The bell had rung. The lessons were over. School had ended. Everyone was eager to get home and relax, change into some sweatpants and watch binge-watch their favourite shows.

Sasuke, on the other hand, lingered by his locker, slowly putting his books away as he kept looking around to see if a vibrant crown of crimson hair was anywhere to be seen. The scene in his head kept replaying in his mind, where Naruto and Gaara were talking so casually, as if they were...

Best friends...

Sasuke growled under his breath, denying his feelings of jealousy stirring in his gut. Why the hell would Naruto be friends with that red-head? Why is Naruto so comfortable around him? How did he trust Gaara so fast? These were the thoughts that plagued the raven's mind as the gears in his brain worked to come up with sensible answers.

"Sasuke."

The raven whipped around to see familiar sea-foam eyes looking directly at him with curiousness. Sasuke looked backed, a neutral expression masked onto his face as he gave a small nod, closed his locker door and said... "Come with me."

Slinging his bag onto his shoulder, Sasuke walked past Gaara towards the exit of the school. After a few seconds, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him.

The red-head looked at Sasuke's moving figure and walked after him, various different thoughts in his head.

'Seems he is very protective of Naruto. The expressions on his face when Naruto's name is even mentioned looks soft, not the hard expressions he has plastered on his face at school. He looks at Naruto with a lot of fondness.'

Green eyes looked straight ahead towards Sasuke as a realisation popped into his head.

The footsteps in front of him stopped suddenly and Gaara raised his head to see that they were at the basketball court. The raven turned around, looking at him with his skeptical onxy eyes. No words were said as the two boys stood on the court.

'Well, I might as well get this over with.' Gaara thought as Sasuke's heated glare burned into him.

"I know why you want to talk. It's evident that it's about Naruto." Gaara said, waiting to see any reaction in Sasuke's face and as he expected, those black orbs softened momentarily. Internally, the red-head smiled.

'It really does look like genuine love. It's very obvious.'

Hearing Naruto's name, snapped him from the staring he was doing. Sasuke's face went blank as he began to ask the questions plaguing his mind.

"Why are you friends with Naruto? What the hell is your motive, Gaara?" He asked, the tenor in his voice getting deeper.

Gaara's eyes stayed neutral as he expected the accusations to come out of Sasuke. He knew that the raven didn't trust him, especially with the history he had with the blonde.

"I have no motive Sasuke. Naruto and I are friends and I sincerely do like him. I don't have a dark plan that you accuse me of." The red-head said calmly, so that his words would make the raven believe him.

But all it did was stir up more questions.

"Really? How did you get him to forgive you so fast? Actually how did you get him to trust you so fast?" Sasuke said, jealousy now clearly evident in his voice. It hurt to know that Naruto could trust someone else, who did the same horrible things as him, more easily than him. It angered him to know that the blonde could easily forgive Gaara but he had to earn it.

Gaara sighed, his patience wearing thin, but he had to get it into Sasuke's head that he means no harm to the blonde.

"It's because Naruto and I went through the same things and we bonded over it. It brought us closer. You have to realise that I'm not going to hurt him, Sasuke."

Pulling into the garage, Sasuke parked the car and sat in the seat, the journey back home being a blur to him. All he could think about was Gaara's words. Those haunting words echoing in his head.

'Because Naruto and I went through the same things...'

Flopping back against the cushioned seats, Sasuke sighed as he recalled the memory.

'I knew that Naruto was going through abuse by his father. My foster-father worked in his case. I went through the same things he did. It was the same story, repeated again.'

'You think I would be so heartless as to push some one down, further into the ground when I had felt the same pain as he did?'

The raven cringed at the memories of seeing the wounds marring the blonde's tan skin. The multi-coloured bruises and the scars. Shaking his head to get rid of this thoughts, he exited his car and entered his house. Removing his shoes, he walked into the living room to see the blonde watching some TV, with a textbook in his lap.

Shaking his head, Sasuke grabbed the remote and shut off the TV. Naruto turned around, surprise etched on his face which turned into annoyance.

"Hey! I was watching something teme!" Naruto

"Don't watch TV while you study dobe. You will get nothing into your head." Sasuke stated back, sitting next to the blonde.

Naruto pouted as he complained. "You do it all the time."

Sasuke just smirked. " Your brain is not as developed as mine to be able to multi-task." Seeing the dobe's face puff up and glare at him, made him laugh. Ruffling the blonde locks, he stood up to go to his room.

"Hey Sasuke. You said you needed to talk?" Naruto asked, blue eyes filled with curiousness. With that, Sasuke's mood changed as he remember the talk he had with Gaara and the feeling it brought. All the jealousy and envy surged back into him but he controlled his feelings.

"Yeah we do. Stay here. I'll wash up and come." Sasuke said, a little colder than he intended to and he walked away.

Naruto though, picked up on that change of tone and a surge of fear ran through his body and all he could think was...

'Did I do something?'