, is already getting up. "Well, when you figure it out, find me."

Naruto never ever thought that he'd end up here, of all places. This place was so far from his plan that it was practically in another world, and he's just about as lost in it as if he really were in one. Another world, that is.

The Great Konoha Library is not Naruto's friend. In fact, he's surprised that he even knew where it was. But it just so happened that the library had finally come in handy, and for two entirely different reasons.

One, because he knows that here is where Fujiwara is going to be spending his Thursday afternoon, after his shift in border patrol on the Northwest portion of the wall, and Tsunade will be happy to know that Naruto is still following up on his assignment. And two…

Well, that's why he's lost. Where would one find a book on— argh, Naruto growls slightly and frowns deeply, barely even wanting to think of the, the — . Naruto spins around in between the shelves, before storming off down one row, eyes flickering over the different titles, but nothing catches his eye.

He has only about an hour before Fujiwara arrives, and he doesn't want to leave before his mark gets there, so he needs to kill some time— and answer some questions, while he's at it. Finally, something that looks vaguely like the kind of thing he would want appears in front of him, and he heads down the row before coming to a stop before rows of titles that all have the one word he doesn't want to admit to being afraid of reading on their spines.

There is a strange twisting in his gut as he stands before the shelf, hands not reaching out for a single book, as a question he doesn't want answered, and hardly even wants to ask himself, comes to mind.

Is he attracted to Sasuke?

He very nearly chokes on his own spit.

Is he gay?

Hmm, questions, questions. I hate middling chapters (when they are neither in love or admitting it). I bet you guys do, too. Oh, well. Let's see where this goes. Btw, I am addicted to the Japanese version of Girlfriend, the Avril Lavigne song.