Muted Love

Chapter 9

Naruto stormed out of the Uchiha's mansion, hurt by Sasuke's words. He walked to his car before shaking the idea, thinking that a walk will be better to clear his head instead of driving.

He made his way down the driveway and to the street, walking down until he reached the main road.

"Stupid, bastard." Naruto muttered out loud to himself as he walked on down the sidewalk. "Fucking, stupid, good-looking bastard!" He pinched the bridge of his nose as he fell the familiar sting of tears.

"It's not worth it, he doesn't deserve my tears." Naruto thought to himself as he let out a long breath, turning his head to the sky. "Why am I letting his words affect me so much? I've been called so much worse!" The tears that he was trying to hold back, finally fell from his eyes and he quickly wiped at them.

All of a sudden, he ran into someone. He wiped at his eyes once more. "Sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention to where I was-" When he finally stopped wiping his eyes, he could see Sai was the person he ran into, a large smile on his face. "Sai? What are you doing here?"

"I can ask you the same thing." He carefully looked over the blonde. His eyes were red, and his cheeks stained with tear trails. "What's wrong?"

Naruto was surprised by the question but then changed his expression to one of indifference. "Why does something have to be wrong?"

"Because it looks like you were crying." He gave him a skeptical look. "Does it have anything to do with Sasuke?"

Naruto turned his head away at the name. He knew himself, and knew that it was easy to see what he was feeling. "So what if it does? Why do you give a fuck anyways!?"

"It's okay to be upset, but don't lash out at me." Sai scolded with a mildly amused expression. "Come on, I'll treat you to dinner and you can vent it all out."

Naruto studied Sai carefully before giving him a nod and a small smile.

Sai walked over to him and threw his arm around Naruto's neck. He guided them in the direction where Naruto waa going. "Still love Ichiraku's?"

"Of course I do!" He exclaimed happily.

Sai led them down the streets until they reached a small building, built in between two giant skyscrapers. He opened the door for the blonde before leading him to an empty table.

When the waitress approached, he took the liberty of ordering for himself and Naruto as well as some sake.

"You still remember my favorite dish?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Sai gave him a confused smile.

"Because of the fact that you cheated on me." He glared at the raven haired man.

"Naruto, about all th-"

Naruto quickly interrupted. "Look, I don't want to talk about that tonight. It's just going to end in an argument anyways. Tell me how you got good at reading people?"

"Well I'm a therapist. An art one, mind you, but still a therapist. So I had to learn or else I'd be a pretty shitty therapist, wouldn't I?" He laughed.

Naruto smiled sincerely before reaching out and patting his hand. "I'm glad you're doing well."

"Thanks." Sai looked down at Naruto's hand, which let go almost immediately, then at his face. "So, now tell me what's wrong."

Naruto sat back in his seat and stared at the table. "We got in an argument. I said something that I regretted and then he said something back. Then I left."